MISAWA AIR BASE, Japan — Defense Secretary Dick Cheney wound up a two-week visit to Asia by watching a thunderous jetfighter drill here Saturday — and stocking up on Girl Scout cookies and peanuts from the commissary before his long flight home.

Cheney also visited with Japan Air Self Defense Force commanders and toured a U.S. Navy submarine-hunting aircraft during the two-hour stop at Misawa, on the northern tip of Japan's main island of Honshu.

Air Force Lt. Gen. James B. Davis, commander of U.S. Forces in Japan, met Cheney upon the secretary's arrival at Misawa from Tokyo. Lt. Gen. Kohichi Hasegawa, commander of Japan's Northern Air Defense Force, also greeted the secretary, along with Air Force Col. Joseph E. Hurd — who commands the 432nd Tactical Fighter Wing at Misawa — and other officials.

CHENEY LOOKED OVER base homes, barracks, a school and a new gym during a rain-spattered windshield tour. As part of a bases agreement, the Japanese government has built a number of new U.S. facilities on Misawa, home to about 12,000 Americans.

After the tour, Cheney arrived at an aircraft shelter as an F-16C Falcon shrieked inside and an enlisted ground crew rearmed the fighter's bomb racks and 20mm Galling gun.

The jet's pilot — 1st Lt. Todd Harmer — killed

the engine and climbed out of the cockpit to explain the 10-minute pit stop to Cheney. Harmer, of the 14th Tactical Fighter Squadron, part of Misawa's 432nd TFW, then fired up his craft and taxied it onto the flight line. Cheney then met the 14th TFS loading crew.

On the road again, Cheney stopped at the Japan Northern Air Defense Force headquarters on base, where officials there greeted him and presented him with a plaque.

A STROLL THROUGH the year-old base exchange and commissary followed — Cheney fished $4 from his wallet to buy two boxes of Girl Scout Cookies (mint and peanut butter) from Scout Ashley Stafford.

In the commissary, Cheney plucked a jar of roasted peanuts off a shelf.

At tour's end, Cheney disappeared into a U.S. Navy P-3C Orion aircraft of Patrol Squadron 9, deployed to Misawa from Moffet Field near San Francisco.

Navy Capt. James S. Falls, commander of Misawa Naval Air Facility, briefed the secretary on the Orion, which can hunt enemy subs with sonar and destroy them with depth charges and torpedoes. When Cheney emerged from the aircraft, Navy Lt. Dan Rupinski, a Squadron 9 flight officer, gave him a photo and plaque.

After the short Misawa tour — which capped his two-week visit to South Korea, the Philippines and Japan — Cheney boarded Air Force 3 and headed for a refueling stop in Alaska, then back to Washington.