There are things that I particularly like here, and things that caught me completely off-guard. I thought I would share some of those things with you here.
They don't give pennies as change aboard MCAS Iwakuni, but they take them. If you are paying in cash and you don't have pennies, they will round the price up to the nearest nickel and you will simply have to pay the extra few cents!
Most people who work in the places on base are Japanese, and this can cause difficulty with the language barrier and strong Japanese accent. Just listen closely and try to be sure you understand what they are asking you, or what you are asking of them. It's very confusing and frustrating until you get used to it (at least, I hope you get used to it!)
Take your ID with you everywhere. Even if you are just going to ride the bus to the next bus stop and you don't think you need it for anything, take it! The bus goes through stops on base that are controlled by Japanese (such as part of the flight line) and you WILL BE REQUIRED to show your ID at such places! Also, there is currently a 100% ID check in effect aboard the air station, so you will have to have it with you anyway.
The Veterinary Clinic has very strange hours (closed Wednesday, Thursday, and weekends) so double-check before you walk all the way down to that far end of the base to visit your furry friend. I've hoofed it down there three times to see my cat and they were not open any of those three times!
Sign up for Internet access as soon as you arrive if you want it and especially if you brought a laptop computer with wireless (wi-fi) capability. All you need is your mailing address and unit phone number to get it, and it takes about a week to get the login. It's completely worth it if you are an Internet fan to have access on your laptop computer while in TLF instead of walking to the Library (the Library isn't far, but they do restrict your time online if there are very many people waiting, just out of courtesy of course, but it can be frustrating). In spite of what they may tell you, there is enough signal strength to get online at some of the TLF facilities (namely, Monzen Lodge, where we stayed on the second floor and I could see the wi-fi point on the pole outside the building and had enough signal to be operational from the room).
Cell phone plans in Japan don't work at all like in the States. At the time of writing, there were no unlimited mobile-to-mobile plans, and no thousands of minutes per month for low cost plans. Our plan is through Vodafone, the provider located on base, and we are paying $65/month for 66 minutes on the main phone and 33 minutes on the secondary line, though you do get free incoming calls, even from the States, and beginning the first of the month after we signed up, we will have unlimited calling between the two lines on the family plan for an additional $3/month per line ($6/month total, which I included in the price quoted above). The phones, themselves, are up to par with what you'd expect in Japan, with video calling capability (though you'll pay extra for that), text messaging, multimedia messing (extra for those, as well), and bluetooth enabled phones (handy for transferring those pictures you took with your cell phone while you were out sightseeing, and the bluetooth also worked with our Motorola bluetooth headsets that we brought with us from the States). You can, of course, also get prepaid cellular phones, which actually have cheaper rates to call back to the US than for calling locally in Japan. Go figure!
Use the commissaries.com site's shopping list builder and you can see what Iwakuni's Commissary has to offer. I found that the list on that site is accurate.
The map that you are given in your welcome packet does not have some key places marked on it, such as the Vet Clinic, Library, Main Post Office, and Landing Zone. The Main Post Office is located between the Exchange and the Crossroads Mall. The Library is adjacent to the Exchange. The Vet Clinic is all the way down the sea wall near the end of the flight line. The Landing Zone is in the top of Club Iwakuni.
You can't bring Sudafed (or products containing it) into Japan, but you can buy it in the commissary and 7-day store.
All of my kitchen shelves have little screw-in pegs so you can rearrange the shelves to make things fit. I have a lot of tall kitchen items and it's awesome not to have to find some other place to put these things.
You will be required to separate your garbage into four categories: combustible (food, paper, wood, anything that will burn), and 3 non-combustible categories that have to be bagged separately: glass, metal (all metal cans, aluminum, steel, and must be rinsed out but you find that that's a good thing cos it tends to smell if you don't take it out daily anyway), and plastic (candy wrappers, styrofoam, plastic food trays, plastic wrappings).
The shower curtains they sell in the exchange (at least at the time I bought mine) are too narrow for the tub. I ordered a 70 inch wide by 72 inch long shower curtain from JCPenney's and it fits the tub.
The shower valve says "shut" instead of "off" and proclaims itself as the "mixing valve", and there is a separate knob that controls water flow to the shower head.
You have to use so many different methods to make calls, on base, off base, to cell phones, to the US, that it will drive you crazy if you don't know how to do it, and nobody really ever gives you a comprehensive guide. Check my section on Phone Calls!
