forever_wandering | Entries tagged with disney

First, congratulations to my sister on finally giving birth to a beautiful baby girl! My parents are really excited about finally having a grandchild, though they are not so excited about being considered "grand-" in this case, hehe. Our almost non-existant relationship aside, I wish my sister and her new family all the luck in the world.

Lately, I've been busying myself with this and that. With only about a month left until I have to go back to work, I've been trying to get myself used to being on a set schedule again, and it sure isn't easy! I start my day at around six in the morning and end it at around midnight. I've purposely locked myself out of my bank account to keep myself from going on any more wild adventures for a while. I spend my days studying random things to keep my mind sharp, cleaning, and sewing clothes to make them fit again (and let me tell you, sewing by hand is not easy!) Occasionally though, I do take a small side trip to relieve my stress!

This time, it was a somewhat healthy Asian-meal and an acrobatics show!

Seeing shows like this always make me hate myself because then I think "Darn it! Why can't I do stuff like that!!!??"

Patterned Text Generator at TextSpace.net

Out of the five Disney theme parks, Epcot has to be my absolute favorite. I love to travel and experience new cultures and at Epcot, I can experience up to 10 different cultures in about a day! My friend and I walked around the entire park once then decided to spend time in Mexico, China, Germany and Japan.

The first thing we did (Because I was basically jumping up and down like a little kid as soon as I saw him) was take a picture with Duffy. The first time I found out about Duffy was about two years ago when I went to Tokyo Disney with Saori after Sadou, and because of that, I had always associated Duffy with Japan. I had no idea though, that Duffy actually originated in Florida but didn't become popular until Japan stuck him in a sailor suit and re-sold him to the masses.

After Duffy, we began our trip around the world, starting in Mexico. In Mexico they sold...Alcohol! And the layout was very Aztec Indian. We wanted to split a colorful margarita, but since they were $12.50 each, we decided against it. Once we cleared Mexico, we entered China, home of my favorite Disney character, Mulan. We missed her show by two hours but plan on going back to see her. Aside from a tea stand with some snacks, they didn't have much in terms of food, but instead had beautiful gardens and architecture and an interesting little museum. We ended up splitting a Strawberry oolong tea, which was to die for. It was pretty big though, so it lasted us through our journey in to Germany and its sweets and finally Japan.

Funny thing happened in Japan. I'm talking to my friend about a yukata one of the girls was wearing. One of the women who work there walks up to us and asks us if we need help. I tell her we don't and that I'm just telling my friend about yukata and comparing the other girl's to mine. My friend tells her that I live in Japan. The woman asks me if I have any pictures of my yukata, and I do on my phone, so I show her. She seems impressed and begins talking to me in Japanese, so I talk back. After a short conversation, we go to the museum, I buy my friend some Melon Daifuku because she's never tried it,then go to watch Taiko.

After Taiko, we walk around some more before finally coming going back to Japan to eat sushi before the illumination show. To our surprise, they remember us by name when we returned and continued to speak to me in Japanese throughout our time there.

I thought my friend would feel left out but she seemed amused every time someone came over and said something to me in Japanese.

After that, we went outside for the light show. We wanted to find a good spot, so I walked over to the fence and leaned over, trying to get a good look at the other sections of the park. A girl sitting on a bench behind me goes, "Excuse me. You're not going to stay there right? Cause we've been sitting here for the past 20 minutes holding this spot." Her friend whispered for her to be quiet, in which she responded "No, we've been sitting here for twenty minutes!" Pft! As though sitting was hard work. Geeze.
I told her we weren't staying there because it was the truth, but part of me wanted to tell her that we were and that just because she was sitting on the bench didn't mean she was entitled to all the space in front of it. It wasn't like she was old. She was younger than me so if she wanted a view with no one in front, she could have stood at the fence like everyone else.

I don't know why her talking to me made me feel annoyed, but it did.

Anyway, the light show was fabulous. It never gets old. Next time though, we're going to try and catch the Magic Parade in Magic Kingdom instead.

I finished reading "Norwegian Wood" in English and I have to say it felt quite different to me compared to the Japanese version! I'm going to see what other English versions I can get my hands on in the future. I've decided to tackle a book called The Labyrinth by Enrique A Laguerre. It's Puerto Rican literature, which I haven't tried reading since leaving the island some six or seven years back. So far, main character annoys the heck out of me! He doesn't really talk. He just over-thinks everything while the world around him takes care of him, despite the fact that he worked so hard to become a lawyer to take care of himself.

My friend and I went to:

According to the news, it was supposed to rain all day, but we still decided to spend the entire day at Disney.
Aside from maybe 20 minutes, we had good weather all day!

Was that the reporter's mistake or Disney Magic?

We started the day by exploring Hollywood Studios. After seeing Lion King on Broadway in New York, I fell in love with watching live performances, so I always make sure to catch a show or two, but didn't get around to it this time. Instead we focused on the attractions. We did Rock n' Roller Coaster, Tower of Terror and Star Wars 4D Adventure. For the first time ever, I was able to keep my eyes open through Tower of Terror!

After Hollywood Studios, we headed to Magic Kingdom to try and stalk some princesses and eat some yummy snacks. Unfortunately, by the time we got there, the princesses were taking a break from their oh-so-exhausting life of riches and royalty, so we weren't able to get any pictures with them, but we did manage to catch sight of the new princess from BRAVE, and a show with my one true love--Peter Pan.

We had a major LOL moment when we were leaving Cinderella's castle. You're supposed to enter on the left side, leave on the right. However, people were entering from both directions, so it was impossible to get to the right side to leave. I got fed up and grabbed my friend and dragged her through the crowd and a bunch of people snapped at me for cutting them off. As we were walking out, I told my friend, "It's not that complicated. Why can't Americans get it? Left is in, right is out. There are even signs. Anyway, if they're not going to play nice, neither am I." A man in of us turned and asked where we were from. My friend told him I was from Japan and she was from Puerto Rico. He laughed and told me I had guts for saying that out loud. He was from Canada and he had been thinking the same thing I had but hadn't dared to say it. We just all started laughing over it.

There was a lot of construction going on. Disney is apparently adding an entire new village and two new castles to the Magic kingdom. We decided that Disney was going to expand to the point that Florida residents were going to be living inside these little villages.

After Magic Kingdom, we went to Epcot. So much happened there that it deserves a post all to itself.
The rain is insane right now, the power is flashing and a flood warning has been issued so I'm going to go help secure some things in case of a flood.

I had planned on getting a lot of reading done today. Last month, I started reading 神様のカルテ, but with all the company I've been having and all my traveling, I haven't been able to get past page 15. I made the mistake of turning on my laptop in bed though, and we all know what that means, right? Now it is almost evening and the most I've done is take the book off the shelf. Darn. I'll definitely read before I go to bed though.
I've noticed that my comprehension is a lot better than what I had assumed. Even though I can't read a lot of the kanji, I know what they mean, and so I am able to actually understand the content I am reading. M-san is constantly trying to trick me in to using my Japanese or asking me how my Japanese studies are going. I simply laugh and and answer, "What are you talking about?" But the truth is...I actually am working pretty hard.

EDIT: Since writing this paragraph, I've fallen asleep three times. So much for reading before bed!

M-san and I were talking and he started joking about getting married. He then said that I'd get a job while he stayed home. You know, I'm totally up for that idea because I honestly don't see myself staying at home all day cooking and cleaning and all that mess. I'd much rather be out interacting with other people. When I told him I was alright with the idea, he seemed surprised.
I didn't tell him this but I really like the idea of a stay-at-home dad. I appreciate women who give everything up to stay home and take care of their family, but there is something about watching a father with his child that just...it makes my heart so happy in ways I can't explain. I know with the way things are, both my significant other and I would have to work to make ends meet, but if the time ever came that one of us had to leave our job, I would rather it be him than me.

What about you? Do you want to be the bread-winner? The house wife/husband? Both? Why?

M-san and I went to Disney and had a blast. The lines at each attraction were rather long so we had many interesting conversations as we waited. As usual, we argued. He wanted to plan out each attraction we'd go to and I wanted to just go with the flow. I called him controlling, he called me a slacker. We got on Space mountain and forgot all about it once we got off. We seem to have a lot of stupid arguments over things like this, but the fact that we can forget about it in less than five minutes is always great.

We had a good laugh that morning too, by the way. In the picture, I'm wearing a black shirt and blue jean shorts. He's wearing a blue shirt and khaki pants. When we both walked out of our rooms first thing in the morning, we were both wearing black shirts and khaki shorts, but we both ended up changing because I flipped out over the fact that we looked like a couple. Haha!

COUPLE CLOTHING = NO
I don't get why couples need to dress alike to show that they're together. I don't believe of making a show out of one's relationship.... To me, it's no different than having your SO/you being on a leash.
The only time it's acceptable is during Halloween.

Hello hello!

I woke up at 4am today to drop my friend off at the airport and despite taking a nap until just a bit ago, I'm still feeling exhausted. Unfortunately, I don't have time to rest since I still have some things I need to prepare for. M-san* arrives in a couple of days, and tomorrow I'm going to a Holi festival in the city. By the end of this month, I am sure I will be a walking Zombie. Yes, definitely.

Anyway. Disney. My friend and I went to three of the five Disney parks and had a blast! In the end, we did end up changing out clothes, but we had tons of fun wearing our little outfits for most of the day. Surprisingly, I got a lot of compliments and even met some Japanese tourists who were surprised to learn that I could understand every word they said about us as they stood behind us =D.

Interesting happenings? We asked a man to take our picture. He did. Then he went on to talk about how we had made his day because even though he had 7 grandchildren he was there alone, He kissed us each and went on his way. After that, we went to stand in line for a roller coaster. Suddenly, a man approaches us and gives us fast passes to the ride. We went from a waiting line of 45 minutes to a waiting line of 5. Lucky lucky! =D

I spent $25.00 total at the park, buying bottles of water and omiyage for my family. Pretty good, right? I think so! I'm looking forward to going again!

Amazingly, I was really good about uploading all my pictures on time! So people who have me on FB can already see all the pictures I took. =)

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KURICHA（栗茶）

"An ugly duckling growing out of her feathers."

Hello. I'm Zia, and this is most obviously my journal. I write about my life between Japan and the US, and all the adventures I find myself in. People often say they are envious of the life I seem to live, but the truth is, I feel a little unsatisfied with it myself, so I've decided to do something about it--to find what really makes me happy. Hopefully by documenting my life, I can figure out where I need to be heading. This journal is my way of opening my world to those around me in hopes of meeting people searching for the same thing or encountering people who have already gone through this kind of struggle.

Back in my high school days, I used to be a bit of a nerd. I was really in to comic books of all kinds, action figures...all that jazz. These days, though my interest in comic books re-surfaces every so often, I'm very much more in to things like fashion, dance, music, travel, tea, baking, writing letters, photography, animals and fitness. I'm a straight shooter--meaning I do not (or rather, can not?) lie. Keeping up with lies is too much trouble.

Anyway, there is more information about me on my profile. Feel free to take a look there or catch me on another site★