Welcome Back to USS Essex

The first weekend back has been rather uneventful, save for a Det 6 BBQ on Friday night, a night out at a live music bar, and a trip to the airport today.

The BBQ was really fun, and always a good way to relax as a group, get to know everyone, and play a little football. Also, it was raining, so the football had some extra excitement to it when we realized how tough it was to throw and catch a wet football, and get traction on a wet field. It eventually turned into “razzle-dazzle” football – a sort of rugby/football combination where pretty much everything is legal. My team won, of course, but the fact that everyone walked away with no major injury was the real victory.

Once we got showered and changed, Dan (the other one) played tour guide to show us a renowned live music and darts joint that he found this past spring. All we knew was that some of the staff at the bar would get up on stage and play some American favorites. Considering they didn’t speak much English at all, they could rock the socks off of anything from Hendrix to Oasis to some up-tempo version of the Beatles’ “Day Tripper.” I was quite impressed, and our maintenance officer (the other Dan I mentioned earlier) even treated us to a rendition of “Born to be Wild” and yes, he’s on video and remains proud of his performance.

The face of a champion.

Mark actually had to take a break to rest his arms while dealing.

You can't get past a poker face like that.

Indian poker with HUUUGE cards!

Roomies. Me, Ben, Mark
Me with half of the band

Wallflowers.

Warren and Me with our souvenirs. Party on.

I don’t regret staying to the end of the music, though this morning I may have held a different opinion. Waking up early after an exhausting afternoon/evening nearly proved too much for me. 2 new members of our detachment arrived today in Fukuoka (big city about 90 minutes north of here) and we needed to send someone up there to pick them up. Lucky me, I got to do that while the rest of the gang trained up to Nagasaki for some more tourist-ing. I’m glad I went, and even more than that, I’m glad it went smoothly. The other guy and I found the bus (free) and got on without any trouble (a comfortable one this time, and yes I slept), and as for finding our targets, we walked into the international terminal, and there they were, not 20 feet away.

After the bus trip back, since almost everyone else had joined the tour up north, I had a good chance for some personal time. Of course, I only used that time to use the slow ship internet, polish my boots, do some work in the shop, and organize some of the drawers in my room. Since not many people are on board right now, I also had a chance to take a nice long hot shower without worrying about anyone waiting for a turn. And now, it’s about midnight (where did the day go?? Oh right, I just went over that) and I’m ready for bed. I’ll do my best to post once more before we get underway this week, though I’m not promising anything too exciting between now and then. Thanks for all of the comments, by the way. I love hearing from everyone.