Return to Shinjuku

I am back in the Tokyo area. After consecutive six days of 10-11 hour days in mostly abandoned buildings, we finished one day ahead of schedule and none the worse for wear. We had a near calamity when on the very last room of the very last building, a tank over flow pipe was bumped and water spewed out. After a few panicky moments, and a small flood on the concrete floor, the water was stopped, and the engineering squadron assured us it should be fine. It was an interesting project. We surveyed a lot of old abandoned industrial buildings, from Boy Scout facilities and a pet hotel, to 144 ft sq sheds and bunkers, we saw a fair amount of Misawa Air Base. My favorite was the old bunker. A tiny house above ground, leading down steep steps to a concrete bunker underground. The majority of the buildings had no electricity, so we worked with headlamps and lanterns, teeth chattering against the cold.

As we left Misawa, I shivered on the train platform, saying out loud that I was savoring the cold, as Tokyo was reading in the mid seventies and Honolulu at 92, and the upper 80's. I am not sure how accurate my weather app is on the iphone, but I swear, it said Honolulu was 92 Fahrenheit at 1030am Monday, Japan, so 330pm Sunday, Hawaii. In any case, I shivered, sniffled, and enjoyed my last few moments of 55 Fahrenheit. It is warmer in Tokyo, though thankfully, cloudy. We start a new inspection tomorrow at Camp Zama. It is a clinic, and seems large. We have two days, so we should be able to get it done. I have never seen Camp Zama yet, so that will be nice. I also can meet our Army Corps contact, with whom I have corresponded, but never met.

I have also found that these tiny pre-fab bathrooms in the hotels work great as saunas when the hot water is turned on. I have been taking daily shvitzes-it is so refreshing either in the morning or at the end of the day.