Epic brah!

Another great weekend has come and gone. Let's get right into it, shall we?

I went to Tokyo DisneySea on Saturday. It was so much fun. Actually more fun than I expected. I'm sure you can guess who I went with. She has a ton of pictures on her camera and will be sending them to me, but right now I don't have any pictures. But, DisneySea is a pretty ridiculously awesome and very original amusement park. It doesn't even really feel like a "Disney" park, because that's more of what Tokyo DisneyLand is for. All the rides were different than the ones in Florida's DisneyWorld and they have crazy food at the stands, like strawberry popcorn (so good), shrimp kinda roll bagel things, gyoza, and stuff. Actually, I was surprised by how good the food was, in speaking of both quality and nutrition. We hit up the buffet restaurant and stuffed our faces with shephard's pie (oh so good), karaage (japanese fried chicken), tons of deserts, and other shit. It's funny, because in America, I wouldn't dare step into a buffet restaurant, but in Japan, I am all about them.

What a surprise, my tale of DisneySea turns into talking about food. Well, about the rides. We started with StormRider because it had no line, and it was like a interactive movie theater ride where you're caught in the middle of a raging hurricane. Oh yeah, there was one ride the same as Florida, my favorite ride of them all- Tower of Terror. Except in Japan it's "Towa ah-bu Tellah" and they removed the "Twilight Zone" theme. I guess that wasn't a famous show in Japan or something. There was a couple sweet roller coasters and an Indiana Jones ride, and suprisingly, not a lot of slimy gaijin. It was also hilarious, frustrating, and interesting watching the Aladdin and Little Mermaid shows in Japanese. Especially the latter, because the songs like "Under the Sea" were sung in English, but all the spoken dialogue was in Japanese. This is one confused country, and I love it!

Pictures coming soon.

Last night was my buddy Nam's birthday. We went to an okonomiyaki restaurant and cooked the food ourselves. It was fun and I met some other JETs and some Japanese girls and various other people. Good times. After the restaurant we all headed to VIP (the bar where we play poker) for some more drinks. One of the girls from the birthday party brought the two japanese people who own the store where I bought some old Pez a looong time ago, like when I first got to Tsuchiura. Somehow the girl remembered me and said "Petzu no hito!!" (Petzu is "pez," and that literally means "Pez person!") They were really cool and we talked about classic rock and movies until about 1 in the morning.

I was a little tired at "work" today, but it was okay, because something totally random was in store. There was a rock concert in the morning brought to us by a famous Japanese surf-rock guitarist who apparently was huge in the 1960s. Funny thing was, he was only on stage for about 30% of the show. It was pretty funny though. Here we are in the school gym, 680 students and the teachers, watching some ancient surf-rock band in their matching white suits. Still, the bass player was really good and the drummer had an epic drumset complete with two bass drums and a massive gong behind him. Totally...fucking...random.

And here's a random piece of Japan trivia for you. Did you know that in the winter time, all the subway seats are heated? I didn't, but I really enjoy it! Heated toilets, heated subway seats, happy bum.

Oh! I almost forgot to mention. Last night, I'm sitting and talking with a girl and she asks me where I'm from. Naturally, I say "Chicago" because usually people don't know what Rockford is. I reciprocate, asking where she's from, and she very matter-of-factly says "Rockford." I about shit myself right then and there. This world is much, much too small.

That's all for now. And i'm out.