April 5th The LONG mile

So yesterday was very busy, thus no blog update.  We went and looked at 3 apartments which doesn't seem like much just written down like this but trust me it was ALOT! We took buses and trains and WALKED so much yesterday! We were able to meet in person with the realtor which was good since all our correspondence with him thus far has been through emails and phone. He is a nice young man who seems anxious to find us what we're looking for. Gary also told him that after we find an apartment we'd be looking for a building to rent as well for the church. He shared with him what we'd be doing etc. , I'm praying to see him get saved.
One of the apartments is a "maybe" the other two were too far to the train station. We should hear from him today about some other possibilities to go see. He now has a better idea of what we're looking for so I'm sure we'll find something soon! Generally, apartments come with a two year lease so while it doesn't have to be perfect we do want to be sure that's where we want to stay.
Here's a pic from the "maybe" apartment we looked at...

It has a bedroom  and bathroom apart from this. Quite small and quite expensive as all apartments are here. I couldn't figure out what those squares on the floor in front of the kitchen sink were so I asked the realtor, apparently it's like a storage area.. kind of looks like a cooler inside.

After looking at the three different places we headed to Kichijoji, an area we are considering for the church. Gary wanted to see what it was like at night. We walked all over it and by then it was around 8 p.m. and we were getting really hungry so we stopped at Coco's for dinner. We'd heard about it but never eaten there. It was good and we had the drink buffet included so we drank a bunch of coffees, macha lattes and I found a really neat iced strawberry latte! It's self serve and I'm never sure what the buttons on the espresso machine say so I just push buttons and see what happens!  

I had a neat hamburger steak dinner that they just barely sear on the outside and then you cut off pieces and cook them on this really HOT rock that's on your tray.

The meal came with a nice sausage dog and chicken so those of you who know what a carnivore I am can imagine how happy this girl was! (that piece of broccoli was the only vegetable in sight and I didn't eat it!...though I do like broccoli last night was all about the meat!) I did eat my fries and a small bowl of rice (I think I'm turning Japanese).

After dinner we walked around Kichijoji some more, it was around 9 p.m. then and still very busy with lots of young people and shops open.(sorry forgot to take a pic so I stole this from google)

 

We did see this cool picture outside a restaurant with the cool rockin Japanese geishas!

 

 Outside another restaurant, the dinner on display...I think it's Fugu!

Gary wants to eat fugu, I tell him it's a stupid way to die!

 

Also saw this cool building, different in style than most Japanese buildings, almost European looking.

 

 

Anyway, we were both VERY tired and it was almost 10 p.m. so we headed home (train and bus again) to take some ibuprophen for our sore bodies and sleep!

Today, we have a nice sunny day so I'm trying to wash more laundry. I finally got the last batch in off the line yesterday morning, can't believe it finally dried after all the rain. It's supposed to rain again tonight so hopefully this will dry and I can get it in the house before then!

Later!