Where are we going?

The place we're heading off to is Aomori, the northern-most city of Honshu, the main island of Japan. The prefecture is famous for its apples. The other thing that Aomori is famous for is snow. Apparently in some places, there is an accumulation of 3 meters during the winter (over 5m in the mountains).



Above is a map of the north of Japan. Tokyo is south, on the Pacific coast. The big island to the north is Hokkaido, the "Pacific Northwest" of Japan.



There are 650,000 people living in the Tsugaru region. They live in 3 cities and 23 townships. It is a vast region that takes about 3 hours to go north to south and 3 hours east to west.

This region, although still more traditional than many other places in Japan, is entering a new age. New roads are cutting distances down, shopping malls encourage mobility and openness, older people are not as insistent on young people following traditional religions.

OMF has planted churches in the 3 cities and now with OMF missionaries, the Elliots and Ghents there is an advance of the work of Christ into the townships.