Sayounara Japan!

I just wanted to do a really quick post before I have to leave. Today is my last day here, and in ten minutes I have to lug my under-50lbs suitcases downstairs. Sorry I didn't leave time to post a lengthier goodbye-Tokyo message; I was too busy packing, cleaning, and downloading WoW (you'll hear all about that in the next post ;) ).

Fear not! This is not the end of my blog! I plan on continuing it to document my return and the eventual, inevitable reentry shock. And hopefully I'll get to post some photos of my time in Texas with the family, too. Talk about culture clash.

So bai bai, Nihon! It was fun/weird/crazy/amazing/expensive/scary/frickin' magical!

The Photo!

Here is the photo that was taken of us on the Indiana Jones ride the second time we went:

Isn't it awesome?

It's Frickin' Magical!

So for those of you who haven't heard my gleeful cries of eight-year-old joy, on Tuesday my homies and I went to Tokyo DisneySea, one of the two parks at the Tokyo Disney Resort. In opposition to its neighboring park Tokyo Disneyland, DisneySea is more for adults: the rides are scarier, there are more shows, and you can purchase alcohol (not that I know this from experience cough cough).In case you are wondering how it was, check the title: the phrase of the day was "it's so frickin' magical!" and we repeated it every time we saw something amazing, which was about every 1.3 seconds. My comrades were Melanie, Sarah, and Michelle, and out of the three of us, Mel was the only one who had ever been to a Disney Park before. So as you can imagine, the three of us newbies were freaking out the entire ride there.

Tokyo DisneySea is the most expensive theme park ever built, and it shows: every ride is meticulously designed to emerge guests in whichever world that particular area of the park encompasses. The Tokyo Disney Resort is also the only Disney park not directly owned by The Walt Disney Company- it is licensed to The Oriental Land Company. But trust me, you totally can't tell; according to Mel, the experienced veteran, going to Tokyo Disneyland is just like going to Disneyland in California. And even though all the speech at DisneySea is in Japanese, all the writing is in English, if not both English and Japanese. Maybe it's because I've lived here for nearly a year, but it was easy to forget that every employee in the park was Japanese and we were only fifteen minutes outside of Tokyo. All I saw was the Magical World of Disney, and my inner eight-year-old couldn't be happier.

They even have a ~1910's era Americana area called "American Waterfront", which is home to Hotel Hightower, a.k.a. The Tower of Terror, and the U.S.S. Columbia, a full-size luxury cruise ship.




The first thing that struck us was how incredibly detailed everything was. From the train to the lampposts to even the employees' themed costumes, everything was meticulously designed to reflect the theme of whichever area we were in. Sarah actually took photos of all the bathroom signs we saw!

Since we went on a Tuesday and it was somewhat rainy all day, there were very few people at the park- the longest line we waited in all day long was 20 minutes! We arrived at the park thirty minutes after opening and stayed until the moment it closed. We went on every major attraction, saw several shows, and hit the vast majority of the souvenir shops. Needless to say, we made the most of our day ^^.The center and icon of the park is Mount Prometheus, a volcano that smokes during the day and shoots fire at night during the light show. It stands over a tall ridge line that forms a ring in the center of the park, inside of which is the Mysterious Island area. This is a picture of the view of Prometheus from inside this area; the things sticking out of it are part of the Journey to the Center of the Earth attraction, which at one point shoots you out of the volcano's side!The ride we most anticipated was the Tower of Terror, to which we made a beeline the moment we entered the park. It is seriously insane how much design goes into the waiting areas for the attractions- you have to see it to believe it. Seeing these areas is really half the fun.
But our favorite ride of the day, which we hit once during the day and once at night, was the Indiana Jones Temple of the Crystal Skull ride. It was fast, scary, and action-packed the entire way through. They even had three impressively life-like robotic Indi's spaced along the ride to help create the story! The best part, though, was the picture- we knew they would snap a group photo sometime during the ride, so we discussed how we should pose beforehand and settled on complete terror. And by a stroke of good luck, we four got to sit in the front row, with Mel in the driver's seat! She gripped the steering wheel and made the most ridiculous face! Sarah looked aghast in the photo, but I, being the genius I am, ducked the moment they snapped the photo because of a boulder bearing down on the car, and Michelle just looked confused. But when we went again at night, we all did it again and the result was perfect- everyone looked horrified at Mel, who was grinning maniacally while steering us to certain death. We all bought one or both photos, and as soon as Sarah scans hers, I'll post them here!The "most magical area" award definitely goes to Mermaid Lagoon, a reconstruction of King Triton's castle from The Little Mermaid. On the outside you see the castle, but the attraction area itself is all inside. They created a giant room using dark lighting and watery shapes so it actually feels like you're under water! It was really beautiful.

It would take me all day to give true justice to how amazing DisneySea is and what an awesome time the four of us had. This was the one thing I wanted to do most in Tokyo, and the one thing I didn't think I'd get to do. I'm so grateful I was able to go with my friends and I will remember it as one of my happiest days in Japan, if not the happiest. I don't care if The Walt Disney Company is a giant conglomerate with sweatshops in southeast Asia and criminally overpriced merchandise. It's frickin' magical!

The end of an era

I finished my last exam of my last Japanese class on Saturday. Before I had even handed the four-page test in, I began to feel a sense of loss: I had just completed my formal education in Japanese language. Of course, I still have my honors thesis to write next year, but as for classes in Japanese language and culture, I'm through. From here on out, I'll mainly be working on completing my degree in creative writing.

Regardless, my informal education in Japanese will never be complete. I freely admit that I am not fluent, after three years of study, and I doubt that I will ever truly be fluent. Japanese is a difficult and subtle language which, I believe, few foreigners are equipped to master. And quite frankly, I have no desire to do so. To become truly fluent in Japanese would require many more years of study and probably a great deal more time spent abroad. But from the very outset, Japanese was never an end to me, but a means through which to become better acquainted with the Japanese video game industry. Thanks to my current proficiency in Japanese and my experiences abroad, I am already meeting that goal.

Of course, I have no intention whatsoever to give up my hard-earned language skills just because I'm no longer being tested on them. I'm still somewhat awkward at the conversational level, but thanks to several friends of mine in Pittsburgh who are native Japanese speakers I am confident I can improve upon that area. As for reading, I have my Japanese video games to keep me on my toes and remind me of kanji, as well as a couple of books in Japanese (one being the first Harry Potter).

Now I am eager to return to Carnegie Mellon and continue my degree in creative writing. Even though no writing courses were available at Keio, I didn't completely neglect my craft. During the second half of my stay here, I worked diligently on several short stories, including a lengthy Greek mythology piece which I believe is the best fiction I've ever written. I look forward to advancing my skills in fiction and screenwriting at CMU next year. In case you didn't know, I plan on using my two degrees to pursue a career as a video game writer, and I intend to apply to several graduate schools this winter to help achieve this end and to learn about game development.

In a week and two days, I will be on a plane back to America. I'm quite anxious about it, both concerning the long trip back and reentry shock, but I am also excited to spend my last week in Japan having fun with my friends. I promise you'll hear all about it shortly, with plenty of pictures! Cheers!

Sharing is Caring

Just a quick update about my final research paper for my Japanese Buddhism class: it's finished, it's beautiful, and it's available for your reading pleasure online at my group's blog-

Discrimination in Buddhism

If you have some free time and want to learn about discrimination in Japanese Buddhism, feel free to read mine and my partners' essays. Intelligent comments welcome.

Tanabata Matsuri

Hi friends! I am taking a short break from my extremely busy final exam/paper preparation/writing time to bring you pictures from my awesome night at the Tanabata Matsuri- don't you feel special? ;)

The Tanabata Matsuri, which means "festival of the evening of the seventh" is a lunar festival celebrated at night to commemorate the once-a-year meeting of two lovers, represented by constellations, separated by the Milky Way. The town my friends and I went to were celebrating all weekend, so we went on the fourth of July as a kind of pseudo-Independece Day celebration (we're all Americans)! This is a pic of Mel and Jake commemorating the holiday with American periphenilia that Mel's friend brought from the States ^^;;;

My friend Sarah is doing a homestay, so Melanie, Jake, and I were invited to go with them to the festival. Tanabata Matsuri is one of the many yukata festivals of summer, so when we arrived at Sarah's home, we changed into yukata, which are thin summer kimono. I happened to have my fan with me which has rabbits on it, so I picked a yukata with rabbits and moons; in Japan, they believe there is a rabbit on the moon, so it was very appropriate for a lunar festival ^^. Melanie wore a really beautiful obi that looked like a fall of sakura blossoms.

The festival is held in the shopping district of town. Every side street is lined with food, drink, and game stalls, and the broad avenues are canopied by decorations made by local shopowners. Needless to say, it was an incredible sight.

We ate okonomiyaki will standing, chocolate-covered bananas, and fresh melons and coconut. There was a haunted house that we went into- it was actually pretty scary! Sarah took video of it on her camera- you can't see much, but you can hear us screaming, especially me ^^;; We also took part in the most important Tanabata custom: writing a wish down on colored paper and hanging it from a bamboo rod. I hope mine comes true!

We all had a really, really great time at the matsuri. I'm so glad I got to go! It was really nice of Sarah's host family to invite us and lend us yukata for the night ^_^ Mel and I were already friends with Sarah's host-sister, Sakie (whom I have officially dubbed Cowgirl Sakie by the power invested in me by the great state of Texas), but her parents were so, so nice and welcoming. I hope I get to see them again before I come back to the States.

Hope you enjoyed the post! Now I must go back to my studies- one week of finals then I'm home free!!

Home Stretch

Howdy homies!

Sorry for the long pause. June was quite an eventful month. My sorority sister, Heidi, was here for two weeks on her graduation trip before heading off to Korea. No one in my family had planned on coming to visit, so when Heidi sent me an email saying "I'll be in Tokyo on Saturday", I was super excited!

Every day I didn't have class, I spent playing tour guide with Heidi. We went all over Tokyo, and I got to see a few things I still had on my list. We went to the East Gardens of the Imperial Palace. The stones that the walls were made out of were HUGE! And the gardens were sooo pretty.

We also took a break at Cafe Paulista in Ginza, the oldest western-style cafe in Japan. It turned 100 this year and was made famous by loyal patrons like John Lennon and Yoko Ono. I had been trying to go there since February, but they were always full or I was too busy. But Heidi and I just walked right on in in the middle of the afternoon and got a table. The coffee and food were excellent, yet it was surprisingly moderately priced compared to most Tokyo cafes. History + cheap snack = win.

With only two weeks of class left, I'm busy writing final term papers and prepping for exams. My last one is on the 18th, so I have 11 days to enjoy Tokyo before I go home. My friends and I are already making plans, like going to Tokyo Disney- I've never been to a Disney park! And this weekend happens to be the lunar festival where they have hanabi, or fireworks. So on Independence Day, I'll be seeing fireworks in Japan wearing traditional yukata! Sure, there won't be July 4th barbeque, but maybe I'll sing the Star Spangled Banner under my breath while watching the hanabi ;)