Temple Trip

I've wanted to go to the Tokyo temple for over six years now.  We had plans to go while in Japan last time, but because we got sent home early we never made it.  I thought I probably would never get to go so when we got the job offer in Japan I was excited to go to the temple.  Then, while getting ready I looked online and saw it is going to be closed for up to three years for major maintenance starting next month!  We made sure that we made it out before it closed.

It was quite the journey.  We got up early and made it there relatively quickly, I'd guess around two hours.  It takes us about 45 minutes to get to the train station. Because we don't have a car, we ride the base bus to the gate then walk to the station.  Then luckily we made it on an express train that was about an hour, and then another short train ride and 20 minute walk through town and we were there.

The train was cr-ow-ded!  We were all standing very close to people, the kids, especially Scarlett, were not happy about it.

We really had to book it through town to make it in time for me to feed Calista and go to the session.

It was an adventure going through in a completely different temple where everyone speaks a different language.  I managed to get a name tag type badge that said English on it and that helped everyone to know I couldn't understand them.  I also got to wear headphones.  

Meanwhile the kids and Bob went to McDonalds and played at the park.

After a couple hours I rushed out and Bob went it.  Then it was my turn to play with the kids for two and a half hours at the park.   We found this pond with giant fish.  The kids spent a long time throwing leaves into the fish and watching them try to eat their leaves.  We also saw turtles in the water, something we never see in the wild in Washington.

I like the different manholes in Japan.

The park had all kinds of trails and paths, it wasn't hard to entertain the kids.

I'm not sure what these little shrines are about, but we find them all around randomly.

Tucker was begging to listen to the audiobook so we did that for about half an hour.

Then back to meet Bob.

While walking back to the train we ran into a group of Mario Carters.  I really want to do this!  It's a company that hosts real Mario Cart races through Tokyo, costumes and all.  Awesome.

We saw this little hair cutting apron in the store and I thought of my sister.

The train rides home did not go as well as the ride there.  We ended up on a much slower train and had to get off and switch trains an extra time.  Then it was raining, the base bus stopped running by that time, and the closer base gate was also closed.  So we had a good 45 minute speed walk home in the full out rain Saturday night after our 2 hour train ride back.  Definitely harder than the hour and a half car ride to the Seattle temple but still worth it.