DisneySea + the rest of the week

Wednesday, November 15
DisneySea report!! wooohooo. :) At 10 am I met Deborah, Matt, Casey, Joe and Adam outside Maihama Station. From there we got on the Disney Resort Line monorail train (which costs money!!! It so should not. 200 yen, what a ripoff!) and rode it to the DisneySea stop, where we got off, bought tickets, and went in!! yaaayyy :D




Ohhhh, Matt and Casey. This was probably right after I make the mistake of sitting down next to them.


How AMAZINGLY cute is this train!? I love it!!


Joe!


cuuuuute!


The big entrance thing. So beautiful with the 5-year anniversary decorations. DisneySea is the most beautiful Disney park, I think!



I pretty much steered everyone towards the Tower of Terror so we could go ahead and get Fastpasses for it, since I knew it was so new there was a good chance the line would be insane, and even though the standby line was only 60-70 minutes at that point, the Fastpasses we got at 11 am were definitely not until 6:30 pm. Crazy!! Luckily, at 12:30 we could get more Fastpasses (which actually wasn't that necessary, because since it was Wednesday it was really not that insanely crowded in the park as it could have been). While we were in the area we made reservations at the Sailing Day Buffet restaurant, mostly because it was a buffet for 2400 yen, which is actually pretty good. Then we went and rode some rides, namely Indiana Jones, StormRider, etc, and then we came back to eat there and it was SO GOOD. They also had caramel ice cream, yummmm.


Two Jews and a Christmas tree!!! hee hee


Adam and Matt sacrificing Casey as we were walking to Indiana Jones. Hahahhahaaa


Duck!!!


Sailing Day Buffet


I love Engrish. This was in the women's restroom.


Deborah and I bought the ear hair clips, yes we did. Hers are Minnie Mouse and mine are Bambi. Just admit it, they're awesome.

Then we rode some more rides, Journey to the Center of the Earth (which I had forgotten turned into a roller coaster at the end, and which took all of us way off guard!), and the submarine ride which I hadn't been on before (kind of claustrophobic since each tiny submarine only holds 6 people!). Then we split up cause the boys wanted to go on the roller coaster and Deborah is not a huge fan of rides like that and I'd already ridden it and knew it wasn't anything special, so we wandered around the Arabian area and ogled over all the pretty Jasmine merchandise (that was where we encountered those dumb-looking Western girls we'd seen in Shin Urayasu a couple days ago puzzling over the train system--and may or may not have nearly burst out laughing in their faces) until they were done. It rained a little bit, not very hard, but still RAIN and we were not pleased. Fortunately the sun came out shortly afterward, which made for some cool pictures actually.


Mysterious Island area


Outside the roller coaster.


Picture of the sun coming out WHILE it's still raining


Arabian Coast


A Gothic Lolita!!! hahahahaaaa. (The girl in the huge shoes)


I love those ears!!

When we met back up with the boys they were all exhausted from spending an hour and a half in line for a lackluster ride, and we went on the Aladdin carousel thing and then to the Mystic Rhythms show since it happened to be nearby and it was a place we could sit down and rest at. I thought it was still just as amazing as it had been in January, but of course everyone else though it was over-the-top and silly. Whatever!! It's a great show. At least we got to sit down.


Matt and Deborah hahaha


Casey and Joe


How cool do I look here? No, seriously. I look like some kind of forest princess. I'm just in awe.

Then we rode Journey one more time, then it was time for Tower of Terror. Deborah chickened out, unfortunately, and Joe Kim had gone home by that time, so it was just me and the three boys. It was pretty cool to see how they had reimagined it but it also wasn't as cool as I had been expecting it, and DEFINITELY not as intense as the American versions--I was right, they dumbed it down for wimpy Japanese people. The seatbelts also went over your shoulder! Unbelievable! You only need a lap belt, people! I just could not believe there were shoulder seatbelts as if this ride was WAY INTENSE, when if anything it was LESS intense than its American cousins, which only require a lap belt. So insane.




Tower of Terror with fountains outside


The fountains.


Matt and I in the middle of the fountains

When we got out it had started to rain again, a bit harder, so we browsed some souvenir shops until finally leaving the park. When we got back to the main station we went to the Planet Hollywood in the Ikspiari mall, which was so goooood. mmm turkey sandwich!


The globe thing again only at night


It's already Christmas there of course


Adam actually bought the ride picture, so I took a picture of it hahaha


TURKEYYYY


I wish I looked a little less crazy, but it's worth it for Matt's expression. hahahaaa

Then time to go home! After a very long but fun day. My only regret is that we didn't get to properly watch the cool parade on the water thing. We saw parts of it but didn't have a clear view. I wanted to watch it from start to finish. But that is what happens when you go with boys!

Thursday, November 16
Lisa's grown-up host sister invited her to go with her and her friends to this "wine tasting" in Yurakucho, so Anna, Allie and I went along for that. It was more like a wine FESTIVAL, with a bunch of food/beverage stalls set up and tons of tables, ALL of which were full--of classy-looking people who looked like they'd just got off work, no doubt, so we set up camp along one wall and sat on the ground. I am not a huge wine person, I actually tried to tell that to Lisa, but she just said "so this is your chance to try some!" so I did and it actually wasn't that bad. We had fun trying to talk in Japanese to Lisa's host sister's friends and I went home around 9 to sleeeep.

I also got some good food there, some naan bread and chicken curry to dip it in from this Indian curry place, which was amazing, and a waffle with ice cream. OOoh, so good. We also posed for a lot of silly pictures, including a series where we all pretended to be various people. There was Audrey posing, and Lisa posing, and Matt Kaminsky posing (aka just glaring). Those pictures are on Allie's camera though, which she is missing a cord for, but I'm dying to see them!


On the train on the way over, this ad is new and we were laughing at it. We figured it out though. Okay, so it says "An aroma that makes you go PIN." The seal thing is illustrating the "pin"--the coffee flavor is so crisp it wakes you right up and makes you sit up straight. Really, only in Japan.


Anna and Lisa on the train


The International Forum where the wine thing was held at. The floor is made out of light!

On Friday, November 17 instead of hanging out with IES people like usual I went to work around 5, because there were these two artists here from Germany. Their original work, In the End, has only been published in Germany so far (by TOKYOPOP's German office) but the art is so amazing! They also play in a band and design clothes too. Basically their dream is to live and work in Japan doing one of those three things. So Kiyomi-san and I talked about them with manga for awhile, and Sho-san showed them the rough sheets of Ch. 1 of the Dracula story (English title Worriers of the Darkness), which is OMG so adorable, I really think it's gonna be a good series and I hope it does well and gets published in America too.

Then we went down to the 5th floor where some other offices and the meeting rooms are, and in one of the meeting rooms is like the entire history of MixxZine/TOKYOPOP. It was SO FREAKING COOL. There was the very first issue of MixxZine ever, and all of Sailormoon and flipped-Rayearth (now out of print, so super-rare, although I have them), and Kiyomi-san told me how she did the sound effects and text on the first volumes by herself in Photoshop on a Mac when she'd never used Photoshop before. Oh, the humble origins of this company! I don't know if the German guys cared much about us getting all natsukashii on them, but whatever, it was so amazing and cool. I mean I've been following this stuff since SEVENTH GRADE, and did I ever think then I'd be in Japan talking to the people responsible for it? No, never, I can't even believe it sometimes. Anyway, then on other shelves there were other rare/out of print titles, such as Clover, which I brought back up to the 8th floor with me to read later (I never finished Clover).

Then we went back up, and sort of chilled there for a while while people finished up work and then we went to this traditional Japanese restaurant just down the road. On the way there I talked to Sho-san about Nagano, where he grew up. I think we saw kids from his old kindergarten outside Zenkoji Temple!

I've never had much luck with traditional Japanese restaurants, as much of the menu tends to contain fish/seafood, which I detest, but it turns out all I need is a Japanese person to order for me, haha. Sho-san ordered all the sausage/meat/pork dishes for me, and they were all FANTASTIC. The pork in particular was incredible; probably the best meat I've eaten in Japan since I've been here. We had a wonderful dinner at that restaurant, and then headed over to Awajicho, where we went to a recording studio.


Left side, me, Heath, and Kiyomi-san. Right side, Sho-san, Nheira, and Rie-san.

Earlier the German guys (well, one of them, Nheira) had confessed their desire to play music in Japan, and since TOKYOPOP has an iTunes Japan store, they offered to record a song of his and release it there. He sings and writes songs in Japanese, so it's no problem. The session at the studio was only for 30 more minutes by the time we got there, and he hadn't sung or played in a while so it wasn't a complete success in his eyes, but it was cool to hear him sing the songs he had written himself--in Japanese! He asked everyone if the Japanese was off and no one could really hear anything wrong, which is very cool. We all spoke English amongst each other the whole time, though--it's funny that I was the only one for whom it is their native language!

After that, the rest of TP went to escort the guys back to their hotel in nearby Jimbocho and I went home. :) Pretty fun!

Saturday, November 18 was the history field trip to the Showa-kan and this other place, and after that was over 6 of us went out to this expensive-but-goood Brazilian meat place in Omotesando, you know the kind where they bring the different meat around to your table, and it was sooooo good. I know there are places like that in Dallas but I'd never been to one because they're so expensive, so it was fun to get a chance to go here. There were quite a few other foreigners there too, including several little American girls running around. I ran into them in the bathroom primping, which was adorably hilarious.

And umm, yeah, I should maybe study for my Japanese test tomorrow. Fortunately, after tomorrow we're off until Friday! Tuesday-Wednesday is our Nikko trip, and Thursday is Labor Day in Japan, which also happens to be Thanksgiving, how coincidental. :) Which, by the way, we're having!!!! There's several restaurants in Tokyo, most of them run by foreigners, who serve it, and Aly and I got reservations for 25 people at one of the best/most popular ones, The Pink Cow in Shibuya. It's gonna be gooood! About $35 for a buffet from 8:30 to 10 pm on the day of Thanksgiving. yummmmm, Thanksgiving! I'm so glad I don't have to miss out on it this year. :)