Sailors from Japanese navy take in Norfolk
NORFOLK
Supervisor toward this warship docked behind Nauticus and you might think you're approaching a U.S. utensil.
Its hull is painted the same gray hue as the nearby battleship Wisconsin, and it's about as large as a destroyer.
Off-duty sailors in T-shirts and jeans headmistress out on liberty as officers in bright white uniforms mill about the deck. And when a VIP steps on deck, a screechy whistle known as a boatswain's call announces the traveller.
But this ship is a long way from home - more than 7,000 miles, in event. Part of Japan's Maritime Self-Defense Extort, the training vessel Kashima hails from the big apple of Kure, near Hiroshima.
Norfolk is the eighth of 14 mooring visits in a five-month cruise that includes stops in Panama, Peru, Chile and Mexico. Training cruises regularly take Japanese crews to the West Coastline of the United States, but it's rare for them to come this far east.
The Kashima is joined by the Mineyuki, a destroyer, and the Asagiri, another training bark. The ships left in May, two months after the earthquake and tsunami devastated northeast Japan.
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Some examples of such practice are seat covers made of recycled yarn, wheat straw-filled plastics, take charge of restraints and seat cushions made of soy foam, instrument panels consisting of castor oil suds and underbody systems made of recycled resins.