A Weekend in Tokyo

"You're waiting on a train, a train that will take you far away..."

So Friday, Shanikia...

Lindsey...

and I got on a shinkansen bullet train bound for Tokyo.

The ride took two and a half hours. We rode in the non-reserved car and had no trouble. There are drink vending machines in the cars and carts go buy selling food items. My ears pop really bad on the shinkansen and I get a headache. Still I think it's a lot better and easier than the night bus if you can afford it.

Lindsey had to get off at Nagoya to meet her friend, Jenna. They took a bus from there to tokyo. So they got in at 11pm and we got in at 5pm.

So many people! Shinagawa is a huge station!

Several train and subway rides later...

We found Tokyo tower! A symbol that any individual who has ever picked up a manga or watch an anime would recognize. It was all lit up and they synchronized the flashing lights to music! We walked the stretch to the tower easily.

The special observatory was closed so we just went to the main observatory.

There was this window in the floor and you could look down. It was cool and scary at the same time.

There was soooo much in tokyo tower! It's pretty much built on a mall and entertainment center complete with aquarium and haunted horror house. We went to the wax museum for the heck of it...

From there we had to find our way to Narita where our hotel was, an hour and a half away.

Once you got off the train at Keisei Narita station and went down the stairs, it was really easy to find.

Western beds! While very firm and not nearly as soft as American hotel beds, we were glad for a break from our futons...

Slippers so you don't wear your shoes in the room.

They even provide you pajamas...

magnets that you put outside your door.

There's Dr. Pepper in the vending machines in Tokyo area!!!

Saturday Shanikia and I went to find a theme park called Toshimaien. When Shanikia's family lived near Yokohama, she went to it as a child. So for nostalgic purposes and curiosity on my part, we tracked it down.

It's also a water park, but that half was closed that day.

but apparently it was cosplay day there because most of the people there were cosplayers with cameras doing photo shoots in their costumes.

They had this really nice flume ride that we just had to try...

...I'm pretty sure this one was a dude...

We rode all the roller coasters there. From that high, we could see Mt. Fuji in the distance.

These things were everywhere. You put money in them and can ride them where ever you want until your time runs out...

We were behind Sesshomaru and Kagome in line at the food bazaar!

From there we rushed to try and get to disney, but the tokyo systems are very counterintuitive at times. Eventually we got there.

Because we got there after 3:30, we got to get the starlight pass which is cheaper.

So many people!

Unfortunately, because we were late getting there, there were no more fastpasses, so we waited in line for an hour and a half to ride splash mountain.

But in the end had to leave because we wanted to get back to Narita before the trains stopped running at midnight.

On the way back, we decided not to follow google's instructions and just navigated ourselves back to the hotel. It worked out because we went to smaller less known stations and found a cheaper route between Narita and Maihama where Disneyland/ Disney sea are.

But we resolved to come back the next day. We used the little money we saved with the sttarlight pass and taking the quicker route and went to disney a second time.

Not nearly as many people, though, still a LOT of people.

They were having their Christmas parade.

Interesting to me, they have a Max, Goofy's son. (Bad pic. They have their backs to each other.)

We grabbed a fast pass to space mountain and while waiting for that, we waited in line at Thunder Mountain. It took about an hour and twenty minutes.

Then we rode Space Mountain.

The Tokyo Cinderella castle looks different from the one in Orlando. Less gold everywhere and random ornamentation. This castle was more realistic and I thought it was prettier...

So after Disney we decided to meet Lindsey in Ginza and hang out before we got on the shinkansen and rode back to Kansai.

Ginza is one of the most famous shopping areas of all Tokyo.

We found this Alice in Wonderland themed restaurant and decided to check it out.

It was like walking into a labyrinth of book pages. It was really neat.

All the waitresses were dressed as Alice and the manager was dressed as the mad hatter.

The menu was given to us as a box. You take the front off and that is the menu. Inside is a little paper scene.

Oh engrish...

bread and... cheese

Garlic toast in a tea cup.

Shanikia ordered shrimp pasta.

I got the clock pizza.

For desert, Shankia and Lindsey got the Cheshire cat parfait. It glowed due to a little crystal light in it.

I got the queen of hearts-ish dersert.

There's a tea cup you can eat in! But we were in the Cheshire cat room.

Bathrooms.

We walked back to the station together.

We parted ways and Lindsey went to wait on her night bus and Shanikia and I went to Shinagawa to catch the next shinkansen.

Back at home safe and sound, we unpacked. Shanikia bought a lot of souvenirs. :)

Anyways, that was our trip in a nutshell. It was a lot of fun. Today I took my test and went to SUMI-E. I'm going to do my homework now. I have a paper to write...