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