Life in Kanazawa: Musings from the Far East: June 2006

My Birthday

Here are some pictures from my birthday last week. As I worked until after 9:00pm on my real birthday, Zach and I just had a quiet dinner together, and then Friday night we had our friends over for a party here! It is hard to believe that I am so old already-- that and that June is almost over!!!!

A definate highlight was my new Nintendo DS Lite!! The new Mario Brothers game is so cool!!!

Nagano

This past weekend we were back in Nagano for the semi-annual soccer tournament. Despite weather forecasts predicting 100% rain on Saturday and 80% rain on Sunday, we had a beautiful day on Saturday! The weather was absolutely perfect! Sunday was rainy though, so the games were held on a higher pitch up the mountain-- we even drove past the top of the chairlifts on our way up!! While at the top there was no rain there was an intense mist that covered the field! To understand how thick this mist was, you have to realize that when I took the pictures I was only a few metres away from the guys, and I couldn't see them at all. It is always nice to get away for the weekend, and we had a lot of fun!

Giants Baseball Game

After Disney Sea we headed downtown to the Tokyo Dome where we caught our very first Major League Baseball game. Now, I myself am a Hiroshima Carp fan, but since they play a limited number of games in Tokyo, we went to a Giants game. The Giants are definately the number one team in Japan-- the most popular for sure, so almost every game is sold out! Our game was no exception and there were 55,000 people in attendance! We definately got our money's worth, as it was a dramatic finish in the bottom of the 9th as the Giants scored a run to break the tie and win the game!!! Some highlights of the night include the beer girls who have kegs on their backs that they carry around, while wearing short shorts and flourescent outfits, as well as the cheerleaders who were dressed as French maids!! Also of note, despite the size of the field and the number of people, at the end of the game the floor had not one piece of garbage or food on it, and was still ridiculously clean! (We saw one man who spilled his popcorn and was picking it up off the floor kernel by kernel-- could you imagine that in Commonwealth?)

Also, Zach rode the roller coaster in the background.

Disney Sea Part II

The Mermaid Lagoon and Arabia-- we saw a cool show of the Little Mermaid-- in which Ariel decides to remain a mermaid, here, and a not-cool "Sinbad and the Seven Seas" ride (Don't trust the free fastpass!!!) But, the scenery was neat at least!

Also, there is a picture of Zach and Chris "jankening" for the extra fastpass on "The Raging Spirit" and the subsequent ride by winner Chris. (This just means Rock, Paper Scissors).

Disney Sea (Sunday)-- Part I

While Disneyland was fun, Disney Sea was so cool!!!! We absolutely loved Disney Sea!! The whole theme park is designed like seven differents ports of sea around the world (although I'm not sure if Mermaid Lagoon really should count). Plus, there were maybe a quarter of the people, so we never waited more than twenty minutes for any ride!! (As opposed to the 20 minutes we waited to throw out our garbage at Disneyland). These pictures are from the Three River Delta-- home of the Indiana Jones ride, and other cool things. (Also, there is a picture of the Mickey Mouse monorail).

Disneyland (Saturday)

Here are some pictures of our recent excursion to Disneyland!! While most of us spent the day nostalgic for trips to Disneyland/World as children, I spent the day sulking because we arrived too late for Mickey Mouse pancakes!!! (Don't worry-- I only sulked until I had a Mickey Mouse hamburger!!). It was a lot of fun, although the lines were absolutely insane, as you can see how happy Chris and I are during our 3-hour wait for the Buzz Lightyear ride-- although it was cool! My camera batteries died promptly upon arrival, so the middle part of the day will be a mystery, but you can see us in the Teacups (Zach is in the yellow shirt)!! All in all, I think we had a lot of fun!