1200pm Tuesday – April 26 Day 7 Heading
down to Tokyo (via Ueno) from Sendai
Wow…that’s a all I can keep saying
to myself is wow. It has been such a surreal
but real time on this journey that Hitomi and I got invited to almost 7 months
ago. We had a de-brief on Sunday while
in Aomori (day 6 Sunday 4/24) and we are so blessed to be traveling with a
great group of people. All gifted and
talented, called, anointed and appointed in their own way for the Lord and
their main purpose is in line with the greatest commandment given by Jesus – Love
God and Love people. Just WOW!!!
On Saturday, April 23 day 4
we left the group in Miyako to make our way North to Aomori. Aomori is the farthest north we will be on
this trip. It is almost the most northern part of Honshu island (main island of
Japan) and it is the closest to Hokkaido island and only a shinkansen a way to
Hakodate (a city south of Sapporo). We
caught our shinkansen to Aomori and got in at about 8pmish and caught a cab
(our first one) to our hotel. It’s an
APA hotel, like a business hotel and was way better than the one in Morioka –
lol.
Aomori was cold..you could feel
the chilling wind in the air. We had little
Maguro sashimi for dinner in a don (bowl with rice) style and walked to Lawsons
to get some items for the night and the morning. End of day 4 was upon on us and it has been
and continues to be an “Amazing Race” type of journey with Hitomi.
Day 5, Sunday April 24 – Aomori
city port. There was a planned late
start today as all on the ship and including us needed a little sleep in. Unfortunately
for us, we both were up and about at 630amish.
So we got up early and went to scout the area. We first made sure we knew how to get to Aomori
station so we could save the $20 in cab fare with a 5 min train ride to Shin-Aomori
station. Aomori Station is a local area train station, Shin-Aomori has the
shinkansen coming in and out for long distance travel. Whenever you see the word Shin in front of a
station, it services the shinkansen (bullet train) to major locations. After finding the station, like a 5 minute walk
to the hotel, we decided to see how close the Aomori port was as we saw the
ship docking when it came in. We walked along the waterfront and even walked on
the Aomori Bridge to get a different elevated perspective of the port. The bridge actually took us to the port entry
where we believe our ohana would be coming from. We then walked back to our hotel via the main
strip out of the port and saw many bars, restaurants and other port related
businesses…even walked by the Aomori police station…forgot to mention this before
I started typing about Aomori. The stated temperatures on phone and via weather
forecast showed 50 degrees, but with wind chill factor, of about 40 degrees…the
wind was kicking all day long and throughout the day had gusts up to at least
40 miles per hour. When you were not in the sun reflection it was so cold, but even
with the sun shining down, it was still cold. Anyway, our ship ohana got off
the ship and met us near this triangle shaped building right off the place where
the ship docked. So good to see them
everyday and get our hugs and aloha from them.
This area was so cool (and so cold..brr). We got to bless the land and the area and speak
blessings towards Hokaido and the town of Aomori. It was such a Jesus moment. So after we were all there for like 1.5 hours,
these Hawaiians by heart needed to get some warmth. The triangle building where we were at, was a
mini shopping center with a lot of local vendors and had a ramen sit down area
for us to fellowship. We did some shopping and said our aloha’s for the next
venture that we were headed to – Akita!
As we were heading to Aomori
station to catch our train to Shin-Aomori, I suddenly realized that I did not
do 1 main thing…check how often that train and how much time we had to catch
this train to the Shinkansen station. A
little bit of panic, but God has been soooo soooo good…we had enough time to
catch the current train from Aomori and it gave us 16 minutes to get to our
next one. So we get on our 5 minute
train ride to Shin Aomori station and we prepare ourselves for the “Amazing Race
sprint again as we had about 15 minutes to make the connecting train. So we rush out of the train, go up to the
platform to look for our connecting platform, run back down the escalator with
our bags and realized we went back to same platform that we had just come off
our 5 min train ride..lol..classic….we never even check the train schedule
board that was right there…lesson learned…look before you run…Our Shin Aomori shinkansen
(I think we are on #6 now) took about
2.5 hours to Akita.
In Akita, like I posted in my
social media post, my amazing wife, booked us at this place called Dormy Inn
Akita Natural Onsen Spring hotel…yes!!! On
the top floor of the building (11th), there is a onsen bath for men
and for women (separate of course). Our
walk from Akita train station was less than 10 minutes with our bags but it was
like 45 degrees with the bone chilling win that Aomori had from the North that
was so cold, my hands, nose and face were so cold....but the reward was ahead…onsen. Got to onsen 2x that night before I went to
sleep and the hotel had so much complimentary items – free ice cream and popsicles
outside of onsen and free ramen from 930pm to 11pm…unreal. Boy did I sleep good that night. My feet and hips
and back and legs were so thankful. Hitomi’s
dry skin got some healing going on as well.
Day 6 Monday April 25 – got
up and did onsen and my laundry in the onsen area (free wash, cheap dry) before
we headed out to meet the gang at Akita Castle hotel. Took our bags to Akita station before we met
(later we realized we had to go the opposite way to meet them and could have
left our bags at hotel..lol – oh well, you plan and do as needed and adjust as
you go). It was cold and not as windy
(yet). We dropped off our bags at Akita
station and headed back towards where we came from to go meet the team at
Kubota Castle park. As always so good to
reconnect with these people, our ohana for life, and even met some other Hawaii
people that were on the same cruise. Did
a short hike up a hill and some stairs to this castle from the early 1600’s. One of the historical boards I read say that
this was one of the only castle’s in Japan that had no guard wall or barriers
of entry around the castle, just guards on duty. It was pretty cool to go the top of the
castle and bless all 4 directions of Aomori with the Aloha of God and it’s
people from Hawaii. So so awesome.
We left our ohana and knowing that
we would not see them Thursday in Nagasaki.
They were heading to Busan South Korea (1 day sail to South Korea) and
we were heading to Sendai. Walked to the
train station, got my Yoshinoya’s (like a bowl with any kind of meat and raw
egg if you like and curry bowls) fill…1st one since 2019..so so
ono. Got on our 2.5 hour train ride to
Sendai via Shinkansen #6 I think…(fyi, Shinkansen to Japanese nationals cost
like $100 to $300 per way depending on distance, for gaijins/foreigners we paid
$400 each for a 14 day JR rail pass, which includes Shinkansen and all JR lines…so
making use of this blessing). Got into
Sendai and my amazing wife, books us at Dormy Inn Annex Sendai…we got a little lost
as we say a Dormy Inn Sendai and walked to it but it was not the Annex
one..lol..the original walk should have been about 10-12 minutes, took us about
20 and was cold but not Aomori cold but the onsen was waiting for us. Yeehaw. Did onsen, got dressed and walk to Inasen Restaurant
(about 8 minutes from hotel) which was literally a whole in the wall restaurant…we get the google maps destination
in an alleyway, and there is no sign, just a black door. Hitomi calls Chad and is telling him where we
are (next to Lawsons) and Chad pops out of the door..lol. Got to meet Haruka’s mom, Sumie and younger sister
Honoka and had a great fish based set dinner..was ono. Chad and Haruka so cute they even got Hitomi
and birthday cake and matcha ice cream.
Was a great time getting to meet and know Chad’s in-laws for a bit. We then walked to a very eccentric café on
the 5th floor of a building to meet Haruak’s dad. He is a surfer and has been to Hawaii a few
times. Good guy and was good to meet
him. I need to learn Japanese by February
when they all come to visit so I am not stuck sitting there nodding my head the
whole time. Got back to hotel at about
1130pm did another onsen and passed out by 1230am.
Tuesday AM we leave Sendai and
make our way to Ueno to make our way back down south to meet team in Nagasaki
and had planned to meet people dear and near to our heart. Yuki and Yukina Hatakeyama, pastors of New
Hope Saitama. Yuki was an intern with us
Aloha Pau’ole from 2011 to 2013 and is
such an awesome guy. Yukina is even more
awesome. Looking forward to that. Then on Wednesday we get to visit our all
grown up hanai niece Marisa Asato in Shinagawa..she is attending Temple University
in Tokyo..so proud of her.
Well that’s it for now. More to come.
Hope you enjoyed the adventures because we are. There is so much more God is showing us in
this trip and the one key thing is joy, laughter and love. His aloha all ova Japan.
God bless and aloha God aloha
people.
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