Misc Vacation Trivia

As the ever prompt wait staff attempted to remove Michael's plate, Zander quipped in his best announcer voice,  "Personal foul on the waiter - attempting to take the Chaplains pickle!"

Comparing notes with Justin and Christina back at the hotel.

Dinner with Deb, a friend from our first year in Japan. I forgot to take a picture.

Parking is at a premium in Tokyo - can you tell they are stacked on top of each other. You rotate the cars to get the one you need.

Choosing Joy!
©2013 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...

Shibuya Crossing

Happy Super Bowl Monday. We spent the a.m.  lounging around watching football....

We have discovered kids 10 and under eat EVERY MEAL FREE (to include drink, entree, dessert) during your stay at New Sanno through March.  We are doing our best to take meals here....the salad bar is a boon for Michael and I. ::grin:: 

We had a few hours after lunch and headed to Shibuya Station/Crossing.  We walked to the bus stop and took a 10 min bus to Shibuya Station. It was fun to watch our bus fill with elementary students. These two took time out for a quick game of Janken (Paper, Rock Scissor).

We've wanted to visit this statue of Hachiko in Shibuya since watching the movie.  Today we did.

Not sure what the naked children are about

Shopping for COACH in Tokyo is a bit different than shopping for COACH in Seoul. ::snort:: 

I love the energy of Tokyo. I prefer living in Misawa....but it's fun to visit and explore Tokyo.  This next photo is when things got a bit odd. I noticed this black hummer in the intersection....and the gentleman you can see in front of it was acting peculiar. Staica wanted her photo taken in front of the character on top of the building. I took it and  we walked around these two and we went down a back road.....and I noted more of the same men at each intersection...they were keeping eye contact with each other...and cell phone contact....about that time Michael caught up with me (I was executing my aggressive American woman walk) and said these guys were odd - up to no good and he speculated what they were up to. We kept the girls near and got back to a busier street. Back at the hotel we talked to security and it turns out the Nigerian mafia is a real problem in this area. We got more than we aimed for with this photo. We also learned a bit about the darker side of Tokyo.

We did find a great new ring for Nolan on one of the back streets....one that fits. I tried to interest Arielle in something from Forever 21 but she wouldn't bite.

Shibuya Crossing  is one of the busiest intersections in the world. Thousands cross it each day. Traffic stops in all directions to allow pedestrians across....and tall buildings with WIDE screen t.v.'s  entertain while you wait for the cross walk to turn. LOL  We climbed into "one of the busiest Starbucks in the world" to get bird's eye photos.

 Find the Gherkins - hint their the only ones not moving forward and looking UP. LOL 

Wall devoted to Hachiko

One is never sure what they'll see in Tokyo. Have I said I love to visit? ::snort:: Michael saw this and said, "WHAT is that?"

Zander replied, "Japanese men buy these for their wives, I think." ::snort:: I think not.

Not the busiest Starbucks - but a fun one in the station

This little stand was promising...

See the salad in a blender - second from left? We opted for two blueberry ices and a banana one....healthy, fresh...no added sugar or dairy. 

SCORE seats for all of us on the bus home! 

We had fun observing to see HOW to let the driver know he was at our stop. I'm VERY leery of pushing buttons since the time I thought I was flushing the toilet and summoned the ambulance and police! Michael was right - we simply had to push the red button - but again I don't often do that over here.


Choosing Joy!
©2013 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...

A Few Glimpses

of things I want to document.

Trees are wrapped with these coverings so that that the seasonal beetles will burrow into the wrapping and not the tree. Ingenious!

Fire hydrants ...careful observation solved the question as to where the hydrant was...see the grate in front and to the right of the pole saying "Fire Hydrant?" Mystery solved.

 The view of the New Sanno fountain from the girls' room....our home away from home for the next 4 days.

Another site from our window - the French Embassy....and where there's a French Embassy there is a cute little French Bakery around the corner....and Monday a.m. is the Super Bowl Game....so I think those who want to explore will come with me to bring back some game treats. 

One last note - every other time here I've  involved in planning a conference....sort of strange to be here and not be thinking about crowd movement or breakout rooms. LOL 

Choosing Joy!
©2013 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...

Sendai's Statue

The first time I saw this statue was 3-11-2011. We were driving through Sendai on our way to Tokyo. A comment was made that someday Buddha would bow to the One True and Living God....this statue will always remind me of the quake as it happened not long after.....

See the family in the mouth of the dragon which
Buddha is standing on?

This a.m. we drove right by it and stopped. We discovered a few things:

1. The Best Western is right next to it....easy to find for future trips as needed. LOL
2. The statue houses 108 Buddha statues
3. You can climb inside of this thing....So we did!
4. Arielle really DOES NOT like to be 250 feet up in the air....
5. Walking down 12 flights of stairs, surrounded by Buddha's is a great time to recite I John...and John....

The moment we realized Arielle really did NOT want
to have to look down the stairs...but there was no
elevator down...so we walked. 

Each floor had different statues - each one dedicated to one
of the 108 human vices which must be conquered.

Each one had some coins

Not sunshine and happiness

The little rectangle is as far up as we went -  it's over 349 M tall

Choosing Joy!
©2013 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...

Sendai - MeySen Academy

Shortly after the Quake/Tsunami 3-11-2011 a busload of American teachers from MeySen Academy in Sendai arrived at Misawa Air Base. Many of the teachers went to the states - most have returned.  This began a relationship between the base and MeySen Academy. Michael has visited with Daniel Fanger, the Principal, several times. The goal has been to set up some home exchange programs for their students and the students on base. Wing leadership and past administrations of the schools have worked on this - but it's fairly complicated due to insurance issues and DODEA regs, etc. I do know a busload of their teachers came to the Air Show and that was another connection. 

In any event, Michael wanted to visit the campus, and we decided to spend an afternoon/evening in Sendai on our way to Tokyo. When he contacted Daniel just to make sure it would be o.k. if we stopped by they arranged tours, dinner and put us up in their Guesthouse. Wow...we benefited from amazingly generous hospitality. 

The history of MeySen is interesting to me. Six or Seven families met at New Tribes training over 60 years ago and were sent to Japan. They ministered in the Hachinohe, Tohoku area.  Daniel is the son of one of those families. He was born about an hour outside of Misawa. He's lived in Japan all his life. His father passed away at 88 a few years ago - his mother, now 88, still lives here. Fascinating.  I was encouraged to hear the stories of how they had been into every school in Tohoku...up and down the coast...on a rotation of every 5 years. The significance of this is that most all the school children in this area (70 years of age and younger) had heard the gospel during their elementary AND high school years. The schools and areas they ministered in (and still do minister in) are the very ones devastated by the earthquake. Daniel has Japanese books of the Tsunami which show old pictures of his father and friends holding Gospel crusades on the very spots destroyed....and that gave me a measure of peace...as I'd been led to believe most in these areas had never had an opportunity to hear the gospel. 

Over the course of years, this group of missionaries became convinced God wanted them to work to become self-supporting. They began an English Immersion Kindergarten - MeiSen Academy (which changed to MeySen).  That has grown to two HUGE campuses....3,500 students this year. God has blessed. 

MeySen is a FUN place to learn. These kids study HARD and the play hard as well.  Farm animals, streams, playgrounds, amazing slides.....all interspersed on the Academy grounds. 

Takamori Campus

Grape Seed Inc writes software for their English curriculum which is now marketed in China, Thailand, Korea, India...as well as some schools in the States.  They also take software (such as MS etc) and rewrite it for Japanese formats (of course they are paid to do this).  Wine Studios makes commercials for local businesses and is also self-supporting.  They now employ 800 people in this industry and invest the money from those endeavors into developing new software, providing platforms for the spreading of the Gospel.

This board shows their planned projects, the one in progress and the ones finished. I believe the blue are finished. I'm excited to try out the software they gave us. 

Maruyama Campus - these are origami cranes and flowers made out of steel 

Kangaroo slide begins as a roller slides, you take a bit of air, and land on a standard slide...notice these BIG slides with now covers over them....remember most their students are K3-K5.....and they follow the instructions and have never had any of their students seriously injured. 

In the course of our discussions we learned many (most?) of the second and third generation of those first families are still in Japan. They still have a church - less than an hour from Fukushima. 

We had been told we'd have dinner with Daniel...what a dinner it was! James and Philip (both run the English immersion programs at the two campus') joined us. I enjoyed our visits. Both were adopted by two of the original missionary families.  The dinner - KOBE BEEF! I've not had beef for 6 months....though I am allowed it once a month. I couldn't resist. 

Kobe cows have quite the life! Their barns are temperature controlled, they receive massages, listen to classical music and drink beer....all to produce wonderfully tender beef.  If you've had "Kobe style" beef in another country it is most likely NOT Kobe Beef. ::snort:: 

We noticed the Izumi Park Town is much more affluent than our Misawa area

Our guest home was wonderful. I enjoyed the chance to take some photos of Japanese appliances without being unacceptably rude.

Stacia loves the provided breakfast 

Check out the TINY oven. This is standard.

Love the shower beside the tub....but the toilet was at the other
end of the house! 

THIS is the way to organize a freezer! 

Girls and I loved the furniture - Nolan thought it was a tad uncomfortable

Nolan is the oldest boy now....

We were wakened at night by a 6.9 earthquake. We hear it was felt quite a bit harder up in Misawa than in Sendai....and we met friends from Misawa here at New Sanno and they told us there was a snow storm this a.m.  - glad we left yesterday.

I'm pondering....why were we told there were "NO missionaries" in this area when there are many? Not just the MeySen families but several other churches in the area (missionaries we know personally).  I wonder why the group which has been here over 60 years is no longer considered missionaries...they're obviously being blessed by God and used of God to make roads for the gospel.

It's been a wonderful stay.

Choosing Joy!
©2013 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...