Posted on Nov 1, 2016
I'm transferring over to Sasebo for the Navy. What is the general atmosphere, go-to locations, and need to knows?
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Sasebo
Sasebo
Posted 8 y ago
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Don't drink and drive down the opposite side of the highway....just sayin'.
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It's very humid in the summer, fairly chilly in the winter, but nothing you can't handle. If you have a family, you'll probably end up in Hario Village which is 17 klicks from Fleet Activities Sasebo, the main hub and the homeport of the gator freightors. When they're deployed, as Chief Turcotte mentions below, things are pretty quiet. Hell, they're pretty quiet even when the ARG (or whatever they're called now) isn't deployed.
Fukuoka is the place to spend quality liberty. I believe it's the fourth-largest city in Japan and the biggest on Kyushu. Canal City is a big mall up there, Hakata station is the train station up there and Oyofuka-dori Street is the main nightlife destination for people who come up from Sasebo, down from Iwakuni and occasionally as a port of call from 7th Fleet AO. There are karaoke boxes and bars all over the place, Sasebo as well as Fukuoka, and the drinks are fairly inexpensive, depending on what the exchange rate is vis-a-vis the yen. (Happy Cock, Crazy Cock, Red Devil, Funky Cafe, Off Broadway and the Dark Room, which is an after-hours joint, are the places of choice and they're apparently all still in business. Half the fun is finding those places; the other half is pacing yourself so you still have something left in the tank to stagger to your hotel room or get in the car and drive back to Sasebo.)
Be careful not to get into motor vehicle accidents and beware of very strict liberty policies, especially after liberty incidents, that are put down by CNFJ. When I was there, one Sailor off one of the visiting destroyers got drunk and tried slashing a Japanese girl's throat with a knife. It created a major incident and the CO had to discuss it with the prime minister of Japan at the time, if that tells you anything. Japanese people are very polite and traditional, but they expect Americans to be professional drivers. If you get into a wreck, even a minor one, stand by for heavy rolls.
If Huis Ten Bosch is still there, it's a good place to take the family, especially since it's right next to Hario Village. But that's a one and done kind of place as I remember it. There's the Saikai Friendship Festival every summer which is pretty cool and MWR usually gets some decent acts into the mix every year. There's also Ton Ten Ton, a very dangerous but very traditional Japanese tradition that has to be seen to be believed. They've also got baseball and sumo wrestling in Fukuoka as well as concerts once in a while. I saw Metallica at the Sun Palace in Fukuoka in May, 1998, literally days before I PCSed back to the States. Good stuff that.
If Skinny's is still in business in downtown Sasebo, he and his brother, who has a place right across the way, make really good sandwiches and they taste really good, especially after a night out in town. Watch out for the snake venom in the drinks in the places off kung-fu alley and always be aware of the rice wine (sake) which is some potent shit. As far as Japanese beer goes, Sapporo is a lot better than Kirin or Asahi, although I'd probably take Asahi over Kirin if I had to. If you've got a family, this set of orders is probably tailor made for you, brother. If you're single, you're going to be bored when you're not at sea or off-duty. You can turn into one of three things, as with most island tours: 1.) A student. 2.) A workout fiend 3.) A raging partier. You make the call.
Fukuoka is the place to spend quality liberty. I believe it's the fourth-largest city in Japan and the biggest on Kyushu. Canal City is a big mall up there, Hakata station is the train station up there and Oyofuka-dori Street is the main nightlife destination for people who come up from Sasebo, down from Iwakuni and occasionally as a port of call from 7th Fleet AO. There are karaoke boxes and bars all over the place, Sasebo as well as Fukuoka, and the drinks are fairly inexpensive, depending on what the exchange rate is vis-a-vis the yen. (Happy Cock, Crazy Cock, Red Devil, Funky Cafe, Off Broadway and the Dark Room, which is an after-hours joint, are the places of choice and they're apparently all still in business. Half the fun is finding those places; the other half is pacing yourself so you still have something left in the tank to stagger to your hotel room or get in the car and drive back to Sasebo.)
Be careful not to get into motor vehicle accidents and beware of very strict liberty policies, especially after liberty incidents, that are put down by CNFJ. When I was there, one Sailor off one of the visiting destroyers got drunk and tried slashing a Japanese girl's throat with a knife. It created a major incident and the CO had to discuss it with the prime minister of Japan at the time, if that tells you anything. Japanese people are very polite and traditional, but they expect Americans to be professional drivers. If you get into a wreck, even a minor one, stand by for heavy rolls.
If Huis Ten Bosch is still there, it's a good place to take the family, especially since it's right next to Hario Village. But that's a one and done kind of place as I remember it. There's the Saikai Friendship Festival every summer which is pretty cool and MWR usually gets some decent acts into the mix every year. There's also Ton Ten Ton, a very dangerous but very traditional Japanese tradition that has to be seen to be believed. They've also got baseball and sumo wrestling in Fukuoka as well as concerts once in a while. I saw Metallica at the Sun Palace in Fukuoka in May, 1998, literally days before I PCSed back to the States. Good stuff that.
If Skinny's is still in business in downtown Sasebo, he and his brother, who has a place right across the way, make really good sandwiches and they taste really good, especially after a night out in town. Watch out for the snake venom in the drinks in the places off kung-fu alley and always be aware of the rice wine (sake) which is some potent shit. As far as Japanese beer goes, Sapporo is a lot better than Kirin or Asahi, although I'd probably take Asahi over Kirin if I had to. If you've got a family, this set of orders is probably tailor made for you, brother. If you're single, you're going to be bored when you're not at sea or off-duty. You can turn into one of three things, as with most island tours: 1.) A student. 2.) A workout fiend 3.) A raging partier. You make the call.
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CPO Greg Frazho
CPO (Join to see) - Take it with a grain of salt, brother. It's been a while since I've been on mainland Japan. A lot of it is probably still valid, albeit a little outdated; if I remember it correctly, they made a much more streamlined way to get to CFAS from Hario, like a highway bypass or something; might've been a spur off Highway 35, but I honestly can't remember. I do recall being on that stretch once or twice before I split and it cut the commute time greatly.
Speaking of cars, make sure you get one in good repair with good JCI on it. I had a Daihatsu Charade, a red one if you can beleive that, and it ran very well including numerous trips to Fukuoka and once or twice to Iwakuni and Hiroshima. Watch your speed, though, particularly on the toll highways. Factor all that into your calculus and start a dialogue with your sponsor as soon as possible. The biggest problem for me when I got there was getting over the jet lag.
Speaking of cars, make sure you get one in good repair with good JCI on it. I had a Daihatsu Charade, a red one if you can beleive that, and it ran very well including numerous trips to Fukuoka and once or twice to Iwakuni and Hiroshima. Watch your speed, though, particularly on the toll highways. Factor all that into your calculus and start a dialogue with your sponsor as soon as possible. The biggest problem for me when I got there was getting over the jet lag.
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Rah-Rah Ramen and CoCo's curry are the go to food places. If you're on a minesweeper we all pretty much go to Cindy's bar for drinks
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