Today, Saturday Oct 8th, we took a tour bus from Ikego Base, picked up other passengers in Yokosuka Base, and then took a quick day-tour of Tokyo. It was called “Tokyo Highlights” and the stops were Meijijingu, a shrine built and dedicated to Emporer Meiji and his wife Empress Shoken, Tokyo Tower, and Asakusa. (Emporer Meiji was the one who rose to power and helped to transform the society of Japan from that of the Tokugawa Shogunate to the much more modern Japan of today, embracing western technologies and so on.

Today, Friday Oct 7th, we decided to try and take the Aunt and Uncle on a train ride. No itinerary or any goal to speak of, simply taking a trip and seeing whatever sights we could along the way. First stop was Zushi Station where my cousin and her husband dropped them off from the car, I walked. We rode the train to Yokohama Station where we stopped at Sogo (a shopping center just outside one of the station’s exits).

Today, Thursday Oct 6, was pretty much a day of rest for the Aunt and Uncle to replenish their energy. I didn’t do much, other than finding an App on my Kindle Fire and Android phone called MAPS.ME which allows me to have an offline GPS map of where I am in proximity to major landmarks and allows me to ensure I can find my way home after going out on a trek somewhere.

Today, we went to Yokosuka Naval Base and filled out the necessary security clearance paperwork to be able to enter the base. We then proceeded to visit both the Commissary (Groceries) and NEX (Naval Exchange, which is basically a large department store similar to Walmart or Target). Since there are parts of the base that are not allowed to be photographed for security reasons, no pictures were taken, or will be while at the base.

Today, Tuesday Oct 4th, was spent getting more acclimated to the weather here and going out and about learning about Japan’s awesome and amazing public transportation system. I can see why it’s considered the best system in the world. I picked up one of the many pre-paid debit-style train cards available, a SUICA, for use for the rest of my stay here. You load money onto it, and then use it at the entrance/exits of the stations and it subtracts the amounts automatically.