Scenes from Sagami Depot

On my last full day in Japan (Friday), my Dad, Rich, Amy and I headed over to Sagami Depot for a quick drive around base and a look at the stores off base.

Sagami Depot, along with Camp Zama and Sagamihara, make up the three bases in the Zama area.

Zama has most of the offices, some housing, the PX, the middle/high school and its own commissary (where my Mom works).

Sagamihara has most of the base housing, the elementary school, the biggest commissary, and the movie theater.

Sagami Depot doesn't have much at all - although it's the biggest base by far, it's filled with a bunch of warehouses and is basically used for storage.

It has a tiny, TINY housing section, with a small commissary, a gas station, a small library and the Sagami Lounge (a small club that serves meals).

The reason we visited Depot was due to the fact that my family lived there for the first 2.5 years we were in Japan. While Zama and Sagamihara are only 5 - 10 minutes apart at most, Sagami Depot is a good 45 - 60 minutes away on a normal day. It was a complete surprise to be placed there, as I would guess a good 90% of housing is located on either Zama or Sagamihara. I can't say it was a joy to be so far away from the rest of Zama (in fact, my whole family celebrated when we moved to Zama the summer before my senior year) but I did meet Camie and her family on Depot. We bonded over the fact that we were "Depot Rats."

WARNING: These picture may be very boring for anyone who hasn't lived at Depot!

This is a look at the housing area from a large field that borders it

A view from the main entrance of the housing area

A closer look at housing - if I recall correctly, Camie lived at the end of this street in that row of houses you can just make out.

This is a look at what most of Depot looks like - empty fields surrounded by Japanese buildings and housing off base.

This is the area right off Sagami Depot - the one good thing about the base is that it's located next to a train station.

The only bad thing was being stuck at the train crossings, waiting for JR trains to pass (like this one).

I had to include a shot of one of our favorite hangouts as teenagers - Mister Donut (the Dunkin Donuts equivalent)