Two Turkey Dinners and a Lot of Thanks

Since I arrived in Tokyo in 2008 I have spent Thanksgiving Days doing what ever the normal work schedule called for. There just weren't any Americans among my colleagues on the Ichikawa side of the city to celebrate with. This year, however, we have a Serve Japan Worker here at JHQ from the US.

We decided a few weeks ago to do a Thanksgiving lunch on Thursday and invited our coworkers in the office. The ones who were in that day were mostly Japanese which always makes for lively conversation about American traditions, recipes, and finding the proper ingredients in Japan. We had fun and we were thankful together. I found when it was all finished and cleaned up that I am out of shape for cooking for a group!

Shortly after we had made the decision to do an Ichikawa Thanksgiving, we were invited to a dinner to be made in the main by American friends on the other side of Tokyo on Friday.  The choice of day was due to the children's school schedule.

The Thompsons, The Driscolls,
Christine and me

So we made what we pledged to contribute to dinner, and in the early afternoon started the hour and 10 minute trek by way of three different trains to our destination. We were 11 in number, and 5 of those were young men in the upper grades of secondary school. Two turkeys were prepared with all of the attendant side dishes and desserts in an effort to satisfy every one's appetite.  I think we might have come close. No question the adults had enough or a bit more than enough, but with boys that age any meal is at best a stop-gap measure.

I'm thankful for friends who think of you on special days like this, for lovely food prepared by loving people, for hospitality, for trains that run regularly and on time to the places you want to go, for relatively safe environments in the places I walk at most any time of day or night, good weather, fun conversations, and most of all for a Loving Heavenly Father who cares for us and about us.