A THREE hour tour...a THREE hour tour...

Cliff had another 96 this holiday weekend...but the kids had school today, so it was just the two of us...woohoo! Yokosan was scheduled to be here, so we needed to get out of the house so she could work her magic.

We had a few errands to run, we stopped and had soup and salad for lunch. (Soup because I'm sick AGAIN and it's the only thing that feels good on my throat. Otherwise, I would have gone for something more exotic.) Then we decided we'd finally bite the bullet and try to track down Jake's cell phone.

Jake lost his cell phone at Cliff's unit Christmas party at Round 1 (featured in a former blog post). We checked their lost and found, we left our card, a manager gave us his card and assured us that they would be in contact should the phone turn up. Then, right before the new year, we got a letter (in Kanji) from our cell phone company. We took it in to our on-base branch to have them translate. Turns out, someone at Round 1 found the phone and turned it in to the police station...who in turn contacted our cell phone company.

Two problems: (1) It took us half a day (in an adventure that looked like something out of The Three Stooges) to find a specific Japanese post office when we needed to (and I was starting to have flashbacks), and (2) They were closing for new year's week. Yes...week. Everything shuts down here for the first several days of the new year.

It has taken us this long, even with Jake's pleas, to finally take on the task of tracking down the Ginowan Police Department. All of you back in the US who may be judging us...it's not like you can just look it up on Google Maps. Anything you might find on the WWW (we looked) is in Kanji...so we don't know if it was helpful info since we can't read it. And the roads here are insane. I don't want to offend anyone, but I wouldn't be surprised if the planning commission was doing illicit drugs when they drew the lines here. If you can really call the roads "lines". I'm just sayin'.

We put in some calls to a couple of knowledgeable friends, and Melene said she thought they had moved to a new building down near the convention center. She suggested we could just drive around that area since any police station was always marked with:

(1) A gold star

and

(2) A flashing red light.

So we drove up one side of the road till it sort-of ended...then back down the other side. Nothing. We took some back roads. Nada. Then I brought out my trusty little Japanese conversation book. We stopped into a convenience store, and through a few words in Japanese, a few in English, lots of pantomime and a crude map scribbled on the back of a notebook...we thought we understood where we were going. As we got back into the car, my trusty friend who works in law enforcement (and has to deal with the Japanese police at times) returned my call and she confirmed that we were on the right track. YES!



(I'll get lost with him, anytime!)

So we sat in traffic for awhile, headed in the same direction we had already been...and when we got to the crucial turn...there was NO label for our street. Several intersections kind of converged together...and before we knew it, we passed it. To make matters worse, our road turned into a choice between the expressway (you DON'T want to go there) or a major road with NO turn offs for several kilometers. We had no choice but to roll with it. By the time we were able to turn around, we passed several overpasses going all directions...so the return trip ended up to be just as chaotic.

We made the wrong choice of turns, but we were at least headed in the right direction (on an island, if you have a rough idea of where you are, at least you can head for the water). This whole ordeal was shaping up to be crazier than the post office debacle. I decided to just sit back and photograph the ride. It sure beat getting upset over things. Here's some of the random things that I found photo-worthy (you can click on any to enlarge):










LOVE this Hello Kitty graffiti on the wall of a preschool...



And of course...Anpanman!



LOTS of different road work delays.



This was kinda scary.



Darling Okinawan school children...



Safely walking home from school through busy streets.

We finally got back on the right street and had our eyes peeled for a 2 or 3 story building with a flashing red light. As we got closer and closer to Camp Foster, we knew we had missed it again. We went down to a small "police box" and asked the officer on duty if he could help us find it. He spoke no English and could only say "San kilometer" and point in the direction we had come from (3 kilometers).

So, we hopped back in O'Malley, checked the odometer and tried again. We saw a large building set back from the street, so we turned around and headed toward it...but as we approached the parking lot, we saw it was actually a school.



But we snapped this bonus class photo!

So we got back on the road and headed further down. After we had gone over FOUR kilometers (remember, the policeman said THREE) we saw this tiny sign:




And underneath that, this marquis with what on top? Red lights.


But were they flashing? No!



And look...as we walked up the steps...there's the gold star...and ANOTHER red light...but AGAIN...no flashing!

We approach the friendly officer at the customer relations counter, and with one pointing gesture, we see that our ordeal is almost over:


Finally! I explain our situation, the clerk tells me to fill out a report (at which point I'm very confused since I'm trying to tell her that this office sent us a letter saying they have our phone, it's not still lost). She still insists on the form. I fill it out, describing where, when and what I lost, and she points us to the waiting area. Now I get it. It's just procedure. What would a government agency be without the requisite layers of bureaucracy?



So we sit and wait. There wasn't much to look at. Posters in Kanji. This one was my favorite. I guess in any language, the policeman is your friend.

Eventually, she calls us back up and has Jake's phone in her hand. I'm now required to fill out another form in order to claim the phone, and we are on our way.



Aren't their little police cars cute?

So we head back toward home, and after about 2 kilometers, I notice this store on the corner to our left:


Then I realize that this store was straight ahead of us at the first intersection we came to when we arrived in this part of town. I remembered Cliff pointing it out to me because he wanted to check it out sometime. Then I looked at the clock. It had been almost THREE hours earlier! If we had simply turned left instead of right, and been able to recognize the police station, we could have gone 2 kilometers up the road and been done with it. But that's not how we roll.

So, we head home to tell Jake how much he better behave himself because he owes us BIG time...

And we get this bonus "dog out for a drive" snapshot.

Just another day in paradise.