I am in Japan-First week in Nihon

Yup so we landed in Japan I guess last night but its hard to tell when you lose a day off your life in the plane. I stayed awake pretty much the entire plane ride and passed out pretty hard at 10:30. Then we woke up and they made us a pretty delicious breakfast of mostly americanish food, though the melon bread is pretty nihonteki (japaneseish)and quite delicious. I plan on eating a bunch more of the stuff. then we had some orientation stuff and we went to a really nice Chinese restaurant. I ate too much and threw up. it was awesome. then they made us walk back from the restaurant to the mission home and dendo(do missionary work) on the way. it was pretty good. The AP did most the talking and I didnt understand quite a bit of it. but we at least gave out a book of mormon and a bunch of fliers. My P-Day is going to be on Monday from now on so look forward to getting stuff from me on that day. And I'm not going to be able to do individual emails today. you'll have to wait till monday for those. but yeah I'm in Japan. Its pretty crazy and it feels really unreal. also its hot and the higurashi are loud. Hopefully, I'll find out what area ill be dendoing in soon. I'm pretty excited. well ja ne

-Elder Horton

So I'm a little worried about my regularity with all this japanese food. but I have thrown up twice. the first time was at the chinese place and the second was at the bishops house. they were feeding us tons of food and i didnt know what most of it was and didnt want to ask. also didnt really know how. but anyways i guess i ate too much. so i asked where the toilet was and i was off. so i threw up a bunch into this toilet. and it was a nice toilet. really new and top of the line stuff as the japanese seem to like so much. most toilets have a lever or something to flush, but not the new ones apparently. they just have tons of buttons everywhere with kanji all over them which makes it really difficult for gaijin (forigners). so i didnt know how to flush. but i couldnt let them see that i had just thrown up all the food they gave me. so i just pressed all the buttons. i still dont know what happened, but i guess it worked. anyways yeah. Im serving in a city called Kakogawa. I dont know what the population is or anything and i would actually be curious to know. my compainion is an Elder Bennion and he has been in the field for i think 8 months. I met a lot of the member of the ward on sunday and they had be come up in sacrament meeting and introduce myself. which was a little scary but i think i did alright. I probly spent more that mom would have liked on my bike. 409,000 yen. but its a sweet bike. it has a basket and a light on the front and 21 speeds and it even has a bell. i look so cool riding around with my helmet and everything. also im about to take out some more money so i can buy an electronic dictionary because this out-dated paper thing is holding me back. but yeah walking around, being a red head, i stand out pretty bad. every time we pass little kids they all practice their english on me and say "hello" and it still takes me a while to realize theyre talking to me and that hello is a weird thing to hear in japan. but its pretty fun for me. its really hot. and they dont believe in insulation in japan so its even hot inside. sometimes even hotter. i dont really understand how they can have SUCH ADVANCED TOILETS but no insulation. makes no sense. but their toilets really are amazing. they make america seem like a third world country. but yeah we have already been getting out and working. i feel like my japanese is still far too inadequate and i found out that since elder bennion has some district meeting, Im going to be going on exchanges with an Elder Wilcox who has been in Japan for as long as me. so thats going to be an adventure. we gonna be lost. Im not used to having this much time to email. hope everything is good in the states. our ward mission leader is an old japanese man who wears a brightly colored fanny pack. its pretty legit. his name is araki-kyodai. hes going to help us teach the crazy guy who believes that everything is true on wednesday. should be good times. tomorrow im teaking english classes for the first time. i have no idea how im supposed to do that. but i guess it should be entertaining at the least. I'll post the address for mailing me stuff in case anyone wants to spend a whole bunch of moneys on postage and whatnot. but yeah i guess thats about all for now.

to mail me send stuff here:

JAPAN KOBE MISSION
4-6-28 SHINOHARA HONMACHI
NADA-KU, KOBE-SHI, HYOGO-KEN
JAPAN 657-0067

Love,

Elder Horton

ホートン長老

this keyboard is really a pain to type on