Japan III 2023
At the end of November, early December 2023 a 4Aviation group visited Japan. During the tour the emphasis was on visiting Kyushu and the southern part of Honshu. All air force, army and navy bases in this area were visited. The tour coincided with two air shows in the area; at Tsuiki and Nyutabaru.
On Friday 24 November 2023 we headed off for Japan again. For this tour, we wanted to focus on the bases on Kyushu and the southern part of Honshu. Four of the seven participants met at Schiphol on Friday morning for a short hop to Munich, before boarding a (very long) ANA flight to Haneda. At Haneda (Saturday 25 November by now) two more participants were met. From Haneda we still had to get to Fukuoka, which was done by another ANA flight. The final participant was waiting at Fukuoka already.
After collecting the cars it was time to drive towards our hotel for the next two nights. But, as always, it was stepladder-time first. The classic stop at a hardware store to buy stepladders. It was only then when we found out that one of the cars was a hybrid-car. Not knowing this first resulted in starting the car multiple times without realising it actually started (the absence of noise contributed to that very much). Since we wanted to start the day early on Sunday, there wasn’t much partying going on until late. Tired from the long day, all went to bed early.
It was still pitch dark when we took to the road on Sunday (26 November). The plan was to be near Tsuiki very early, hopefully being able to park close to the base for the air show. Well, we were near the base very early indeed. But only to find out that many Japanese were already there. The cue for the first parking lot was that long that we were sent away after a while and had to drive past the base to another lot. This resulted in having to take a shuttle bus and a train ride before being able to walk on base. It was 08.00 be then (3.5 hours after leaving the hotel) and the first F-2s were already taking off while we entered the base.
Despite this, we had a great day at the event. Weather was brilliant and the sun was in our backs the whole day. The flying display was bigger than during other Japanese shows. Some T-4s from Ashiya showed up, as well as T-7s from Hofu. Biggest surprise was the fly-by of a US-2! The best displays were given by the local F-2s though. This included some very cool passes. We stayed until we were asked to leave the platform that contained the static display. The return journey to our hotel in Shimonoseki was surprisingly fast. We celebrated the success of this first day with a good meal and a drink.
Monday morning, 27 November, the start of the day was lining up for the breakfast. After enjoying this good start of the day, we first headed for Ozuki. This Navy training base is home to the Fuji T-5 training aircraft. A unique type, only operated by the JMSDF and Ozuki is the only base where these are stationed. The aircraft are normally very active in large numbers, so we didn´t spend too much time here. Having stood at a good spot for a while we left again, on our way to the second training base of the day; Hofu. We arrived there an hour later, only to find it be rather quiet (one T-7 landed). Since we wanted to get to MCAS Iwakuni (our main target for today), we didn’t wait for the T-7s to start taking off again and continued further north soon again.
We arrived at MCAS Iwakuni around noon. This base is always buzzing with activity, especially when the Carrier Air Wing is at home. This was the case during our visit. We spent the whole afternoon enjoying dozens of aircraft launching and recovering. Unfortunately, most of them used the ‘wrong’ runway, so we had to make do with take-off shots of the majority. Still, very happy with the results, with the sun moving in a better position as time progressed. The night was spent nearby, so we were in no hurry to leave.
Since Iwakuni is a so busy, we had scheduled another day here. This meant that the main (and only) target for Tuesday (28 November) was Iwakuni again. We took it relatively easy in the morning, since the sun wouldn’t be in a favourable position in the morning. Again, the base produced a huge number of sorties. It is no exception seeing six to eight Hornets taxying down the taxitrack, preparing for take-off, with four F-35s on downwind returning from their sortie. We were lucky today with runway 20 being in use for some time. This was also the case when a Greyhound returned to base (scheduled to be withdrawn soon). Very special was having two ShinMaywa US-2s taxying at the same time.
At the end of the day, it was time to travel towards Kyushu. We spent the night in the very north of this Japanese island.
Wednesday, 29 November, started at Ashiya. We were in place for all relevant action in time, but were surprised to see a number of T-7s from Hofu first. Eventually a bunch of T-4s (some were red/white, some were grey) took off. We repositioned to the approach over the sea for their return. This morning, the weather wasn’t so cooperative, but this resulted in interesting light conditions for the aircraft. After their return, and capturing a local U-125A, we returned to our cars and headed for Tsuiki.
Although we were happy with the results during the air show on Sunday, the two Hikotais with the blue F-2s kept us intrigued enough to return. The location near the quay wall has been off limits for a while now already, but we could reach the nearby harbour. Since it was pretty cold during our visit, this position was still quite good. Not much heathaze above the runway meant that we could still shoot the F-2s close to touchdown. Some local T-4s and a visiting F-15 complete the visit. At the end of the day we headed for Takeo to spend the night.
After another Japanese style breakfast and a stop at a convenience store (to get the food we needed for the day) we arrived at Omura rather early in the morning (Thursday 30 November). On arrival, we were happy to see that several SH-60Ks were parked outside on the platform of this Japanese Navy base. The weather wasn’t awesome, but still good enough for shots of the parked Seahawks. The strong wind made it a cold visit though. Japanese security showed up to check us and this gave us the opportunity to ask them to make a group photo of us (something they wanted to do anyway). After some of the SH-60s took off, one of them showing off over the base (giving us other options for photos), we were happy with the result and started our journey towards Kumamoto-Takayabaru. Visiting this place was a bit of a disappointment really. We ended up here early in the afternoon, only to be able to have a look at a completely empty platform. With not much activity at all, we decided to continue towards Kanoya. Just before leaving we saw one Chinook in the distance, but decided not to wait for that one to arrive.
When we arrived at Kanoya at the end of the day, we were just in time to capture the arrival of a couple of aircraft (including an EP-3 of 81Kokutai). This, a P-1, and a couple of SH-60s could be captured in beautiful sunlight at this time of the day. After that, it was time to have a look for our nearby hotel and a very good evening meal.
On Friday morning (1 December) we returned to Kanoya first. Today, we were able to take decent shots of some of the JMSDF EC-135s and the take-off of a P-1 and a couple of choppers. With the result of the day before and the fact that it would take quite some time before the light would be helpful again, we decided to go to Nyutabaru.
Nyutabaru was hosting an air show on the Sunday, and today would probably see some arrivals (we thought). And, that’s precisely what happened. We spent the rest of the day enjoying the great weather in the approach of Nyutabaru. We stayed near the café, which also helped in securing parking tickets for the weekend. Because of the air show, the entire area around the base would be closed off for all those without a ‘pass’. And, we were able to acquire such a ‘pass’ at the café.
Today (Saturday, 2 December) was rehearsal day at Nyutabaru. It was also rehearsal day for our parking passes. They worked fine, we could drive to the café as we hoped. The day started with what we hadn’t seen in the air the day before; F-15s. The base flew a cool rehearsal with a formation of nine Eagles. They all passed our lenses in beautiful weather on this Saturday. Blue Impulse flew as well, a C-2 visited, some F-15s flew a display, we made the U-125A (of the rescue demo), etc. All in all a very enjoyable day, albeit a bit slow at times.
Before returning to our hotel, we had a quick peek at the civil airport of Nyutabaru and discovered a Coast Guard EC225 which was parked at the best possible spot for us. A good finish for the day.
Sunday 3 December saw a very early start again. With our parking passes at hand, starting the day early, we were convinced we would be in time, before the masses started showing up. We managed to do so. We parked at the café once again and asked the lady of the café if she could arrange taxi’s for us. So, after a short while we were in a taxi that would take us to the entrance (some of the group decided to stay outside). Much to our surprise, there were probably only 30 people waiting there at that moment. Once the gates opened we heard to first F-15 running up its engine already.
Although the show is backlit, and the sun was out the whole day, there were very fine opportunities to get some very cool shots of the F-15s that flew. Also, an E-2 and a P-1 arrived in the morning to join the static display. After enjoying the relaxed atmosphere of Japanese air shows, enjoying the food and the (large number of) friendly people, we took a taxi back to the café and drove towards our final hotel of the tour.
Monday (4 December) was the final day of the tour. Since we spent the night close by, we had another go at the army base of Kumamoto. Again, we weren’t lucky at this time of the day. Not wanting to spend too much time here, we went to Metabaru soon after. At this army base, activity was slow as well. We saw some Hueys in the air on our way to the base and heard some in the neighbourhood while we were in position, but all in all none of them came close while we were ready to capture them. Concluding that the Japanese Army Aviation element was not going to make an impact on us during this tour, we drove to Ashiya again. There, we could capture a number of T-4s in the afternoon before we drove to Fukuoka airport.
After handing in the car and saying goodbye to some of the group already, we checked in for the three flights that would take us back to the Netherlands. During these flights, we had plenty of time to look back at an interesting tour with two very good air shows and a good result at the vast majority of the places we visited.
