Saturday, while we were speaking with Shannon and my Mom on the phone outside our apt. as this is the only place that brings in even half decent reception, the lady on the right stopped and spoke in Japanese with Jim. He was only able to respond with English. She understood him to say Canada and she was off, excitedly trying to communicate something in Japanese with words like Los Angeles, Minneapolis and holding up fingers for numbers.

The outcome was that she motioned for us to follow her. Jim ran in to get his shoes. I had just had a shower...no make-up and my hair was not even dry....!!!But we followed her as we didn't know how to tell her to wait a few minutes. It turned out that she was taking us to her house for coffee!!! She immediately called her daughter on the phone. This daughter now lives in Tokyo and speaks English well as she had lived in LA and Minn. The lady handed the phone to Jim to talk with her. Meanwhile she is showing me photo albums of her family etc. What a great blessing!!
We generally feel 'invisible'in Japan even though we know we are just the opposite. Usually no one speaks to us so this was a very amazing experience for us. The other person in the picture is this lady's daughter-inlaw who lives in the same house. She speaks limited English. By the way, I had my hair cut and dyed the next day ...another story....so it looks much better now!!















This was taken from the 2nd floor at Ueno Station. Notice the mass of people on the floor below rushing for their connecting trains. The empty space is the area just this side of the ticket gates and it will soon be filled with all the people who headed through the gates. Finding your way in one of these stations is quite the experience. And crossing 'traffic' is an art.











We went to Tokyo Station as there is bookstore with and English section near there...after Saturday we decided to get serious about learning Japanese ...we want to be able to communicate with our new friendly neighbour...
The older buildings are the station....all that was left after the 'fire-bombings' of WW2. The Allies targeted the station and the trains as this crippled the nation as there road system is not nearly as efficient. The inside of the buildings is new construction.