A Saturday in Japan

We packed fairly light for Japan...everything in backpacks (rather large, heavy backpacks (mine being the heaviest...good thing Justin liked to carry it so much;) ) because we would be moving around so much. On Sat. we walked a good distance to member's house...they had invited us for an early lunch before we left for Aizu Wakamatsu. I was nervous about people feeding us, because I wasn't sure if I would like the food. Ended up that the worrying was for naught...I loved this food. In fact, I think it was the best of the whole trip.
...just the beginning- there was so much food!

The man and the woman on the lower right were our hosts. Everyone else in the pic are guests. She spoke a little English. They were very nice.

After lunch they took us out for a view of the city. There is a HUGE Buddha statue...he is supposed to be protecting the city.

They took us to a library where we could see out all the windows:

This guy loved Justin. He was great. He sang us the theme song to Team America World Police...he didn't know what he was saying when the profanity came out. haha

After viewing the city, they all walked us to the train station.

When we arrived in Aizu, we were met by Chizuko and her son Haru, and her niece Ami. They were so kind and helpful. They drove us to our hotel and then to some fun places. I am not going to remember real names...first, we went to a place where 16 young Samurai warriors committed suicide...they saw their castle on fire and thought they had lost the battle...in fact, they weren't losing...one didn't succeed in his efforts and lived to tell the tale. This site memorializes them.

Justin and I decided we wanted to race up these stairs...There were 4 flights of them...Let's keep this brief...I won. :)

Ami showed my Dad how to pray.

A little rice field right where we parked the cars.

Next, we headed to a hot spring to soak our feet. The water was pretty dang hot, but if felt nice to sit and relax after I kicked Justin's butt earlier. It was at a hotel, and there were people eating outside in cute little hut things at the restaurant. It was a beautiful place and very peaceful with the light rain that was coming down.

When it was time for dinner, we went to a place where you cook your own meat. My Dad kept asking what kind of meat it was...he didn't really like the answer, "some kind of beef." I think he ate shrimp and rice.

You would think we would be done with walking for the night, but nope...Mark took us on a little tour and then we hit the sack...Sleep came easy this night.

Japan Day One: Sendai

Japan was so much fun and I have so many pictures that there will have to be several posts about the trip. We were able to visit 4 cities, starting with Sendai. We landed in Tokyo and right after our 11+ hour flight, we hopped on a 3 hour train ride with my parents to Sendai. We went straight to bed when we arrived at our hotel around 10:30 pm.
First thing the next morning we headed to the mission home to get Mark! We waited around for about an hour until he showed his face.

It was great to see him again. Seemed like a long time had passed and like it was yesterday we said goodbye all at the same time.

We had to check and see if he had grown any on his mission...he is cheating in this pic and standing on his tippy toes.

After a nice meeting with Mark's Mission president and his wife and all the Zone Leaders (I think that is who they were. ;) We headed out for some lunch with our helpful chauffeur, Moma (I probably spelled that wrong.)

Monma took us to Kapasushi (no idea how to spell that either ha.) Mark gave my parents a quick lesson in chopstick use.

This place was pretty cool because the food just went past your table on a little conveyor belt and if you wanted something, you just took the plate off and ate it. If you wanted to special order something, you did it with that screen in the back and a little train zipped it out to you.

See how quickly my dad learned to use chopsticks? haha! This might be one of my favorite pictures.

It was fun trying some new things and enjoying some things we already had experienced before. A "waitress" would come by your table when you were finished and count the plates on your table. It was approximately $1 a plate and there were 2 pieces of sushi to a plate....too bad this wasn't all of the plates. :)

My parents weren't excited about trying the raw stuff, but they gave it a shot. Needless to say, this wasn't their favorite place to eat. :)

After lunch we went to the church and were able to witness a baptism. It was a unique opportunity for all of us.

Saying goodbye to Monma as he dropped us off at our hotel.

Our day wasn't over yet though...we still had a baseball game to go to! We headed out and got to the eki (again I don't know what this word is really supposed to be, but it means train station...I think.) Justin realized we would probably need the baseball tickets, so we all waited while he ran back to get them.

Here he comes!

Here is where we officially got to make Mark feel like a tourist. He had tried to avoid looking like a tourist his whole mission, and now he wasn't able to avoid it. :)

The game was very cool. It started off pretty entertaining when the Eagles coach (an American who doesn't speak Japanese) gave a demonstration on how the runner couldn't have been safe when his catcher was laying on home plate.

Whichever team was up to bat had their fans chanting and making noise non-stop. The Eagles were the home team and unfortunately lost by one after making a great run for the win in the 9th. The people around us, enjoyed listening to us talk (according to Mark. Luckily he could understand them and they weren't saying mean things about us.;) When Justin got excited and would cheer loudly, some drunk men behind us and some older women in front of us would give us high fives. They seemed to be getting quite the kick out of us.

The atmosphere at the game was very similar to a game in the states, but it was a little strange to see people enjoying plates of sushi instead of hot dogs and peanuts.

Another cool thing the fans did, was blow up this weird balloons, do a cheer, and then let the whistling balloons go. It was a pretty cool site to see. Plus, I think it woke my parents up a bit. ;)

We were definitely ready for bed when the game was over.