Sunday February 28th 2010
Today is Paul’s birthday. He also gets to speak to the congregation this morning and evening. We started off the day with a traditional birthday morning breakfast.
Pancakes, bacon, scrambled eggs, coffee, and milk. It’s a good thing we each only have one birthday to celebrate like this. After breakfast Paul got to open one birthday present. Some of our family mailed him a gift. So I had a few to string him along all day. He enjoyed getting a gift early. Off to church we went. Today was also Potluck lunch. So I made 
lasagna and a chocolate cake with chocolate icing to celebrate all the February birthdays. Paul did a great job giving us the message today and we all enjoyed lunch together. 
After worship we passed out a few more flyers with Rieko and Ryosuke. It has been so nice outside, it was great to be walking around soaking up the sun. That evening Paul was really excited. He was expecting a special guest. His brother John was coming to stay with us for a few days. He was on a business trip in China and it was cheaper for him to have a 4 day layover in Tokyo. So Happy Birthday Paul! He was so excited to see his brother.
John was our first guest since we’ve been here. Since Paul had to preach again that evening, I got to pick John up from the train station all by my self. A few people were really worried about me getting to the station and back ok, I assured them I’d been driving for more than 11 years now and 6 months in Japan. I was hoping to get John back in time to attend worship service. His train came in and we headed towards Haruna. We walked into the church building with 1 minute to spare. Just long enough to give his brother a hug before he had to preach. The church enjoyed getting to meet one of Paul’s brothers. After church we went home to relax a little and let John rest.
Monday March 1st, 2010
It was a beautiful morning and we had a lot of things planned to show John. We started the day off with a short walk to the building. 
We looked around and took a few pictures and waited for Obata-san to meet us for lunch. We all took John to Obata-san’s friends restaurant at Mt. Haruna. It is a very nice restaurant with a 
beautiful view of Mt. and Lake Haruna. After a few more pictures and standing in the cold weather we decided to head back to town. That evening before dinner we went to one of the arcades in Takasaki. 
Herrington boys love their video games! We played almost every game in the place (well the ones we could understand how to play) and we all had a great time. I think the highlight of the arcade was the vast amount of claw machines they have there.
Probably around 50 or so. The boys decided they had to try a few. Most of the machines had really cool prizes, but like all claw machines, by the time you actually win something you’ve probably already paid for two. Oh well, the boys had fun trying. After the arcade we headed to another Herrington favorite, the electronic store. Yamada Denki is really pretty cool. They have so much stuff there and its all divided up between 5 floors of shopping. 
We had fun playing around and looking at the ridiculous stuff we would never buy. Like this 103in plasma TV that costs $67,000 dollars! After all that difficult decision making we found a restaurant inside the store and had a wonderful dinner. 
We ate pasta and fried shrimp. Yummy. Well the evening wouldn’t be complete if we didn’t have dessert. So off to Mister Donut we went. 
We filled our trays way too full then enjoyed a delicious treat together. It was a great day. It was so nice to have family around and take a little time to just relax.
Tuesday March 2nd, 2010
The highlight of our day today was the celebration of Girls Day in Japan. 
It’s March 3rd and lots of people put together special displays in their houses for the girls in their families. One of the Hosoya families invited us over to see her display. It was quite a collection of dolls. We really enjoy when the neighbors allow us to experience a little bit of their own traditions. That evening I followed up on a 
birthday request and made Paul lamb chops. It was a little difficult, and didn't turn out the way I wanted, but it was good enough to eat. The boys enjoyed the feast.
Wednesday March 3rd, 2010
Today was John’s last day. He would be taking the train back to the airport.
So we headed to the station an little early and walked around. We enjoyed lunch together at McDonald’s and sent John on his way. It was a great visit and we really enjoyed having him with us, but we know he was ready to get back to his family, and we were refreshed and ready to get back to work.
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