This day was all about the T-1B, this would be our last and only chance to get some pictures, since they would be out of service within a few months. They normally fly twice a day at 09.00 and 13:00 and with 2 aircraft at a time. We were well prepared…

At the spotters place near a cemetery our steps would provide their last support. You really need a step there: it’s a wall of about 3 meters high. After some U-125’s and CH-47’s a local spotter told us about a returning T-1B from Hyakuri. So it was off to the landing were more than enough pictures were taken from the single T-1B. At one point we even had the ‘busy’ light on our camera’s come on, reminding us of the buffer being emptied onto our cards.

During our wait for more T-1’s not much happened on the base only some H-60’s hovering and a visiting C-1. One exeption being a JGSDF LR-2 from Naha making a landing to go to the Kawasaki factory for some maintenance. That little bird certainly made a long trip before showing itself to us.

The C-130 were not very active because of the many deployments they had made in the recent period. Unlike the usual routine, at 13:00 there was still no sight of a T-1 and the decision was made to go to Akeno to see some choppers of the JGSDF.

In a dash the trip was made to Akeno and on arrival the platform was quickly photographed. Once finished the local intelligence officer came by for our credentials. At that moment we surprised him with a photocopy of our passportamass. He asked why we had some handy: we simply replied : because you want them. It’s all about pleasing the ‘customer’… According to him taking pictures of arriving helicopters was no problem. But we were not allowed to take pictures on the platform.

As we were finished with the platform anyway, we went to the “landing” were we took some nice pictures until sunset. The good thing about Akeno is that they have about all the types in use with the JGSDF. During our short visit we had 5 different types.

It was back to Nagoya Centrair airport to return the car to Club Tocoo and the airport hotel. At the hotel we found out that the Japanese really copy everything from the Americans, even Halloween. The manager greeted us with a ‘trick or treat’. So we gave him some candy, which was not the point of the exercise: we where supposed to take some of his candy. Well they still have to work at this Halloween routine. The return of the car was easy, no questions, just a thank you. The only travelling we had to do tomorrow was crossing the footbridge to the airport.