My Trip to JASDF (Part 1)

Hello, everyone~!

I've been slacking with my entries a little bit, haven't I? Well, it seems that I have something to post about today. Yaay!

I took a small trip to Saitama prefecture to pay a visit to the base of JASDF. Can you guess what JASDF stands for? What do you think? It stands for Japan Air Self-Defense Force. The reason why I visited there was to participate the program made by the PR department called "JASDF's Tour for Women". I happened to find the information on its website, and I decided to apply because I thought it would be a good opportunity to know about its roles.

As I mentioned, the base I went to is located in Saitama prefecture, and it took an hour or so to go there from my home. Since there's US Yokota Air Base next to my home town, I could imagine how the base would look like. But still, it wasn't the US's. So I was excited about visiting there. On this blog, I've decided to divide my report into two parts because I think it's going to be too long to read at a time if I make it into one part.

I saw and learn a lot of things about our Self-Defense Force, and it has drawn the nation's attention every time the argument about the definition of "self-defense" has come out. However, after I visited there, I thought it's also important for us to think about the people in the Force who do what they need to do because just discussing the definition or the ideological thing is likely to end up ignoring the voices that we should listen to. It's unfair to judge the people who work for the country without knowing about the truth, I guess.

Well, let me go back to talking about the trip. The first thing I did was boarding a helicopter. It was actually the first time for me to get on a helicopter. It's basically used for transporting foods, commodities, and so on. It's also used for transportations of people whent the situation is urgent. When I was about to get on, it got windier and windier as I got closer to the helicopter. It can carry 55 passengers. I wondered if its people on board sleep here, and I asked. The answer was no. Its flight time is not long enough to fall asleep, and the seat will never let you sleep because it's not comfortable! After boarding the helicopter, I felt like I should be thankful for how comfortable commercial airplanes are! Ha! Ha! Then, the picture on the right side, which looks like Google map, was taken from the helicopter. When you enlarge it, do you see the mountain covered with the snow? It's Mt. Fuji. (Remember I talked about the trip to there?)

Well, I'm sure photographs will definitely help you imagine what it's like to get on a helicopter. But is it really enough? Is there any better way to do so? These questions occured to me during the flight, and I found that it would be nice if I try to shoot some videos.

So...Why don't you try this? (CAUTION:Noisy sound included.)

I shot this short video when I was allowed to walk around the inside of the helicopter. The weather was so clear that you can barely see anything from the window, but at least it proves that I was there!

This was taken when I stood close to the window. I have no idea where it was, but I hope it helps you get some ideas of what I did yesterday.

0

Alright, that's all for today!

But don't forget to stay tuned for part 2!