Sasebo Trip

On December 27th we rented a car from the base and traveled 350 kilometers south to the Navy base of Sasebo.  It was our first time leaving our island of Honshu.  Sasebo is on the island of Kyushu.

Renting the car gives you two advantages.  When you are driving around town, you can pick out the American military (associated) cars and not just by the prefix of "A" or "Y" on the license plates.  They are the oldest, ugliest, and generally worst cars on the road.  We paid $1,500 (actually, it was too much) for our van and $2,900 for Mick's (really mine as well) Miata.  When you pay so little for cars, you should not expect to be able to drive them long distances.  It's not like you can call AAA if you break down.  However, there is a second benefit.  When you rent a car from this government agency, you get unlimited "get out of tolls free" passes.  It is through an arrangement with the country of Japan.  Our government vehicles do not have to pay tolls (and the tolls..........WOWZER......they were 7,000 yen, or around $85 each way to Sasebo) and then Japan gets to say "We helped out the United States by X amount of tolls waived" when it really doesn't cost them anything to have us on the road....and then spending money in their towns.  Win!Win!  So our car was $60 a day, we were gone three days, the tolls would have been $170, so it cost us essentially $10 to rent the car. 

Oh dear........I do go on.......where was I?

No, I need to continue on the roads and the tolls.  There's an unbelievable amount of tunnels in Japan.  I didn't realize how mountainous Japan was, but again.....WOWZER......it's about 70% mountains.  Lots and lots of really long tunnels.  And nice freeways.  But they're all toll roads.

Okay, I'll try to get back to Wagonerland saga.  So we're driving.....and the baby is doing pretty good and then she's not.  And the girls totally rallied and we did about 5 minutes of "GIGI WIGI (Clap!Clap!Clap!Clap!Clap!).  Then we segued into the Cuppy Cake song.  And we sang that.....no exaggeration.......for at least 10 minutes.  And we didn't even know the second verse.  We probably sang it for longer, but I'm trying to keep it real.

So we get to Sasebo and the MAIN ATTRACTION was a Chili's!!!!!!!  We ate there twice.  What's funny is that it isn't a current menu.  Remember in the 90's when they had the "guiltless" entrees?  And you had to pay for chips and salsa?  Well, it was that menu.  It was still delicious though!

We stayed in the Navy Gateway Inns and Suites which is a Temporary Lodging Facility.  It was actually very nice except they only had one bed in each room (we're a two hotel room family now) and the loveseat in the living room did not fold out into a bed.  An added "benefit" (HA!) is that we had a view of the USS Essex and had the good fortune of listening to them work on it during the day.  If you've never been around a shipyard......this is one continuous LOUD noise!

We explored around the city of Sasebo and that was a super treat!  We stumbled upon this outlook to view the Kujuku Islands..

I think we're blowing kissies to Mommy here!

There is a "99 Island" boat tour that we'll go on another time.  Another observatory place is where they filmed the opening scene for the movie "The Last Samurai."

Then we went to the highlight of our trip, the Saikai Pearl Sea Resort, which is not a resort, but an aquarium.  I must admit, I'm pretty spoiled and jaded when it comes to aquariums, living near Sea World in California and Florida as well as the world class Henry Doorly Zoo.  What could they do to impress me so?  Well, take a look!

First we went to the Jellyfish Laboratory.....

Where Mick could laugh his diabolical mad scientist laugh....

And I could quote "Finding Nemo" for 10 minutes straight. 

Oh! Intro! Jellyman, Offspring.  Offspring, Jellyman. Taking on the jellys!  You've got some serious thrill issues, dude. 

But as much as I love to quote Nemo (and I could seriously do that all day long), it didn't compare to our practically private dolphin show!

Playing catch with them was SOOOOOOOOO fun!!!!!!!!!!

Woohoo!!!!!

The trainers would come out every 20 minutes or so and do a mini-show.

They could really jump and flip!!!!

Belly rubs like puppies.  ☺

And they would jump up on the deck and shimmy around.  That one made me a bit nervous, but once they got started doing it, they wouldn't stop, so they must have liked it!  This one went all the way from the big pool to the small one. 

TADA!

Such fun to watch it so close and with so few people.

 Gigi was a bit scared of the dolphins and watched it from the safety of the inside of the building after we sufficiently scared (scarred) her. 

"Why do they do this to me?"

"I'm so cute!!!!"

Then we went underground and looked at the fish from their point of view. 

Hello Mr. Ray!

SHARKS!

Apparently this is the local (sand)bar that fish hang out!

More quoting "Nemo."  I'm a fish with a nose like a *sword*.  (It was really my lucky day!)

Useful information. 

That's a lot of girls in that tank!

One last look at the dolphin pools against the gorgeous Kujukushima Bay. 

And one last gratuitous photo op. 

Hook 'em Dolphins!

And we FINALLY get somewhere where Gigi could have a good time. 

And the other girls too!

But unfortunately we got there with only 5 minutes left to closing!  We tried to ignore the woman speaking in Japanese over the intercom, but then they started playing "Auld Lang Syne."  Subtle yet effective.  "AMERICANS!  LEAVE!  STOP PRETENDING YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT WE'RE TALKING ABOUT!"

All in all it was a fabulous day and we can't wait to go back!

A very fun time in Sasebo!  Do you want to go there when you come and visit us?

I'm a really fun person to travel with!