Friday: The whole English department went out to dinner. We ate “shabu shabu” style (I will explain in a minute). Of course I forgot my camera, but I think Carly took a picture, so I will try to get that from her and post it later. We had our own separate room with four tables I think and there were probably 15-20 people or so that came. Before we went into the room with our tables we all had to take off our shoes. Inside we sat on these cushion benches around the tables. We all had to draw numbers and sit with random people, so we could all get to know each other. I ended up sitting by three of the people I knew and had worked with before, so that was nice, but also go to meet a few new people as well. Now, let me explain this “shabu shabu”. At each table there were one or two burners in the tables. The waitress came and put a big pot of broth on top of the burners and turned it on so it started to boil. Then she added some vegetables and mushrooms and lots of other things like that. After that she brought out these big trays of thinly sliced meats like beef and pork. What you do is pick up the meat with your chopsticks and dip it into the boiling hot water. Then you say “shabu shabu” as you move the meat around. It only takes about 20 seconds for it to get cooked since it’s so thin and the water is so hot. It was really fun and really good! After our meal they brought us out three tiny scoops of ice cream: strawberry, chocolate, and green tea. It was the perfect ending to a great meal.
This past weekend was "Golden week." This refers to the four holidays in a row that are celebrated in Japan. They are as follow:
April 29-Emperor's Birthday
May 3- Constitution Memorial Day
May 4-Nature Day
May 5-Children's Day
We had Saturday, Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday off of work. Saturday I took the day to just relax. I think the most I did was run to the grocery store. The rest of Golden Week was quite busy!
Sunday: I rode the train across Tokyo to Harajuku. The reason was because I wanted to get some pictures of the Harajuku girls. For those of you that don't know, in Japan there are these girls (and some boys, but I think mostly girls) that dress up in wild fashion or as comic book characters and stand around by the Meiji Shrine on Sunday afternoons. They look pretty crazy, but it's pretty cool. It was fun to walk around and see all their costumes. I got some pretty good pictures. On my way back home I stopped by SUBWAY! It was so delicious!
Subway where I ate in Harajuku. I've missed it!
Harajuku girls
Harajuku girls
Harajuku girlsTuesday: Carly, Krysta, and I left our apartments at 6:15 in the morning! I think I got about 5 1/2 hours of sleep the night before, but I was pumped and ready to get to Disneyland. It was about an hour and a half long train ride to get there, but it was well worth it. We met Carly's friend Yoku (who is Japanese) at the park and went in. People were already lined up at 7:50 when we got there. Thankfully since we had our tickets we got through the lined pretty quickly. The day was filled with roller coasters, lots of window shopping, and some really good food. My favorite roller coaster by far was Space Mountain. It was so cool because you’re riding around in the dark with only the “stars” up above you for light. We also went on this one ride through a haunted mansion. The funniest part was that I realized when we got in there that the ghost story was going to be told in Japanese. I didn’t understand a word of it, but it sure was amusing.
One thing I noticed at Disneyland was that first of all, girls wore high heels! I would never in a million years wear those uncomfortable shoes to go walk around a theme park. I’m pretty sure when I was in Disneyland in California a few years ago everyone was wearing either flip-flops or tennis shoes. I guess this just proves how much more fashion conscious the Japanese are vs. Americans. Another thing I noticed was that a lot of the teenage Japanese girls (and boys) thought it was cute to wear little mickey mouse ears or cat ears on their heads. It really just made me laugh!
Around 4:00 we ate lunch/early dinner at the Queen of Hearts Banquet Hall. I had a delicious meal of some seafood. After that Carly and Yoko wanted to stay longer, but Krysta and I had both already been to Disneyland before, so we left a little early. All in all it was a fun time!
Disney land: This ride was "It's a small world after all." It was really obnoxious. We rode around in a boat and looked at these creepy little statues singing.
Bottom of the roller coast
Back: Carly (left) and Krysta (right)Front: Yoko (left) and me (right)
Carly, Me and Krysta in front of the castle.
1 comment:
I hated Space Mountain when I went on it back in 1980 in California. It scared me! And It's a Small World is really a ride for children, no wonder you didn't like it. I'm pretty sure I liked it though,more my style. Sounds like some fun times.
Cheryl
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