Okay Japan, I'm sorry. I'm sorry I ever questioned or doubted your cherry blossom obsession, because now I understand. I too have become obesessed. Imagine a tree filled with ethereal, breathtaking, cotton candy flowers. Then have the petals fall off and look like snow. Okay, you actually can't. You have to see the sakura for yourself. It's so dang pretty! My comp and I freak out now whenever we see a sakura tree. There's a mountain in front of our apartment balcony, and half of the mountain is just pink because of all the cherry blossoms. Prettiest thing you will ever see. I will probably put more than enough pictures of sakura in the next couple of emails, so I'm sorry (but actually way not because I'm obsessed).
Last Monday I went to my first sushi conveyor belt restaurant! You can either order sushi and it comes to you on a little train, or just pick up sushi plates from the conveyor belt thing. Afterwards you play a game with your plates and slide them into a slot to see if you win a prize. SO TASTY. We met a Slovenian man that night who spoke English and gave him a BOM. I raced with a junior high kid on my bike even though we're technically not supposed to do that. I'm repenting right now. He won.
I also got my bike this week! It's my new favorite thing. I named it Saikou-chan. Saikou in Japanese means the best. Which she is. We can bike really fast. The other day my comp and I were late for an appointment and we biked a normally thirty minute bike ride in ten minutes. Please, hold your applause. Still repenting.
My comp and I made a bentou this week for a less active, and we had tea in super cute heart shape cups with a member. We also ate oranges called belly button oranges. We gave a Book of Mormon to a lady who owned a dried fish shop. We had the door answered by a naked ten year old. It was an interesting week.
This week my comp and I also got to watch general conference in Japanese. It was very distracting because I could hear the English under the Japanese interpreter. But general conference is still the best.
It's been pretty rainy and not very sunny for the past week or so. A sweet member in our ward made us little sakura shaped cookies, and so we've been giving them out to people as we got out dendouing. That has been super fun. We like to ask people where they think sakura come from. One time we were talking to one lady, when this little old gramma calls out to us and tells us that she is a less active. Then she asks us if we want to go see the cherry blossoms together. We didn't know her, nor had we ever heard of her, so we agreed. The ride to the cherry blossoms has aged me ten years. She refused to bike on the sidewalk, and the majority of the ride was either in the middle of the road or a third of the way out. Cars would honk at her and stuff, but she just kept biking. I prayed aloud to Heavenly Father, begging him for her not to die or to cause a car accident, or end up killing one of us. So much stress. Luckily we made it there in one piece.
Something I've been thinking a lot about recently is the tender mercies that the Lord gives us. Because He loves us so much, He gave us beautiful things, like cherry blossoms. In Japan especially, where it's incredibly beautiful, I often marvel at how much Heavenly Father loves us to give us such beautiful and complex things. I'm so grateful for this wonderful earth we live in.
I love you all! 愛しています!
Dimmitt Shimai
1. Sakura cookies!
2. My comp looking like a freaking model
3. Bentou!
4. Sakura covered mountain
5. Saikou-chan!
6. Tea party with one of our favorite members
7. Hanami with a less active
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