The adventure began on Saturday nite and before it even began my coworker Cassandra called me crazy for my plan, my response was "um this is me, this is what I do, my friends are used to it." So what was the plan you ask, it was to pick up my rental car at 4:30 on Saturday nite, learn how to drive on the left side of the road (the wrong side sorry my British family) for 10 minutes and then head up to the airport which is about 1 1/2 hrs away. O yeah I got my drivers license here on base after taking the test 3 times, I mean come on I passed all my drivers tests in NY on the first try but here you can miss 5 out of 50 questions and the first time I missed 7 and figured it out which 7 and then somehow missed 7 the second time BUT after studying (see kids it actually works) I passed :)
I made it up to the airport with no problems and plenty of time, go me! When I was waiting for Andrea and Alison to get off the plane (they flew from Washington DC to Narita (Tokyo) to Hiroshima) I noticed that there was a base employee picking somebody up in the shuttle and I should have followed them! Coming back we stopped at a rest stop that over looked Miyajima and coincidentally has a Starbucks! Well I was little thrown off on how quick my exit came up so I missed it but I was like no big deal I will get off at the next one which is actually called Iwakuni and my directions said that if there was traffic during rush hour that is a better exit to get off at. HOWEVER, the directions stop there!!! Seriously, they just leave you hanging.
I saw a sign that said ShinIwakuni to the left but I knew from all of my trips to Sasebo that the Shin station was 30 minutes from base so I decided to head straight. O bad bad decision. The road was dark and windy and literally in the middle of nowhere. I had no idea what to do but decided to keep just driving until I saw something, anything, that could help. Well that took awhile and I also had to watch out for cars parked randomly on curves with trucks coming at me..........OOOOOOOOOO..........SOOOOOOOOOOOO............MUCH..............FUN!!!
Out of the darkness came this amazingly lit up restaurant on both sides, seriously it looks like an amusement park, and I immediately thought O THANK THE LORD it is Chicken Shack! Chicken Shack is a restaurant that the residents of MCAS Iwakuni LOVE, it is a must do for anyone the lives on base. However, I hadn't been there yet (more to come) so I didn't know how to get home but we saw some Americans! I asked them how to get home and told them I was super lost well he gave me directions which went like "So easy go down and make a left on Rt 15 and then make a left on Rt 188 and then you will be at base." O buddy, really............it would have been super helpful to know that there was a tiny road that you need to take to Rt 15 and this tiny dark road was right there (like 3 feet away from where we were standing). This is a little tiny country road that I would be used to be at the lake but not here.........o I should have stuck with Alison's gut when she suggested it. This is because we headed down the hill and I made the first left but it didn't say Rt 15 and looked desolate so I turned around and kept going down the hill for awhile. Finally, I decided to stop at a 7-11 and ask for directions. With my extremely limited Japanese (I have about 6 words down pat) I was told I was supposed to turn around. So as I got into the car and tried to decide what to do and decided to head up back toward the Chicken Shack. Right at that point my coworker Cassandra called to check in on me (at this point it was 10 pm and I should have been back on base).
I have never been so happy to talk to someone, I told her we were lost and by the Chicken Shack. Well Cassandra rocks and her and her husband headed out to come find us; however, the problem happened when I (via Alison) told her we were by 7-11, this is like saying you are by a McDonald's or a Starbucks in the States. She told us to turn around so we did and passed the 7-11 again she then called and told us to turn around again and just wait a 7-11. Well we did and she went to 2; unfortunately they were the wrong 2. So after an hour I decided just to head up towrd Chicken Shack and guess what we found 15!!! It was so easy because the road split! Soooooooooooo happy and then it was smooth sailing. On the way home a friend texted me because I asked to borrow an air pump (Cassandra let me borrow an air mattress but gave me a foot pump and trust me I would still be trying to blow up the air mattress with that!)My response was yes I needed a pump and I was lost but by the time they called I was on my way. I have never been so happy to see base and when the Marine was checking our passes I told him we got so lost and he chuckled. After almost a 3 1/2 hour trip home (it should have been 1 1/2 hrs)I was more then happy to eat some pasta and drink some wine and laugh with my friends about the beginning of their adventure........it is never a dull moment with me! When I told my coworkers about this adventure they all laughed at me but were impressed tht I attempted to it!
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