Osaka and the Shinkasen

So these blogs are a little late, but I am still going to write about them. Anyways a week or so before I flew home, Nate and I had the chance to take the bullet train, shinkasen in Japanese, down to Osaka to visit Hamadera Bible Church. Riding the bullet train was on my list of things to do in Japan and so it was pretty sweet that that was the way of travel for our visit. I am not totally sure, but the bullet train goes 186 mph or 168 mph. It is pretty unreal to be sitting in this train, with no seatbelts on, going 186 or whatever mph on land. The bullet train was also the setting for Nate's now favorite video "Track Star" which is a must see for all Nate Johnson fans.


Anyways, our visit with Osaka was very succesful and was the first step in connecting our youth with their youth. I was very encouraged by the time we spent there and learned a lot about Japan and the Japanese people. We were busy the whole time. We tried Osaka's famous takoyaki and okonomonaki, which I have to be honest and say they weren't my favorite. We went to downtown Osaka and visited the famous Dotonbori street. One of my highlights was going to the Patagonia in Osaka. One of my goals in Japan is to visit all of the Patagonias (For those of you who don't know Patagonia is a surf/outdoor company that is based out of Ventura. It has cool stuff, but is very expensive.) and get a sticker from the store.




Osaka was cool. I got to experience huge tv's on the side of buildings, all the lights and big city buildings, but also got to spend a lot of time with really cool people at Hamadera Bible Church. I am excited to see what God has in store for Hamadera and our youth.