Meg Where's Rosco?: April 2008

Okay guys so I'm ending my strike. Much thanks to a generous friend. So I finally got back from Japan a couple weeks ago and I had a BLAST! I left Friday afternoon and got there Saturday evening. The next day John's cousin took us shopping in Machida and then we took the train to Shinjuku. We walked around the cuty and went to Roppongi Hills Tower where they have an excellent view of Tokyo tower. The next day we visited our friend Mitsuru and I met his grandparents that he lives with. They are so nice. They bought KFC and pizza for us to eat for dinner and even cooked (a lot) food us. We went to this place called the Yunessun which was incredible! It's like a bunch of hot spring jacuzzis but instead of just water they were filled with: Green Tea, CHOCOLATE, coffee, wine, sake, charcoal, chili pepper and others that I can't remember. Obviously you don't drink it so I figured it was okay to soak in it. It was so much fun we really didn't get a chance to just sit and soak because we were too busy running around and jumping in the other flavors! They also had one that we didn't do (thank goodness) that you just put your feet in and little sucker fish come and suck th dead skin off your feet! Disgusting!!!!! We went to Utsunomia to visit John's Aunt, Uncle, and cousins and had Japan's famous Gyoza. If you've never eaten this, you're missing out. It was fabulous. John's Aunt (Keiko) and cousin (Akira) took us to see a shrine, cherry blossoms, and to a really fun souvenir shop! It was great! Then we took the bullet train back to Machida. It fealt like the majority of the time we were on the train (not the bullet train, the normal train). The next day we went to DISNEYLAND TOKYO!!!! It was sooooo awesome. It was raining so there was NO croud! Mitsuru and his amazing girlfriend Rika surprised us by going with us. They told us they were going to drop us off at the train that goes there, but when we saw the Disneyland sign above us we knew something was up. I was so much fun to be there, but even better because our friends were there with us. After Disneyland closed we rushed off to Disney Sea. It's not like Sea World or anything which was what I was expecting from the name. It's their equivalent of our California Adventure, but WAY better. It's called Disney Sea because it's by the sea..... go figure. It was beautiful built like we were by the Mediterranean Sea. They even had gondalas!!! Next day we went bowling with Mitsuru and Rika, and excuse me for owning up to my bragging rights, but we kicked their BUTTS!!!!!!!!!! Saturday John had a huge surprise for me. We went with a group of friends and his cousin Satako to the JACK JOHNSON concert in Yokohama!!!!! Hahahahah! Meredith is so jealous (probably why she tagged me.....). It was AMAZING!!!!!!!!!! Finally sunday rolled around and it was time for me to go, but I had the most fun ever, and I got to cross one of my "Counties to Visit Before I Die" off of my list. Thank You's to John, Rika, Mituru, Keiko, Toshi, Akira, Yurika, Michael, Satako, Yumiko, Hideki (maybe next time smart aleck) and everyone else that made this the best trip ever..... oh, and the train conductor that had the weirdest voice I have ever heard in my life!