Don't Miss the Last Train : (

When traveling by train is your only way home, make sure you know when the last train is. Sunday we were in Tokyo for church and stayed for an evening concert. Yoko's instructor from one of her aerobics classes joined us for our church/cafe's monthly Gospel Fest. A good time was had by all, and we left around 10:30. Due to the distance that we had to travel combined with the time we left Tokyo, we soon realized that we may not make it all the way home. That is in fact what happened. In our journey back we got the last possible train that runs from the outskirts of Tokyo to where we needed to go. We were very thankful for that, otherwise we would have been stranded 10 or more stations from where we live. Nonetheless, we still didn't make it all the way home. Since we were on the last train of the night, its last stop was 4 stations from ours. Thankfully, Yoko's mom in very gracious and came and got us at 1:00 am.
Our church has a number of events and recently Yoko volunteered to take pictures at one of them. Due to the low light, she had to use a high ISO to compensate and ended up with grainy pictures. She touched them up as best she could on Photoshop, and they turned out okay. The church staff really liked her composition and has asked her to take pictures at a community event next week. So, all this to say we bought a new lens. It is a Sony 50mm F1.4. We chose this lens due to its low f-stop which will enable us to take pictures in low light with out having to use as high an ISO. This lens will be put to good use especially when crumb crunchers come along.

A Year Older, Immigration, and Tokyo Tower

How time flies! We all know that fact of life. Erik turned 35 recently and realizes that he is now closer to 40 than 30. Yoko put together a nice day for him. It included pizza, root beer, fruit tart, and friends. Erik has never had a better wife than Yoko. She is definitely his best wife.

We mentioned in our last post that Yoko took the TOIEC test. Today she received her score, 850 out of 990. With this being the first time she took the test, she is happy with her score but wants to try again in the future.

Last Friday we spend the day getting a new passport for Yoko and renewing Erik's visa for Japan. All said, it wasn't as time consuming as we thought it would be. The immigration office, as with the ones in the States, is a great place to people watch. Some of the husband/wife combinations sure are interesting (take us for example: )

This past Sunday we headed to Tokyo Tower after church. Just as we arrived at the tower, we were blessed with a full rainbow. We rode the elevator to the main observatory and found where most of the residents of Tokyo were. This past weekend marked the start of summer vacation for school kids; Monday was a national holiday, and a lot of people like to see the night view of Tokyo; all this contributed to a lot of people hanging out in and around the tower. Despite the crowds we had a good time there.

Yeah for Costco!!

With it being a rainy Thursday morning and a couple hours before work starts, what would be better than getting a new blog post up? Our last post created quite a few responses which we are always glad to get.

Last Friday Erik had a one day teaching job at JFE Steel, Japan's second largest steel company. He had posted his resume on-line, and a company that provides teachers for business found him. Erik will be back at JFE in early August to teach again. While Erik was working, Yoko went out with her mom and a friend of theirs who has a membership to Costco. That's right; Costco exists here in Japan. What did Yoko come home with? A Large block of real cheddar cheese, bagels, 2 very large jars of chunky peanut butter and cereal brought a big smile to Erik's face. Yoko said that the food section is twice as large as what is found in the U.S. due to there being most of the foods found in the U.S. plus an enormous selection of Japanese foods. The above purchased products can be found in regular supermarkets, but they are extremely expensive and in small quantities.

Sunday we unfortunately had to miss church due to Yoko taking the TOEIC test which is only offered on Sunday. This is a English aptitude test that is widely recognized throughout Japan. She feels she did alright, but we will have to wait ONE MONTH for the results. With all the modern equipment, bullet trains, high tech cell phones, and robots in Japan, one would think they could get the results out a little quicker. Lord, help us accept those things which we cannot change : )

We are currently in the midst of the hydrangea season. The flowers found in Japan are quite beautiful.