Back in Japan, not Tokyo, but Aomori and Fukushima......

Let's step out of Tokyo for another week and go see what is in another part of the country. Two weeks ago, Dad had some business to do in Aomori which is in the northern part of Honshu, and I was invited to tag along. Honshu is the main island of Japan ranging from Aomori down to Hiroshima. You can see Aomori at the top in the green section. If you look below half way between Aomori and Tokyo, you will see Fukushima on the western coast. Fukushima was one of the areas that was affected by the earthquake/tsunami a couple of years ago.

As you can see, Japan consists of five islands. Okinawa is further south and is similar to the climate of Hawaii.

We went to Aomori on the Bullet train. The Bullet train is called "Shinkansen" in Japanese.

This is the "nose" of the Shinkansen that we rode on. However, there are many kinds, colors, and styles of Shinkansen. So sleek looking!

Notice how different this one is from the previous one.

This may look like the one above, but look closely and you will see the difference.

You can see why we call this a Bullet Train. It looks like a shiny, silver bullet. 

Check all these out!

See which nose matches with this Shinkansen....

and this Shinkansen! This is a double decker!

This is the car that we were going to get in.....

but we had to wait a few minutes because......

people were cleaning the entire train, including each seat.

There were about 5 cleaning people in each car. I seriously watched them clean! I was in such shock that I forgot to pull out my camera soon enough to take pictures. When they were finished, they stepped out the door and all together bowed to us before they left. It would be nice if the Shinkansen owners could talk to the American airline company owners and show them how to clean! For some reason, we Americans are losing the desire for cleanliness..... or we are too cheap or too lazy? Hmmmm......

Here is the inside. Notice the head rests. Yes, there are covers on each head rest. They constantly change them. You'll never get lice from the Shinkansen! Yippee!

Here we are on our way to Aomori!

They even have attendants that pamper you by bringing wet towels, snacks, magazines, etc. 

We got to the train station of Shin-Aomori after about a 3 hour ride.

This is a shot of a portion of the train station. We got in a taxi to go to our destination.

As we drove through town, I had to take a couple of pictures including this picture of.....

a hospital. Check out the cute little cartoon character on the wall! I had to giggle when I saw that. I'm not giggling too much about our health care right now......... enough said.

Aomori is a beautiful city with some interesting architecture. It is so hard to take clear pictures when your are on the move in a car.

Aomori is known for it's fresh fish and for it's delicious apples. I have to tell you that these apples beat our American apples hands down. They are sooooo good! When you have never tasted a Japanese apple, you just don't know what you are missing. I wish I could send some to each of you. However, my suggestion to you is to never taste one or you will be grumpy for life! Our apples just don't come close to the taste and texture of these..  

This is a beautiful bridge.........If you can call bridges beautiful!!

We went to a sushi bar that served SERIOUSLY the best sushi that I have ever had!

As you can see, part of the counter is used as your plate! 

The sushi chefs make the sushi and then put it on the black and red counter in front of you. 

We are two happy people with full tummies!

Once we finished our sushi, we went to a fruit stand and bought some apples. Is this a fruit stand? I'm pretty sure it is more than that! We've got things for sale stacked every where.

These are all "seconds" but they tasted like "firsts"!

When we arrived at the train station, there were pictures and kites displayed of these crazy faces......

These faces are called Oni. They are to ward of evil spirits. Man! They could ward off good spirits too! Scare them  all away! However recently, oni have lost some of their original wickedness or scariness and sometimes take on a more protective function. Men in oni costumes often lead Japanese parades to ward off any bad luck, for example. Japanese buildings sometimes include oni-faced roof tiles called onigawara, which are thought to ward away bad luck, much like gargoyles in Western tradition. I'm pretty sure we need to adopt the Oni for parts of our own country!

As you can see, this is a kite.

As well as this one.

We left Aomori on the Shinkansen and headed to Fukushima where we spent Saturday night. We woke up in the morning and went to church. The people were so wonderful and kind. 

This is a Sunday School class. I probably shouldn't have taken a picture, but I couldn't help myself!! Notice the dark thing in the left corner of the picture. It is a blanket wrapped around a young man who has the same sickness as the children of Ito family who live in Salt Lake City. It brought back our fond memories of the Ito's. 

Once we left church, we got in a taxi to go to a meeting that Dad was speaking at. On our way to the meeting we found this......

a JB's Big Boy? I thought that was a thing of the past! No, we didn't stop there.

We arrived at our destination a little early so we decided to look for a place to eat. This is what we found...... 

an unagi restaurant. Now some of you may say, "What is unagi?" It is a kind of fish.......eel to be exact. If you have ever eaten at a sushi restaurant, they serve eel sushi. It is usually a foreigners first try at sushi because it is cooked.

So what does an unagi restaurant serve? Let's see if we can find out.......

Well, this isn't going to do me any good. I can read some of it, but I just don't know what it is. Let's just ask for the special!

We are first served an appetizer.

And what is this? Crispy fried eel spine? Hmmm..........

And what is this? An eel head? Aaaaaa!!!

This is the special? What did we get ourselves into?

How could a nice place like this........

serve such creepy food?

Okay, this looks much better.

Unagi on rice with clear soup and Japanese pickles. Okay people,..... it really was good.

We finished lunch just in time for Dad to go speak to a small group of people. 

Even though it was for a small group, there weren't enough chairs for everyone that showed up.

Last week, I went to the mission home on Tuesday and Thursday to help prepare food for 36 new missionaries that just came in to Japan from the MTC. Here they are getting instruction from President Budge and the two assistants before they leave for their various assignments. 

Elder Hogue and Elder Kerr made the blog this week! Ha!

This is the largest group that has ever come to the Tokyo mission from the MTC. By February, there will be over 214? missionaries in the Tokyo mission. When the Budges arrived last year, they had around 118 missionaries in the mission (if my memory is accurate). The missions around the world are growing by leaps and bounds. These are some incredible young people who are more interested in teaching about the Savior and God than pursuing their own interests. 

So cool!

They were singing a song that President and Sister Budge adopted as their mission song. It was incredible as they sang with energy and passion. I wish I could have recorded it and transferred it to this blog.

These people were mesmerized by the singing. Yes, that table was prepared by the mission president's wife, Lori; the woman in the red and blue who is looking on, Yoko Reese; and yours truly.

Lori prepared the menu and shopping, and Yoko and I put everything together. We had sliced apples, olives, pretzels, lettuce, and.... 

a whole bunch of ham, turkey and chicken salad sandwiches! Because Lori is so good at guessing quantities for the masses, we ended up with only one sandwich left. Nice job! She keeps saying that she NEVER wants to be a caterer because of the stress of preparing these massive amounts of food! I think that I have a few friends out there that can relate! Anne? Brenda? Linda? Holly? 

A group picture was taken before they all left for their various apartments throughout the Tokyo area. We have two missions in Tokyo. This is the Tokyo Mission and the other one is called the Tokyo South Mission. Do any of you know any of these new missionaries in our mission?

This picture is for Rachelle. The sister missionary between me and Yoko is Kuwahara Shimai who knows and loves Rachelle. This was her last day of her 18 month mission. She had mixed feelings about finishing her mission since she loved it so much. She is going to enter the Olympics to be a female javelin thrower for Japan. We will be cheering for her!

This picture is also for Rachelle. Julander Shimai loves you and says hello! Both Julander Shimai and Kuwahara Shimai were on their way home to start their new lives like the rest of us! Good luck to you both!

Some of you may know Jane Edwards. She is from Bountiful and is now serving in our ward. She knows Jeff, so this is a shout-out for you, Elder Derricott! She is loving Japan!

Kent has been in Hawaii for a couple of days and is off to the U.S., India, Hong Kong, and then possibly Malaysia. He's a busy boy! Good luck dear! I'll hold down the fort here in Tokyo. Let's just say, the fort held me up yesterday when we had an earthquake. I was rockin' and rollin' swayin' to the beat of the quake. Okay, I'll admit it was a little freaky since I am on the 27th floor of a high rise. It was only a 5 on the Richter Scale, so no harm done. I can't wait for a stronger quake. I'll really be swinging! 

Dad just sent these pictures to me from Hawaii. Here is what he said:

I was able to attend church in Honolulu today.  The closest church was one that was built in 1941 before Peal Harbor.  It is called the Honolulu Tabernacle and serves as the Stake Center as well.  The design is very unique to the islands with the courtyard and open doors all along the chapel area.  I really really like it!!

I also have to say that there is a happy…sweet (I use that word with great hesitation due to the trite nature of the word anymore)…spirit about the polynesian members that I love as well.

Here are a few photos:

Please have a wonderful week.Take care and know that we love you. May God bless each of you until next week......

Mom and Dad

Grandma and Grandpa

Uncle Kent and Grandma Barb

Kent and Barb