From the Hills of the West to the Edge of the Far East

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.