So after weeks of busy and yesterday's excursion around Kamakura and related area I thought that I would take things a little slower today. I slept in (which is still 6:30 for me but hey that is 2 hours of extra sleep!). After showering I wandered up to have the breakfast buffet the hotel puts out. Last night the wind and rain was so hard it woke me up twice but by the time I made it upstairs to the 19th floor for breakfast it was almost clear skies. The view up there was great for a lazy breakfast. I only wish it was acceptable to wear my PJs to breakfast too...
After wards I got back to my room and had plenty of time before church so I uploaded some more photos which failed to upload last night then headed off for the train. The stop for the church is only two places down on the local rail and so it doesn't take more than 20 min total with both the train ride and walking to get to the building where the church is. So being the overly cautious person I am, I arrived way early and ended up across the street int he McDonald's for a coffee and read until it wasn't too early.
The church is on the 3rd and 4th floors of an office building. Honestly you almost miss it when walking by. I am glad they had photos of the building up online to help in spotting it. The congregation is smaller than Harbor Life back home and you can tell it is a mission planted church. The pastor leads worship, his two teenage children help by singing and playing bass, while one of the local teens plays drums. The church is bi-lingual (both English and Japanese). So during worship we would switch back and forth. During the message the pastor's wife translates for him.
After the service their youth group was serving lunch for 500 yen up on the 4th floor so I stuck around and got to know some of the congregation. Most of the americans there are related to the shipyard in some way. A couple engineers, some office people and a few sailors. About a third of the church is in this group. The people are very nice, though I am not sure they knew what to do with me when I first walked in, or even what language to speak to me in because I started off by saying good morning in Japanese. I think then I was given instructions to feel free to sit wherever I wanted, guessing by the body language of the person helping me.
Overall I had a great time there. The service started at 10:30 and I didn't leave the building until 15:00 when all done with lunch and chatting with everyone. I got a few contacts and there is a men's Bible Study on Wednesday nights in the mall across the street from my hotel I am going to probably go to this week.
The rest of the day was very laid back. I finished organizing some photos and getting ready for the week. Went out for dinner to a place I thought was Japanese noodles only to find out after sitting down and looking at the menu I figured out it was Italian. Oops! Well either way the meal was great and after a quick run through the grocery store I was home with a couple needed things for the week and some green tea ice cream. Really strange flavor combo but good.
Now though it is off to bed, ready for another week. Strange to think that I have already been here for two weeks. I am sure before too long it will all be over and I will have to get used to things like driving, cooking and doing my own laundry. Though no promises on me making my bed...
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