Day 11

The hall where we played tonight.

Shabu-shabu-in' it up!

I look a little outta control in this picture, but hey! it was good to see him, right? Can't blame me for being excited...

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

(the picture with Elder Clayton Grames is on a friend's camrea. I'm awesome and accidentally deleted the one that was on mine. Ug.)

What? Everybody's doin' it!! (actually, its true...sick people contain their germs this way here.)

WE went shopping and it was Ka-RAZY!
Shinto Priests doin' their thang!
Welcome to Tokyo!

I stinkin love it here, you guys.

This morning we went to a Shinto shrine place. The dude who took us around was super nice to us because he spent some time at BYU once upon a time and he really liked it and wanted to return the favor. GET THIS: they took us into one of their main worship halls and performed a ceremony just for us! They prayed specifically for the BYU wind symphony and our success in our concert and trip to Asia. We did the whole shindig, too - took off our shoes, kneeled on the rice-hay mat and bowed our heads when they waved the purification wand and purification bells over us. We bowed and clapped and did the stuff when they told us to. Apparently it's extremely rare to be able to sit in on it, but it was really, really interesting.

The shrine was beautiful. It was a little less ornate than the buddhist temples, though we saw a priest-guys-doing something official ceremnony and their outfits were a lot more ornate.

We also had some shopping time today. CRAZY crowded, but really neat junk to buy!! I got a dress (ooh la la! Japanese high fashion, everyone!!) But that was really neat. Then we went to a restaurant - Shabu Shabu. It's a very trendy style of eating, shabu-shabu. There's a big pot of water on a stove that's built into the table. Actually, its fish broth. And then you go to a vegetable bar and grab veggies and noodles an dput them in the water. You wait for the water/broth to boil and then you add raw meat (we had pork and beef waiting for us at our tables) and you wait for it to cook, mix it with sesame sauce or soy & vinegar, and eat it with rice. I felt so trendy. It was so delicious, to boot!

We left for our venue after that. THis venue is apparently like the Carnegie of Tokyo. It was built in 1929!! The concert was GREAT! It started at 6:30 which was FABULOUS! (all the concertrs in japan will start at :30 instead of 7:30 because they need time to catch trains, busses and subways and what not!) There were many members of the church there and MANY missionaries. I just about wet myself because i saw Elder Ferguson, Elder Clark and Elder Grames - 3 very, VERY dear friends of mine. I was pretty much walking on the moon.

Anyway - the concert went well. It was too long. We played 3 encores. Joy. But it was good. The Japanese people don't wear their emotions on their sleeves very much - they're very reserved, but the leaders said that in talking to the people who were there, they were very touched. Its just not polite for them to show it.

Good news! We ate some chocolate. Its quite a treat to eat sweets, let me tell you. I think im gonna buy a 3 pound bag of M&Ms when i get home and eat the whole thing in one sitting. It's not that sweets arent available, they're just not the usual ones we're used to - things like red bean paste with honey or sweet rice cakes and things like that. Good? Yes. Chocolate? No.

Can't wait to see you all! Have a great day!!