Japan Sojourn

Hi from Japan! Pam and I are 3/4 of the way through our 15 day visit with Andrew (our oldest son) and his wife Michiko, who live in Tokyo. On Oct 1st we travel on to Uganda. We had a frantic last two weeks in Australia trying to complete packing, preparations of our house for rental and a long to-do list re moving countries. We had a HUGE amount of help from folk in our Church HT family but didn't quite make it - but some wonderful folk from HT carried on to complete the task of house prep after we left! We have been very busy in Japan: making phone calls and emails re arrangements for moving countries and other communications; Allan doing some emergency work for the IT company he works part-time for; some sightseeing and shopping in Tokyo; two day visit to Mt Fuji and surrounding countryside with Michiko's parents; three day visit to Hiroshima and the nearby island Miyajima with Andrew. Also we had a typhoon during one day and we were woken with an earthquake that night! We haven't had a lot of time to catch our breath and think of Uganda, but Uganda is coming up fast!

Area in Tokyo where Andrew & Michiko live

Tokyo CBD skyline out of a car window

A Japanese restaurant - not so easy sitting on the floor!

Pam, Andrew & Michiko

Mt Fuji from a parking lot

A country hotel - shoes off at the front door!

A cave near Mt Fuji that has permanent ice - even during a hot summer

Andrew, Michiko and Mich's mum, upper slopes of Mt Fuji in the background

Lots of cars in Japan but also many bikes used by young, old and in between

Building in Hiroshima left as-is after the A-bomb

Funny sign translations, not uncommon - these on a ferry

View from top of mountain at Miyajima island near Hiroshima

Pam is facinated by the high tech toilets - beam me up Scotty!

Downtown Tokyo is loud and very busy late into the night
(Andy & Mich's heads in the foreground)

Final week before departure

We are now in our final week before departure. Just 5 days to go! We are frantically working to finish clearing/preparing the house for rental and trying to get through the myriad things that need to be done before leaving the country for an extended time - it is amazing how complicated it is! We have had stupendous help from a number of folk, a few spending a substantial part of their day at our house - we would be lost without this level of support. We may (most likely) won't have the house clearing/preparation completely done before departure but have some willing volunteers to complete the job after we depart. Some things we will do via Skype to phone from Japan (e.g. cancel electricity, water etc). We are putting in very long hours to try and get things ready but in the end we can only do what we can and leave the rest in the hands of God and willing helpers. He alone is our strength. We are also saying many goodbyes and also receiving unexpected visitors and phone calls.