A short note from Sapporo

I'm sitting outside the men's showers waiting for the guys to shower plus washing and recharging some electronic devices (phone, video camera and computer).

We spent the morning at the church in Sapporo where we served from March 2003 till July 2004. It isn't a large church but we were surprised at so many faces we knew and people who remembered us. They were surprised at how big our boys were. When we were there we only had two and they were under school age. 

We also drove around our old neighbourhood a little. It is amazing how much I vaguely remember, but equally how much I've forgotten. I guess I had a bit of a baby brain fog going back then!

This afternoon we picked up some groceries and supplies and headed back to camp. By mid afternoon most of our neighbours had packed up and left, after a one-night stay. So we played cricket on the beautiful grassy lawn. 

Then we built a fire and cooked our dinner, including rice. My dream is coming true: the boys are pitching in and helping. I had all of them ask what they could do to help with dinner tonight and it turned into a group event. 

But now it's 7.20 and we're just waiting for the washing to finish before we go back to camp, jump into our jammies, and listen to another chapter of The Hobbit. Yes, we're reading it to the boys this trip. It's proved to be a great settler at the end of the day.

Tomorrow we head north, part ways to the most northern point of Japan. Hopefully we'll reach there on Wednesday, but we'll camp the next two nights at a lake on the way north.