Japan Day 5 - Shinkansen to Nagoya

Hey friends! Just a quick blog for today as today was a travel day! On this day, we had to say bye to our AirBnbs in Makuhari and were preparing to leave for Nagoya. Before we left Makuhari, the team stopped by Kaihin Makuhari Grace Church to drop off our big luggage and suitcases to consolidate our space. We stayed at KMCG for a bit as Pastor Mark, Josiah, and John shared their testimonies and answered questions and observations they had of the team.

One of the most important suggestions and comments Pastor Mark had for us was calling, and he reminded the team that we were all already called to love God and love our neighbor before we even discern whether or not God wants us in Japan. It’s very important no matter where you are, we have already been called to the two greatest commandments (so love God and each other)!

After a pitstop at KMGC, it was time to experience Japan’s bullet trains for the first time! We got out our JR passes and head to the Shinkansen. We purchased bentos for the train, and we were on the way to Nagoya! The Shinkansen travels around 300 KPH and we arrived in Nagoya within an hour and a half.

We arrived in Nagoya safely, got lost in the city a bit, and went to the hotel. We did a bit of prayer for the Japanese people as we saw a couple of them at a shrine while we were walking to our hotel. This was a great reminder to me as it is easy to be sucked into Japanese culture and entertainment when in reality, there is a great darkness across Japan and the Gospel is not being shared here.

We had the rest of the night to ourselves and the team dispersed to try out foods to their liking! My group and I went to Din Tai Fung, a Taiwanese soup dumpling place that had delicious soup dumplings! Back at the hotel, some members even got to experience onsens (hot springs/tubs) for the first time too. Overall, this was a great travel day where the team had some free time to explore Nagoya.

Brendon