Day 67-69 Visiting, Sushi, and Thank You BBQ

Friday November 6th, 2009

    We accompanied the Obata’s today for their weekly visitation to a friend in the hospital. When we first arrived he wasn’t there. We were disappointed we really wanted to meet him. His name is Nishinome-san and he is the father of Junko Ryan. She and her family were in a picture we were given, by Obata-san. It was a picture of the congregation one Sunday morning last year. We showed that picture to everyone to show them the people we would be working with in Japan. But actually Junko Ryan and her family (Rick, Sean, Aika, and Eamon) live in Pennsylvania, but Junko’s parents live in Takasaki.  Her and her family come to the church when they visit her parents. Junko’s father had to have some tests done and would be in the hospital for awhile. So we went to say hello. After we found his room and he wasn’t there, Obata-san was talking to the nurses’ station and they said he should be coming back to his room soon, so we decided to go back and wait for him. There he was. It was nice to meet him. He was in really good spirits and seemed to be doing well. Nishinome-san is not a Christian, so we hope to keep seeing him and encouraging him.

 

After we left, Obata-san wanted to show us a big mall close to us. We walked around and found lots of great stores to come back to. It was dinner time so we stopped in at a sushi restaurant. The cool thing about this restaurant was that the food came by on a conveyer belt that ran by every table. You could order a few special items, but for the most part you just take what looks good as it rolls by. Every plate is color coded and when your done the server comes by and adds up all your plates. It was a really cool experience.  

  

 

Sunday November 8th, 2009

    We had a few of the people that helped us get settled in Japan over for a dinner to thank them. We gathered up a lot of ingredients and did our best to show our gratitude with a little American BBQ! Paul was really excited. He loves to BBQ. We made BBQ chicken, cheeseburger, broccoli salad, macaroni and cheese. We tried to make hot dogs, but we accidentally bought fish sausage dogs instead!  Oops!  We had a lot of fun with everyone and hope they enjoyed the little bit of American hospitality. that we could show them.

          Our guests were: the Obatas, Shimakata-san, Itabashi-san, Miyazaki-san, and Noguchi-san.   It was great to meet these friends again! (and great to eat an American Cheeseburger!)