An off-grid getaway in Alaska’s remote Aleutian Islands

Why travel to Alaska when you can get all this and more by simply heading into the beautiful Japanese countryside.

In town, fewer than 100 full-time residents occupy former military houses sprinkled throughout mostly vacant developments with crumbling walls and boarded-up windows.

There are hundreds if not thousands of villages in Japan like this.

Adak’s resilient locals work with what they’ve got. The only grocery store is in the old daycare center, open just a few hours on some evenings – though none during our visit. The former high school and middle school houses city hall, a health clinic and the post office.

Japan's countryside locals work with what they’ve got. The only grocery store is often over an hour away. The former schools, including high, middle, and elementary are being converted by the few hearty soles still living there into guest houses, restaurants, and event spots.

feels more like something out of a zombie apocalypse flick.

Check out Nagoro Village in Shikoku's Iya Valley. Its been eerily "re-populated" by its handful of remaining residents with hundreds of lifesized dolls.

A gas station-turned-pricy liquor store will sell you a case of beer for $50.

And no need head deep into the countryside for this one:

A standard supermarket anywhere in Japan will sell you a case of crummy Asahi Super Dry for $50.

From the looks of the classroom building . . . is not welcoming . . . . also probably very cold . . . .

The Navy Base was abandoned in 1997, when Russia was not a threat and Mr. Yeltsin was in charge. I am surprised the US has not reactivated this base, given the renewed Cold War with Russia. The Senators from Alaska would love to infuse some cash into their State's economy!

I went there a long time ago. I wish I could go again.

It was a Navy base when I was in the Navy during the late Cold War years. Now LORAN is hardly used for anything anymore. If I was stationed at Adak then the sheer isolation would've driven me batcrap crazy. Now it looks like another ghost town I visited in the continental US - Monida, Montana.

It's just like Alcatraz Prison Island is today, except Alcatraz has guided tours and is located in the civilized San Francisco Bay Area. And everybody wants to visit that place, I have.

I am surprised the US has not reactivated this base, given the renewed Cold War with Russia. 

The old slow P-3 is being replaced with newer technologies like the MQ-4C Triton that is unmanned and has a loiter time in excess of 24 hours and the P-8 Poseidon, One Triton can patrol an area that required multiple P-3 sorties to cover the same area. The P-8 Poseidon patrol aircraft has a much higher transit speed than the old P-3 and can get to things the Triton finds interesting much faster than the old P-3 could. Higher transit speeds allow more on station time once a patrol area is reached. The P-8 also has the ability to be refueled in air greatly extending its on station time. The P-3 did not have an aerial refueling capability. New weapons and sensors allow subs to be engaged from higher altitudes than before.  No more need to dive down to 200 feet above the water to use MAD gear and drop torpedoes like P-3s had to, ASW has changed since the cold war era. In any event Russia's submarine force is a fraction of its cold war size and doesn't require as many assets to keep track off it. The real action is the South China Sea and the First Island Chain. That is where the resources are needed now.

Now LORAN is hardly used for anything anymore.

Have you heard of eLORAN? It is a new high tech ground based PNT (Positioning, Navigation and Timing) system being constructed as a compliment to GPS for redundancy in case GPS becomes disabled. eLORAN offers sufficient accuracy to be used by aircraft for non-precision approaches to airports and by ships and watercraft for port entry during periods of restricted visibility. Since it is ground based it is completely independent of GPS, GLOSNASS, Galileo or any other GNSS.