It has been pouring rain for the past hour here in Tokyo and it is a little cooler today. After Sunday School we rode the subway and train to the Shibuya Chapel to witness the baptism of Shuji Maruhashi. He is a very friendly man, 70 years of age, and used to be a professional musician. He plays the piano really well and loves the old American music. He shared a few thoughts after his baptism about how he hadn't been a good husband or father and was married three times which is very unusual in Japan. One of his sons came to the baptism. Shuji said a few words from the pulpit after he was baptized and apologized to his son for not being a good father. It was quite touching. It is a miracle to see the change that comes in people's lives when they accept Jesus Christ as their Savior.
We have really wonderful missionary couples to serve with here but we all have different jobs so we don't see them throughout the day. It is nice to be able to get together on weekends and do things. Yesterday we rode the Shinjuku Highway Express Bus to Mt. Fuji Station 5. First we took the train to Shinjuku station. It took about 3 hours by bus after that but much of that was just getting out of Tokyo. The lower elevations of Mt. Fuji are temperate rain forest with lots of vines and bamboo. A little higher up it is all evergreen trees. Just about Station 5 which is at about 7500 feet elevation the tree line ends and you can walk for about 5 miles and reach the top. We didn't have time to go to the top but we hiked around on the mountain. It was very misty and cloudy everywhere so we couldn't see much. There were thousands of hikers there preparing for the overnight climb since the climbing season officially ends in another week. It is actually just a long walk, nothing technical and almost any one, even a child, can do it. It was the first time we have been out of the city since we came here. The little towns, villages, and farms along the way were beautiful.
We feel perfectly at home here in Tokyo and enjoy our morning walks and doing Rajio Taiso with all of the Japanese people in Arasugawa Park nearby. They are mostly older people like us and they are very friendly. By the way, the bus station for the bus to Mt. Fuji is next to Shinjuku train station which is the busiest in the world. It reaches nearly 4 million people passing through on its busiest days. Now we have been to the three busiest train stations in the world--Shinjuku, Gare du Nord in Paris, and Waterloo Station in London.
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| Shuji with the young missionaries |
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| Shuji with the "old"missionaries |
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| All the people at Station 5 on Mt. Fuji |
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| Hiking through the mist on Mt. Fuji |
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| Here's Carol proving that we were there |
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| The clouds departed just enough to be able to most of Mt. Fuji from Station 5 |
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| The beautiful bus ride on the way home from Mt. Fuji |
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| Shinjuku Station - busiest in the world |
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