Family Visit!

I was so happy when Tamara, Chris and my parents decided to visit me for my very last weekend in Japan!  We had an amazing time and it was a great end to my six months here.  They arrived Friday night and we ate a delicious nabe dinner, and then Saturday we started our day on a bus tour of Tokyo.

Our tour started at Meiji Shrine.  Everyone was impressed by the large main gate and the beauty of the shrine in the middle of such a large city.

Next we went to the Imperial Gardens.  The sakura were at their peak for sure!  Everyone was so thankful for that!

 After the Imperial Gardens we went to Asakusa.  It was so busy there we could hardly move around!  Everyone was amazed by the large red lanterns and all of the shops.

 After lunch we went on a short boat cruise around Tokyo Bay. We were able to see quite a ways, and found some interesting buildings.

Our last stop was in Odaiba for a little bit of shopping.

 We had dinner at a popular ramen restaurant in Tokyo station.  Mom seemed to enjoy it a lot!  Dad really impressed me with his chopstick skills - he had definitely practiced before the trip!

 After dinner we went to Ueno park to see the sakura all lit up.  And for people watching.  There were so many hanami parties going on, and lots of drunk people to laugh at.  There was even a roaming Batman who was playing the guitar and leading impromptu singalongs.

There were so many people in the park!  

 On Saturday we spent the day in Kamakura.  The sakura were beautiful there as well.

 Tam and Chris couldn't stop taking pictures of the flowers (neither could I!).

 Dad got his wish of having a rickshaw ride.  He and mom had a 20 minute ride and then met the rest of us at  Tsurugaoka Hachiman-gu shrine.
  

This is the avenue of sakura we walked down to reach the shrine.  So pretty!

 Tam and I made Chris drink/eat this corn soup out of a can in the train station purely for our own amusement.   It was actually pretty tasty!

 We also visited the Daibustu, and went inside!

At Hase Dera Tam and Chris were excited to have gone to the top of a large hill to see the coastline views.

 After our day in Kamakura we spent the night in Yokohama.  Tam and Chris went to a conveyor belt sushi restaurant, and Mom and Dad and I ate donburi and soba.  After that it was time for Karaoke, which was a super fun time.

The next morning I loaded them all up on the Shinkansen and off they went to Kyoto!

I met back up with them Tuesday night for dinner, and then Wednesday they departed for Hong Kong.  It was so fun to show them Japan, and I am so glad they came!!!

Tokyo Disney Sea

Last Wednesday was a holiday in Japan, so I took the opportunity to go to Tokyo Disney Sea.  (Along with a lot of other people!)  I got up early and got there at about 8:30, half an hour after the park opened.

The Disney monorail was adorable.

 It was so interesting from the inside too - look at the curvy benches!

Even the hand holds were mickey themed!

 This is the first thing you see in the park.  It is also the area where a lot of characters come.

I started my day in the Mysterious Island in the center of the park.  The main symbol of this park is Mt. Prometheus, which belches fire every so often.

After securing a fast pass for Journey to the Center of the Earth, I went on 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.  It was different than the Disney World ride used to be, but it was so cool.

 Of course the queue area and ride theme was amazing as it always is at a Disney park.

 Now I was really getting in the mood for the ride!

 Every little detail...

 After the ride I found the famous "gyoza dog" stand.  There was quite a line, but it was worth it!  Yum!

 In the back you can see the Arabian Coast section and on the left is Mermaid Lagoon.

 Mermaid Lagoon had many rides for little kids.  It was so colorful!

 This is the only big roller coaster at the park, called Raging Spirits.  Unfortunately, it was closed for maintenance and I couldn't go on it.

 This is in the Lost River Delta, the outside of the ride Indiana Jones and the Temple of the Crystal Skull.  This was an amazing ride!

Finally it was time to ride what I had heard was the best ride in the park!

Even from the outside it gets exciting!

Lava!

Hey look, it's like I'm at work!

The ride was super fun, but then it was time for another snack - caramel popcorn!  There were many flavors of popcorn sold in the park.

This ride was a simulator of flying into a hurricane called Storm Rider.  It was fun, and to make it more realistic it rained on me inside!

It's like Cape Cod at the American Waterfront.

In the background there is the Tower of Terror.  I didn't go on since I have been on it so many times before at Disney World.

This is the area for the Toy Story ride.  I know that this is an amazing ride, but I didn't go on it.  The fastpass was sold out before I got to the park, and the wait was over 3 hours!

Time for another snack - it's a Mickey churro!

I'm glad we had a random day off in the middle of the week, and that I finally decided to go to Disney Sea.  It was not as sad as I thought it was to go by myself, and a few of the rides had single rider lanes so my waits were short!

Tokushima: Day 2

On my second day in Tokushima I began by exploring more of the city on foot.  I found this cute sidewalk garden.

 I found the ruins of Tokushima castle.

 I found a small shrine.

 I walked along the river and saw this interesting stone art.

 I also saw that there was an anime convention in town.  The people were all crowded around the riverside park in costume, taking pictures of eachother.

 I took a boat ride on the river and on the other side of the main section of town I saw I park full of sakura!

 There were many types of trees in Tokushima.

 After the boat ride I wanted to go to the park with the sakura, so I started off walking there.  On the way in the castle moat I passed by these ducks that have a house.

 I also passed by these super busy palm trees.

 I found a pretty park along the way - it had a wonderful smelling magnolia tree!

 The park was so cute!

 I found the sakura!  They were very pink and made a tunnel.

 Here is the train sign of Shikoku.  I like it a lot!

 Mid afternoon it was time to start my 6 hour journey home.  I took the Uzushio and Marine Liner back to Okayama, where I boarded my last shinkansen.

The gnome and I had a good dinner, including sudachi juice.  Sudachi is a type of lime that is very popular in Tokushima.  This trip was an awesome one to end on!