We will move to Yokosuka early next year and I was wondering if anybody could give me some info on how the bus transportation works for off-base housing.  I have two elementary school-aged kids.  Are car-pools common, or do most people with kids live on base?  I would also love to hear from anybody who drives their kids to school every day and what your experience is like.
Thank you!!!

There are bus routes for some off base students. When you are house hunting, be sure to be in communication with the Student Transportation Office and keep asking them if the House A or House B is near a bus stop. They don't publish the bus routes so unless you give them a house address they won't tell you. A general rule is that the school buses will travel along normal public bus routes.

Driving back and forth is OK, I guess it depends if you can stand the monotony of it EVERY day. I hate the drive. Sometimes it can take 10 minutes sometimes 50. Just depends.  I also find it takes just as long to get from the front gate to the school as it did for me to get from home to the gate.  On base can be maddening at school time.   I can't stand doing it so mine ride the bus =)

Just to add to what she said, some agents do have the bus routes (they shouldn't, but they do). We made that a requirement when we started looking at homes off base. If we were more than a 10 minute drive from the base, we wanted to make sure we were CLOSE to a bus stop. (ours is right in front of our house). Some homes are a good 15-20 minute walk from the bus stop, so make sure you ask about that before committing to a house.

Does anyone know if there are specific neighborhoods where the buses don't run?  We're thinking about living in Zushi or Hayama.