CAMP FOSTER, Okinawa — More than a dozen local Okinawan children spent half a day Thursday touring the base to learn how servicemembers live and work.
Approximately 15 children from Chatan, a town next to both camps Foster and Lester, toured the base commissary, provost marshal’s office and the Armed Forces Network station in Plaza Housing.
The children, mostly fifth-graders, attend a local school where Marines volunteer to teach English, according to Hiroko Tomimura, camps Foster and Lester community relations specialist.
“We wanted to introduce to them how the Marines live and work and what kind of facilities they have here on Camp Foster,” Tomimura said.
Tomimura said at the group’s first stop, the commissary, most of the children were surprised to see local products on the shelves.
Asahi Genka, 10, said the commissary was his favorite stop. “I liked going into the freezers and the refrigerators,” he said, adding that the tour “was fun and I had a good time.”
Next stop was at military police headquarters. The children saw the holding cells and where Criminal Investigation Division staff members conduct interviews. They toured the Mobile Command Post and were shown how the fingerprinting machine works. The children also saw a police dog demonstration cut short by rain. Each child left the PMO with a bag of goodies from the unit’s Drug Abuse Resistance Education section.
Mie Toyama, a parent on the trip, said the PMO stop was the most impressive. She said she was amazed at how well-trained the military dog was and by all the security measures the section provides for the base.
The last stop was at Armed Forces Network, where the group toured both the radio and television studios. The children laughed and made faces when they saw themselves on the studio television set.
While the tour was short, Toyama said it was a good experience.
“It was interesting to see how people live on base,” Toyama said, “the kind of facilities and other things they have.”
