Tono, finally

7/9/12 We left Tokyo and boarded the Bullet Train and headed to Shin-Hanamaki.  It is a 3-hour journey by bullet train or a 6-hour drive.  While we were on the train, we needed to call Gerald Burch to inform him our expected time of arival.  Since my Smart phone is not so smart after all, we basically had to fall back to using public phones.  Jim found out that the public phone on the train does not accept coins.  So, he purchased a phone card.  Then, we found out that those phones on the train cannot call iPhones.   We ended up have to borrow a cell phone from another train passenger.  He was generous to let us use the cell phone and declined any payment for use of his phone.  When we arrived at Shin-Hanamaki, Gerald and Branda Burch were smiling and waiting to welcome us.  We also met Doo Young, who is a missionary from Atlanta, Georgia.   From Shin-Hanamaki, we drove for another hour before we FINALLY arrived at our final destination.

The scenary changed as we traveled from Tokyo to Tono.  Tokyo has many interesting eatery places.  However, it is very crowded with little greenary.  As we traveled to Tono, the sceneary changed from a cityview with highrise and apartments to mountains and rice fields.  The scenary was very beautiful and one can cleary see the hand of God in designing this beautiful world that we live in.