wednesday (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
wednesday_10_00) wrote2006-07-04 03:11 pm
wednesday_10_00) wrote2006-07-04 03:11 pm
KING OF COASTERS
Hmm, I just realized I never said anything about my cherry trip? I was so surprised at how many cherries were on the trees! It was amazing!! Eh, I'm too lazy for that now. I guess I'll let the pictures tell the story.
Friday I started my marathon of farewell parties; the first one being with the city hall people (held early because it was a combination farewell party for me and Ichiro and a welcome party for an intern from China who'll be in Chiba until November). I knew I wasn't going to enjoy the party when I arrived and saw that there were programs on the table. And things pretty much went downhill from there (thank you for throwing a party in my honor and not giving me any food I can eat), but it was nice to get a chance to talk to the nice people at city hall that I pretty much never see. Of course, then they made me feel all guilty by saying how much they had wanted to work with me (etc etc), and of course I could have, Kasai-san asked me if I wanted to when I recontracted last year, but I said no. It probably would have been a good experience, but...oh well. Also, I got a Chihana-chan T-shirt! XD (Shut up. I love Chihana-chan.)
On Saturday I went to my old Japanese sensei's house for dinner. He'd been inviting me over for dinner since I was still taking lessons (which was like, two years ago?), but somehow never could get our schedules to work out. His family is really nice and I had a good time. I made some scones to give them and Sensei's wife really seemed to like them. They gave me a really beautiful set of painted candles, a necklace (Nephrite, hee!), and a bottle of homemade plum wine. (Which is the third bottle of homemade wine I've received in the last week. I think Japan's trying to turn me into an alcoholic.)
On Sunday, I FINALLY got to go to FujiQ Highland (EEEEEE!). I was a bit worried because it was supposed to rain all day, but in the end it only rained for a couple hours, so we still got to ride lots of stuff. Fujiyama (KING OF COASTERS) was awesome. We rode it twice and Masaki-san spent both times unable to look up during the whole ride, which amused me greatly as I pointed out the lovely scenery. (Seriously, the view going up the first hill is amazing--looking right at Mt. Fuji. I wished I could have taken a picture.) It's been a while since I was on Millennium Force, but I think Fujiyama might have been a little longer? *checks* Ah, yep, it's almost a minute longer. The other big coaster there is called Dodonpa (World Bucchigiri Coaster), which is one of the rocket launch-esque things. I thought it was going to be like Top Thrill Dragster, but, uh...it wasn't. The big hill was fun, though not nearly as high even as Fujiyama's big hill, but there was a lot of, um...rocking motion. It was pretty jerky and uncomfortable, actually. I don't really like coasters that hurt. There was also the Tondemina, the pizza-looking thing that spins you around in a circle and flings you in the air and stuff, which I could have ridden like 80 times, but my companions were not quite up to that. (For some reason Masaki-san was wearing a skirt--I've never seen her wear a skirt in THREE YEARS and she wears one to ride roller coasters?--so she couldn't go on it at all.)
While it was raining, we decided to check out haunted house. I've never actually been in a haunted house before, so of course for my first one I go for the one that's in the Guiness Book for length (700 meters). -_- We stood in line for close to an hour before we could get in, and the line was right next to the exit. So as we stood there waiting, we could see groups of people come running and screaming out of the exit. We were all like, "Ummmm...." This thing was so scary they actually wouldn't let you in by yourself. It was SO SCARY. It was long, and dark, and creepy, and did I mention that everyone came running out screaming? Because they really did. (One guy somehow...I don't know how, but his pants dropped and he fell over as he was running out. I still have no idea how that happened.) But it was a lot of fun. I'd totally do it again.
As an interesting cultural note, in Japan it's said that haunted houses and ghost stories and such make you cooler (give you the chills, I guess?), so they're good for the summer. Well, that's a BIG FAT LIE. We all came out of that house complaining about how sweaty we'd gotten. Also, I was so tense I got this funny tingle on the back of my head, like my hat was too tight. Weird.
The only sad part about the day (well, other than the fact that I couldn't have pizza because they wouldn't make a single slice with just cheese) was that there's a new coaster that's going to open in like two weeks (ARGH), so they were running tests all day, and it looked SO FUN and I wanted to ride it SO BAD. (It looked kind of like X?)Next time, Gadget.
P.S. Please visit the FujiQ gallery and tell me I'm not crazy about the twincest thing. REALLY, WHY ARE THERE TWO.
I officially have less than one month until I have to be moved out of my apartment. PANIC.
Friday I started my marathon of farewell parties; the first one being with the city hall people (held early because it was a combination farewell party for me and Ichiro and a welcome party for an intern from China who'll be in Chiba until November). I knew I wasn't going to enjoy the party when I arrived and saw that there were programs on the table. And things pretty much went downhill from there (thank you for throwing a party in my honor and not giving me any food I can eat), but it was nice to get a chance to talk to the nice people at city hall that I pretty much never see. Of course, then they made me feel all guilty by saying how much they had wanted to work with me (etc etc), and of course I could have, Kasai-san asked me if I wanted to when I recontracted last year, but I said no. It probably would have been a good experience, but...oh well. Also, I got a Chihana-chan T-shirt! XD (Shut up. I love Chihana-chan.)
On Saturday I went to my old Japanese sensei's house for dinner. He'd been inviting me over for dinner since I was still taking lessons (which was like, two years ago?), but somehow never could get our schedules to work out. His family is really nice and I had a good time. I made some scones to give them and Sensei's wife really seemed to like them. They gave me a really beautiful set of painted candles, a necklace (Nephrite, hee!), and a bottle of homemade plum wine. (Which is the third bottle of homemade wine I've received in the last week. I think Japan's trying to turn me into an alcoholic.)
On Sunday, I FINALLY got to go to FujiQ Highland (EEEEEE!). I was a bit worried because it was supposed to rain all day, but in the end it only rained for a couple hours, so we still got to ride lots of stuff. Fujiyama (KING OF COASTERS) was awesome. We rode it twice and Masaki-san spent both times unable to look up during the whole ride, which amused me greatly as I pointed out the lovely scenery. (Seriously, the view going up the first hill is amazing--looking right at Mt. Fuji. I wished I could have taken a picture.) It's been a while since I was on Millennium Force, but I think Fujiyama might have been a little longer? *checks* Ah, yep, it's almost a minute longer. The other big coaster there is called Dodonpa (World Bucchigiri Coaster), which is one of the rocket launch-esque things. I thought it was going to be like Top Thrill Dragster, but, uh...it wasn't. The big hill was fun, though not nearly as high even as Fujiyama's big hill, but there was a lot of, um...rocking motion. It was pretty jerky and uncomfortable, actually. I don't really like coasters that hurt. There was also the Tondemina, the pizza-looking thing that spins you around in a circle and flings you in the air and stuff, which I could have ridden like 80 times, but my companions were not quite up to that. (For some reason Masaki-san was wearing a skirt--I've never seen her wear a skirt in THREE YEARS and she wears one to ride roller coasters?--so she couldn't go on it at all.)
While it was raining, we decided to check out haunted house. I've never actually been in a haunted house before, so of course for my first one I go for the one that's in the Guiness Book for length (700 meters). -_- We stood in line for close to an hour before we could get in, and the line was right next to the exit. So as we stood there waiting, we could see groups of people come running and screaming out of the exit. We were all like, "Ummmm...." This thing was so scary they actually wouldn't let you in by yourself. It was SO SCARY. It was long, and dark, and creepy, and did I mention that everyone came running out screaming? Because they really did. (One guy somehow...I don't know how, but his pants dropped and he fell over as he was running out. I still have no idea how that happened.) But it was a lot of fun. I'd totally do it again.
As an interesting cultural note, in Japan it's said that haunted houses and ghost stories and such make you cooler (give you the chills, I guess?), so they're good for the summer. Well, that's a BIG FAT LIE. We all came out of that house complaining about how sweaty we'd gotten. Also, I was so tense I got this funny tingle on the back of my head, like my hat was too tight. Weird.
The only sad part about the day (well, other than the fact that I couldn't have pizza because they wouldn't make a single slice with just cheese) was that there's a new coaster that's going to open in like two weeks (ARGH), so they were running tests all day, and it looked SO FUN and I wanted to ride it SO BAD. (It looked kind of like X?)
P.S. Please visit the FujiQ gallery and tell me I'm not crazy about the twincest thing. REALLY, WHY ARE THERE TWO.
I officially have less than one month until I have to be moved out of my apartment. PANIC.