I Love Disney Sea!

Tina, Steve, Lauren, Steve H and I all went to Tokyo Disney Sea together during our week away.

Tina was dying to go because she especially enjoyed Disneyland when we went last time, so this time she really wanted to experience Disney Sea. It was so cool and much better than Disneyland, I think. On our way to Disney Sea, we had to catch a monorail within the park to get there and this was the view we got from the window. These are all the people going into Disneyland. Disneyland was so much busier than Disney Sea that day, thank goodness, because we didn’t want to have to wait for three hours to go on one ride!

The cutest place in Disney Sea was The Little Mermaid section. There was a Little Mermaid palace and cute little rides for kids to go on, but of course, we went on them too! This is us in front of The Little Mermaid palace. Cute, huh?


Tina and I also got a photo with Pinocchio. He was so cute and he even held our hand!


Tina, Lauren and I got into the hair accessories for Disney Sea so that we looked the part.

We wanted to keep with the Disney theme, so Tina had cat’s ears (for Marie chan), Lauren had Minnie Mouse ears and I had a Minnie Mouse hat. I thought we looked really cool!

One of the coolest rides we went on was called the Tower of Terror.

On the ride, we had to sit in a seat and it took us up the haunted house to the very top like an elevator. Then it dropped all of a sudden really fast and it was an exciting feeling because we didn't expect it. I enjoyed that ride, so we went on it twice!

My favourite attraction at Disney Sea was the castle.

There were so many rooms you could go into and lots of windows you could look out of which had a great view of the park. It was almost like a maze and I felt like a little kid excitedly going from one room to the next in anticipation of what I was going to see next! It was so cool!

We also went on the carousel

(only because Tina insisted that she was going to go on it so we all thought we would go on it too!). It was a carousel based on the movie Aladin. I got to ride on a genie and I was really excited about that! It was fun! One of the workers on the ride would wave to me everytime I went past and it was fun because I felt like a little kid again!

Finally, the sun set and the fireworks began.

The night view of Disney Sea is spectacular because you can see the reflection of the buildings in the lake like a mirror. To top the night off, we all went for a ride in a gondola and it was so relaxing. I think the night time was the best time (and the most popular time) to go on the gondola because it is such a nice view.

I LOVE TOKYO DISNEY SEA!!!

Plastic Food Prices

Almost every restaurant in Japan has plastic food in the shop windows.

I think it’s a really good idea because then you know exactly what you are gonna get and exactly what it looks like. It is also good for foreigners like me because if there is something I don’t understand, I can just point to the food that I want to order.

Anyway, we were shopping in Tokyo the other day and I saw some plastic food for sale. I couldn’t believe the price of each piece of food. One piece of sushi cost 1600 yen which is around $16 and a bowl of food cost around 9000 yen which is $90. It looked so real and so yummy, but it was so expensive! So restaurants must invest a lot of money to get their plastic food made to put on display in their windows. I just didn’t realise how much they actually spent!

Shibuya

We made yet another trip to Tokyo the other week because we had a few public holidays in a row off work so we thought we would make use of the time and take the opportunity to go and visit Tokyo.

Shibuya would have to be the busiest place I have ever been to. The best view of the busiest intersection in the world would have to be in the Starbucks Café which overlooks the entire street. This café is so popular because everyone wants to look through the glass windows from above and do some people watching while they drink their coffee. Whoever thought of having a café there would be doing alright for business.

Tina, Lauren and I waited for about half an hour for a seat and it was worth the wait because we ended up getting a seat right by the window so we had the best view. These are some of the pictures of the view we got from Starbucks Café.

Later that night, we met up with Lexi (an ex-ALT who used to live in the same building as us who came from America). She now lives in Tokyo and she was gonna show us Shibuya's night life.

Well she took us to this club which had a mixture of trance music and R&B. It was a fun night, but the funniest part of the night was Lexi's friend who was so out-there. She was the type of person who would be perfect in the Big Brother house because she is so loud and confident and reminded me of someone like Paris Hilton. She kept me entertained all night! This is a photo of Lexi, Lauren, Tina and I all dolled up and ready to check out the nightlife of Shibuya!

Bowling Competition

Makoto, one of our Japanese friends had organised for a whole bunch of us to go bowling one night. We had a bowling competition with around fifty people.

We were all put into teams of four and the highest scoring team was the winner and got a prize. Well if any of you have seen my bowling skills before, you would know that I wouldn’t be an asset to the team!!! My best score for the night was 49 which I was pretty proud of! The funniest thing was that the worst score for the night was worse than mine which made me feel a little better about being so bad at bowling! At least I am not alone! It was lots of fun though and this picture of the bowling group shows everyone making a little “g” with their hands which stands for “gutter” because that’s what most people got throughout the night – including me!!!

Tokyo’s crazy fashion

There are so many people in Tokyo – more people than any other city in the world, in fact, so naturally, they are all different. They think differently, act differently and dress differently! These are some of the amazing and out-there fashions that you would only see in a place like Tokyo!

This shop is designed for people who enjoy dressing up in pretty dresses.


They look like porcelain dolls when you see them in the streets with their make-up and hair all done nicely.


An alternative bleach-blonde-haired guy hanging out on the steps in front of Shinjuku Station.


There are plenty of sexy outfits here to choose from – if that’s your thing!


Men in suits = hosts!


Even Disney Sea had many interesting fashions. We couldn’t believe how much people liked to dress up to go to a theme park. Some of their shoes would have been so uncomfortable to walk in all day…OUCH!!!

A cute little girl dressed as a fairy.


Not the sort of outfit I would choose to hang out in Disney Sea, but I think she pulls it off pretty well!


I love this playing cards dress!


I wanted to capture the essence of fashion in Tokyo, but there are so many different kinds of fashions that it would take months to get good photographs of all the different types of fashion. This is just a taste of what I saw. Nothing like what you would find in Australia, that's for sure!

Shirononishi Community Centre Party

The ladies who run the Shirononishi Community Centre had organised a party for all the ALT’s who live in our building on the weekend.

It was so that the new American English teachers could get to meet different people in the community. The locals gave us yukatas to keep as a present. It was really cool of them to organise that for us. They also had a little magic show for us to watch too. It was lots of fun, but the part that made it the most fun was one of the ALT’s son’s was getting really excited about watching the show and he was so impressed by all the magic tricks! Everyone thought he was really cute!

Sports Day

Sports Day is a big thing in Junior High Schools in Japan. Most schools tend to have their Sports Day on the same day which is on a weekend so that the students’ parents can attend. So I worked on Saturday (Sports Day rehearsal) and Sunday (the actual day).

I was so glad I got to see Sports Day in a different country to see how they hold their days. It is completely different to the Sports Days I remember having at school and the ones I organised as a teacher.


The ones in Australia are all about track’n’field events including high jump, long jump, shot put, javelin, sprints, relays, triple jump, etc.


In Japan, they have only running events and then the rest of the time they do a lot of marching, dancing and formal ceremonies. The day ran very smoothly and was very well organised and there were so many practises that the students knew exactly what to do and where to go for each event.


Once the day was over, I felt really tired and exhausted from being in the hot sun all day, taking lots of photos. It was worth it though to be able to experience a Japanese traditional Sports Day!


Sports Day is a big thing in Junior High Schools in Japan. Most schools tend to have their Sports Day on the same day which is on a weekend so that the students’ parents can attend. So I worked on Saturday (Sports Day rehearsal) and Sunday (the actual day).

I was so glad I got to see Sports Day in a different country to see how they hold their days. It is completely different to the Sports Days I remember having at school and the ones I organised as a teacher.


The ones in Australia are all about track’n’field events including high jump, long jump, shot put, javelin, sprints, relays, triple jump, etc. In Japan, they have only running events and then the rest of the time they do a lot of marching, dancing and formal ceremonies. The day ran very smoothly and was very well organised and there were so many practises that the students knew exactly what to do and where to go for each event.

Towards the end of the day, I got to participate in a relay. I had to crawl in a cardboard box that was hollow on either end. It was really tiring and it seemed like it was going on forever while I was in there, but I didn't really have that far to travel. It was really fun and I was glad that I got to be apart of it!

Once the day was over, I felt really tired and exhausted from being in the hot sun all day, taking lots of photos. It was worth it though to be able to experience a Japanese traditional Sports Day!