This week will start with an introduction to my son, Elder Jeff Derricott (on the right) with his companion, Elder Palmer who are serving in the Michigan Lansing Mission. They are two happy boys as they work hard and serve. Elder Palmer is Jeff's second companion out in the field.

Moving right along on our Tokyo, Japan adventure, let's see if we really are in Tokyo.......

Maybe we're in Seattle......

or Ann Arbor, Michigan (headquarters of Dominos).........

or New Jersey.........

 or maybe Dallas, Texas??.............

or how about every and any block in the U.S..........

And every and any block/store/gas station in the U.S. AND in the world. See Subway lurking back there? You may be able to run, but you can't hide. The fast food fettish is everywhere!!

Hey, the World Trade Center is still in existence? Are we in........

New York City?

still NYC??

??

It sure looks like it to me.........but maybe........

we're in Bountiful or Tokyo for that matter. I'm pretty sure this could be our home.... At least it says it could be our home, closed down......!!! Glad we live somewhere else.....

Japan is known for it's work ethic and promptness. If you are late, you can't use the excuse that your clock was wrong. We find ourselves surrounded.........

No excuses!!! Well, except for maybe traffic if you are in a car. Or maybe you were just plain sleeping in....

As we go along on our adventures, once in a while we find ourselves in a predicament to where we have to make certain decisions such as..........

Do we or do we not?? Hmmmmm and how does that work?

I think this one works just fine. Wait, is there toilet paper in there? I sure hope so.

What other types of commodes (a piece of furniture containing a concealed chamber pot.) do we have here? Is there anything concealed inside? Hmmm. It looks like it.

 

What kind of a bus is this? It's the local Metropolitan Volunteer Fire Corps. Thank you volunteers!

Or check out this bus. What are we trying to sell here? I'm sure it's a bargain to buy 3 for $90.

This is the "Friendly" Airport Limousine bus that we take to one of the airports when we travel out of the country. We always try to get the friendly ones. You never know about those "unfriendly" ones.

Talking about transportation vehicles, I wonder if anyone gets their bike mixed up with anyone else's?

I suppose that if you got this mixed up with those other bikes, you would be in trouble. This is a mailman's form of travel. Yep, motorcycles. Traffic never slows them down!

If you want to be cool, you graduate to a bigger model and kind of show off your stuff.

With this vehicle, you would have the job of being a delivery boy. Businesses use this type of a motorcycle over the "cool" one. You would be surprised as to how fast this goes, so don't get too confident "Mr. Cool"!

Maybe I should revert to a bicycle or just stick to the........

trains. If I stick to the trains, I won't have to deal with.......

filling up. And you say, filling up what? This is a gas station, notice the hanging gas pumps. It saves space!! Now that's cool!

I had the privilege of meeting with some dear, sweet ladies who I taught English to 28 years ago. It was so fun to see them again.

From left to right: Midori, Fumiko, Shigeko, and Saeko. We have such a great time together laughing and talking in broken Japanese and English. They all say "hello" to Rachelle and that they love her!! Rachelle had the privilege of getting together with them a few times when she served her mission here last year. 

The adventure this week included getting together with two of my dear friends' back home sisters. Does that make sense?

We have on the left, Rosalie Ringwood who is Brenda Miles' sister and Wendy Hyder on the right who is Holly Hurst's sister. For those of you who know Brenda and Holly, can you see some similarities? Rosalie's husband is the area president for the church and Wendy's husband is the president of Gap Japan. This is such a small world!! They want to say "hi" to Rachelle too! Rosalie said that Rachelle was the hardest working missionary that she knew. She said that she was always talking to someone, being kind and friendly to everyone she met, and she was never idle. She couldn't say enough good about "Sister Derricott"!

Our last adventure took us to the American School in Japan for a football game. Since we can't go to college football games this fall, then high school is the next best thing. We had a great time!!  

We met the Budges there, and unfortunately missed the game that their son Danny played in. He is the quarter back on the JV team and we are planning on going watch him play next week or the following week! His team and the varsity team won. Go Mustangs!

ASIJ (American School in Japan) has a very nice campus. They play the military high schools throughout Japan since American football isn't in the Japanese schools. Can I just say that I was very impressed with the sportsmanship at this game by both teams? We, in Utah, have something to learn from them........

Here we are with Lori, Todd and the star of the show, Danny. The man to the right of me works in the Tokyo Mission home office for Todd and Lori. His wife is missing because she took the picture. They will be finished with their mission in December. Any takers? A couple is needed in the mission home so go ahead one of you empty nesters and come on over!!

Our athletic adventures didn't end with ASIJ football, it continued with Sumo wrestling. 

We now have moved into and out of the sumo season which was held here in Tokyo. Today was the last day of a 2 or 3 week tournament. The tournaments are held in a different city four times a year. Here are some shots from the TV that I took today. Please be advised that this is rated "R". They are scantily clad men...... Ha!

It's amazing that they can bend over like that without throwing up.

I'm sure there are some women in this world that would give anything to have a chest line like this guy!

Their legs muscles are seriously strong to be able to hold that body up......

And they are in action trying to push the other one outside of the ring. Well, it looks like the green guy lost. Notice his left foot is outside of the ring. That means, "you lose"!

This is another fight with two different guys. Yes, I know, they do look the same..... but they're not.

They usually don't hit, they just try to push their opponent outside of the ring or push him to the ground. Can you imagine getting pushed around by one of those guys?

Ooooooops! He's just about out...... yes, he stepped out and lost.

I think I'd be hiding my face too!

This young man is the winner. He got a little beat up it looks like. Check out his eye and his ear. He is 28 years old and he said that he plans on being around for the 2020 Olympics that Tokyo just won. 

Kent left for India this morning at 4:30 a.m. and will be back on Thursday. I have big plans for the week, so be ready for another adventurous blog post for next week.

Love,

Mom and Dad

Grandma and Grandpa

Uncle Kent and Grandma Barb (This is for Olivia and Lucy!)

Kent and Barb

Japan at it's finest......

This was an incredible week ranging from finding new places in the neighborhood to working in the Tokyo Mission home, attending the temple, and attending the Tokyo English Speaking 1st Ward. Kent was in the country all week except for one day when he went to Fukuoka to attend some meetings. A typhoon struck Hong Kong yesterday and all airports were closed causing Kent to change his original flight scheduled to leave on Sunday afternoon to Monday (today). On Wednesday he will fly to Taiwan from Hong Kong and then he will be back to Tokyo on Thursday evening giving himself about 24 hours in Tokyo and then off to India. He is glad that he isn't suffering from jet lag since all of the Asian countries are on similar times zones as Tokyo's. The biggest difference is a 3 hour time difference which is just like in the U.S. I'm so glad for him!

On my first adventure this week, I found where the original grounds were for the imperial palace before the war. After the war, the imperial palace was moved to it's current location. The picture above was taken on those grounds as well as the following pictures:

This particular building is a tea house where they perform a traditional style tea ceremony and serve tea to the guests.

These are the grounds surrounding the tea house. The light colored gravel is perfectly raked.

This is the inside of part of the tea house. The red mats are what people sit on during the ceremony since the tan colored tatami mats are rather uncomfortable to sit on. 

You will find many trees with their limbs being held up by reinforcements. It is so interesting to see the beauty of these kinds of trees.

The curved bridges have been a part of Japanese culture for centuries. They were originally curved so steep that horses could not come across them, therefore, protecting the family from intruding forces.

The small building to the right in the distance was recently renovated and I can't remember what it was used for....

The beauty in Japanese gardens are due to the fact that they care for everything by hand. You can see this gardener pulling a hand cart with his supplies in it. There were no leaf blowers, weed whackers, or lawn mowers in his cart. The thing that looks like sticks hanging out is his broom. You will notice the pictures of brooms from last week.

A crane keeping cool and looking for food.

They evidently forgot to reinforce this tree...... Yes, it was alive (well, most of it) and still connected to the ground.

This is the access to the Tokyo Bay from the gardens. Notice in the lower right hand corner the white things on the wall. Those were some kind of clams. If you were hungry, that would be an easy catch!

More grounds keepers. No riding mowers......

This is a 300 year old tree that has survived many wars and time periods. It was absolutely beautiful and looked like a giant, fluffy, green, feathery pillow. Not sure if I would want to jump into that though...

This is the back side of the tree. Notice how the trunk is to the left and the branches are being held up by large poles. So cool and deceiving from the front.

This is part of the original wall that they have saved over the years.

I then walked out of the park and went down the road to an area called Tsukiji. It is the largest fish port in the country. 

The entrance is to the left of the building where you see the arrows. I was walking in and found these lovely signs to greet me....

Hey dude why can't we touch anything??? If I could have, I would have laughed out loud, but I didn't want anyone thinking that I was being rude. The people in this country are so polite and kind that I find it humorous to see some of their signs. Instead of "road rage", maybe we could call it "sign rage"? There's more......

The sign becomes a little nicer and then.......

some of that rage starts to creep in again and then.......

The rage is on! Humor is all I can say!! So funny!!

This is where you walk in and the workers are working just like the sign said!

You then find tiny restaurants that sell the freshest, cheapest sushi in the country. People clammer to get here.

This is a shot of alley way behind the restaurants. You find chefs preparing stuff outside because the kitchens are so small.

A kitchen...

Another kitchen......

Hey look! A pottery store! If I would have known about this place, I would have bought my dishes here! Cheap and beautiful. (Cheap is relative when you are spending U.S. $)

I found this truck interesting. It opens from the side instead of the back. Makes sense to me!

On Wednesday, I went to the Tokyo Mission home to help President and Sister Budge with the big transfer day. Thirty-two missionaries fresh out of the MTC. Normally a large group is around 12-16 missionaries. The youth are heeding the call from the prophet and missions are getting 2 - 3 times more missionaries than usual. This adds a lot more balls in the air for the Budges to juggle, but they are doing a fabulous job!!

This is an incredible quilt that Sister Budge (Lori) made just before she arrived in Japan where she created a spot for each missionary's signature. With the influx of missionaries, there may not be enough spaces...??? Rachelle's signature was one of the first ones signed.

Rachelle, Elders Hogue and Taylor said "hello" to you!! These are the AP's and are on their last legs before returning home.

President Budge in action.....

and Sister Budge doing one of her many duties. Sister Harrison, who is working in the office, has been an incredible help. She and her husband love their mission even though they don't speak Japanese. They will be leaving in December and the mission doesn't have a replacement couple yet..... Any takers?

This is Elder Winegar from Rexburg, Idaho who is a friend of my niece, Taleesa. This is a "hello" to Taleesa from him.

Lunch time at the church!

We "worker bees" took a lunch break too. The woman in the center is a part-time helper. Her name is Kunie and she was a great help to me since Lori was teaching classes to the elders most of the day.

Here they are. Do any of you know one of these great looking, happy missionaries?

Now that lunch is over, it's back to the kitchen to prepare dinner. Lasagna, garlic bread, salad, and triple berry dessert was on Sister Budge's menu. Delicious! 

This is the church and this is......

the mission home.

Need I say more?

Kent and long-time friend President Todd Budge.

After dinner we went to a testimony meeting where every new missionary bore their testimony in Japanese. I was so impressed!! We then joined the English speaking class that the missionaries provide to the community. At this particular class, they played some games that included us. So fun!

My next morning adventure in my running shoes took me to the current imperial palace. 

The actual palace is the white building on the side of the hill above the bridge.

These are the grounds surrounding the palace.

The men in the boats are cleaning the water from algae. You will notice it in other pictures.

Notice the two small guard houses at the front of the gates where they stand 24/7.

On the right of the bridge you can only see the roof of the palace, but you can see lots of algae! Go get it boys!

"Lady, have you never seen outside air conditioners?" 

uhh...... no. But it is pretty cool!! Literally speaking.

Grounds surrounding the palace.

Notice how "crowded" this area is..... Since it's not, I decided to pick up a little speed and jog over to the other end of the grounds to see what was over there......

This is what I found and was greeted by these two nice police officers who told me, "NO RUN." Oh really? I'm not quite sure why, but I politely apologized and said that I would stop. However, I didn't know about the rule since I had been looking for signs the entire way to the palace.

This beautiful scenery was at the end of the grounds near the officers..... but no signs about running. Which leads me to share the many signs that one sees each and every day in Tokyo.

Except for this one, which my friend from home shared with me. 

No, I haven't frozen any lemons to take to the palace guards....... Tempting though.......

I'm not quite sure what the instruction is here, but I'm pretty sure I know what the rest of the instructions are......

So what will happen if someone does these things?

NO smoking on this bench!

Don't even think about playing any kind of ball or roller blading here!

Hey, maybe you can smoke on this bench?!?

He is telling us that construction is going on and don't go beyond this area.

Kindly giving more instructions.......

No rules for this bench. I wonder if we could eat on this bench? Probably not. You don't see Japanese eating out in public when they are on the go. We Americans would all be considered rude here. I'm pretty sure we eat more on the go than at a table...... 

So if no people can be here, can aliens? monsters? or animals? hmmmm......

More kind instruction...

But don't go here with your legs or your bike......

I think we get the point.

These signs are for us foreigners who don't know better.

Can I tell you that I absolutely LOVED this sign? You don't want your lunch or your child eaten by a mangey mutt.

I bet people, dogs, monsters, or aliens can sit here....... But I never did see any signs telling me that I couldn't run!

Yesterday, Kent and I went for a walk in the evening and ended up at this Buddhist temple which is near our apartment. I took this picture from our work out room on the 29th floor.

This is the main building of the temple area.

This is the "Happy Bell". I suppose they ring it during certain times.

The inside of the temple. The table in front has two bowls with incense burning in them. People go to the incense and wave it on them. They revere it as holy and it will help them in their lives with whatever their prayers are. The large box type table with the slits on top behind the incense is where you throw your money and then you offer prayer to the gold shrine at the back of the temple. 

Notice the people praying at the incense.

This is a view of our apartment as we were walking out of the temple. It is the tall building further in the center of the picture. It looks shorter than the close building.

You find many kinds of statues on the property.

This is holy water that people come to drink. 

This is a large incense burner outside of one of the smaller temples.

The smaller temple.

People hang prayer blocks and tie names to the places in this area.

Prayer blocks.

As you go through the prayer block entry way, you walk into this area where there are literally thousands of these stone dolls. They represent people who have passed on and their descendants have purchased these dolls in remembrance of their relatives. The family members decorate the dolls with flowers, incense, and food.

There are new dolls and old dolls.....

and very old dolls with moss growing on them.

Though it's nice to learn about other cultures and religions, I am so grateful for what we know.

Tokyo Temple. The light colored building next to it, is our ward building.

The entrance of the temple.

Unfortunately the drink truck was in front of our building.......

We are so blessed to have a temple here in Tokyo.

May each of you feel the gratitude and love that we have for each of you.

Until next week.

Loves, hugs, and kisses,

"Mom and Dad"

"Grandma and Grandpa"

"Uncle Kent and Grandma Barb"

"Kent and Barb"