Our Man in Japan

Dear Family and Friends,

Not a whole lot happened this past week. Last Tuesday some investigator had a dinner party thing in honor of Elder Bushman`s birthday. It was fun. I`d send a picture but I forgot my card reader, sorry.

On Thursday after district meeting I went to my first Yakiniku, it was fun. Basically there`s a barbecue/grill thing in the middle of the table and you cook your own meat. They had different meats available at a table and you just filled your plate with whatever you wanted and then tossed it on the grill. The trick to these all you can eat restaurants is that they have a time limit normally between 60-90 minutes and by making/letting you cook your own food you don`t have time to eat as much and it cuts down on the labor I think, plus it`s fun. I`ll send a picture next time if I remember.

What's the weather like there? Is it cold? Does it rain much? Have you had snow? The weather is warming up. It doesn`t rain that often, maybe a couple times a week. There hasn`t been snow where I am, there was some farther north in the mission. I hear from all the other missionaries here that the summer here is dreadful. It`s supposed to be very hot and humid I guess and missionaries spend most of their time outdoors. I still have some time before I start worrying about that.

Who cuts your hair? We just go to a cheap haircut place normally. Sometimes there`s a member in the ward or an eikaiwa student who volunteers to cut the missionaries` hair.

Have you been to any more cool museums or other points of interest? I went to some big shrine place in Kyoto recently. It was interesting but I didn`t get any good pictures really. They have a big Japanese garden but it costs to get in. I might go in a month or so when the flowers and trees are blooming. I also went to the Kyoto Handicraft Center, they had a bunch of neat things, mostly for foreigners I think. There were authentic Japanese Katana`s, dolls, paintings, jewelry, and other random souvenir things. I bought some more flashcards while I was there. Japanese study is hard to do sometimes but I follow my schedule/study plan.

Happy Birthday Daniel. I guess you`re 14 now. I can`t remember what school grade that is though, 8th grade isn`t it? Good luck with everything. I`ll see you after you make it to 15.

Sincerely,
Elder Andrew West.