Universal Studios Japan

Friday was the school trip to Universal Studios and they let me come along!!!! I had to wake up super early to catch the bus. But I managed to catch a little sleep on the way up. We got in around 10am which was just in time to see the parade with Hello Kitty!!! (yes hello kitty is at Universal Studios in Japan)

I went to see the Terminator show first with a group of teachers. After the show, it was time for lunch, but they wanted to leave the park and go to a Japanese restaurant around the street. There was no way that I was leaving the park to eat when I was surrounded by American food. We parted ways and I headed to the Spider man ride. The wait was 80min, but since I was alone now, I hopped into the single line and got on in about 5min. Then I headed over to the Italian restaurant and had a really great slice of New york style pizza!!!! No egg, no mayonnaise, no corn, just good old fashioned pepperoni and cheese!!!!

After I'd finished eating I made my way to the roller coaster. This one took a bit longer to get on, but it was well worth it. The seats have speakers in them, so you can choose which song you want to listen to while your riding. I settled on Eminem. The first drop was so long that I literally could not scream, I was trying, but nothing was coming out. It was a really fun ride.

There wasn't a lot of time left after I got off the roller coaster, so I headed over to ride ET. At the end of the ride ET says your name, and the whole ride was worth it, just to hear ET say Cotoni. There was a little bit of time left after I got off ET, so I walked around the park and took pictures with some of the characters. I couldn't find Hello Kitty, but I did manage to run into the Hello Kitty store and buy myself a pair of Hello Kitty ears. If you look closely at the picture, you'll see that I'm wearing them.

We had to pull out at 3pm and head back to Komatsushima. The played a movie on the way back and one of the students had them put on English subtitles for me (isn't that sweet!). We made it back around 5:30, and I said my goodbyes and biked over to Lawson's (a convenience store) and picked up some tasty tempura and an apple pie for dinner, then headed home.

"Fishing Trip"

So, last weekend I went on a "fishing trip" out into the mountains. I went with one of my JTEs (Japanese Teacher of English). I guess she teaches part time at an English school (schools were kids go after school or on weekends to learn English) and we were joining them for their camping outing.

The first activity was to catch fish with our bare hands. I was not so successful at this. Luckily the kids on my team were very very good (they caught 53 fish!!!). After we caught the fish we had to skewer them (I politely asked one of the fathers to do this for me) and then salt them and roast them. There was also a Malaysian family there, and they cooked Malaysian food. So there was quite a bit of tasty food for lunch.

After lunch there were some English games. My team won, and we all got candy!!! After the games, all of the 'foreigners' (there was also a man from Peru, a girl from Mexico, and a girl from Germany - so ironically I was the only native English speaker at the English "camp") were asked to sign autographs. I will definitely miss the "celebrity" part of being in Japan. I highly doubt people will stop me on the street to take photos or ask for my autograph when I go home.