SASEBO NAVAL BASE, Japan — Joining locations in Camp Foster on Okinawa and Iwakuni Marine Corps Air Station in Japan, new Subway restaurants are to appear soon on several other installations.
On Jan. 6, a new Subway is to open at Yokosuka Naval Base, Japan, said Louis Schelp, Navy Exchange District Food Operations manager.
“Eventually, we’ll have two at Yokosuka. This one is in Building G-59 in the Main Street Food Court. After this one, the next will be opened in Sasebo and then one at Atsugi Naval Air Facility,” he said.
Construction on the Sasebo Subway, in the Bayside Food Court, is to begin in February.
“Today the contractor was down at Bayside looking at the site,” Sandra Franklin, Sasebo NEX general manager, said late Monday afternoon.
The Yokosuka Subway, as well as Subways at several other locations, will replace Robin Hood sandwich shops, a concept developed by the Army and Air Force Exchange Service.
Construction of the Yokosuka Subway “is slated for February and March. It should be open before the arrival of our fleet,” she added. Three ships operating from Sasebo — USS Harpers Ferry, USS Essex and USS Juneau — may return from deployment in the North Arabian Gulf shortly thereafter.
Schelp said Subway comes with strong brand recognition and a popular menu, including some health-conscious sandwiches and wraps.
“We are also going to offer breakfast in the new Subway opening in Yokosuka. It won’t be the traditional bacon-and-eggs breakfast, but it will feature special breakfast sandwiches and the like. We’ll see how that goes,” he said.
Iwakuni Marine Corps Air Station’s Marine Corps Community Service department opened a Subway in the Crossroads Mall this summer in a position also once occupied by a Robin Hood, a base spokeswoman said.
At Misawa Air Base on northern Japan, Subway will replace the Robin Hood in the food court near the main exchange. While remodeling for Subway, AAFES also plans to expand the adjacent Baskin-Robbins ice cream shop, according to base officials. Work on Subway is to begin in early spring 2005.
The Subway at Misawa is the only one AAFES plans to open on mainland Japan at this time, said Sgt. 1st Class Amanda Glenn, AAFES spokeswoman.
On Okinawa, a Subway opened in Camp Foster in November 2003. AAFES plans to open four more on Okinawa in 2005, an exchange spokeswoman said. The first to open is to be in the Olympic Shoppette on Kadena Air Base, she said; it’s tentatively scheduled to open in February or March.
There is no specific schedule, the spokeswoman said, but camps Courtney and Kinser are to get Subways and Foster is to get a second one.
Brenda Borland from the AAFES general manager’s office in South Korea said a Subway will open in February in the new BX mall at Osan Air Base and another at Camp Carroll.
Two Subways already operate at bases on the peninsula, including one at Camp Humphreys and another at Yongsan Garrison’s Dragon Hill Hotel.
Fred Zimmerman, Jennifer H. Svan and Teri Weaver contributed to this report.
