What's it like being on a US base?

Someone who had never been on a US military base asked me the other day what it was like.

Here are a few observations:

A combo of Japan and, what I presume is US/military

For example, the below sign on one of the buildings: dual languages, but strangely the Japanese describes the distance as "feet" a measurement that is pretty much not ever used here.

You drive on the left side of the road, but the signs are American and the road rules are also American (which makes me nervous).

Many of the takeaway shops we have used in the food court have Japanese staff, so you can speak English or Japanese to them. I tend to modify my English to somewhat American vocab...eg. "green pepper" instead of "capsicum" at Subway. Some bases you can use yen, but some will give you change in USD. Sometimes they won't take larger denominations of yen.

It is like a foreign land

You have to go through an ID check of some sort at the gate and there are security measures that one has to abide by. That differs from base to base and sometimes from week to week! Your car also has been be registered with them to drive on and at most bases they check your documentation every time. You can't just go on at a whim, you need to be on a list that the school (in our case) has submitted to the base some time previously, or you need to be "sponsored" by someone who has military ID. Sometimes it's taken us an hour to get onto a base, sometimes it's just a few minutes.

The shops are American, so some are familiar, but some aren't. For example, I've discovered Philly steaks are a thing, a good thing. It is somewhat embarrassing, though, to be lining up for one of these places, being able to understand the menu, but not really understanding even though you look like you should. At the place where we do cross-country, you can buy snacks at the little store and most of the "candy" is unknown to us.

There is an alien feel to them

This has got to be the "military" bit: the buildings are all painted this same beige colour.

The base where we've had all the athletics meets this year is an airbase. Most of the time I've just used the one gate, but when I've been with ex-military friends we've gone out a different gate that means driving across the runway! That's pretty weird. At another base where we've gone for wrestling, you can see the military ships in dock (maybe a nuclear submarine or two?).

Of course, there are a few guns (mostly at the gate) and people walking around in military uniform too.

This missionary life is full of surprises. I never expected to be visiting US military bases when I first headed to Japan (nor for many years after that, either). But here we are!

And we're going back tomorrow. We're past half-way, only two more long Saturday meets this season after tomorrow.