250716 Way Back

I was remembering a few places I’ve been in the navy.

Part one, Hong Kong, You can’t go there now, the Chinese took it over. Back then the British were running it. I was walking down the streets seeing how ordinary people lived. One spot there were 4 men playing pinnacle and they were so smart that after just a few hands they all knew the outcome of the game. They threw in their cards and laughed.

2. Kowloon, China, not far from Hong Kong. It was out of bounds for navy personnel. Myself and 3 other sailors wondered why? So we took a ferry to see what was so bad there. We were walking down a street and 4 boys were playing soccer. We challenged them to a game, thinking they couldn’t beat us. They didn’t just beat us, they embarrassed us terribly. We roamed around, didn’t see anything interesting, so we went back to Hong Kong for some Asian beers and a few Heineken beers.

3. Tokyo, Japan, I wanted to see the city, but no one wanted to go with me, so I took off on my own. The train from Youkosuka (naval port in Japan) was plainly marked. I bought a ticket and headed out for Tokyo. The trip was fast and I was there in short order; I left the train and walked out into the city. I stopped in a plinko store (a place filled with plinko machines like a pinball machine, only the balls are the size of a pea). Those guys there were shoving the plinko balls in much faster than I could. There were prizes to be won there, but I didn’t win anything. I was hungry so I went to a restaurant for lunch. Every dish served was pictured in the front windows so you could see what the dish looked like. Each dish had a number so all I had to do was tell the waitress the numbers I wanted and off she went to get my food. I was sitting, waiting when the sounds there got loud. Everyone was slurping their soup in a loud manner. My mother never allowed anyone to slurp their soup at home. She would have freaked out in that restaurant, but there the loud slurping showed the chef that his or her soup was very good. I was surprised when my food came. It was served and it looked exactly like the picture in the front window. The meal was good. I walked around Tokyo for a few hours before heading back to the train station. I was stunned when I walked into the train station. All the information was in Japanese. I had no idea of what train I should take and where that track was. A young woman walked by and I asked her if she spoke English and could tell me what train to take. She looked excited and was signaling me to get away from her. What I didn’t know was things were reversed in Tokyo; her signal to go away was actually to follow her. I finally got the idea and she led me to a man selling tickets and he spoke a little English. He sold me a ticket, told me what track to take and off I went, headed back to Yokosuka. The train was packed and all the Japanese wore masks like doctors wear. I did not have one, so they stared at me. I had to sneeze and pulled out my handkerchief too late so I sneezed out in the open. They reacted, I thought they were going to throw me off the train. I got back to Yokosuka where all the Japanese spoke enough English for us sailors to understand. I was in a bar there when I went to the restroom to shed some of that beer. I was standing at the urinal, when this young Japanese woman walked in, said hello, pulled her pants down and sat on a toilet about 5 feet away from me. That shocked me more than anything in Tokyo.

I think part 1 is long enough for today. Part 2 will be in my next post.