Sept. 19, 2008

Q: I live near Negishi and was would like know with the George Washington arriving soon are there any plans of expanding certain services? More importantly I heard the back gate near the club was going to be converted to outbound-only turnstile after 2000. Could you confirm this? Also are there any plans on opening up the street going to the back gate. There are still dozens of cars parked there, and many have been there quite a while. There’s a big sign at the bottom of the hill that states the road is CFAY property. Why not open the gate for traffic again like it used to be several years ago?

A: There is a plan in work to clean up the area and in time open the back gate. No published timeline as of yet. This project requires several steps of joint governmental support. We are working with the SKDB and City of Yokohama. We will publish the timeline as soon as all parties have determined the best way to implement the necessary actions to make it happen. We have not advertised the back gate open at this time but authorized personnel are not turned away at this time. As far as turnstiles, I am not a fan of them as they are easily tampered with and I have seen instances where personnel were trapped in malfunctioning equipment. We have the back gate operational until 8 p.m. The main gate will remain open 24 hours, seven-days-a-week. Access at that time is not usually an issue. Once the Navy Exchange closes at 8 p.m. there is little or no traffic on the industrial side of the installation. A taxi ride from Honmoku up to the main gate of our installation is somewhere around ¥200 Japanese Yen more than the ride would be up to the back gate. Bus service is ¥210 from Anywhere in Yokohama to just outside the main gate. Both are affordable options.