Friday November 14, 1997: 8pm
Ughughugh - so tired. We decided to meet in Tachikawa at **6:45am** tomorrow morning, to get to Disneyland, so I'm a little peeved. Just a little - Saturday. Alarm at 6. Oi yoi yoi.
Saturday November 15, 1997: 11pm
Disneyland. 6:45 Tachikawa. Alarm didn't go off. Perfect. Made it there anyway. We wre at D.L. by 8:30 and immediately overwhelmed by crowds as we got off the train... oh oh. See, we chose a Saturday (bad idea), but we chose a Saturday that kids are in school (good idea) (kida go to school every second Saturday here), so we were hoping that it would be less crowded...?? Well, we were hoping.
So we (Gupta-san, Girish-san and I - the "foreigner Banff team") buy an all-day passport ticket (Y5,200 = $60) and get our maps, etc.. and we're in D.L.!
First of all, it's worthy to mention that currently D.L. is celebrating Christmas, with "Disneyland Christmas Fantasy", and that means puh-lenty of Xmas music, Xmas decorations, ho-ho-ho's, etc etc. I was pretty sure I'd be Xmassed-out by the end of the day...
So first stop was "Western Town", which, as the name suggests, quite ressembles the Old West. Kinda funny. The music was very.. harmonic-cy. Christmas + harmonica... what a combo! So we go to "Thunder Mountain", a pretty good roller coaster - and only a 15 minute line up! Woah! Once off that, we went to Tom Sawyer's Island, by raft of course, and walked around there.. very nice greenery.. and ridges and rocks and all that stuff - but no rides. So we left the island and headed on to Critter Land - to Splash Mountain. Come on, *everyone* has heard of Splash Mountain, right? Well, *I* had, so I said right away "Ok, I'm not sitting in the front!" - but as I was getting into the coaster car (35 mins later), Gupta-san goes.. "Hey, isn't this the front?" oh yeeeeah.. well, so my face got pretty wet, but amazingly, that was it. And, quite a good ride to boot.
Well, I'm not going to go through every detail of the day, so I'll get right to it. My fav rides would have to be Space Mountain an Star Tours - very cool. Space Mountain was neat because everything was space! Neat. Loved it. And Star Tours.. well, I was on a star fleet trooper, so how could it be bad!
We also saw 3 parades (one being a Christmas parade) and well, they sure go all-out on parades! And we also watched their Christmas Fantasy show, which was really good - especially neat because I've never heard "I've been dreaming of a white Christmas" or "Jingle Bells" sung in Japanese before... neither had I heard "It's a Small World After All" in Japanese, for that matter. Funny.
So it was quite a fun day - we left at 8:30, so 12 hours, which was enough, I think. My feet were tired anyway, and I guess I just don't find D.L. as fascninating as when I was 8. That's fine with me. Roller coasters though - that's another matter!!
And as a sidenote, "Zipedee doo dah" really *is* a cheerful song!
Sunday November 16, 1997: 9:30am
On the train to Nikko now. Can't wait! I think the trees should be in prime colour.. oo oo ooo! And it's not sunny at all, which actually suits me perfectly because it reminds me so much of a Canadian autumn day! This makes up for having to get up at 6:30...
1:30pm
So here I am, perched on a rock at the bottom of Jakko Falls. They're not Niagara, but quite nice. Actually, I'm the only one here - I attribute that to the 2km upward hike along backroads (ie. no tour buses would go this way) so I feel nice and peaceful. These falls are in the middle of forest country, which is what I've been hiking through for 2 or 3 hours. Quite nice. The first thing I did when I got to the Nikko station was to go to the info counter and ask if the leaves were still changing colours - a question at which the guy started to laugh (bad sign) and went "leaves changing?! Ha hahahaha! Long finished! Probably 2 or 3 weeks ago!" Dammit.
But, to be fair, I've seen my share of stunning trees anyway, so I'm quite happy. And now I know for the next time I'm in Japan, around the Nikko area, in autumn.. uh.. well, who knows, it may happen!
I'm starting to get chilly (having taken off my sweater half-way up the hike) so I'd better get motoring. Actually, I may have to go home by the time I get to the station.. we'll see.
Monday November 17, 1997: 10pm
Rainy rainy rainy! Actually, it's nice to have some rain to give that autumn feeling.. ooo, I told Hirabayashi-san and Hidaka-san that Sariya [ed note: that's my sister] would be arriving on Dec 3rd to visit so they told me that I had to bring her into work. I'm sure she'll love that! But my goodness, that's less than 3 weeks away! I hope she brings candy with her..
Tuesday November 18, 1997: 8:30am
Wow it is so clear out today. Mt. Fuji and the pink clouds around it seemed as close as the tree down the road. Wow. Oh, and the mist was just craaazy by the river - I couldn't even see more than 10m ahead of me. I was thinking it would be the perfect scene for a good old-fashioned murder...
9pm
Today we had a fire drill at work! Weird eh. The siren (not a bell - a siren) rang at 11:45, but everyone ignored it for at least 3 minutes whiel they kept on working
Wednesday November 19, 1997: 10pm
Well, there was frost today for the first time and brrrr! it was cooler than yesterday! Anyways, tonight it was calligraphy - we spent an extra long time talking at the start. And then when we moved into the classroom, sensei explained to me *in length* what I would be writing today. Well, that's because I'm going to be writing the same thing for the next month or so... why? Well, because of "kakizou" - the first calligraphy of the new year. Every Japanese person (I checked this - she *meant* EVERY Japanese person) writes a calligraphy within the first few days of the new year. But since this is a really important thing, many Japanese start practicing way ahead of time. Like, now.
What do they write? Well, there are lots of different things, but they all tend to be good omens for the new year. Such as... "first laugh" or "bright Mt. Fuji" or just "new year" - whatever. Ok, so mine was "shinshun kisshou" - which means New Spring's good luck. But "spring" here - although it usually means the season spring, in this case it means the beginning of the new year. Well, "new spring" does. Don't ask me why, I just put it down as "one of those Japanese things". Yeah.
I'm going to write this one over and over again, and Sensei said that she may send my best one into the textbook publisher and if they think it's good enough, they'll put it in next year's textbook! But, I think that's just a *tad* optimistic! (just a tad)
I wrote for a long time tonight though and by my last sheet my biceps were just killing me. My biceps! Straaange.
Thursdayt November 20, 1997
Candy!! I got candy in the mail! This is so exciting, I think it calls for a celebration.. eating the stuff!
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