Odowara

Before leaving the office, we were in on discussions in staff meetings about missionaries' apartments, damages, need for improvements, etc. The elders in Odowara actually live in a detached house with a small yard, and yard maintenance is a bit of a challenge. The missionaries aren't really here to do yard work, they've cleared the overgrowth of weeds, but of course it just grows right back. We volunteered to drive to Odowara (especially after President Wada said it was a beautiful coastal drive!), check it out, and make recommendations for some simple, low-maintenance landscaping that will make the place look better and not require a great deal of the missionaries' time. (You'd think this would be the landlord's responsibility, but it appears things are different here....)

Anyway, here's the house the three elders in Odowara live in -- two stories and it actually has an elevator! There used to be four elders but the missionary numbers are reducing and they may be down to two within a few months. I realize because I was taking pictures to share with Sister Wada, I was trying to show her the yard and didn't get a good picture of the entire house, but you get the idea.

Odowara is the southernmost point of the mission, furthest from the Mission Home and Tokyo proper, rent is cheaper here. The branch here rents the bottom floor of a building that used to house a 7-11 store. There's a small chapel that doubles as a multi-purpose room, a tiny kitchen, office, restroom, and one or two classrooms. 

After visiting the apartment, we had lunch with the elders, then they went off to do a trash clean-up service project and we found a Home Depot kind of store and looked at plants, landscaping rocks, etc. We put some ideas together to share with Sister Wada and hope to head back to Odowara when they make a decision.

While we were in the area, we visited Odowara Castle, which was closed for renovation, but we were able to enjoy walking around a bit, nonetheless. Wish I could share the history and significance of the castle and statues and shrines on the grounds surrounding it, but is too much... see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Odawara_Castle

Part of their worship includes washing hands here. And we frequently see the white, folded zig-zag streamers at shrines, I don't know what they mean but there's some religious significance to them!

Here's the castle, surrounded by scaffolding. The renovation is scheduled to be finished in April 2016, so we'll have an opportunity to go back and see it next year.

It's unsettling enough to see this ancient castle surrounded by modern scaffolding, but then the crane, power lines and lights in front of it are downright jarring!

We were intrigued by the measure they are taking to save this tree. It's huge, and the support they've provided for it is pretty massive, the wooden ladder and heavy cables. I don't think I'd be too comfortable spending a lot of time inside the building it's leaning over!

I had Bruce get in this picture for scale, but to my eye it still doesn't demonstrate

 very accurately how massive this castle is. 

Here's what we assume is a part of what was once the moat, 

it doesn't go all the way around the castle any more.

Here's what the castle looks like, sans scaffolding. (Thank you, Wikipedia!)

President Wada was right, the drive to and from the Odowara was beautiful, but it's actually only a relatively small section that goes along the coast. We would have stopped to take pictures but there's absolutely no place to park along that route! As we left Odowara, I dozed off in the passenger seat, slept for maybe 20 minutes and woke up to the GPS (Lia, short for Liahona) saying "Recalculating" over and over again. Bruce just stubbornly refused to follow her, opting instead for staying on the coastal highway. It was a fun drive, through old fishing villages and fancy resorts, watching fishermen and surfers. We'll head down that way again and I'll figure out a way to get some pictures! It took a good 90 minutes longer and an extra 200 yen in tolls to get back to Fussa, but it was worth it!