UNIVERSAL STUDIOS JAPAN and other trips
Louise, James and I get on a bus in Tokushima city after first stopping by a coffee shop to snicker at an advertisement for "Valentines Day Bitter Coffee" and to say goodbye to Claire. Nothing can blot out our excitement! We are going to Universal Studios Japan!!!!This trip was weeks in the planning. For a change, we had booked hotels, and organized it over a week in advance. Louise had memorized the USJ website and brought with her two maps, a route for the day, complete with which rides we're going on, which cafes, and approximate times that we should be at each one in order to maximize our experience. Very professional. Our plan was to buy the 7-ride express passes which allowed us to skip the line of seven of the major attractions. The relationship guidance dolphin came along too, and we snapped excited pictures, sang songs, and
basically were bursting out of our seats the whole bus ride, to the shock and perhaps dismay of the other people on the bus.
We arrived in Osaka at about 10:00 on Friday night. We quickly hopped in a subway bound for Namba (where our hotel was) and arrived not long before 10:30. We met my friend Take in Namba. Because Claire couldn't come with us on this trip, and I had reserved a room for four people and don't know how to make a cancellation in Japanese, we invited him to come along with us. After unloading our things in the hotel room, we were starving. "What do you want to eats" were met only with "something tasty." We couldn't decide. We stumbled upon a Japanese BBQ and decided we'd go with that. We ordered such a pile of meat it was indecent. They brought out dishes of raw beef, and lit the charcoal fire at our table. We ate and ate until we nearly exploded. Grilled meat, grilled meat put on a lettuce sandwich, Take even had raw "fish guts" which I tried, but can't say I liked. It looked and tasted like what you use to go deep sea fishing. The penalty that night was a bill of $40 a head. Whoops. After dinner we went out to Karaoke. They gave us TWO tambourines... but no microphones. We had to ring them up. Grr. We were sleepy from all the meat, and had a big day ahead of us so it was an early Karaoke night, despite the joys of two tambourines. (To understand our obsession with tambourines, please see THIS old Tim Curry clip from "The Worst Witch." 3:25 into it) At the hotel, shower then bed.
Up EARLY. Today was Universal Studios Japan!!!! There was going to be a water ride, JAWS, and it was cold these days, so I bundled up. Take and I both had on tights, which Louise thought hilarious, but we knew would keep us warmer than her, so laugh all she wanted, we felt no shame. We grabbed a Starbucks breakfast, and took the trains out toward USJ. Here's the kicker. It was snowing. It NEVER snows in Osaka, and the ONE DAY we decide to go to a theme park, it was snowing like a crazy-person. The trains were still packed with USJ bound people despite the weather. We hadn't bought tickets in advance. After one failed attempt at a Lawsons ticket machine, we thought we would get there early instead and buy them in the park.
As it turned out, we were running late, as usual. We got there before the park opened, but not before the line grew too long. To "cheat" Louise waited in the line to get in, and James Take and I waited in the purchasing line. Tickets to the park were near $50, and the line jumper passes were about that as well. The total came to about $100 per person. I thought it was a little steep at first. The line splitting worked like a charm and we were in the park in no time flat. Snow pouring down on us we head toward our first ride, the Hollywood Dream Roller coaster. CLOSED. Well, maybe its still early, or they're waiting for the weather to clear up a bit. Our second ride was E.T. We waved the passes we bought, and were escorted past the long line of guests to a smaller queue. There was even a water fountain, as I stooped to sip the VIP water while others looked on jealously! We had to give our names to the woman on the E.T. ride. We wondered why... The ride itself wasn't that thrilling. We certainly were glad we didn't wait hours to ride it. At the end, the animatronic E.T. calls out to each of us in Japanese. "Good bye Rob, Good bye Takeo, Good bye James, Good bye Louise..." That was funny. These line-jumping tickets were the best idea.
We skipped a huge number of people to visit the Terminator. (hahahaha) We were excited about the Terminator because on the character website we saw a woman named "Reika Ayanokoji" who looked (as you can see) completely normal. We amused ourselves joking that she was our favorite character mostly because we had no idea who she was. When we get in the ride there is a proscenium where a small intro is given to the show. And there she was, Reika Ayanokoji. Her speech was so dramatized. She fluctuated her tone more than the most emotional Anime characters, and she waved her arms and posed so dramatically. It was quite the show, and she was hilarious. She would continually shout "No Camera desu" ("no Camera" in combination English and Japanese). This was done after Louise managed a quick (tho not very good) snapshot of her. We fell in love with Reika Ayanokoji. When she asked where everyone was from, Take raised my hand for me, and she chose it. I said America and Louise said England and she became so excited. "Wow that's far!" in Japanese. After that, she snarkily commented "oh you're not as far as those people" when other people told where they were from. Instant celebrities we became for a passing second. The Terminator "ride"/show wasn't that exciting. Reika was the most exciting part. In the beginning of the actual show, she was killed. I turned off at that point. So mad. We decided that next Halloween, we are all dressing like Reika, and going to USJ.
After Terminator was Spiderman. Gallantly striding past masses of people tragically in line (we really think paying double for line cutting was the best idea we had that day) we were on the ride. It was by far the best ride so far and even took a picture of us! Woohoo. We went straight from Spiderman to Back to the Future. It was there, in the back to the future line, that we had to WAIT?! What is this!! Outrage all over the place. True we did have line jumping passes, and true we did skip most of the line, but the thought of waiting 10 minutes was simply out of the question! This ride was mediocre and not worth the wait. I could imagine how angry we would have felt if we didn't have the line jumping passes and had to wait 70 minutes to ride it. We couldn't decipher the Japanese version of "Great Scott!" but we were able to write our names in the snow on the Back to the Future car outside the park ride! Then it was lunch time. We were not only freezing but also hungry.
We wanted to to go the English Pub inside the park for lunch. The advertisement boasted "An Authentic English Pub, just like you would find in New York." Which just tickled Louise and James. Why not Authentic like you would find in England... No one knows. The line was too long, so we went to a New York style Pizza restaurant. It was PACKED. You had to hover over peoples tables we were on the verge of finishing, and snatch up their table the second they left before anyone else did. What a challenge. The pizza was good. Not AS good as in New York, but better than I'd had in Japan to date. We were starved so I had half a full pie, a portion of cream tomato pasta, minestrone soup, a rice croquet, and a giant beer. It was warmer in the restaurant, but not by much. The general theme of the park was FREEZING. We left and headed out for our remaining rides. Tragically, on the way to Jurassic Park, we found that it was CLOSED. We asked the man at the locked gate and he informed us that due to snow, Jurassic Park, JAWS, and the Hollywood Dream Coaster were shut for the day. We informed him that we had bought a 7 ticket passbook and asked if we could be refunded for the rides we couldn't use. He told us we couldn't, but that we could use them at rides we had already been on, for a second go.
The Hollywood Dream coupon had the option of seeing one of the two 4D movies, Shrek and Sesame Street. We went to the center of the park by the movie theater, and after snapping some pictures with the people in costumes, we were delighted to see that we hadn't missed Sesame Street. (They run Sesame Street in the morning and Shrek in the evening). We went into the theater. For a while we were discussing the Count. What does he say in Japanese?! The Japanese word for hah hah hah (like the count says) is technically "fu fu fu." We were anticipating that the count would count in Japanese (complete with appropriate counting suffixes for whatever object he was counting: like animals 'ippiki' 'nihikki' 'sanbikki' ; or pencils 'ippon' 'nihon' 'sanbon') followed by "fu fu fu." We were half right. The counting was in Japanese, but the hah hah hah was identical. Oh well, you win some you lose some. We left the theater showing of the last Sesame Street, and after looping around the costumed characters for more pictures, went straight back into the 4D theater for Shrek. The movies themselves were nothing special. We couldn't really understand the content, but the 4D theater was interesting in that it sprayed water on you when a character on the screen was using water, or when an army of mice was escaping the screen, they would have some kind of air hose whipping air at your feet to feel like something was crawling past them. The seats were hydraulic too, so they would jerk and shake, raise and lower as the movie demanded.
With one more ticket left that we couldn't use on JAWS or Jurassic Park, we decided to redo Spiderman. This time Louise and James came prepared with hats. Louise had an Oscar the Grouch hat, and James had a rather puffy Spiderman hat. We were going to pose for the picture at the end, do things right, and since we didn't have to wait on the line, we were on the ride in no time. After Spiderman, we wandered around some shops and even stopped in the Pink Cafe. This was the last cafe on or list of things to do. The website boasted that everything in the establishment was pink, from the decoration to the food. We were skeptical. While it was true that the restaurant also had white, black, and scattered other colors, on the whole, it was overwhelmingly pink. The coffee wasn't pink, I had asked, and shot them a disappointed look when they said it wasn't. There was pink cupcakes, pink ice cream, and even pink beer. The spoons were pink, napkins pink, and lighting pink. I'm surprised people could actually eat there because we were feeling rather sick. We leave the park around 5. An hour earlier than expected, but as it was freezing and snowing, we thought it was acceptable.
Exhausted, and frozen to the core, we head back to the hotel. We had a dinner reservation in Shinsaibashi at 7:30 at a Mexican food restaurant, but Louise wanted to make a stop along the way. Just outside Namba, in Shinsaibashi is a side of town I'd never seen before. It was madness, the streets were filled with strange clothing shop, angsty teenagers, and all accessories appropriate for angsty teenagers. Louise was looking for Smart Freaks Piercing parlor. We found it and with minutes to spare, she decided and communicated that she would like to get a piercing. We made sure she was fine, and that everything was communicated, and then Take and I headed to the restaurant to make sure we had the reservation. The piercing would put is 30 minutes late to the restaurant, so we wanted to have someone there so they couldn't give our table away. Once we got there, I headed back to the shop (Louise James and I didn't know how to get there, so I was acting as a shuttle having learned once how to get there from following Take) and after Louise was done with her risque piercing (which she named Johanna) we went to the restaurant and met Take.
It was a small place but warm. A man was playing guitar and singing English slow-rock songs really well. The walls were scribbled with graffiti. Most related to poo or pee in some kind of way. There was "Poo Wee" on the picture frame behind us, "bum" scribbled on a picture of a dog, and "I love poo" scrawled on the coat rack. We ordered our burritos and enchiladas and fajitas and thoroughly enjoyed them, taking a few Oscar the Grouch pictures, or any other randomnesses along the way. It was a delicious restaurant and I'd love to go back. After dinner, Louise wanted to go to a bar she'd never been to before. The plan was to go to Barfly and say goodbye to my friend Tora because he was leaving for Canada, but we put that on pause and walked into a bar for a couple of drinks. It was there we discovered that Take's lighter had a light on it that projected a tiny color picture. This picture (and we debated this at length) was either a chicken in a sheep costume, or a sheep wearing a chicken mask.
After leaving there, Louise and James wanted to play some Mario Cart and Taiko Drumming at an arcade. I went with Take to another bar for a drink and to meet some of his friends. After a drink there, we reunited with Louise and James at Barfly. It was nice to see my friends Tora and Hokuto (the bar mama), as well as people I recognized like Hitomi. It had been a couple of months since I had been out in Osaka and it felt like a reunion for me. Especially since I had been going to Barfly randomly 7 times during the end of December and January. Exhausted, (Louise even asleep) we bid everyone adieu and headed back to the hotel. I hope Tora enjoys his stay in Canada. Showers would wait until the morning and we went straight to bed.
The next morning we wake up early-ish and head out for a Choco-cro breakfast. After that we did some searching for an MP3 Player for Louise, and some fur for the musical. Uneventful in all departments, we head for Kyoto by train. Our Sunday night stay was at a Kyoto youth hostel. When we got to Kyoto, after all the buses and trains, we were exhausted. Not to mention that our weekend had already been jam packed with adventure. We check into the hostel--"Kyoto's Cheapest Inn"--and select a bed amongst the 18 or so bunk beds packed into the room. How interesting! Then its off to eat something quick at a meat-bowl place. Our plan was to see the Monkeys at Monkey Park. I had gone with my parents and sister, and Louise and James had wanted to see them. But we were too tired. It would mean more buses, more time, and worse, climbing a mountain. No thank you.
We decide instead to visit Nijojo (castle). Louise and James made a mock documentary destroying ALL facts in retelling the history and significance of this castle (see here). Something that you wont find in their documentary, that I learned, was that the floors were specially designed with nails that rub against each other, to make a chirping sound when weight was put on it. Each step you took inside the castle was a choir of squeaks, and it was not because of the age of the floor, but instead completely intentional. The shogun or whomever owns a castle, designed this floor so he could hear when his enemies were walking about inside the castle. It was muddy and a bit on the cold side, but the surroundings and the castle itself were beautiful! After having some coffee and snacks at the castle, we headed back to the hotel for a quick nap.
At 7pm we awoke. Groggy but refreshed. Then it was off to an area outside of Gion for dinner. We ended up walking into this cute restaurant with sectioned off rooms for each guest. The menu was a la carte and we ordered a mass of food and shared it between us all. James was not fond of the meat in a gelatin similar to the kind you see on a patê. But we liked it, and everything else was great. Well, almost everything. They had a special "build your own drinks" section of the Chu-hi. I had made Louise get the tomato one, and I got a pear flavored one. As it turned out, the tomato one which we thought was going to be disgusting turned out not quite so bad, and the pear one was HORRIBLE. What a turn of events. After making an origami E.T., a phantom of the opera mask, and sicking our Purikura picture in the dessert menu, it was time to leave. I took Take to the train station so he could get a train home then I met up with Louise and James in Ponto-cho. A street I had never heard about where supposedly all the Geisha were.
The sign on the street said that it was a popular gay district in old-timey Japan but we had been told that this was just to keep tourists off it as it hid the illustrious Geisha. While I was gone, Louise and James saw a geisha at a convenience store (just my luck) but when I got back we continued the search, referring to them as ghosts, so as not to say the word Geisha and blow our cover sneakily searching for them. After a while, all we had come across was a really old geisha. I still haven't seen one with all the makeup *sadness*. We walked into a Jazz bar but immediately left when the woman told us there was a $15 dollar cover and 20% tip added to the bill automatically. We ended up going to a shot bar instead and getting a few drinks. There we wrestles with a Rubik's cube and some kind of block puzzle for a while, played with a stuffed ghost, before we decided that it was boring there and we wanted excitement!
We wandered the streets of Kyoto for over an hour. Nothing looked riotous. Nothing looked fantastic. After more wandering about we just decided, screw it, we were going to Karaoke. We get 2 hours nomi-houdai (all you can drink) and head up to the booth. In the tradition of Nomi-houdai Louise throws two drinks at me, and I ring up asking for the usual two drinks per person. At this place however, they had a policy where they would only give one at a time to each person. This enraged us. Because we were smug and wanted to teach them a lesson, we instead chugged out drinks as soon as they brought them to us, and the minute they walked out the door, we ordered another one. If they weren't going to bring us two at a time, we were going to pester them every five minutes. We aren't sure if we taught them a lesson or not, but we did get very drunk.
We took a taxi back to our youth hostel and quietly climbed into bed so as not to disturb the other 15 people sleeping in the room. We closed the curtains on our beds, hid our valuables, and passed out. Checkout the next morning was at noon, so we woke at 11, got ready and out the door by noon. A quick stop at a convenience store fed us breakfast, and we grabbed the train back to Osaka. At Osaka James decided to get pierced as well. We went back to the piercing place and he got his nipple done. I sort of wanted to get one as well, and Louise was certainly egging me on, but I wasn't certain about where I wanted to get it, so I passed this time. We shopped for a big, buying things like fur and hats for the musical, and then raced from Shinsaibashi to Umeda in order to board our trains back to Tokushima. What a long, but FUN three day weekend!
The next weekend was musical rehearsal on Saturday where in we spent the whole day learning the dance I was making. Which means I was the only one who did not get a break. I was beat, but after rehearsal, I drove to Tokushima city and got on a ferry for Wakayama. I went to visit Take and see a bit of Wakayama. The ferry was SO cool!
You get on the ferry and find a space on the carpeted floor. There are no chairs, no seats, you sit, or sleep on the floor wherever theres space. The whole trip is exactly two hours and they have food and drinks and "pillows" (padded blocks). I went up outside to check it out. It was freezing February weather, but looking over the edge of the boat was exciting. And it was nice to see my Tokushima drifting off by boat in the distance. I napped a bit, but mostly wandered about the boat, thrilled.
In Wakayama we had a relaxing weekend. After the one before in Osaka and USJ we decided that this one should be quiet. We watched a movie, "No Reservations" which was pretty good. Went to a really amazing restaurant with fantastic food, and did some Karaoke. Nothing too crazy or eventful. Just sort of a way to get my energy back from so much rehearsal and travel, and get out of the house at the same time.
PICTURES!!!!
USJ Osaka and Kyoto
Ferry
posted by Living and Teaching in Tokushima @ 8:27 AM
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