Jude, one of the interns, is a dependent of Air Force retirees; both mother and father. He took us to Yokato Air Force base to do some "Thanksgiving meal" grocery shopping at the commissary. While there, we enjoyed a meal at Chili's restaurant. Visiting the base was an interesting experience; it was like walking through a door leaving Japan, and entering the United States; plus the cost of the groceries was about a third of what it would have been at a Tokyo market.

Some of you have asked about our Thanksgiving. As you can see, we had a very nice turkey that was purchased at Costco.

This is at the home of Jeff and Kimberly, our team leaders. They had all of the team over for Thanksgiving lunch. They prepared the turkey and the rest of the team brought the other dishes. Martin caught me working on the deviled eggs.

Here we have sweet potato, green bean, and broccoli casseroles; and everyone's favorite- the dressing. Yum, yum, yum!

What do you do while waiting for everything to be ready? Tell silly Thanksgivng jokes.

"Which side of the turkey has the most feathers?" (the outside)

And, watch football.

Jeff and Kimberly are from Alabama and are big Auburn fans. So, we watched a DVD of an Auburn vs Georgia game that was played on October 31. Of course, Auburn won!

Happy Thanksgiving from the Chuo Line Tokyo Team!

We have much to be thankful for.

Our "sensei" (language teacher) suggested we visit the Tama Zoo on our next day off, so we did. This is the monorail we took from the Tachikawa train station out to the zoo. It was a beautiful ride, being up above the houses and streets below.

The zoo is laid out very nicely; rolling hills and many places to rest and view the animals while maybe having a snack. The zoo also provides a bus service that stops at all major attractions every ten minutes. If you get tired of walking, you can hitch a ride.

These are the red kangaroos from Australia. I guess I had known only one kind of kangaroo. I was impressed by the cleanliness and care for all the animals.

The red pandas from China were my favorites. They are about the size of a large raccoon and have a very long tail. It was interesting to watch how graceful they were in the trees. Their size, and build, would lead you to think they were clumsy; not so!

Watching these lions chase after a crane that had landed nearby, displayed their lethal predator instincts. As I watched, this verse came to mind: I Peter 1:8, "Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour."

This laughing kookaburra was amazing to watch as he prepared to eat his dinner. (I'd better not go into the details here.)

Thanks, Omura-sensei, for suggesting this outing. We enjoyed being outdoors and marveled at how God created each animal to be so uniquely different and designed for its environment.

This week's pictures are of Tachikawa; second of the three cities Martin and I are responsible for on the Chuo rail line. I don't have any statistics, but Tachikawa seems to be a leader in doing what's best for its citizens, and sets the standard for surrounding cities; especially in the area of health. You can tell by this manhole cover that health is very important. All manhole covers on the sidewalks are colorfully painted. There are signs posted on most streets urging people not to smoke, and to live healthy.

The monorail shows another aspect of the city as being not only a leader, but innovative. This is the only one I have seen in Tokyo. From the train station, the monorail transports passengers to the outskirts of the city quickly, cutting down on pollution created by buses.

This is the entrance to Showa Koen (park). It has been one of our favorite places to go on the weekends. It is huge!! Up until last week, we had only gone to the front of the park. This is where we had our picture taken with the large pumpkin on our October 30 blog. Walking to the fountain, turning right, and it opens up to a massive area where I walked for an hour and still didn't reach the end of the park. Literally thousands of people visit here every weekend.

Inside the park there are two small lakes; this one offers paddle boat and canoe rentals. You can also rent single, or tandem bicyles for the day. The park also offers us lots of opportunities to interact with the Japanese; a friendly and gracious people.

This past Wednesday, Veterans Day was observed in the United States. Wherever we have lived in the world, there has always been a United States military presence; Japan is no different. This presence has always given us a sense of security while living outside the U.S. From Showa Park you can observe aircraft from the Yokota Air Force Base which is just a short distance away. Knowing some of our blog readers have served at Yokota, we thought of you on Veterans Day. Thank you for your service.

Today the Air Force has been especially busy; lots of air traffic. Our suspicion is, it is because President Obama is visiting Tokyo.

As many of you know, Martin and I were involved with the Ronald McDonald House in Lexington. This past Tuesday, our personal ministry day, we went to visit the Tokyo Ronald McDonald House. It is located in another smaller city about two hours away by rail. There are six RMHs in Japan and we learned during our visit that another one will open on our rail line in March of 2010. We are excited because it will only be 30 minutes from where we live, and we will have an opportunity to do volunteer work there. The house was very similar to the one in Lexington. You can see that some things are "lost" in the translation.

We thought it was cute how the slippers they had for us also had the RMH insignia on them. All guests remove their shoes at the door and wear these slippers inside the house. We were given a tour of the facility and found the house manager and staff very welcoming; just like Lexington. All of the houses in Japan have been built since 2001.

Today on our day off, we wanted to take advantage of the nice fall weather, so some of our team climbed the nearest mountain, Mt. Takao.

L to R: Jude, Sharon, Whitney, Amy, and us. Jude, Whitney and Amy are interns working here for 3 months. They arrived shortly before we did. We, and Sharon, are working as a team to establish a church in Tachikawa in early 2010.

Our day started out as a fun day outdoors, but having shared the same adventure, it turned out to be a bonding time for us.

On the way up to the 2,000 ft. summit, we came across an active Buddhist temple: leading to the temple were the "108 steps of sin" of Buddhism; each step representing a Buddist teaching.

I am thankful for a living and forgiving God that is with me at all times.