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Monday, January 19, 2015

Transfer Shock

So.  I'm in Kawasaki now.  It's a city area unlike any other I've been
in.  My other areas except for Kichijoji were "countryside" areas.
They had big shopping centers and lots of people and lots of houses
and lots of really tall buildings; it felt certainly felt like city.
Kichijoji is a "city" area, but it's designed to attract shoppers and
tourists, so it's more organized and pretty.  Kawasaki is just city.
It's like a network of canyons, except it's made of buildings instead
of rock.  So many people, so many shops, so much stuff packed together
so tightly.

I haven't really noticed the noise, though.  There's plenty of noise
out on the street, but it doesn't bother me.

My companion is Elder Brooksby.  I don't have time to explain it, but
I had this image of him in my head based on what I'd heard people say
about him (including his past companions), but then upon meeting him I
found out that he doesn't match his reputation very much at all.  He's
pretty awesome though.  He only has a few months left on his mission.

Monday, January 12, 2015

New Year

The assistants decided to do transfer calls on Sunday night this week
instead of Monday, which actually kind of made it harder to sleep.
I'm transferring from Atsugi to Kawasaki on Thursday, and my new
companion is going to be Elder Brooksby.

The new year is one of the most important holidays in Japan.  We got
four meal appointments with members on the week of New Year's Day
(usually we get around two or three a month in this ward, I think).
There wasn't a very good place anywhere close to our apartment to
watch the first sunrise, but we did end up finding an arched bridge
that worked pretty well.  My first food and drink of the new year was
a cheeseburger and a warm lemon drink from Circle-K (convenience
store).  I didn't think of that until after I ate it.  o.0

It snowed on New Year's Day, too.  Not enough to shut anything down,
but enough to surprise everyone.  Snow doesn't usually happen here for
another couple of months.  It stuck for about a day, as I recall.