Ohhhh... Just a bit longer

Well... we had a little less time in Hiroshima than we thought. We realized that we didn't quite set up the time well enough to get in everything that we wanted to do and still have time to blog sooo.... now we're rushing around trying to get ready so we can make it to Peace Memorial Park this morning (on our last day in Hiroshima). We'll get blogs ready at the airport and post them if we can... otherwise, we'll have to finish up stateside. See you soon!

lil' update for now....

Hey, it's Ed. We've been exploring Okayama.....I'll report on our first day, Fawn the next, but right now....it's 9:05 am Friday morning and we're packing to head to Hiroshima. We'll have more time to blog in detail then. We have to catch a bullet train soon. Just to let you know what's in store... Wed was Ed goes to Joypolis day! Thurs was Fawn goes to historic cultural Okayama district day! Now it's on to figuring out how to get 6+ bags through the train stations to the hotel. More later...Peace out!

Osaka in a nutshell.

Hi y'all. Ed here again. My turn to blog about our newest venture: Osaka.

Well, Osaka is a little less hustle and bustle than Tokyo. Our first night here I was really congested and felt pretty under the weather. We took a bullet train here and unfortunately had to get a car in the hazy smoking car of the bullet train. I think it messed my sinuses up a bit. Also, my allergy meds ran out so Osaka's climate and air messed me up pretty good.


Osaka. We checked into our 5 star hotel. It's cool but very compact. We got this cool skeleton keys to open our door with. The vending machines are really expensive here. The Tv channels suck....no anime....Shinigawa had anime on every night at 9:30pm sharp. The nearby area.....cool. There was a mall called hep 5 that has a huge ferris wheel in it. Also....a Sega Joypolis!. Then there's Namco City, which is the arcade equivelent of Namjatown. It has a Gyoza floor where we ate dinner at tonight. Gyoza is fried Potstickers. We had a great time there. Then we played medal games, which is just token casino games but boy are they addictive. Earlier tonight we went to Namba preficture of Osaka which is a shopping district similar to Akihabara. It has a 3 floor gundam store, a two floor robot heroes store, a 2 floor gashapon store, a retro games store or two, and so on. We had a great time there too.



Last but not least, we went to Lala port Mall in Koshien. Long story short, it's where Sega Sonic Town is. A glorified Sonic Arcade but the only one in existence. I loved it. I took a video of it inside and out, the only arcade I've extensively documented here and we've been in a lot of arcades. Anywho, tomorrow it's off to Okayama. More to follow! -Ed

Disney Adventures, Part II

After our not so exciting experience on Saturday, we were a little hesitant for our Sunday trip to Tokyo Disney Sea. Still we were excited for the possibility of experiencing something new and we prepared ourselves for the crowds and the lines. We were, however, looking forward to the popcorn flavors that awaited us. We set our alarm for early so we could get a head start on the crowd... but as Murphy is our constant companion, we were of course delayed. Because Sunday night would be our last night in the Shinagawa Prince Crown Hotel, we needed to arrange for the majority of our baggage to be shipped... so we spent the first part of our morning packing up. In the end, we ended up getting to Tokyo Disney Sea at the same time as the previous day... For those that know me (Fawn) this is my lot in life...

To get to the entrance of Tokyo Sea Disney, we had to board (and pay for) the Disney Park Tram. The tram is a subway look alike, all the way from it's floor heaters and handles for standing passengers, with a unique Disney twist (of course). Everything was in the shape of Mickey! (Surprised?) We quickly settled into our seats with the anticipation growing... shortly after we boarded two youngish Japanese girls (12-13 years) sat down next to us. One of them was very inquisitive. She began the trip by just eying us, and before long she was visibly leaning over and staring at our faces, our clothing, our feet, and the Disney garb we were already wearing. Finally near the end of our very short trip, she and her friend asked Ed if we were Americans (apparently we were very obvious!). He said that during the examination period she had been exclaiming over our blue eyes with her friend. They then told him that he was very nice and they liked our blue eyes. At that moment we arrived and as we got off the train with our new friends waving goodbye to us enthusiastically.

DisneySea was more than we could have ever imagined! Right off we knew we were entering something new. Overall the park was amazingly well-themed and conceived. We had such a good time! The park even included two of our favorite rides from Anaheim Disneyland, but with their very own Japan flavor... and now we like them even better than the US version!

The day starts out at the DisneySea AquaSphere which is a beautiful art piece with all of the favorite Disney characters pouring water into a fountain in the middle of which spins a globe. We then traveled on through the Mediterranean Harbor where all of the big shops are located... From there we headed to the American Waterfront. Here we found a ridiculously long line for a show called Big Band Beat... up until this point we were wondering where all the people were. Even with this lengthy line, there just seemed to be a lot less people in DisneySea. The American Waterfront introduced us to Strawberry Popcorn (imagine popcorn flavored like Frankenberry cereal) and housed The Tower of Terror... one of our favorite rides in the US and even more so with the Japan version. The story behind this ride is about the hotel's owner, Harrison Hightower III, a great adventurer who took one too many artifacts. He acquires a little god statue of Shiriki Utundu who gets loose and causes him to fall to his death in the elevator of the hotel... We love the little god statue angle and they did some phenomenal special effects in the story set up where they actually make the little statue disappear in front of your eyes. We even got video of this and I still can't figure out how its done. We were fortunate enough to sneak a second trip in with this very popular ride!

Ed's favorite areas of the park were called Port Discovery and Mysterious Island... both of which had these really dark, nautical themes.

Port Discovery was cool to look at, but the only major ride was merely ok...StormRider was our least favorite. It was the only simulation ride in the park. It did have the feel of turbulence down though! And this is also where we finally broke down and tried the chocolate popcorn... even though it smelled awful the taste was heavenly! It was like Count Chocula cereal! At one point we had both the Strawberry and the Chocolate going... because Ed had to buy one of the collapsible popcorn containers. By the end of the day the variety of popcorn containers had reached a total of 26. Ed had such popcorn container envy! Other popcorn flavors offered (and passed on) included black pepper and sea salt.

Mysterious Island was hands down the coolest part of the park. Located inside a series of cave entrances, the whole area felt like it was hidden in the middle of the mountains. It had two of the coolest rides, Journey to the Center of the Earth and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. With the recent movie we didn't have very high hopes for this ride, but it was actually really cool. We waited for 60 minutes for the ride and the whole time we felt like we were in this huge underground cavern. At the end of the line we got in this really cool elevator that makes you feel like you're going even deeper below ground. Of course it's just a little mini-ride so you don't mind waiting in line again... finally you board these cool looking cars and drive at a fairly slow places into the different underground levels... as you get deeper it gets scarier and finally there's this really scary caterpillar monster and suddenly your car shoots forward into the cave and then it shoots out into the open air over this cool volcano. And then as soon as it starts... its over. Still it's a really cool ride... we went on it twice (with very little wait on the second trip).

We really didn't know what to expect with 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea... we were really afraid it would be like the submarine ride at Disneyland, but it was really neat! After another 60 minute wait, we were boarded into little individual submarine ships with three large bubble windows (person sized not porthole) and benches where only two people sit... so only six people tops per little submarine (not 25 like Disneyland)... and the rest of the ride, well lets just say the replication of ocean life was seriously cool. Even the huge squid attacking was well done. At certain parts it even had a little light you could direct to look at things. We really enjoyed this ride and rode it twice too.... Our first time only one of the seats aside from ours was filled and on the second trip it was just us (and no wait in line).

And still there's more... areas that were cool but we didn't spend much time were Mermaid Lagoon and Arabian Coast. Both were very well-themed, but catered more to the shoppers and the kiddies. Mermaid Lagoon was almost a perfect replica of the under sea world in the Little Mermaid and even had an indoor kiddie park with this really neat under the sea feel... and of course it played "Under the Sea" theme music. We really enjoyed taking pictures of this area because it was so visually stunning.

Finally, we spent a bit of time in the Lost River Delta. This was the Mexico/South American area where of course we found the Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull ride. This of course was quite a popular ride so we fast passed it and in the meantime took a ride on the roller coaster that boasted of a 360 degree loop (ooooo... ahhhhh!). We waited 30 minutes in the rain for this ride and it was seriously the tamest roller coaster I've ever ridden. Our disappointment might have been more in this ride if not for the theming and the awesome effects in the front of the ride where fire burns in a large fountain. Also we met up with our friends from earlier in the day and they recognized us and greeted us with very enthusiastic smiles and waves and a shouts of "hi"! They were really very sweet and very comical with their excitement at meeting the Americans.

This actually brings up something else... where Tokyo Disneyland had been so packed with people that we kind of blended, DisneySea was empty enough that we stuck out. Especially with Ed's Stitch hat... Stitch is VERY popular here, plus this hat is so outrageous and hardly anyone has one. People pointed and laughed all day at his hat. And if it wasn't his hat getting the attention was me and my blond hair. At one point we saw a little girl point me out to her dad and the next thing I know I've become a part of some one's home video. Sheesh! We are definitely not used to all of the pointing, staring and attention... so you can understand why we so thoroughly enjoyed the pleasure our mere presence seemed to bring our two young friends. Anyway... I digress...

Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull was AWESOME!!! Sooooo much better than the movie and so much better than the Anaheim ride. There are definitely some similarities in how it's all put together, but the little additions and differences were just so well done. At one point your car reaches this idol that blows a fire ball at you... it is truly fantastic and so real looking. We got video of this too and it looks cool even on the video! We rode this one twice too.

Even with the rain for most of the day our spirits were not dampened. The lines were long to begin with and our dogs were tired by the end of the day but we stayed in the park until almost 9:45pm (park closed at 10:00pm). We were able to ride all of our favorite rides twice, and we even saw the volcano erupt. As we walked out of the park, we were so wrapped up in the magic of the day that we actually exited without getting our stuff out of our locker. We had to rush back and communicate as best as possible that our brains were missing to get back into the park. Fortunately they understood and all was well. We returned to our hotel with renewed faith in the magic of Disney.

Tomorrow we'll catch up with a blog on Osaka (where we currently are) and the wonders of Japanese food... that which we've been brave enough to try. It's after midnight there and Ed's already snoring, and I'm beat. Hope all is well in the states. Goodnight!

Disney Adventures, Part I

Saturday started off our Tokyo Disney experience with Tokyo Disneyland. We were not prepared for how the day unfolded. It took us three tries just to get out of our room that morning. This was the first day we were going somewhere that Ed hadn't been. I was already in a bad mood because it was raining and I'd had to change out of my new boots (which I hadn't worn yet). We finally got to Tokyo Disneyland around 10:30am. Our first impression was the one that would stay with us all day... it's just a smaller version of Anaheim. And it was too! In a fairly small footprint, they crammed as many of the Anaheim rides in as possible... all the same, but still slightly different. We noticed right off how clean every thing was. With as much popcorn that is sold in the park (I'll talk about that in a minute) you'd expect to find little kernals all over the place, but there were almost none!

We quickly learned... Rain is not a deterrent. The mass number of people swarming the park was overwhelming. I can honestly say that I have never seen so many people in one place at one time!Lines were easily two hours long. We immediately got a fast pass for the haunted house ride and then got something to eat. We used this time to get over my dissappointment and form a plan of attack for the day. After eating and deciding where we were going we finally started to have a little fun. Although the lines were long, they moved faster than any US lines I had ever stood in.

Throughout the day we were stared at by lots of little kids, but the crowds were big enough that we fit in... kind of... Ed towered, I blended. We bought hats, as is our tradition, and tried really hard to make the most of the day. As we walked through the park, we noticed people carrying and eating popcorn out of various containers. By the end of the day we had counted 18 different varieties of containers. There were popcorn venders throughout the park and the lines were long for popcorn as well. After purusing the selection of containers to buy (Ed desperately wanted a Halloween container, but as it was Christmas in the Park, no Halloween items were available), we selected ours and began to sample the popcorn. The different flavors offered throughout the park were Carmel, Salted, Chocolate (which smelled aweful!), Soda, Curry, and Honey. We started with the standard caramel corn, but were quickly tempted by the honey (and it was yummy!), and then we got daring and tried the Soda (which really wasn't great)... needless to say we got more honey.

As we walked through the park we had to develop a strategy to travel around the parades... there were at least three that day. And there are some diehard parade fanatics who popped a squat as soon as they were allowed. Most even brought little matts to sit on.

Then our day was over. In spite of the crowds and rain, we'd managed to ride all of the rides we wanted, and even made it on the Haunted House ride twice! All in all, we prefer the Anaheim Disneyland, but it was interesting to notice the little differences. Plus we loved the popcorn thing!

2 Day Update: Shibuya, Nakano, & Ikkekeburo!!!

Hey all! Ed here! Sorry for the late update but we've been getting back to the hotel really late and just too tired to post much. So here it is at 12:22am Saturday morning....Fawn's asleep behind me and I'm doing a recap of the passed two days. On Thursday, we went to Shibuya. It's a crazy mecca of Times Square like buildings and shopping. The shopping stores are so catered to a specific, that one we went in actually only had female restrooms. Fawn found her boots. She is happy now. She also started her sock collection. We wandered and wandered until we found Mandarake, an awesome japan toy/manga/game store.

By the way, Blogger.com blows for uploading so I'm consolidating pics for now. Maybe we'll try movies again later.

Anyways, Shibuya wore us out on the ol' shopping in the city vibe so we retired to the hotel early to see what was nearby. We kept seeing all these adds for "Aqua Stadium" and decided to see what that was all about.

It's literally connected to our hotel.....as it is we have a bowling alley, arcade, food court, shopping mall, and movie theater in the hotel. Anyway, Aqua Stadium is an amusement park we found out. The Aquarium is on par with Marine World, complete with Dolphin arena, and a sea lion room. We saw penguins, fish for days, there's a shark underwater tube walkthrough and a carousel up front. There's a full size pirate ship that sways both ways like "The Revolution" from "Great America". It's big!! Then there's the virtual ride 3d movie simulator....we watched it. It was a crappy 1990's Computer Graphics version of the Alice and Wonderland....just plain weird. The highlight of Aqua Stadium was the full on "Space Mountain" type rollercoaster that loop d loops and is themed after the anime: "Galaxy express 999". You go inside space stations and corridors that rival Disneyland's "Star Tours" and check out glass exhibits of the various characters of "GE999" Very "Star Trek Experience at Las Vegas". Then japanese people guide you into another space room and two android animatronic conductors talk to you in japanese. Then you enter another room and watch an 8-10 minute Computer Graphics ride simulator/theater short of Galaxy Express 999 (Rather good and fairly recent level of quality graphics.) We did'nt know anything about GE999 but are fans now. Then the short ends and you walk into what looks like a train station but has moving seats ala rollercoaster style. There's lights everywhere and the floors are lithographs of futuristic cityscapes. You get in the rollercoaster and go on a pretty decent "Space mountain" ripoff.... Space Mountain's still better but the presentation before the ride is still great for what it actually is. So Fawn noticed they used dangling christmas lights in the coaster part but otherwise it was pretty cool for being essentially in our hotel.....So that was Thursday.

Okay, Friday... I'm getting tired so I'll just touch the key points. Nakano. We went there to see the shopping district that is setup like an inside outdoor market. See bottom left pic. It's called Sun Plaza. We shopped there. Fawn bought some dresses, more socks, and a backpack. Then we went to Nakano Broadway, which is five stories of consignment toys, figures, games, manga, etc. It took us til' about 3pm to get through it all. We got there about 11am.

We had lunch at a semi traditional japanese resturaunt. We had to sit with an elderly japanese couple. (space is used pretty efficiently) It was good though and people respect other's privacy here. We could've had mcdonalds, see pic bottom right, they have neat japanese happy meal toys, Cool!! Oh we'll get one before we come back.

Okay so onto Ikkekeburo....

Oh boy! Blogger.com frose up....ok whatever, back to Ikkekeburro. It's yet another shopping district with a mall about the size of.....oh I dunno, 6 of our local malls. It's called Sunshine City. Inside Sunshine City is a two story amusement park made by Namco called Namjatown. It's a weird as hell park with a huge ice cream museum, a potsticker museum, a haunted section where you can digitally hunt ghosts with an Lcd gigercounter toy, (we did this) A health massage park section....with moniors you stick your face in for brain massaging (not making this up) and a 1920's section where you shoot bug spray at mosquito's using light guns while you ride motorized pigs (we did this too.) All around this park there are little interactive bits you seek out too, like getting a detective Conan (anime people will get the reference) visa and look throughout the park for visa stamps. Then there's also a part where you rent a kitty statue-bot-thingy and attach it to various surfaces for robotic interactivity. It gives you a bunch of computerized info in japanese and I'm pretty sure we'd have enjoyed it more if we fluently spoke and understood the language. Theeeen, there's a walk through a military zone where you wear a headset with an audio player telling you where to find the different clues to stop the G-bomb....whatever that was. Anyways, the whole thing's mascot is a cat that wears clothes simlilar to the white rabbit from "Alice in Wonderland", complete with pocketwatch. Okay...so Namjatown ROCKS!!!

Then we went to another Toys' R Us and I sang a Subway chime to a clerk to find a musical chime subway keychain. Very odd interesting moment that was....he called his supervisor about me....yeah.

So that was the passed 2 days in along nutshell. Tomorrow is Disneyland Tokyo, followed by Tokyo Disney on Sunday. Epect another update after that. Peace out until then.

The Wonders of Akihabara

We've just gotten back to our hotel from Akihabara - The Electric City... and it fulfilled all of the bright lights, big city expectations I (Fawn) had for Tokyo. It was clearly Ed heaven. In fact, as I write this Ed is rummaging through the days treasures for all of the anime wonders he picked up. We spent loads of money on arcades, poured over a bunch of used video games, and climbed stairway after stairway to multiple floors of nothing but toys.

We started our day once again by getting on the Japan Rail. An aside here... the public transportation here is phenomenal. The sheer number of rail lines that come together in one station is overwhelming. Trying to understand the maps is a little scary, but once you figure out the main lines it's fairly simple to get around... and everyone is SOOOO polite! It's really very nice and too bad the US can't develop their transportation systems more like this. I might never drive again if this was available to me.

Anyway... as soon as we exited the rail station in Akihabara, Ed saw it... Club Sega. Six stories of arcade games made by Sega, Ed's all-time favorite video game developer. Unlike Sega Joypolis (where we were yesterday) Club Sega actually had Sonic stuff, and Ed was immediately excited. Right away he started buying cards for the different games... he was very excited. It was here that he played the new Street Fighter and the Gundam pod game... although this caused him a bit of motion sickness.

We spent all afternoon going from one store to the next. Sometimes it was a game store... sometimes a toy store, and sometimes an arcade... always it was lots of fun to see Ed's excitement or help him hunt down the Yoko figure or spear girl he wanted to buy. We ate lunch at Kentucky Fried where all of the other Americans (all five of us) also stopped to eat... Ed and I are still working on our willingness to venture into more traditional Japanese restaurants. It was here we saw today's "engrish"... see adjacent photo.

As the day wore on, the sun set and the lights came on. Akihabara is really very beautiful at night. Essentially we spent our whole day traveling up and down (both vertically and horizontally) a five block stretch. We were truly overstimulated by all of the colors and stuff. Some stores just had floor after floor of toys that came from Gashapon machines (the little toys that come in plastic bubbles). After awhile your eyes just stopped focusing. Finally, just as our eyes had tired, our feet also began to tire and we returned to our hotel.

Tomorrow we're off to Shibuya where I hope to find a pair of boots bigger than a 6.5... but so far, my feet are officially giant compared to the women of Japan...