End of May Already!

We have been here nearly three weeks! I have never taken so many pictures in my life. It is fun to look back and see what we have done already. Here I am at a restaurant with Sister Brown, Sister Robertson (lives downstairs) and Emi - works in the Church Office Building. We were at lunch to say goodbye to Sister Brown and a couple of others who will be leaving very soon! This is then name of the restaurant - interesting name, huh! Sister Aoyagi is coming out the door. If she looks familiar, her picture was in the conference issue this month. Her husband is a counselor in the North Asia Area presidency.

Rulon in his new pajamas!

Ordering a chicken sandwich at McDonalds. It cost nearly $7 and we split it. Won't do that again!

Interesting relief on a wall as we were walking yesterday on our way to Tokyo Hands which is a combination hardware/Target type store. We bought two pair of shoelaces - that's all! But we had an adventure getting there and back on the subway and the Japan Railroad. We did it all by ourselves!

I love the architecture here - this building is so tall and narrow. Looks like each floor has one apartment.

It's fun to look for signs - deja vu, anyone?

There are flower shops everywhere!

We were walking along a busy street tonight and there was a lot of police activity. I don't know what was going on but there were policemen at every intersection.

Several big buses with wire on the windows looked like they were there to put rowdy people in if there were riots.

I saw a procession with cars and on one was the flag of Japan. So maybe it was just a dignitary going by in a motorcade. Wish I understood the news.

I asked this lady if I could take this picture of her dog - he was dressed for the cool evening.

As we came down a steep incline, I saw this sign with the turtle. I think it must say to go slow!

This is Mori Tower - a landmark that we look for when we are walking.

See the fat building and the two skinny ones? The Japanese use every bit of space they can.

Blue Man Group billboard.

A fun little drugstore.

Outside of many restaurants you will see plastic food showing the offerings. The menu is also there so you can see the prices.

Another 100 Yen store - they are everywhere.

I finally got a good picture of a crow. They are huge here and you hear a lot of cawing.

A woman in a kimono - a minute later she was on her cell phone!

Want to go to the Hair Garden?

I took this for Dan - it was a sign near the subway station.

We walked so far and turned the wrong way. We were turned around. Luckily the angel missionaries were riding by and helped us see where we were.

Another familiar logo!

I thought of Ella and Tanna when I saw these banners with Hello Kitty on them!

When we finally reached familiar territory, we were very happy! This is Hanamasa - our little grocery store.

This is another landmark that we look for - notice the sign No Man's Land with the arrow pointing down.

But this is the best landmark of all! The Angel Moroni shows us where we are! We live just a couple of minutes from the temple.

We were glad to get home - now to pack for a week away. I will blog again when we return from Korea.

Kobe Trip Pictures (1 of 3)

A man with a rickshaw posed for me! He was trying to show that he is very strong and could pull us up the hill!

This monk was chanting and waving something around. Of course, he had a bowl for offerings in his other hand. I think he was there for the tourists.

We gave him some coins and he waved the wand all over parts of our body. We hope he was blessing us and not cursing us!

Here is the oldest wooden structure in the world. We had to take a bus ride way out in the country to see it. Not as impressive as the temple we had seen earlier in the day, but still amazing. Another pagoda

Ancient tree - not so ancient couple!

Having trouble with getting our ticket into the slot - out of a box in the wall popped some help! He was just like a jack in the box!

Elder Doyle Brown (Area Medical Advisor), Jeanne Brown, Rica McIntyre, President William McIntyre, Elder Rulon Gibson (Area Mental Health Advisor), Barbara Gibson in front of the mission home in Kobe, Japan.

With the Kobe sisters at zone conference May, 26, 2010.

Zone Conference - Kobe, Japan May 26, 2010

Me in front of the church in Kobe.

This is a sign in the neighborhood of the church, mission home, and mission office. It says something like "Let's get the mafia out of our neighborhood". And they don't mean the Mormons. There is a huge mafia compound just down the street. There are huge rock walls, security cameras, guards, etc. Apparently when the earthquake hit in 1995, the Mormons and the Mafia worked together to help those who had lost homes and lives. Their properties were still intact! Everything has been built up now and it looks like nothing had ever happened.

We went down to the Kobe harbor for dinner - it is right on the Pacific Ocean and is so beautiful!

We ate at a Brazilian restaurant where they cut the meat off these huge skewers as many times as you would like. Most of it was too rare for me but the chicken was delicious. There was a huge buffet table also and we really had a good meal.

The harbor at night - all lit up!

I couldn't resist taking these next two pictures. This is one of the wonderful Japanese toilets that has a warmed seat and will wash you after you do your business! I want one! This one was in the mission home where we stayed. We don't have one in our apartment. At least ours isn't a squatty potty!

These are the buttons you push to direct the water to the area you want washed!

And this is the picture of the 2nd zone conference on May 27, 2010. The mission is combining with the Hiroshima Mission in July and so will be much larger and it will be a huge area. There will be a lot more travel for President McIntyre when he does interviews.

All in all, a wonderful experience for our first zone conferences. The McIntyres were so wonderful and we know that the missionaries just love them. Dad gave his power point presentation on "Coping with Discouragement" and did an excellent job. I just introduced us and gave my testimony. Dad was able to meet with a few of the missionaries during the afternoons when they were practicing their approaches. Sister Brown and I took walks around the neighboods when our husbands were busy. It was a very uplifting couple of days. We look forward to four conferences in Korea next week!