Kon'nichiwa

Hello from Japan! My team and I made it safety to Japan around 7:30 local time. We left the airport around nine and loaded a bus that we would then ride north to get to Sendai. Around midnight we stopped at a truck stop for five hours to sleep. The church in Sendai isn't able to receive us until 8:00am, so stopping at a rest stop to sleep was the best idea. It is currently 3:00 when I am writing this and there are several of us wide awake unable to sleep anymore. The bus is rather tiny and there isn't much room to spread out, but we're managing. We have already experienced both super nice toilets with fancy buttons and the not so fancy "squatty potties." I have yet to use a "squatty potty," but I know my time will come very shortly. We have already experienced some other cultural differences besides the toilets. They drive on the left side of the road and the steering wheel is therefore on the right side of the vehicles. Not too shocking, just a bit strange when looking out the front windshield while driving. 

The plane ride was long but uneventful. It was about an eleven hour flight and I maybe slept twenty minutes. I completed many sudoku puzzles on the tv screen in front of me, as well as watch an episode of CSI. We were all very impressed with Singapore Airlines. The seats were pretty comfortable and we had foot rests to use if we wanted as well. We were served dinner and "breakfast," along with a light snack between the two meals and offered water and orange juice frequently. And one cannot forget the hot towel to freshen up both at the beginning and end of the flight. For dinner I had the international selection which consisted of smoked salmon and a beef stew. Thankfully the beef stew was not already mixed, so I was able to eat most of the potatoes and two of the green beans that weren't covered in gravy. I decided to try a tiny bite of the salmon, though it did not look or smell delightful. I managed to rip off a tiny piece of the rubbery fish and eat it. Lets just say I didn't like it. And my stomach reminded me of that over the next two hours. No joke. I was able to eat the crackers and cheese (a Swiss spread) and the roll. Jenna and John were kind enough to also offer me their roles. Following the meal we all got a single serve container of Ben and Jerry's cookie dough ice cream. Best part of the meal. Jenna didn't want hers and gave hers to me. For a snack I had a Hershey bar. That was delicious. For our "breakfast" we could choose between chicken and pasta (which the flight attendant said had pork) or chicken noodle. Thinking chicken noodle sounded like what the soup would be, I chose that. Not the same thing. The really thin angel hair pasta that was kind of sticky mixed with what was apparently chicken though I couldn't tell what kind of meat it was. I decided to try it anyways. I got the eeby jeebies after one bite of the noodles. But thankfully there was a chocolate something for dessert! The first few bites were absolutely delicious! Then the next bite - yupp, there was something in it. Found out shortly after it was pear. Not terrible, but not a good combination with chocolate. I couldn't finish the delicious chocolate mousse. But once again I was able to eat the roll. But for breakfast in Los Angeles I had a heapful of scrambled eggs and two hard boiled eggs with a banana. I was able to get a good amount of protein. 

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It's now 3:15am and a group of us just ventured out to use the bathroom. There were a few "normal" toilets and we were all pleasantly surprised to find them heated! After being chilly inside the bus with the temperature around 55 or 60 degrees outside, something as simple as a heated toilet seat makes us quite happy. Especially so early in the morning. 

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Please be praying for my team. In a few hours we will be arriving at the church and we will begin a full day. Pray for us as we deal with jetlag, exhaustion, slight dehydration for some, hunger, and spiritual and emotional rejuvenation. Please pray especially for me as I am beginning to realize the extent of my food limitations. Pray I can either find a few local foods I do like that are healthy and/or that God would strengthen my stomach to withstand the new foods that I do try, as well as mentally being able to try new foods my mind tells me I won't like. Pray God keeps me healthy despite feeling limited in my range of foods my body can handle. 

Praises:

~ We made it from Minneapolis to Denver to Los Angeles with no problems and we had a restful night in LA. 

~ We made it safely from LA to Tokyo and we all quickly got through immigration, got all our luggage, and had no issues at customs. 

~ We have great leaders here in Japan with us who know the culture and language that will help us through the next fourteen days. 

~ We have all remained in good spirits despite the stress of flying, the tiredness, and hunger. 

Thank you so much for your continual prayer for both me and my team! This will be one of many updates on our trip, and I hope that you can get at least a small glimpse into our lives over the next eight weeks. 

P.S. - I wrote this before having access to wifi. The time posted does not reflect the time I wrote the post.