Sorry it took so long to post this but the last week was super busy and then when we got home Isaiah and I both hit the ground running. We flew into LAX on Sunday August 5th, it was actually kind of funny, we landed in CA technically before we left Japan, time wise that it.
But in regard to the last week in Japan, there was much to do and many folks at the church wanted to spend time with us. We got back from camp on Tuesday, tired and drained, and ready for a good nights sleep. Isaiah and I moved to a new home stay the Hosokawa's. A really sweet couple, Mrs. Hosokawa is saved but her husband whom she refers to as Mr. Bear is not. It was so wonderful though sleeping in on Wednesday morning, some much needed sleep was achieved.
Wednesday was a pretty kick back day. Isaiah and I spent a good 2 hours at the 100 yen store near our homestay then headed to church to meet Sensei. We had planned to take him out to lunch but something had come up so Isaiah and I just went ourselves to a little restaurant (Sensei's favorite) called Coffee and Curry. Also Wednesday night was our last time with the church for their weekly prayer meeting. It was a great time of prayer and fellowship and afterwards we went out to dinner (around 10pm) with Sensei, Yoshie, Maki, Tomo and Jon.
Sensei and Yoshie took Isaiah, Kai and myself out for an outing in Tokyo on Thursday. We had a great time. We went to the famous Meji Temple, Tokyo Tower and a cruise out in Tokyo Bay. The sky was beautiful, and crystal clear, being that a typhoon which was headed north was on its way. All in all we had a wonderful day with the Takahashi's. Then Isaiah, Yoshie and I went grocery shopping for our baking "party" the next day.
Friday, Yoshie had set aside time for me to bake with her, along with Hiromi, Akiko, Tomoko, Kai and Isaiah. Our first obstacle was trying to figure out how we could get the Kitchen Aid to work with Japanese power. Yoshie and Isaiah ended up running out to pick up a power converter to convert 220 volts to 120 volts for the kitchen aid. However, once we got it working things went much faster, rather then if we were using the hand mixer. Since 2 years ago Yoshie had been wanting to bake with me, so finally we had a chance. When I first got to Japan I gave her my recipe book so she had about 3 weeks to thumb through it and there was a bunch she wanted to do. However being that we only had about a 4 1/2 hour time slot we didn't get to do all that she wanted. But we did make; Pumpkin bread, carrot cake, white chocolate cheese cake, creme brulee, and Tira misu. So got a few things in. I was actually amazed how much we got done, because Japanese ovens are so small, but apparently I timed it right.
Saturday was a blast because we had a wedding at the church. Two of the church members, Eriko and Shige were married that day. It was a so much fun to participate in a Japanese wedding and not only that but a Christian one! However it ended up being the hottest day of summer, well over a 100F. There were a lot of unsaved there but I think the church was an awesome testimony to these people in the way that they came together to put this wedding on. It was beautiful. I had the pleasure of also making some dessert for the wedding, i made my famous chocolate torte which was a huge hit. But I can't emphasize how neat it was to see the church come together. I looked at it and thought, this is what a church should be like, sure they have their ups and downs like any other church. But when you compare it to your average American church, they don't match up. There is a self sacrifice that you don't see in America and that's due to the individualistic attitude of "it's all about me." However, Japan, like other Asian nations has a collective mentality which actually works really well with Christianity and I think we're witnessing this in China today, as China has the fastest growing church in the world. Anywho, the wedding was great!
After the wedding Isaiah and I had the pleasure of being taken out to dinner by our homestay the Hosokawa's. We went to a restaurant where Mrs. Hosokawa explained that we would see another Isaiah, which ended up being a big fat raccoon on the porch of the restaurant, it was pretty funny and she had us take pictures with it.
Sunday was the day of our departure. Thankfully our bus was not leaving until 1:45pm so Isaiah and I had time to go to church and enjoy a quick lunch with the congregation. It was a great time of fellowship and goodbyes. The church was also enjoying the company of the newly weds from Saturday who were playing a slide show of pictures from there past. Isaiah and I did have a chance to say a little something before the church to let them know how much we appreciated them allowing us to come and how much so we wished we could come back.
It was an awesome trip and I didn't think I would want to come back as soon as I did, but after being at work for one day, all I could think of was Japan. Not the country itself but the people. Such wonderful people, the Lord is doing a great work over there, yet there is still so much to be done.
Thank you everyone for your prayers!
