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Wednesday in Japan!

(I still have no card reader so unfortunately no photo's can be posted...and it's killing me!  I have to get to an electronic shop around here soon.  I don't have much free time so it's hard to get there.) Today we had practice this morning as usual, then lunch, after lunch we drove over to a place called "Asakusa" which has a HUGE Buddhist temple (Sensoji Temple) that's placed right in the heart of a residential area.  (In the meantime all the wives and girlfriends hopped on another bus back at the hotel and headed to Asakusa to meet us!) I didn't know what to expect going to a Buddhist temple and all so as we got there I was kinda of shocked at what it was, what it looked like, and what people did there.  It's pretty hard to explain but being a Follower of Christ I couldn't tell if people were doing their equivalent of "going to church", "praying", "worshipping", etc.  It was very different for me to watch people interact with Buddha (the statues, symbols, etc), other temple rituals (like getting a fortune...not like your little fortune cookie, it was a full out ritual thing), and the temple alters.  I'm very uneducated when it comes to all of the specifics but I didn't have a chance to 'people-watch' for a while and just take it all in. Don't worry, I had no urge to do the "when in Rome".  Jesus Christ is the one and only savior of the world.  He is Lord above all Lords and King above ALL Kings.  He is the Alpha and Omega! Next to the huge temple area (it was actually like 4 HUGE Temple buildings) was streets and streets...and streets of flea shops, dining places, etc.  It was like one giant galleria flea market that was like 20 blocks long and 5 blocks wide called "Nakamise-dori". It was all covered walkways so it felt like we were inside but based on the humidity and the streets having open ends we were definitely outside.  (If you didn't know the humidity in Tokyo IS CA-RAZY!!!) So we walked around all the shops and the temple areas (for 2 hours) then hopped back on the buses to head to have dinner at this awesome restaurant on one of the inland water ways.  Dinner was great.  Tim Brown was there and we helped him celebrate his birthday by surprising him with a cake and singing happy birthday. Now we just got back to the hotel and I'm about to pass out...today was a long day.  Not much down time, but hey we're in Japan. Thanks again for all the comments, it's so great!