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You are here: Home / Guest Post / Guest Post: Camp Zama, Japan Part 1

Guest Post: Camp Zama, Japan Part 1

July 19, 2012 by Julie 7 Comments

Jes at Bleu Dress and Dress Blues is my next guest poster.   I will be dividing her post into two because of all the wonderful information she has 🙂

 Camp Zama is a teeny, tiny Army base located about 25 miles SW of Tokyo, Japan.  Most people have never heard of it, I hadn’t until we got orders {I actually have a soldier with 25 years service under his belt tell me that I was making it up because he didn’t think we had soldiers on mainland Japan, lol}.  It is home to about 10 units, including U.S. Army Japan(USAR-J)/I CORPS FWD.  I don’t know exact numbers but if I had to guess I’d say there are less than 800 soldiers, maybe about 1500 civilians and probably close to 2000 local national employees on base.  Unless you get permission from the General {yes, the, we only have one}, soldiers and civilians are required to live on post so it’s kind of like living in a fish bowl in the middle of Japan.  Most of the time, this is great, I love living in a community where  everybody knows your name but it’s also a breeding ground for massive amounts of “Zama Drama”. {If you were wondering how Zama is pronounced, well, it rhymes with drama!}

Japan

we have been blessed with some of the most amazing neighbors ever here!

Our community includes the main base {Zama}, Sagamihara Housing Area {SHA} and the Sagami Depot.  Most of the families live on Zama or SHA with a few {less than a dozen} residing at the Depot.  I have never actually been to the Depot so I know very little about it.  On SHA you will find family housing, the elementary school that serves SHA + Zama, and our state of the art, just installed, digital movie theater {it’s the 1st one of it’s caliber in on a military installation in Japan and it’s been a big deal for us.  It means we get movies IMMEDIATELY once they’re released in the US instead of having to wait for the film to be delivered weeks or months after it premiers in America}.  Zama, which is where almost all of the units are located, contains family and single soldier housing, the small PX, the mail room and post office, the community club, a GREAT travel office, a bowling alley, a golf course {apparently one of the best on any base instillation around the world…but I wouldn’t know!}, a vet, a high school that serves not only Zama + SHA but also Naval Air Facility Atsugi which is located about 30 minutes from here and the clinic {we don’t have a hospital here}.  Both areas have very small commissaries {the one on Zama only has 4 aisles…it’s tiny!}, a gym, a food court, day care, and a chapel.

Japan

One of the things that I think separates us from other bases I’ve been to is our community club.  Our base cannot support both an enlisted and officers club so we just have the one and, believe it or not, PEOPLE USE IT!  ALL THE TIME!  The place is always busy.  I’ve never seen a community club that has as much consistent business as ours does.  It’s a great facility run by a couple of great guys.  I also think it may have to do with the fact that it’s one of the few places to eat American food outside of your home.  If you want American food here and you don’t want to cook, your options are the food court {Popeye’s, BK, Subway and Anthony’s pizza}, the golf course, bowling alley, DFAC, or the community club.  The options get old REALLY fast!

To be continued…

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Filed Under: Guest Post, Military Life, Pcs Tagged With: duty station, duty stations, pcs

About Julie

Owner of Soldier's Wife, Crazy Life. Writer, reader, coffee drinker. Mom to three boys, wife of a National Guard soldier. Living life in Tennessee.

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Previous Post: « Guest Post: Okinawa, Japan
Next Post: Guest Post: Camp Zama, Japan Part 2 »

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Melissa

    July 20, 2012 at 10:16 pm

    lol! I’m from Zama! Totally crazy reading this post on here. Thank you!

    Reply
  2. Terese

    June 27, 2013 at 10:21 am

    I would like to thank you for the efforts you have put in penning
    this website. I am hoping to view the same high-grade content from you later on as well.
    In fact, your creative writing abilities has
    motivated me to get my own site now 😉

    Reply
  3. watch movies online

    August 27, 2014 at 9:17 am

    In the second case, it is better to use speakers to improve the volume
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  4. Michael Reed

    June 3, 2018 at 8:00 am

    I was a patient in Camp Zama in 1968, ward 9a, bed 14. The ward was for stomach, chest, and head wounds from the Vietnam war. I beat their prognosis, I had my 70th birthday on May 25, 2018.

    Reply
  5. Ronald S. Smith

    September 14, 2018 at 5:33 am

    Interesting comments about the post. I was in the band the last part of my enlistment. I happened to live off post in a town I will probably misspell (MINAMI RENKEN).
    I used to drive my car on weekends down to Yokohama to play jazz at a small club.

    Living in Japan that small length of time chanced my life for the better. I had a great life before and later. I never forgot the experience. What is your husbands MOS?

    Reply

Trackbacks

  1. Guest Post: Camp Zama, Japan Part 2 | Soldier's Wife, Crazy Life says:
    July 20, 2012 at 8:19 am

    […] a Comment Here is the 2nd part of Jes’s post on Camp Zama.  Make sure to read part one as […]

    Reply
  2. binary options says:
    January 8, 2015 at 8:28 am

    binary options

    Guest Post: Camp Zama, Japan Part 1 | Soldier’s Wife, Crazy Life

    Reply

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Soldier's Wife, Crazy Life

Welcome to Soldier’s Wife, Crazy Life! I am so glad you are here.

My name is Julie and I have been an Army wife for almost 15 years now.

My husband of 18 years has served in the active-duty Army and now the Army National Guard. We have lived in Germany & Tennessee during our time as a military family.

We have three boys and have been through four deployments together.

I hope that you can find support for your own deployments, pcs moves, or anything else military life brings you 🙂

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