I got up early this morning to go to Universal Studios Japan with Miss Kageyama. I got out to Akashi at 8 a.m., and then we had prearranged to meet on one of the cars on the Special Rapid Service (shinkaisoku). It worked out pretty well – it’s a great way to meet people. That way they don’t have to get off on the platform and wait around for the next one.
It took about 50 minutes to get to USJ – a lot quicker than I expected. We bought tickets from the JR railroad company before we got there and saved lots of time. We walked towards the park and passed through the “city walk” that is just like the one in Los Angeles. There was a Bubba Gump restaurant, McDonald’s, Wolfgang Puck’s, and other American staples.
Once we got into the park, we walked along amongst thousands of thousands of people, and headed for the rides. The first one we did was Jurassic Park – a water ride that looked pretty tame. It wasn’t too bad, but we did invest in some ponchos from a vending machine in line. Even after wearing the poncho, I got a face full of water – apparently the only person on our boat that even got wet.
After getting doused we went to see the Backdraft attraction – I thought it would be a good idea to warm up a bit. We had lunch at Mel’s Drive In, and then walked aimlessly around the park for a while. After walking for a bit we went to the Back to the Future ride, and had our picture taken there. The guy taking the picture got us to smile by saying “Back… To… The… PICTURE!” Imagine that in a Japanese accent – it was really funny.
Walking around the park I saw that they had hired lots of foreigners like me to work there. I expected more foreigners to be among the guests, but I’d say that I saw maybe only one or two others that looked like patrons. Walking around with Miss Kageyama earned me a lot more stares, but I just take it as an opportunity to smile and nod at people. I think some were wondering if I was an employee – during a parade there were foreign guys walking around in sunglasses and a suit – and they were supposed to be “movie stars”. They just walked around and waved, and the crowds ate it up. Maybe I can get a job here if when my teaching gig ends.
The Back to the Future ride was a lot of fun – and all the rides I would guess have an American equivalent somewhere. The actors in the ride’s videos spoke in dubbed Japanese. I missed a little bit during the rides because I wasn’t catching the narration, but it was still fun.
We finally finished up at USJ and went back into Osaka. Miss Kageyama knows a lot more about Osaka and so she pointed us in the right direction to find a good bookstore (found a couple of good kanji and Japanese grammar books). She took me to a big shopping center, and at the top was a Ferris wheel. The mall was packed with people, but the Ferris wheel was relatively quiet, so we took a trip around that. It was a full sized Ferris wheel, so if you can imagine how high you go on a regular one, try one on top of a seven story building. Wow! I got some great pictures from up there.
Afterwards we went over to a Korean restaurant that looked appealing. It was a “take your shoes off” kind of place, and we sat down and had some really excellent spicy Korean dishes. Almost everything was much spicier than traditional Japanese fare, and I had a great meal.
We were looking at the menu, and Miss Kageyama pointed out a drink called Jima, and said that she was going to get that. I had never heard of it, so I ordered one, and when they arrived, I was surprised the see that we had ordered Zima. I was hoping to try some traditional Korean beverage, and I got a Zima. Oh well, it was actually better than I was expecting.
After dinner we walked back to the train station and headed back. We were both pretty tired from running around, but it turned out to be a lot of fun.
