disneyland, fireworks, tokyo

Oof! Has it only been three days since I last posted? It feels like a lot longer, though I guess three days between posts is not very long. Although this is mostly because being in Tokyo with Megumi is like being on vacation and we go do fun things every day; once I get to Nagoya my posts may be less exciting and less frequent, especially as the semester goes on. :/

Anyway! Today's post will be very long, because there is three days worth of stuff to report on and I can't help but want to go into detail, if only so I can read back on it later and remember (my short-term memory sucks). So: on Friday we got up and headed out to go meet Megumi's friends! While we were waiting for them, I bought volumes 1 and 2 of 日本人の知らない日本語 ('Japanese that Japanese people don't know'). We had read a few pages of in Japanese class and it was really funny, so I wanted to get it while I was here in Japan and I did! So far I've only read a few pages of it (with the aid of my new electronic dictionary, which is awesome), but it's very amusing (and good practice, too). Then Megumi's friends showed up and we spent at least fifteen minutes and several escalator/elevator trips deciding where to eat; apparently this happens to them a lot. :D Eventually we settled on the place they had chosen in the first place and had lunch (although Megumi and I had kind of already eaten). I enjoyed what I ordered (daikon radish and potato croquettes, plus rice and then pudding for dessert) and Megumi's friends were quite friendly and seemed like really fun people (the conversation was mainly Japanese so I just listened for the most part), so it was a good time. Afterward we wandered around this huge building (the Marunoichi building, I think?) that was part business, part shopping center, and then Megumi and I left for Tokyo Disneyland!

Parade!

Tokyo Disneyland was as magical as Disneyworld in Orlando, even though it only has two parks and is smaller (plus a lot of the rides were exactly the same). Megumi and I both got excited as we walked across the bridge to the ticket window; Disney just has the same great atmosphere wherever it happens to be. We came just in time for the after-six passport, which is basically reduced admission for coming after 6PM, which left us four hours until the park closed. So first we rode Pirates of the Caribbean, which I think is slightly scarier ride in Japan than in Orlando - plus there was Barbossa and Davy Jones and Jack Sparrow, which was cool. I thought it was funny because they all still spoke in English, even though I bet 90% of Tokyo Disneyland's visitor's don't speak it. Next we stood in line for Big Thunder Mountain, which took a reaally long time but was awesome, and when we got out we got caught behind a parade, which was actually pretty cool to watch, with huge lighted floats and famous Disney characters. Once we got through, we only walked a little bit before getting caught behind the parade again, so instead of waiting we decided to ride It's A Small World, because it only had a 5-minute wait. It was actually pretty enjoyable, even though we both agreed beforehand that it's one of Disney's dinkiest rides (but classic). After that we rode Space Mountain (awesome) and saw Captain EO, a revival of an 80s short with Michael Jackson, in 3D, which was also pretty cool. And then we were exhausted and went home.

I want a yukata!

On Saturday, we had a lazy morning (though I did study some kanji; can't forget the placement test!) and then got ready to go see fireworks! The custom is to wear yukata when you go see fireworks, but even though Megumi/her mom have several yukata, there was only one obi, so Megumi let me wear it. It was complicated to put on (I'm not sure how you would do it by yourself), but it was really fun to wear and not as hot as I thought it would be. Shortly thereafter, I found myself having what I thought was a very Japanese experience, as I was eating a convenience-store onigiri, dressed in a yukata, sitting on the train to go see fireworks. :) Then we got to the fireworks place and settled on the sand (it was by a lake and very pretty with the sunset) with yakisoba to wait for the show. It was very breezy and cool; I also really enjoyed seeing everybody else's yukata, especially the little kids' because they were so cute! Then the show started and it was probably the coolest fireworks show I've ever seen - we were really close, so they were huge, and it was a pretty long show that included fireworks shaped like Doraemon and what I'm pretty sure were Goombas from Super Mario. It definitely made up for not having seen fireworks on the 4th of July this summer. :D

It makes your eyes bigger/look weird.

This morning, we got up early to go see Shougo-kun, an elementary school kid who Megumi tutors in English every week. He was really adorable and energetic, even though I think I might have made him a little nervous. We played 20 Questions with a Fruit By the Foot as the object; it was actually pretty unfair of us to make him try to guess it, considering they don't exist in Japan and neither does anything like them. But we gave him one and a Fruit Roll-Up at the end, so I suppose that makes up for it. :) After that we headed to Asakusa, which Megumi had never been to, either. We walked along a lot of shops and visited the temple, where we made wishes, stood in lucky smoke, and drew fortunes. Mine was 小吉, or 'better fortune' according to the English translation, so that was nice (usually I have bad luck with this sort of thing). Next was Shibuya, where we took pictures in a photo booth (or print club/purikura, as they say), which was fun. I'd done it before in China, but we could only pick the backgrounds for that one and the ones in Japan have about a million more options (or so it seemed). I was really bad at deciding how to decorate the pictures, but Megumi is a pro so they turned out quite nice. :) Then we walked to Harajuku and spent some time in a store called Kiddy's, where I bought a little Totoro towel (I really can't resist Totoro stuff; it's awful), which comes in quite handy since Japanese bathrooms don't have paper towels and not all of them have hand dryers. We didn't have time to do much more in Harajuku since we had to meet Megumi's dad at 6, as he was taking us out for sushi! It was my first time at a conveyor-belt sushi place, and I tried two new kinds of sushi (flounder and octopus), which I am proud of, because I am rather picky for a Chinese person and raw seafood is not really my thing. I'm sure I'll go out for sushi a few more times while I'm in Japan, so I will slowly work my way up to rawer and squishier things like sea urchin and salmon roe. :)

Tomorrow Megumi, her mother, and I are going to Kamakura, which should be fun, and then the day after I leave for Nagoya! I considered waiting to post this entry until after Kamakura, but that would have made it even more of a gargantuan post, so I will leave it for another day (possibly/probably tomorrow). Sorry that this one is so long; I probably could have posted earlier when there was less stuff to talk about but I've been pretty tired when we get back at night (maybe I'm still a little jet-lagged). Anyway, bye-bye for now; stay tuned for the end of Yokohama/Tokyo and the beginning of Nagoya! :D