Where is the Church at?

Yeah . . . that is a question that took me three hours to answer. First off all of the Internet map sites are very crappy for Japan. You can find cities and areas, but with addresses you are pretty much hopeless. I had a Japanese-American who is a regular student here help me find it and all we could do to narrow it down was locate the general area where the postal code was, which if you can only guess was wrong.

The area I was supposed to go to was between stations and about a one km walk (its funny I am slowly converting to meters since no one knows what a mile of foot is). So I was navigating my way through the streets and I only got lost once. Okay that’s a lie I got lost like 4 times. Then I finally got to the area where the church was supposed to be and surprise surprise no church! So I saw an old man and asked him and I showed him that address and he told me in broken English I was not even close that I was in the wrong area, which I started to figure out since I could see the addresses. I went home with him and we looked at a map and he showed me where it was and there it was labeled “Mormon Church.” So he drew me a little map and I was on my way.

After walking another 40 minutes I finally made it there. There are two Japanese wards (congregation) that meet in the building. There was a ward that I did fine south of me and I choose this one since it was on the JR line that I take. I got lucky and picked the right one I guess.

I talk to some of the members, one who spoke English, and she told me that the closest English ward is pretty far away from me. I estimate it is about a 45 minute to hour ride. Her husband is American and I am going to meet him before church to find out my possibilities as to which ward I should go to. However, I am for sure going there Sunday. I did not have the energy to try and find the English ward building by tomorrow morning.

The ward building is only about three stations from me and about a 10 to 15 minute walk from the station. There is apart of me that wants to just go there but my Japanese will not hack it and I will have no clue what is going on. I am afraid that I might have to go to the English ward, which sucks cause I have to transfer at least twice, and the other lines are not valid with my commuter pass.

The one thing that is crazy about Japan is there are vending machines everywhere. Today I am so grateful for those machines. I was so hot and it was humid. There was one point in trip I almost though of taking the pens in my bag and start breaking them up and leaving a trail to find my way back.

So next Saturday should be the real adventure when I might go try and find the English ward.

Check back tomorrow, well for me tomorrow, or late tonight for you and I will post soem pics of teh vending machines . . . its to dark outside right now and you can not see them that good.