Adventures in Tokyo

Last Sunday we decided to go to Tokyo.

The church there (Nikolaido). The people were exceptionally friendly.

Since the church is near the Akihabara district, we headed there next. Akihabara is the electronics and anime district (it used to be strictly electronics, but the internet devastated the electronics components trade in Akihabara, and a bunch of anime merchandise shops moved into the area).

 

 A funny house we saw on the way. The sharp angle reminded Millinophile of a pop-up book.

 One of the stores that we visited in Akihabara had several stories of high-end action models/statues. The top floor had these figures, painted by expert artists.

Each one cost several thousand dollars.

Pascha in Yokohama

We've been going to a lovely parish in Yokohama (here). The priest, matushka, and several of the parishioners speak good English, and everyone is very friendly. Two other families from the Naval Base also attend.

The church's exterior. Our service started at 9 a.m., hence the sunlight.

ハリストス復活! (Harisutosu fukkatsu!) 実に復活! (Jitsu ni fukkatsu!)

 So many kulichi!

A pretty Pascha basket.

 Handing out the red eggs.

 Well, mostly red eggs. Millinophile's has a Russian folk tale instead. After the service finished, the parish had a celebratory meal with tons of traditional Japanese food (sushi, yakitori, steamed edamame, seaweed rice crackers, spaghetti salad, and other dishes). It was lots of fun!

Millinophile: This iced tea tastes really bitter.

Chickadee: Yeah, it really does. Actually, it tastes almost like...coffee! It's iced cafe americano.

 We saw some pretty flowers on the walk from church to the train station. 

 People around here have really nice gardens around their homes instead of lawns.

It's hard to see, but the white tulips have pink stripes.

Wait, I thought poppies were illegal in Japan...

All the photos in this post were taken with Millinophile's new phone. It has a 16MP camera. A little better than the 5MP on the 7 year old camera we've been using.