一期一会: Some fish and the power of the mouse

つかれた！

That's Japanese for "I'm exhausted!!" the last two days have been crazy and insanely busy, and I've walked somewhere between 25-30 miles and pretty much been every where between here and Timbuktu...well...not quite...I'm pretty sure there isn't a Timbuktu in Japan...but you catch my drift.

On Monday, Mom and I started our day at 3:45 AM...and no that's not a typo. We headed out early to get to the world

famous Tsukiji fish market to see the market and watch the daily auctions on the huge Tuna. For those of you who know me well enough, you know that I don't do fish and am kinda downright afraid of them, especially when they're all there staring at me...so this was big for me. We ended up meeting up with Stephanie Sheh, as I mentioned an actress/anime voice actor from the states who I met at Tekkoshocon last spring and just happened to be here for the Tokyo Anime Fair as well. So that was really cool. She was really funny at five in the morning, while I looked as tired as I felt, and it was interesting to see the market.

Mom and I actually were trying to figure out why this was listed as a tourist spot. People were actually there conducting business!!! I'm sure they must have been so annoyed by all the tourists there, but hey, except for Sunday and the occasional Wednesday, they're open to the public, so we are allowed to go. We watched the Tuna auction, walked through stalls upon stalls of fish hawkers who had fish in tanks keeping them alive until you wanted them, fish, squid, octopus, and all sorts of other seafood for sale in boxes and we even got to see a guy cut up a sword fish. The weirdest part though was watching the fish die right in front of you...so if you're an animal lover...I'd recommend steering clear of here. We saw fish floundering around on table, crabs that were still alive but had all ready been breaded and we even saw a guy pushing a box out to a truck full of styrofoam boxes where some of the fish weren't even dead yet!

Eventually Mom and I said our goodbyes to Stephanie and her friend Michael and made our way to Tokyo Disney. We

technically didn't go to the park until Tuesday, but as it was a Monday and raining, they're really wasn't much to do in Tokyo. Since some schools in Japan run six days a week, Sunday is essentially they're equivalent of our Saturday, making Monday their Sunday, so all Museums are closed that day. So we couldn't go to any Museums since it was Monday, and because it was raining we couldn't go to any parks...so we decided to go out and explore the Disney Proper.
At Disney we explored the shopping area, called Ikspiari and the Disneyland hotel

which is gorgeous. If you stay there, there are some definite perks, such as your own private line into the park, but you'll pay dearly for it as basic rooms run anywhere from 300-400 a night, off peak. If you feel like exploring, you can take the monorail around if you want, but its 250 Yen for one way and 650 for a full day, so we decided to walk. It really wasn't bad. We also ended up going to the Cirque du Soleil show called ZED, which had its own theater there. I'm a huge Cirque fan ( I go every year to the show that travels to State College with my Aunt) so I loved it, and Mom really enjoyed it too. Words can never sum up a Cirque show, so I'm not even going to try.

At the end of the day, we decided to take an adventure to Yokohama, even though we had no exact idea where we were

going. In the 50s, my Mommom and Poppop lived here because Poppop was stationed here with the navy. My oldest Aunt was even born here...I think she even had dual citizenship until she was an adult and had to choose! I at one point had a Japanese family member! Ha! Anyway....all we really had to go off of was that they lived in Negishi Heights in Yokohama and the house was on a bluff overlooking the bay...

Can I please take this moment to point out that all of Yokohama is situated on a bay and it is the 2nd largest city in Japan?

So we got on the Keihin-Tohoku line towards Yokohama, and lucky us, there was a station called "Negishi" two or three stations past Yokohama station, so we figured that was as good a place as any to get off. We eventually managed to communicate with some locals that we wanted to go to where the Americans in the Navy lived, and they got us on a sort of right bus (the stop we got off at was on the right street...just about half a mile down from where we wanted to be). We wandered around very confused for a while until we saw this sign:

We assumed that we were going in the right direction and kept going until we saw other signs that said that this was the Navy Base. We found a gate that oddly enough had a Japanese man in an American army outfit (I don't understand this at all) playing guard to the housing area...and sure enough, there was the sign for Negishi Heights!!! Mom was so excited :) Unfortunately, after all that traveling (between going there and back, wandering around and all that, I think we spent 3-4 hours trying to find this place) we couldn't get in to see the housing complex...so that was the end of that adventure.

The next day we were up bright and early again to go back to Disney, this time for the park. We figured we'd be golden considering that we got there 45 minutes before gates opened and we had all ready bought our tickets the day before. Ha. Whoever designed Tokyo Disneyland designed it loosely based on the American versions, but did not take into account

how much the Japanese like cutsey things and the fact that its smack dab in between Tokyo and Yokohama, the largest megaopolis in the world. To say it was crowded was an understatement. I have never been so crowded in my life. Ever. It was insane. Whatever you do, do not come to Tokyo Disneyland during a holiday, and if you've all ready been to Disney world or land, I recommend instead going to the more adult Tokyo Disney Sea right next door which is far less crowded. Let's put it this way...in terms of que management, there was...room for vast improvement. I'll put up some pictures, but as its really hard to summarize my day without going on and on for ever...so instead...here's this.

You know you're at Tokyo Disneyland When:

1. You get to the gate 45 minutes before opening and you still have to wait 45 minutes after open to get in
2. Because you can only get a new fast pass every two hours, you're only able to get one, maybe two (if you're lucky) Fast Passes for the entire day, as all Fast passes have been given out by 12 PM
3.Despite having a 'Fast Pass', you still have to wait an hour to ride Space Mountain
4. A 60 minute wait for 'Its A Small World' is considered short
5. Waits of 3+ hours are not at all uncommon
6. You can't walk anywhere because the lines for rides are not as organized as in America and instead of being contained

inside the ride or zig zagging, they extend 500 meters beyond the ride in a straight line
7. You go to ask a lady what ride she's in line for and instead of a ride name, she says "Popcorn"
8. You could easily starve unless you plan out your day accordingly because lines for food are often 45+ minutes.
9. You go climb the Swiss Family Robinson Tree House or go to the Enchanted Tiki Room because that's the only thing you can get on with less than an hour wait
10. You go run around the park for 45 minutes just taking pictures of yourself in front of things because all the rides and shows are full
11. You came over 6000 miles but you can't get tickets to 'One Man's Dream II' because the tickets are given out on a lottery basis and you didn't win

12. There is a line manager for the Ladies bathroom and at some restrooms in the park there are only 2 stalls
13. Everyone but you has come prepared with plastic mats to sit on for the duration of the parade...and takes their shoes off before they sit on them
14. You can actually see the Disney parade because everyone sits
15. 2 or 3 major attractions are closed for maintance, including Pirates of the Caribbean :(
16. Jack Sparrow seeks you out to take a picture with you because he knows you are the only English speaking person he will talk with all day, and he is mystified of how you got there by a "flying boat"
17. ALL the Disney Princesses or major female characters in the parade are played by Western actresses and everyone else is Japanese
18. Everyone and their mother has the giant refillable popcorn buckets around their neck

19. The highlight of your day are the two awesome parades, for which you wait an hour before each one to get good seats
20. The park closes at 10 PM because the trains in Tokyo and Yokohama only run until midnight
21. Every time you buy something, you're asked if you want it charged to your card in one payments or several in case the person you're buying the present for wants to return it, and the cashier person gives you a zillion extra plastic bags to give them to people in
22. You're pretty sure that by the end of the day you've been thanked by every Disney Employee for coming to the park or riding that ride