Disclaimer: We got a new computer a year ago and a new camera as well. Since then, I've struggled to download/upload photos, organize them into these elaborate folders, and then find them again to put on the blog. The old way was easy peasy and the new way is complicated. Even the hubs has trouble...so much that he bought some extra photo program... So, this is not my best post and these are not my best photos, but I figured I should throw something up on the blog to document Japan in some way.
We left for Japan on Saturday 31 March. We flew from SLC to Denver and then took a 787 Dreamliner to Narita in Tokyo with United. We lived. Our friends, Sag and Yuki, picked us up at Narita which was more than generous considering they live 2 hours from the airport. We stayed at their home for 2 nights. I hadn't seen them since one of their trips to Utah, but I also saw them when they visited in Hawai'i. Sag was a missionary with me in Japan. He helped me get my meishi printed up when I first arrived in Fukuoka. Later, we served in Kagoshima together. And after that, Kumamoto. Yuki is the most lovely, strong, amazing person ever. I consider them to be a "power couple" in the church. Sag is bishop of his ward. He is still so Sag. They are darling and I hope they come to stay with us sometime. Basically, they fed us dinner and we went to bed, but not without flipping through the mission scrapbook. It was the nicest thing after that long, long flight to have some friendly faces there to pick us up, feed us, and take us home. They had two varieties of Kit Kat waiting there for Ken to welcome him. So thoughtful. All of this on Sunday 1 April, Easter Sunday, and General Conference! I cannot count their generosity. I posted pictures of them on Facebook (maybe someday I'll get all the photos from all the cameras for this one trip).
The next day we drove into Tokyo and drove around the temple. It's closed for renovations. We parked at a church site and walked to the train station. We took subways, the bus, a train, and a boat that day. They took us to the Imperial Palace, which you can't actually see...but the grounds are lovely, and then to a tower called Skytree. I remember Ken saying, "This is like visiting the White House. We had 360 degree views of Tokyo, the world's largest metropolitan area. After that, we went to Asakusa, the oldest temple/shrine (honestly, I can't keep track of which are Buddhist temples and which are Shinto shrines...apologies) and the market there. Then they took us to Osho's for dinner, the same restaurant chain they had back in Kagoshima back in the day. Karaage chicken. We also went to the supermarket to buy some onegai (requests) for other people. I told Sag and Yuki I needed to pick up a certain brand of mabudofu (mabodofu?) for Eric kun and then Sag went all Jewish mother on us by insisting we take Koala chan and Super Lemon back to Eric kun as well because Eric LOVES them. I loved watching this unfold because Sag loves Eric so much, as do I, and the Japanese heart of friendship cannot be held back from sending gifts and love. Once you've made a Japanese friend, you can count on them for anything. Loyal to the end.
On Tuesday 3 April, we said our goodbyes and Sag took us to the eki (station) in Yokohama to get on the bullet train (shinkansen). We felt confident about everything, but he insisted on buying a ticket so he could accompany us to the platform and ensure we made it onto the correct train. I really hope I have a chance to pay these people back. We rode to Kyoto, looking for Mount Fuji along the way, but couldn't see it for the smog (same situation from Skytree). At Kyoto station, we grabbed some lunch and then headed out to find our hotel which was a short walk, about 5 minutes. Thank you, GPS. There was a post office there, so I stopped to buy and mail a postcard to a former student, a sixth grader, who called out to me in the hallway one day, "I hear you're going to Japan! Send me a postcard!" So I did. He gave me a thank you note the other day...with a dollar bill inside...??? Our hotel room was predictably small, but wonderfully air conditioned, a reprieve from our first couple of days in country--warm and humid, sweating all the time. We were not wearing jackets and Sag and Yuki kept asking us if we were cold. Nope. Not cold. We dropped our luggage and went out to play. We boarded a Skybus, a double decker, and it was a sunny day, even cool with the breeze generated by the speed of the bus. We had earbuds for the ridiculously poor English transcript, however, this sweet ride allowed us to get the lay of the land and see several temples and shrines...and sakura, the cherry blossoms. When we returned to the eki, Ken asked if we could go back to an area we saw on the tour in order to walk amongst the sakura. And so we did. We are Team Kyburz and as Ken stated on the trip, "You translate, I navigate!" So we bought tickets for smaller trains and got off at one station in order to walk all the way to the next station along the river, in the late afternoon light. It was beautiful, soothing, and picturesque. Mr. Six Foot Three was so grateful to stretch his legs after feeling cramped since he boarded the airplane. It all soothed his soul. And as if that weren't blessing enough, right near the next train station was a McDonald's! So he ordered a McTeriyaki Burger with Fries and found it to be quite tasty. When we got back to Kyoto Station, we looked at some of the restaurants, but decided that we would just grab some snacks at Lawson, a favorite convenience store (konbini) from living in country years ago. He got ice cream and I found some nikuman and rice balls. Oh, and Banana Cream cake.
The next morning, we caught another shinkansen to Hiroshima. If you go to Japan and plan to take even one train ride say from Tokyo to Kyoto and back to Tokyo again, it's completely worth it to get the Japan Rail Pass. You have to buy it before you leave the states. They send you a voucher (ours arrived Fed Ex from London) and then once you get to the Narita airport, you go down to the JR office in the basement and they give you your pass. You can make reservations if you upgrade to Green Car which turned out to be really slick and very nice. There's plenty of room for your luggage, the seats are way comfy, and you can charge your phone en route. We also road the bullet train in the regular cars without reservation--no chargers, but we lived. The shinkansen is so fast. I remember riding trains for HOURS between cities, but these bullet trains are incredibly swift and smooth. I highly suggest the JR Pass. It was worth the money! Also, the signs at train stations are in Japanese as well as English, so Ken could have gotten around without my help...it's just that my ability to speak Japanese really made things go smoothly. So we got to the Hiroshima Eki and stashed our luggage in the the coin lockers there--sweet! Travel really is so easy in Japan. Then we took a little street car (small train on railroad tracks) through the city to the Dome. The Peace Memorial Park is a World Heritage Site and we had a lovely couple of hours walking around there. Yes, quite somber. We toured the museum and I became so weepy. It was the photo of the three year old cute, chubby boy and his warped and melted tricycle that really got to me. I'm not political and wise and learned about international affairs, but my heart is drawn to other humans, especially children, and Hiroshima really hurt.
We got back to the eki and took the shinkansen to Kumamoto, my "home town." I loved all of my cities while living in Japan, but I served in Kita Kumamoto as well as Kumamoto and spent the majority of my mission in that city, therefore, Kumamoto is Home. Sachiko, Ken has met her several times as she visits here frequently, picked us up at the station and drove us around: cemetery, 100 yen store, out to eat, the mall, supermarket, etc. and then home. She built her own house several years ago. The one I visited before (her parents' home) was destroyed in the 2016 earthquakes. We enjoyed sleeping again on futons which are of course, on top of the traditional tatami mats (bamboo). Ken was getting to compare and contrast this Japanese home to Sag's and Yuki's. I can't believe we only had one night in a hotel!
On Thursday 5 April, Sachiko took us to Aso-Kuju National Park, the site of the active volcano known as Nakadake. We saw so much evidence of the earthquakes. The volcano had been acting up lately, so the photos show how close we were able to get without inhaling noxious gasses. The rest of the park was beautiful and there was a sakura festival taking place near a 400 year old cherry tree. We ate takoyaki (octopus), yakisoba, yakiniku, and toriniku, and ice cream.
We returned to Sachiko's home that afternoon to change clothes. She took us to the eki and we rode to Fukuoka eki to catch a taxi to the Fukuoka Temple. Before the taxi we grabbed some KFC. Ken had been a good sport about all the strange Japanese food, so I never minded his requests for American fast food. This temple was built in 2000 on the site of my old mission home. It was great to do a session there, see all the changes, and run into the temple president, Tashiro Kyodai. At Sachiko's suggestion, we asked if they could call a taxi for us, but Brother Shibata stepped in and dropped us off at the eki, which saved us 1700 yen. He is 75 years old.
On Friday 6 April, Sachiko drove us to another national park, Unzen-Amakusa National Park. Amakusa is several islands connected by five bridges. Ken had to touch the water of the East China Sea. It was rainy, but we didn't care...we got out to walk here and there. On the way back, Sachiko showed us the seaweed farm--in the water. They plant the seaweed seeds onto sticks in the water and grow it in the winter. The harvest had just finished. They harvest and dry the seaweed and then package it for selling. I never knew all the sticks in the water were a seaweed farm. By the way, Sachiko is the nicest ever and we will never be able to repay her. But we will certainly try.
That evening we had dinner with the Saruwatari Sisters, Kyoko and Katsue. They have both been to my classroom here in Utah. They are the nicest people and enjoyed meeting Ken san. We all exchanged gifts (they requested mint chocolate, Jell-o, and Kool-Aid). I hope they will also come stay with us.
On Saturday 7 April, our last day in country, we stayed around Kumamoto. We went to both churches where I served. We walked to the kamitori and the shimitori to meet Kumamon, the mascot of Kumamoto. He hugged us and everything. We went to Suizenji park...so beautiful...and to Kumamoto Castle, heavily damaged by the earthquakes--will take 20 years to put it back together again. Then we met Nitta Takayasu Kyodai for dinner. I tracted him out with my "spiffy" door approach back in the day. He was on the phone with someone but wanted to know more. We had no idea he had been studying with the Jehovah's Witnesses for quite some time. While still holding the phone and saying, "I'm not busy," I taught him and told him we'd be bringing a couple of guys back with us the next time (we weren't allowed to teach single men). I looked at all the elders in my district and decided that Weeks Choro (Eric kun) was my best bet, so I handed Nitta over to him. Nitta told me he remembered me "loaning" him a copy of the Book of Mormon, saying that I'd come back for it. When he saw me again, I told him he could keep it a bit longer. And of course, finally, I told him to keep it. I remember none of that. Nitta got baptized, served in the Kobe mission, married a member in the temple, they've raised four children, two of whom are also returned missionaries. He serves on the high council and his wife serves as stake Primary president. This is the fruit of my mission. When I came home, people asked, "How many people did you baptize?" And I truthfully answered, "None."
On Sunday 8 April, Sachiko took us to the Kumamoto station for the last time so we could catch our last shinkansen to Fukuoka. From there, we took the subway to the airport. At the airport, we got on the shuttle bus and made it to security. We flew to Narita where we had to go through security again. From there we flew to San Francisco where we had to go through security again. And customs. And from there, we flew to SLC. We drove home and forced ourselves to stay awake until 8 or 9 pm. The jet lag has lasted two weeks. It's been a bit rough, but I wouldn't have traded it for the world. I loved speaking Japanese again. And eating all the foods. And seeing my old home. And some old friends. I can't believe I got to go back. I loved being a tourist as well, but for me, it's all about the people. It is such a pleasure to see how strong they've been all this time in the gospel. They are ganbatteiru!"
My cup runneth over. Blessed. So blessed.
