Sometime in 2006 I received an letter from
Kishimoto Shimai from
Itoman which contained only this chirashi. Let's face it, I couldn't read it. I gleaned it was about an open house for a new building on March 18th and that was pretty much it. Even the location eluded me. From the picture it looks like a temple, but since there were no temples in Okinawa I figured it was a new stake center or something. Then much more recently when I was locating chapels on the
Japan Dendobu Google Map I noticed that the Itoman Chapel was not in the same place as I remembered it. I didn't put the chirashi from an Itoman member and a new Itoman Chapel location together, though now in retrospect it seems very obvious. Well the mystery was solved on the
Japan Okinawa Facebook Group when
Emmit Ricks talked about the new chapel which he saw during his recent trip back to Okinawa. He also posted photos.
His exact words were, "The new Itoman Chapel is amazing. It is like 5 stories tall and looks like a temple. I'll post a picture or two. It isn't at all in the same place it was. It is right by the only McDonald's in Itoman."
I was a little surprised to find out that even with this beautiful new building Itoman is still a branch. Ricks said there were about 40 members in attendance on the Sunday he was there (about ten more than when we were there) and the Branch President asked him to give a talk on the spot. Glad to know that despite staggering progress, some things never change.
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Sometime in 2006 I received an letter from Kishimoto Shimai from Itoman which contained only this chirashi. Let's face it, I couldn't read it. I gleaned it was about an open house for a new building on March 18th and that was pretty much it. Even the location eluded me. From the picture it looks like a temple, but since there were no temples in Okinawa I figured it was a new stake center or something. Then much more recently when I was locating chapels on the Japan Dendobu Google Map I noticed that the Itoman Chapel was not in the same place as I remembered it. I didn't put the chirashi from an Itoman member and a new Itoman Chapel location together, though now in retrospect it seems very obvious. Well the mystery was solved on the Japan Okinawa Facebook Group when Emmit Ricks talked about the new chapel which he saw during his recent trip back to Okinawa. He also posted photos.
His exact words were, "The new Itoman Chapel is amazing. It is like 5 stories tall and looks like a temple. I'll post a picture or two. It isn't at all in the same place it was. It is right by the only McDonald's in Itoman."
I was a little surprised to find out that even with this beautiful new building Itoman is still a branch. Ricks said there were about 40 members in attendance on the Sunday he was there (about ten more than when we were there) and the Branch President asked him to give a talk on the spot. Glad to know that despite staggering progress, some things never change.