Japanese Diary -Arriving in Japan, Part 2

So, where were we when I left off at part one? Arriving in Osaka I guess! It was the first time I had ever flown domestically so to be honest, I was not expecting the simplicity. I mean, it sounds stupid but I wasn't expecting it to be so quick! I flew between Haneda Airport and Itami, and it was a really pleasant short flight, actually! Just over an hour, but there was so much complimentary food and they brought drinks round every 5 minutes!

 

Osaka!!

 Upon arriving at Itami I got a taxi to my new home for a year-ish. The airport is actually in the middle of the city so it's kind of cool to see it from a distance, looks like the planes are landing right between the buildings! So the taxi pulls up outside where I am staying, the security guard comes out to help me with my bags and open the huge entrance gates for me, pretty much from that point on it became a surreal dream. One thing I was really lucky about was to have the previous au pair girl still there for two weeks. The very sweet Maiken from Norway, if it wasn't for her I would have been so much more lost and panicky. She gave me so much advice and instruction both before and after my arrival. She had also told me that the house was really big but I still underestimated it and didn't really believe it till I arrived. 

Scale model of the house...

The house is kind of a mix between some huge English mansion, with marble floors and statues, and huge crystal chandeliers, and a traditional Japanese house, with tatami flooring, a tea house, even an onsen style outdoor bath. As I said, it feels totally surreal to be here and I'm still not sure if I really am! So, obviously I am here to work, as an au pair to the couple that live here, and lets not forget the best bit; they don't have children, I am au pairing for their two poodle puppies. Yeah, dream job. Their names are Shiro and Kuro, translating to white and black, from Japanese. Incase you were wondering, Shiro is the white poodle, Kuro is the black one :)

 

So not only are the couple really sweet, the dogs are great (though really really naughty at times) although they take very little looking after, so most of my work is cleaning and tidying the house and gardens, which as you can imagine is a lot of work. It can be quite varied though, as there are so many things to do. It can range from scrubbing the floor, to sweeping leaves, to making rice, so far my favourite tasks are grocery shopping and taking the dogs out, though I do dislike going outside for any other reason. Somehow, I am a magnet for bugs, especially ones that bite, so it doesn't matter how much mosquito repellent I wear, I will always come inside covered in marks. I now sleep with a pesticide near my head as they bite my face in the night, isn't that sad? The main problem though is just how many bugs Japan has. The answer is too many, and they are all so damn big, I mean giant versions of normal bugs, and it's terrifying. I could actually go on for ages about the bugs, but maybe I should leave that for another blog. Or maybe I should just leave it altogether... 

Aaaaaaaaanyway. 

So I've been here a month now, I feel like I should quickly summarise a few of the things that have happened, and some of them will be getting their own posts too! So, I was shown all the best shopping spots in Osaka by Maiken, including my new favourite clothes shop called Secret Honey, and most importantly, the Pokemon Center. I have frequented the Pokemon Center many times, and there are many more times to come.

We went to Wakayama Adventure World! This is an amazing Safari Park/Zoo/Research Center and we  had a great time there!

Maiken left Japan two weeks after I arrived, and then I had to continue on my own from there... It hasn't been too bad though, I think I have mastered the trains and busses now, and getting around is just so easy!

I started my Japanese Lessons! Its a free volunteer-based thing, but I feel like it's really good for me, and I'll write more about this one at some point.

FOOD. I have eaten so much good food in Japan. I've tried Osaka's speciality, Okonomiyaki, and I've eaten so much cake! I've also learnt how to cook a few dishes myself. I think food deserves it's own blog post at some point.

I've also joined a boardgames group/club? I've only been once so far (next meet is next month) but it was tons of fun and I think it was a super great way to make friends.

Ah, to be honest this last month has passed by so fast, I'm probably missing quite a few things that I can't even remember any more! I hope I can do more frequent (but maybe shorter) posts and try and record all the cool things that happen here on a daily basis, thats a much better plan.

So for now, またね〜 From Osaka, I really hope I don't slip up on updating this thing, but I forgot how hard blogging was!

Japanese Diary - Tokyo Disney Resort, Land and Sea!

Obviously bought a Minnie Mouse Headband

Tokyo DisneyLand and DisneySea! My excitement cannot be hidden!

Disney was always going to be one of my favourite parts of my stop in Tokyo, this was my third time to Tokyo Disneyland, but my first to DisneySea, and I was absolutely not disappointed. We went to DisneyLand on the first day, which was definitely the best decision (more on that when I get to the bit about Sea!), and it wasn't even too busy! We managed to do every major attraction we wanted, and loads of smaller ones too! The biggest disappointment for me though was that 'Star Tours' was closed for improvements! We still came back to check it hadn't reopened through the day though, and at one point there were a bunch of Stormtroopers hanging around. But I was too slow to get a photo with them, boo! As that was meant to be our first stop, we then proceeded to my favourite roller coaster, Space Mountain! To be honest I think Tomorrowland is my favourite area of DisneyLand (and that makes me super psyched that they've made a film about it!) and we ended up spending a pretty big chunk of our time there, between wandering back and forth the other areas and rides. So we covered all the major rides, Space Mountain, Haunted Mansion, Thunder Mountain, Splash Mountain (I got absolutely soaked by the way, and no one else was even that damp :/), It's a small World, Pirates of the Caribbean etc. etc. Though I want to add the animatronics on the rides that have them were absolutely amazing! Pirates of the Caribbean could easily have been real people and Jack Sparrow was spot on... We ate a ton of great, cute food too (of course) didn't get a chance to eat my favourite pizza but the food we did eat was amazing, just look at these waffles!

Disney themed strawberry custard waffles
- how could I not?

The Electric Parade was one of the most
beautiful things ever!

I think one of the highlights though was the parades! It was still the Easter festival, so in the day it was the Easter parade, so lively and exciting! Didn't get a video or anything thought as I was just too in awe, but go look up a video on you tube, the song was so catchy! In the evening though, it was something really special! The Tokyo electrical parade was probably one of the most beautiful things I've seen! Millions of tiny LED's lit up the floats, characters and costumes and it was so creative and I highly recommend staying to watch it if it's on, it's amazing! 
Thought unfortunately, as the parade was just ending it started to rain, so the fireworks were cancelled, which is a shame because last year when I went they were cancelled too because of strong winds, and I was really looking forward to them! So after the parade we left, exhausted, knowing we were going to be back in, I think it was less than about 10 hours!

The first thing to greet you as you enter
Disneysea!

So this was my first time to DisneySea, as I said, and I was REALLY excited. As I also said, we definitely chose the best day to go, as it was inconsistently raining all day, but not too much, and that meant the park was super empty! I don't think we had a queue longer than 35 minutes, we didn't even need to use our fast-passes and we went on most rides at least twice!
So DisneySea is 100% my favourite theme park I have ever been to, ever. Maybe I just don't remember Disney Florida well enough? But trust me, DS is amazing. From the huge Volcano in the centre of the park (that occasionally erupts, and is also a rollercoaster!) to the outline of Hotel Hightower in the distance (Tower of Terror!), there is tons to explore in between, and this Disney is definitely a different experience from any other Disney Park. 

Ariels Lagoon!

You have 7 'ports-of-call' to explore, Mediterranean Harbor, Mysterious Island, Mermaid Lagoon, Arabian Coast, Lost River Delta, Port Discovery and American Waterfront, and there's seriously so many unique attractions at all of them I wish I could have gone back more days (Definitely planning to go again!). The ride I have to recommend the most though is Journey to the center of the Earth. We went on it twice, and despite the ride stopping for 10 minutes with us in a dark room on the first run, it was still absolutely incredible and I would happily go on it again and again! Not to spoil to much but if you love super fast paced rides then you will love this, and you will also probably not expect any of it. Another one of my favourites was Tower of Terror, of course! I have only been on the one in Florida for comparison, but I know for a fact this is a very different experience to that one. The concept is the same, it's still a terrifying drop ride, but this one has a unique story as it is not part of The Twilight Zone like all the others are. We only got to ride it once, but to be honest the story (and effects!) were freaky enough that once was enough.To be honest, the more I think about it, the more favourites I may have to add to this list, because we also rode the Indiana Jones ride twice, just as dramatic the second time (and I also had to comfort a terrified Japanese lady who didn't like roller coasters) and I want to special mention the Toy Story Shooting game, the 3D effects were incredible and it was so much fun! (Though my score was 59,000 I think, and high score of the day was over 2 Million!)
Though we didn't stay for the night parade, we did catch the end of the daytime one (after coming out of lunch, a beautiful Italian Restaurant in Mini Venice, part of Mediterranean harbour!) and it was fantastic! The center of Mediterranean harbour is, of course, a harbour, so the parade was on boats! It was really lively and colourful, with some really cute characters making a big appearance (Such as Marie the Aristocat and Stitch!) and then there were JETSKIS. I don't really know why I found this part so exciting but I did, haha.

The volcano in the centre was amazing!

The Volcano in Action!

It's completely possible that this blog may have gone on a bit longer than I intended it too, whoops! But it's super difficult to contain my enthusiasm about Disney, or theme parks, so this was inevitable really! If there's anything I didn't specifically cover here that you might be wondering about Tokyo Disney Resort, please leave me a comment and I'll get back to you!

So for now, またね〜 From Osaka, and I'm hoping to have the rest of my settling in blog by the end of this week and then a proper diary should be starting, about time! I've been here over a month already! Waaah Time really does fly~

Japanese diary - Arrival in Japan, Part One

こんにちは、みんなさん！
Hi everyone!
This is going to be the start of my hopefully weekly diary (that I will try and upload every Sunday,  apparently!) although this first entry will be a little longer as its been more than two weeks since I arrived here now and a lot has happened including a few busy days in Tokyo and settling in to my new 'home' here in Osaka.

First I think it best if I start from the beginning of my trip, which began by leaving from London Heathrow at 6am, on the 14th May, with my little sister Ellie. It was a long day of travel, and actually a lot of it seems like a hazy memory from long ago and it seems strange to think it was only a few weeks ago! From Heathrow we flew to Rome, to catch a connecting flight to Tokyo. We had quite a long transit in Rome, 5 hours, and also a stressful few minutes before we we're about to board when we thought we might be in the wrong terminal (we weren't!), but we managed to eat an authentic Italian pizza and charge our phones whilst we hung around. The flight wasn't too bad, the food was actually really good! And I managed to watch Lego Movie, Frozen and Big Hero 6, so I was pretty entertained.
Arriving in Tokyo, Ellie and I planned to stay for 5 days before I flew out to Osaka and she left for new Zealand!

I think we covered quite a lot in Tokyo, we visited all the main shopping districts except Akihabara, spent a day at Ueno zoo and managed to visit both Disney Parks (land and sea) in two consecutive days, though we we're completely exhausted by the end of it. I think I'd really love to give the Disney resorts their own post, so I'll save that till I have internet access on my laptop and can upload all my hundreds of Disney photos!

Ueno zoo I still have slightly mixed feelings about, although it was amazing to see some of the animals we did, some enclosures we're just not as spacious and looked after as I wanted them to be. And I now know this isn't just a cultural thing as I have since been to another zoo in Japan (Wakayama adventure world, it will get it's own post!) And I know the animals there were very very well cared for. Really, I think Ueno zoo could do with upping it's entrance fees, it was just so cheap to get in (I've actually forgotten how much but definitely less than ¥500) and if it was a little more they might be able to improve a few of the enclosures with that money. Though it was kind of a negative visit,  I still enjoyed the day and some parts weren't bad, there was a very impressive Vivarium and nocturnal house, and the petting zoo area was very cute!

So apart from the zoo and Disney, I mentioned already that we went to all the major shopping districts (except akiba) despite the fact neither of us had a single inch of space in our luggage! We spent a lot of time in Shibuya mostly, going for the Hachiko statue and staying for shibuya109. If anyone reading this doesn't know the story of Hachi, please go look it up immediately, especially if you love dogs or animals at all. Its one of my favourite true stories of all time, and will make you cry. Shibuya109 is the iconic shop on the other side the scramble crossing from the Hachiko exit of the train station. A huge 10 story fashion store filled with tons of small boutiques and shops, covering all the different styles from Gothic to high street fashion to super cute, with even a few sports fashion stores thrown in. Yeah that's a thing.
As well as Shibuya, we spent almost a whole day in Harajuku, Takeshita dori will always be one of my favourites even though it's so difficult to navigate!

To be honest,  I probably left this entry a little late to write, as I realise now I'm already a bit foggy on a lot of the details. I think for now, I'm going to make this a part one, part two will cover my initial few weeks in Osaka (I know you're all dead excited!) And I also have a ton to write about Disney and Wakayama and everything, but luckily I'm finally getting internet on my laptop on Thursday so that should make it a lot easier to write up these entries!

So for now, またね~ from Osaka and keep tuned for more of my exciting adventures!