E-TEAM Tokyo News Archive 2009 Bamboo and steel towers

June 24th, 2009

With Mr. Kazama, a high school chemistry teacher here in Tokyo, we took over 21,000 steps yesterday as he led us from temple to temple and to a beautiful island with an observation tower. It was the most tiring day we’ve had so far, but perhaps the most exciting as well. We saw some truly beautiful temples, nature, ocean, and distant mountains. Let’s start from the beginning…

The first temple we toured was Engaku-Ji, built in the 14th century. It was my favorite of the four temples we saw today. The most common feeling among our team was wonder at the glory of God and His creation and amazement that the beauty of creation doesn’t convince people that it is a creation. I don’t know the name of the other temples, but the third one had a 13.4 meter tall Buddha that was quite beautiful. It wasn’t the old bald fat guy Buddha that usually comes to mind when the religion is mentioned.

Anyway, we eventually made our way to a small island about ½ a mile away from the Tokyo mainland. It had a nice, tall observation tower with a very windy top and an enclosed area right underneath. We all took plenty of pictures but they aren’t likely to compare with being there in person. The ocean is beautiful there, and looking out on the city is amazing as well. During the non-rainy seasons Mount Fuji can be seen from the observation post; however, we couldn’t see it due to clouds. God blessed us with a great, clear day for these activities… even so, the clearest of days during rainy season is usually not clear enough to see the mountain 60 miles away.

Today we had a much less hectic schedule. We went straight to Good News Church with the Bishops and folded tracks and fixed up books to put in mailboxes in the general area of the church.

That’s all for now ;-)