Having risen at 4:30am we took our 11 hour flight to Tokyo, arriving at 5pm local time. Air New Zealand, who have just won two world awards did a fabulous job and the trip didn't seem too bad at all. It was a great joy to be met by two dear girls whom we have had living with us previously; Minori, way back in 1992 and Hitomi, 2 years ago. They met each other for the first time; both of them had 'MOORE' signs so they could easily recognise each other : -) We chatted and ate in a tiny restaurant at the airport. Peter and I had had 2 meals already that day so we shared Oyakadombrie which is chicken cooked slowly in egg and served on rice. There was also the ubiquitous miso soup and of course green tea! All simply delicious - owshi. Taking our leave we left for the hotel on the complimentary shuttle bus and were shortly off in a whirl of motorways and high-rise hotels. This was Narita, the Tokyo airport city so we didn't actually see Tokyo itself. Surprisingly all is not 'neat as a pin', we saw plenty of weedy places, rumpty flat carparks etc. We were expecting high-rise carparks but saw none, even the hotel had a tarmac one. The room was very comfortable and cool. Although the night was misty and we were done for, we took the lift to the 10th floor and managed to find a viewing place on a balcony. There wasn't much to see; just a few roads, a sports ground and lots of trees. So our one night brief stay was soon over but not before we enjoyed some fresh onigiri (triangular rise balls that come with a separate sheet of nori to wrap it in) that Hitomi had kindly presented us with for our breakfast.

Another 11hour flight, this time with Lufhansa brought us to Frankfurt. For some reason to do with the winds the flight path went north of Russia, I could look down at the coastline and sea the pack-ice. This was truly amazing and quite unexpected. We also flew over Finland; a land full of lakes. The staff were excellent and the time passed easily and again we had the choice of Japanese meals as many of the passengers were Japanese. Here we had to transit and quickly change for a flight to London. There was no problem getting through customs, unlike many of our fellow passengers who were detained, they just looked at our NZ passports and nodded to us to proceed to the exit. It took a fair while to locate 'Travel Information' and organise ourselves and all our baggage on and off various undergrounds. Eventually we arrived at Victoria Station to meet our friend Mary, unfortunately there was a lengthy 'Comedy of Errors' an we attempted to find which of the many 'main entrances' to Victoria Station she had had in mind and also struggled with a dying cell phone. So, what a relief to finally flop down at No.21 where we were treated to a good cup of English tea.

The Tantons are all 5 years older (and so are we!) and taller (but we're not taller!). Lots has changed in their house; they've added a school-room which doubles as a guest-room and it even has an ensuite. Julian has done all of this addition himself and they're really getting lot of use out of it, and so are we. On top of all of this is their roof garden. I was keen to see this. It's 5x5m and has 4 skylight opening windows set into it like noughts and crosses. And what an array of edibles: various herbs, berries, rhubarb, cucumber, beans, fruit trees, and tomatoes and more. It really is very successful. Their church, Ridley hall is just across the road and parked outside are its 2 minivans. The church is housed in a Victorian building which also looks like tennements and is very

quaint.

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Having spent two solid days at a conference at Spurgeon's Metropolitan Tabernacle we have since been doing a great deal of walking around London.

In one back street we saw the house of Equiano, the Black guy who worked with William Wilberforce. We arrive at the British Museum unexpectedly and hadn't brought our DayOne guide, which was disappointing, however we heard a guide explaining some things to a group and stopped to listen and then he invited us to join their tour. After a while we realised that this was the author of the book we'd left at home! When his tour group departed he offer to spend some time with us which was fabulous. He is a pastor in a church just like ours near the south coast.

Sunday was full. Our first stop was Ridley Hall, just a few steps from where we were staying. There we met a lovely young woman called Jacinth who is studying dietetics in Plymouth and also various folk we had met on our last trip. After a wonderful lunch with the Tantons we walked to find another church but instead of Zion Baptist, there was a Black evangelist stridently exhorting a small Black congregation and intermitently wiping his face with a large crimson cloth. He didn't seem to be preaching but was very enthusiastic about people's need to give offerings! They were quite friendly and the pastor came down and asked us to bring greetings from New Zealand. A bus ride brought us to Wandsworth where we joined a congregation something like our own. The pastor there is from Zimbabwe. There were several of Priscilla Drake's family there so that was interesting.