We started touring around Kyoto, sort of the cultural center of Japan. We visited the Nijing Castle - home of a Samurai Shogun. I enjoyed the sense of his being a mighty warrior on the one hand, and seeing the appreciation he had for nature, beauty and art on the other. I like the balance of ying and yang in Asia. We also saw Kiyomizu (Pure Water) temple. If you drink the water from the spring, it is said, you will be "younger, cleverer, and more beautiful". Sarah also immersed herslef in eating Asian food, including sea-food. I was really proud of her, since I knew that might one of the hardest parts of travelling in Asia for her. Another thing that made being in Japan fun was the fact that Sarah's great-grandfather was the first mission president assigned to Japan after serving there (in the North-Asia Mission) himself.
From Kyoto, we toured a Toyota plant and exhibition hall. It was amazing to see the Toyota Production System live. A highlight of that was the welding shop where various models of cars/trucks/vans were conveyed into a room full of robotic welders. The welding machines detected which vehicle they were about to work on and followed that specific welding plan -- highly automated and amazing to watch as the shop filled with sparks and smoke for a few minutes while the machines did their job and the next set of cars were rolled in and the process was repeated.
We rode a bullet train to Tokyo where we toured a couple of banks and spoke with Americans working there about the challenge/opportunity of doing business in Japan. We also got to visit the Tokyo temple. One of the faculty that came on trip, Dr. Money, served as a missionary about 20 years before and we happened to run into his mission president and his wife, whom he hadn't seen since he left the mission. That was fun to meet a Japanese "pioneer".
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