Day 9: Happy birthday Aunt Sarah

Day 9: Monday

We picked the perfect day to celebrate Sarah’s birthday: Japan was experiencing a typhoon!! (Whoever thought we would experience a typhoon?!?) It actually wasn’t as thrilling as I’d imagined…lots of rain and a bit of wind. We had a terrific time nestled indoors. We began the day with German pancakes (a Harrington family birthday tradition). Then we opened presents, worked on a birthday cake, played some Wii Resort and Settlers (of course), made some hair bows, and the guys ended the day with a visit to the onsen. It was all around good family fun!!

Uncle Chris and Calvin journaling together.

Mark, my messy eater :-)

Day 8: Oymino Chapel

Day 8: Sunday

The Pfeil family worships at Oyumino chapel which has a bilingual service. I wish you all could have experienced the morning with us. It was a gift!.--- I’m always struck when people are worshiping God in multiple languages. It’s a glimpse of heaven! After church we went to lunch at McDonald’s. While I waited at the table… (the rest of the crew was getting the food)… a woman came up to me and asked if I taught English. Jon and Sarah came and gave her some contact information for the mission’s language classes. I pray that she goes and learns about Christ!!

Children's Church at Oyumino Chapel

Day 7: Toyko

Day 7: Saturday

Jon, Sarah, Chris, Mark, and I left early in the morning to begin our adventure in Toyko. Chris probably took over 200 pictures from the train on the way to the city--- that’s how excited we were!! The pictures will tell the rest of the story…

Apartment buildings---(so may people who don't know Christ)

I just had to throw in this cute picture :-)

"I'm not going to sleep!-- I can't miss this!"

So strong!!

Entrance gate before the temple

Shops along the way to the temple

More gates to the temple. What a good looking couple!

people cleansing themselves prior to entering the temple

Inside the temple: (the temple was covered in scaffolding and tarps for construction, so I didn't include a picture of the outside)

People praying to the gods in the temple

Mark brought lots of attetion his way. People took pictures with him and felt compelled to give him things... These men thought they needed to fan him (I guess it was hot outside!).

Octopus balls!! These are like pancake balls with octopus in them!

chicken and cucumber on a stick-- a delicious and refreshing snack :-)

This intersection stops traffic in all directions every couple minutes to let people cross-- The number of people never diminishes! It's nuts!!

Dinner: Jon and Sarah searched high and low so we could experience this special type of dinner: Okinomiyaki. After much persistence they found this fantastic, hole-in-the-wall place. The alley to get to the restaurant was so narrow we had to collapse Mark's stroller! It was definitely worth the wait!...yum!! We even brought back the ingredients to make it in the States. I can't wait!

Who knew crepes were so big (literally and figuratively) in Japan?!? We got our with ice cream, strawberries and chocolate...ooo la la! :-) A great finish to a great day!

Japan: Hotcakes

Day 6: Friday

Hotcakes

Once a month Sarah brings the kids to Hotcakes. This is a learning play time for young kids. I've never been to a Gymboree class, but I imagine it's similar (however, Hotcakes doesn't have all the colorful play equipment). We had fun trying to figure out the names of all the animals they sang about. It was hard to distinguish between the word for the animal and the sound the animal makes--- in Japanese they use different animal sounds (ex: "wan wan" instead of "woof woof"). After Hotcakes we took a trip to Jusco for lunch. I was thrilled when we found shrimp chips at a Chinese stand!!! Growing up I used to get shrimp chips when my family ate Thai food. Annabella loved them!!---which could be partly due to the fact that they are pink!! :-)

Great Helpers!!

We finished the day with more Settlers in the afternoon then watching the kids for Sarah and Jon as they were at a planning meeting for their mission team. Olivia and Annabella were fantastic helpers all night. These sweet nieces made the evening a terrific one...thanks girls!! :-)

Things Learned:

1) "Taco" means octopus

2) everything has a sound effect in Japanese