Sunday, July 31, 2005
東京　ディズニーラーンド！

mood: ^.^;
listening to: fat japanese d00ds eating delicious steak (TV)

OK, sorry I had to end so abruptly at that last post. I ran outta time. LOL. But it was a good stopping point. Now I can tell you all about my Tokyo Disneyland ADVENTURE EXTRAORDINAIRE~!!!1!!11!!!2!

Rei and I left accompanied by Host Madre and Pouch/Poach/Porch for Sogo Rehabiri Center station at around 8:25. At the elevator Host Madre and us parted ways. Yurika card in hand, Rei and I made our way to the platforms.

I hadn't ever rode the subway into Nagoya so late before. It was weird. Most of the people on the train (there were a lot since Japanese people are workaholics/drunks/both and don't come home until really late) were probably heading for their homes or bars or something.

When we got into Nagoya we were running a tad bit late. But we made it to Nana-chan (that giant statue of a girl that does NOT look like a girl, no matter how many girly clothes they put on her) in time to meet up with Rei's two friends, Rina and Ayuri. We headed up to the bus stop and in about 20 minutes we were off~!

By that time it was 10:00 or so. I was sitting next to Rei and Rina and Ayuri were sitting next to each other. We talked for a bit, but soon we decided to go to sleep, since tomorrow was to be an early morning.

It was hard to sleep on the bus. REALLY hard. For one thing, I was a bit too tall to be comfortable. Secondly, I'm one of those people who can't really fall asleep without pressure on me, like a blanket or something. Even if I'm at a good temperature. It's weird, I know. Anyways, I was drifting in and out of sleep for about 4 - 4.5 hours when I realized we were stopped outside of Disneyland. I decided I would just stay awake for the next couple of hours since I wasn't sure what time we'd be going in. And it was already rather bright out (not entirely, but here in Japan the sun comes up at like 4 in the morning) so I just gave up. I applied some makeup, redid my hair, and waited.

Slowly but surely, more and more people were waking up. I was feeling a bit sick since I hadn't had anything to eat. If I wake up really early in the morning and don't eat anything, I feel really sick. I ended up accepting about 2 small bite-size melon pans from Rina, but I didn't have anything REAL to eat for many hours later. o.O;

At around 6:30 Rei and Rina went out to the bathrooms. Ayuri and I were to go together after they were done. I guess to make sure nothing of ours got stolen or something. I dunno. When Ayuri and I got to the bathrooms, I practically dashed to the sink to brush my teeth. Once we were finished, we headed back to the bus to finish getting ready.

At 7:05 we recieved our park passes and made our way out (by foot) to the Disneyland gate. We got there at 7:15, and waited in line for the park to open. For 45 minutes. I was still feeling a bit crappy, but I pushed it out of my mind. At 8:00 sharp we got into the park.

The first place we went (besides getting a fast pass for a ride) was the Pirates of the Caribbean ride. Since we rode it first thing there was litterally no line whatsoever. In fact, I think we were the first people to ride the ride. It was pretty much the same thing as the American one (or at least the California one) except some of the voices were re-recorded in Japanese. o.O; Some of them were in English, though. That proved to be the case in almost all of the rides we went on. Some English voices, some Japanese voices. It was so weird!

After Pirates of the Caribbean we made our way to Space Mountain. Now, by this time I saw how many people were in the park, and rationalized that the chances of me seeing Fuckison were slim to none. In fact, I hadn't seen any Gaijin whatsoever yet. Well, besides myself. My mind was put at ease. Well, that is until I ended up seeing Fuckison anyways. It always seems to work like that, doesn't it?

We were waiting in line for Space Mountain when I noticed a group of Gaijin behind me. One of them looked really familiar. It then struck me like an axe to the head that the 4 of them were fellow AFSers from orientation! O.O;; 3 of them were Italians. 2 of the girl Italians were in my room at orientation. The guy Italian I vauguely remembered, and then the one American with them was none other than the guy with the sunglasses whom HAL fondly dubbed "Sleeping Beauty" on the flight from Tokyo to Nagoya (long story...I still haven't typed out the orientation stuff, have I? o.O; )

I told Rei, Ayuri and Rina that I knew those Gaijin, and they were all really surprised. As we progressed in the line, I heard someone call out my name. I looked up and nearly passed out. It was FUCKISON. In my mind I was like "HOLY SHIT." But I regained my composure, and waved back. I noticed that Maybe-Her-Name-is-Chelsea was with her. I wondered if she knew that her friend Fedison was a fucking manwhore.

Luckily, I didn't see anymore of Fuckison nor the other group of AFSers (I wondered if they were together. I never found out) again. I was glad for that. Space Mountain was a lot scarier than I remember it. But nevertheless it was pretty fun. Wasn't too good on my stomach though. It left me feeling a bit sicker than I was before, but I tried not to think about it.

The rest of the day consisted of riding Toy Story (an inventive ride where you are in a little capsle that can rotate 360 degrees, and you try to shoot at targets with laser guns for points) a ToonTown ride, Winnie the Pooh (another inventive ride where you ride in a little capsule while they tell the story of Winnie the Pooh [a.k.a. Pooh-san] finding "hunny" and it's magnetized, so you don't see any tracks on the ground), Splash Mountain (5 fucking times, HELLS YEAH. Although, I never want to hear Zippity-Doo-Dah ever again in my life. LOL, it was in Japanese too), Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, Haunted House (semi-scary, but made more scary since Rina kept on screaming next to me, LOL) Canoeing through an "American River" (that was hilarious. Plus, to my own amazement, I could understand everything that our guide said. Like nearly EVERY WORD. It made my day. Plus he was so funny and cute). We also rode Space Mountain again, did a bunch of shopping (crap. 100 bucks down the drain.) The food was SO EXPENSIVE though. Like, food alone cost me over 3500 yen. Which is roughly 35 bucks. But I did buy some cute things.

Another funny thing was that Rina and Ayuri were obsessing over their tennis coach the whole time. So they kept on saying "KOCHI!!" over and over again, since that's the word for coach in Japanese. LOL, it was hilarious.

By the end of the day I was pratically dead. Ayuri and I watched a parade while Rei and Rina went on this spinny ride. We had just ridden Space Mountain for a second time, and it was after eating a turkey leg, so we opted out on that one.

The one thing that amazed me was the fact that at the end Rei and Rina and Ayuri were all scrambling to buy souvenirs for practically everyone they know. Me, only having brought barley enough to feed myself, didn't buy anything for anyone. Host Madre gave Rei like 250 bucks, which is about the amount I had left for the next week.

At 9:50 we began to make our way out of the park. I took one last look at Cinderella's Castle, and we moved on towards the bus. By 10:10 we were the last ones to make it back to the bus. We then left Disneyland.

We drove through Tokyo. We went over the Rainbow Bridge...it was so surreal. Seeing Tokyo Tower again was like this amazing feeling. It reminded me how much I fucking love Tokyo. I wish I could have gone. But there is time.

As I watched Tokyo Tower, I vowed to live this last week in Japan to it's fullest. You see, it occured to me at Disneyland that this is my last full week in Japan. As I type this, this time next week I will be in the Tokyo Narita Airport, getting ready to return home to the US.

I can't belive it. It's gone by so fast. I mean, I think I'm ready to return home, but I'm going to miss Japan and the freedom it gave me.

I drifted in and out of sleep once more. I woke up at around 4:45, and knowing that we were going to arrive back in Nagoya at 6:00 or so, I decided to stay awake for the remainder of the ride. I just looked around and listened to music while everyone else slept.

When we arrived in Nagoya it was so weird. I mean, the street which is normally bustling with activity and tissue kubari people was dead silent and empty. Well, empty minus the occasional homeless man sleeping on the side of the street.

At the station Ayuri parted for the JR line, while Rei, Rina and I made our way to the subway. Rina got off at Sakae, though, so for the rest of the time it was just Rei and me again.

We arrived home at 6:45 AM. I took a bath, checked my email, had some apple pie, and then slept for pretty much the next 7 hours. LOL.

So that was Tokyo Disneyland. It was a blast, to say the least. Rina and Ayuri were so nice, and I finally felt like I was, I dunno, accepted or something. Anyways, there is still more to tell, so I shall part here, and post a new post about what happened last night...

-Erin