A hectic week

On the 14th some family friends of ours who are also in Japan (Erika and George) came up to Tokyo for a couple of days. They stayed here with my family, and took my usual bedroom, and I stayed with my cousin in her room. It was strange not having a room because I had nowhere to actually go. I didn't want to bother my cousin by staying in her room all the time so I just hung out in the lounge and did nothing. Luckily for 2 days we went to Tokyo Disney Resort, so we stayed at a hotel for 2 nights.

We left for Tokyo Disneyland on the morning of the 15th. The trains were pretty busy, but thats normal here in Japan. Luckily it wasn't get pushed onto the train kind of busy, it was more of the Melbounre morning train kind of busy. Here in Japan, thats not busy.

We arrived at Disneyland at around 10am, and there was already a massive line for tickets! We bought our tickets for 2 days (One day at Disneyland and the other at DisneySea). We just spent the whole day going on as many rides as we could. We took advantage of the single rider system at both parks. People don't normally use the single rider system as they want to ride with their friends, but I just want to ride a few times without having to wait in line for over an hour. So I think we rode Splash Mountain around 3-4 times, while all the suckers waited in the Standby line for around 120 minutes. HA! suckers. We also rode Space Mountain 3 times. The first time I had eaten luch about 30mins before going on the ride (yeah...don't do that). Stupid idea. I had done the same thing the year before and felt so sick after...it was the same this time round, but the ride was so much fun that it made up for the whole feeling sick thing.

We stayed at a Disney Partner Hotel which are hotels not actually at the park, but they are much cheaper and have shuttle buses to the park. Rooms were nice and clean, and we got a buffet style breakfast with lots of bakery goods. Yum!

The next day we headed to DisneySea. DisneySea is definitely my favorite park. We made sure we arrived when the park opened at 9am, so we could get fastpasses for rides, but by the time we arrived there were lots and lots of long lines. We managed to get a fastpass for the most popular ride 'The Tower of Terror', which is one of those freefall type rides. Very fun!

 

Our picture from The Tower of Terror: Myself in the Red and White Minnie hat and Erika in the Leopard print hat. We were going to do idiotic poses but decided that the thumbs up was stupid enough...

Again we took advantage of the single rider system, so we spent more time on rides instead on lining up. We rode the Raging Spirits Roller Coaster a fair few times, and also the Indiana Jones ride maybe 3 times. Some of the rides were out of order for a couple of hours which was a pain, as we only got to ride Journey to the Centre of the Earth once.

The day we were at DisneySea there was a reallllly big cold snap. I had to end up buying a blanket from one of the stalls because it was freezing! I forgot to buy gloves, but I was weaing a jacket and jeans and a massive scarf, and I was still cold. The blanket did wonders though, and even better, it has gingerbread Mickey & Minnie Mouse on it.

We headed back to Saitama on the 17th and just relaxed. Going to theme parks for 2 days really wears your out.

On the 18th we went to Tokyo for some shopping, mainly in Harajuku. I love shopping in Japan, but I also hate it. Fashion here is much better and the quality of clothes and shoes are amazing. But things here either don't fit me because a) I'm chubby compared to all the girls here and b) my boobs are WAY too big so tops and dresses don't fit *sigh* But I managed to find 2 pairs of boots from a great shoe shop and a new jacket from Forever 21. I'm trying so hard not to spend too much money at the moment, but I feel like I'm failing dismally!

Yesterday my cousin Mai and I went to the Ghibli Musem, which some of you may have heard of. I'm sure you are all aware of movies such as Totoro, Ponyo, Howl's moving castle etc. Here they have alot of the drawings from these movies, beautiful displays, short movies and information all displayed in a gorgeous looking museum that is kind of like a house. Unfortunately you can't take photos inside, so its hard to explain, but I highly reccommend that you go there and visit if you are a fan of the Ghibli films!

At the museum we watched a gorgeous new short Ghibli film called 'Pandane to Tamagohime' which I think means Yeast and Princess Egg. It was really amazing. It was basically about a little egg princess who is held captive by an evil witch and is forced to be the witch's slave until one night some dough that was resting comes to life. The egg is scared that the witch will find out, so together the new friends run away...

Pandane to Tomagohime

The music was also really amazing too. It used baroque instrumentation through most of the film. It kind of had a bit of a Handel vibe to it, but it was so great that I bought the soundtrack!

So thats basically what's been happening with me. Today I slept in until 11:30 which was nice, although my aunty thought I was sick or something. People here don't seem to sleep in much I guess. I watched some tv, and then my grandma who lives right next door came over because she thought I was lonely on my own. We had a cup of tea and a chat which was nice, then I headed out for a walk to check out this Japanese Tesco down the road. This was at 4pm, and by the time I got back to our place it was pitch black. Its so annoying that it gets dark here by about 4:30pm. I makes the day feel much longer.

On other things, its about 3 weeks till I head to Spain which is SO exciting!!! I can't wait to start working at my two schools and to meet Isabel and her daughter Maria who I will be staying with in Madrid. I started to brush up on my Spanish today. I'm so nervous about having to use it because my Spanish is pretty lousy. Ask me to sing in Spanish, yep thats fine. Do writing in Spanish, yep. But when I actually have to use it, it's scary! But hopefully living in Madrid for 7 months will really improve my verbal Spanish skills.

Anyway thats all for now.

I really hope everyone has a lovely Christmas on Saturday! I will probably post about my Japanese Christmas!

much love,

Alisa x