Militant Entertainment

I love the Navy. Honestly I do. I am not a sailor , I am not a recruiter, but I can honestly say as a spouse (or as the politically incorrect "dependant" that the Navy terms me) it is a great life. Strange, but great and exciting.

The exciting part is obvious. I get to tag along while Dave does his job all over the world, seeing things and living places I never could have imagined. The weird part is being part of the sub-culture of the military. I am relatively new to all of this, but it has not been so evident as it has been here in Yokosuka.

The base is its own little community, and when you are on base, it really feels like small town America. I run into the same people everyday and am starting to recognize the faces and routines of even the people who I do not know. While we are very eager to finally get into our own place off base, it is comforting knowing that this little speck of America exists in the Far East.

There are some things that I am not sure if I find comforting, or just weird. The other night Dave and I went to the base movie theatre to see "Marley and Me" (please, if you have an aging pet, do not do this to yourself-a totally cheesy movie, but I was racked with sobs throughout the last 30 minutes) and before the movie they asked us to stand for the national anthem. Okay, whatever, kind of strange, but I consider myself patriotic, no big deal. The weird part was that instead of just projecting a picture of a flag on the screen, they showed a recruiting video for the Navy along to the Star Spangled Banner.

Then there is TV. TV sucks here. I know, I am in Japan, I should be out experiencing Japanese life and culture, and we are trying, believe me. But there are still the times when you just want to come home, flop down and flip on The Office or something. Not here. Overseas there is only the AFN (armed forces network) channels which pretty much just show last seasons prime time shows and even shows that have been canceled. We get the History channel, Animal Planet, Lifetime and TLC, but they do not seem to have the same programming as the states.

The worst (and best) part of AFN TV here are the commercials. AFN does not sell regular commercial time, instead they air military produced PSA's during the commerical breaks. They are priceless. I have linked to a couple here. The first is my favorite, but I love the second one, because the spy looks just like my cat,Seamus.