Honeymoon story

We are back in Sapporo as of yesterday afternoon. We had a wonderful trip and are kind of sad that it is already over! But I will tell you a little bit about our honeymoon and then post a link for pictures from facebook so you can see the pictures too.

 We left Saturday morning around 9 from our house and hopped on the trolley car, changed to the subway, and then changed to the train that took us to the airport. On our 4 day trip we road trolley, subways, trains, airplanes, a boat, a taxi, and cars! Pretty good for a four day trip. But we are pretty tired now! :)

 We flew to Nagoya and ate lunch in the airport before heading to the passenger ferry that would take us across to Mie prefecture (Matsuzaka city) where Keisuke's grandma and uncle live.
 The ferry ride was fun and the pacific looked beautiful! Our window was stained with salt spray so we couldn't get great pictures, but it was pretty. The boat ride was about 1 hr with one other stop in another port. Then we landed in Matsuzaka and Keisuke's uncle Yoshiharu san, and his aunt and uncle Hasegawa and their daughter (Keisuke's cousin) Aki were waiting for us. It was fun to meet new relatives. The Hasegawa family actually live in Nagoya but came down for the day to meet us. So that was nice.
 They took us too a Sukiyaki restaurant where we ate famous Matsuzaka Gyu (Beef) They feed beer to the cows to make their meet tender!?? I can't imagine what I drunk cow would be like, but the beef sure tasted delicious!! haha. We drove about 20 minutes to Grandma's house which was in the mountain/country side of Matsuzaka. It was really beautiful! Keisuke and I would have loved to have more time with them. It had been 23 years since Keisuke had last been there so it was special for him I think. His Grandma (mom's side) is 82. She is soooo short but VERY sweet and I loved her from the start. Their Japanese sounded a little funny to me because it is different than here in Hokkaido, but I understand most of it... (Keisuke translated a few times for me) haha.
 The house was an old style Japanese home with the sliding doors and tatami floors. I don't know if I took a picture, but Keisuke might have. (in all we had 3 cameras we were taking pictures with, so I still haven't downloaded one of the cameras and then Keisuke was also taking pictures with a film camera..)
 We visited with the family and showed them some of our wedding dvd (Thanks to Christine's master filming!) :)
  We went to bed around 10:30 and then had to wake up around 5:00 so that we could eat breakfast and get to the train station in time to go to Kyoto. We took pictures and Grandma made us some lunch boxes that we ate on Monday. She is so cute. :) Uncle Yoshiharu and uncle Hasegawa drove us to the station. And we boarded the train for Kyoto.
  The country side and scenery from the trains was beautiful. The scenery looks a lot different than that of Hokkaido. In Honshu most of the roofs on houses is made out of the baked clay squares (called Kawara) and it is very traditional Japanese looking. The mountains and fields were so pretty! God sure is an amazing artist! We were on the move every day but we got to see a lot of Japan from the train in a short time, so that was neat. We also saw a huge lake called Lake Biwa. (probably close in size to some of the great lakes in the states...)  It is the biggest lake in Japan and on the way from Kyoto to Yamanaka onsen we rode along it in the train for quite a while. It was very beautiful too.

 We arrived in Kyoto on Sunday morning around 9:00 am. just in time to find our way to the church where we went to Sunday morning worship service. The pastor of this church went to seminary with Pastor Kamidate, so he introduced us to this church since we had to be gone over a Sunday but we wanted to go to church, so it was nice to meet some new brothers and sisters in Christ and they welcomed us very warmly. We ate lunch with Pastor Mashiyama and his wife and then we were on our way to touring around Kyoto.

 We went to a castle called Nijojo. It is a famous castle in Kyoto that was originally built in 1603 as the official Kyoto residence for the first Tokugawa Shogun, Ieyesu. It is actually a world heritage site.
The total grounds and site cover 275,000 meters squared so it was very big and we took about 3 hours to see inside one of the castles and all the grounds. They were also having a Hawk demonstration where hawk trainers (use hawks for hunting and such) did a little demonstration. That was pretty cool. I took a video of that, maybe I can put some on facebook. The gardens were beautiful and one of them is only open during this time of year, so we were glad to see that.  We had fun exploring around there.
Inside the castle you were not allowed to take pictures, but it was pretty cool. the floor boards were made to squeak so that they could know if any intruders were trying to sneak in. It is well-known for that feature.
  After the castle we made our way to our hotel and got checked in, went to the baths, and then ate dinner (served in our room). We had a nice relaxing time on Sunday evening and then took it a little slow Monday morning. We checked out and then pulled our suitcases around town a bit doing a little shopping and sight seeing. We tried to go into a big famous park at one point, but it was a gravel road, so with our roller bags, that was pretty crazy. haha Then it started to rain! so we didn't stay there long. But it looked like a great place to spend a couple of hours.
 We made our way to the subway and then train to Yamanaka onsen.
 We arrived around 4:30 and were shown to our room which was huge! It was like a honeymoon suite, Japanese style. :) We had two rooms, a hall, a bathroom, a little sitting room, and then out the back patio we had a private bath! It was beautiful and lots of fun. They served free soft cream (icecream) outside of the big baths (which we went to before dinner) and then we had dinner in our room again. It was a huge meal! I was surprised though when the server lady opened the lid for one of Keisuke's dishes, and it MOVED!!! IT was some kind of sea clam and it was still alive!!! You light the fire underneith it and let it cook with the lid on for atleast  2 minutes before you eat it.. Ugg there was noo way I was eating that! haha but Keisuke said it was alright. Keisuke was nice to ask ahead of time for more meat on my meal at the hotels since I don't like the crazy seafood items. so I had normal beef. yeah! :)
 We also discovered a ping pong table so we enjoyed that for a bit in the evening. We had a really nice time there too. Then on Tuesday morning we had an early breakfast prepared in our room again and then  road a taxi to the station (about a 20 minute ride) and we got on an early train headed to Toyama. That is the city where we were flying out of. Our friend Tasuku  (who used to live in the dorm here in the church here in Sapporo when he first became a christian) he lives in Toyama now with his family and we got to meet up with him and have lunch at a nice hotel restaurant. Then he drove us to the airport and we flew back to Sapporo. We were kind of sad to come home, but it was a nice time and we were so thankful for the 4 days we did have!
 Last night there was a gospel live concert at our church here. We went to that and many new people came! I think there were around 20 visitors! I met a new girl who was a friend of a friend of mine and she invited this friend to come. She was the same age as me, and we talked for a while. She is not a believer so I am praying for more opportunities to talk with her.
 Thank you for praying for our trip! We were blessed by the time we had.
Keisuke was a good navigator and we didn't get lost once! I was impressed as I had no clue as to which train to get on next etc etc. I will let you know once I post pictures from the other camera, but for now there are pictures on facebook from my iPhone...
 Keisuke is back at work today and I am at home doing laundry and trying to catch up on strength.
Tomorrow night we are having a Thanksgiving Let's Enjoy English hour (outreach event) at our church. Please pray for new people to come and gain an interest in the Gospel!
 It will be Thanksgiving on that day so next Monday Keisuke and I are going to have a thanksgiving meal. I bought a turkey at Costco last week!
 We have so much to be thankful for! Most of all for salvation from our sins and sin's punishment, eternal separation from God in hell. This salvation is through our Lord Jesus Christ. I thank Jesus  for dying on the cross in place of my sin's penalty. He paid the price for me so that I might be forgiven before God. And Christ rose from the dead as proof that He is God and to give us hope for eternal life in Heaven after we die. I can't imagine living this life without this hope.
 This year has been a whirlwind of events, but God's sovereign and faithful hand has been evident through it all. My mother died and went to be with her Savior Jesus Christ in Heaven, Keisuke and I got engaged and married and I am now here in Japan full time... God has given us new family members (3 new precious nieces and nephews!) and provided for us in so many ways.
I have so much to be thankful for!
 Well, that about sums up my thoughts for now.
Hope I didn't bore you with all the details. :)
 Love to all! We miss you! Love, Laura

To see pictures from our trip, please click on this link...
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2082287&id=161501693&l=fdf55510bb


pictures from camera 2 can be seen by using this link... 
 http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2082324&id=161501693&l=f980a04d7a

Leaving for our honeymoon tomorrow!

We are finally off to our honeymoon tomorrow.
We will be gone for 4 days and 3 nights. (getting back on Tuesday)
We will be traveling around a lot, so would appreciate prayers for safety.
We are excited!!! Tell you all about it when we get back!
Much love to all.