samedi, novembre 13, 2004 I'm blogging in Japan! As per Mei Yen's request. The flight here was at a terrible hour, but I had an interesting seatmate - a Christian minister who, by his own admission, had been to Japan "at least 45 times" in his lifetime, because his church in Hawaii had planted at least 6 churches in Japan.We didn't talk much, but when we did, I asked him about his life (he adopted his eldest daughter who is Korean German, and his youngest daughter is going into campus ministry once she graduates next year), and asked him if he had been to Israel etc. "Three times," he said. I asked him if it were safe, and he said yes - relatively. The Israelites have a vested interest to keep the place safe, because tourism accounts for almost all their income. Once a place is deemed "unsafe" by the government (of Israel, or of any other country), people stop visiting, which means no income. This sounds very cool, since I'm thinking of going there in July. Customs took an hour, which made me miss my bus to Kijijoji station - I had to wait an hour for the next bus. In the meantime, I bought a telephone card, which DIDN'T WORK for the duration of the time I was in the airport. I spent 45 minutes trying to call Mei Yen, and finally gave up and used coins. A kind airport official helped this stupid suspicious looking gaijin telephone the company and ask what was up with the telephone. A voice on the other end explained that the phonecard was actually meant for overseas calls, and the access number that I had to dial was therefore sometimes very busy. A two hour nauseating bus ride to Kijijoji later, I met Mei Yen, and yay! am in her lovely neighbourhood of Mitaka. I spent the next day pretty much recovering from the travel trauma (not that bad actually, but the bus ride really wiped me out), and spent the rest of the time familiarising myself with her neighbourhood. And that's pretty much it! Oh, and I can't make it to Nagoya anymore - that's the location of my very first mission trip EVER in 2002 - because of some scheduling problems - the persons whom I want to visit will not be free to meet me, so I now have two extra days in Tokyo than I planned. I'm sure I'll find a way to while away the time. Cheaply, I hope. :)
[Tokyo, Japan: Day 1 and Day 2] |
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