A Sunday Morning Like I’ve Never Experienced It

We met in the kitchen around 7:30 to go over our plan for the day before heading to church. Our method of transportation to church included a combination of walking and riding Japan’s subway. We stopped by the corner 7-Eleven on our way to grab some quick food for breakfast. 

It was maybe a 10 or 15 minute walk to the subway station. The weather was sunny and a little cool. We made it on the correct rail on the first try and got off at Shinjuku Station — the busiest station in the world. It took us a little bit to get our bearings, but we made it through some of the 3.6 million people who travel through this station EVERY day! The next train we got on was an express train headed in our destination direction. Our stop wasn’t on the express line, so we had to get off at the closest station before our stop and wait for a regular train; it gave us a chance to take a group selfie. 

We had some extra time before we needed to be at church, so we reloaded our Suica cards (used for the subway) and headed to a cafe to grab a little breakfast (dessert) and the bread for church lunch.

What fabulously soft, fluffy and delicious bread they have! It was a short walk around the corner to get to church. We got a warm welcome when we walked in the gate and Bro. Makoto’s son stopped in his tracks and said something like, “Woah, I need to go get my Dad!” or “Woah, wait till my dad sees this” and ran to get the key to unlock the church. He came running back and unlocked it and let us in. Sis. Anna (Bro. Makoto’s wife) was already in there to welcome us. Shoes came off at the door and we were shown the selection of sandals to wear; some wore them, some didn’t. As others arrived we got to feel the warm love of Christ radiating from them. What a blessing this was for us! The song selection was given in Japanese and then the corresponding English hymnal number was given. At first I didn’t know if I should sing in English or just sing the melody, but eventually we resorted to praising God in our mother tongues.

For the morning service, Bro. Makoto read and meditated in Japanese and would add messages occasionally in English as well. After services we fellowshipped a little bit while lunch was being prepared in the dining room upstairs. I helped Sis. Marie (Bro. Akito Inoue’s wife) cut up some oranges while we learned each other’s connections/relations. More bustling around in the kitchen, that seemed like eternity for the hungry little boys, led to a table filled with yummy food & treats and soon surrounded by the congregation. We gave thanks and enjoyed the food and fellowship. 

For the afternoon bible study, Bro. Andy gave his testimony with Bro. Makoto translating. After church we changed and visited some more before taking a photo and walking to a local botanical garden with a few of the congregation. 

It was a pretty decent walk to the garden and we stopped at a shrine along the way.

When we got to the botanical gardens, most of the flowers were dormant, but there was a large indoor “greenhouse” that had a variety of flowers and vegetation in the greenhouse, including banana trees, all types of orchids, and even a rat-eating plant (not pictured). 

There was also a small pond with Lilypads and goldfish. After we finished through that building we went and saw some of the plum blossoms that were just starting.

Next we walked to the temple in the park where a guy was ringing the 5-o’clock bell. 

We found a restaurant nearby and had dinner with Bro. Makoto’s family and Bro. Kan Umemura. It was a wonderful evening that ended with a nice walk (or bus ride for some) back to the church. 

Back at the church we picked up our bags and some of the brothers played basketball at the Inoue’s house (right beside the church) with the kids while the rest visited or toured the house.

We headed home for the evening on the subway. While walking back from the subway station, a few of us went in to a department store called LIFE where we ended up with some snacks.

Of course we had to try some before going to bed and boy, were they delicious!

Travel Day(s)

I’m writing this a little after midnight in our sleeping room surrounded by a half dozen men sawing logs. Some seem to be getting more done than others (if you know what I mean). We started today out with the group from Iowa, Illinois and northwestern Indiana arriving and getting all introduced up. Rebekah made me a fried egg and I got packed up. We got some basic instructions from our “travel agent”, explanation on her baby bump, and had a prayer for God to watch over us. I plugged in my car and got my luggage out. The full van got fuller. 

We took an obligatory group photo or two by the van before heading to the airport. 

Thadd took the first picture, so we took another one with all the single brothers.

We made it to the airport in plenty of time, got all checked in and through security without too much hassle. (Waiting for a group member to leave security to dump out a stainless steel jug full of water and go back through wasn’t a hassle for me and neither was waiting for a missing boarding pass and laptop inspection) Eventually we were all through and had most all our stuff. We got to the gate early and roamed to get food or whatever. I worked on the computer stuff (this blog) before getting food. Flight was quick and our connection in Chicago was only like 4 gates down, so some got food while we waited. 

The next aircraft we rode was the 787 DreamLiner where we were stuck for the next 13 hrs. Honestly the flight length didn’t bother me much since I could get relatively comfortable. We were in the rear, left section and took up 5 rows; turns out nobody was in the middle seats, which was very nice. 

The was a lot of annoying light turbulence on the flight and we changed altitude and course a few times to help reduce it. Here was our final path:

Inflight meals were pretty good. I slept some at the beginning and then read a book and played sudoku the rest of the flight. The sun was setting as we descended into Tokyo and I was able to catch two cool pictures. The one is the sunset across the water, and the other was a super zoomed in photo of Mount Fuji from across the plane. 

After landing we went through the border checkpoint and got our visa stamps. Thadd seemingly confused the border agent who asked him to place both index fingerprints on the scanner to which Thadd responded by holding up his hand with half his index finger missing — apparently his middle finger’s fingerprint works. We waited for our checked bags and when I got mine, it was about 1/3 of the way unzipped; doesn’t look like anything is missing.

Another quick pow-wow to get on the same page and then we progressed through customs and on to currency exchange. After getting our Yens we went to pick up our Japan Rail passes and get subway cards. Pow-wowed once again before taking the subway to the station closest to our AirBnB. Supper weird and yet quite nice how quiet it is on the subways! Complete silence from the passengers, hvac, and even the rails when coming to a stop. Super on time too! Great experience and sounds like we’ll take it tomorrow to church too.

We walked from the station to the AirBnB where we all quickly learned how cozy it is. It’s 3 bedrooms and 3 stories. The entrance at ground level has all the shoes. A few steps in and there’s bedroom doors on the right and left. The bedroom on the left has a bathroom connected to it. Straight ahead is a tiny wooden staircase that winds directly up to the second floor where the living room, kitchen and dining area are. 

The other bathroom and a washer are on level two also. Going up to the third floor winds up as the roof slopes down, so hitting the ceiling with your head is easy. The upstairs room has 4 mattresses basically on the floor. Hardly room for luggage, but we’ll get by. A few of us went to the 7-11 at the corner of the street and grabbed some beginner snacks/items. We came back, ate some things and talked as people took showers and wound down for the night. We have a lot planned for the trip, so it should be an adventure. 

I can’t believe I’m actually in Japan!!

Also, they have so many different cars here. Like cars I’ve never seen! Kei cars are fantastic!

Pre-Travel Day Travel

Last evening was spent packing until wee hours of the morning. I did it for two reasons, the first being that I wanted to make sure I will fall asleep at the beginning of the flight to help reduce jet lag effects, and the second reason is because that’s when it works best. If I pack too far in advance, then things I regularly use will be packed up already and I’d have to unpack them and would probably forget to pack them back up. When packing, I typically just list out the essentials then figure out how many days worth of socks are needed and then just pack the rest of my wardrobe. One benefit of not having a huge wardrobe is that it hardly filled up my big suitcase. I put stuff I’ll need for the first day in my carryon in case my luggage gets lost. 

This morning, I just had to pack a few items up and head out the door. I parked my car at the level 2 Chargepoint near work and ride my scooter to work. At about 3:00p, my car was pretty much fully charged up, so I left work. It works out so slick to ride the scooter and charge my car while working! I unplugged, put the scooter in my back seat, asked God to protect me on my journey, and headed out. According to my OBD reader, the charge was 98% about a mile into the trip. Stats for the pre-Travel Day pre-Travel charge were:

My destination for today was Ezra and Rebekah Fritz’s home in Indianapolis, IN. Conditions for the drive were foggy/rainy at about 55-60F with hardly any wind. ABetterRoutePlanner app suggested going through Ft. Wayne and charging at two different ChargePoint chargers. However, when I planned the route on the desktop version, it said it would be quicker to go through Columbus. Also, I found there was a ~62kW free DCFC in Columbus, so I determined to go that route. On the drive to Columbus I engaged OpenPilot and boy was it chill. I hardly touched the steering wheel aside from initiating lane changes. (until it overheated) Almost no climate control was used during this leg of the journey. Mostly because it was quite comfortable and the windows weren’t fogging up too often. About halfway through, I realized the car was getting better than anticipated efficiency and it could make it all the way to the next charger in Dayton without charging.

My time charging in Dublin was already allocated for some trip excursion planning and I determined that any free charge would replace any paid charging I would do in Dayton. It added 10min to stop at the charger. As I pulled into the lot I realized it was packed. Thankfully one of the chargers were open. An ID.4 was charging at the other station and left very soon after I plugged in. Stats for this charge are here: 

The planning session went well and I also used the opportunity to grab out the pumpkin chocolate chip muffins Trinda had packed for my journey and eat two. After the ID.4 finished charging, 2 Model Y’s came by, backed in and tried to figure out how to charge. The first one couldn’t get payment authentication it seemed (they had no adapter ready either) the second was very confusingly looking at his J1772 to NACS adapter trying to figure out to charge his Tesla. They both eventually gave up and left. Finally another Model Y stopped by and the guy actually had the correct CCS to NACS adapter. By that time, I was about done, so I headed on my way. The Comma 2 had cooled off, but the darkness and rain made it roughly useless, but it as it cleared up some, it once again made driving chill.

When I was researching the Dayton charger, I saw a pizza shop nearby, so as I approached the exit, their phone was connected to mine and I ordered dinner. I only needed like a 15min charge, so the plan was to plug in, go into Walmart quick and get some things, come out, unplug, pick up pizza and eat. Unfortunately all the chargers were full when I arrived. So, I went and browsed the Goodwill nearby, hit the restroom before picking up my pizza and eating it while charging at the recently in-occupied charger. Had some trouble getting the charge started since my CC expired soon. I added another card and it worked. Pizza was a 6” pepperoni one and was scarfed down quickly. It got a 8.5/10. A quick Walmart run was in order yet to get some water, a water bottle, and some batteries for an AirTag. I  charged longer than I wanted to, but that’s ok. Stats for this session are here: 

OpenPilot was enabled for most of the remainder of the drive and it caught me nodding off a few times and yelled at me to wake up. I arrived safely to my destination around 9:45p. 

My stats for the trip:

- Total distance: exactly 300miles on the odometer

- Energy: 83.5kWh (minus some energy used before I recorded the screen)

- Average efficiency: 3.488 mi/kWh

- Cost: $21.29  (7.1 cents/mi)

Got things organized and ready for tomorrow morning, showered and setup this blog so hopefully I will journal my journey and remember it in the future.