June 2014 - Moving in

We have been staying in the "GA" room at the mission home.  President and Sister Rasmussen have been away most of the week with zone conferences.

The entrance for the mission home is on the right.  The office is to the left.  Our apartment is the building behind the courtyard, just a short walk around the corner.  We are on the second floor.

We were able to get the key to the apartment and we had to do some shopping.  We got some curtains and rugs to cover the tatami mats.  The rooms are measured by how many tatami mats fit in it.  Our rooms are the six-tatami mat size. (A mat is about 3' x 6')

Alan is tacking down the rugs.

We also had to do some grocery shopping.  The Noonchesters went down to Tokyo for a few days to visit their daughter and her family and to see their new granddaughter.  So, we went by ourselves to the store.  (They had taken us once before, so we knew where to go.)  Still, it takes more concentration to remember to drive on the left side and to turn on the blinkers on the right hand side of the steering wheel, instead of turning on the window wipers!

This is the parking lot of the grocery store.

Facing the opposite direction, you can see some of the hills around here.

Facing out to the road, you can see a rice paddy.  These are all over the place wherever there's a spot of land to plant them.

And, similar to Kazakhstan, backing into the parking places is the preferred way.

It is a very clean, modern store.  They have a huge Asian section!  And it's harder than shopping with Russian labels because we only know one or two of the alphabets that they use.  The Chinese characters are way over our head.  Plus, there is so much more variety of foods than in Kazakhstan.

But we managed pretty well and everything we bought turned out to be what we expected it to be when we opened it!

So we were able to sleep here on Saturday night.  We borrowed futons from the mission home.  We will get a bed after all the moving in and out that's happening around here.

Saturday and Sunday was our stake conference.  On Saturday they had several young people, including Primary age tell some of their experiences sharing the gospel.  Also, some returned missionaries and some currently serving.

On Sunday, part of the conference was a broadcast from SLC.  The speakers were Elder William Walker, Sister Oscarson, Bishop Stevenson and Elder Christofferson.  Elder Walker and Bishop Stevenson both spoke in Japanese.  The talks were very good and it was fun to see many of the people that we've already met since we got here.  

We were especially surprised when we met some people in the English room and they asked us if we knew Becki Wright.  Well, yes, I do!  She's my sister!  It turns out that the Chapmans had grown up in the same neighborhood with the Wrights in Sandy, Utah.  You just never know when you're going to meet someone who knows someone you know!

Jared and Camille Chapman who are living in Sendai now.

Here is the view from our apartment the other direction.

There are some nice hills nearby.  We can walk up to a park.  The Rasmussens call it their Sacred Grove.

This is a new laundry that has been under construction.  It has large machines so you can wash blankets, etc.  Their grand opening is noted by the flower displays.