I'm Having a Banana Because I Can't Work the Stove

So, John suggested the title of the blog since I actually said this last night. I was a little frustrated yesterday since we do not know how to work any of the electronics in our apartment. I attempted to boil water in a kettle and couldn't figure out how to turn on the stove. Bananas have very simple and universal instructions. :) All of the user manuals we have are in Japanese, except for the washer/dryer (thank goodness). It only took us about 45 minutes to figure out where to put the soap in the dishwasher. Oh, well...it's all part of the experience, right? :)

With that said, I really love our apartment! We have a few more things to do before we post some pictures, which I promise we will do tomorrow. We plan to take video and post that, too. The furniture isn't what we rented, but it the "survival furniture" that we'll have for the first 30 days or until our other stuff arrives on the ship. It was suggested that I bring curtains with me since they are pretty expensive over here. I found the ones for the living room on clearance at Pier 1. They have the set up for curtain hooks, so it took us a little bit of time, but they are all hung up. It feels more like a home with those up! Now, we just need a comforter and decorative pillows along with some other decorations, and we'll be all set. Am I like Caryn Couch (my mom) or what? :) I do wish she could be here to help decorate!

This morning we visited Tokyo Baptist Church. We managed to get to the right station on the subway where we were supposed to find a bus that took us to the church. We were struggling but found the bus number the website told us. We were trying to confirm that it was the right bus, but the bus drivers don't speak any English. God was watching out for us because a really nice girl got on the bus, and we asked her. Sure enough, she was on her way to the same church. We were so thankful that we met her because we never would have found the church from where the bus dropped us off. We really enjoyed the service, and were thankful to see that it is a very diverse church. All their services are in English, and they have bible studies during the week and small groups. We will visit at least 2 other churches that we've heard about, but we were very happy with our first choice. Please be in prayer for us to find a good church home. We were so spoiled from our church home in Dallas, but we know that the Lord has great plans for us to get involved somewhere in Tokyo, too. After the service, we talked to some people at the Welcome Center (Veronica - they have their welcome table outside in the heat... now that is commitment!), and a lot of them also attend Bible Study Fellowship, which I plan to attend in September. They told me about a Wednesday morning class for women, which sounds like a much better option than Tuesday night. They also told John about the men's class. We think this will be great study to do together.

After that, we stopped by Tokyo Midtown, which is sort of like the galleria in Dallas. I went there with an expat wife during our first visit, so I got to show John something for a change. They have great places to eat and a wonderful international grocery store. We found Skippy peanut butter! Yay!!

That's the update so far. I'm looking forward to more discoveries this week, and I'm so thankful that John doesn't have to work until next week. Our jet lag hasn't been too bad... unless you count taking 6 hour naps during the day jet lag. :)