Gerhauser Happenings: Tokyo with the youth!

I got to go on a temple trip with the youth to the Tokyo temple. They didn't have school on Friday so we left about 5 am and got there at about 2pm. We rented 3 vans from the base and had a great time. We did baptisms first and then they had a stake activity at the church. We spent the night and had breakfast with one of the wards and then headed home. We got home late Saturday night. It was a great trip. I was supposed to have to driven in Tokyo for the activity part of the trip so the rest of the adults could attend the temple. It worked out that I didn't so that was an answer to prayers!

This was my first experience with rest stops in Japan. They are AWESOME! They were the funnest part of the trip. At each rest area they have stores and restaurants and markets. It is crazy. So we would drive for a few hours and stop for gas and hang out at these cool fun stops and try all sorts of fun things.

I walked into the bathroom and saw this......I immediately thought I came in the boys restroom...nope urinals in the ladies room. Just in case you have a little boy with you that needs to use it!

I'm not sure if I have mentioned about the drink machines or not. They are everywhere. Like 4 on every block. You are in the mountain or out on a country road and what do you see....a vending machine with drinks. We used to count them on our way to church. Here are a few at the rest stop. HThey also have coffee and hot chocolate. One of the YW accidently got coffee instead of hot chocolate so we had to confiscate it!! They don't have a ton of pop but mostly juices. Lots of the juices have chunks of the fruit in it...weird. They also have lots of flavored water and tea. They have cold and hot drinks. If it has red by it is a hot drink and if it has blue then it is a cold drink. I tried my first hot drink of peach raspberry hot lemonade...it was half good and half weird. There was some good things people tried and some I could do without...so many choices it is crazy! This is just a few of the machines.

You also order food from a vending machine.You order it and push what you want and then pick it up at a window.

In Japan they always have pretend food on display to show you what you can get.

This is Tokyo city. I was in the middle of the van and couldn't get any good pictures. The city is super squished and super tall. It was crazy! The apartments are right next to the freeway and you can see people's laundry drying on the clothes line on their balcony. They go up forever and then another huge building right next to it. Japanese now how to squish everything in.

Bikes, Bikes everywhere! You would never see so many people riding bikes in America. Especially really old people!

Tokyo Temple....it is hooked to the church with apartments above the church.

I was so proud to be a part of this trip and this group. They found 100 of their own names and were baptized for 300 family names from our ward. Each youth was baptized 20 times and I got to be baptized as well. I also got to sneak away from the stake activity for a bit and do iniatories. They were mostly in Japanese and I just read along and then every once in a while there was a sister to say it in English. It was super cool. Then I got to sit in the Celestial room all by myself. It is so awesome that I can have the peace of the temple here. It was all the same and so familiar and just reminded me how much God loves all of his children. I am so thankful for the temple. I love it!!