A Post

I'm here - in Japan.  I'm still getting used to the way the world works.  And I'm still very jet lagged so I'm not entirely sure what is up and what is down.

But a few anecdotes.

I got very very lost on my way to church today.  My body wouldn't let me sleep past 5 am so I got up and studied google maps for 3 hours trying to find a bus route or something to help me find the church. I finally decided upon walking and carefully noted the road names that I would need to turn on.  Then I got ready and left for church in plenty of time to get there (over an hour before the meeting started).  I was making good progress and was feeling pretty confident about where I was going.  But I reached a small one way street and noticed everyone was going the opposite way as I was.  I had just seen a lot of signs about certain directions people should walk so I was confused if I was doing something I wasn't supposed to.  At the next block, I moved over to another street.  It turns out at that point I was only about 1 block away from the church at the point but I didn't notice the church sign or the large church with its large cross across the street from it.  Instead, began the adventure where I wandered around for 2 hours before I finally stumbled upon the church, my feet blistered and bleeding.

So, what else did I find in those two hours?

The Bible Baptist church.  The sign read, "聖書バプテスト教会" was very easy to understand.   Somehow, it was also easy to find because I ran into it twice in my wanderings.

A stream.  I'm not sure I could ever find it again.  I walked down a street that stopped abruptly at a stream.  It was pretty and had a nice grassy bank on both sides.  I was tempted to stop and wander along the banks but thought better of it and moved on.

A park and was reminded that parks are not grassy places like in the US.  However, I want to find a park nearby because they are also great places (except apparently on Sunday mornings) to people watch.

An elementary school where lots of kids practiced soccer, baseball and swimming in full uniform.

JNT.  Well, I didn't really find them but their picture was on various vending machines throughout the area.  These vending machines can be found on practically every street so I got to see mein lieblingsspieler quite often although because I was lost, I could have been passing the same few vending machines repeatedly (but I don't think so)

Kirin Lemon.  Completely lost and thirsty and exhausted, I stopped to get a Kirin Lemon from one of these vending machines.  I debated getting the adult Kirin Lemon (which Hasebe advertised) but decided I would just get the family friendly one.  It was nothing more (or less) than Sprite, just like I had guessed.

At church, I met a really nice girl who is engaged to a man from Sendai, visiting for the weekend.  She served as my translator even though she herself was unfamiliar with anyone in the ward.  It turns out this girl served a mission with one of my good friends in Taiwan.  How I know this friend in Taiwan has always confused me.  When I went back to Taiwan, I ran into her at a Single Adult Conference and we greeted each other like old friends.  In fact, we threw our arms around each other.  We realized at a subsequent meeting that we actually didn't remember how we met or how we knew each other.  But know each other we did, enough so that this girl was impressed and embraced me as friend when she realized our connection.  She even invited me to her wedding reception next month.

Toy Story 3 in Japanese.  
Buzz gets rewired and starts speaking in Spanish
which is the part I understand.