A Great Week

We're having too much fun here. Between the three of us we have seen and done a lot! Last Saturday, I took a "train class", a guided excursion to Yebisu Garden Place in Tokyo. It took an hour and a half to get there by train. We were given 3 1/2 hours to explore the area, shop, and eat. I went to lunch with 4 young Japanese tour guides who speak little English. That was really cool. We ate at an old western style restaurant, and I ate a really good burger. A bit ironic, I know. Then we walked over to the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography. It was impressive, yet humbling. It featured images taken all over the world over the past year by expert photojournalists. Many images were gruesome, showing the violence that has occurred in far away places like Georgia (the country), devastating natural disasters, and even effects of the economic crisis. I don't even know how express how it touched me, but it left me with a solemn feeling, for sure. It definitely made me all the more grateful to be a citizen of a very civilized and relatively safe country. (Japan is safer than the US.)
Also on Saturday we moved into a suite. We had been in a small, one room hotel room with a tiny fridge and a microwave. Now we have two separate bedrooms and a living area with a kitchenette, a table with chairs, a TV and a love seat. It's a relief to have more space, and separate rooms, not to mention something of a kitchen.We found our way to church on our own on Sunday. Good job Jeff!! It's 30 minutes away, through the tight, maze-like streets of the city. Jeff has an amazing sense of direction. Church is interesting. It's in a very nice new building that is completely different from anything you'd find anywhere else. It's on 3 levels. The bottom level is brick floor parking and a small lobby with an elevator and a stairway. On the next level is a small chapel, with only cushioned folding chairs, and the top level has the classrooms and Branch President's offices. The Branch is tiny, especially since it's summer. It's a Military Branch taking in members from several military bases. There are usually about 35 people in Sacrament meeting, about 15 in the one adult Sunday School class, 8 to 10 in Relief Society, and the same numbers in Primary. We're still trying to figure out the personality of the Branch. It's different. Jeff has very good experiences in Priesthood, better than he's found in past wards. The Relief Society also has a very different feel from what I have experienced anywhere else. I'm not sure what to say about it except that I hoping to help strengthen the RS and do what I can to bring the sisters together and lift their spirits. Several of the sisters' husbands are deployed, which explains a lot. I know all too well what that's like. I'm really looking forward to getting involved. The Branch just received our records and we are ready and waiting for callings.This week, Jeff and I did Japanese Headstart. It's a full time, week long introduction to Japan, its history, culture and language, in a classroom setting, plus a day trip to Odawara Castle---an hour and a half away by train, right by the ocean. The class was taught by two really funny Japanese men. They were practically comedians! It was a whole lot of fun!! We got certificates of completion with our names in Japanese yesterday.Sensei Onozaki, our instructor and a samurai master

The same day that we went to Odawara Castle, Marin went on a full day field trip with the CDC* to Ebina Fantasy Land! She had a lot of fun, though she doesn't know how to explain what she saw and did there. The preschool does a full day field trip to really cool places every Thursday. Last week they went to the Enoshim Aquarium, also an hour and a half away. The Aquarium featured a dolphin show where the dolphins performed. Marin was bouncing off the walls when we picked her up that day!

We've seen and done a whole lot in the short time that we have been here. We couldn't have gotten here only 3 1/2 weeks ago, could we!? It feels like longer because we've packed so much in. It feels like we're on a cruise---living in a hotel, eating out all the time, Jeff being with us all the time, and frequently traveling and going on excursions to great and exciting places in a beautiful foreign country. Three years here wont be long enough.

Things will change a bit after Jeff starts work on Monday, but not much. His schedule will actually be light, for a total and complete change from the past several years! We will still go on lots of excursions with ACS** and Outdoor Rec. Jeff will take some kind of a samurai lessons from one of our Japanese Headstart instructors. I will start taking a Japanese class in a few weeks through the University of Maryland, and Marin will start school in September. We also have Marin signed up for violin and swimming lessons in August, and soccer this Fall. Could life get any better than this?!

*Child Development Center
**Army Community Service