Camp Zama

Theresa spent a good deal of her teen-age years in Japan, when her father was stationed at the U.S. Army Base, Camp Zama.  For as long as I've known her, she has wanted to get back to Japan and visit her old home.

With that in mind, we bought a Japan Railway Pass before coming to Kobe for Theresa to use.  The Railway pass entitles you to ride almost any train in Japan for a 7 day or 14 day period.  We bought the 7 day pass, and it pretty much paid for itself with just the one round-trip to Hiroshima.  On top of that, Theresa used it to go to a Osaka and Himeji and other nearby spots.  It was only on the last valid date of the pass that she worked up the courage to try to get to Zama

Now, keep in mind that Theresa had no idea how to get to Camp Zama.  All we knew is that it is located on the other side of the island, between Yokohama and Tokyo.  All of the on-line travel information was aimed at servicemen flying into Tokyo.  So, she had to rely completely on the nice people at the ticket window of the train station. 

Also keep in mind, that the two week period around New Year's day is the heaviest travel period of the year in Japan.   Of course, we didn't realize this beforehand.  But we soon came to realize that the whole country was traveling toward or in return from a family visit.  So in her quest for Camp Zama, Theresa had to take her chances.  She went standing-room on the train out, and only got a seat for the last hour of the three hour Shinkansen leg.  After that, she took local trains to get to the Soubudai station, near Camp Zama (see photo above).

To tell the truth, she didn't get to see much.  By time she arrived, there was only about an hour's worth of daylight left.  And when she got to the base, the guards would not let her pass without valid military ID.  Security and all that stuff.   Theresa doesn't look all that crazy, but in this day and age we are all presumed to be security risks.  So, she had to settle for walking around and looking through the fence (see top photo).

But just getting back to Camp Zama after 35 years was a victory.  She got to see a few things that stirred up memories.  And then she got back on the train and headed back to Kobe.