Well we got our 3-day pass. Pictured above is myself, ?? O'Connor, Donald Steve, and Gilbert Caron. Steve and I along with the other two guys on the train finally got our deserved passes. This was between Christmas and New Year's. Our trip from Korea to Japan took place during thanksgiving week so it looks like it took about a month before we got our uniforms and were trusted to go into town.
The army pays on the last day of the month so therefore we were all broke. We stayed at a special service hotel called the GaJoEn Hotel. I believe there were three special service hotels in tokyo at this time. A special service hotel was one that had been taken over by the army at the beginning of the occupation. I don't know about the others but the GaJoEn was a large, beautiful 5 story building. The cost to stay there was close to nothing. From there we went out on a few free bus tours. I allowed myself one beer each evening. It was a great way for a poor solider to see Tokyo for the first time.