Tokyo Thursday

The keys on this computer are very small, so I can see I have made many typing errors. Oh my!

Last night John bought some snacks, including donuts and a rice ball for me. Since everything is in Japanese, we have to look at the pictures to figure things out. I ate some of my rice ball and broke it in half to eat more. Out tumbled whole bunch of little eel looking fish about 3/4 inch with the tiny fishy heads still on. I decided I had eaten enough rice and ate the donuts instead.

Like others have mentioned, we were able to sleep in a little bit, waking around 6 am instead of 4 am. It was raining and overcast, which may have had something to do with it. It is the sun that wakes me up at 4 am.

The trains were interesting today. We went with a group to the Tama Center for the worship and final activities but came back on our own. People on the trains tend to be healthy and almost no one ever coughs or sneezes. The Japanese people do tend to be tired and lots of them fall asleep on the trains.

I have seen a lot of kindness. People get up and let the elderly and those who are less able to stand sit down. Today we had long train ride and I noticed another drawback. The ventilation is not real good and it tends to get warm on the trains. Somebody near me had gas. Every few minutes the air didn't smell so good. Another person sat next to me who was a heavy smoker and smoked a stinky kind of cigarette, apparently, so they didn't smell so good either. Maybe those things are why some people wear surgical masks in public. It was a relief every time the doors opened to let people off and on the train. Of course the people with the issues went the whole way with us.

People in Tokyo are always in a hurry. It is not unusual to see them running from place to place. Not too many people look happy or smile when they are going about their daily business, although many will smile back when I smile.

The worship service this morning was put on by the CPWM and was led almost entirely by women. The sermon was given by Rev. Sarah Lee, missionary. She spoke Japanese and the English translation was on the screen behind her. Michelle Gillis spoke of the work she and her husband are doing in S Korea.

The Japanese choir sang the opening hymn and it was beautiful. Renaissance sang several songs and did a beautiful job too. Both of the choirs were female and male.

The CPWM gave everybody a nice tote bag that says, Cumberland Presbyterian Women's Ministry 2008 in Japan. It has some beautiful origami in it and a booklet telling the history of the CP church in Japan. The men who got the tote bags will give them to the women in their lives when they get home and the women will appreciate it very much. It would take an extremely secure male (or an oblivious one) to carry around a tote bag that says Women's Ministries on a regular basis. So the ladies benefit. I'm going to use mine proudly.

After the worship service, the Japan Presbytery provided lunch for everyone. We had a Subway lunch consisting of a barbecue chicken sandwich, a very small potato salad, a bag of chips, a tea cake, a bottle of water and a tiny package of Jello. It was very good and very generous of the presbytery to do that.

We met several new people and had a chance to talk to some we knew. One of the people we visited with was Glen Watts, missionary to Japan. He will be back in the US soon for six months on a furlough and then will be going to Hong Kong to do mission work. We invited him to come and speak to our church when he can.

There was a concert in the afternoon.The drummer and pianist were impressive. Before the concert,John and I walked around the area and stopped in Dunkin Donuts for coffee and a donut. The waitress was so cute! She came with the pot of coffee and her little basket of cream and sugar to refill our cups. She would bow and smile and was very eager to please.

The rain stopped by mid afternoon and the sun came out. It was nice walking around then. You do a lot of walking in Tokyo. In order to ride the trains, you have to go up and down long flights of stairs. Some people think they lost weight by being here with all the walking, low fat food and almost no sugar. In the US, everything contains high fructose corn syrup. I doubt if we had any of that stuff here. Most food is not sweet. It's just a different way of eating. Green tea is very popular.