Another miracle! We took our first full P-day. We have had a few P-hours but never a P-day. It wouldn’t have happened if the Harris family wouldn’t have come for a visit. It pushed us to finally take a day off and enjoy what we live among each day. We chose to visit the Meiji Shrine. It is located in a beautiful grove of trees close to Yoyogi Park. The day we visited happened to be a Shichi-go-san, a day when 7, 5 and 3 year olds are celebrated in Japan. They celebrate by dressing up in traditional clothing, visiting a shrine, taking family photos and having dinner together. They also receive a chitose-ame, a long, thin stick of red and white hard candy that symbolizes health, growth, and long life.

We got a good laugh as we watched a father trying to photograph a family while his daughter kept trying to look through his legs.

Meiji Shrine is a Shinto shrine in Shibuya, Tokyo, that is dedicated to the deified spirits of Emperor Meiji and his wife, Empress Shōken. The Shrine was beautiful and even though it is in the middle of a city full of millions of people there is a peaceful feeling and beauty about it. Chrysanthemums are a sign of royalty and they were everywhere throughout the grounds. They have even made little bonsai Chrysanthemums.

We had a wonderful short visit with the Harris family. They were such good sports when we cooked Okonamiyaki for dinner at our house and learned they had eaten it twice already in the last week. Harris’s happen to also be good friends with a Senior Missionary couple in our mission, the Lows. The Lows will be departing the first week of February (sniffle, sniffle) and needed some extra suitcases to move all their things back to Farmington. Lisa didn’t want to bring empty suitcases and so she allowed us to send her a list of things we could use in Tokyo. She did all the shopping for us and filled those suitcases to the brim. It’s mostly baking items that are difficult to find here. Laurie is now stocked up for a couple of months with brown sugar, all kinds of chip (butterscotch, peanut butter, white chocolate) that should last for a few months. Laurie makes about 300 cookies every six week and delivers a couple to each missionary when Steve interviews them. We are so grateful for Lisa’s willingness to shop and deliver the suitcases to us. She even allowed us to fill one with goodies for our children and Chris made a special delivery to them in Provo the week they were all gathering together to bless a new grandbaby, have an early Thanksgiving together, and go Christmas tree hunting.

We expected it would be difficult for us to live in the middle of the city on the 8th floor of an apartment building but each day it feels more and more like home to us. We are learning to love the bustle of the traffic, sidewalks packed with people and the noise of the city. We still do an early morning walk as much as our schedules will allow us to. We love the view out of our bedroom window! We are learning that early morning sunrises in Tokyo (especially with the steeple of the temple right there) are gorgeous. We have had beautiful walks in the cold crisp air. The temperatures are in the low 40s at night and in the 60s during the day. The leaves seem to change so much slower here than in the U.S.

Arisugawa Park, which is across the street from the temple is absolutely beautiful this time of year. The temple spire rises above the tops of the trees.

We pass this building several times a week but were surprised to see the bright red leaves this week. People think of Tokyo as a large city with just buildings and streets but the Japanese make it a point to beautify even the smallest areas with some form of life, whether it be trees on the roof, or several beautiful potted plants outside their door.

There is a little vegetable stand close by which we shop at two and three times a week. This week we found Romanesco and the vegetable man told Laurie it is claimed to be the most beautiful vegetable in the world. We decided to give it a try. Japan has plenty of, but a limited choice of fruits and vegetables. Fruits tend to be quite a bit more expensive here. People have told us there are more varieties of apples than the two we can find here (red or yellow). It is difficult to buy a bunch of celery here. It is sold in two or three pieces only. We love their pumpkin and eat it at least once or twice a week.

Thanksgiving week happened to be Zone Conference week. Laurie decided to make turkey dinner for the Zone meeting on Thanksgiving Day. We purchased four 25 lbs. turkeys at Costco for about $25-30 and a sister two stories below us offered her ovens. A sweet mother in the English speaking ward, Kristie Summers, wanted to give her children an opportunity to serve and so they came and peeled five large Costco bags of potatoes for everyone. Laurie made homemade cranberry sauce and a very large salad. We served that along with corn and for dessert, cheesecake topped with a mixed berry compote. We should clarify, we didn’t serve it – the Senior Missionaries who serve in the area office along with a couple Senior Missionaries in that Zone served it. The missionaries were so grateful and delighted to have a Thanksgiving meal. Even though the other Zones didn’t get turkey, the members making their meals wanted to make it special because of the holiday and they went above and beyond the normal lunch they make. We are so grateful for people like them who always offer to serve the missionaries in our mission and make our lives easier.

With the holidays approaching we have felt a bit more homesick and a bit of longing for the “good ole days” but it only lasts for a minute because their is so much to do and when we are serving we feel so much joy. We are thankful for so many wonderful experiences we have had but most especially we are grateful for the wonderful missionaries we get to associate with everyday. Life is good!