Donald Duck at Tokyo Disney Sea
When I went to Tokyo Disney Sea I had one goal and that was to get a picture of and with Donald Duck. Once my friends and I took our photo at the front of the park I was raring to go to find Donald. Well five minutes later we see this crowd of people around a character and it so happened to be Donald Duck. When I saw the outfit all I could think was “soooo adorable!!!” It was a big difference from the ones in Disneyland and California Adventure. My mission was accomplished in no time flat and I did not care what happened for the rest of the day. Although my friend told me it is hard to find Donald without a line or so soon. I guess that day were lucky enough to meet Donald.
Monkey Performance
There are somethings in Japan that are unexpected to me, but common to the Japanese. My friends and I went a shopping mall near our school and on the way to the shuttle bus there was this guy with his monkey doing a street performance. At this time my Japanese level was very low so I did not understand what the guy was saying. Still for the time we were standing there watching the tricks the monkey did was worth it. I think I picked up a few words from this performance. When I came back to the states to tell some of my other friends of this they told their own story involving a monkey street performance. It seems like you’ll find someone doing this at different shopping malls. I don’t know the odds, but it just added on to the random things that happened on a regular day.
Warning Posters
One day while waiting for the train to arrive was this interesting warning poster about staying behind the yellow line. The illustrations reflect the common tendencies of people living in Japan. I’m not going to lie, but during my stay in Japan I did all of those things while waiting for the train. It is important to stay behind the assigned line because those trains come in fast and create a gust that can cause you to lose your footing. When I saw this poster I could not take it seriously as it was more humorous than foreboding. Still this serves as an example of how things are explained in Japan. Even though it was funny to me it got the information across.
Hot Air Balloon Competition
In Tochigi Prefecture there is a Hot Air Balloon Competition in November that I had no idea about. It was a normal day when out of nowhere there were these hot air balloons landing in the nearby rice fields. My friends in the dorm didn’t know what was going on, but we decided to follow them and see them land after we took our pictures. A five minute bike ride away we saw the descent and landing of the hot air balloons. It was cool because it was unexpected. Afterwards we went to the convenience store for some snacks and researched why there were hot air balloons landing in Oyama. It turns out the competition started out from Utsunomiya, which is a neighboring town, and some of them ended up in Oyama. The competition is held annually so check it out if you are in Japan in November.
Artnia Cafe kupo!
For the Final Fantasy fans kupo! The best thing about Artnia Cafe, also known as Square Enix Cafe, is the themed food and drinks. This meal cost us 3000 yen, but it has three plates and the top one has macaroons and small cakes. I was hesitant to eat it because it looked too good to eat. Sadly my stomach was against me and demanded to be fed. Before our food arrived I was looking at what other people ordered. There was this parfait that another customer ordered with Cloud’s Buster sword sticking out and it was made of chocolate. It was a geek overload for me. Even the cocktails looked awesome, but it wasn’t even noon at that time and I didn’t want to start the day drinking. Seriously this place should take all my money because I want everything there.