Tokyo Drift

Hi from Yokohama/Tokyo!

It's pretty incredible thinking about the opportunities that we've been given... we're going on a tour of the gorgeous country of Japan as we travel around to different MB churches that we're serving with. Today we took the shinkansen (bullet train) from Nagoya to Shin-Yokohama, where we met Pastor Fuwa and Keiko, another church member. When we went out to the parking area, they had to give the attendant their parking ticket. We sat in a little waiting room until she told us we could go out there, and when we walked through the door, the van was waiting on a little platform, all ready for us... it was so cool! It doesn't sound cool, but it really was and I wish I could make you understand exactly how awesome that moment was for us. After a good lunch of fried pork and rice, we settled into the living area of the Megumino-oka Church. All three of us are in the one bedroom with air conditioning... good thing we're friends already! We spent this afternoon and evening taking the metro into Tokyo with Keiko. We went to the Imperial Palace and met the Emperor of Japan! He gave us a tour of the palace and he has dark hair and dark eyes, in case you were wondering................. just kidding! The Palace was closed for tours by the time we arrived and the security would never have let us near the Emperor anyways. But the grounds were beautiful, full of cherry trees and green lawns that went on forever.

Then we went to the Times Square of Tokyo... Shibuya. There were tons of stores and tons of lights and thousands of people and there we were, in our wrinkled sweaty traveling clothes, feeling crumpled and very unfashionable. However, it was cool to walk around and see the heart of the city. We sat down for dinner at a chic little restaurant which handily had everything on the menu translated into English and served such cultural delicacies as caesar salad and seafood pizza. Once in a while, it's nice to find some familiar food after trying so many new Japanese foods, just to remind our stomachs of home a little bit. Coming back to Yokohama on a very crowded metro train, we bought some bread for breakfast at the Little Mermaid bakery across from the station, then had a meeting with the church members about what we'll get to do with them this weekend. We'll be doing a lot of free talking in English with all ages, singing, doing our drimes, and... dun dun dun... lots of testimony sharing. So do pray for courage for us in the slightly unnerving area of public speaking.

So yeah, that was today! I'll rewind a little and catch you all up on what we've been up to between the last post and now: Wednesday was Doris's last day with us (so sad-- and a little scary!) and it was a pretty unplanned day for most of the morning and afternoon... so we had a good chance to rest, process, and reflect on everything that had been happening. In the evening, Su and Susan, two girls from the Toyota church came to pick us up and drive us to Nagoya. We all had ice cream at Baskin Robbins together-- a little taste of home in a scoop of Jamoca Oreo-- and then said goodbye to Doris at the metro. Not going to lie, it was hard to see her walk away, not only as a friend we've made over the past week, but also as our intercessor in a culture where all we know how to say is "Thank you" and "I'm from America/Canada." But hanging out with Su and Susan that night was really fun... we shopped, of course, then sang very loudly and attempted to dance in the van on the way to Brazilian pizza. My moves were the best, as always... LIE! Luckily, I was in the back of the van, so it was a voluntary choice for Kiara and Luisa to turn around and witness the sad state of affairs that my dancing ability is in. I had a good time, though... anyways, pizza was good and we learned how to say "Thank you" in Portuguese. Also, on the way home, we had another failed attempt at shopping at Jusco... we'll keep trying though, because those bargains on clothes cannot evade us forever.

Thursday, Nozomi picked us up at nine and drove us to Seto, a center for pottery crafting in the area. We walked across half of the town, looking at different pottery shops and we even visited a pottery workshop where we saw the process in action. Kiara and Luisa were ready to eat an ice cream bar by the time we left... I wanted to paint a vase. They got their wish. I didn't. We got back to the church in time for one ice cream bar before leaving to catch the school kids to pass out flyers for the Toyota Church summer kid's club next week. We were driving down the road to the school when suddenly we rounded a corner and saw a flood of little yellow hats already bobbing down the sidewalk... the kids had already been released from school!!! Inoue-san peeled into a side street, threw the car into park, and shoved the flyers at us as we raced out of the car, chasing the innocent little kids up the street. We were smiling and trying to be friendly, but I'm wondering if we came off a little strong. Some kids ran away from Luisa and a lot of the ones I approached averted their eyes and walked a little faster... I have no idea why, though. Kids love being chased up sidewalks by foreign visitors to their country, right? No really though, a lot of them were really cute and excited to say "Hello" and use their English... and they started reading the flyers as soon as we gave them out, talking with their friends, so we're praying that many of them will sign up to come next week.

That night, we were slightly lame and walked to McDonald's for dinner. The only adventurous thing that happened there was that Luisa ordered a double cheeseburger on accident when she only wanted a regular one... and we were all too scared (or lazy) to try and ask for ketchup for the fries. It was a good bonding time and fellowship over fast food. Luisa falling off of her chair has been the shining moment of glory for our team so far, in terms of embarrassing stories... but today I had a moment that came kind of close. We were driving to the church in Yokohama with Fuwa-sensei and Keiko and I was trying to explain what we had done the day before, looking at pottery in Seto. However, at that particular second, the exact name of the town skipped out of my brain and I grabbed a word that sounded right... So the pastor and Keiko are listening politely to my story until I say, "Yesterday Nozomi took us to 'sake' in the morning." Keiko whirls around in her seat and says, "Sake?!" And I'm nodding obliviously until Kiara corrects things by saying "Seto... we went to Seto." Which is when I remember that sake is Japanese wine and I realize that I've basically said that we went to get drunk the previous day. Not the best first impression ever, but I think we've recovered from it as the day has gone on.

That should bring you up to date on team news to this point, so I will wish all of you lovely followers good night from all of us here in the Land of the Rising Sun. Good night and may the love of God be stitched into everything you do.

Allison, avec Luisa & Kiara