What a crazy, random happenstance!

One heck of a great day! But I should really begin from yesterday afternoon so that I give you the whole story.

Warning: If you're running short on time, just come back and read this later, this is going to be a long one!

So, Wednesday afternoon Otsuka-sensei asked me my plans for Thursday. This question was a bit perplexing, so I answered in question form, "Coming to school...?" His face sank and he seemed genuinely worried for my well-being. He replied, "But you'll be the only one." There it was, the reason for the sunken expression, I was coming to work all alone. He proceeded to explain that the juniors were on their class trip to Kyoto, Osaka, and Kobe and that the seniors were going to be taking their class trip to Tokyo Disney Sea and that the freshman were only going to play games and have an assembly all day. He asked me if I wanted to go with the seniors on their trip. Of course I said yes, and he immediately got on the phone to the head teacher of the senior class. This teacher approved my tagging along and then Otsuka-sensei went to seek approval from the Principal as well. He came back to the teacher's room and gave me the all-clear to ditch work and join the seniors for their trip! I was stoked.

This morning, I arrive at school at 6:45am and we leave promptly at 7am. Once we pull out of the school parking lot, Hiromi, one of the English teachers at Sanwa leans over to me and says, "One of my students couldn't wake up this morning, so he is not here." I assumed this meant the poor kid just missed his chance. I should have remembered - never assume, it makes an ass out of you and me - no, we were going to pick this student up from his home. Yeah, reread that sentence, I'll wait here. This charter bus navigated amazingly through the tiny streets of residential Koga to the student's home. I was floored that this was not only an acceptable solution, but the "obvious" one.

Next, we are on the bus for maybe half an hour after picking up the delinquent kid, and a student shouts from the back, "I have to go to the bathroom!" Mind you, these are seniors in high school, 17-18 years old. Next thing I know, the bus is pulling over to the side of the road, and the students who have to use the restroom, now 4, run off the bus and do their business! I mean, really?!??? About 30 minutes after this little show, we arrive at our planned rest stop for the students.

Eventually we arrive at Disney Sea. I posted pictures, so check them out. I don't know why it is called Disney Sea, there are no water rides that I saw and there is a weak theme (at best) of boating, kind of. As I expected however, everything was pristine and beautifully decorated and lifelike. Leave it to Disney to turn an extremely environmentally and health conscious nation into wasteful slobs. Kind of a funny juxtaposition, I enjoyed it. The first thing I see at the entrance of the park is a giant World. I don't want to call it a globe because that words sounds so academic to me, whereas when I see pictures of the world I just think of beauty and art - that is definitely what this statue was. It was a rotating statue with running water over the sphere, but underneath the pieces of land. Definitely my favorite thing in the whole park.

I mostly hung out with Hiromi and Ishiki-sensei for the day. (For those avid readers out there, this is the husband of the English teacher at Sakai West and Mio's father.) We had a really great time, and they were always surprised that I liked the thrilling rides best. Frankly I didn't find a great thrilling ride at Disney Sea, but the company was splendid and more than made up for the lack of flippy roller coasters. We explored for a bit and road a kiddy coaster. At 11:45am, the teachers all decided to meet up back at the entrance for lunch.

We were at a theme park, I was thinking hamburger, ice cream, bit of chewy caramel popcorn - again I was mistaken. For lunch, the 9 of us headed into the elegant Disney Sea Hotel for a gourmet buffet. Tidbit, soft drinks are almost never free refills in Japan when you are dining out. But, this place had three choices for free refills, orange juice, oolong tea, and Coke. I ordered a Coke, and the pumpkin soup for my appetizer. P.S. I love pumpkin soup - just learned that today. And then we proceeded to gorge ourselves on the buffet. I had everything from a shrimp cocktail with avocado to sea bass in a puff pastry. There were marinated mushrooms, and penne pasta with chicken, payaya, grilled calamari with chickpeas, grilled asparagus in a lemon sauce. For desert I had pear ice cream, a Bailey's chocolate raspberry fudge cake, and creme brulee. And then when I was stuffed beyond belief, Keiichi asked me if I was brave. I said yes - for the record, this was a mistake. He had been filling up on curry and rice; he was on portion number three and stopped to grab some vanilla ice cream for dessert. You probably see where this is going now... He offered me curry and vanilla ice cream - I partook - it was gross - I got more dessert to wipe the taste from my mouth.

After lunch Hiromi, Ishiki-sensi, and I ran (again, not a wise idea just after gorging myself on lunch) for our Fastpass time to Journey to the Center of the Earth. This ride was beautiful with the fiber optic lights and larger than life flower models. After this ride, they wanted to take me to the Tower of Terror. They were being very kind and wanted to make sure I was having fun, but since neither of them wanted to ride, I was all alone. The line moved very quickly and I was in that haunted elevator in no time! The Tower of Terror has a great atmosphere, but as far as scare factors go, it is sub-par. The Drop Zone at King's Dominion is much more thrilling, but definitely lacking in the atmospheric build-up. The Tower is the last ride I rode at the park, and then we headed off to relax a bit, have an iced coffee and do some shopping.

I only bought another charm for my phone, now I have apples and bananas - you know, like the song. I had a really great day at Disney and I hope you all are very jealous. :-D