Japan Day 7/Post Trip Reflection

We woke up really early since it took 2 hours to get to the airport. So my last day in Japan was all travel.

The trip was pretty amazing. When anyone asks me "How was Japan?" I can only respond with, it was crazy. It's hard to believe that I actually went. I'm definitely more cultured now - I forced myself out of my little box where I only eat American food. Mike had a big part in forcing me out of my comfort zone. The trip was also satisfying in that I worked for it. I paid for everything myself - no help from mom and dad. Sure, it ate away at almost all of my internship money (this trip + the Disney adventure took most of my earnings haha) but it was worth it.

I'm inspired to travel to Italy (I love Italian food) and Australia. Who knows what's next for my travels :)

Japan Day 6

My final full day in Japan. We ventured a little out of Tokyo to visit Mike and Sole's friend Sanae who studied abroad at WAC. I got to see a real Japanese home and experience Japanese home cooking. Sanae and her family were incredibly nice!

After brunch, we met Siggy and headed over to Tokyo Tower. Tokyo Tower looks like the Eiffel Tower, but in fact is bigger. Apparently all major fight scenes in anime and Japanese films take place at the Tokyo Tower. The view was exquisite. Unfortunately we could see the storm and the direction it was moving: towards Tokyo Disney, so it ruined my plans of going into the Tokyo Disney resort for my final night. *Sigh* oh well.

We looked around Tokyo Tower, doing some last minute shopping. I also enjoyed the Mega Mac from McDonald's, which I am proud to say I ordered myself - yay for pointing at menus! The Mega Mac has two extra beef patties. I ate the whole meal - it was absolutely amazing. I felt it for awhile, it was an exhausting experience, but it was incredible.

We headed to Shibuya so I could see it at night. The lights were pretty awesome. We stopped to to parikua, which is quite popular in Japan. It was so fast paced, it was overwhelming and thus the reason why I have two main faces.

We walked around the town - I took it all in. It was my last night in Japan for possibly the rest of my life. We went into various places and ended up at McDonald's (again haha) for some treats. The night was full of packing and drifiting off to sleep for my full day of travel the next day.

Japan Day 5

Another late start, but that was a-ok. We started our day in Ueno, where at the station there was a Hard Rock Cafe. I got my collective toothpick holder, but we didn't actually eat there in an effort to culture me. Ueno is a little like Asakusa in that it's tons of shopping. It was just streets and streets filled with various vendors. There was the same shoe store on every street. It was packed with food, fish, clothes - everything. The owners of each stand would yell out to advertise their products and prices. There was one stand that sold fresh fruit on a stick. I enjoyed some chicken and potatoes for lunch - I justified my food choice in that it was in fact purchased on the street, not at a worldwide American chain. They had a gaming center where one floor was just claw machines - in one of them you could win a fish. Crazyness.

After Ueno we headed to Akihabara which had an 8 floor electronics store. They had everythign from ipods to dishwashers. It was like Best Buy but 10 times bigger. We then headed to Shinjuku to meet up with Hiroki, Siggy and a few of her friends. Hiroki was Mike and Siggy's "buddy" meaning he helped them get used to Japan and the school when they first arrived.

We had dinner at Tiki Tiki, a Polynesian restaurant. We all got pretty drinks that fit the atmosphere perfectly. Then the dancers came out and beckoned Hiroki to join them. He did a fine job. As he was dancing, I turned to Mike and said "next time, I'll dance." Mike says "Maria wants to dance!" and Hiroki took the opportunity to end his public dance show. He tied the hula skirt around my waist and handed me the pom poms. I figured I'm in Japan, what the hell? So I gave it all I got haha. I got a free pretty drink for it too!

The food was fantastic and I really bonded with everyone there. Mike said Siggy and I would have been best friends if I hadstudied abroad there. As a group, we ordered the ginormous parfait and pretty much killed it. It was an excellent night.

Japan Day 4

We slept pretty late today and didn’t really get a start until the afternoon, but it was fine – we all really needed sleep. We went to Asakusa which had this long low of shopping and food with a temple at the end. These shops had tons of souvenirs; luckily I had gone to the bank before we got there. I got a melon frozen drink there, it was absolutely delicious. Towards the end of the row we got lunch – I got fried noodles. I was less awkward with the chopsticks and even enjoyed my food. We topped lunch off with ice cream – I went for the melon flavor. It tasted just like cantaloupe – absolutely amazing.

We went into the temple, which was pretty cool. I felt like the tourists may have been disrupting the prayer going on, but they kept us far enough back. Outside and inside the temple they had fortunes. I did one inside the temple. You put in a dollar and shake the can so it disperses one little stick that tells you what drawer to pull out for your fortune. Mine was very bad – it said I wouldn’t get what I was chasing after, my wishes were hard to read and that I shouldn’t make trips. If you receive a fortune you don’t want – like I just did (especially with the trip part…), you tie it around one of the wires on the racks they have there.

We walked a little more around Asakusa and then headed to see Mike’s school: Meiji Gakvin University. The school was gorgeous, although we couldn’t walk around it much since it was closed for summer. We then walked the 20 minute walk Mikey had to make everyday to go back to the station to return to his dorm. We went food shopping and Mike made a fantastic stir fry for us!

Japan Day 3

Another early day - but not quite as early as day 2. We boarded the train for our adventure to DisneySea located in Maihama. My one request for my stay in Tokyo was to go to Tokyo Disney. I chose to go to the DisneySea park rather than the Disneyland one was that DisneySea is unique to Tokyo – there’s no other park in the world that is like it. We had a couple train changes – one in Tokyo Station. This station is ginormous – it’s like Grand Central Station. While on the train, someone asked Mike if he was familiar with the train system – and was grateful we spoke English.

As we got off at our stop I was filled with excitement – I could see all the Disney signs and eventually saw the castle. I was glad I could see the castle, that was the one thing I was upset I wouldn’t get to see, but I saw it! We wandered around until we realized we had to take the monorail to the park entrance. The train had Mickey shaped windows and Mickey shaped rings for the people standing. It was very Disney.

As we got to the park, we went through a long line until actually entering the park. We followed the crowd to the first attraction which was Journey to the Center of the Earth. It was a mine car like ride. We went on 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea (with a FastPass luckily) which was kinda disappointing. This park had a Little Mermaid and Aladdin section which was really cool. I felt like I was actually in the movie.

DisneySea lacked attractions – it was mainly places to eat and scenery. I don’t regret going at all – the park was absolutely gorgeous and the Italy sections made me want to go to Italy. We took a gondola ride where our obviously Japanese rowers told us they were Italian haha. There was an American land that had the Tower of Terror. It was different than the ones in America, which was awesome. I loved the architecture and the ride is always fantastic.

We had lunch in a Mexico-ish land, where they had mandolin players. We waited in line for the Indiana Jones ride – by the way, Indiana Jones was there. So cool – they had a lot of more obscure characters. I got pictures with Marie, Daisy, Scrooge and of course Indiana Jones. There are different characters popular in Japan – they really like Stitch, Marie, Donald and Chip & Dale. Basically, Kt would be in heaven. We waited in line for Storm Runner which is an attraction like Star Tours but instead of being in space, you’re journeying into the eye of a storm. We even got wet!

We got Cappuccino popcorn (they had a different flavor at every stand, it was pretty cool) and then we did our shopping and headed back. I was in and out of sleep starting at 8:30. I was probably dead asleep by 9:30/10:00.

Japan Day 2

We got up around 4 – taking advantage of my jet lag, and went to the fish market in Tsukiju. We arrived at 6:00am and there were a lot of people there. We walked around and picked a spot for sushi. We waited for 20 minutes until we were seated. It was insanely overwhelming. I’ve never had sushi before, and I don’t speak a word of Japanese. I first had shrimp with wasabi and rice. Not bad – but next I tried squid, and almost vomited. This turned me off to everything else – but Mike enjoyed my leftovers. We walked around the town for a bit, coming across a temple which was gorgeous. We went for coffee at Starbucks. I got a tall which was so tiny – everything in Japan is so much smaller. We sat and chatted – I heard all about Mike and Minsu’s friends who left the week before my arrival. It was around 9, and we were tired so we headed back to the fort for a break. I checked my email and slept amazingly – no crazy dreams!

After a nice break, we headed of Hiroshuku which has tons of shopping. If you recall Gwen Stefani’s posse – they were the Hiroshuku girls. Japan is really into fashion, so it was packed. There was a variety of styles, but I couldn’t find much that I liked, but when I did it was quite pricey. As Mike said, “It’s expensive to be punk in Japan.” Although there was a three level dollar store, excuse me, 100 yen store there. We met up with Mike’s friend Signe – another international student from Australia. We searched for some coffee, and on the way I stumbled across the store made for me – an entire Elvis, rockabilly shop. The sad thing was – I could point out at least ten things I already owned in the shop.

We decided to eat at the Elephant Café which was absolutely gorgeous. We ordered a variety of foods which I tried but didn’t really care too much for. I got some cake that was chocolate, cream and strawberries – that was quite good! The restaurant was dark with elephants and various other statues. After a nice relaxing dinner, we walked up to Shibuya which is like the Time’s Square of Tokyo. We went to the Disney Store so we could buy our tickets for DisneySea. Just from the store I could tell different characters were popular here. After purchasing our tickets, we went to Starbucks (again haha) which was on the second floor. So we hung out and talk while witnessing the crazyness going on below on the streets. We were pretty tired, so we headed back to Mike’s place. I showered, called my mom and went right to sleep.

Flight/Japan Day 1

My flight left Dulles around 1:00pm and traveled over the United States and the Pacific Ocean for 14 hours. I flew ANA and I highly recommend it. They served us well, and even in economy there was nice foot room. Each seat had it’s on TV and you could choose what movie you wanted to watch. They even had a camera on the plane so you could see the sky. It was really cool to see the little shadow of the plane as we took off. We passed over Alaska and Canada so that was pretty cool. The flight went by pretty fast, surprisingly. I hardly read, I tried sleeping but that didn’t work out too well.

We landed in Narita early (3:15pm), even though our flight was delayed 40 minutes. I followed the crowd, while chatting with a new friend who was stationed in Tokyo, through immigration (where I was finger printed), baggage claim and customs. I walked out the door and didn’t see Mike. I was worried for a bit, deciding when the proper time was to freak out. But soon enough, I saw him, so I ran (well quickly walked, I had luggage!) to him. He didn’t see me and thus why our first encounter was a body slam rather than a hug.

He gave me a train pass and we boarded the first of a few trains back to his dorm. We chatted the way – catching up, him giving me details on various things in/about Japan. I took a shower as soon as I got in, and then met his friend Sole who is staying with him as well and later met his friend Minsu who is an international student. We walked around his town in search of dinner – the wanted restaurant was closed so we ended up at McDonalds, which I was ok with since by this point it was 7:00pm and I was starting crash. My body wasn’t very hungry – not even for McDonalds. I was in bed by 9 – I slept on the top loft while Sole and Mike went to Minsu’s. I tossed and turned all night. My brain was so overwhelmed by the day’s events that they all came together at once causing not a very nice sleep.

Pre Japan

So...in 21 hours I leave - which means in 35 hours, I'll be in Japan.

I'm still packing because I apparently really like to procrastinate on that. I just hope I did everything I needed to do for the trip.

I'm a bit nervous about traveling solo, but I think I'll be ok. I'm wearing my Jonas Brothers concert shit so people will think I'm 11 and cut me some slack haha.

So exciting!