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 ;)

Comfort Zone

I went to the post office the other day to send home a box of stuff to help lighten the weight of my suitcases for my return flight. I carried it down the street to the small office, told them where to ship it and by what method, filled out the form, thanked them and left.

It wasn't until I was leaving that I realized how relaxed I'd been. I hadn't had an ounce of anxiety during the whole transaction. Even when my friend, who had previously agreed to mail her box at the same time, changed her mind, I just said "okay" and immediately went and mailed it alone.

This may not seem a big deal to you, but to me, it speaks volumes about how far I've come to adjusting to life here. In the spring, I sent home another box filled with winter clothing and omiyage for my family after I returned from Hokkaido. I was so nervous about using the post office, I put it off for three weeks! I was wracked by anxiety at having to make such a complicated transaction and filling out forms in Japanese that it took me weeks to build up the resolve to go.

Of course, much of my newfound ease can be attributed to my increased fluency. Even my professor, who also taught me last semester, remarked the other day about how much more talkative I am and how easy it is for her to understand me.

But more than that, I'm no longer anxious about making mistakes, about not understanding. I am still terrible at listening to employees and salespeople; I hear them, but my mind just doensn't process what they're saying. I have to seriously focus in order to dissect their keigo, which is a complicated grammatical pattern used in formal situations. I often have to ask them to repeat themselves, in which case they use gestures or perhaps a word of Engrish to convey their meaning. But I guess I'm just so used to this, it no longer deters me.

I've also been here so long that employees at the combeni and grocery stores I frequent interact with me. Usually it's about the weather, but the simple fact that they are trying to talk to me is very encouraging. It makes me feel like I've been accepted as part of the community, inspite of my being a foreignor.

Most people that I talked to before coming here told me it takes at least three months to gain fluency, so to go for just one semester doesn't make sense. By no means would I call myself fluent, but I definitely agree that one semester isn't enough. I mean, it took me half a year to use the post office without stressing out! More than just becoming fluent, staying abroad longer gives you more time to truly adjust to living in another culture. And only after I became more comfortable was I able to really appreciate Japanese lifestyles, instead of focusing just on how out of place I felt or how much I had to compromise my own lifestyle.

It's a shame, though, that just when I'm comfortable living here, I have to plan on coming home again. Only six weeks and I'll be back States-side! I'm really excited to return to my family and school, but I'm also sad. There are so many experiences here that I have to savour while I can, and important friends I may never see again. I'll just have to do my best to enjoy the rest of my time here with everyone.

Plus, I have a feeling that I'm going to get really bad reverse-culture shock when I go home >_<

Train Fail

Last Saturday, my sorority sister Heidi, who just graduated from CMU with a degree in architecture, arrived in Tokyo for a two week vacation, the first week being spent in Tokyo. This isn't an update about our fabulous time together (soon, don't worry!), but rather about how we both had really unfortunate, and just plain stupid, experiences on the train this week.

Monday is my least favorite day of the week because I have a really boring class during 5th period, so I never get home until about 7pm. This time, while riding the Den-en-toshi from Shibuya to my station of Sangenjaya, I put my book bag on the metal rack inside the train and spent the time thinking about all the fun stuff Heidi and I have planned for the week.

Completely distracted, I got off at my stop WITHOUT my book bag!

I didn't realize it until I was halfway up the stairs and the train was already pulling out. So I had to go to the ticket window and explain my predicament to the station employees in Japanese and give them a description of what I lost, where I'd placed it, etc. They made a call and told me to wait. Luckily, ten minutes later someone called to say they found it three stops down the line. The employees told me to get back on the train and go pick it up. So I went down to the platform and got on the train.

In the wrong direction.

I had to get off at Ikejiri-ohashi, go to the other side of the station, and get back on in the other direction.

After finally getting to the right station, collecting my bag, and returning to my own station and back to the dorm, it was 8pm :___( You'd think I'd be past making those kinds of mistakes by now! ばかだね。。。

But I'm not the only TriDelta who made a silly mistake on the trains this week ^^

Yesterday afternoon, I left Heidi in Harajuku and agreed to meet back up with her in Shibuya in the evening. She ended up being an hour late to meet me, and here's why:

When trying to get back from Shinjuku to Ueno, she took the Yamanote line, which is correct. But she kept changing her mind about which way to go. She couldn't figure out if she should go left or right, so she kept getting off, riding in the opposite direction, then getting off again a little later to go the other way. She basically ended up going around Tokyo on Yamanote twice because she forgot it's a loop! Which I had specifically told her the day she arrived! ^^;;;;

So this week has not been a good week for TriDeltas on trains. But in our defense, Tokyo does have the most complicated public transportation system in the world.

And yet, I've been here nine months... ばか。。。