Posted on Dec 19, 2014
PCSing to Kadena AFB. Anyone have any recent experience there?
8.48K
1
7
0
0
0
Just found out that I'm going to Kadena in June. Anyone have any recent experience there? Pointers?
Posted in these groups: 
Kadena AB
Kadena AB
Posted 11 y ago
Responses: 5
1
1
0
Enjoy the culture and venture out. June through November is typhoon season and is truly a crazy time but the island is beautiful. The cellphone companies are expensive but I recommend AU over Softbank because it's cheaper. If you live off base I would recommend Yomitan because its less populated with military. When dealing with realtors make sure you get utilities included and use your full cap. I would recommend getting a flyer miles account through delta or United because the miles you can get will pay off in the end.
(1)
(0)
0
0
0
Hello SMSgt Peeterse,
I just found out that I will be moving to Kadena. Any recommendations, do's/don'ts, etc would be appreciated.
I just found out that I will be moving to Kadena. Any recommendations, do's/don'ts, etc would be appreciated.
(0)
(0)
0
0
0
0
0
0
I would suggest buying your vehicle from the Lemon lot. BC motors will way over charge you. Try to find a vehicle that has a JCI that lasts for a least a year. Also, if you have the opportunity, live off base. The island and the people are wonderful.
(0)
(0)
0
0
0
Not stationed on Kadena, but am on the Island, can give you some pointers about living here in Okinawa, if you would like. What are you looking for?
(0)
(0)
SMSgt (Join to see)
Sir, very curious about vehicles? But it looks like the policy is everyone will live on base so that makes housing easy. Pretty sure the move will be very similar to Europe in terms of timing and such. In general any advice would be welcome. Thanks.
(0)
(0)
LTC (Join to see)
MSgt....
Vehicles are pretty easy over here. Plan to spend between 2-4K for a decent car, 4-8K for better, 10K top range..I bought two cars for my wife and I (Mazda Van and a Nissan Pathfinder) for about 8K total. There are several car dealers outside of Kadena, your sponsor should hook you up. You can google BC Cars and US Auto Sales to see what they have, but the websites are not all inclusive of what they have. There is also a lemon lot on Kadena that you can look at.
If you live on post (which you are correct, most do, but some live out on the town based on availability), then Mediatti provides the AFN and cable. For expanded TV, we did a couple of things: 1) Apple TV with Netflex and Hulu provides of access to most of the shows we watched in the states. 2) Slingbox....is a great way to stream live TV from the states to your computer and route through Apple TV (if you have an Ipad or Mac) or through your PC. Basically Slingbox takes control over a TV box (Direct Tv, Time Warner, whoever) and allows you to control it from over here. It does cause the owner of the box to lose control of it, but if they set one up in a spare bedroom or something, minimal impact. We bought this after we were over here, but would have been easier had we done it before we left for the states. This only has a 1 time purchase cost, everything beyond that is free.
Phone: We purchased an Omma device that allowed us to transfer our cell phone numbers to it and now we have a VOIP here that allows us to call to the states, free of charge. Also, people in the states can call us on stateside numbers free of charge. There is a 1 time purchase fee, plus less than 4 dollars a month in fees, but worth it. There are others methods like this (vonage, etc) that I am sure work just the same, but this seemed to be the most cost savings for us.
Are you married and do you or your wife have FB? If so too both, just do searches on FB for Okinawa, there are several pages out there, from Diving, Markets, spouses pages, etc.
Weather. Although the most of the time it is warm here, don't completely disregard all your winter clothes, especially if you plan to travel over here, mainland Japan and Korea are very cold right now.
If there is anything else you need, please send me a note.
Vehicles are pretty easy over here. Plan to spend between 2-4K for a decent car, 4-8K for better, 10K top range..I bought two cars for my wife and I (Mazda Van and a Nissan Pathfinder) for about 8K total. There are several car dealers outside of Kadena, your sponsor should hook you up. You can google BC Cars and US Auto Sales to see what they have, but the websites are not all inclusive of what they have. There is also a lemon lot on Kadena that you can look at.
If you live on post (which you are correct, most do, but some live out on the town based on availability), then Mediatti provides the AFN and cable. For expanded TV, we did a couple of things: 1) Apple TV with Netflex and Hulu provides of access to most of the shows we watched in the states. 2) Slingbox....is a great way to stream live TV from the states to your computer and route through Apple TV (if you have an Ipad or Mac) or through your PC. Basically Slingbox takes control over a TV box (Direct Tv, Time Warner, whoever) and allows you to control it from over here. It does cause the owner of the box to lose control of it, but if they set one up in a spare bedroom or something, minimal impact. We bought this after we were over here, but would have been easier had we done it before we left for the states. This only has a 1 time purchase cost, everything beyond that is free.
Phone: We purchased an Omma device that allowed us to transfer our cell phone numbers to it and now we have a VOIP here that allows us to call to the states, free of charge. Also, people in the states can call us on stateside numbers free of charge. There is a 1 time purchase fee, plus less than 4 dollars a month in fees, but worth it. There are others methods like this (vonage, etc) that I am sure work just the same, but this seemed to be the most cost savings for us.
Are you married and do you or your wife have FB? If so too both, just do searches on FB for Okinawa, there are several pages out there, from Diving, Markets, spouses pages, etc.
Weather. Although the most of the time it is warm here, don't completely disregard all your winter clothes, especially if you plan to travel over here, mainland Japan and Korea are very cold right now.
If there is anything else you need, please send me a note.
(0)
(0)
Read This Next
Continue with Facebook 
Continue with Google