Day １５

From yesterday:

The busses here have pull out seats in the aisle so all 50 ore more people are crammed into one bus. It rocks.

The venue from last night.

The ward made us great food and a lovely cake!!

Ridin, ridin, ridin' the train!

Hey everyone! Today i actually have something of worth to speak of!..kindof.

Most of the day was spent traveling. (Though we did stop at a 100 yen store/(dollar store) for an hour and it was AMAZING - 3 stories and fabulous in full glory and spleandor!!) We had a great experience getting around on the trains. Its INTENSE, people. The trains run like clockwork. We timed how long the door was open on the train that came before the one we had to get on and the doors opened, and exactly a minute and thirty seconds later the doors closed and it left. When you have 50 or more people, the prospect of loading all people, their luggage/duffle bags and all "carry on" baggage onto one of these trains AFTER all the other people going about their day have emptied it - in one minute and thirty seconds - well, that's just a little daunting.

The trains are quite pleasant, though. They're clean and smooth and i quite like them.

The land is GORGEOUS here! We look out to see rolling green hills and rice patties and glorious sights! Its really so lovely - i wish you were all here to see it with me! I cant describe it!

Anyway - toinght we had a reception with the TKWO-Tokyo Kosei Wind Orchestra. Theyre really good. I was not prepped at all to meet them and didn't really know where we were going when they were like 'okay, were going to a reception thing!!'

Seriously, they're world renowned and the BYU music library, for instance, probably has at least a hundred recordings of them in our library. Theyve been around for about 50 years, i believe. In fact, i think they said that this year was the 50th anniversary.

Sadly, of all events to leave it - i forgot my camera and left it in my hotel room (which is SO WEE! If airplane bathrooms were converted into hotel rooms- these would be IT. Theyre teeeensy and i love/hate them. Mostly hate because the bed is like a hard plank of wood, but that seems to be the norm in this country.)

Anyway after eating some good shrimp pizza, lemon cake, and raw salmon - we sang " Go Ye Now in Peace" to them (as we usually do as a 'thank you' for the people who we meet and who we interact with) and they were SO TOUCHED. I was amazed at how many people were crying as we sang - and i have to admit, i felt a very loving spirit there, stronger than ive felt yet on this trip.

After that we went shopping. Its crazy- the train stations here are not just train stations, they're huge, serious-deal, multi-leveled, mall-multiple hotels-train station-food court-restaurants-reception hall hybrids. Theyre seriously intense. So ti was fun to shop and bop on our way back to our hotel rooms (in the wee hotel which has much better, though not fabulous, computer access in the lobby.)

Thats about it for today! We get to see the TKWO perform tomorrow so taht will be fun!

Only 5 nights left till i can give out my ROCKIN SOUVINERS! Woo hoo!

Our tiny little room! (Complete with roommate, Tiffany Allen!)

Beautiful country!

Gasp! this picture does it no justice...its breathtaking. Too bad were zooming past it at like, a hundred miles an hour!

Ha. This was from last night...but..i couldnt resist posting it. Japanese people do funny things with English and 'priveat' doors at hotels...