Day 3 -

I'm up at 6am because after a month of doing so, I'm wired to. Seeing that Andrew and Yu weren't awake and we had plans for the last afternoon that Andrew was in Japan for, I took the time to go home, drop off all the stuff I had brought with me to Aizu, shower, change, and then train back.

We had breakfast at the hotel and, what's this, we're going to go to Tokyo Disney?? Uhhh...... sure, why not.......

Yu left because she had to plan a work function, so me and Andrew and his two friends (who came with him to Tokyo) headed off to Tokyo Disney in Chiba.

We originally were going to go to DisneySea, which is apparently geared for adults (you can, they tell me, order alcohol at the stands), but we saw the Disneyland entrance gates were rather empty so we tried our luck there (DisneySea and Disneyland are seperate parks in the same Disney lot).


Really, the best way to describe Tokyo Disneyland is that it's a direct recreation of the original Disneyland except with Japanese. I really think that because the Japanese love the foreign aspect of Disney so much, they strived to bring it to Japan as accurately as possible. So you end up walking around in this constant haze of deja vu.....


We rode Space Mountain, the Haunted Mansion, Space Tours............ it's all like I remembered it to be even back when I was a little kid and going on them for the first time...... They're still great fun but....... it seems like Disneyland was designed for Japanese who want the Disney experience without travelling overseas. DisneySea, on the other hand, seems like it would offer something original.

3... 2... 1... Be Fantasmic!

Deciding we were going to make a night of it (again), I headed home to change (again) and then back into Tokyo (again) where I met Andrew and Nao, a friend of his he knew from karate. We met in Shinjuku and Nao took us to the Inoki Samba, a pro-wrestling themed restaurant honouring a famous wrestler in the Japanese pro-wrestling circuit, Antonio Inoki (I have no idea who he is.......).

But it's pretty cool in there. The bar in the middle of the restaurant, for instance, has ring ropes around the sides, they ring a bell to announce when you're being seated, and it was finished in lots of bright reds and yellows like many a wrestler's garb. Even better was when we ordered a salad and the waiter ceremoniously made us cheer for the salad (which was brought in a tube) and then proceeded to slam the tube on the plate, thus delivering our salad. Best was everyone around us cheered for the salad too............. yeah roughage!!

Finishing around 11, we headed off to find Yu, who's business function (also in Shinjuku) had by then finished and people went off to "ni ji kai"s, or "second meetings" although "after party" makes more sense. Note there are such things are "san ji kai" and "yo ji kai" so...... after after after party??

Anyways, we met with Yu and her friend and the 5 of us hung out in the bar just chatting.

The night ended around 2am with me and Andrew cabbing back to his hotel (the other three live in Tokyo) and, again catching a few hours of sleep, I woke up and decided I really should go home haha........

Day 4-

I spent the morning and afternoon cleaning my room (my original goal for Golden Week) and then taught some English classes in the evening.

Honestly, I don't really know how I made it but on Tuesday, I wasn't much worse for wear. Either way though, I can't think of a more memorable way to have spent Golden Week =P.......

A Stitch ride?!?! I'm sooo going back for that when it's finished!!