Our Man in Japan

Dear Family and Friends,

Well I`m on to my 5th area now and 7th companion with almost a year in Japan. I`ve been transferred to a place called Kawachinagano, once again if you want to look on a map it`s 富田林市須賀２丁目22-11-303　you might be able to look it up on google maps. This area borders my previous one and is in the same zone. It`s a different district though.

It feels strange that I`m the oldest missionary in the district. There`s 6 missionaries in this district. One is American, he entered the MTC around September of last year, he`s training a Japanese elder. Another is Japanese, he entered the mission field around May I think, he`s training an American Elder. And my current companion is Elder Kimura, he entered the mission field in June.

The reason I didn`t do email last week is we didn`t know of any free email place that was conveniently close by. Just the one I`m at now that`s 30 minutes away and over a couple hills. We might have found one for next week, but it`s closed the second Monday of the month.

I gave a talk in Sacrament meeting yesterday about Missionary work. After sacrament meeting one guy in the ward came up to me and said he thought he had seen me before. He said `Were you at the Mikunigaoka burger party?` (In Japanese of course) Apparently he saw me on Youtube. maybe you can see it if you search for this on Youtube 三国ヶ丘　バーガー 大会

My current companion doesn`t do email so I`m going to be quick with my emails this transfer probably. If I don`t email next week don`t be too surprised, but I think I will.

Sincerely,
Elder Andrew West

And now, for your viewing pleasure.... (keep an eye out for Elder Andrew pretty early on) - and some fun facts about his new area, courtesy of Wikipedia.

Claims to Fame
The area once boasted the largest national production output of toothpicks. This is no longer the case, with most toothpicks now being imported from overseas. The city still sticks to its former reputation as "Toothpick capital".

Kawachinagano is known for its local dialect of Japanese, Kawachi-ben, which is known for its rough, blue-collar appeal. Kawachi-ben is spoken in the Kawachi area, which includes Kawachinagano, yet extends as far north as Yao.