Kumamoto, Japan, April 4, 2016

 Road the Shinkinsen to Kumamoto.  Kumamon is their mascot, and he is everywhere!

 Took the trolley, and it stops right in front of our hotel, totally lucked out on that one.  Everywhere else we have had to hike to our hotels!

 This is our home for the next couple of days

 Dean was excited to see if we could find his old area.  This is the area where he spent the most time on his mission.

 The surrounding buildings didn't look familiar, so he was getting kind of nervous, we came around the corner, and there it was!  Dean was so excited.  He tried the door, and it was open!

 It got even better, it was Monday, and that was PDay for the missionaries, and they were all hanging out and playing in the gym of Dean's church!  It was like Dean just stepped back in time 40 years!

 Dean's chapel!

 Now that was worth all the walking it took to get there.  (this was one of the days that we got over 30,000 steps on the fitbit!)

 At this point, we finally had to admit we were lost, and had to ask for help in getting home.
We had quite the adventure trying to get home. It involved running down train tracks, taking wrong trains, messing up the whole train system because we had no idea where we were....and running from train platform to train platform, during which Erika lost her glasses.  And many more adventures.  We made it home, and went the the mall that adjoins our hotel to see if we could find reading glasses.  No luck.  So not only can I not understand the language, now I can't see the language that I cant understand.  At this point, I'm totally dependent on Dean.

 Here are our sweet outfits from the hotel in Kumamoto

 Next morning, we get up to go see the Kumamoto Castle.   This kind man stopped and gave us suggestions on other places we might like to see while in Kumamoto.  I am amazed at the kindness these people showed to us.  Made me want to be a more friendly person.

 There is one of the entrances to the castle grounds.  We were there before it opened, so we had to entertain ourselves for a few minutes. 

 The cherry blossoms are falling from the trees now, and it's like the ground is covered in pink snow!

 Dean decided to storm the castle!

I was sure he was going to get arrested!

The pictures with the red boarder are ones taken the next week.  The Kumamoto earthquake hit the week after we were there.  I borrowed them from the internet.  This is a picture of the same wall that Dean was climbing.

This is taken of the same place I was standing.

 Looking over the city of Kumamoto.  It would be interesting to see that same view now,

 We loved this kind man on the street.  He was so friendly, and wanted to help any way he could.

 The trolley system wasn't quite as modern as we had seen in other cities!

 Saying goodbye to this awesome city, and to Kumamon

 Now back onto the bullet train back to Tokyo.

It's tiring to play this hard!