4 December 2016 videos

I am posting the videos separately.  I should have figured that Peter would make videos . . . One of these is just spooky and there was no info about it.  Not sure what was going on . . .

Can you say coolest fridge ever?

Spooky

Futuristic Japanese hobbit hole is what he called this one

Obviously they don't have strict regulations in their construction in Japan . . .sketchy

Surrounded by scaffolding

4 December 2016

4 December 2016

We are finally moved. The new apartment has had quite a few issues. In fact it still has a lot of issues... But I love it. I think it's awesome. Things we gained: WAY more space, an actual kitchen table, a sweet tatami room with a place to put our family shrine (which now has a Christmas tree in it, its great) more sliding doors but really old style ones (we think it was actually really old but now refurbished) and new dishes and normal stuff like that that we needed. The current issues are that we still don't have any lights in the study rooms, kitchen and tatami room. Also, only one heater in the whole apartment works so it's been pretty cold. But everything is slowly being worked out, it's great.

I'll probably buy a bike today since my companion just got his delivered this week. So that should be fun.

The miracle of the week is that yesterday we went to visit a less active member, but we got a little bit lost. Suddenly, the ward mission leader comes down the road. He points us down the right street. So then, we are in the correct neighborhood but can't for the life of us work out which way the house is. So we are standing trying to decipher the map when suddenly a sister from the Kōhoku ward comes over the hill. She showed us exactly where the member lived (which we never even got close to finding) and so we finally made it. That was pretty funny, and we kept joking that it might happen again when we spent most of the rest of the day lost again trying to finds less active members we decided to try to visit.

The weather is weird. It's definitely on the colder side now, but sometimes it still just feels like fall. I don't know when it will start to get really cold. 

The Kōhoku ward is great. I sure hope I don't get moved this transfer because I feel like I'm just barely getting to know these people. It's been kinda frustrating not finding anyone to teach but I guess that's just how it goes sometimes.

I saw the banners for the new Star Wars movie going up. That was weird to think that it's been that long already. I am also trying to get my facebook up to the mission standard so that I can use that so you may see some short posts I share there from time to time.

Oh, also we live next to the futuristic-Japanese version of Bag End. They are the landlord I believe.

Hmm I do believe that may be it for this week. Everyone should get involved with the Church's Christmas theme thing this year "Light the World" because it's awesome. Try to do one of the challenges everyday!

Ready for picture/movie overload?

It was already dead. Also it was giant

People just leave the fruit on their trees all the time. No one eats it haha

The Christmas party flyer that Matsuhisa Shimai drew

Our butsudan

Our decorated butsudan

The Halloween party flyer Matsuhisa Shimai drew 

28 November 2016

28 November 2016 

Well. Still no investigators yet. We've been doing lots of looking and inviting but I guess we just haven't found those prepared people yet. It's funny with the ridiculous amount of people that there are we have multiple times run into people who had met missionaries before. To myself I jokingly think "Uhh don't you think this is maybe a sign that you should care more about the gospel?" Especially since they are SO superstitious. I've heard some hilarious but also really sad stories of people who quit taking discussions because "Every time I pray, a siren goes off" and they think THAT is a sign. Haha. Some people think very differently, that's all I can say. It's also kind of frustrating how many people we've run into that have all the right questions. A lot of people think exactly what we know, that many church's have truth but none of them have all of it. But then they couldn't care less to listen to our message. Haha, we just tell them what we can and give them our information hoping that they'll make the right decision. 

Speaking of decisions, I did decide to write an email this week... so yeah. 

We're moving apartments tomorrow. I might actually finally buy a bike this week. I've been told some funny stories about buying a bike in Japan. It's got a process much like buying a car in America I guess. Lots of paper work and insurance stuff. I'm not really looking forward to biking everywhere but it'll be nice to get places we can't usually go because those train prices really add up. 

I found out that our mission president, Warnick kaichō (President), knows more kanji than the average Japanese person and can speak and understand old Japanese. President

Warnick is the Japanese professor at BYU.

We got to go to a Japanese doctors office because everyone in our apartment is sick. Two of them have bronchitis; my companion had chest pain. Also, it snowed the whole day long! It was great. Looong train ride though. I still keep seeing Lacrosse players. Haven't really had the chance to talk to any of them. Also, there is this huge martial arts building near us and there are people coming from there with Yumi, a Japanese long bow, and the kendo version of a Naginata, a Japanese polearm. I want to go learn some stuff... 

Apparently there was a pretty big earthquake the other night. Which I slept through the entire thing. I wonder when I'll get to experience an earthquake while I'm conscious. Anyways, there was talk about evacuating some of the Tōkyō area because their nuclear reactor isn't exactly stable, and hasn't been for quite a while. Haha. Japan doesn't feel real sometimes.

I hope everyone had a great thanksgiving. We didn't do anything except some dendo. Although, we did have a thanksgiving dinner yesterday thanks to Draper Chōrō's mom. That was fun. Also, this new Christmas program is going to be fun to try and use for dendo. Yay for Christmas.

Hmm, I don't have much else to say... It's getting pretty cold here though and it's gonna be a struggle getting out there in the cold haha. 

I forgot to tell you, it was the first time it's snowed in Yokohama

before December in 54 years.

The earthquake that was here was 4 something. I thought you weren't
worried about my safety anymore.. I'm in Japan it's fine. 

Kouhoku Ward, Yokohama

Yup. Finally here. It's as great as I remember it of course. It's
really hard. I can't really talk to anyone at all. We're in Yokohama
in the Kouhoku ward. We're both new to this area so we are just
looking for people to teach. I've seen like four or five people with
lacrosse sticks so far which I thought was really funny. I did talk to the lacrosse stick people. The first one I saw was our
first day when we were running to a park. Our mission home is in the
same city as studio ghibli by the way.
Draper Chōrō is completely fluent. He is insanely good at Japanese, and not just speaking, he can read really well. Which is not normal for missionaries as far as I know. Everyone is super impressed by his Japanese skills.

I did get to go through Shibuya on the way to our area, so that was fun. I didn't get a picture though. I figured it wouldn't be appropriate because it's outside our mission area. It was cool to see it though. Shibuya is the busiest crossing in the world. It's a huge shopping district.

The apartment is supposed to be for two. We were supposed to be moving into a new apartment but they lost it the day they went to sign so we're going to be moving later this month to a different four person apartment. The cardboard boxes are our table.

There is an elder in my district who can do the mask salesman
laugh and he can play a ton of Zelda songs on the piano SUPER SUPER
well.

I love the Japanese people though. And happy Japanese people are probably the best people in the whole world. It was funny to go to sacrament meeting and see that it's pretty much exactly the same thing. You still have the loud children with parents trying to keep them calm, the funny old people, stuff like that. It's great.