Tokyo

I watch the show "Sazae san" sometimes on Sunday's to help me with my Japanese. At Fuji Television there is a whole store dedicated to the show. I bought a pin for my Rotary blazer there.

Fuji Television

Venus Fort. The beautiful outlet mall in Odaiba.

The view from one of the top floors at Fuji Television.

Harijuku

Ichi Mara Kyu. This is where many of the young girl fashions are.

The view from our hotel room in Tokyo.

Our hotel room in Tokyo.

The night electrical light parade at Disney Land.

At Minne's house.

Me with my honey popcorn and Pooh bucket.

The Candle Light show. You can't see very well but that is Mickey and Minnie.

Our room at the Tokyo Disney Land Hotel.

Night at the Tokyo Disney Land Hotel.

Fuji san

Early on Tuesday morning my host parents and I drove to the Nagasaki airport in the town of Omura. At the airport my host mother and I caught the plane to the Haneda Airport in Tokyo. On the airplane ride I was anxiously awaiting for my Rotary trip to Tokyo to begin! The airplane ride though was quite an experience because I got to see Fuji san! It was so beautiful! From the Haneda Airport we took a shuttle bus to Tokyo Disney Resort. The trip was supposed to take an hour but the first sight of our first destination was of this huge castle like building. At first we didn't realize it because the trip was supposed to take longer but it was our hotel! The lobby was decorated so fancy and there was Disney things everywhere. Once we left our bags at the desk we headed for the Disney tram to take us to Disney Sea. Disney Sea was so lovely the entrance part of the park was decorated like Venice Italy. Inside of the amazing buildings that made it look like Italy was Disney Sea's hotel. For lunch we kept walking straight over to the part of Disney Sea that was built like America's water front. We stopped for lunch at the New York part of the water front and ate at the New York Deli. We proceeded to do some shopping and went to the other part of the American water front which was Cape Cod. We then watched the show the Legend of Mythica. It was performed in the water right in the middle of the whole park. It was a pretty amazing show. One thing I really wanted to do was ride the Venetian Gondolas. So we rushed right after the show to take a place in the long line for the gondolas. I thought it was worth the wait. I really felt like I was in Italy riding a Gondola with the scenery. I think the people who were paddling the gondola were giving a tour of the Italy part of Disney Sea but I didn't quite understand what was going on. Later that night many people had returned home so I was able to enjoy many of the rides because the lines were so short. I was too scared to go on the big rides by myself though. At the end of the night we watched Disney Sea's Christmas show. It was so pretty. The name of the show was Candle Light Reflections and it was the last year that they were doing it. All the Disney characters came out on these boats with tons of candles and the candles were the only light in the park until a big glowing Christmas tree emerged from the sea. It was such a pretty show. Finally at the very end came fireworks and the fireworks were so amazing! I enjoyed Disney Sea so much because it was more of a grown up version of Disney Land. Also the scenery was so amazing and in some parts of the park I really felt like I was in Italy and then in others I really felt like I was in America. The next day my host mother and I got up early and began our day at Disney Land. We walked straight out of our hotel to the entrance of Disney Land because it was so close. Earlier we could see people lining up at Disney Land from our hotel room before it opened. First we went out to breakfast and I had a Mickey Mouse pancake. Then right away I went on many of the rides I wanted to go on. It was early enough in the morning where many of the lines were pretty short. It was so cool because many of the rides were changed for Christmas. The Haunted Mansion was changed to be like the movie "The Night Before Christmas" and the ride It's a Small World was changed to have many Christmas decorations and the music was Christmas music in different languages. While I waited in line I got to munch on some honey popcorn. Everyone in Disney Land and Disney Sea had these buckets filled with popcorn that they put around their neck. I didn't buy one at Disney Sea because I wanted the Pooh bucket at Disney Land and inside of the bucket came honey popcorn it was so good! They had so many other flavors of popcorn at both parks because it was the main snack to have. There was soy sauce popcorn, honey popcorn, curry popcorn, chocolate popcorn, strawberry popcorn, black pepper popcorn, and caramel popcorn. We met my host mother's friend at Disney Land because she did not live to far away and she had been to Disney Land many times so she was our guide for the day.We went on more rides and ate lunch. At night there was this amazing parade that consisted of lights. It was so pretty and I was surprised how many floats they had. Once again the night ended with an amazing display of fireworks. My host mother and I returned back to our hotel exhausted but before we went to bed we stopped by the hotel store one last time to pick up some more souvenirs for people. I have noticed in Japan it is very import to give gifts to people and my host mother got so many souvenirs to give to many people she knew! It was so nice. In the morning we woke up early to get all of our stuff packed up. We had two boxes of souvenirs that we sent back to Nagasaki! We then went and had breakfast at this restaurant in the hotel with an amazing buffet. It was delicious. After breakfast we left and went to the train station where we took the train to Shinagawa in Tokyo. The train had so many people on it and many people had to stand for such a long time. After arriving in Shinagawa we once again gave our bags to the front desk and headed out to go visit Shibuya and Harijuku. I loved the energy of Tokyo and the fashions in Tokyo. The trains however seemed very confusing and it seemed to take a long time to get from place to place. My host mother told me that you had to be really careful about what train you get on because you could be in real trouble if you got on the wrong one. I really loved Harijuku because there were so many shops with such cool fashions! One thing I noticed about the fashions in Japan is that many of the stores especially in Tokyo carry the same clothing or the same fabric but different pieces of clothing. For example, I bought a dress in Fukuoka and then later in Nagasaki I went to a store where there was a skirt and it was the same pattern as my dress! In Harijuku there was an H&M, a Forever 21, and a Kitson. There were so many people there especially in Forever 21. The Forever 21 in Tokyo seemed more upscale than the other ones that I have seen and I was really amazed. The next day it rained so much so we couldn't do much sight seeing. We went to Odaiba. In Odaiba there was an outlet mall called Venus Fort. It was the reopening day so it was supposed to have really good sales. The inside of the mall was so cool. I will post a picture of it. We didn't stay very long because I was tired of shopping so we went to Fuji Television where most of the stuff I watch on TV takes place. We were able to see the studio where all of the talents come to perform. At the time however there were no talents performing they were only preparing the stage for the show that night. We also went up to one of the top floors and we saw Tokyo's skyline. It was so pretty but the view was a little bit blurred because of the rain. I was even able to see a little bit of the Tokyo tower. That was our last stop before we took the train back to the Haneda Airtport and then left Tokyo for Nagasaki. It was a wonderful Rotary trip to Tokyo!