JAPAN DAY 9

Day 9: I noticed that the website address I gave for ARI seems not to have appeared in the blog for Day 8 - so here it is again www.ari-edu.org

Heavy rain during the night and much colder than Okayama so it took some courage to get out of bed a little before 6 a.m. to discover cold water shower! Yesterday Dr Otsu had suggested I might like to start my morning like the rest of the community, I made some sort of a passable excuse and didn't turn up for the 6.30 p.m. open air exercise or the one hour farm work at 7 a.m. arriving for Breakfast instead at 8.15 a.m. I have spent some considerable time whilst at ARI with two people sponsored by Methodist Church in Britain,The Revd. Nisantha Gunarathe from The Methodist Church in Sri Lanka and The Revd Sang Bik Cem from The Methodist Church (Upper Myanmar) Hakha District.  Nisantha comments "I have been equipped socially and spiritually. I thank ARI and the British Methodist Church for allowing me to come to Japan and study learning by doing" Sang says " I learned about many cultures and life styles in this one place....I appreciate the British Methodist Church who sponsored me,and also I appreciate ARI where I learned about leadership and sustainable agriculture". I left ARI just before lunch time and went back down to Tokyo arriving at Tokyo Terminal to find a huge crowd of travellers moving around the huge complex. It has been known even for Japanese people to walk into Tokyo Terminal and not see the light of day for a few hours, and still trying to find the right line and track for their train!! I did reasonably well and found the first Information desk where I saw that they spoke English & Spanish and soon followed then blue Shinkansen sighs and found Track 19 for my long journey back to Okayama.  Brilliant sunset, as my on the four hr and twenty minutes journey back continued. Had evening meal with my son and three of his customers from Indonesia.End of a long day  and sleep came quickly as my head hit the pillow.

Day 10: Time in the UK is now 9 hours behind Japan so I need to get the new figure into my head. Beautiful sunny day in Okayama                         (21c) but its going to spoil itself by heavy rain later. My 2 grand sons have decided what lunch will be today so I found myself facing McDonalds double burger with cheese and chips! Hope to post some photos soon when I can manage to get them out of my camera. Planning travel to Nishinomiya tomorrow to see our Mission Partners Daniel & Yasuko Delling and their family. He has a full day planned from 10.00 a.n. - 4.30 p.n. including lunch with the Chancellor of the University.

Alan Ashton  28th October 2012