Meet my new friend, Mr. Mate.

I’m skipping church today because I was just unable to get up from my bed no matter how hard I try. Okay, I admit that maybe I didn’t try hard enough but you get my point. This made me wonder because I don’t feel THAT tired but obviously my body said otherwise. Or maybe, that was because my bed felt so warm. Or maybe, that was because I was having a really good dream that I can’t remember what but I remember that my family was there, which was a relief because recently I’ve been having a series of nightmare that made me tired when I got up. But actually, having a good dream always leave me feeling a little sad and lonely when I wake up because of the realization that the good things that happened was only a dream and is not currently happening, or maybe even impossible to happen, in real life. Having nightmare, on the other hand, leave me feeling relieved when I got up because it was only a dream and I’m safe in real life. That being said, now I’m confused if I rather have a nightmare or a good dream.

I was talking to my dad over Skype this afternoon when suddenly I felt a small earthquake. It didn’t last long so I continued talking to him while it happened and told him that there was an earthquake, at which he asked why I didn’t sway left and right. I had to explain that if he was able to see things moved, he should start worrying about me because it has to be a pretty big earthquake to make such thing happen.

At least it's food

By the way, around 5 p.m. I got hungry and to lazy to go out to buy something to eat so I decided to do my first attempt on cooking that I’ve been postponed for a long time. I randomly threw onion, garlic, mushroom, and some slices of meat as Natalia told me (well, at least as I remember Natalia told me). As the seasoning I just put some amount of soy sauce, sugar, and salt and didn’t even tasted it because I was afraid the meat will burn if I think too much. After all, my goal is only to cook something edible that’s not fried egg or that dumpling they sold in convenience store that you only need to throw to some hot oil. Seeing that I’m still alive and kicking, I think I reached my goal alright and it actually tasted OK seeing on how I wasn’t scrunching up my face at every bite. Of course, for some people it might taste bad but because I’ve never been fussy about my food as long as I got food, I can live with that.

As usual, after exam I don’t have the mood to do anything except for treating my self some hours in the internet or other happy stuff, so I decided to go home. I went to my lab first to get the lab MacBook in case I suddenly have the mood to work in the weekend (in most cases, never) and was surprised by the sight of one of my lab member sleeping in a sleeping bag behind my desk. Afraid of disturbing him, after posting to twitter that I’m alive, I quickly excused myself and met Camilla at the station. We decided to go to Tokyu Square and when Camilla went looking for some clothes, I went to Village Vanguard, a “book store” which is not only bookstore but also sells “exciting” and unique stuff. I went to one in Odaiba, but I’ve never knew that they had one store in Aobadai. I always like pretty/cute and unique stuff so it was a sweet torture for me to be in that kind of places because I want to buy them all but obviously I don’t have the money. Even when I have the money to buy something, my brain will always scream about how useless that thing is and what a waste of money to buy it. Like today, I wanted to buy a mask to scare people in my presentation, but it was more than 1,500 yen and I’m NOT going to invest that amount of money on scaring people. Though it would be interesting………….

I bought this because this, on the other hand, is not useless. Perfect drink for curious people.

On a completely unrelated note, I’m officially hating my shower. The tap in our dorm bathroom used the kind of tap where you can choose for the water to run to the sink or to the bath. Before I turn on the shower, I usually test the water temperature using the sink tap because it usually take a long time for the hot water to run. I learnt that jumping into the shower without checking the temperature first and being unable to breathe because the water is still freezing cold when you think it’s warm is not the best idea. The problem is that recently no matter how much I adjust the hot water and cold water, it won’t get warm. Funnily, once I turn the switch into the shower mode, the water ALWAYS suddenly got too warm and no matter how much I adjust the temperature, which resulting in me cursing under my breath while trying to avoid the water in panic.

Pi~ ka~ chu!!!!!!!!!!!

This guy is popular among children who were playing with their moms

These past two days I have been leaving early from the lab to work on my Japanese as we will have an exam tomorrow. Yesterday I went to the lab after our Topic on Japan class in which we discussed the strength, weakness, opportunities, and threats of Japan, and determined that I won’t be staying there for more than an hour. I ended up staying for almost two hours because I decided to do some of the practice exam they gave us in Japanese class and my curiosity get the better of me and I refused to leave before I finished all questions. If only I can be that determined every day… After finally getting the idea of the differences between “ni” and “de” (thanks to Andy-senpai), I went home and stopped by “まいばすけと” on the way to my dorm to buy some stocks (read: instant ramen and cereals). At the night, I had dinner at the ramen-ya near our dorm which was actually a pretty bad decision because the serving size is always ridiculously big and I got sleepy when we had our study session later that night.

Speaking about Japanese exam, at the last Japanese class Yoshizawa-sensei gave us some sample question as practice exam. This past days we’ve been working on remembering words, which was why when we got the practice exam I was a bit confused. If the exam will be similar to the practice exam, then we don’t really have to know the meaning of the words because the questions basically only require us to conjugate verbs and put it into the right form according to the sentence patterns. They even gave us the verb, so we only need to figure out how to change it into the correct form. That was why last night we changed our learning strategy into memorizing all the sentence pattern instead of the words. I somehow have the feeling that I will depend entirely depend on my feeling in the exam rather than on my memory, which was more a bad news than a good news because my Japanese-language feeling hasn’t been trained enough to be able to do a Japanese final exam.

View from our room balcony when the snow fell down. I thank my heater for defrosting me after taking this photo.

The school's brown grasses was covered by snow, and the sky was amazingly blue

I spent today morning trying to do my research and attending a lab meeting. I finally tested to use the feature vectors I’ve been trying to work on these past few weeks as an input model and I got some result, a progress that I’m currently happy with even though according to my professor when I asked him later today, I’m doing it a little bit wrong. I also asked him about some things I don’t understand from the paper which I’m supposed to follow in this research, but ended up more confused and since I assumed that this was because my lack of knowledge, I decided to tell my professor that I’d try something, which means more reading this week. Besides that, the final exam of our Japanese class will be held this Friday, and I’m a little bit scared because I still can’t remember the meaning of many words and often stumbled on choosing particle. Oh well, I’m sure it will be alright; I’ll just put “ni” on everything if I really have to.

After lunch today, I spent most, if not all, of my time chatting with Arlan (known better as “Chocolate Gorilla”) via MSN. I asked him to teach me some statistic test because my statistic skill is non-existent, and I think I have to do some statistic test in my current research. I told him wrongly yesterday that I’m supposed to do t-test and ANOVA, while in fact I have to do chi-square test and ANOVA. He was trying to teach me something while I continuously threw him silly questions like “What’s degree of freedom?” after he explained about it less than 2 minutes before (I’ve told you, my statistics knowledge is non-existent) but I still understand nothing and decided that I will try to learn things on my own before bombarding him with my stupid questions again. The discussion went to many random directions, and at some points I threaten to cut Shin-chan‘s private part so he can’t make it an elephant again because Arlan threaten to tell Shin-chan’s fans that I said he’s a liar because he claimed to be able to walk by his butt alone. He then posted my exact line to twitter which further tainted my already tainted reputation among his followers.

Last Friday night, some of us had a poker night at Umegaoka Dormitory, which was my first time playing poker and was pretty fun aside from the fact that I lost. The next day, there was a TISA sport competition in our campus in which some Indonesian won, especially in badminton. The next day, I went to church and after church, I went to Dani-senpai dorm at Nagatsuta, and Natalia came later and then we cooked together (well… uh, I, uh, cut the onion and chicken. That counts!) and had meal together. After that, we went to Apita and Super Viva Home in which I bought a cute pink umbrella for 500 yen. After that, Dani-senpai went back home while Natalia and I went to OK Store in Nagatsuta that has many cheap snacks, in which I went to a snack-shopping spree which made my part of cabinet rather full of them lately. So far, I managed not to eat all the snacks in 2 days, which is an achievement for me.

The interesting part is the next day, which was also a holiday, “Coming of Age Day” when all people who turned 20 invited to the city hall and they had ceremonies with girls wearing furisode, and boys wear suits or hakama. Actually I completely forgot about that day until I saw some girls wearing colorful kimono in a station, so too bad I didn’t have any photos of them :( One of the other reason why I forgot is that on that day, Dani-senpai, Natalia, and I planned to go to a all-you-can-eat pizza place at Miyamaedaira. It’s located near the station and it cost only around 1,200 yen. We got one main dishes that we can choose, and I choose a ハンバガ steak with fried potatoes and sausages, which was delicious. We also got a all-you-can-drink that we can take at the drink bar, and although the drink bar was not as good as the one that ガスト or even Saizeriya had, I think it’s pretty okay because they had almost everything like tea, coffee, orange juice, and soda (how I hoped they had chocolate too…). Some waiters go around distributing pizza, and we keep eating so many pizza that I eventually got really full and felt so sick, which led to a decision that I don’t want to see any more pizzas for at least two months.

By the way, I wanted to congratulate some friends in my year back in my home university that has completed the presentation of their bachelor thesis (I just realized that I had no idea what this event is called in English. Anyone?)! Good luck with the revision :p Also, for my friends who are going to had the presentation, good luck with it. I’m actually a bit envious earlier this week, especially because I could have graduated this semester if only I didn’t choose to come to Japan :( Of course, some may said that I’ll have a different experience and that not everyone had the chance to do this, but I still felt kind of sad that I couldn’t graduate together with my close friends, and even with most of the students who are in the same year with me because it usually takes 4 years to get a bachelor degree in Indonesia (which means next semester), but I have to do 4.5 years because I came here. But then, I stopped to think what I want to do after I graduate, and realized that I haven’t had the slightest idea, and then I feel thankful that I’m not going to graduate soon. Good luck with that, soon-to-be-graduated friends :p

Lately, the wind has been blowing really strong that it felt even colder although the temperature hasn’t dropped that much (it’s still around 5-9 degree Celsius, based on yahoo weather). The sun’s always shining brightly yet I always feel cold whenever I go outside, which makes no sense to me because back home if sun’s shining that bright, you better stay inside because it felt like hell outside.

I dig the blue uniform

The security check, I hate to say this, kind of useless. First, they searched our bags (where I was told by the security personnel that I couldn’t bring any drinks inside with body language so I have to drink all of it first) and then we had to walk a bit to the body check area where they search our body. The reason why I said it’s useless is this. Take me for example, at the luggage check area, I put my camera and cellphone in my coat pocket. The lady in front of me was told to turn on all of her electronic devices to prove it really are electronic devices not some bomb remote, but I wasn’t told to do so because they were in my coat pocket and the staff didn’t check my pocket when he checked my bag. After the luggage check area, there are some empty area and I gathered with out group while drinking my drinks, and because next was body check and I felt that it would be a hassle if I have to turn on all of my electronic device when the staff found it when they search my body, I moved all of them into my bag. In the body check area, the staff searched my body but of course… she didn’t check my bag. Of course no security threat happened in my case because it was only a pink camera and a black cellphone with pink-bunny phone strap, but now imagine other scenarios and change the camera and cellphone with gun. Or bomb. Now I sincerely hope that no terrorist read this blog and get an idea.

The crowd

Security holes aside, there were so many security personnel guarding the process. After the security check, we walk through a long, long gravel pathway and our route was guarded by so many polices with uniform and without uniforms. There was also some men using camera with long lenses, but I doubted he was actually taking photograph. Maybe he used the camera as a kind of hidden telescope or something (yes, I watch to many spy movies). After a long, long walk that were filled with a discussion how sun was colored as red in Japanese flag and blue in some African flag while we usually draw it with yellow and orange, we finally arrived at the Kyuden Totei Plaza in front of the Chowaden Hall and we waited for the emperor and his family to come out. There was already so many people so we could only see the balcony where the emperor would appear in. While we were waiting, there is a announcement that told people to not lift their flags too high when the emperor came out. When the emperor came out around 10.50, I finally figured out what the announcement was for because everyone started lifting their flag and waved them around so it made a flapping noise, and if everybody lift it as high as they could, the people on the back side wouldn’t be able to see at all.

It was like this in every direction

It was really hard to see the imperial family because I was quite far away and of course, there is a sea of flag everywhere. I was hoping the emperor and his family would wear a traditional costumes but they just wear formal attires. Well, I guess it’s for the sake of practicality. The emperor then spoke and delivered his greeting to the public, and it was in Japanese so I gave up trying to understand anything and listening to the charismatic voice of the emperor instead. After a while, it was over and everyone starting to waved their flag again and the imperial family wave their hands before they went in to the palace again. We then started to move out with the crowd while discussing whether it’s a blessing or not to be a member of imperial family, either by marriage or blood. It was really crowded but finally we reached the Imperial Household Agency building and took some photos.

The emperor's giving his greeting

The Imperial Household Agency building

Because we had nothing to do that day anyway (Sae decided to went home), we decided to walk to see the famous Nippon Budokan where some concerts as some famous musicians such as the Beatles was held, although it was originally built for judo competition, hence the name “Budokan” (martial arts hall). Michael told us a story that because there is a structure that shaped like a big onion on the top of the roof, sometimes people said that the event held under the big onion (大きな玉ねぎの下で). There was a T.M. Revolution New Year Live being held there when we went there. One surprising thing was when we went to the parking lot and ask one of the staff to take a picture of us, he asked where we were from and after we said that we’re Indonesian, he instantly said “Aku cinta kepadamu” (“I love you” in Indonesian) with a perfect pronunciation. After that he took a photo of us while instructing us in perfect English. We then walked toward the exit while discussing the language skill of the old man in awe.

Can you see the 'onion'?

We were discussing what to eat when Lyta-senpai told us that the area was very close from Yasukuni-jinja which was dedicated for soldiers that died in war. There is also a museum which held the history of Japanese war, which was controversial because the museum shows what some would say a twisted history of World War II that was seen from Japan perspective. I won’t discuss this controversial topic (you can easily google it to find out more), but I have to admit that was confused (and a little bit annoyed) when I first heard that in Japanese history it was said that Indonesian independence was given by Japan, which might be refer to the event where Soekarno was called to Vietnam but I believe by that time Japan has already surrendered to the allies and therefore has no more rights to give us independence, reason why some of the youth leaders ‘kidnapped’ Soekarno to convince him to declare independence. But enough for this topic (again, google it). I was actually pretty interested to visit the museum, but because we were extremely hungry and there were no cheap restaurant close by, we decided to go to Asakusa to eat and pay our first visit to the temple in the year (初詣). It was supposed to be shinto shrine, but because Lyta-senpai and Michael was Buddhist and they wanted to visit the temple to pray, so the rest of us (Arif-senpai and Tirto-senpai decided to go home) just tagged along.

This wide street in Asakusa is usually used for cars

What was interesting in Asakusa when we arrived that the usual wide road that are used for car was closed and was used for walking instead. We then eat at a something-soba place that use fish soup and noodle that looked like ramen, with a very big portion. I ordered a medium one but I nearly unable to finish all of that. After the delicious meal, we walked to the temple. It was really crowded when we walk along Nakamise-dori to the Senso-ji and there were some police holding board to instruct people when to stop to wait for the people in front to finish, and when to walk. When we arrived to the area where people pray, we were pushed for every possible direction and Natalia, Tata, and I decided to move aside while Lyta-senpai and Michael prayed.

After that, we decided to walk to the main street to go home, which means a long ride for us Umegaoka residence from using Ginza line to Shibuya and continue to use Den-en-toshi line to Fujigaoka. I spent my time sleeping along the Ginza line (Natalia had to wake me up when we’re about the arrive). From Shibuya I tried to read a Doraemon manga a lab member gave me to help improving my Japanese and only managed to finish 1 page in the 1 hour trip, which is why I made it my New Year’s Resolution to be able to finish 10 page in the same train ride.

I think I repeated that phrase way too much.

In Indonesia, I usually spend my New Year’s Eves with family, as in my ethnicity culture (Batak Karo) New Year’s Eve and the first day of new year are really important and supposed to be spent together with family. In New Year’s Eve, the tradition is to pray together with family members, asking for forgiveness for past mistakes, talk about feelings (which usually brought tears to the mothers), shaking hands and giving hugs, and then (my favorite) eat cakes. Usually we also play with fireworks or watch big fireworks. I spent most of my new year eves with my extended family, either from my mom’s or dad’s side, so new year’s eves for us kids is the day when we meet our cousins and allowed to play all night without anyone telling us to sleep (well, our moms usually do after 1 a.m., but by this time we’re tired already anyway, so it didn’t count). This year, however, while my family was spending theirs camping and freezing somewhere at the feet of Mount Tangkuban Parahu, I was, for the first time in my life, spending my new year’s eves with some friends. In Japan.

On the last day of 2011, I woke up at 10.30 a.m. after sleeping for 10 hours because I was saving my energy for the night, which I know will be a sleepless one. I was planning to spend it with some Indonesian friends in Arif-senpai’s apato near Tsunashima Station. People from Umegaoka Dormitory was planning to go at 12 p.m. so I spent my spare time for eating breakfast and staring at my laptop’s screen. After doing the ritual of checking if I already put my cellphone, PASMO card, money, and camera on my bag, and checking whether the battery and memory card are attached in my camera (you’ll never know), we went walking to Aobadai Station to meet a friend and then board the train there. We got off at Eda station and took a bus to Tsunashima Station, which was rather a long and boring ride. Arif-senpai was already waiting for us with Tsunashima Station, and then before going to his house we stopped by a snack shop (where everyone goes crazy buying snacks), supermarket, and a fruit and vegetable shop (where we buy 2 big pack of bananas for only 39 yen each). After that, we walked to his house through a route that pass beside a river called Tsurumigawa (鶴見川) which reminded us of some scenes in shonen manga/anime in which the main character was fighting with deliquents at the river bank when the train passes through.

Perfect spot for some Jump's seishun action scenes

Also, we saw this. People with not-so-innocent minds like me will instantly understand what kind of place that is.

Clue: No, it's not the parking fee

We then reached Arif-senpai place, which was a room that was pretty spacious for someone living alone and consisted of a kitchen, bathroom, and another room that is used for bedroom and other function. When we were waiting, we figured out that there’s Digimon anime in someone’s HD and went to instant nostalgia that made me watched 3 episodes of digimon. After eating nearly all the snack that we bought, some of us decided to have a late lunch at a nearby Saizeria before going to the river bank to watch the last sunset of the year. Too bad, we came a little bit too late so the sun was hidden behind the clouds already. So, we took some photos at the river bank instead, and the view was beautiful especially because of the reflection of the sky on the water.

Guess which one's the reflection~

We then went back and some other people came. After everyone came, we ate dinner together and had some chat. It was a little crowded in the room, but the food was delicious so no one protested :p As usual, there were some random and hillarious jokes so it was hard to keep breathing especially after my stomach was full.

Yumm :9

After dinner, we decided to watch some movies together. We were planning to watch “Summer Wars” but because no one had it and it failed when we tried to downloaded it, we decided to watch “Tonari no Totoro” and had a good laugh calling some characters by someone’s name whose face resembled in the characters. Of course, the movie wasn’t so funny anymore after Natalia showed this scary story about someone’s analysis of the fact behind Totoro, but it was still a good movie. After that, we watched an Indonesia thriller movie, “Rumah Dara“, but it wasn’t even half of the movie when everyone felt tired seeing people being chopped off and decided to just skip the movie to give us the overview of the story. We still had a good laugh when we saw the scene of the main antagonist saying to the heroine that they were served human meat earlier and askes “DELICIOUS, ISN’T IT??????” in Indonesian with an epic expression (this phrase has been our first repeated inside joke of the year). We then tried to watched “Hotaru no Haka“, which I watched already but wouldn’t mind to re-watch, but then we got bored and decided to open youtube, searching for music video, and do a karaoke in the room. By the time we finished singing “Fool Again“, it was new year. Everyone cheered, and then we felt tired and decided to sleep.

The first difficulty we faced in 2012 was the sleeping arrangement. Even after some people went home, we were still 15 people and the room was definitely not constructed to fit that number of people. Moreover, it was cold and there’s not enough blanket for all of us. Having no choice, we packed ourselves so that everyone got a small area to sleep. After laughing too much over some random comments, we slept (or at least we tried to) and I can report that I was unable to move even a millimeter that night. Also, the curtain was somehow a bit opened and the light of a street lamp shone straight into my face. However, I think I got a pretty decent 3 hours sleep considering all of that.

We had to wake up super early because we wanted to catch the first train to go to Enoshima beach to see the first sunrise of the year. It is called Hatsuhinode (初日の出) in Japanese tradition. We woke up at 4.30 a.m. and rush to the station without even washed our faces and brush our teeth because we had to catch the train at 5.04 at Tsunashima station. The train was pretty empty when we board the Toyoko line to Yokohama station, but when we took the Tokaido line from there to Fujisawa Station, it was pretty crowded. We speculated that everyone is going to Enoshima too, and we were right. When we got off at the Fujisawa Station, most people also got off and took either the Odakyu Enoshima line and Enoshima Enoden line to Enoshima. By the time we reached the beach (around 6.20 a.m.), it was already crowded but luckily the sun was still behind the clouds.

Less than 1/20 of the crowd

We joined the crowd at the beach and took some photos and eat some bananas while waiting for the sunrise, which were supposed to be at 6.50 a.m. The second problem we faced in the new year was: it was cloudy, so we couldn’t see the sun rising “from the sea” at 6.50 a.m. because our view was blocked by the clouds. Damn clouds. We were tempted to go because it was really cold, but we decided to wait for some more time because many people are still waiting near the beach. I’m thankful that we decided to wait, because when the sun finally risen above the clouds, the view was stunning and the golden ray was shining upon us and reflected by the blue sea. I pray that even if we had to face some “clouds” this year, at our time we will also find our way to rise like the first sun of the year, and people will finally be able to see our golden light :)

There you are, sunny!

We then took some walk to the Enoshima island and on the way we found some noisy weird-shaped cars which were driven by some people who looks like Japanese gangsters. After watching some crowds queuing to the nearest Shinto shrine, we decided to search for a place to eat (which in the end was Saizeriya again) and when we walked in a bridge to cross the sea, we found out that we could see a blurry image of Mount Fuji from afar.

Blurry indeed

On the side note, Japanese believe that the first dream of the year (初夢) would foretell the luck of the dreamer in that year. After watching “Rumah Dara”, Lyta-senpai told us this morning that she couldn’t sleep well because she dreamt that we were trapped in a house and being hunted by a killer. I sincerely hope that this dream doesn’t have a foretelling power at all, because being hunted by a killer were definitely not my idea of a good year.

p.s. I was going to post this when there was suddenly a long and rather big earthquake. Pfft.

There are some interesting things happening though. First: On my way to church on Christmas Eve, “Mission Impossible 4: Ghost Protocol” advertisement posters were displayed in all the advertisement slots in the Den-en-toshi line train I used. When I said “all”, I did mean that all of the cars of the train were full of MI4 ads. All 6 cars, I wonder how much they paid for that.

Impossibru!!

Second: the church I attended also had this routine of singing “Silent Night” on Christmas services. In my church in Indonesia, we usually turn off the lamp and light little candles as we sing it. It’s the same with this church, but being in Japan, a country that use ‘convenience’ so much, they used these candle-shaped lamps which they distribute to all the people attending the service at the door. とても便利です。Lastly, I’ve already heard that Japanese somehow associate Christmas with the day where you eat chicken. Particularly KFC. That’s why, if you want to eat KFC at 23rd-25th, you have to book your chicken pieces beforehand. I didn’t believe that it was that serious until Inkeri and I went to KFC for dinner on Christmas Eve and somehow figure out the staff telling us in Japanese that we couldn’t order a chicken because all 500 pieces of it was already booked for that day. Japan, you never fail to amuse me.

Benri 'candle'

Anyway, these last few days have been eventful. At 26th, I had a　忘年会 with my lab and the food was really great. At the night of 27th, I went with some Indonesian friends (we were 22 people, to be precise) to Nagano for a skiing trip. We departed from Shinjuku around 10 p.m. by a bus. I left home with the thickest and warmest jacket I’ve ever wore in my life, which felt too freaking warm on the train to Shinjuku. The bus planned to be arrived at the bus station near our accommodation at 5 a.m. the next day. I was so excited to see snow and to try ski for the first time of my life, but also a little bit paranoid because of my professor’s and some other people warning when I said this will be my first time skiing: “Be careful not to break your leg”. The bus ride was felt like forever and I spent half of it drifting between sleep and consciousness, because I was so sleepy and I know that I have to sleep in order to play all day the next day, but I’ve always been bad at sleeping in a trip, particularly ones that I feel so excited about.

We arrived at Ryuuo Ski Park (竜王スキーパーク, Gtranslate said the first two kanji means Dragon King. Interesting.) bus station around 5 a.m. and I got instantly woken up at the sight of white snow. After spending some time making a commotion about snow with some over-excited friends who was also seeing snow for the first time, we walk to our hotel, Ryuuo Park Village Hotel. The area was called Kitashiga or something like that. It took 5 minutes to walk from the bus station to the hotel, and there was snowing all the way there so the snow pile on the road we were taking was still so fresh. Because the hotel front desk hadn’t even opened yet, so we spent some time lying around in the lobby while eating breakfast, mine being two tunamayo onigiri and a box of milk. Around 6.30, we went out to walk to the ski rental shop near the bus station to rent our things.

Snow!!!

The rental processes took some time, a very long time that is, but we finally got our skiing tools and some people get snowboards. We changed at the building that has some coin lockers. From all of the ski equipment that I got, I think the most annoying one were the boots. Ski boots are made of some kind of plastic and was very solid that you can’t move your ankles around. While it’s good for skiing to protect the ankles so they won’t get twisted or broken, it’s so damn hard to walk with and it made me spend my time walking like a robot which hasn’t had its joints oiled. It felt cool in the first time, but it just felt annoying after a while, especially after I got bruised all over my body after falling down a lot.

The damned boots

We went up to the skiing area while carrying that heavy ski board and then people who has already has experience began to taught us newbies. First, we learned how to latch our boots to the board. Second lesson is to fall down. The third lesson, and the hardest one for me, is to get up after you fell down. I tried so many ways to get up, and I managed to do it once by some brutal movement that hurt all of my legs muscles, but then I tried to slide and fell down in the end, and no matter how I tried I couldn’t get up. While I was still busy getting up, it was decided that we would go to some higher place using the lift because it will be easier to practice there rather than stay in the low place we were in and go up every time we want to try sliding down hill. I found out that we have to have the boards on during the lift trip to prevent it from falling down and hitting people below. The problem is, I hadn’t been able to get up by my own and I spent the entire lift ride thinking in which way I would fell down and make a fool of myself when I got off later.

After some terrifying stop in mid-air for the reason I didn’t know, I arrived at the end of the rail and stand up at the right moment thanks to the guidance of the staff (I’m so glad that they taught us the phrase “Stand up” in Japanese class). I, of course, fell down not so far from the place I got off and because I couldn’t stand up and it’s dangerous if I stayed there as people getting off next might hit me, the staff helped me stand up by grabbing on my jacket on the neck, and lift me like a kitten. That might be my most embarrassing experience I had in Japan so far. Now that I think about it, I should have made it more fun (and embarrassing) by purring like a cute little kitten.

Instantly after I stood up, I couldn’t control the ski and I slide downhill for a few moment before I lost my balance and fall down. I tried to get up, but I failed and instead slide downhill while sitting down for a few meters. This happened a few times until I get tired of trying. Some friends tried to help me with every possible way, and tried to instruct me how to do that but I just CAN’T. Even when I grabbed on people hands, I can’t get up. After sliding down half of the hill while sitting down, I decided that I had enough of this and decided to walk my way down to have lunch (a bowl of soba, if you’re wondering). After lunch, I asked Natalia to help me learn how to get up, and believe me, I’ve attempted to do it hundreds of times, but I still cannot do it. That’s when I decided that ski and I aren’t meant to be together. Hence, I spent the rest of the day playing on and in snow, throwing snowballs at people, and taking photos.

That's me, giving up.

What’s weird about the place is that I expect it to be freezing because all the snow, but I swear that my room felt colder than Nagano, even though Nagano was 10 degrees colder than the area I’m in.

No, that wasn't cold at all. Photo credit to Lyta-senpai

We then went back to the hotel and the walk there was so challenging. Like I said before, the ski boots are made from some kind of plastic, and therefore has a very low friction against the road. Moreover, the road was glazed by snow that has been turned to ice, so it was really slippery that I have to walk with very small steps and stopped every now and then. Also, a friend fell down at the street and it caused the bone in her right arm to be fractured. In my way to the hotel, I was also saw a Japanese girl fell down straight in her back and she cried from the pain, so I walked slower than a snail with the patience I’ve never thought I possessed. After taking our things in the locker and walked back home again, we had dinner and then went back to our room, which was a nice room with a traditional Japanese room style with tatami and futon. After way too much talking and laughing out loud because all the rooms in the corridor was occupied by our friends (there was around 5 people per room), we fell asleep in the room that felt too warm because we put the warmer into maximum.

I woke up the next morning with a groan because my body hurts in every possible places and it’s hard to get up even without ski boards attached on my legs. After breakfast, we packed our things because we had to check out and we had to bring all of our stuff and all of the ski equipments. It was so damn heavy and the road was so damn slippery that I was tempted to pretend that I have injury and sat down on the road so that the patrol car would pick me up, but I decided against it and walked slowly while keeping myself motivated by setting smaller goals to walked to. I might have learnt some lesson about perseverance, but after I reached the coin locker place, I was sure that there’s no way that I’m going to practice skiing again that day unless I want to stay in bed the following day unable to get up. So I decided to left the ski equipment near the coin locker and then went up to the skiing area and went to the restaurant, had some lunch (beef curry, and some pieces of hotcakes), chatting with some friends, and then went out to play on the snow with some friends who were also fed up with ski. We took some photos that were good enough to make a postcard of and I tried to make a snow man, but a couple left their snowmen so we decided to take photos with it instead of making another one. I also played with a sledge, which was my favorite snow ‘sport’ so far <3

After 4 p.m., we gathered to return our equipment to the rental shop and that’s when it’s start snowing again. It was snowing hard, but we still decided to take a group picture in the middle of it, and it was a good picture despite the fact that the snows kept falling into my eyes. At 5.50 p.m., our bus came and then we went home. I spent most of this trip feeling hungry and thinking about how crowded the train from Shibuya will be. We arrived at Shinjuku around 10 p.m. and some people decided to eat dinner but because I had 200 yen left in my pocket, some friends and I decided to go home. This morning, I woke up fine (at 11 a.m.) although I still felt some pain. After the trip, I decided that I like snow, but I don’t really feel the same for skiing.

Just before we went home

Anyway, another good things for Christmas! This tasted good, but I wonder how long it will last in the market.

Panda + Pocky, two best things combined

From Maihama, we then took the Disney Resort Line, which had this awesome Disney train which windows are shaped like Mickey’s head. On the way, we looked at Disney Land entrance gate and there was already so much people in the line and we hoped in our hearts that the line wouldn’t be like that in Disney Sea. We got off at Tokyo Disney Sea station and there was already a long line even though it was still 8 a.m. and the gate was supposed to be opened at 8.30 a.m. We queued in the line and even though we haven’t even enter the place, I got so excited already by seeing the banner of Disney princesses. We then talked about our favorite Disney princess (mine was Ariel) and Disney prince (mine was Aladdin) and after bashing some princesses and princes about how annoying or passive they are, we then talked about Mulan (which is also my favorite). Wei Lin then taught us one phrase from an Ancient Chinese poem about Mulan, “Jījī fù jījī, mùlán dāng hù zhì”. He told us that it was about Mulan sewing in front of the window, and that every student was supposed to study the poem. We (well at least Inkeri and I) tried to repeat it, and we continued to say the phrase at least 100 times that time every time we queued in a line (which is basically most part of being in Tokyo Disney Sea) and every time the Chinese guys speak Chinese.

The awesome train

Oh by the way, I have to warn you that this post contains “spoilers” about the attractions. If you want to go to Disney Sea and get surprised (like me), don’t read it.

After entering the Disney Sea, we then saw a show in a stage near the entrance of Mickey and Minnie in which Mickey and Minnie kiss, and Minnie was soooo cute and Mickey was so cool. After that, we realized that everybody was running to various directions and wondered why, but then we found that they were running to queue or take the fast pass tickets. Fast pass tickets are the tickets you take in order to enter to the attraction later without having to queue. We then went the “Tower of Terror” which were located in the center of the American themed area (made me want to go to 1950 America) and take the fast pass ticket in order to return later at 12.05 p.m. and we can’t take another fast pass ticket of other attraction before 10.25. We know this by experience, after queuing at the “Journey to The Center of The Earth” only to receive a ticket that stated that we couldn’t take any fast pass ticket before 10.25.

One of the building in the American area

After knowing this, we went to places which queues are not really long so that we don’t have to take fast pass tickets. We went to the Ariel world, which was really, really, awesome and then we went to a place where everybody else went in. We didn’t even know what it was, it could have been a big rest room or some weird things, but turned out it was a theater in which they performed their version of some songs in The Little Mermaid. After knowing this fact, we got really excited. The performance itself was insanely amazing that I have to say that I honestly nearly literally cried from the happiness. The actress that played Ariel was connected to some strings and she was floating in the air, dancing and singing and doing mermaid stuff. There are also people who played Sebastian, Flounder, and some fishes, which were both hilarious and awesome. Also, there was a big face of the witch in the air, controlled by some guys behind it. After that we went to Agrabah, where we got really hungry by the smell of curry in every possible food (curry bread, curry popcorn, you name it). We saw Indiana Jones attraction from afar and decided that we have to visit it later, both because it was located in a cool Mayan temple-like building and some said it was the coolest ride in the place.

Under the sea <3

We then went back to the “Journey to the Center of the Earth” to take the fast pass ticket (we had to come back at 5.30 p.m.) and then because we still have time before we have to go to the “Tower of Terror”, we queued for the “20,000 Leagues under The Sea” which announcement board said that we only have to wait for 70 minutes, which was quite a short time for Disney Sea because for some ride, we have to wait for more than 2 hours. At this point, it was so cold and the wind was blowing that I can’t even feel my hand anymore. After waiting while having some silly chats, we were divided into 2 groups and finally went into a “submarine” and have a tour “under the sea”. They even made us believe that we actually went under water by putting this special effect on the glasses. I realized it after 2 minutes but I didn’t say anything. Gotta keep the dream alive, y’know :p We saw some weird under waters creature and managed to scream a little in the part when the submarine had a malfunction before we saw aliens.

The spiral thing was where we stand in line for 70 minutes

We then went to the “Tower of Terror” and it was so great that we have the fast pass ticket so we don’t have to wait 150 minutes to get in. First, we went to this big room and watched a movie about the owner of the building that went missing. It was in Japanese, but I can understand the main story. We were watching about how he was shot with some laser beam by a statue and forced to went into an elevator and then the elevator fell. Suddenly, the statue that was in front of us smiled, and disappear with some blink. When we were still in awe and confusion, the staff guide us to some room and then some groups have to enter something that looked like an elevator. We all then had a really bad feeling about this thing, and when it was our turn to get in, we then seated in some chairs inside the elevator and used some seat belt. After the door closed, we then saw a detailed movie about how the statue killed the owner by making the elevator fell, and suddenly we went up rapidly to the top level (I have to let you know that it was a very high building) and where we can see the view outside from the window, and then it fell down and we was all screaming for our lives and I was actually torn between scared and excited, so I was both screaming and laughing. When we thought it was finally over, we then saw the statue again, grinning at us, and then we went up again to the top level, saw the window again and feel a frightening déjàvu, and then dropped down again. When it was finally stopped, I only felt glad that we decided to wait after this to have lunch.

The Tower of Terror. See the topmost window? That's where we dropped down from

After that we went to eat in some big ship near the American Place (it was USS something-something) and the restaurant was very nice and looked like an expensive restaurant. After waiting for a long time because there was also a line to the restaurant, I ate a sandwich with some beef and fried potato. After that, we tried to check the Indiana Jones but we have to wait for 180 minutes so we decided to go to some places first while hoping there would be less people in the night. We then went back to Agrabah and watched a theater about Genie was set free by a boy from a bad master. It was in 3D and in Japanese, but I could mainly understand it and it was funny. After that, we rode the merry-go-round near the theater and then went to a Disney Shop. I tried to search for a cute and warm hat I saw some people wearing, but I couldn’t find them at all.

If I went in, I could have found Aladdin

After that, we went to “Journey to The Center of The Earth”. The attraction itself was located inside a tall mountain which top was smoking continuously. We were once again saved by the fast pass ticket. We were divided into 2 groups and rode a rollercoaster like vehicle. We started by seeing some weird animals and plants that existed in the center of the earth, some real fire, and suddenly there was a smoke and then we fell down in a total darkness that seems to be endless (of course, we were screaming like crazy), and then suddenly we were outside in the top of the mountain, looking to the light from the illumination below, and then we went to complete darkness again and some crazy fast maneuvers before it stopped and we got off. What I loved from this Disney Sea attractions are the usage of lighting and how sometimes left us in a total darkness, in which we really can’t see anything and somehow it always happened when we were dropped down or moving really fast. After that, some of us were really hungry so we bought some churros.

That mountain

After that, we went back to the Indiana Jones place and found out that we have to wait for 100 minutes. Some of us decided to go home, but Jouni, Inkeri, Wei Lin, Zhang, and I decided to wait for it. It was so cold and we were already tired that we started doing crazy stuff in the line, like pretending that we were in the party every time we entered the warm place, pressing some random statue face in hope that the building will collapsed or at least the fast track people would die so we could get in faster, to looking at some random smoke detector button. Oh, we also played the Whoosh game that we always played in Drama Communication class. We nearly played the Princess game too, but the line was moving too fast. After queuing for more than 2 hours (they were lying about the 100 minutes), we finally watched some video of Mexican guy talking about the safety procedures of the ride and then we go into a 4WD car-like vehicle with seatbelts (which made me had a bad feeling, remembering that each time we had seatbelts, we were dropped down). We then proceeded to a tour in some jungle while being thrown around in the car like we were in a road which condition was really bad, seeing a big snake robot and creepy skeletons, meeting an extremely real-looking Indiana Jones robot, when suddenly we stopped in front of some kind of door with a greenish glow, and then we moved very fast. After some time screaming, we met Indiana Jones hanging from a rope, when suddenly a huge rock coming from behind him and I was screaming and pointing at the rock because at this point I didn’t even remember that he was a robot, because it looked so damn real. Besides, I was scared that the rock will hit us too, because I also didn’t remember that it was a game since it felt like we are in the middle of the real thing. We then dropped down a little bit (I don’t actually see what happened because I was closing my eyes while clinging to a metal bar in front of me) and then we met Indi again, he was okay and the rock was behind him.

After that, we were planning to go to the shop and then went home to have dinner at Aobadai, but we spotted a crowd near the lake (or sea. Or river. I don’t even know what it was). I tried to ask what was happening to a staff with my poor Japanese, surprisingly it worked but again it was only “これは何ですか？何時から？” so I think I’m just getting better at understanding what someone said without even knowing the meaning of all the words. It was a parade which was a part of “Wonderful Christmas” theme that Disney Sea offered at that time, and it would start at 9.20 p.m. which means in 5 minutes. We then moved to a better place and heard an announcement that the parade was about to start and if we watched from some places, we could get wet so they requested our understanding. I was just glad it wasn’t our place. The parade itself was EXTREMELY AMAZING with some lights and fire and dragon robot which breathed fire and water mirror. Actually, it’s hard for me to describe it with words so I recommend you to see it for yourself if you ever happened to visit Tokyo. This parade made me realized that no matter how old I am, I will never be able to grow up from my admiration of this magical Disney world.

We were so tired and hungry when we went back home, and I spent most of the ride on train sleeping. We arrived at Aobadai at around 11.30 and I was shaking visibly from the cold. We went to eat “dinner” (which was also my breakfast) at a 24 hour nice restaurant, and then we rushed home. We arrived home some time before 1 a.m. and I took a warm bad and sleep. Today, I woke up at 12 and had a late brunch, and then I go online before prepared to go to church for a Christmas eve service.

But that’s for another blogpost ;) Have a great Christmas Eve!!!