We had our fun-nest most touristy day yet. 
After 4 days and many many hours of painting we have finally finished. We spent a lot of our days recently painting a large warehouse for Greatest Gift Ministries, a non-profit that is run through the church. Since I'm on the topic let me tell you a bit about this unique ministry. The ministry is modeled after Operation Christmas Child by Samaritans Purse, which builds gift boxes for young boys and girls and sends them to less fortunate kids in other parts of the world. Darren the founder of the ministry personally delivers the boxes to the countries they are built for. The difference of his ministry is that his teams are made up of believers and non-believers. Many missions trips are mostly for Christians but Darren presents a challenge to nonbelievers to go to these places and experience it for themselves. This is huge for the Japanese nationals that go on these trips. They do not see extreme poverty every day so it is hardly a real problem to them. Yet once they see it for themselves it opens their eyes up to the world and it also places them in a very sensitive spiritual state. Darren has been able to disciple people that have gone on prior trips. We also got a great opportunity to meet with a couple girls that went on past trips to Cambodia and the Philippines. We had a great conversation about living a life of service. Now back to the painting we did. We did a stinking lot of it. The end.
Right when I got out of the shower Jeff notified that the most intense rain my friend has ever seen in Japan was coming down. I proceeded to look for myself at this monstrous rain. Jeff was right and an impulse kicked in. I threw off my towel and threw on some shorts and ran outside. I knocked on Katrina's window and her and Jeff ran out to meet me in the middle of the park. Rain thunder and lighting poured down around us. One of the most freeing moments of my life. Its up there with the night skinny dip (doug Ian you know what I'm talking about). We were running in the street as cars drove past and awkward stares by the Japanese motorists. We were next to a business with the door open and noticed the employees laughing at us. I motioned to them to join us but they passed on the opportunity. A few minutes later I saw one of them run out and enjoy the moment. For some reason I sensed a bit of liberation for him, a small break from a typical Japanese work day. Today was a great day.
Talk about an awkward sandwich. There are some moments in life that you just can't pass up. Take this one for example: Japanese punk on my right, gamer on my left. It was an intense game.
So i find myself walking by many cautionary signs. Many like the one you see here. To me this sign looks like something you definitely want to read. This concerns me because of the fact that my linguistic understanding of the Japanese language is nonexistent. I will do my best to go by the pictures. Lord help me if there are none.
Jeff and I had our first day of jui jitsu last night. The entire lesson was taught in Japanese and there was only 1 other American there. All in all it was a great first session. We will be training about three times a week while we are here. This is a high quality dojo. The national champion trains here, but he is in Brazil right now for the world championships. Who knows maybe by the end of the trip I'll be the next champ (not likely, but I'm still going to have fun). 
