Hi all!
I'm sorry it's been so long since I've been able to update this - so long in fact that I'm now no longer in Japan, but Germany, which is absolutley beautiful! I arrived last night and apparently it just started snowing yesterday, to guarantee a white Christmas:).
The week touring Japan with Yogi was absolutely fantastic. I met up with him on Monday in Sendai, and then we missioned off up north to Hokkaido where we spent Monday night in Hakodate and Tuesday night in Furano - where the snow was deepest, temperature coldest, but youth hostel the warmest and friendliest. It really was a lovely place to stay, and so beautiful! On Wednesday we spent about 12 hours on the trains in total getting all the way back to Sendai to visit Yogs' sister and stay the night with Becs (another DCBC friend over here working on the JET programme). Then Thursday was another huge train day ending us in Awa Ikeda in the Iwa Valley on Shikoku island. I was most dismalated that day when we went through Osaka to discover that my very favourite all-u-can-eat conveyor belt sushi and cake restaurant was closed!!! Oh, woe was us! But it's amazing how much better a Kit Kat can make you feel - go the chocolate!!
The Youth Hostel in Awa Ikeda was up on a mountainside and it snowed during the night, so was just beautiful to go for a walk around in the early hours of Friday morning. Back on the train we made our way all the way to Nagasaki on Kyushuu, managing to set foot on three of Japan's four main islands in one day! It seemed that it was snowing everywhere we went, but that was fine with us! Nagasaki was great - lots to see and do around town, and the trams, hills and night lights reminded Yogi very much of San Fransisco. On Saturday moirning we visited the Nagasaki Peace Park and Atomic Bomb museum - very well done I thought, and quite moving. Then back on the train, we headed for Kyoto for our last night of the weeks travel. The station was just as amazing as I remembered, and even more so because of the huge Christmas decorations! We took a wander around the centre of town, the covered arcades, and a gorgeous park near the hostel - all in the snow, of course!
On Sunday morning we were up in time to catch the shinkansen (JUST - we sprinted as I've never sprinted before!!) that would get us to Tokyo in time to get to the 11:30am worship service at TBC (Tokyo Baptist Church). Lunch at the good old Outback steakhouse was fantastic too, and then I went to Shibuza to do some messages, and then take Zogi to the station where he was meeting his family friend, and we said goodbye. Our rail passes served us well, and I calculated that I used 4.9 times the value that I paid for it!!!
I stayed with Steve and Fumiko on Sunday night, and then had another very early rise (5:30am) to perform the 3 hours train trip and connections to get to Narita in time to catch my 10:40am flight to Frankfurt. As seems to have been the case with all my flights on this trip, it was delayed, but that was no huge loss. It was a really good flight, even though I didn't even try to get any sleep (catching up on journal entries and watching movies), although it really is strange to hear so much German. Not having been in Europe since I was 5, it's sooooo odd!! But very cool at the same time. Time for Japanese to re-exit my thoughts, and perhaps for French to come and take its place?
I hope all of you have a wonderful Christmas, wherever you are. God bless you all,
Lisa
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