After crossing the international date line we landed in Guam and another breakfast, this was getting to be boring, we finally
landed at Haneda Air Port and loaded on busses that were waiting for us. Riding through Tokyo we were all dismayed at the many bicycles, rickshaws on the streets and the "charcoal powered cars" with their fire flashing rear ends but mostly for us "Hawaiians" it was the falling snow, first time we actually felt the snow and like kids were catching and throwing it at each other. Upon entering a huge building we all  noticed a sign above the main door that read, " Through these doors pass the greatest fighting force in the world", we all seem to get a "chicken skin feeling as we proudly walk through and on to a formation. A Master Sgt. addressed us with, "Welcome to Camp Drake, I will now call your name as it appears on this roster and you will answer loudly the word "Here", is that understood?". Everyone answers with an affirmative, "Yes Sir". He starts and continues with, "Abe, Aran, Bonilla, Castro, Kauhini and when he get's a "Here Sir", he mutters, " How did that guy get in with this group of hawaiians", I guess he's never been to Hawaii, Kauhini was the first native hawaiin name he called, poor fellow.
Anyway, we get issued a whole bunch of supplies including heavy winter jackets, head covers, horse blanket like sleeping bags and heavy snow boots. I wondered, "where the hell are we going to". After our assigned bunks in an area where we unloaded all our gear and got back from lunch, a young Japanese man who worked there, approached us and said, "you guys want to meet Japanese  girls?, I can show you, ok?" Of course, we decided to see what he was talking about as he led us to a gaping hole in the fence behind the barracks, through a small forest and out to a small town named Asaka. There we continued to a house on the banks of a small stream. We were greeted by a Mamasan who spoke good English as she guided us into a large restaurant waiting room and a number of young ladies some dressed in kimonos and some in American style clothes. Leroy was the first to speak and said " I don't know what to say if one of them speaks to me, what will I say?" and I answered by saying, "Leroy, just wait and see what they say, I don't know either". About then a girl comes up to me and say's "Me Mitchiko or something like that as she holds out her hand and leads me to a table where a waitress takes my order. We all got the same treatment and sat at small tables as we ate and drank beer. We were a bunch of 18 year olds who didn't know what we were getting into and had to be led around like the children that we were. After an entertaining evening we were called upon by the Japanese man that guided us there as he informed us that we had to be on our way back in order to make another roll call.
The next morning we went to a class where we were instructed on the diseases that were common in the Far East and we held our breath and were on pins and needles for a couple of weeks.
After a short few days in Camp we were again on the road or on this time I must say tracks for we were loaded on a slow train to Southern Japan, a port town named Sasebo and after a short day there we were on a Ship and the southern port of Pusan in South Korea.