Day 7 cont'd

After the financial fiasco was taken care of, and lunch was eaten, we were supposed to meet up with the Shizuoka team because they were up in Tokyo. We decided to take the train to Harajuku and met up with the Kobata and Hayashi gangs. By the time we met up with the other group it was close to 4:45 Here are some of the pics I took today

Day 7

Today we had some problems pulling together our monies to pay for the dorm we've been staying in. However after a few trips to the bank, post office and ATM, things got straightened out. Ken, Tony, Sean and I spent some time on the Waseda University campus tossing around the frisbee. When the security guards told us we had to stop (After about 10 minutes) we busted out the guitar to jam some worship tunes. And while I was playing the first song "Beautiful One," we were asked to stop that as well. We decided to move off campus and looked for a park. Ken asked the security guard where the nearest park was, and he pointed us toward Toyama Park (which was only a 3 minute walk from our dorm). We got there to find a small patch of dirt with a homeless man and a business man sitting on two of the three benches that were there. We thought, this is lame, but nevertheless we busted out the frisbee and guitar in hopes of sparking conversation or interest in the passers by. I did my best to invite some of the college aged, children and few adults that walked passed our base camp, but no one stopped or even gave us the time of day. There was a woman named seated near the bike racks so I asked if she wanted to play frisbee. To my dismay, she said she was a mother and was waiting for her children to meet her there.

After about an hour of non interaction, we needed to leave and head back to the room. But we found a dirt trail with people walking down it. Only to find out that we weren't even at the park. That was just the enterance. The park is actually quite large so we took a quick look around and decided that we'd head back to the park tomorrow August 1 to do our best to be a light at that park.

Day 6 cont'd 3

After our time in Yokohama we headed back to to Nakano to watch our new friend Justin play in a "live house." Japan has taken the concept of an open mic session and revamped it. So what a live house is, is a place (ie.bar) that a band reserves for a few hours to perform their music. The bar provides food, and drinks for an entry fee. Justin's band was recently compiled of some fellow Sophia University students. It was a great time of music and fellowship!

Day 6 cont'd 2

We also ate lunch there and saw cool stuff

Day 6 cont'd

After Church, we traveled around Yokohama for a little while in search of lunch, and found ourselves at the Sogo Mall in search of some sportswear. We were unsuccessful, but did find some Sanrio stuff. There were a lot of cool sites to see from this place, go figure...

Day 6

Today was awesome. We went to worship with Yokohama Grace Bible Church at their Wednesday mid day service. It was great to worship with them and speak with Pastor Scott about Japan and its need for Christ. We were able to take part in praying over one of their members who recently lost his wife. What an amazing time to worship with our family in Japan.

Sushi Dinner

Day 5 cont'd2

After lunch and prayer walking we went back to the dorm we're staying at to get Arlen, Melissa and Sean settled in and to relax for a little while.  At around 6:15 we headed out to Shinjuku in search of some sushi and boy did we get it.

Day 5 cont'd

More misc Waseda pics...

Day 5

This morning we started off with a more American style breakfast.  Tony, Ken and I set out for Chat Noir in search of a little taste of home.  We all got eggs, sausage, toast, salad and beverage.  We also ordered a side of their special pizza toast which was terrific!

After breakfast we spent some time relaxing and waiting for Arlen, Melissa and Sean to meet us at the Waseda station.  We had planned to meet up around 11:15ish, but they missed their first train and we got a little mixed concerning where we'd meet so we ended up uniting around 12:30pm.  After meeting up we picked up some lunch at Tenya (where Ken, Tony, Glen and I ate our first dinner) where I had sake chazuke and cold udon.  Boy it was tasty.

Day 4 cont'd3

More Harajuku pics...

Day 4 cont'd2

After lunch / early dinner, Minori took us to Harajuku.  We walked around and even bought a couple things.  I think we need to hit up Harajuku one more before we head back home.  Luckily its not that far from where we are staying.  Harajuku is grrrreat!

Day 4 cont'd

Lunch was great!  I have been experiencing many new dishes daily and today was no exception.  Today for lunch we had ramen.  Not like Top Ramen or Maruchan, but ramen was made of the noodles.  We asked Minori where we should o to  to get lunch.  So for luch we ate ramen with a twist.  The soup base was actually a tomato bisque which was awwwsomeee!

Day 4

Today was a great day.  But like any mission trip, you'd expect there to be some slight bumps in the road.  Today we started the day off with a little bump.  We got a call at 9:15 am from Pastor Glen informing us that we needed to check out of the dorm we were staying in.  We had originally been instructed that we'd need to check out of on Tuesday and move to another room, so getting this news on Monday morning was quite a shocker.  

We were also instructed that we would be going to Sophia University to meet up with Justin (from Grace Tokyo) to do a prayer walk.  If you are unfamiliar with a prayer walk, it is essentially walking throughout a location (for us Sophia University) while praying aloud.  After cleaning up our room and checking out, we hopped on the train to Yotsuya and met Justin on Campus at 12 pm.  A little after we arrived, Justin introduced us to two other visiting Hawaii friends, Keiko and her brother Derrick.  Justin gave us the tour of the campus and soon after that we prayer walked across the Sophia University campus.

After our initial prayer walk, we convened near one of the student cafeterias and played some worship songs.  We had a great time, and as we were playing and singing a guy named Yusuke poked his head in and I asked him what his name was and tried to include him in our conversation.  After talking with him for a little while, I found out that he is originally from Canada and is desperately missing fellowship and worshiping with other believers. He actually said that he would check out church on sunday.