What a "whirlwind" week we had starting on Sunday, March 24th. After an 11-hour flight from Seattle, that started Saturday about noon, we landed at Haneda International Airport in Tokyo. We didn't get much sleep and with the time change it was Sunday afternoon. We somehow skipped Saturday evening all together. Our Mission President and his wife (The Node's) met us at the airport and took us to their home for the evening. They were very gracious and gave us a very warm welcome. They fed us a nice meal and sent us off to bed! They would take us to our new apartment in the morning. Ready or not!
Before we left in the morning for our new "home" near Camp Zama, we posed for a picture of Japan that shows the boundaries and location of the Japan Tokyo South Mission.
It took over an hour to drive from the Mission Home to our new Apartment. President Node drove our little Toyota and we rode with Sister Node in the van with our baggage. Our first stop was at the Zama City offices to get registered as new "residents" and apply for the mandatory Japanese National Health Insurance...that took over 4 hours!
With a very quick orientation to our apartment and such, the Node's left for home and were now on our own to figure out what was what...all the switches, appliances and such were all in Japanese. We quickly learned how to use the Google Translate App on our phones. Our view is shown above
The rest of the week was full of activity and went by in a blur. It included: Driving our car on the other side of the road, and getting our gate pass at Camp Zama --that took two attempts (and it was raining). We visited the Camp Zama Food Court (frozen in time from 15 years ago it seemed), a trip to the Base Exchange (PX) and Commissary for things we needed and food to eat! Then went to the NAF (Navy base) at Atugi, our other area of responsibility, to find our mailbox, and try and meet some people...we met the Chaplain and we volunteered to come back on Saturday to help with the Atugi Kid's Fest (see below!)
On Thursday we drove to another town "Fujisawa" and met our district missionaries for the weekly District Council and lunch...Sister Nelson invited the Easter Bunny. Then we stopped by a "Daiso" store (the 100-Yen Store) and picked up a few more things we needed, and then we ventured home. 
I should mention that we are doing the JET LAG thing ...wake up at 0330 and by 4pm we are totally wasted and falling asleep...that lasted until Sunday....
Sounds great...the catch...we had to venture out into the world of trains. We did OK, but it took four train train transfers and about 90 minutes to make it to the Tokyo Temple...which is beautiful. It was rededicated about 2 years or so ago and includes a large Annex that houses the Tokyo North Mission Offices, a large chapel, a visitors center, and a small Distribution Center.
We met up with the Parish Family and enjoyed some time with them including a special time in the Tokyo Temple, a very yummy Japanese restaurant, and the concert.
After the concert, at about 8pm, we made our way back to the train station and proceeded to take four trains back home to Camp Zama. We got home close to 11pm. Way past our missionary and jet-lagged bedtime. As I mentioned, on Saturday we helped at the Atsugi Kids Fest!
We then ventured to the much nicer NAF Atsugi Commissary and bought a few more groceries. ALAS, the day is not over yet. We drove back to our apartment, had dinner, and then drove to a new place, the Yamato Church Meetinghouse (where we go on Sunday for Church), to meet the missionaries at 7pm for a teaching opportunity with one of their friends (new name for investigator). After that, we finally drove back home (30 minutes) and called a day at about 9:30pm.
I think it's now Sunday. We have been in Japan for one week.
It was Easter Sunday. We drove to Church got to attend a baptism, and then attended our church meeting (we we asked at both events to introduce ourselves and share our testimony). We met a bunch of new people too! We also got invited for an Easter dinner later on at one of the member's home. The day is almost over... we later tuned into an all-mission-wide Zoom devotional that evening.
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