I know I said that Chuseok was the cutest day in Kindy but I think Halloween is definitely a close second. All of the nuggets dressed up and we had a Halloween party full of face painting, games and ending with our Halloween song contest. My afternoon classes also got to have a Halloween party instead of classes for two days. Here are the pictures!
Hey Donkeys! Repunzel, Bat, Cinderella 1 & 2, ?????
I was freezing and gathered nuggets for body heat.
Song Contest time! My kids sang Thriller <3 and I might be biased but I think they were the cutest!
Daniel sitting like a cat.
All ready to go home.
Then it was party time for the afternoon kids.
This is one of my favorite classes.
Can we talk about the flying squirrel...
I love these 3 girls! I have a class with just them on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
Eating all the giving out candy
Princess picture!
It was a really fun two days and it was nice to not be in the classroom teaching. I've noticed a lot of random afternoon little girls that just kind of stare at me in the hallways now and I think its because they remember me as Princess Teacher. I even had some girls from another class want to come up and give me a hug in my costume! <3 Definitely a highlight of my year here.
I can't believe it's been so long since I was in Tokyo... and that it's taken so long to write again. But it's 7:50 AM, I have cookies in the oven, and I'm finally ready to go into detail about the awesome vacation I took in September to Tokyo! (I feel the need to mention my cookies because I finally have an oven!!! I bought it off of a teacher that just finished her contract at my school and now I MAKE SO MANY THINGS!)
During the Chuseok holiday that I discussed a few posts ago, I had the opportunity to take another amazing vacation. Tokyo has always been a city that I wanted to visit and I knew that during my year in Korea I was hoping to get a chance to travel there. I love the feeling of having somewhere I want to go, having the opportunity come up, and booking a flight. It's the best feeling in the world :)
I had Wednesday-Friday off of work and was in Tokyo from Thursday-Sunday. I spent Wednesday packing and getting organized and was on a plane early the next morning.
I love that my closest metro station connects to a line that takes you straight to the airport. It makes getting there so much less stressful. Once I arrived at the airport and checked in, I got McDonalds breakfast (pancakes, I've missed thee...) and waited for my flight to be called.
After a very short 2 hour flight, I was in Tokyo! I took the COMPLETELY HORRIBLE AND CONFUSING metro to my hotel because I was trying to avoid cabs since they start at $7 before you even reach your destination. With the help of some very patient metro workers, I was able to find my destination and then with the help of a very helpful security officer, I was able to find my hotel which was just around the corner from the metro exit.
Screen captures from my phone indicating how complex the rail system in Tokyo is. I have still yet to see a map of the line that my hotel was on. There is no master map of the Tokyo rail system that I was able to get my hands on so every time I had to get from the New Keio Line (not to be confused with the Keio Line) to where ever I was going, I had to helplessly rely on the kindness of strangers.
It's super discouraging to be someone like myself who feels like they are an excellent navigator and very good at traveling independently and have to ask for help EVERY SINGLE TIME you want to get somewhere. I'm also very stubborn so every time I thought I had the hang of where I needed to go, I'd end up lost, on platform 5 instead of platform 2, etc. Definitely staying in the city next time.
I checked in and went up to check out my room. I didn't even take a picture because it was so tiny lol. Tokyo is ridiculously expensive. I think I paid the same amount to stay in a tiny room outside of Tokyo that I spent to have a beautiful room in the center of Hong Kong. For travelers dying to see Tokyo (and what I will be doing next time), I recommend splurging on staying inside of the city so that you're not spending so much time and money getting in and out of the city. It would have been worth the money to deal with the metro and cabs as little as possible.
I spent the rest of the day wandering around the neighborhood that my hotel was in. I checked out the game and pachinko rooms, I wandered into a dollar store to check out the snacks, I even went into a thrift store and bought a super cute cardigan. I took it easy that afternoon because I knew my next few days would be jam-packed with sightseeing.
Gaming culture is HUGE in Japan. I was glad to be able to see a little piece of it.
That evening I was starving and I happened to have my best meal of my stay at a little Ramen place near my hotel.
I got a side order of those dumplings at the top.
I forget which of these I ordered and my mouth is watering looking at this all over again.
Ramen is so yummy! It was on my list of food to eat while I was in Japan and this place was FABULOUS! It's eaten using both chopsticks and a big plastic spoon. I had had it before but relied on my sneaky-watching of others to make sure I was eating it correctly. I will also confirm that slurping noodles is completely acceptable in Ramen restaurants.
I ate my yummy dinner, went back to my room (after getting some snacks from one of my hotels vending machines) and turned on some TV to fall asleep to. It was a very successful first day.... and I had big plans for Friday.
I woke up very early Friday morning, packed a bag full of everything I would need to stay out all day, and heading to the subway.
"Hey Kristen, did you factor in the fact that it was a work day and you were planning on using the subway during prime rush hour traffic?"
No. No I did not.
I had paid for my $2 metro ticket, and went ahead down to the platform and that is when I connected the oh-so-obvious dots that although I was on holiday, this was still a work day in Japan. THERE WERE SO MANY PEOPLE ON THE PLATFORM! I tried to keep my cool and remind myself it's cheaper to ride the metro than take a cab but when I saw the train pull up and it was just as full of people as the platform was, I was not about to try and squash myself onto the train. I barely feel comfortable riding like that in Seoul and I know the metro pretty well regarding when to get off and on. I did not have the same comfort level in Tokyo and knew I wanted to be able to consult my phone several times on the trip to double, triple, quadruple check that I was headed in the right direction. There was no way I could do that if I was packed in like a sardine. As everyone was sardine-ing onto the metro, I turned right around and made my way outside.
I went back to my hotel and asked that they call me a cab to go to Tokyo Station, knowing that getting halfway to my destination was going to be cheaper than getting all the way there. From Tokyo station, I would just suck it up and ride the rest of the way. I knew it was going to be expensive but that cab ride came out to be $100. I vowed to take no more cabs and just wait out the morning and evening metro traffic the rest of my journey. An expensive lesson, as my mother would say. CABS IN JAPAN ARE SO EXPENSIVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Stay in the city!!!!!!!!!
Sitting in the lobby, waiting for my cab.
I did get to see some sights from the back of my cab that I wouldn't have gotten to see if I was underground so that was a plus.
View of the skyline as I was sitting in traffic.
Hello Kitty. Hello Kitty, everywhere.
Completely serious, completely official pink bunny traffic barriers outside of Tokyo Station. Oh, Japan.
I got to the station and got my tickets and was ready to embark on my first adventure. An adventure that was totally serious and not at all childish and also not at all reminiscent of something that I had just seen a few months before.
Lol jk.
I mean I'm not going to be in a foreign city with a Disneyland and NOT go.
Tokyo Disneyland was much more similar to the original parks in the US than the one in Hong Kong was but unlike the Hong Kong park, Tokyo Disneyland barely used English in the attractions and shows. I rode the Snow White ride, Peter Pan, Pinnochio (only in Tokyo and Paris Disneylands), and others but the rides were in Japanese! I was super into this at first but it kind of took a toll on my magic after spending all day there. It was still an awesome experience and obviously I will go back next time I'm in Tokyo.
Finding the resort was a little difficult from the subway because I had no idea which direction I needed to be going in and I had no nice family to adopt me and let me tag along with them like I had in Hong Kong but I did see some people in Donald Duck shirts and shamelessly tagged along, unbeknownst to them.
Tokyo Disneyland has two parks: Magic Kingdom and Disney Sea. Magic Kingdom is like the other Magic Kingdoms but Disney Sea is unique to the Tokyo location and is geared more for adults. I told myself to choose one because I couldn't justify spending the money to see both and spend more time there and I chose to see Disneyland because I really do like to compare the different locations. However.... My inner princess prevailed as I was leaving and reminded myself that I'm an adult, I can do what I want and I'M ON VACATION! So I did end up seeing both parks.
I think I read that the entrance is supposed to resemble a train station.
Everything was halloween themed even though it was the middle of September.
I loved, loved, loved this calender. There were some really cool things in the gift shop that were so unique to the Tokyo resort. I loved the picture of Mickey and Minnie in Japanese outfits.
Rows and rows of Disney children's books in Japanese. When I saw how cheap they were I bought the Cinderella one. Such a cool souvenir!
The Halloween decorations kind of stomped on my magic a little bit too.
This is my favorite picture from the day. The last time I saw a castle decorated was my first trip to Disney World in Florida when I was little.
Although I wasn't excited about everything being different than how it normally looked (since Tokyo Disneyland was celebrating its 30 year anniversary and having a Halloween celebration) it was still cool to see the park's decorations for the limited time that they would be up.
But Cinderella does not live like this! COME ON!!!!!!!!!
Mosaic in the castle with a super skinny fairy godmother
At the risk of making myself seem like any more of the ball of emotion that I really am, I definitely teared up a little bit in this castle. I love all of the songs from Cinderella and when I walked through the castle, they were playing "A dream is a wish your heart makes" and I started shaking!!!! I live such a cool life for being as young as I am. Here I was, walking through Cinderella castle at Tokyo Disneyland during a vacation that I planned and paid for myself (because I'm a big girl with a big girl job) during my year abroad as I hear "...if you keep on believing, the dream that you wish will come true". Travel and international experiences remain my biggest dreams and with every vacation, I can't help but feel like I'm right where I should be in my life. I'm not a robot. I can't control myself when the stars align like that.
I digress.
Halloween Dumbo
While in line for the Peter Pan ride a parade passed by. If you look closely you can see Mickey waving at the crowd.
After waiting in some lengthy lines for the Snow White and Peter Pan rides, I got hungry pretty quickly. I headed over to the Queen of Hearts cafe and got some lunch.
Loved how this spot was decorated.
I don't remember being in an Alice in Wonderland themed place in a Disneyland before besides the tea cups, which are a stretch. I think the Imagineers are missing out on planning a super trippy ride.
My plank steak with traditional Japanese ginger sauce, mashed potatoes and vegetables, strawberry mousse, and apple green tea. YUM!
The restaurant just so happened to be next to my It's A Small World ride :) so I made a bee-line straight over there when I was finished. Disneyland expert insider tip... Always ride the rides during the parades. The parade was still going on when I was finished with lunch so the line was way shorter in the ride than it would have been.
Almost no line. It's like people don't even understand how important this ride is.
The best part of going to these parks alone is all of my personal space when they ask "How many?" and I always end up alone in the seats :) On the Snow White ride earlier in the day I was alone in my two seater in the front but I got up and moved to the back of the four person cart when I noticed a little girl and her dad were sitting behind me. I figured she would have a better view up front without a tall foreigner in her way. She was so happy!!! <3
AHHH!!! Small world small worldddd
Line after the parade was over & reason I did not ride again.
Instead I headed across to this exclusive ride only at Tokyo Disneyland and the Paris location. This one was all in Japanese (I wish I knew what the characters were saying!).
Super weird black q-tips I found while wandering through another gift shop.
I was excited to see this show in Japanese. I have very fond memories of seeing the Country Bear Theater every time I went to Disney World or Disneyland with my family.
Popcorn is a popular Disneyland treat but I did not think that Curry Popcorn sounded very good. This was the weirdest flavor I saw that day. The salt and pepper cart was a little weird also.
More Japanese themed souvenirs in the gift shop.
<3 <3 <3
This little boy was dressed up as Donald Duck and I threw all discretion out the window taking his picture. I'm pretty sure one of his older sisters saw me but omgboyduck.
After seeing all I cared to see and doing all I cared to do at Disneyland I headed out of the park. I asked myself if I really wanted to spend the money and time visiting the Disney Sea park right next to Disneyland but I promptly let go of my guilt as I previously mentioned. This was mostly because I can't resist a Disney Park thats one-of-a-kind ONLY in Tokyo while I'm in Tokyo and I can literally see it in the distance.
It was definitely a great way to wait out the rush hour traffic and I'm glad to have had the experience but I wouldn't go back. Disney Sea was kind of boring and I don't know if it was because it really was boring or if I had already been at Disneyland all day so I was tired of walking and disney-ed out. It was still cool to see a different park.
This big revolving globe/fountain is one of the main attractions of the park.
Goofy kidnapping a child.
Goofy telling the child to wave goodbye to her family.
Forever.
Donald meets chunky chunk.
Donald steals chunky chunk. I don't appreciate that it's acceptable for a duck to do it but when I talk about it people look at me funny.
The big "sea" in the middle of the park.
You could ride these gondolas out on the Disney Sea
Love it.
This was a cool ride that resembled 'It's a Small World'
Inside 'Sinbad's Storybook Adventure'
This was my favorite thing to look at at the Disney Sea park.
Carosel... & my finger :( I didn't bring a Japanese electrical adapter so my phone was slowly dying and in order to preserve my battery life I kept my brightness super low all day so I couldn't always see what I was taking pictures of.
I think the Arabian themed section was my favorite.
I saw an Aladdin themed show as well.
Another favorite of mine was Ariel's Grotto
It was an indoor area for kids with an underwater theme.
Inside of Ariel's Grotto there was a theater that put on an 'Under the Sea' show starring Ariel. I was in the front row! It was awesome. I would love her job. She has her lines in Japanese memorized and she lip-syncs during her speaking parts but the songs are in English. She's in a harness so it really looks like she's swimming and you're in the ocean with all the fishys. I didn't take any videos since I was in the front row and know I would have been told to put it away but I found a really good one on youtube.
After the show I was starving and ready to head home. But first, dinner...
This looks really gross but it was so yummy. A fried fish sandwich with fries and another apple green tea.
Before leaving I saw one more show and I'm so glad I decided to see it. It was amazing! Acrobats flying all over the stage, actors dressed as animals that really made you question if they were real animals, people jumping into an on-stage pool. It was awesome, especially the costumes!
One last look. I didn't stay for the water show (Disney Sea's version of a parade.
I got on the metro and despite being so exhausted from all of the walking and excitement, I decided to take advantage of being already out and headed to Shibuya, a busy Tokyo district with a super crazy intersection that I had seen in pictures and movies. I knew if I went all the way back to my hotel, I'd stay there so I headed to Shibuya to finish the night.
Outside of the metro.
This sign advertises the different businesses in the building. There are similar signs in Seoul but I haven't seen any to this scale.
No people...
So many people! This wasn't even the major intersection of the area. (I know this because I thought it was until I kept walking down this street.)
After a little more wandering I found Shibuya crossing. There was no mistaking it. I made a little video of the chaos and then snuck up to the second floor of a Starbucks to take some more pictures from above.
My nightmare lol. It was still really cool to watch the lights change and see everyone dodging each other.
Before heading home, I went into a bookstore that I passed on the way to the metro station. I was hoping to find a Japanese Vogue and I did! I got back on the metro and with the help of three super nice British guys, I found which way I needed to go. I met them when I went into a convenience store in the metro and batted my eyes at the man behind the counter asking "*Big smile* Chofu?" indicating I didn't know which platform to be on. Behind me I heard someone attempt my question in Japanese to the man but he was still confused. New friend asked "Where do you want to go? Oh Chofu, I'll take you there."
From my limited experience in both Tokyo and Seoul (especially Tokyo) I couldn't help but notice how much quicker foreigners are to help other struggling foreigners in Tokyo. In Seoul there's this weird phenomenon of seeing a foreigner and not looking at them in the eye and just kind of ignoring their existence like we're all too cool for each other (I compare it to dogs not liking to see another of their kind... THERE CAN ONLY BE ONE!). But in Tokyo, I was helped so many times by strangers that really went out of their way to make sure I knew were I was going. The guys I met were wearing press badges and mentioned that they were all English teachers in Japan but their main interest is their gaming blog and they had just gotten back from some big convention. We talked a bit walking through the station comparing teaching in Japan and teaching in Korea. Very interesting guys!
When I got home I laid out all my stuff and admired it. I went to bed shortly after because I had big plans for my last full day.
My collection grows.
My Japanese Cinderella book! I picture my kids using it one day and telling me what's happening on each page, not realizing how awesome their childhood is for having storybooks in foreign languages. They are also only allowed to play with it if they are not gross and slimey with it. Otherwise it's MINE.
Some Sake I bought in the metro station to try in my room. I heard it was taboo in some places in Japan for women to drink so I picked up a bottle of what I hoped was Sake and took it to the counter. I asked the man "Sake?" and he said yes and didn't seem offended that little ol' me was about to drink alcohol. Also, Sake is gross and I threw away most of that $2 bottle.
I watched some weird Japanese TV (no other options, just 12 weird Japanese channels) and went to bed.
I woke up the next morning at 9 am. I knew it was a Saturday but I still wanted to wait a little while before getting on the metro so as to not be involved with any metro traffic. I took a walk to the dollar store around the corner from my hotel to buy some snacks for friends and family back home because I thought that would be the coolest souvenir for people since Japan has such a unique snack culture.
I wanted to go to Harajuku that morning and just wander around and shop, hoping to find some girls dressed up like the ones in Gwen Stefani's videos.
A playground in my hotel's neighborhood.
Cars drive on the opposite side in Japan than we do in the States and Korea and escalators follow this pattern as well.
A kimono shop inside of the metro station.
Starving. Burger King it is.
Teryaki Burger (as appetizing as it looks...)
When I got to Harajuku I walked all the way down the main street until I got to a cafe. I sat down for a drink before heading back to the metro station.
I'm here! I'm here!
I wish I bought one of these.
Harajuku is definitely largely a costume district. I almost looked for a Halloween costume here but I was already so set on being Ariel or a minion.
I did find some fabulous awkward English tees.
Gotcha!
Hey new friend!
My orange and squash mojito before heading back to the station.
View from the cafe.
I definitely recommend a walk through Harajuku if you ever find yourself in Tokyo. I think it was the highlight of my trip and something I'll definitely do whenever I go back. The shopping is fairly cheap (kind of expensive for street shopping but I didn't spend anything more than what I would have spent at H&M or Forever21) and it was just a neat experience to be in a neighborhood with its own unique culture.
Back in the metro I found my way to Shinjuku Station, where I needed to transfer to my line to get back to the hotel to drop my shopping bags. While walking through the station I saw this sign:
And I made the executive decision that I had to see some skyscrapers.
My favorite building.
I gotta get in there...
How do I get in there...
I gotta get in there...
I'm gonna go in there...
Outside again because I wasn't allowed in there...
Amazingly empty compared to Seoul.
I walked through what looked like people packing up from a festival.
I went into an electronics market to buy an adapter for my dying electronics and saw these machines outside. You plug in your phone and you can print out pictures. HOW COOL IS THAT?!? America, Asia is winning. I want this machine when I come home.
Looking for a sushi place for lunch.
Found you, sushi restaurant!
The large brown thing on my table. I realized it was a button when no one came to my table to take my order lol.
It was ok. I'm not a huge sushi person but I couldn't spend a weekend in Japan and not have sushi. Shinjuku ended up being a great part of my trip all because I saw a sign for some skyscrapers.
After eating, I went back into the station and decided to go to Tokyo Tower since I had so much daylight left and had done everything on my Tokyo bucket list.
Some art inside of Shinjuku Station.
Busy, busy, busy
The disaster that is trying to buy your ticket. The good thing about these machines was that if you did figure out which line you needed, it told you exactly how much you needed to give the machine so that every time you were at your destination, the machine ate your card for you. In DC I always just feed the machine $5 because I don't ever have my SmartTrip on me when I need it I don't feel like figuring out the math from the chart above the machines. These machines did the math for you and gave you your change, avoiding my situation in DC of always having cards with like 60 cents left on them.
I wasn't originally planning to go to Tokyo Tower because 1) I didn't even know it existed until I was planning for my trip and therefore, it had no significance to me 2) It was kind of out of the way and 3) It's ugly. But with so much time on my hands I wasn't finished sightseeing so I headed over and I'm really glad that I did.
I still think it just looks like a big electrical tower that you would hang power lines from.
View from the tower.
I tried to find this little area when I got back down to the ground but I couldn't :(
In one of these directions, you were supposed to be able to see Mt. Fuji in the distance but I think it was too hazy when I went because I couldn't see anything and I tried REALLY hard.
As I was leaving I saw this crowd gathering and then I saw......this monkey on a leash. As my students would say, "Why monkey?" So random.
Chunky chunk sitting in the flowers <3
Walked through this little park to get back to the metro station.
Tokyo is an Olympic candidate city!
I had a relaxing last night in my hotel as I packed up for my trip back to Korea. I was able to make it to the airport the next morning with little trouble and had an uneventful flight back to Seoul, where Kevin met me at the airport. Tokyo was such a great experience and I came home refreshed and ready for work again. Those long weekends off are so precious to me because I don't get long vacations at my job so I really like taking advantage of my breaks when I can. I can't wait to go back to Tokyo one day and spend more time seeing things that I didn't get the chance to see in my short stay.
