Trip to Gotemba

Retreat at Gotemba.
Dates:21 & 22 October.
It was time for the annual family retreat and the venue selected was Gotemba somewhere near to Mt Fuji.

Starting on a Friday evening and going on till the Sunday noon, the retreat was planned for all age groups of the church. Me and John my high school friend now working Tokyo decided to join the retreat too along with the church members. We started on Saturday morning and took a long but scenic train ride to Gotemba. We had to miss the first train but still soon we were on board an express train. Wow that was a great ride till Shin Matsuda and we had to cross over to the Matsuda station for the Gotemba line. This was the most beautiful segment of the route.
We reached Gotemba to find john and family too at the station and soon knew that Peter was driving to the station to pick us up. About 10 minutes of drive and a bit on the hill we were at the YMCA campsite. Was beautiful to see the lake beside the road form the beautifully land scaped campsite Hillock.

We walked directly into the running sessions and we had simple but beautiful group discussions were we share our life experiences and memories. It was great as we had age groups ranging from real seniors to juniors like me. It was fascinating to hear How God had led each of us and was still leading all those who believe in Him.

The afternoon was free and we the youth had a nice stroll (Hiking in fact) around the lake and then up the hill all around the campsite. we had few more session in the evening and had some really thrilling times on the cards late night till lights out at 11 PM.

Sunday morning....

Every one was in rejenuated and great spirits to worship our Lord. Soon after breakfast, we were all at the small and simple chapel at the edge of the hill facing the Gotemba city. A small chapel but a beautiful service with hymns and choruses and a short message. Jonathan
had a tough time pumping in air into the majestic Church Organ at the Chapel. Soon a group photo followed. We were back at the may site and were ready for lunch. After the lunch, I and John took a cab ride to the famous Gotemba Premium outlets where almost all the clothing and fashion brands merged on a single campus. However I found them all to be a bit costly compared to the rates in Tokyo. Spend the rest of the day seeing and shopping around and took a late evening trip back to Shinjuku. I and John were swapping our MP3 player all through out for the journey. Mine a Sony U stick and his branded and customized iPod. Well guess who won the comparisons! The navigation part of it- iPoD was way too ahead. However the sound and the meremrised musical feeling courtesy- Sony and Sony only. I am yet to find some thing to beat that perfect Sound quality!

All in all, had a great time understanding many things in life and spiritual strengths and support. The focus had been on ‘Living for the moment and to wait in Hope for the tomorrow’.
Interesting and wonderful time spent in the best of nature catching up with my old friend and making new friends and knowing more of my church members and kids.

The main attractions we had on the camp.

-The games as a group activity guessing articles.
-From the Football family, but needs a basket ball court to play the game. - Designer Kevin.
-The Hiking and the card games.
-The practice sessions we had at the Piano.
-The great discussion I and John had at our room. Wow how deep I found to be my ignorance and we both had many new realizations and understandings that day.
-The communion we had and the fellowship we all enjoy.
-The sharing of life each of us enjoyed.

Snaps for this trip