Exploring Japan...

Konnichiwa!

Here's some pics of the time in Japan... I'll just tell you about them to give you an idea of what we did.

This is Chris in the station where we picked up the train into Tokyo.

Claire LOVED being on the trains. She said riding the trains was her favorite part of the whole trip!

Here we are in the courtyard of the palace gardens. (You can't go into the palace itself, but you can go into the gardens.) Chris was quite the photographer.

Claire absolutely LOVED these flowers. She really wanted me to take her picture with them on this bridge. Isn't this a great picture?!

After the Palace Garden we went to a buddhist temple. It was pretty crazy. I'll post a little video I took there later on. Kinda crazy to see the people so blindly following emptyness. Pray for Japan!

After our little trip around Tokyo, we headed to the a Calvary Chapel on the other side of the city from the Deans where we visited the John and Holly Hance. John and Holly are also GO! Missionaries serving here in Thailand. We had a great visit with them, and then an adventurous trip home. We were on like the very last trains of the day. We had it all figured out (we thought) that we'd make it home.... and we did in fact catch all the trains that should have gotten us home. What we hadn't taken into account was the fact that the STATIONS close! We ended up taking a taxi the last 10 miles or so! It was definately an adventure to remember!

The next day was Gina's birthday! We went to El Torito (Yes... the real El Torito... same franchise as in the states!) and enjoyed really good mexican food!

Claire ordered a Quesedilla!

Behold the comida!

The next day, we spent a little time in Ushiku. (the city where Josh and Gina live) Josh and Gina dropped me and Suzie off at a mall to have starbucks and hang out together. It was great! After they came and picked us up we went to this really amazing noodle place and had dinner. Then we came back to their pad and we were blessed to participate in their very first Bible study! Chris and I led worship. They invited a couple people, but it was just us. Pray that as they continue to be faithful to do what God has called them to do that He will bring people to hear the Word!

Here's Josh sharing the Word with us!

Tomorrow I get on a plane to head home. I have really mixed emotions about that because I'm really tired out and ready to enjoy my own bed, but I'll really miss my friends and my girlfriend!

I'll probably put up some recap/lessons learned entries after I get home, so don't write off my blog yet! If I do a slideshow at church I'll post the information here too. I'm also plainning on blogging through VBS and Mission Training School!

Well, God bless you all for praying for me and following along on this really exciting trip! I hope that you've had a good time reading along! See you all when I get home!

Sayounara!