Tokyo Disneyland

We spent the whole day at Tokyo Disneyland yesterday. It was so much fun, but a really long day.

I decided to be stupid Friday night and go out with my friends, even though I had to wake up at 6. I ended up getting 4 hours sleep. It should've been only 3, but I overslept. Naturally. We were all supposed to meet on campus (about 15min away from my dorm) at 7:30am. That didn't exactly happen as planned. I woke up at 7:05, and got ready as quickly as possible. I got there around 7:40, and we ended up waiting for other people until 8. Finally we headed over to Tsukuba Center and the the Tsukuba Express station. It takes about 2hrs to get to Disneyland. We had to change trains a few times too, and we missed the stop one time and had to double back. But eventually we got there.

The train stop for Disneyland was built specifically for Disneyland, so you basically get off the train station and you're right by the entrance. Everyone was really excited at this point. I haven't been to Disneyworld since I was 5, so I was really excited too. I barely remember anything about it. One of the Americans worked at Disneyland in California, so she's been there far too many times to count. She told us a lot of the inner workings of Disneyland, which was really interesting, like how they work extra hard to hide back entrances, in order to make all the magic seem more real I suppose. What a cool job.

There were 20 people in our group. 4 Japanese, 2 from Britain, 1 from China, and 13 Americans. Since there was so many people, we split up right at the beginning. It's impossible to keep such a large group, especially in the large Saturday crowds. Although we really only ended up splitting into 2 groups of 6 and 14. I was with the group of 14, which was still too many people, and unfortunately we wasted a lot of time throughout the day being indecisive or waiting for other people.

We went to Tomorrowland first, to get fast passes (front of the line passes) for Space Mountain for later on in the day. Then we headed back near the entrance and got in line for the Pirates of the Caribbean ride. I don't remember much about Disneyworld from when I was a kid, but I do remember refusing to ride Pirates because I was scared. lol. So I finally get to ride it! It was really fun. They had Jack Sparrow robots, and they were so lifelike.

After Pirates we stopped at the hat stall, and a few people bought Mickey or Minnie ears. Everyone was hungry by then so we went to this hot dog restaurant on Main Street. $10 for a hot dog, a drink, and some fries. Oh Disneyland prices... Oh well, I was starving. The hot dog restaurant was the same restaurant my friend worked in at Disneyland in California, so she was really excited to see the Tokyo equivalent. After lunch we tried to get fast passes for Splash Mountain, but they were sold out, so we ended up getting in line to ride the tea cup ride. I was so excited for it, I love that ride. We split into three tea cups and we all tried to go as fast as we could, to see who could the fastest. According to the people who didn't want to ride, my group lost :(

After tea cups we went to Space Mountain and used our passes to get to the front of the line. This was my favorite ride. I love roller coasters in the dark. It makes them so much more fun. After Space Mountain we sat around for over an hour trying to decide what to do, and waiting for people to eat and use the bathroom, and losing track of where people walked off to. When we finally gathered together to leave, it started raining. It was around 3pm, and it rained for the rest of the day.

We walked back near Splash Mountain and tried to find a ride that didn't have a 3hr wait. Which we failed in of course, because it's Saturday, and the park was packed. There were 3 big rides left, Splash Mountain, Big Thunder Mountain, and Haunted Mansion, all of which had a 3hr wait. We left it up to my one friend, because it was her birthday. She decided we should ride Haunted Mansion, so we got in line. It started raining harder then, and everyone was pretty tired of standing, so I think our excitement levels took a plummet here. It was still fun, just a little miserable at the same time because of the rain. I don't really mind waiting in lines for rides, because I think a lot of the fun of amusement parks comes from the boredom-induced shenanigans you get into with your friends while waiting in line. A good chunk of our pictures are from waiting in line, and since we had so many people, it was usually entertaining. While waiting in line, we got to see the Halloween parade go by too.

Finally, a little over two hours later we got to the front of the line. Even more exciting than the ride, I was just happy to be indoors where it was warm and not raining. In Haunted Mansion you sit on the these moving chairs and you go through a mansion based on The Nightmare before Christmas. It was pretty fun actually (and we got to sit down for a few minutes!), and the special effects were really good. It was dark by the time we got out. We went back to Tomorrowland, and there was only a 20min wait for Star Tours (the motion simulator) so rode that real quick. I'm not really a fan of simulators, I feel like you might as well just go and ride and actual roller coaster instead, cause it's way more fun. Although I do remember riding a simulator just like that when I was little. I think it was at Universal Studios, cause it was Flintstones themed. I remember being scared shitless lol. It was quite anti-scary this time.

Everyone was hungry again, so we back to Main Street to find food. This caused a massive split up of our group, cause everyone wanted to eat different things, and no one could make any decisions. So we split up into groups of 2-4. My group got food at a bakery/deli. I ate some pastry things and a sandwich for another $10. We attempted shopping after dinner, but the shops were so crowded my friend Sara and I decided to leave. We walked through the castle finally. We hadn't even done that yet even after being there all day, and then we went to Toontown where they have all the characters' houses.

An hour later we met up with the remainder of our group, since half of the group already went home. Since it was dark and cold and rainy, the lines for the rides were only about 10min long. So we rode Big Thunder Mountain, the roller coaster, and then went on Splash Mountain. The park was about to close after Splash Mountain so we headed to the entrance.

Just outside the entrance we all got split up from each other, and a few of us waited in the rain for 15min before calling the others and realizing they'd already gone to the train station. We were all quite miserable at this point. We'd been on our feet all day, and all of our shoes were soaking wet, and it was freezing. And of course, the trains were packed to capacity, which made it worse. We had another mishap with the trains going back as well. We got off at the wrong stop to transfer first, so we got back on the train to go to the next stop, but it turned out the train we got on went to the right place anyway. However, due to some miscommunication, some of our group got off at the next stop anyway, so we all got off so as not to be separated. We had to wait 10min for the next train in the cold, and the next one that came was the last one for the night. When we got to the station where we had to transfer to the Tsukuba Express to go back to Tsukuba, we got on the last train bound for Tsukuba. We were so close to having to find somewhere to spend the night, it's not even funny.

Everyone was wiped out, and I half slept on the train. Unfortunately when we got back to Tsukuba, we still had to bike back to our dorms. Mine being 30min or so away. I collapsed in bed when I got home around 12:40, and my feet were throbbing for an hour before I fell asleep. That's what happens when you're on your feet for 18hrs. Despite everything though, it was still the best day ever. I had so much fun.

Messing with drunk people never gets old

Yesterday after class we had our weekly Japanese conversation group meeting. It's supposed to be a group for Japanese students and international students to meet and talk together, but it's really just an overwhelming amount of foreigners with a few Japanese mixed in. Which is still fine I guess, cause we still get to practice Japanese, but I still wish we could meet more Japanese students. I talked to a girl from Vietnam the whole time, for an hour or so. Afterwards the group goes out to dinner for those who want to come. We ended up with 19 foreigners and 5 Japanese. A very uneven ratio. I think the workers were a little scared when the Japanese guy in charge went in to ask if they had room for us all. I know I would be crying a little if I had to serve a party of 24. The restaurant was an okonomiyaki restaurant. Okonomiyaki is like a fried pancake thing that you can fill with a variety of different things, depending on what you want. For instance, meat, noodles, vegetables, seafood, and so on. It's delicious.

At dinner we split into 4 tables, with at least one Japanese student per table. I was with two of the Americans, two girls from Taiwan, and one of the Japanese boys. Like most Japanese boys, he was a little shy I think, and the poor thing had to sit with 5 girls :) He must've been a little nervous cause he bought a beer eventually, and again like most Japanese boys, he got drunk after only one beer. It made for quite a hilarious and entertaining dinner. He was trying really hard to act not drunk when we took pictures, so I started taking pictures everytime he took a sip of beer. To which he would respond by saying "no!" and trying to turn away. We were all teasing him during the latter part of the dinner. Teasing drunk people is so much fun. When it came time to split the bill he split is so he was paying for his meal and about half of each of our meals. I think it's custom here for the men to pay a larger portion of the bill when bill splitting occurs. When we tried to protest he started using male speech and said it was fine. I suppose male speech in Japanese is comparable to the way boys talk to each other in English, but it's a little different here. Women always speak normally, but when Japanese men talk to each other casually they use a few different and very blunt words and slur words together to the point that I can barely understand what they're saying. Needless to say, boys never use this type of speech when talking to girls. Thus, it was quite funny to hear.

Change is good (?)

Believe it or not, the lack of posts lately has not been from laziness. It's not so much a lack of will to write, but rather a lack of stuff to write about. I'm sure everyone else who goes abroad and keeps a blog has encountered the same problem. The initial first few weeks are exciting. Everything around you is new and incredibly interesting, and you make all sorts of unique observations from the viewpoint of your home culture. Eventually that all sort of runs down, and you settle into the usual, normal, everyday routine. The exciting excursions on the weekends become fewer and farther between as soon as you overcome the initial excitement and realize your bank account is crying. So all I really have to say now in a daily post is that I woke up, went to school, ate at some point, did some homework, went to sleep, lather, rinse, repeat. I wish there were more to say, because I like writing in this blog, but for the sake of not boring everyone to tears I decided to only write once in a while, when something interesting happens, or I when have something to say.

8hrs of class should be illegal

Another 2 days in one post. In my defense I got home very late last night and had to wake up early so I just wanted to go straight to bed.

Yesterday I had class from 10-6. I spent at least $10 on snacks throughout the day just to make it through. The university was on Monday schedule, even though it was Thursday. Since Monday was a holiday. Unfortunately Monday is my longest day, while Thursday is one of my shortest. We also had to make up a kanji class in the morning. I went out with the Cali people last night too, so it ended up being a really long day.

I had to wake up really early (by my standards) today, to go meet the girl I tutor at 9. Unfortunately she's really busy, so she had no other time. It was quite a struggle to try to pay attention to her accents and correct her and such while I was barely awake. She wants to do it at 9 next week too...

Our electricity in the dorm was shut off today from 9-4, cause they were working on something I guess. So unfortunately I had to dumb most of the stuff in my fridge. It's kind of cruel to do something like that in the middle of the quarter. For the people with lots of stuff in their fridges at least. Since I had no computer access and was tired I just napped from around 1 when I got home, to 4ish. I goofed off on the computer and played DS after that. I didn't feel like doing homework today. At 7:30 I went to Tori's to eat, and then we left to go to another party for international students and Japanese students. Like the one I went to two weeks ago. It was really fun. We got to talk to a lot of different people. Some Japanese students, a girl from Italy, a guy from Saudi Arabia, some Chinese students, as so on. We were there for about 3hrs. There's going to be another party around Halloween. I'm looking forward to it.

These posts are so boring lately, sorry. Can't go to Tokyo every weekend. It's far too expensive. At least $40 in train tickets everytime. I'm trying to save up my scholarship money for the big trip we're planning for our spring break. Spring break is a month long, so we're planning to travel all through southern Japan. And on winter break we're planning to go up north and hopefully visit some real hot springs and such. Although next weekend we're all going to Tokyo Disneyland for the day. I'm really excited for that :)

Full of ughs

Forgot to post again yesterday. I'm getting worse with this. Anyway, yesterday was the first day of class in a while. I had my speaking and grammar class. In speaking we somehow got on the topic of Obama's Nobel prize. Unfortunately, I was sitting in the front row (assigned seats ugh) and I'm the only American in that class (the others are in another period). So of course she did exactly what I hoped she wouldn't do, and asked me to explain why he got the award since I'm American. I didn't really know how to explain in Japanese, but I stumbled through it somehow.

Grammar was excessively boring. My friend and I started writing notes to each other near the end to try and stay awake. After class I went to Tsukuba Center to buy some food and go to the post office to get my package. Unfortunately they apparently keep trying to deliver you package for 3 days or so in a row. Or something like that. I wasn't quite sure what the guy was saying to me (although I just nodded and pretended that I did), but I was able to understand that is was currently out for deliver still. Then I remembered my phone had rung again this morning, and I had once again been too lazy to answer. I resigned myself to answering the phone the next day, but a few hours after I got home, around 8:30, the postman called and came and delivered it. Yay. Talking on the phone is so scary though.

Today I had kanji class and reading. Kanji class was dull, and reading was as ridiculous as always. It's supposed to be reading class, but so far I've only managed to read 2 pages of the book we're working on. I feel like if she would just give us something slightly easier, just slightly, then we might actually be able to improve our reading, and not just our punching an overwhelming number of words we don't know into the dictionary skills. It's like giving an elementary school kid and adult book and telling them to read it. The difficulty curve is far too high for much learning to be accomplished. Ugh.

I have class at 10 tomorrow, because we have to make up the kanji class that was canceled last week. Ugh, waking up early.

The consequences of laziness

I was feeling really blah this morning so I did virtually nothing today until 4, with the exception of going to bathroom and eating breakfast at 2 I guess. I went to bed far too late last night. Some tv shows can be far too addicting...

I woke up at 11:30 briefly to a phone ringing, and it took me a minute to realize what it was. Not my cell phone, but the campus only phones we have in our rooms. I've never heard it ring before. I knew exactly who it was. It was the postman coming to deliver my package from the US. They can call our rooms from the entrance since the door is locked. Unfortunately, having just woken up, I was far too groggy to get up and answer it, let alone attempt to speak Japanese over the phone. So I just let it ring. They give you a little slip in your mailbox when they can't deliver it, so I have to go to the post office tomorrow to get my package. Oh well, that's laziness for ya.

I finally started doing homework at 4, cause I've done almost none this whole weekend. I did it for a few hours and ate dinner with Tori at 7. After dinner we went to campus for the ending of the festival. I think they had someone semi-famous there, but I have no idea who it was. They were doing lottery results first, and then moved on to crown Miss Campus. One of the people who came to congratulate her was President Obama... or rather some random Japanese kid wearing a really freaky Obama mask. It was really random. At one point during the closing ceremony they showed a video which was a compilation of footage from the various events and people during the festival. Sort of a farewell video. For a brief second there was a shot of Tori and me walking. We got really excited, and all our friends around us were like, "wait, wasn't that you guys?!" lol. I want to see that video again. I hope they put it online somewhere.

After the ceremony they shot off fireworks to signal the end of the festival. They only lasted about 2 min, but they were so much better than the last fireworks we saw. Probably because they weren't so long, and this time we didn't have a rate of 1 firework per 2min. They shot off more than one at a time! Imagine that...

And the apple obsession continues...

I overslept this morning. Even with the cannons firing at 10am signaling the start of the festival again. I fell back asleep as soon as they ended. I did some homework and watched tv until 3. Then I went to the festival again, and met up with the California people. We got some food first and then wandered around a bit. I got apple slices which were incredibly delicious. Best apple I've had since leaving America. I ended up buying 3 by the end of the night.

Some of our group left after a couple hours, and the rest of us bought some more food for dinner eventually. Then we sat on the hill by the lake while we ate, and watched yet even more music groups. Eventually we got bored and wandered back towards the center of campus, where the other stage is. They were showing the same dance show we watched yesterday, so we watched it again. After it was over, we had about 30 min to the next show, so we walked just out of campus and stopped at 7-Eleven and everyone bought some snacks. We missed most of the show that started at 8, some fashion show, but we watched the end. At that point the festival staff began pushing back the huge crowd from in front of the stage, to make room on the ground in front for the dancers.

The next performance was my favorite part of the festival so far. It was an Okinawan dance, and was really fun to watch. It went about 20min. I could describe it, but that wouldn't do it justice, so I've posted it on facebook and youtube. After their dance was over they came out to the audience and pulled us all in to dance too. Although it was really more like the people in the very front were jumping up and down and dancing, while the rest of us were just clapping to the beat.

It was very cold again today, high 50s/low 60s after dark, but I came prepared with boots and a jacket this time. I came home after the last performance. Tomorrow's the last day of the festival. I'll probably end up going again. Just hope I can fit my homework in there somewhere...

Here's the youtube links:
Dance Show
Okinawan Dance Part 1
Okinawan Dance Part 2