Okinawa, Japan - at least for a while anyway

Lunch at a Hawaiian restauant-napkins stored in a Spam can--Span flyswatter. Must be a theme thing.

They call this "Chicken Island" because chickens live on it. Elder Arnell in front of a playground which has a ship for kids to climb in overlooking the beach and Chicken Island.






We didn't know that there was an active volcano on the southern end of Japan near Kagoshima. The mountain is called Mt. Sacurajima and always has ash spewing out. They have had a little more ash activity during the past week. Earlier in the week I noticed that the air tasted funny and there was a film of dust on our car. Now I know why.


We took the mission car to the ferry at Kagoshima Tuesday morning and then flew to Okinawa that afternoon. We were met by Elder Philp Savage and his wife, Janet, who are the Military Relations couple assigned on the island. There are 14 military bases--mostly Marines. We are currently staying with Bill and Melene Mierzejewski. He is an assistant principle at an elementary school with DODS (Department of Defense Schools) and she has taught school full time and is currently a substitute teacher. They have five children who are all grown but not all married. None of them live at home. They have a nice American style home and have been in Okinawa for over 15 years. The plan is for us to be here at least six weeks and if we can not return to Tokyo by that time we will stay here permanently and when the Tokyo mission opens up again they will send a new mission couple to that area. If things settle down up there we will be packing up the car again by the end of April and driving back up through Japan. There are three people left at the Tokyo mission home--President Albrecht and Elder and Sister Hobbs, a Senior Missionary couple who arrived in Japan a month after we did. They said Tuesday they were able to get gas for all three mission vehicles and although there were some stations closed, the ones that were open did not have any cars lined up for fuel. Companies are reported to be bringing their employees back into Tokyo even though there are still issues with the nuclear plant. Last night they had pictures of the workers standing around talking in front of the plant and they were not wearing any extra protective clothing.

Meanwhile we will help out as much as possible here in Okinawa. We took a walk yesterday morning with Sister Mierzejewski down to the East China Sea (2 blocks away) and had lunch with her and the Savages at a Hawaiian restaurant on the beach. In the afternoon we went out with the Savages and took some blankets and a bicycle helmet to some Sister missionaries. They were both sick with the flu so were given a priesthood blessing. One of the sisters, Sister Lynch, is from the Tokyo mission. We also visited with Elder Jenkins, who had been with us in Fussa. It was nice to see that he was settling in nicely. Another Tokyo missionary, Elder Williams, assisted us last night when we had to go to the ferry to retrieve our car. It is always nice to have in interpreter nearby. This morning we unpacked the car and put things away. We will meet with the District President this evening and get a feel for what he would like us to do. Meanwhile I am happy to just sit quietly in this house today and maybe do some FamilySearch Indexing, reading or nothing. Elder Arnell is anxious to get out in the car and explore the island, but I need one more day to decompress after the past week of upheaval. I hope you enjoy these pictures.

Kogoshima Prefecture-Southern Japan

A park near the Richmond Hotel in Kogoshima - southern tip of Mainland Japan

The flower were very beautiful and springlike.

This is our room in the Richmond Hotel. Very much like one in the U.S.
10,000 YEN - about 125 dollars.

For the first time since all of the events of the last 1o days I am feeling a bit displaced. I guess it's because we are way down on the tip of Japan and there are no Americans to rely on. We will drop off the mission car at the ferry tomorrow and then fly to Okinawa. Another military relations couple will meet us at the airport. We will be staying with a member family who are Department of Defense School teachers. If we don't find an apartment by April 1st there is a Captain in some branch of the service who is going to the States for three weeks and said we could live in their home while they are gone. I have no doubt we will be well taken care of. Our new adventure begins!!!

At the Fukuoka Mission Home

Living room of the Fuluoka Mission Home



Kitchen and additional dining area

The bedroom they call the General Authority room
Check out eh shower. There are multiple shower
heads that spray you in all different directions.
I actually slept eight hours!!! That's quite a treat for me.

Sunday-Iwakuni Church

Sunset on the Expressway

We went to church at the small military branch that supports the Marines at Iwakuni. Originally this weekend was supposed to be District Conference for all the church members of the Japan Honshu Military District. With all that has gone on this week and the pending evacuations of Americans from Japan that was canceled. So I would suppose they were very happy to have two missionaries show up as guests. Especially since Elder Arnell is on the High Council and could represent the District Presidency.

There was one other member there who was invited to bear his testimony before we spoke. He had been living in Kichijoji, which is just west of Tokyo. After the earthquake and all the issues with Nuclear stuff he didn't know what to do since he was getting conflicting information from his employer, the news and well meaning friends. He talked to his father in law and was told "Just follow the missionaries." Whatever the church was doing for the missionaries that is what he was supposed to do. According to Elder Holland's press conference on March 15th if the Japanese government said to move people 10 KM away from the affected areas then the church would move them 30; if they were told to move 30 km then the church would move them 90. So he packed up his family any moved them down to the Hiroshima area. I guess this answers my question on why there was so much traffic on the road when we got to that area Saturday night.

It was very nice to finally meet the members of the Iwakuni Branch. Before these events they were out of our mission area but still in the Military District. Now they are actually in the Fukuoka mission boundaries. We will be down in Okinawa but there are planes that go between Iwakuni and Okinawa every day so we can catch a hop up there whenever we want.

After church we drove the rest of the way down to Iwakuni--about four hours. The mission home is in the bottom portion of the Fukuoka temple. We felt very blessed to be able to spend the night there in what they call the "General Authority" bedroom. I will post pictures in the next blog.

Saturday, March 19th - Driving down the middle of Japan

The Japanese Alps along the way.


This was our driving route from Fussa (Yokota Air Force Base) to our new mission home in Fukuoka.

We left just before 9:00 AM and immediately had a hard time getting out of town because the road we usually take was jammed with cars trying to get fuel. We were finally able to back out and take a different route to get to the Chuo Expressway. We had filled up with fuel and decided to stop as frequently as possible and top off the tank. At the first stop we were limited to 1,000 yen (about $12.50). There was no fuel at the next stop. At the third stop we could get 10 liters. After that there were no issues. We had smooth sailing until about half way there when we came to the Kyoto/Kobe area. These people really aren't affected that much by the events up north except for maybe some shortages. Monday is a Japanese holiday and the cherry blossoms are popping out all over so I am sure there were a lot of travelers visiting the old capitol of Japan. It took us about an hour and a half just to get 30 km. The beauty of this trip is that the route you see in the picture is one long connection of expressways. We never had to get off. We could just pull into rest areas along the way. The little drawback for such a good road system is the cost of tolls-15,900 YEN so far (about $190 dollars and we aren't there yet). Near the end of our day trip though we encountered another backlog at Hiroshima so decided to get off the clogged expressway and travel the remainder 70 km (about 45 miles)on the surface road. Bad idea!! That took us over two hours to make that little jaunt--through the city and countryside. If it had been daylight we probably would have seen some nice scenery in the Hiroshima area. The base wasn't accepting anyone into their lodging facilities due to the evacuation orders from bases up north but then they called back when they found out we were coming from Yokota Base and said we could stay there. But we had already made arrangements to stay in the home of Sister Chambers, the Iwakuni Branch Relief Society President. I crashed as soon as I could get to the bed.

We will attend church at the Iwakuni Branch this morning and then will drive the remaining four hours to the Fukuoka Mission Home. Since Monday is a Japanese holiday we will stay in that area until Tuesday and then will fly to Okinawa. We have a church car which will be ferried over there sometime later that week. There is already a Military Relations couple in Okinawa so they are going to help us get set up. Apparently we will be staying with a member until we can find and apartment.


We are really excited about this new adventure.

Final post before we pull the plug and head for Okinawa, Japan

The car is packed, dishes done, floor vacuumed. It's almost 8:00 PM and we have a long day ahead of us. Just a few thoughts before I pull the plug on the router to the Internet and disconnect myself from all of you.

Just a bit of an update first---We received the final word that we are going to Okinawa. We will drive the mission car south to Fukuoka and then take a plane to Okinawa sometime early next week and the car will be shipped via ferry. We were worried about the gas situation here. Our plan was to take one or two five-gallon gas cans with us so we wouldn't have to worry about fuel. One problem--most of the gas cans were already off the shelves. We did purchase a 2 1/2 liter can at a Japanese store--that will get us about 50 kilometer if we are lucky. We had a Japanese friend make some inquiries and apparently once you get about 327 KM out there are no more gas issues. We can make that easy!! It is an 11 hour drive to the nearest Military base--we may not make it that far. The Kobe Mission home is about an eight hour drive. We will just take the day as it comes and enjoy the journey.

Elder Arnell did a great job packing the car. It's nice not having to worry about the two suitcase, 50 lb limit yet. We will deal with that when we return to the States March 2012.

The voluntary evacuation is still taking place. Yokosuka is taking it very seriously while the other bases seem to be a bit more optimistic. Don't believe all you are seeing on the news. There may be some mayhem at Narita and Haneda airports but that is the only place. The trains were running again at the station near our apartment. People were out shopping--even during the three-hour utility blackout from 12:30 - 3:30. Many shops just opened up their doors to let enough light in and continued business as usual. Who needs electricity!!!

Guess that's about it. Thanks for all you comments. We are looking forward to Part Two of our Japan mission experience.


I hope to be able to post something along the way if there is internet access along with some pictures.

March 18th--our projected travel plans

We mapped out the route between Fussa and Fukuoka. Google Maps says 1,107 KM (688 miles) and 14 hours 18 minutes. Much of this route is toll roads which makes traveling easier but of course more expensive (about $500 we hear). We will fill up with fuel at Yokota Air Force base and take a 5 gallon can of fuel with us in case we can't get fuel along the way. We are hoping the further we get away from the affected areas there won't be as many issues.

We had a pretty peaceful night--only a few noticeable tremors. Today will be busy getting stuff into suitcases and decide what to leave behind. We came over with with two suitcases and a carry-on so I guess that's all we should leave with. We have a small pantry filled with canned goods and a refrigerator with our food as well as what we retrieved from the Fussa Elder's apartment. We have left instructions to allocate it out to the members in the Japanese Fussa Ward or to whoever else needs it.

I will try to post one more time before we pull the Internet plug if something changes. Otherwise I will post on Facebook and if I have access to this blog along the travel route. Thank you all for your prayers in our behalf.

Elder Ellwood and Sister Shirley Arnell