03/24/2019
This week was a lot of fun! On Wednesday, I finished analyzing data for the first portion of the project that I am working on. It ended up being 80 pages! There were 104 graphs, so that probably took up a majority of the space. I am excited and nervous because this means I get to move onto the next section of research. Thursday was a national holiday in Japan (for the equinox). They have many more holidays than the American employee has, but they also only get maybe one vacation day per month (and I am not sure you can collect days). Many of the people I work with will stay until 8 or 9 pm EVERY night. I am so glad that is not the case for interns. I know many European countries think that Americans work too hard, but this is a whole different level that I would never want to do. I spent my holiday by cleaning my apartment and completing a couple loads of laundry. I also went on a run and read my WWII book for an hour or two before attending life group. It was a much needed relaxing and decompressing day! I actually asked for Friday off, because my tutor suggested so. She said that interns can ask for one day off a month also, and since we already had Thursday off, we could just make it a long weekend!
My supervisor approved my request, so Terry, Chiou, and Yota (Chiou's Boyfriend) all went to Universal Studios Japan (USJ). USJ is located in Osaka, and was around an hour and 20 minute commute from where I live in Kizugawa-Shi. It was perfect weather when we left, around 65 degrees! It went down to maybe 45-50 degrees later in the evening, and was very windy all day. We departed around 7:30 in the morning, taking 4 different trains to arrive at USJ in Osaka. Once we arrived, we had a 10 minute walk prior to entering the park. The park is really only split into 6 parts; Minion Park, Universal Wonderland Snoopy, Sesame Street, Hello Kitty), the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, Jurassic Park, America (Hollywood, New York, San Francisco) and Jaws. I think it is a lot smaller than parks in the United States, but maybe it just felt that way. We went to Minion Park first and rode an attraction there. We waited in line for about two and a half hours. It was basically a roller coaster seat that moved based on a video that was played in front of you, so it wasn't as fun as many of the rides in America. However, there was a really nice Japanese guy that spoke English to me! It was a relief because if he didn't explain what was going on, I would have had no idea. I honestly probably wouldn't want to ride it ever again though. I understand that Japanese land is SUPER expensive so it may be difficult to build such large attractions, but I really do enjoy those more.
Once we were off the ride, it was already 12 pm so we decided to grab a quick lunch at a New York Style Pizza restaurant. I explained to everyone the difference between Chicago and New York style pizza because they were curious and had no idea! Yota tried to play one of the amusement park games that are nearly impossible to win. I think he wanted to win Chiou a Snoopy stuffed animal, but was unsuccessful in doing so. It was a cute gesture though! It reminded me of the time I won a dog toy for Alex at The Great Darke County Fair in Skeeball and that made me smile. After giving up on winning a Snoopy, we headed toward the Wizarding World of Harry Potter because we knew the lines would be long. Once we got there, we realized that we had to get a ticket to enter. They only let a limited number of people enter during specific times to ensure that it doesn't get overcrowded because it is so popular. After getting our entering ticket, we realized we had to wait for an hour and a half. We had some time to kill, so we decided to see if there was anything to do in Universal Wonderland. It was definitely intended for little children and we would have looked ridiculous trying to get on any of the child sized rides in that park. They are much more into Sesame Street than I would have ever thought. It is not so popular in America anymore, but in Japan, there are girls my age walking around with big bird and elmo hats EVERYWHERE.
After realizing there was nothing we could do in Universal Wonderland, we decided to go to the America Park and go to the Terminator Attraction. It was around a 45 minute wait, which was nothing compared to everything else in USJ. Honestly, it was dreadful. For one thing, there were 0 English subtitles so I had no idea what was happening. For another, I have never seen Terminator so I was completely clueless as to what was going on. We basically all crowded into a room (like 150 people) and listened to this Japanese lady scream about things like a crazy lady and then they directed us into a movie theater area where there were 6 creepy looking robots with machine guns (they weren't real, don't worry. Guns are practically illegal in Japan). We sat down and it was a mix of a movie and the screaming lady and some other actors trying to get away from the robots. The only thing that really happened was that the movie seats were raised up and dropped when you weren't expecting it. Terry said he fell asleep and the chair drop woke him up. I laughed so hard. FINALLY, we were able to enter the Wizarding World. It looked so cool when we first entered! They had Hogsmeade and Hogwarts, along with the first car of the Hogwarts Express. The area was definitely smaller than I expected, but was still impressive. I didn't try butterbeer because there was only one line and was literally way too long. I hope that I can go to the one in the USA because I think it will be better and easier to get butterbeer. We walked through the Castle, which was again smaller than I expected (Everything is smaller in Japan, like everything is bigger in Texas but opposite). I think it is because there was an attraction in the rest of the castle that you weren't able to see. After walking through the Castle, we decided to wait in line for the attraction. It took roughly 3 hours. It was definitely much better than Terminator or the Minion Rides because you were actually moving. They did try to encompass many parts from the books and movies and I was fairly impressed. I think it is worth the wait one time.
By this time, it was almost 5:30, so we decided to walk by Jaws and try to at least walk through Jurassic Park. There are two attractions in Jurassic Park. One is the most popular in the entire park because it is an actual roller coaster. The wait time was 3.5 hours and we decided there was no way we wanted to wait in line for that long. Oh, side note... people in Asia say "I queued in line for 3 hours." I thought that was strange, but kinda funny. Anyway, the other attraction was a 45 minute wait, so we decided to ride it. However, it was a water ride and it was like 45-50 degrees at this point with a TON of wind. The line ended up only taking us about 10 minutes to go through, and I had instant regret when I sat in the seat and saw many people with rain jackets around me. It was a very fun ride with a drop off at the end, kinda similar to Snake River Falls at Cedar Point. I did get super wet and I think it was because I was in the front seat, right in the middle. It was cool to point out all the dinosaurs to our group because they didn't know any of the names. I guess Dinosaur education isn't as important in Asia. I think it also helped that I watched Jurassic Park with Alex right before I left for Japan. After getting off the ride, I basically shivered for the rest of the night. We finally decided to head out of the park around 7:30 to find dinner and go home.
We found an okonomiyaki restaurant on the way home. Okonomiyaki is basically a savory Japanese Pancake with random ingredients in it that you can choose. Typically, they are egg, potato, cheese, cabbage, fish or meat (or noodles), and a few other things. They mix it all together and cook it on a grill that is built into your table. It was SO GOOD. I couldn't finish it though and tried to make Terry eat some for me. We still had about an hour commute ahead of us, and I think we got back around 11 pm. I was so exhausted that I just showered and went to bed. It was a lot of fun, but I think it is really only a one time experience. It wouldn't be worthwhile for me to wait in line for hours to ride literally 2 decent rides.
On Saturday, I slept in a little bit and watched American Sniper with Alex on our movie date. I had to pause like 4 times because it was so suspenseful. It definitely helped confirm my desire to go into defense, because I want to be able to help protect America in the way that I know best, which is using my brain power because my physical power isn't so extravagant. Around 2 pm, Terry and I went to the Chion- In Temple because there is a cool hike on the mountain behind it. We hiked up the mountain and found this amazing view of Kyoto City. If you looking closely you can see Kyoto Tower (the highest white tower in the center of the picture). This is where the huge Kyoto train station is. I have been there a couple times. It was a little cool and windy, but totally worth the hike!
We made it here in about 30 minutes, so we decided to try a new trail down the other side of the mountain before turning around. We entered another path around 4:30 because it said it closed at 5. Once we reached the bottom of the mountain, I suggested that we hike back the way that we came so we could easily find the train station to get home. That might have been a mistake. We didn't realize that the temple also closed at 5 pm, so the gate was locked. I had a moment of panic because I didn't want to be trapped on a mountain in Japan all night. We remembered there was another path not so far up the mountain, so we followed that and it led us into a ritzy Japanese neighborhood. We were so relieved, even though it added another 30 or so minutes to the hike. We decided to head right home because we were so tired from walking for such a long time. We stopped at the local supermarket and I again came home, made udon soup, showered, and went right to bed.
Today, I attended church and prayer group. Sue lent me her tape measure so I can get my measurements to be in my friend Ali's wedding as a bridesmaid! I am so excited. Becky gave me some soup and a cheese sandwich. She is just about the sweetest person you will ever meet. I talked to Raphael because it was his last Sunday. He is moving to Tokyo on Wednesday. He was giving me advice on how to be more knowledgeable about scripture and the importance of using God's word. It was very convicting. He suggested a free supplemental class that can help you understand the Bible better, so I think I will look into that. After prayer group, Sue showed me one cherry blossom tree that bloomed. I did take a picture, but it wasn't so great. I will post several when all the trees bloom, which will be relatively soon! I did find a cute flower bush, so you can enjoy this picture!
