Ryan & Samantha

When we visited Tokyo four years ago, we got about 1.5 days for a “furlough” from our 2-week mission work. Samantha and I spent that time in Tokyo visiting some of the most famous areas of the city such as Shibuya (the “Times Square” of Tokyo) and Asakusa (famous shrine, marketplace, and pagoda).

Electric City

For this trip, we didn’t want to duplicate any sites we saw last time, so we tried three different areas. On Monday night, we went to Akihabara, to an area known as “Electric City” for its abundance of electronics shops and video game arcades. (We were in dire need of an ethernet cable to use in our hotel room.) We found a store with seven stories that sold everything from big screen HDTVs to chopsticks.

Tokyo Metro at Night

On Tuesday night, we ate dinner at MOS Burger fairly early with Sam’s advisor, so we just wanted to find some good dessert. We ended up going to Ikebukuro to an enormous shopping mall called “Sunshine City.” It was also several stories tall (about the first 5-6 floors of a 59+ story skyscraper). There were so many places to see (there are 120 shops and 60 restaurants, plus an aquarium), that I know we only saw a fraction (plus it was getting late). We couldn’t decide on what to get for dessert until we agreed on ice cream from Cold Stone Creamery (but this Cold Stone had green tea ice cream!).

Imperial Palace

On Wednesday, our last day in Tokyo, we parked our luggage at Tokyo Station, where we would be catching the shinkansen (bullet train) later. We toured the grounds of the Imperial Palace, an area built in the Edo era, and still in use today. It was a beautiful area that gave us just a glimpse into feudal Japan.

Statue of Kusonoki Masashige

Since Japan (and Tokyo especially) is a complete mix of modern and traditional, this entire area of Japan cultural history is surrounded by expensive skyscrapers, international embassies, world trade, and everything that embodies the global society. We ate lunch in what could be considered “downtown” Tokyo, as it was the equivalent of New York’s Fifth Avenue.

Shinkansen at Tokyo Station

We did a little more shopping and then rested our very sore feet for a while before boarding the bullet train to Takasaki to meet Paul and Stacey Herrington (see next several posts).

Every two years my advisor attends the International Symposium on Flexible Automation (ISFA) Conference, and was able to take one student with her this year. She invited me to go with her and to present a portion of my masters thesis research at the conference.

This conference is held every 2 years and alternates between Japan and the U.S.; what fantastic timing that it was in Japan the year that I was asked to attend! This year it was on the Hongo campus of the University of Tokyo.

The conference was all in English, so I didn’t need to learn Japanese or have a translator. My talk was titled “Energy Analysis of a Turret Punch in a Production Setting,” which looked at how a CNC turret punch used electricity as it produced parts. Think of ENERGY STAR efficiency but for manufacturing equipment. My talk was well-received and there were good questions afterward.

Sunday morning, we were blessed with the privilege of worshipping with the believers at the Taga church in Hitachi-Taga. This was the church we worked with through our LST experience four years ago. So many familiar faces, so many familiar sights and sounds. It was very much like coming home again. I was asked to read scripture (in English, thankfully), and even got to say a few words at the end of the service, in which I briefly mentioned Philippians 1:3-6 where Paul says, “I thank my God every time I remember you…” I finally understood–with all of my being–what Paul was talking about in that passage, and I was very overcome with emotion to be back with those wonderful people again.

Judith Alexander, a missionary who currently works with the Taga church and helped us arrange our travel, was a great friend we had made there during our short visit in 2006. We were able to catch up with her as well as the preacher, Sugao Tadokoro. They treated us to lunch and great conversation at Woody’s (just a few blocks from the church building), before having to head back to the bus station. Judith drove us to the bus stop (after first making a detour to the beach), and they sent us off with hugs and greetings for the Haruna church.

Below are two pictures from the most recent trip and two from the previous trip. Clockwise, from upper left: 1) The Taga church building, 2) Sugao preaching on Sunday morning (this trip), 3) Saito-san, a wonderful elderly couple in the church (from last trip), and 4) Sugao and Judith (from last trip).

I wanted to take a moment out of our vacation to briefly mention the McLains. Mike McLain and Tomoko Sato are Christian missionaries that live in the Ibaraki prefecture of Japan (where Hitachi is located). We met them four years ago when we did our short LST mission trip, but we didn’t really get the opportunity to get to know them until this trip.

Mike and Tomoko have three lovely daughters, Ana, Erika, and Kiara. They volunteered–on very short notice, mind you–to keep Samantha and me for a couple nights when we went to Hitachi to visit our brothers and sisters at the Taga church. We were so blessed to have this opportunity to get to know them better on this trip, and they really treated us like family. They were such a joy to be around, and we definitely feel like they were more of an encouragement to us than we were to them.

Thank you, Mike and Tomoko, for opening your home and hearts to us, and we give thanks to our Lord for the blessing you gave us through your company. God bless you and your family!

For dinner on Saturday the McLains took us to a “fast food” sushi restaurant. We called it the conveyor restaurant because the sushi comes to your table on a conveyor belt! You can pick from what you see going around or you can place a special order for more unique sushi or sashimi (raw fish sushi)–this special order comes to you on a cute little train on a track above the conveyor.

The sushi is on specific plates that indicate their price; as you take plates off and eat, the way the waitress knows your tab is to count the plates. We had a huge stack when we were done! Among the “standard” sushi Americans are familiar with (like California rolls or cucumber), I’m proud to say that both Ryan and I tried eel sushi and sea urchin sushi, and Ryan had raw salmon sashimi.

On Saturday I had the opportunity to learn Ikebana, the Japanese art of floral arranging. This is way more than just putting flowers into a vase! There are detailed patterns of varying skill level, each one adding complexity. This is an old art form that dates back to the 1400s.

Tomoko has been going to a class for several years (and it shows!) and asked her teacher if I could join in for one lesson. We traveled to her teacher’s house, a beautiful and pristine traditional Japanese house. The teacher had a special room dedicated to this class, a lot like a sun room.

I chose a simple pattern to follow and the teacher (with Tomoko translating) guided me through the steps of how to measure out the length of branches and stems, the proper way to cut the stems, placement of flowers at specific angles, and filling out the arrangement. You can see the book on the table showing the pattern I followed.

As stressful as it seemed at first, between having the language barrier and never arranging flowers before, I thought this was very relaxing activity. It demanded your whole attention and really focused your thoughts on the plants and the patterns they made.

The teacher was such a gracious host and even sent me home with copies of the patterns and instructions so that I can do it again. The photo below shows my completed arrangement, as well as Tomoko and her daughter Ana making their beautiful arrangements. Thank you, Tomoko, for introducing me to an awsome new hobby!

Saturday morning Ryan and I split up–he with Mike and daughter Erika, and me with Tomoko and daughters Ana and Kiara. We each did some sight-seeing on our own and met back up after lunch.

Before we left the house in the morning, we heard a loud speaker announcement outside the house. Think elections are obnoxious in the States? In Japan, political parties and candidates drive around town with loud speakers on their cars and announce their political platforms. We got to experience this because Japan was having an important election the next day on Sunday.

Ryan, Mike and Erika took a trip to an electronics store and the fish market. Living in Kansas, we don’t get to see a true fish market. This one was filled with fish caught by local fisherman that day–super fresh! It had the typical salmon, crab and tuna, but it also had squid, eel, snails, and octopus (pictured below). They then drove around the Ibaraki Christian College campus for a quick tour before a lunch of cold soba, udon, tempura, rice, and Japanese pickles.

I went with Tomoko, Ana, and Kiara to an Ikebana class (more to come on this in a separate post). We then drove down the beach road that follows the coast line on our way to lunch at a ramen shop. After lunch we drove past Ibaraki Christian College and the Shinto shrine down the street from it (shrine pictured below).