Korea - Day 1

it was a nice sunny morning of the 17th when i left my apt to go to the kobe sheraton hotel to catch the limosine bus to the airport. kumiko already was on it as she caught it from sanomiya.

on the bus

leaving japan

flying over tottori

arriving at incheon airport in korea

dan met us at the airport and lucky for us as no one spoke english...go figure

the airport limosine bus (just like in japan)

riding in style (unlike in japan sits 3 to a row - really nice)

sunset in incheon

we got in to seoul and got ready to meet up w/ a couple of dan's former students
the subway map

lockers (talk about hi-tech, they use fingerprints as keys)

sign in japanese (for all the japanese readers - notice anything funny at the end of the sentences)

here i go

on the subway

theres just so many pictures, so many things to write about, so much still to process.
as im posting these pictures of just the first day (and this isnt even all of them) it just seems like such a long time ago, so much has happened, so many experiences, so many people that we met, and the list goes on that to even give the most memorable would not be doing justice to the others that i really dont know where to start than to simply post pictures as i go and hopefully they will somehow give a glimpse into the whole trip.

it was a week exactly that we spent in korea, so many locals, so many internationals, so many christians, so many churches, so much food, so little time, but the worst that happened to us was a lost ticket and some lost sleep the first night, rushing from one appointment to another, hoping from one city to another, but one thing it did do for me was that like any trip abroad (and im using kobe as my base) puts everything into its proper perspective and one thing this trip did do was to give me a sense that all is not lost in japan, that things arent so bad, frankly not bad at all, frankly that things are pretty a-ok and im talking about the churches and the christians in japan that whoever rings this 1% christian tune has no clue as to how perfect the conditions are for a truly japanese original customized form of christianity to blossom! korea w/ its 40% population of christians, w/ its 850,000+ member churches, america w/ its megachurches and contemporary forms of worship and doing church and to that i say so what. they can have it, they can keep it, and i pray that japan can begin to find its own identity, to regain its own intrinsic values and customs to birth/bring about a christianity that suits it right where it is, just as it is.

im not bitter except maybe upset at myself for being caught up in the numbers, looking at the neighbors yard and seeing how green it is, when all the while there was the start of a forest right below my feet.