Yamaguchi and Goodbyes

Another amazing day meeting the people in the Yamaguchi branch. 

Marty is beloved.

I cried through the whole first hymn filled with joy for the experience my son had on his mission.

Obviously there must have been difficult times too.

But he made such a positive impression and these wonderful people were so loving in return!

It was amazing!

And I cried thinking of Chris' upcoming mission and for him to have 

the same opportunity to love and be loved.

We walked past Marty's apartment on the way to church. 

I was hoping he'd reminisce the whole time... "Here's where we ___!"

But that's not his style.

I asked, "Is this all familiar to you?"

"Yes, of course."

"Are you thinking of all the different things that happened or day-to-day stuff?"

"Not really."

But he was excited to show us his apartment. And he was happy there was a 

FamilyMart across the street. (Second best thing to 7-11.)

Surprise! One of Marty's companions from Nakatsu was now working in Yamaguchi!

They were so excited to see each other! 

I get the sense Marty loved all his companions and they loved him back.

Ariel Sorensen is to the right of Marty. Tony is on the left on the end.

Everyone else was super friendly.

Marty didn't know the other Elder very well, but he was also very friendly.

He was translating for this woman who just moved here from Tonga.

Coincidentally, Marty's mission president was visiting the Yamaguchi ward that day and speaking.

So great to get to see them again!

After church, everyone wanted a photo. 

This is the entire branch, minus the bishop who took the photo.

I tried to trade him places and offered to take the photo, as did Courtney, but he refused and everyone absolutely insisted we be in the photo!

(I finally got them to trade me just once.)

It was a happy, happy place to be on Sunday.

We had a 45 minute taxi ride to the Yamaguchi airport in Ube. 

We've had to take two taxis wherever we go which is kind of a bummer to be split up,

but it makes it exciting to try and tell the driver where we're going.

(Just a few times have we needed to show them the name of the place on the phone.

If they're not sure, they just enter it into their own phones and we get there, no problem.)

Courtney taking a break from her homework.

She has the longest math problems! This was to calculate the heat transfer

in a cylinder-shaped container.

Last lunch at the airport -- at Coco's Cafe (a small-town American chain).

It's crazy the places they still have here... Bob's Big Boy and Shakey's Pizza, just to name two. 

But lots of good Japanese food to choose from -- Tonkatsu, Karuge, Ramen

And of course soft-serve.

We flew from Yamaguchi to Tokyo and there said goodbye to Courtney.

She was flying back home that night. I hate saying goodbye when we've been altogether!

Back in Tokyo we stayed in our super nice hotel from the first night.

That night we had plans to go to the virtual reality game space that we'd decided not to do our first night in Tokyo because we were so tired!

Marty, Nick and I got a VERY speedy driver on the way to the mall.

I felt like I was in Fast and Furious, Tokyo Drift! 

Even the boys were surprised at how fast we were going.

A blurry shot of Rainbow Bridge:

Giant robot outside the mall. 

Super cool architecture on this building. 

You can't see it, but there's a giant round ball suspended in the middle.

Before VR, we went shopping at Uniqlo and Zara. Our last chance at "good malls."

We ended up only having an hour at VR, but it was still fun to get a taste.

Several of the rides were the cars that jiggle while you watch a movie.

I tried one, but ever since Universal Orlando, those rides make me sooo sick.

And sure enough, I didn't like it. I had to close my eyes and think "don't be sick" thoughts.

Nick and I did kill a lot of zombies in another game though.

Having fun taking selfies while we wait for the boys.

We are all ready to head home tomorrow. Japan has been amazing. But home is calling!

We are in the mood for Mexican food and American sushi.