Time Zones and Internet

The world has many time zones. The U.S. has four time zones.  Japan is all in one time zone.  How convenient.  The International Date Line goes down the middle of the Pacific Ocean, between Hawaii and New Zealand. 

The International Date Line makes Japan a whole day ahead of the States. We are a whole day older than you.  That should make you feel real good.  When you are sleeping, we are awake,  When you are awake, we are sleeping.  When it's Sunday night for you, it's Monday morning for us.  With "standard time", not "daylight saving time", when it is 8:00am Monday morning here, it is 6:00pm Sunday evening in Florida & North Carolina, 5:00pm in Missouri & Texas, 4:00pm in Utah & Idaho, 3:00pm in Washington, Oregon, and California.  It is kind of tricky setting up times to Skype family with the time differences and everyone's schedules.  The Blessing is that it can be done.  We are very thankful for Skype, email, and the internet.  Aren't we lucky to have modern technology?  We wanted to get a portable internet "hot spot" and pay a monthly fee.  We asked two other senior mission couples what they use. We are a little nervous to sign a two year contract, all in Japanese.  We have been in Japan four weeks and haven't signed anything yet.  The first time we went to the internet store it was closed a few days for renovation.  The next week we went they still weren't ready for contracts.  Next time the person who helps with contracts was gone.  Next time we took our Japanese friend to help look at the contract and ask questions.  It was really helpful but we didn't sign a contract because we decided to check with the Church Area Office to see if they had recommendations or advice.  So here we are still with no internet.  Hopefully soon.  We have another blessing though, we do have a "mission issued" cell phone for local use.  We have no other phone.