Part I: Otaku War Journal: Did you find any Xilians today?

Somewhere Near ROSWELL – After much consideration, I’ve decided to blog about my military deployment abroad. However, I am only going to write about my experiences in relation to my geeky otaku lifestyle (see disclaimer at the end of post).

With the ground rules set, let’s begin…

Regarding the Manga and Anime availability, it was okay. The PX (Post Exchange) is the military’s version of Wal-mart. It’s a department store that sells all types of products for inexpensive prices. I perused the magazine and book section for any manga. The selection is small. They had several anime and manga related magazines like Anime Insider and Shonen Jump. The PX also carried some of the more popular manga titles like Death Note (デスノート), Naruto (ナルト), and Vagabond (バガボンド). The video section carried more interesting stuff like Serial Experiments Lain (シリアルエクスペリメンツレイン) and Gunslinger Girl (ガンスリンガー•ガール). I’ve seen most of that stuff already, and the other stuff didn’t interest me.

Although we did not train with them, the Japanese Ground Self-defense Force (JGSDF) lived down the road from me. You know the army that tries to repel Godzilla in every kaiju movie since the beginning of time. I always ran into them at the DFAC (military lingo for cafeteria), and I had the opportunity to meet some of them. They were really cool cats. I later realized that we were not too far from Area 51. I wanted to ask them if they were looking for the Xilians, but my Japanese is horrible. Damn it, I missed so many good opportunities because of my weak ass Japanese. By the way, how does one say, “Did you find any Xilians today?” in Japanese?


Source: www.defenseimagery.mil
For the Gov-Spooks: This blog is mostly about Asian pop culture. It does NOT contain anything regarding operations or intelligence. It does NOT have specific locations, units, names, or times. It does NOT have any sensitive photographs from any government installation. All posts are published well after the conclusion of their happening in order to mask actual dates and reduce the risk to operational security.