Taking Tokyo

I'm studying abroad in Tokyo during Spring 2012. I'll be posting my adventures and any info I think might be helpful to students who will be studying abroad in the future. Thanks for looking at my blog, if you have any questions don't hesitate to ask!

[sleepyscorpion]

The Signs + Moments in Prisoner of Azkaban

Note: There is a lot of Sirius Black and Remus Lupin mocking. This is because I love them dearly. Aries: The moment when Ron hits Draco in the face with a crocodile heart.

Taurus: The moment when Oliver Wood tells McGonagall he doesn’t care if the firebolt throws Harry off, as long as he catches the snitch first.

Gemini: The moment when Peter Pettigrew tries to touch Sirius, and Sirius says, “There’s enough filth on my robes without you touching them.”

Cancer: The moment when Harry asks Remus if he knew Sirius, and Remus asks sharply, “What gives you that idea?” Remus has never seen that man in his LIFE and that is PREPOSTEROUS and APPALLING.

Leo: The moment when Sirius goes, “THERE’LL BE ONLY ONE MURDER HERE TONIGHT” instead of I don’t know, maybe, “Harry, I’m not out to kill you.”

Virgo: The moment when everyone is hanging out and having fun in the common room and Oliver Wood is in the corner, muttering to himself and prodding his model of a quidditch field.

Libra: The moment when Sirius Black is casually mentioned and Remus Lupin literally drops his briefcase in response. Subtle.

Scorpio: The moment when Harry gets caught with the Marauder’s Map and Remus saves his ass, followed by “These mapmakers would have wanted to lure you out of school. They’d think it extremely entertaining.” and “Do you know them?” “We’ve met.”

Sagittarius: The moment when Sirius rides off in the moonlight on Buckbeak and I’m not crying, you are.

Capricorn: The moment(s) when Draco finds out Harry fainted on the train and proceeded to make impressions of him fainting every single time he saw him. For the rest of the entire book.

Aquarius: The moment when Remus shoots chewed gum up Peeves’ left nostril.

Pisces: The moment when Harry catches the snitch and Oliver Wood hugs him and starts literally sobbing into his neck.

[lotstradamus]

i just watched the 2005 pride and prejudice FOR THE FIRST TIME and i am UNBELIEVABLY DELICATE ABOUT IT. i didn’t think i had it in me to care about regency era straights but HERE I AM, mascara stained and HIGHLY ATTACHED. when he flexed his hand after touching her i LITERALLY FELT GRAVITY ABANDON ME. 2005 was so long ago what have i been DOING that was MORE IMPORTANT THAN THIS MOVIE? NOTHING

[letthesunshinein]

guys it’s hanukkah tonight so happy hanukkah for all those who celebrate it!!!!!

[kyleestudiesabroad]

Hakone

I'm leaving Japan tomorrow but I wanted to make sure and get this update in before I leave my hotel.

I decided to buy that Hakone Free Pass which allows unlimited travel on basically all forms of transportation in Hakone. It starts from Odawara station on the Odakyu line and costs 3,995 yen. It's fairly simple to get to since the odakyu line is only 2 stations away from where my dorm was. It was a really lovely 2 days, even though it was too cloudy to see Mount Fuji.

I started off heading up one of the smaller mountains so I could take the rope-way. It took a long time to get there since they were older lines and only had one or two trains running. They were through really pretty areas covered in hydrangeas though so it was alright. One of the great parts of the free pass was that I got unlimited rides on the  rope-way and on the sightseeing cruise at the other end of it. It's really nice because then you don't have to keep buying tickets everywhere you go.

After I got of the rope-way I took a cruise on the sightseeing pirate ship on Lake Ashi. The lake kind of reminds me of my favorite Studio Ghibli movie Howl's Moving Castle, which made me happy. It was really nice but my phone wasn't able to get really spectacular photos of it.

Then I went to Hakone Shrine, which my friends had told me was really pretty. It didn't disappoint!

That was basically the end of my day, except for seeing some shrines that I wanted to check out the next day on the bus back to the station. They turned out to be 3 connected shrines dedicated to the Tengu. He's the red guy with the long nose that might pop up in some of the pictures. These 3 temples were absolutely decked out, I don't even know what was going on but they were amazing!

These 3 shrines are all on the line that goes from Hakone-Yumoto to Moto-Hakone by way of Hatajuku. I'd definitely recommend them if you're in the area! I was talking to one of the women who worked at the last one that I went to and I told her I was studying abroad at Oberlin, turns out she actually went to Oberlin! Small world!

After that I decided to take the cruise and rope-way again for fun.

All together I had a really great 2 days, I'm sad to be leaving Japan but I have all of these amazing experiences to take back with me. I know all of the people that I met and the places that I visited will remain with me for the rest of my life. Thanks Japan, it has been a truly life changing semester!

[kyleestudiesabroad]

Sakuragicho Hanabi

Otherwise known as fireworks. Now is the time of year when Japan has a lot of festivals with huge fireworks shows. Wednesday we went to see one of them, it was a really fun thing to do on one of my last nights here.

It was really, really spectacular. It was over an hour long with thousands of huge fireworks, I've never seen anything like it. If you ever find yourself in Japan during this time of year it's definitely worth checking out!

P.S. Sorry the pictures are so bad, my phone doesn't enjoy taking pictures of fireworks!

[kyleestudiesabroad]

Saying Goodbye

We’ve started saying goodbyes. I’ve already said goodbye to a few people but it didn’t really hit me until just now that this isn’t “goodbye I’ll see you next semester”. There are a lot of people I have to say goodbye to that I probably won’t ever see again. It’s hard to imagine that the people you’ve shared these amazing experiences with will be, essentially, gone from your life forever. I can’t imagine what my time in Japan would have been like without all of my friends here and having to say goodbye without knowing if I’ll be able to see them again is really hard.

Thank you to everyone in Oberlin for helping me have such an amazing experience in Japan, I'll miss you even if I didn't get to know you as well as I would have liked!

(I’m going to go watch some videos of cats now to cheer myself up!)

[kyleestudiesabroad]

Enoshima and Kamakura

So, as my camera is still refusing to charge I'm just going to skip ahead and talk about other things I've done. I'll do a post on my trip to Kyoto after I get another battery/charger.

So, on monday I went to Enoshima and Kamakura using the Free Pass that can be purchased at Machida Odakyu Station. It was only about $10 and gives unlimited travel around Enoshima and Kamakura for a day as well as the round trip on the Odakyu line to get there. Enoshima is a little island that has a bunch of cool shrines, as well as some caves on the back half. I started out my day leaving at 7am because I didn't know if I would have enough time to do everything I wanted. I arrived at Enoshima and it was really beautiful. 

Then I went to the first shrine. There are quite a few on this little island. It's surprisingly tall though, I saw advertisements for escalators on the sheet I got in Machida but I wasn't really sure what they were all about until I actually got there. There were a lot of stairs on that little island, I climbed all of them though! (Don't worry I'm not on a health kick, I just couldn't afford the escalators!) I'm going to give you a montage of shrine pictures now:

After going through all of the temples I headed to the opposite side of the island to see the caves. I wouldn't really recommend going to them if you ever find yourself in Enoshima, they're overly safety precautioned, covered in mesh and lights and padding so you don't really get much of a "cave experience". I did learn the story of the island from there though so it was nice. The cliffs around the caves are beautiful though so it's definitely worth the stairs to get over there.

Back in the feudal ages there was a bottomless lake where the island of Enoshima is now, where a ruthless five headed dragon lived. He tormented and killed the people living in the surrounding areas until a beautiful young woman came to his lake. He asked her to marry him and she agreed on the condition that he stop hurting the people of the area. The dragon obliged and the island of Enoshima was created in his leaving the lake.

Here's some pictures of the beautiful natural scenery in the area:

Then by that point I had gotten a migraine from the heat so I powered through the temples in Kamakura much more quickly than I had intended!

That temple had a big golf-leafed statue of the goddess of mercy inside but I wasn't allowed to take pictures. Just know that it was absolutely gorgeous! Off to the side there was a little cave that had a cavern full of little totems that you could dedicate that were for luck in fortune so I got one for my parents! It's the one in the very front left corner.

After that was the Daibutsu, the second largest statue of Buddha in Japan, with the largest being in Nara. It's made of cast metal and you can go inside to see how it was constructed. It's a lot less impressive than the wooden one in Nara but it was still fun to see.

My last stop for the day was Tsurugaoka-Hachimagu, which was quite large and very pretty. I didn't make it to the top because I was getting kind of dizzy from my migraine at that point but here's some of the stuff I did manage to see:

It was a pretty fun day trip, I definitely recommend it if you study abroad at Oberlin. Enoshima is only an hour's train ride from Fuchinobe!

[kyleestudiesabroad]

Maiko Henshin

In english, transforming into a geisha. On Saturday of this last weekend we dressed up as geisha in Kyoto. We were going to go with Yumekoubou but after a lot of confusion and them being extremely rude to us we went to Maiko-Henshin instead. Website can be found here: http://maiko-henshin.com/english/

I went mostly for the experience of being made up and such so the fact that I'm completely un-photogenic didn't bother me too much. There are a few that didn't have me looking too painfully awkward though:

It was an absolutely lovely experience, I'm so glad I got to do it. My face isn't too happy with me though since we had to use baby oil to take the makeup off. I've gotten quite a few pimples in the last few days.

Alright, on to the info about the outfit if anyone wants to know it.

Kimono Type: Susohiki, worn specifically by Maiko and Geiko. They are similar to furisode in that they have the long sleeves but differ in the fact that they are often lined in red and are made to trail on the ground.

Obi Type: Darari, worn specifically by Maiko and Geiko. They are much longer than the longest, most formal obi that a normal woman would wear. They are made of a heavy brocade and are worn with the two ends trailing down in the back. One of the ends will traditionally have the crest of the particular Okiya (Geisha House) that the girl works for on it. No two are exactly alike.

Kanzashi: This style of kanzashi (hair ornaments) would be worn by a maiko (apprentice Geisha). I don't know the particular flower's name but if I'm able to find it I'll add it in later. The silver danglies on the right side of my head are called bira-bira, they're little strips of metal that jingle when you move.

Okobo: Also called Koppori, Pokkuri, are the shoes that maiko wear (geiko generally wear zori). You can't see them in these particular pictures but they're tall and usually made out of paulownia wood (usually unfinished but sometimes lacquered black) with a slanted front. The reason they're so tall is to keep the maiko's very expensive kimono out of the rain. They also traditionally have little bells hidden on the inside so they jingle. I really love the sound they make when you walk in them!

There's a lot more that I'm wearing but I don't want to bore anyone. This is all just my understanding of what everything is/its purpose from my research on geisha so don't take my word for it. If anyone reading this has anything to correct me on please feel free to do so!

I'll try to get my post about the rest of my trip out as soon as possible but my camera batteries are dead and the charger is refusing to charge them so I might end up giving up and doing my post sans pictures.

[kyleestudiesabroad]

Asian Language Writing Systems

This is Korean: 안녕하세요

This is Chinese: 你好

This is Thai: สวัสดีครับ

This is Japanese: こんにちは

This is also Japanese: グッドモーニング

And this is also Japanese: 猛烈宇宙交響曲

[kyleestudiesabroad]

Bento Boxes, Tama Center, Odaiba

Sorry it's been so long since I last posted! The massive amount of written assignments my professors have decided to dump upon me has been occupying most of my time. A few things have since last post so I'll tell you about them now.

First is that we made onigiri (rice balls) bentos (lunch boxes) during the cooking day of our experiential Japanese activities class. It was pretty fun, although my hands hurt from the rice being so hot (I'm a weenie). Here's my favorite of the one's I made:

It was supposed to be a rabbit if you can't tell! We also made Yakionigiri (grilled rice balls) with the help of a Japanese student. They're pretty delicious!

Last friday my Japanese class went to Tama Center to see an Edo period house during our 3 hour block of Japanese. We rode a bus there with our class and discovered that not only is there an Edo era house and a beautiful park there's also a cinema and a Sanrio Theme Park.

You read that right. Hello Kitty Theme Park.

So we looked around the house and got a little tour of it. It was neat to know that all this stuff is just a bus ride away!

We weren't allowed to take any pictures inside so I'll just give a brief description of what it was like. When you first walk in the floor in dirt then you take off your shoes to go inside the park of the house that has tatami mats. Connected to the entry area is the kitchen which also has dirt floors. It was pretty fun since all I've seen of traditional architecture is castles and temples!

 The saturday I went to Odaiba and met a friend. Odaiba is where the giant gundam statue is. I never watched the show but I've always wanted to see the statue since it's absolutely huge. I was really sad when I found out that it had been destroyed by the earthquake in March of last year but it's been rebuilt and can now turn its head. I wasn't actually looking for it when I found it, I just walked out of the shopping center I had eaten in and there it was!

Afterwards I headed to Palette Town and got lost inside of it for a little while. I started on the second floor since it said discount or something on it (lies) and thought it looked vaguely venetien themed. Then I go downstairs and run smack into this thing:

It's themed like that hotel in Las Vegas that had the mall in it (think it's the Venetian, can't remember).

Then we watched Spider-Man and enjoyed the lovely view of Rainbow Bridge, Tokyo Tower, the Mini Statue of Liberty, and the Tokyo Skyline. My camera's night setting requires a tri-pod to not look really blurry and horrendous so this photo isn't terribly awesome:

Anyway, I'm going to Kyoto again this weekend so I should be preparing for that right now. I'll try to post promptly after coming back but I can't make any promises!

[kyleestudiesabroad]

21st Birthday and Izu Kogen International Camp

My 21st birthday was on wednesday! Some of my friends bought me a cake and we went to Harajuku, it was a lot of fun.

Last weekend I went to my school international camp in Izu Kogen. The school owns a hotel/club thing, I'm not really sure why! I thought, based on the description/what I'd heard that we would be hiking and seeing Mt. Fuji. Apparently they had changed the location though so we weren't anywhere near Fuji and we only played games inside. It was really fun though, and still really pretty despite the fog (rainy season, what can ya do?).

It was basically like a leadership camp, but entirely in Japanese. Which is hard for me since my Japanese is not at a fluent level. I also get somewhat nervous and forget things when I have to talk in Japanese with new people so it's difficult. But, since my light colored hair is a novelty any failure at their native language is a little more endearing than if I was of asian descent so people seem to just think it's cute/funny rather than annoying(obviously it's still annoying some of the time but it's usually ok)! I can definitely live with that!

I don't have any pictures of our activities but here's one of our neighbors who were really loud the entire weekend.

And finally, here's my team, the best one! Sorry the quality is so bad, I don't think the person who took it let it focus before taking the picture!

If any of you ever read this, thanks for being in a group with me, I had so much fun with all of you! I wish the trip had been longer than 2 days!

[kyleestudiesabroad]

My Weekend

Well, I'm turning 21 this wednesday and I'm going on a school trip to Mt. Fuji this weekend so I did most of my celebrating this last weekend. On Saturday I went into Tokyo to visit my friend who is studying abroad there. We went to Marui One, the department store full of lolita and punk clothing, and then to Closet Child, both in Shinjuku. It was pretty fun, I bought a skirt and 2 shirts at Closet Child but nothing at Marui One, I'm too poor!

Afterwards we went to Shibuya to the Disney Store so we could buy our tickets for the next day. Then we wandered around for a while trying to find a movie theatre so we could watch Snow White and the Huntsman. It was a pretty good movie, Kristen Stewart was still terribly awkward with romance scenes but Charlize Theron was absolutely amazing! Afterwards we went back to her dorm where I stayed the night.

Next morning we got up bright and early to head to DisneyLand! Her train commute was a lot nicer than mine was for DisneySea... I hope you're ready because I literally took 9,992 photos yesterday! The camera my parents sent me has a continuous shooting mode so I pretty much filmed the parades in pictures hoping some of them would be useful.

The first ride we rode was Pirates of the Caribbean. The line was only 10 minutes long, a refreshing change from Florida where it takes about 2 hours! The ride was a little different but the same in all of the important places.

Then we went through the Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse, which had been closed when I went to Disney on New Years. It was just as fun as I remember it, Disney always does such a good job at creating  things in a way that makes them seem real. 

Next I rode my one "roller coaster" of the day with Big Thunder Mountain. It was really fun, I would have liked to have ridden space mountain too but it was closed.

Next we headed to one the Queen of Hearts Banquet Hall, one of my favorite things we did that day! If you're going to Tokyo DisneyLand I highly suggest it. If you're at least marginally a fan of Alice in Wonderland you'll thoroughly enjoy yourself! It's got so much going on and since I'm a big fan of Alice in Wonderland I loved it.

There's a Winnie the Pooh ride that's unique to Tokyo that I wanted to ride so we went there next. It's pretty fun, it basically takes you through a Winnie the Pooh book, including a pretty crazy dream he has about Heffalumps and Woozles.

We rode Snow White's Scary Adventures since it just recently closed in DisneyWorld and my friend hadn't ridden it yet. It's pretty misleading, even though it says scary lots of kids still go on it not expecting it! After that we rode the teacups, which was pretty awesome. They went so much faster than I thought they would! We were also the only all adult group so that was funny.

Then we rode the Haunted Mansion which had a really short line. The Hitchhiking Ghosts here aren't very cool though, they just kind of sit there rather than switching your heads around or anything. Kind of disappointing...

After Haunted Mansion we watched the Easter Parade. Yeah, it's been Easter since about March in Tokyo, kind of strange. It was really cute though, all the characters wear bunny ears and there are dancers in little bunny outfits doing this dance that they teach to the audience.

Next we went to Toon Town for awhile, but didn't ride anything. It's really cute though!

One of the cool things about Tokyo DisneyLand is that you can actually go inside Cinderella's Castle! There's an exhibition and you can take pictures sitting in a replica throne!

Afterwards we were making our way over to try and ride the Buzz Lightyear ride and found out that we'd remembered the wrong time for the Light Parade so we grabbed a spot on the ground to watch. It was really spectacular, I always love the light parade! It's also nice because they don't allow anyone to stand so everyone gets a better view of it. Here's a sampling of the maaaaaany floats they had! I really loved what they did with the genie, he kept changing what he looked like, I can't remember if they did that in DisneyWorld.

After that we rode our last ride, Monsters Inc. It's also unique to Tokyo Disney and quite cute. I'm not sure what the exact story line was but it was fun anyway!

That's basically my weekend in a large nutshell. It was really fun and a great way to celebrate my birthday! Thanks for the camera mom and dad, the pictures came out a lot better than they would've on my old one!

[kyleestudiesabroad]

Japanese Food

Here's a little guide to my favorite Japanese foods!

1) This is my probably my favorite Japanese food. It used to be Yakisoba but I feel it's more hit and miss than my new favorite: Gyoza! It's basically a Japanese version of dumplings, absolutely delicious! It doesn't look that great but take my word for it!

2) Yakisoba. Fried noodles, it can be made with many mixes of meat and vegetables. My favorite is pork with lettuce. The spices used during the cooking gives it a sweet but at the same time spicy taste. When it's made really well it's amazing!

3) Ramen! You had to be waiting for this one! There's a really amazing ramen store right next to my dorm. It's hard to imagine how much better it could possibly taste. The noodles are thick and the broth is really rich with some nice green spinach-y stuff.

4) Sushi, it's not my favorite but I definitely enjoy it once in awhile. The best is tuna in my opinion (and most of the people I know). The conveyer-belt sushi restaurant nearby is pretty fun to go to. When you order any sushi it comes out on a little bullet train!

5) Gyuudon, I made this one myself in class! It beef with onion sauteed in a soy sauce based sauce. Then it goes on top of a bed of rice. I honestly wasn't expecting to like it as much as I did since I usually am not a fan of beef.

Things that I don't have pictures of but are still awesome:

1) Udon, thick noodles usually in a basic, yet tasty broth. At the places I've been to you can pick out your toppings such as fried chicken(my personal favorite), fish, vegetables, beef, pork, etc.

2) Tempura, fried shrimp and vegetables with rice. This was pretty tasty but it also helped me discover that I'm allergic to shellfish so I won't be eating it again!

Hope you enjoyed my guide to some of the basic food I've been eating in Japan! My twenty-first birthday is in less than a week so I'll be doing a couple things to celebrate. I hope you're looking forward to seeing posts on Tokyo Disneyland and Mt. Fuji! My parents sent me a new camera so I'll try to provide you with better pictures!

[kyleestudiesabroad]

Wagashi-Japanese Traditional Sweets

On Wednesday our class made traditional Japanese sweets, otherwise known as wagashi! The kind we made have a filling of anko, sweet bean paste. It's better than it sounds I promise! These kinds of sweet are actually low calorie and are traditionally eaten with green tea at a tea ceremony. The bitterness of the tea makes the sweetness of the wagashi stand out more.

Here's the ones that our sensei made, much better that I could ever hope to be!

Aren't they beautiful?! We made the 2 on the right since they're the simplest. Our sensei demonstrated for us how we're supposed to make them using the wooden tools they brought for us and then we made some on our own.

The first was the purple flower (narcissus I believe). We used those little wooden stakes in the bottom right corner of the above image to make the petals. The little white stamens were made by pushing the white paste through a strainer!

Next we made the little round one. I kind of screwed this one up but it's still pretty cute. You layer the pink and white so it just shines through a little bit then wrap it around the anko. Then you put a hankerchief and a tube around it and press a little stick into the center so it gives a rounded off edge. It might sound boring but I thought it was pretty ingenious, it looks like a little peach without the white stuff!

In the end of class they gave us some anko to play with/eat and Lauren made a little Totoro for her wagashi. It's pretty much the cutest thing I've ever seen!

I'll try to post again tomorrow with an entire entry dedicated to food. Also, I'm going to Tokyo Disneyland on saturday! Wooooo~

[kyleestudiesabroad]

Ghibli Museum, Lily and Fox Show, Meiji Jingu, Harajuku

So, this last week I finally got to go to the Ghibli Museum! It was really really cool but they don't allow you to take pictures inside so you'll just have to settle for outside photos! Inside they had: a life-size Catbus (sadly only for children), a huge exhibition of concept art, amazing stained glass windows, and little theatre, an exhibit of how film works, etc. If you're in Tokyo and go before the end of June they're showing a little sequel to My Neighbor Totoro, absolutely adorable!

On Friday night I went to see a friend of mine who has a fairly famous band in Iceland perform. It was honestly the most amazing performance I've ever seen. Her voice is AMAZING, much better than recordings, when does that ever happen? Anyway, we all ended up being moved to tears several times, her facebook page is here if you wish to treat your ears to something amazing: https://www.facebook.com/lilyandfox

Afterwards we stopped in Shibuya for dinner and happened upon a big celebration since Japan had just beaten China at soccer and become the official best team in Asia! Everyone was running out into the scramble crossing during red lights and basically just having a giant moshpit!

Yesterday we went to Meiji Jingu, which was pretty cool since it's where the Mother of Japan is enshrined. Amaterasu, the sun goddess, whom all the Emperors of Japan are descended from. I had intended to visit her birth place when I was going to study in Kyuushu so this is a nice substitute. And outside they had a whole exhibit about the Meiji Restoration so it was fun comparing what was there to what we've learned in the Japanese Modern History class!

Inside they have an exhibit of bonsai trees that are hundreds (or thousands, not sure) of years old. It was really amazing to see these little miniature trees. We also got to see a wedding procession but I didn't take any pictures.

After that we split up and I went shopping in Harajuku by myself. Apart from some little accessories all I bought was a cut-sew from a punk lolita store. It has the cheshire cat on it, how could I resist? I also found out that a necklace I bought a while ago was a knockoff from one of the most expensive brands, really glad I bought it now!

[kyleestudiesabroad]

Tokyo Disney Sea

IT'S SO COOL!

I'd heard they they spared no expense when making the Tokyo Disney Resort and it's absolutely true! Everything was beautiful and so well done. Here's a few pictures to prove my point. Obviously the fact that my camera is dying a slow painful death negatively effects the pictures but hopefully you'll enjoy them anyway! These are the handles you hold onto on the monorail if you have to stand!

The first ride we rode was Tower of Terror but there wasn't really anything to take pictures of so I'll skip to our second ride: Journey to the Center of the Earth. This was easily my favorite ride of the day. I wish I could have taken pictures on the ride because it was absolutely stunning! But here's some pictures of the stuff you see in line:

Then we did the Indiana Jones ride as single riders so we wouldn't have to wait as long. That was the only ride where I saw that they had the option, kind of weird. Anyway, these pictures were all taken while walking so they're extra bad, sorry.

The one ride with an upside down loop was closed so we moved on and went to the Arabian Coast!

There weren't really any rides in this area so after exploring a bit we went on to Atlantica! This was definitely my favorite part of the park, it was like being inside the movie but 100 times better!

Then the Volcano exploded, which was pretty cool.

And we watched Fantasmic, which I haven't done since I was a kid so it was fun. Also, it was interesting to see what parts of the songs had been translated into Japanese, and which were left in English.

And then we wandered around the park some more, trying to see if any of the lines were short enough for one last ride, they weren't!

I have a few tips though: get there early and get fastpasses! Unlike in America you can get another fastpass before using your first one, you just have to wait an hour or two. Ride a ride and then get another one. They run out of fastpasses for the entire day early in the morning. And the seats for the shows fill up really early so if you have to sit get there more than an hour in advance.

Looking at these pictures I'm definitely going to need a new camera, even the one's taken while completely still are all grainy! Hopefully I can get one before I go to Tokyo Disneyland later this month!

Oh, and I met the best face characters ever, Bernard and Bianca! Excuse my awkwardness!

[kyleestudiesabroad]

Sakuragicho

Hey everyone! Sorry it's been awhile I've just been trying not to do too much since I need to save money. It didn't work since I went out and bought too much today!

After class we headed to the Pokemon Center! Yay! It was just filled with merchandise so it was fun to indulge my inner (okay, maybe it's outer) child in a show I loved as a youngster.

Then, across the way there's a Ghibli store, woo! I managed to not buy anything, which I think is a good accomplishment, especially since I bought (too much) other stuff later on that day.

Afterwards we went to a department store that had a lot of cool stores in it. My favorite, where I bought 2 things, was one that had several sections, a fandom section, a vintage section, and then toys and candy. I bought a star wars wall hanging and a vintage Superman comic (that also has Batman on the cover!) in Japanese!

I spent too much but it was a fun day, very much needed during this stressful week! My next post will be after Disney Sea this weekend but I wanted to let everyone know that I'm not dead!