After a lengthy process, I finally have a Japanese driver's license, complete with an imbeded iris scan and two passwords. It took almost 3 days to get it along with $98.50, but what a relief - one day for getting my U.S. license translated into Japanese, one day for making a formal application, and one day for taking the written and driving tests. None of the staff at the Department of Motor Vehicles spoke English so it was good to have Elder Hill get his at the same time. During the driving test you had to prove that you were a confident driver with a knowledge of Japanese regulations. You also had to demonstrate your skills in driving through narrow places. One was called the crank and consisted of 3 ninety degree turns on a road with about an extra foot on each side of the car. The road was raised about 4 inches above the surrounding area so that it was not difficult to tell if you dropped off the edge. They also had soft weights suspended on ropes marking the edge of the road where the front bumper must pass as you turned. If the car touched the weights you failed and were invited back to try again later. There was also a very tight s-turn with the same narrow spacing as the crank. The turns were sharp enough that as you started into the turn you could no longer see the road near the front end of the car. It would have been a nail-biting experience except I was too busy to bite my nails. Elder Hill and I were the only two who passed out of the seven foreigners who came to take the test that day.
The Tohoku area of Japan is beautiful in spring and everything is in full flower. We can only share a small sampling but thought it would be fun to include two photos of Magnolia trees (or at least we think they are Magnolia trees). They are a little different than the tree that we had in our yard in Missouri, but we still think they are probably magnolia trees.
Each magnolia flower is nearly as large as a baseball and are either dark pink or pure white.
Some of the most cherished flowers of the Japanese people are cherry blossoms (sakura). In Sendai there are literally thousands of trees--in the forests, in private yards, along city streets, and in parks. They all seemed to come into full bloom this week so people were everywhere just looking at the cherry trees. On Saturday morning we arrived at Mikamine Park well before 7:00 A.M. to find many people in the park admiring the trees, walking their pets, or sitting under the trees having their breakfast.
There must have been at least a hundred trees in this park, all loaded with blossoms.
We spent an enjoyable half hour walking among the beautiful trees and then it was back to work.
Although this is Easter weekend, for us it was also General Conference. Because we're fifteen hours ahead of Salt Lake City, we can't watch the live sessions unless we begin at 1 A.M. So, the broadcast is translated into Japanese and we watch it on the following Saturday and Sunday. It was great to hear Elder Holland recount and consider the events that happened nearly 2000 years ago and to know that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, our Redeemer, who though his atonement and resurrection gave us the blessing and hope of eternal life with him.
We have another busy week ahead of us and then in two weeks it's transfers again. We're doing well and hope that you are too. We send our love.
As you can see, Daniel is growing up. He keeps us laughing with the things he says and does. He had a fun birthday and loved the cake and icecream-it was a little cleaner than last year.
This is the crew on David's birthday.
Isaac's baseball team just got their uniforms and Isaac's pretty excited. His team is the Astros and they have their first game today (they have been practicing for a few weeks, but today is the first real game).
Too bad the uniform is huge-hopefully his pants will stay where they are while he is playing.
