After several months of preparation we are finally in Tokyo. And we realize now there is no way that you can possibly fully prepare for what hits you when your mission starts.

After a very long flight we arrived to drizzling rain in Tokyo. It took us over an hour to get through Customs, fill out and receive the forms we needed to collect our shipment of household good that were shipped from Hawaii. President and Sister Node were there to greet us as we came through the door. They asked if we wanted pictures and we frankly felt so tired we weren’t sure we wanted to document our arrival.

We had several bags and a couple of extra totes so the APs came in another van to collect our luggage and then we rode home in the van with President and Sister Node. We arrived to our new apartment in Minami-Azabu where we were greeted by Hiro, the brother in charge of preparing everything for our arrival. We felt half asleep (it was 2:00 a.m. Utah time) as he showed us through the apartment and taught us how to use all the appliances. Since everything is in Japanese we tried to pay as much attention to what he was telling us but it was difficult because we were so tired.

Our new home is beautiful! We are the first to occupy the apartment as the church just completed the building in April. It is a large apartment, 2600 square feet, taking up the entire 8th floor of the Coteau Minami-Azabu Apartment building and it is shaped a bit like a square C. On our end of the apartment we have our Master bedroom and bath along with another 1/2 bath, laundry room, and office we both share. The other end of the house has a place for missionaries to study along with three bedrooms and another bath. The two ends of the apartment are connected with a long set of rooms, a study place, family room, dining room and living room, all of which have a full wall of windows looking out over the city. We love that we can see the top of Tokyo Temple out our bedroom window. The furnishing are beautiful but not the most comfortable. There are no bright lights in the house, just soft subtle lighting which should help to calm us each night. We laugh that we haven’t had a TV in 20 years but in this apartment we have three. Not sure we will ever have time to watch them.

Japan has many things we love. Toilet seats automatically go up when you enter the room and flush automatically if you forget to flush. The dishwasher has a mechanism that opens the door about three inches when the dishes are washed, allowing the hot air out and the dishes to dry.

Just a few doors down we have a 7-11. This is not your USA 7-11. Twice this week we have come home so tired and exhausted after 8:00 p.m. and we have just gone to 7-11 to get a piece of chicken and a croquette (a patty of mashed potatoes that is crunchy on the outside but soft and flavorful on the inside.) We love the breads they have too! One is Melon Bread and it is soft roll inside but they take a thin sugar cookie crust and put it around the outside so when they bake it the outside is crunchy and inside is soft.

Japan is a very safe place but we have to use our electronic key to enter the building, use it again to get to the elevators, use in again in the elevator in order to enter the floor you want. We can never just ‘step out’ without our key or we won’t get back in.

We are a four minute walk from the Tokyo Temple and the Annex building were our mission home is located. The Annex also houses a chapel which we attended on our first Sunday. They announced a Sister missionary had just returned from her mission in Laie, Hawaii and we were eager to speak with her afterward.

We are not sure our missionaries feel a lot of confidence in us. We have messed up several times in the first week. Laurie turned off her phone to enjoy Sacrament meeting only to have Sister Ili come and get her half way through the meeting. A set of sister had been trying to call several times and finally contacted the Sister missionaries that meet in that church building. It was Laurie’s first medical call and luckily the Medical Advisor was in that ward so Laurie just got him on the phone to handle the problem. We fell in bed Sunday night, totally exhausted, around 9:00 p.m. and missed all the phone calls that came in after that. We were dead to the world so we didn’t hear the calls from the sister in Nakano (they felt they were in danger) nor did we hear the calls of the APs who were also trying to let us know the Sisters had called them. When we awoke so rested on Monday morning we saw the problem and immediately set to work to solve it. It’s almost better our sleep wasn’t disturbed because there really was no danger. They had been out of the apartment that day and when they returned they noticed some rope had been tied to their lanai. They were sure someone had been in the apartment while they were gone and had tied that rope. It turns out it was the Sister who had been in that apartment the transfer before – she tied it there to hang her laundry.

We are adjusting to everyone driving on the left side of the road and seeing drivers and steering wheels on the left side of the car. They usually walk on the left side of the sidewalk also. Steve tried his skills behind the wheel this weekend. The mission van is very large and the roads are very narrow. In spite of the great job Steve did Laurie was a little uptight as we passed cars and brushed against the foliage on the side of the road.

We have been using our morning walks (sunrise is at 4:30 a.m.) to explore the city around us. One morning while walking we saw uniformed policeman standing outside of several residence. We are surround by all the embassies and they are easy to recognize because of the security. There is also a large park close by where we like to walk. It has beautiful pond and it’s on a hill so we can get a better work out. I love the sounds of cicadas that we have just started to hear. Elderly Japanese people are there doing all kinds of stretches and exercises. We’ve noticed there are so many people with dogs. They walk in the morning with their dogs because there are fewer people on the streets. They are usually smaller dogs so Steve doesn’t get his blood pressure up too high. There is one woman who has the oldest dog. I almost feel bad for the dog, that the woman makes it walk. It looks like it will fall over at any minute. It’s a city with a lot of hustle and bustle but we are loving it more each day.

Our highlight so far was meeting our missionaries! We have some really great missionaries here in Tokyo South Mission. Like every mission, you have some missionaries that struggle and others that are so dedicated to their missionary purpose. Many of them were easy to spot as they came into the meetings. Each zone wanted to make us feel welcome. Knowing we had come from Hawaii they made us leis – leis made of origami cranes. One Elder made Laurie a lei of origami lotus flowers and another made a lei of many small cranes. One Japanese Elder brought us homemade cookies even. In meeting all of our missionaries we have discovered that they are very talented people. We have encouraged them to pray to be guided about how they can use their talents to serve the people here in Japan.

This is one of our six zones. Naturally each zone wanted to do a silly picture.

It has been stifling hot and muggy here. It has reached 100 degrees but if you add the humidity it takes it up another ten degrees. When we walk each morning it is in the 80s. Several of the missionaries have struggled with dehydration.

The Tokyo North Mission Leaders, the Deshlers, lives in the same apartment building with us, even though that puts them out of their mission boundaries. They asked if we would like to go out for dinner with them. They chose the Hard Rock Cafe in Roppongi, the part of Tokyo that missionaries are not allowed in. We found it amusing to be sitting in the Hard Rock Cafe with rock music blaring in a place we won’t allow our missionaries but we did enjoy our dinner with the Deshlers.