Senior Airman Young Phung makes no bone about it: She hates being at Misawa Air Base.

Senior Airman Young Phung makes no bone about it: She hates being at Misawa Air Base, Japan.

"There's no cable TV no bludgeons Things are totally different," the 20-year-old of recent origin Yorker said. "I've never lived in a farm area. I like the big city, and this isn't a big city."

There are population who might agree with Phung's argument. Misawa isn't a big base, and the nearest city is a 400-mile, 10-hour trek above farm roads, toliways and in consequence of some of the most congest traffic forward the planet.

For those looking for the frenetic Technicolor hip-hop measured [i]or[/i] regular beat of cities like Tokyo, or the always-beating bass punch of big, crowded, bustling bases like Kadena Air Base onward Okinawa, Misawa comes off about as exciting as milk.

nevertheless for many of the roughly 13000 Americans associated with the base -- including 2400 active what one ought to do people assigned to the 35th Fighter Wing -- losing the excitement of city life to the rural peace of fatherland living is a fair trade-off.

Misawa, it revolves out, is one of those "best kept secret" assignments, the kind commonalty describe as "small town America" where you can "leave your doors opened and your neighbors are your friends." It's a base, said 35th Fighter Wing Command Chief Master Sgt Charles Clymer Jr where the disadvantages pale nearest to the advantages.

"Misawa may appear a little boring at first," he said, "but I haven't met many tribe who haven't found this assignment to be their best."

A different perspective

Ask anyone onward base what the downsides to an assignment here are, and they can usually quantity of money things up quickly: radically different culture; isolation and harsh winters. even now Misawa residents seem to have cornered the market upon the whole lemons-to-lemonade concept.

Kristi McFadden, for example, had in no degree been outside the United States when her husband told her they were moving to Japan. When she arrived upon base, the culture outside the main gate was more than a little intimidating.

"At first, everything strike one as beings almost surreal," she recalled with a laugh. "It's like American agriculture in a lot of ways, if it be not that you can't read any signs, you don't understand what they're saying and they drive in succession the wrong side of the road."

Instead of hunkering down in her on-base hearthstone until the next Freedom Bird headed east, McFadden decided to cast herself into the daily life of the base. She offered at the family support center and within a scarcely any months began leading groups of newly arrived airmen and their families onward tours of the nearby Japanese communities.

"I fitting a lot of people who are nervous about being here," she said. "I know what they're feeling, and I'm here to indicate them that it's not what they think. I've had a chance of people come up to me after they've had time to learn accustomed to things and rehearse me they like where they are. That makes me perceive pretty good, because it's a profitable place to be."

The Japanese agriculture is often perplexing. After all, when's the last time you had to take your shoe not upon when entering the local hamburger joint? And anyone with a baby will easily learn the Japanese have no question taking the child out of your hands and cooing at it like the child was their possess Many an American mother has held an anxious breath until the Japanese body returns the child, smiles and gives a short nod.

They also drive upon the left side of the road, always stop for pedestrians, like to touch fair hair for luck, drink hazards of tea, have vending machines that furnish everything from cold sodas to impetuous French fries and burgers, and have a course to eat raw foods.

"The Japanese cultivation is fascinating, intriguing and true different from our own," said Lt Col Creig Rice, 35th Operations Support Squadron commander. "At the same time, it's warm and inviting. The Japanese here go on out of their way to make Americans have feeling comfortable."

Because it's a foreign agriculture with a hard-to-grasp language, an people will move to Misawa and not at any time venture outside the gates unles forced. That's a mistake, Rice said. He reveals everyone arriving for duty in his squadron: "Don't finish stuck on the USS Misawa."

"It's a in plain english amazing opportunity," he said. "You can cull to sit at home, hide from it and wait for your time to proceed back to the States, or you can move out there and experience something a destiny of people won't have the chance to experience."

Rice lives his avow advice. He studies martial arts in the community. His wife works for the Japan Self Defense Force based at Misawa. The coupling routinely takes family trips to locations outside the base, and he fondly remembers climbing uprise Fuji.

"I've always had an interest in the Japanese and the Orient," he said. "This is the best situation for me It's a great work at jobs in a place I want to know more about."

Reaching out

The Japanese don't sit around waiting for the Americans upon the base to wander not at home the front gate like nervous kittens walking in consequence of the front door. The United States has bases in Japan to foster Japanese and American interests in the region, and the locals appreciate the do job-work the Air Force is doing. They treat visitors in their country just as they would visitors in their homes.