Living in Asia: Ranking My Experiences

Having lived in Asia for a year and seen so many things in multiple countries, I thought I'd count down my Top 20 favorite and/or most memorable things I've seen or done while here over the last year, as well as my 10 least favorite.

Top 20 Best and/or Most Memorable Events

This was a tough list to put together. First, it's hard to distinguish between best and memorable. Or good memorable and bad memorable. But what if it's good memorable because something bad happened that made it more fascinating? Like I said, it's tricky. So when I put this list together, I tried to include things I see only as positive experiences. These are the things I definitely would not want to change having experienced, and I ordered each by how much I loved it at the time mixed with how well I still remember it. I also actually had a list of things close to 50 when I started. So much has happened over the last year, it was hard narrowing it down to just 20. But I did, so here we go.

20) Beijing Acrobatics Show

Beijing was a mixed bag of a trip for me, but there were two things that really made the trip for me. This was one of them, and it was a perfect way to end the short vacation. I placed it this low on the list because, honestly, I find it a bit hard to remember much of the show when I try to think back to it. But I do remember how incredibly fun and entertaining it was, and I would recommend anyone in Beijing to check it out.

19) Gyeongbokgung & the Seoul Palaces

I saw some of these palaces with Tim and Naomi early on, and then some of them again when my parents came to visit. They're definitely cool places. Not really the coolest palaces and temples I've been to in the last year, but they're still nice... especially the ones that are more green and garden-like than just the dirt-filled, open courtyard lots.

18) Round Trip to Nowhere

This one really walks that fine line between good and bad. I see it as a good day because everything went wrong. It was very early in my time in Korea, and I discovered the Golden Day was coming up, and we had a long weekend. I searched for stuff to do and found that a number of people go to Bongamsa Temple, which opens its doors to outsiders only on the Golden Day every year. Unfortunately, my bus got caught in traffic and it took about three times as long to actually get to the place that would take me to the temple. By the time I got there, I wouldn't have been able to grab a bus back and would be stuck in that place. So I was stuck in a little town and no idea what to do. Fortunately, I had recently sat down and learned to read Korean, which helped me figure everything out. I ended up just going back to the bus terminal and heading back to Seoul. It was a day-long event that allowed me to see a lot of the Korean countryside, though not much else. Still, for such an early experience in my time here, it's hard to forget.

17) Hantan River Rafting

I'd never been white water rafting before this, but I can't really say it was all that much white water. With a couple exceptions, it was no real different to tubing down the Frio River in Texas. But it was still a really fun experience and a memorable day.

16) Nakano Broadway Mall

This was everything I wanted Akihabara in Tokyo to be. In fact, many are calling it the New Akihabara, and it's filled with so many fun nerdy and otaku things. I'm still mildly disappointed in a couple drawings I didn't buy, but it turned out to be for the better. Had I bought them, I wouldn't have had enough money left for my final night/day in Tokyo... where I desperately needed it.

15) The Ballerina Who Loved a B-Boy

This show was great fun. It wasn't the best story-wise, but the dancing and entertainment factor was way up there. And it turns out we ended up going to one of the last shows of its rotation (I haven't seen it as available since). And this was just the start of a year filled with some incredibly entertaining stage shows.

14) 2 Months of Muay Thai

This seems like a lifetime ago. There was a time, 2 months in fact, where I went to a gym in Seoul every Saturday for a Muay Thai class. It was a solid workout and could even be fun at times. But then I started getting sick--cold, then earache, then Bells Palsy, etc. I kept having to put off going until it got to the point I just stopped going. My contract was only for 2 months with the gym, so it wore off at the start of my illnesses, which just led to further excuses not to go. On top of that, it was starting to become less fun, and I was getting burned out on it.

13) The DMZ/JSA

When my parents visited late last year, I finally made my trip to the DMZ and JSA... a spot anyone who comes to Korea must see. And it was definitely interesting, even if it was raining most of the time. 

12) Train Ride - Death Railway

This one was pretty cool in and of itself, what with going over the Bridge on the River Kwai and then seeing a bunch of cool scenery. But what made this really memorable was the fact the train actually broke down near the end, and we all had to leave the train and walk to the road to get picked up by our driver. But I consider that a positive experience, as it made something that was already pretty cool even more memorable and unique.

11) Siam Niramit

Hands down the most intricate and mind-blowing stage show I've seen thus far. Saw this one on my birthday in Thailand. And even if it wasn't the most fun show (which would have been in DisneySea)--and don't get me wrong... it was fun, but in a different way--it was easily the most fascinating and intricate.

10) Yeouido Park & the Han River

This one is on the list, and this high up, for more sentimental reasons. It was one of the first big trips into Seoul I had with Tim, Naomi, and Kira (and Kira's friend Hyein, who has since moved to the US for studies, I believe). And the end of the day brought us through Yeouido Park on a hillside spot next to the Han River (and right across the spot from an island that is central to a film I had recently seen). And it resulted in one of my favorite group pictures (that I'm not in).

9) Everland

So the rides were nothing to scream about, but this makes it so high on the list for two reasons. First, it was just a really fun day out with Tim, Naomi, and Kira. Second... the haunted house. That place was simultaneously terrifying and a blast. If you're ever in Everland, you must check out the haunted house. It's a little extra money, but it's worth it.

8) Ueno Zoo

The coolest zoo I've ever been to. They had everything, and not to mention the place was enormous. I was there for hours, and I loved every minute of it.

7) MaiDreamin Maid Cafe

The second most embarrassing thing to happen to me in the last year, except this one was planned. I knew I couldn't go to Tokyo and not visit a Maid Cafe. It was silly, and I certainly don't have the personality to soak that kind of experience up... but it was definitely memorable. And the food wasn't bad, either.

6) Angkor Wat & the Cambodian Temples

I saw about a bajillion temples over the last year, but these Khmer temples were easily the coolest and most fascinating. Angkor Wat, Ta Prohm, Beng Mealea... those three being at the top of the list. But they were all pretty cool, and seeing Angkor Wat at sunrise was worth getting up early to do.

5) Tiger Temple

I touched some tigers. 'Nuff Said.

4) Tonle Sap Lake & Floating Village

A really fascinating boat trip to see how these local fishermen and their families live. The stilt houses were really interesting and seeing everyone at work was cool, even if it gave off a mildly weird vibe that you were going through a human zoo.

3) Mt. Fuji - The Sunrise

Yes, specifically the sunrise. I'll get to the other part later, don't you worry. This was just a beautiful thing to see, and yes... it was worth it.

2) Tokyo DisneySea

Easily the most fun I've had all year. But how can you not love going to a Disney park? (Even if it's not technically Disney themed.) I had a blast on this day, and it just made me want to go to Disney World in Florida again... and soon. And with family, because going to Disney alone so isn't as fun.

1) The Great Wall of China

Um... it's the Great Wall of China. Or, as one of my co-teachers said... it's just a wall. But yeah, seriously... this was a cool day.

Bottom 10 Worst and/or Most Aggravating Experiences

On the other hand, I actually barely reached 10 on this list. I really haven't had too many major things go all that wrong while here, even though it might seem I have due to constant bad luck. Honestly, it's not really until the Top 5 that things get actually bad. So let's take a look.

Runner-Up: Not getting into the Ghibli Museum

I don't count this because it's not something I did, but rather something I didn't do. I was excited to go only to find out it was completely sold out. Oh well.

10) Beijing Night Market

I went to go see the bugs and stuff, which I did end up seeing... and one guy desperately tried to make me eat a tarantula and got angry when I refused. What made it worse, though, was I tried at least 2-3 different types of food here (desserts, fruits, etc.) and all of them were disgusting. I think I only finished one, and that one was basically like a dry pastry dough--not inedible, but not special. And then right after, my friend and I could not, for the life of us, get a taxi to get back to our hotel. It was a night of bad food followed by a really frustrating journey.

9) Akihabara

This wasn't bad... just incredibly disappointing. This was really at the top of the list of things I was looking forward to in Tokyo. I'd heard so much about it for like a decade of otaku obsessions... and I was so let down. It just wasn't all that interesting. The shops were nothing special. The arcades were OK, but not wow. And to top it all off, it was raining the entire time I was there. I suppose that's why I loved Nakano Broadway Mall as much as I did... it was everything I had hoped Akihabara would be.

8) Beijing Hotel

Let me clarify first: The hotel itself was perfectly suitable. The location, however, was atrocious. I had an easier time getting to my guest house in Bangkok, and that was down an alley that was down another alley. Nobody had ever heard of this place or knew how to get to it. Going anywhere was a nightmare because you never knew how fast you'd be able to get back. Even the tour guides made it all complicated because it was never clear whether they'd meet us at our hotel or a much bigger one off the main road. Again, the place itself was fine... but man, that location.

7) Lost in Shinjuku

This one borders on hilarious when I look back at it. Everyone, including the Japanese themselves, get lost in the massive Shinjuku Station. But I'm not talking about the Station. I'm talking about the district itself. Every... Single... Time... I left that Station, it would take me roughly an hour to find my way back to my hotel. And I'd end up taking a different route every single time and have no idea how I kept accomplishing that. It finally took me up until the last day or so in Tokyo to realize what I was doing wrong and how to get back to the hotel properly within about 10 minutes. But still, I wandered around Shinjuku like an idiot for hours on end during that trip, and it was pretty frustrating.

6) Beijing Rip Offs

If there's one thing that would make me not want to go back to China, it's this. Of course, I was not used to the art of bargaining when I went, nor was I aware I had to at first. I'm also not an incredibly assertive person, making bargaining really uncomfortable for me. So that meant every single person in Beijing tried to rip me off on everything, and I basically did get ripped off on everything I bought. One lady even told a guy I was touring with (who could speak Chinese) that she was trying to rip me off. And the one time I did bargain and got the price down to a suitable amount, the lady took my money and didn't give my change--ripping me off anyway. In other words... not a fan of the bargaining culture, which I experienced again a little in both Cambodia and Thailand, but not to the aggravating degree of Beijing.

5) 24 Hours Home - Thailand to Korea

The most recent of my dilemmas. Driving 3.5 hours from Kanchanaburi to the Beijing airport. Waiting in the airport for 6 of the most boring hours ever just to check in and then wait another 3 for the flight. Then another 3 to get to my transfer in Macau so I could wait another 3 hours for my second flight. And that was another 3-4 hours to get to Seoul. And then another 4 hours to get from the plane back to my apartment in Gunpo. And all of that after an excruciatingly hot day of hiking and sweating. Man, that was a long day.

4) The Dark Ages

And the earliest thing on this list... the first month in Korea. As you might could tell from the previous entry, I don't do terribly well with boredom. The first month in Korea served up a lack of basically everything technological (at least for a good 2-3 weeks when I finally got the proper cables for my PS3). Total first world problems but having practically nothing to do for an entire month gets to you after a while. Thankfully, I barely remember what that was like now.

3) Locked Out

And here's the most embarrassing thing to happen to me in the last year, also quite recent. The night I went to take some trash downstairs and forgot the passcode to my door. I was locked out all night in freezing cold weather (and snow!) without proper clothing, barely any money, and no phone. And I ended up having to stay in the hotel my parents stayed at in Geumjeong when they visited.

2) The Medical Problems

I think I came to know the Sanbon Hospital almost as intimately as I know my school. Colds. Earaches. Bells Palsy. Inflamed Knee. Kidney Stones. I think I pretty much ran the gamut during my tenure here. The short version... my body hates me, and it decided to hate me most when I came to live alone in a country where I don't speak the language. If for no other reason, this is the one thing that makes me want to get back to the US... so if anything does go wrong again, I'm at least somewhere I can deal with it with family and in English.

1) Mt. Fuji - The Climb

This now-legendary adventure almost borders the line between good memorable and bad memorable. But I put it here because, despite the outcome, I was genuinely fearing for my life on this night. The actual climb up Mt. Fuji was literally the most exhausting--physically, mentally, and emotionally--thing I've done thus far in my life. I think one day, if I'm ever in better shape, I will attempt this again and hope to conquer it. It also didn't help that I spent the last of my money getting shelter for the night and had to pull out a miracle to pay for the bus to get back to Tokyo for my flight back to Korea. Though while it might be at the top of the worst list, I also want to say it's probably the single most memorable thing I've done in the last year. For good or bad, I'll never forget that night.

Final Thoughts On My Tokyo Experience

So the trip is over. I made it home fine. I can now say I've been to Tokyo. You've most likely read my blow-by-blows of each day, but what about the other, littler things? And what about that whole Scavenger Hunt list? And what were my favorite and least favorite experiences? That's what this post is about.

Also, here's a quick link area if you want to go back and read about all my experiences:

Day 1: Shinjuku/Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building

Day 2: Akihabara/Maid Cafe/Nakano Broadway

Day 3: Ueno Zoo/Harajuku (Meiji Shrine & Takeshita Street)/Shibuya Crossing

Day 4: DisneySea

Days 5 & 6: PokeMon Center/Mt. Fuji

Anyway, first up, I wanted to make a few random comments about random things I noticed while in Japan.

Ten Random Things

1) Tokyo really is very expensive. I kept forgetting just how much I was spending on stuff because I would continually get my mindset confused with Korea. Both countries are very similar in their number systems, where they use more hundreds and thousands for smaller numbers. For example, in Korea, 1,000 Won is basically a dollar. But in Japan, 1,000 Yen is 10 bucks. Because my brain has been wired to Korean Currency for so long now, I'd forget that pretty big difference. A good example in price differences? Water. In Korea, I could get a huge bottle of water for like 50 cents. In Tokyo, I could get that same size, maybe even a little smaller, and pay close to 2 bucks. It also doesn't help that a lot of their smaller currencies (anything below 1,000) is in coins, not paper. And I'm really used to coins not being 1-5 bucks.

2) Anyone in customer service is almost creepily happy and helpful. They don't even hint that they are unhappy with their positions or don't want to be there that day or are frustrated with you or anyone else. They are there to serve you in the best way possible, and they will be happy about it. And they can't even take tips!

3) Money exchange from hand to hand seems to be a no-no. They have money trays that you put your payment on, and then the cashier will pick it up from there. And then they'll place the change down there for you to pick up, as well. I did do hand-to-hand exchanges sometimes, but I don't think I was supposed to.

4) It's funny just how different fashion is between Korea and Japan. For the men in Tokyo, the most common thing you saw was black or dark blue slacks with a white button-down shirt. That was like every single man in Tokyo. There were, of course, exceptions... but a sea of black and white was insanely common. The real noticeable differences was with the women, though. In Korea, looks are all about the body--plastic surgery; fresh, pale skin; hair color (usually red); all legs, no visible chest/shoulders. For Korean girls/women (not in business-wear), it's all about looking as sexy as possible, and that starts with the body. But for Japanese girls/women, it's about the fashion and looking kawaii (cute/adorable). You will see females in outfits almost nobody else in any other country would wear (or could even pull off). But they have to look as cute as they can, because that's just how the fashion works there.

5) There was a crazy amount of Europeans in Tokyo. In Korea, if you see a white person (generally in Seoul), they are most likely either American, Canadian, or Australian. But in Tokyo, the most common accents I heard were French and German (lots of French). And a bit of Italian, too. In fact, while there were far more white people in Tokyo than in Seoul, it seemed very few were actually American.

6) Thirsty? You can find vending machines everywhere in Tokyo. And I mean everywhere. You can't turn a corner without seeing one or two. Of course Japan is also famous for having vending machines for random things inside--anything from cigarettes to panties--but I only saw cigarette machines out of the weird ones.

7) The Tokyo JR train system is good, but I prefer the Seoul Subway system. Once you figure out the Tokyo system, it's super easy to find your way around, but it's not as extensive as the Seoul one. The JR system doesn't take you everywhere, and sometimes you would have to take an actual train or a different system altogether (though I never went anywhere that required me to do that). Or buses. But in Korea, the trains will literally take you basically anywhere you need to go, and you don't have to worry about having the right metro card or what have you.

8) Oddly enough, I found the Japanese people stare at you more than Koreans, which is funny to me considering I saw far more foreigners in Japan than in Korea.

9) The Japanese really do not like you to film or take pictures in a lot of places. I noticed this quite a bit while wanting to take pictures. There were signs everywhere telling you photography was not allowed.

10) Finally, a little about my hotel. It was pretty nice. The room was small, but that didn't bother me whatsoever. It had everything I needed. And I actually got pretty used to the weird buckwheat/bean-filled pillows. They were actually kinda nice. And it was so awesome to have such great air conditioning. The hotel also had pretty much anything I needed, and a Family Mart convenience store within the building was super helpful. And as we all know by now, it wasn't too far from Shinjuku Station, which was nice, but it still wasn't the easiest to get back from (until I finally learned how to work it near the end).

The Scavenger Hunt

OK, so I was challenged with a Scavenger Hunt of things to get pictures of while in Japan. I did this to the best of my abilities. I wasn't able to do it all, but I got what I could. I've posted most of these pictures already, but here they are in one easy location:

1) A Shinto Shrine

2) A PokeMon Center

3) A Hello Kitty Statue

4) A Totoro Statue

(Note: I couldn't go to the Ghibli Museum, so I couldn't get this one. But I did get some Totoro plushies?)

5) A Japanese McDonald's

6) A Cigarette Vending Machine

7) A Dance Dance Revolution Machine

8) A Ramen Shop

(As close as I was gonna get)

9) Mt. Fuji

(Lots of Fuji pictures... here's one looking down it)

10) A Maid Cafe

11) Shibuya Crossing

12) Tokyo Tower

(Note: I'm pretty sure this was Tokyo Tower. I couldn't make it to the tower itself, but I think this was it in the distance--taken from the bus to DisneySea.)

There was also a bonus for a random Sumo wrestler, but I knew that wasn't gonna happen. Sumo is currently out of season, I believe. And I would have had to go to a specific place within Tokyo to see training or a show, even if it were in season. But anyway, that's the list! I think I got everything the best I could.

Favorites/Least Favorites

Now that it's all said and done, what did I end up liking the most? And what did I not care for? Here's a list, ranked from Least Favorite to Favorite, of everything I did/everywhere I went while in Japan. You can read in more detail about each of these things, if you haven't already, in the last week's worth of posts.

13) Climbing Mt. Fuji

I can't say enough that this was the stupidest thing I've ever done in my life. 

12) Shinjuku (Traveling/Navigating)

I grew a special new kind of hatred for Shinjuku over the week I was there. It's like every time I thought I got something down, it threw something new at me to screw me up. I did eventually figure out how to navigate Shinjuku Station how I needed to. But as soon as I did that, I was pretty much done needing the trains and started needing buses. And the bus stations in Shinjuku are more difficult to find/get to than navigating Shinjuku Station itself. And because I seemed to spend quite a bit of time in Shinjuku (as that's where my hotel was), I came to really dislike the area for its confusing layout.

11) Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building (Shinjuku)

On the other hand, this is the first real thing I visited in Tokyo, besides my hotel. It's nothing special, but I did get to see a nice night view of the city from the Observation Deck.

10) Takeshita Street (Harajuku)

It's a colorful and fascinating place, and I would have liked to see it on a Sunday as you're really meant to. But a lot of the shops were geared for girls, and the foreigner salesmen were really pushy and bothersome. But the crepes are a definite must.

9) Akihabara (Shops/Arcades)

Still in part due to the rain that day, but--with one exception--I felt this was quite the let down. I was super excited about Akihabara, but the experience wasn't really worth all those years of anticipation. It's neat, but not much more than that.

8) Shibuya Crossing

This was more of a "See Before You Die" thing. There's not much more to it than sitting in a Starbucks and watching people cross the street--then going down and doing it yourself. It's almost anticlimactic, since there's not much to it. But, like seeing Times Square in New York City, it's just that one thing you have to do while in Tokyo.

7) PokeMon Center

A PokeMon fan paradise. I imagined it being a little bigger than it was, and a lot of the stuff was geared towards the newer games than the original ones, but it was still really nifty and had a fun atmosphere to it all. And like a handful of other things in Tokyo, it really made me feel like a little kid again.

6) Meiji Shrine (Harajuku)

Super peaceful and beautiful. I actually preferred the garden path over the shrine itself, but it's a definite must-see if you're in the area. 

5) Maid Cafe

Yes, it was awkward and embarrassing. But I can't deny that it's also something I'm never going to forget.

4) Nakano Broadway

Now this was more what I was expecting out of Akihabara. This mall was awesome, and I probably could have blown all my money here if I hadn't restrained myself (I still somewhat regret not buying those Dragonball Z sketches from the original artists). But I'm glad I didn't, because as you know... money got tight near the end.

3) Fuji Sunrise

I might have hated my Fuji climb, but the sunrise itself was quite an experience. I'm not sure if it was 100% worth it, but I'm definitely happy I saw it.

2) Ueno Park/Zoo

Sure there are zoos all over the world, but this one was just so much fun with every kind of animal you can think of. I had a blast over the 3 hours I was there. I probably could have spent my entire day in Ueno Park, too, with all the other museums and stuff they had there. If I ever go back to Tokyo, I'm setting aside a whole day just for Ueno Park.

1) DisneySea

Hands down the best day in Tokyo. Yeah, it's the least cultural thing I did, but DisneySea can also only be experienced in Tokyo, so I don't regret it whatsoever. You can't hate being at a Disney theme park, even if you're waiting in queues for hours by yourself. I totally want to go back already.

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And that's it! Those are my final thoughts on my Tokyo experience. It was incredibly exhausting, but I don't regret like 90% of it. Maybe some years down the road I can go back and hit the areas I missed out on (and even some places outside of Tokyo, like Kyoto). I hope you enjoyed reading about and seeing pictures/videos of my experiences there, as well!

Tokyo/Fuji: Days 5 & 6 (Thursday/Friday)

It's all kind of been building to this, hasn't it? The Mt. Fuji journey. But I'm getting ahead of myself. Yes, I actually did stuff prior to walking up the tallest mountain in Japan. First, and least interesting of all, I slept in pretty late after the long day at DisneySea the day before. Yeah, I know. Riveting stuff. And then I had to finish putting together the DisneySea post.

Pre-Fuji

But after that, I actually made my way to Hamamatsucho Station (a solid 30 minutes from Shinjuku) so I could finally visit the PokeMon Center. Because really, the thing that started me towards my want to visit Japan was my obsession with PokeMon as a kid. Of course that eventually expanded into other things, but PokeMon is where it really all began. And, if you don't know, there are huge shops called PokeMon Centers (so named after their video game counterparts) that sell anything and everything PokeMon related you can think of.

Turns out it was super easy to find, as it was in a building that was almost right next to the train station (and there was even a sign in the station that pointed you in the right direction--that's how popular it is). Though if that weren't enough, there were hoards of children with Pikachu hats heading into the station from the direction of the store. I also even found a video online that walked you right to the front doors. I was pretty set on finding this easily, and I did. And I think I probably spent a good hour inside just wandering around and looking at everything. And, yes, I bought a few things. Nothing major, as a lot of the stuff there was geared toward newer generations rather than the original 150. Though the store did have a huge lean towards Pikachu and Eevee (and all the Eeveelutions). I'd say after that was probably MewTwo and then Charizard and Blastoise. But I'm getting… well, not off topic, but I doubt many of you care this much about PokeMon.

And then I headed back to the hotel. I ate a quick lunch at the Italian restaurant (a very garlic-y, though still good, pasta). 

And then I wrapped up a few more things on the DisneySea post before I had to hurry off downstairs to do an early checkout, have them hold my luggage, and by some water and snacks for the big trek.

Now, I set a reservation for a there-and-back bus ticket from the Shinjuku Highway Bus Terminal. It would take me right to the 5th Station halfway up the mountain and then back again in the morning. And the bus station (different from the other one I went to) appeared pretty easy to find from all the maps. Of course, unlike the PokeMon Center, it wasn't.

I had even left a good 45 minutes to an hour early just to give myself time. I found a bus station, but there were no ticket counters or anything. Just the buses. I asked one of the bus drivers for help, though he couldn't speak English. He just kind of awkwardly pointed me in a diagonal direction. I headed that way when I magically stumbled upon two young Japanese guys with hiking gear and water, and I knew I could just follow them right to the bus station. So I followed them.

And I'm sure you know where this is going.

They had no idea where to go, either. In fact, they were more lost than I was. They had me going in circles and would take off running at random points, making it really difficult on me to keep up. And I did eventually lose them. But it was too late anyway. My reservation time had passed by at least 10 minutes. I stood around a street corner, entirely lost for what to do. Even the Japanese dudes, with their Japanese language skills, couldn't get proper directions from people, so how would I?

But then I saw a couple white dudes, also with hiking gear and water, say something to the effect of "There it is!" and enter this tiny little corner shop that's not particularly labeled properly. I entered and, sure enough, there it was. But we know how complicated my life likes to make things like this on me. Turns out all the direct buses to the 5th Station were completely booked. So the lady ended up booking me the next bus for some place called Kawaguchiko and said something about a transfer. So I put my life in her hands, trusting she knew what she was doing, and bought the ticket.

Long story short (too late), Kawaguchiko Station is right near Mt. Fuji and has direct buses to the main 5th Station halfway up. So after a 2-hour bus ride to that station, I bought another ticket (which thankfully also acted as a 2-way return ticket the next day) and took another 50-minute bus ride up the mountain. I also had the pleasure of sitting around a bunch of annoying Dude-Bros (male and female) who were just one "brah" short of filling out the stereotypical Californian thrill-seeker.

Fuji

(Note: I feel like I'm not going to do any of what follows in this section justice, so if it sounds bad, it was probably 10 times worse, and if it sounds good, it was probably even better.)

I finally reached the 5th Station and bought my walking stick (and another, smaller water to compliment my large bottle… just in case). It was already starting to sprinkle, though it wasn't too terribly cold at this point. It was roughly 9 PM at this point. I put on my head-light and began my trek into darkness (no Spock, sadly). And yeah, it was dark. Very dark. And eventually the clouds hit and it became that much more difficult to see. But what worried me at the very beginning was that I was going downhill. Why was climbing a mountain making me go downhill? And I knew I was on the right path. There weren't really many people around at this point, but there were a few who had started ahead of me.

Front of the 5th Station shop

And then the uphill began. And by uphill, I mean Up. Hill. It wasn't long before I began questioning myself. To kind of tease how this turned out, I'll say this: I've done a lot of stupid things in my life, but this was--by far--the stupidest. Like, sincerely… I cannot stress this enough… it was the stupidest, most terrifying, life-threatening, exhausting thing I've ever done. And I'm not hyperbolizing the life-threatening part. I was, at many points, afraid for my health and well-being. But let's back up just slightly. And just to give you an idea of what the trail and stops are like, here's an identical map to what I had (click to make it larger). It's the Yellow Yoshida line up the middle:

So the trail starts off pretty basic. And I was even tired just by what turned out to be the most mild part of the entire hike. Because what begins as an inclined dirt path soon becomes even steeper with a mix of dirt, stones, and makeshift stairs. And at first I was like "Awesome… stairs! I can take it slow, one platform at a time." Wrong. Avoid the stairs. Avoid the stairs at all costs. That's what I learned. It was much easier to brave the side of the incline where it was just hill, which is what I found out most people actually did. And not only does it go up, but it zigzags all the way up. So it goes up, up, up and then suddenly turns and goes up, up, up in the other direction. It came to a point where I was so exhausted and out of breath and my heart was beating so fast that I was having to stop for a break every 15 steps… then every 10 steps… and eventually every 5 steps. And I hadn't even reached the 6th Station yet. And there's something like 9-10 stations. It also didn't help when we got signs saying the summit was still another 4-5 hours away (not including breaks).

But I eventually made it to the 6th Station, which was more like an information hut, and sat down for a while. My clothes were already soaked, and it was getting colder. But I had to carry on, despite that little voice in my head telling me to just turn back now. And I wasn't the only one exhausted. Even those who appeared physically fit were losing it, so just imagine how I felt. I honestly have no idea how children and elderly make this hike, yet they do.

The steep hills/stairs continued on for quite a while, and then I finally saw it--the stretch of hut lights. I had never been so happy to see lights. But I didn't realize just how far away they actually were. I still had a long way to go to actually reach them, and the terrain shifts weren't over yet.

No, it got even harder. Besides the incline somehow increasing even more, it wasn't long before the huts where it turned from dirt to almost pure rock. That you climbed. Not like a vertical climb, but pretty freakin' close. There was no way to get up these stretches without using both your feet and hands. I was basically rock climbing. And did I mention that, of the 3 or so paths available to make this hike, this was the easy and popular one?

As the huts rapidly approached, the terrain was a mix of rock climbing, then stairs, then more rock climbing, etc. I was having trouble breathing from all the extensive cardio (not to mention the altitude)--like I said, even 5 normal steps and my heart was pounding. Even after a long break. But I finally reached Station 7.1 (there are apparently two Station 7's). I took a long break outside this one and realized just how wet my clothes were (except my jeans, strangely enough), even with the rain gear. I knew at this point I wasn't going to make it to the top. Honestly, I knew an hour before that I wasn't going to make it to the top. I was exhausted, both from the hike thus far and the lack of sleep. My hands were shaking. My legs and knees were very weak. I was freezing and wet. And this stretch from Station 5 to Station 7.1 had taken me almost 2 and a half hours. It was about 11:30 PM at this point, if I recall.

But I couldn't stop just yet. Even if I were to give up, I didn't have the energy or mental fortitude to make the climb all the way back down. I knew some of the huts offered beds to rest, so at the very least, I'd find one of those. I moved on to the next hut, which did offer rest for like 50+ bucks. I figured I'd try to make it one more. The next hut was actually Station 7.2, the last big Station for a while. So I made it, barely, and knew I couldn't go on. There was no way my body could handle it. I went inside the hut and was immediately asked by the guy if I wanted my walking stick stamped--two brands for 300 yen (about 3 bucks). Sure, why not? Might as well get something out of this. It had now been over 3 hours since I left the 5th Station, and it was after midnight.

The two brand-stamps on my walking stick.

I didn't want to leave the warmth and safety of the Station. And I noticed a family was sitting in there with me playing cards. And soon they went into a back room, and I realized this place must have beds. I asked the guy about it. He said, yes, for 5,500 Yen for the night (that's about 55 bucks). I didn't care at this point. It was 55 bucks or death from exhaustion and/or exposure, so I paid it up, and he took me back to my bunk bed (oh joy, more climbing). They were basically like a barracks--large, hard wood bunk beds attached to the walls with curtains over the front. I changed into a dry shirt and settled into my plank.

Now here's where new issues arose. I realized this as I paid the man, because I had to weigh the potential consequences of this option. Prior to paying for the room, I only had roughly 7,000 Yen left to my name. The room for the night was 5,500. That left me with roughly 1,500 Yen. The bus back to Shinjuku from Kawaguchiko was going to cost me 1,700 Yen. But hey, it was a major station. I figured they'd take credit cards. Either way, it's not like I had much of a choice. I'll get back to this later.

So I decide I'll get a few hours of sleep--it's about 1 AM by this point, and sunrise is at about 4:40-ish. I have no idea how well I'd be able to see it from where I was, but I might as well try and get a look-see, right? So, trying to ignore the insanely annoying boy who couldn't sleep and made sure everyone was aware of it, I tried to sleep on and off for the next few hours. Come 4:30, I heard lots of rustling about in the shared dorm area, but I was still pretty tired. i did eventually pull myself out of bed by 4:45 and hurried outside where everybody was looking at this:

And if those weren't enough for you (I actually took more, but just picked a few to put here), here is a short video I took, as well.

Oh yeah. Gorgeous. And I'm not sure how different the view was from the summit itself, though I can't imagine it being too different from this. Just… higher. So I stood around in the freezing weather watching the sunrise for a while before realizing I actually had to walk back down. And not the descending path that you'd take from the summit, either. No, I had to make the Walk of Shame down the ascending path, back the way I'd come. Fortunately I wasn't the only one. Mostly middle-aged and elderly headed back down this way, as well. I passed tons of people who were just starting their climb, I guess to do a day climb. They were almost all very friendly, saying good morning and even a few asking about the climb itself. And some people were cheating with horses (and I'm not sure how those horses were gonna get up the rock climbing portions, but I guess it's a thing they do).

I was surprised at how difficult going downhill was. My knees were still weak from the climb up, so going downhill made me pretty wobbly (and not to mention the reverse rock climbing was not a fun experience). Granted, I'd still take downhill over uphill any day (and it so wasn't cool when I got to that part at the start that, remember, was downhill? Yeah… no longer downhill. Not fun). And I did manage to take a few more pictures of the daylight scenery going down, as well.

The trek up might have taken 3 hours to where I stopped, but it only took an hour and a half to get back down. Then all I had to do was wait for my bus to Kawaguchiko to show up at 8 AM. I had to buy some more water because I had run out and I was dying of thirst, so there went another little bit of change that I couldn't afford to lose. Finally, my bus arrived, I got on, and then began the return journey.

Post-Fuji

OK, back to that not enough money thing. As I'm sure you guessed by this point, because that's how tragic irony works, the station did not take credit cards of any kind. So I was legitimately freaking out. I just straight-up did not have enough money to get back to Shinjuku. I only had 1,200 Yen, and I needed 1,700. But then I remembered somebody on the bus back to this station used a mixture of cash and their Suica subway card to pay for their ticket. I asked the lady if I could use my Suica Card and… thank God… yes. But I knew I didn't have enough money on it. I had 870 on the card and a 1,000 Yen bill (plus the other loose change). But after a little confusion, the lady was able to charge the 1,000 onto my Suica and then use the card to pay for my ticket. At this point, I had 170 on my Suica and 200 Yen in my pocket. So like… 3 bucks altogether.

But I didn't care. Well, as long as my hotel would take credit card for my airport bus (I'll save you the suspense--they did. Thankfully). So I took the 2 hour bus ride back to Shinjuku. Then I went to my hotel, got my luggage, and bought my ticket for the airport bus. All week, I had actually been worried about not being able to get to the airport on time from Fuji. Turns out, my real concern should have been actually getting back from Fuji in general. I spent the last of my pocket change to buy yet another bottle of water for the airport trip and then made my way there.

At the airport, the self-check-in line was actually longer than the regular check-in, so I just went to that. The guy said security might not allow me to take my Fuji walking stick onto the plane, though I'd heard you could. I checked my regular bag then went and checked with security. Sure enough, it was considered a security risk, so I had to go all the way back to the check-in line, wait again, and then have them wrap it up in a special bag and had me take it to the oversized luggage department, where it was checked in pretty fast.

And I'd like to say that was about it... but it wasn't. I sat down at the gate and wrote this out. Then got on the flight, and journeyed back to Seoul. But by the time I got through Immigration and all that, the trains into Seoul were closed for the evening, so I had to figure out the bus system. Once I got my ticket (wasn't too hard), I hopped on a bus to Sanbon. But if it were only so easy. The bus drops you off not in Sanbon itself, but at some random bus stop in the middle of nowhere, a few roads over. At first I had no idea where I was or how to go about getting anywhere. And I couldn't take a taxi because I didn't have any Won on me. So I had to walk for a bit before I recognized some Sanbon buildings, then recognized one of the back streets of Sanbon, and walked all around the little area until I found my way to the bus station I was familiar with. Then I had to wait for ages for my bus to actually show up, sweating like crazy because of this Korean humidity, but finally made it back home at right around midnight... probably more stressed than I was when I left for vacation. But I guess that's how these things tend to go, huh?

(Note: Stay tuned for tomorrow when I'll do one last post on Tokyo wrapping up all my random thoughts on the experience, as well as all my Scavenger Hunt photo in one place.)

Tokyo: Day 4 (Wednesday)

This is going to be a very long post, so be ready for that. I'm splitting this up into parts. First I'll discuss my day and the order of events without much detail on my thoughts of the park itself. Then I'm going to spend the rest of the post reviewing everything, from the attractions and shows to the food and drinks. So first up, how my actual day went.

(Note: Because I took over 100 pictures, I'm only going to put a select amount on this actual blog post. But all will be posted to my Facebook eventually.)

Getting There

I had trouble falling asleep last night, most likely due to all the crazy sugar content from the day before (I've actually had so much junk food on this vacation, I'm actually looking forward to going back to the cheap, healthy Korean food soon). So I ended up only getting a little under 6 hours of sleep as I set my alarm for 6:25. Now, I thought that'd be a good amount of time to catch the bus in the morning. You see, it took me a while to figure out how I was even going to get to DisneySea, as it's a good distance away from where I'm staying. But I found there's a bus terminal near the "New South Exit" of Shinjuku Station. And looking on a map, New South Exit is immediately across the street from where I always enter the station.

(Side Note: I finally figured out why I was getting lost coming out of the station. The signs were sending me in the direction of the West Exit, whereas I needed to be coming out the South Exit, which are basically on opposite ends of the station. But hey, at least I finally figured that out, right?)

Anyway, in actuality, the bus terminal is not, in fact, right across the street. It's still not complicated to get to, but instead of the 10-minute walk I thought I'd be taking, I ended up having a 25-30 minute walk. Needless to say, I didn't make the first bus that would get me to the resort by 8 AM. Instead, I had to catch the next one which would get me there by 8:30, right when the park was to open. I also had to buy the bus ticket from a little machine that was entirely in Japanese. But fortunately, it was a machine designated for the Tokyo Disney bus, so I just had to keep hitting the lone button option to get my ticket. The trip itself only took about 40 minutes to get me to DisneySea.

Then I had the unfortunate issue at the ticket gate. I had my email reservation print-off, but the poor woman had no idea what it was or what it said. She actually had to call for somebody who knew at least some English to help her. But then that woman read over it and had to look up stuff in a manual to double check and see if it was OK or something. The whole thing took like 10 minutes. And once they finally said it's OK, I handed her my American Express that I reserved the ticket with, and she looked at it like she'd never seen a credit card before. But she scanned it and I finally got my ticket to enter the park itself.

DisneySea

Remember how I went into that super specific detailed itinerary for what I'd do here? Oh how naive I was. Basically, the second you enter the park and the magic, wonder, and scope of it hits you in the face, any plans one might have had go immediately out the window. Granted, I'm glad I had an inkling of what I wanted to do this day, but trying to do it with any sort of organization was a silly, silly idea. Before I even entered the park, 3 rides had already sold out of FastPasses for the entire day, and lines were already pretty long. Not like 2-3 hours long (except for Toy Story Mania, which just got longer and longer as the day went on).

Though before I get into that, I need to address a little something. After 3 days of non-stop walking and sore legs/knees/ankles, you know the most difficult thing about traversing a foreign language-based Disney theme park for 12 hours? Doing it alone. I actually didn't think this would bother me that much, and to be fair, I think I handled it well enough. I liked the freedom of doing whatever I wanted whenever I wanted without having to match up my needs/wants with those of somebody else. But at the same time, waiting in all those queues would have been so much better with somebody to talk to. It also didn't help that prior to everything you did there, the attendants would ask you (in Japanese) "how many?" And when they realize you're goin' solo, there's a half-second, blink-and-you-miss it reaction of shock on their faces before they re-compose themselves, smile, and move you through. In fact, my legs haven't felt this rested since I got to Tokyo with all the standing/sitting I did today. And the language barrier didn't bug me much. I got the gist of everything, and almost everybody spoke at least minimal English if you needed help (it's just backstories for rides or dialogues for shows were in Japanese, so that went over my head).

Oh, also, I had to carry my umbrella around all day yesterday because it was supposed to rain in the morning and never did. I think I was one of like 5 people in the entire park who brought an umbrella. It was very annoying.

Anyway, back to the main event. If anything from my original plan stayed the same, it's the fact I got my FastPass for Tower of Terror and then made my way over to Journey to the Center of the Earth. Where things changed is that you have no control over when that FastPass allots for you to do something, so I had to be back for the Tower of Terror between 11:45 and 12:45. But I'll get to that later. Though while we're on the subject of FastPasses, the two main experiences I really saw them in action (Tower of Terror and Journey) were horribly handled. For example, the Journey FastPasses were beyond priority level. It was like for every 15 FP people they let through, they would let through 5 regular line people. It was like the only reason the regular line was moving so absurdly slow was because of the FastPass line. And then the Tower FP was totally useless. It got you quickly through the lobby queue, but then you had an equally long second queue in the next room that you did not get to FP through. It was almost a joke, and I would have hated to have had to go through both lines at slug speed.

So back to the order of events. Keep in mind this was a very long day, so I might miss a few details or misremember, but I'm pretty sure this was how it went down. After 90 minutes with Journey to the Center of the Earth, I wandered into the next area, Port Discovery, and checked out StormRider, as its line wasn't really all that long and there was a nice cool mist of water being sprayed into the outside line (they did fairly well with keeping people cool here).

After StormRider, it's about 11 AM already, and I had noticed a lot of people who had these nifty towel things. They're basically hooded capes, but towels. They go over your shoulders and button at the front, and the top is a hood. And of course they have different Disney characters. I thought it was a cool idea to both keep the sun off my neck/ears, yet also catch any sweat. So I found a store and bought me one with Goofy on it. And then I was hungry, so I got me one of those Gyoza Sausage Buns.

As I wandered off with my "Gyoza Dog," I found myself stumbling upon the end of a show in Mediterranean Harbor. Not sure which show it was, but I caught a little bit of it on video. And speaking of video, here's a short collection of random video I took of the park, including snippets from this one show.



By this point it was going on noon, and I was within my FastPass time for the Tower of Terror. You can deduce from my earlier sentiments how that FastPass system worked for me. Oh, and when I finally did get into the "elevator" part, the poor girl attendant couldn't speak much English and was very embarrassed about having to check for a yellow strap at my side to make sure my safety belt was properly attached. Once I realized what she was looking for (which was after at least 1-2 minutes of awkward reaching from her), I found it for her really quickly. Also, I know how that sounds. Shut up.

I felt like something cold and saw lots of people with ice cream, so I got me an ice cream sandwich and had a sit down to eat it. Then it was off to the Lost River Delta and the Indiana Jones Adventure, which was a surprisingly fast experience.

Though it was going on 1 PM now and the heat was starting to rise quickly. I needed to find stuff to do indoors. Fortunately for me, the Mermaid Lagoon was right next door, and it's almost entirely inside. I hit up the Mermaid Lagoon Theater for the "Under the Sea" performance, which killed about 35-40 minutes altogether (walking around, waiting, and then the show itself).

The bulk of Mermaid Lagoon is for little kids, though, so I went next door to Arabian Coast (AKA the Aladdin area) and wandered around for a bit. Then, still hot out, I figured I'd go to Sinbad's Storybook Theater, especially since the line was basically non-existent.

Out of that, I continued around Arabian Coast and found a place that sold Soft Serve Ice Cream on Watermelon-flavored Shaved Ice. That was a combination I could not pass up, especially at the height of the afternoon.

I took up a shady bench and finished that off when I realized it wasn't even 4 PM yet and I was quickly running out of stuff to do. How was I going to fill up another 5 hours until the Fantasmic! show? Well, first I'd check out 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, which was at a good, solid 30-minute line.

And after that, I had forgotten about the Legend of Mythica show during the 4 o'clock hour back in Mediterranean Harbor. So I ended up with a pretty great spot to view the show with just 5-10 minutes prior to the show starting. And I also managed to record the entire 25-minute show. If you're interested in seeing it, you can watch it below.


OK, so it's now 5 PM. I have 3 hours to kill and absolutely nothing left on my Must Do list. I wander around but quickly see a line forming in American Waterfront (which is like 20s/30s-era New York) outside a Broadway Theater. There's a show starting in about 30 minutes called "Big Band Beat," which I was wary of joining due to most shows being in Japanese. I won't go into much detail just yet, but let's just say... I'm really glad I got in that line. Best decision I made all day.

You know what weren't the best decisions I made all day? The next two things. OK, so a huge selling point for adults to come to DisneySea is that it's basically one of the only Disney parks in the world that sells beer/alcohol. Now, I don't like beer. Never have, probably never will. But. This is vacation and it's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to drink alcohol at a Disney park. So I found a place in the American Waterfront that sold beer from a cart. They had two options. One was Budweiser Draft. The other was called Beer Cocktail (Orange). I'll let you guess which one I went with. And yes, it was basically Budweiser with a slight orange flavor to it (and an actual orange slice!). I drank it... didn't care for it. My next decision came about because I realized I needed at least some kind of proper meal that wasn't just some form of sugar and flavoring (outside the Gyoza, anyway). I went to a burger joint called Cape Cod Cook-Off and got a bacon burger with fries and drink. It was decent, but I honestly haven't had a good hamburger in months and it's really starting to get to me, so that just kinda made it seem worse than it was.

As the night went on, I still had about an hour to an hour and a half until Fantasmic! and absolutely no ideas on what to do. All the lines had seemingly doubled the later it got, which surprised me. I figured the park would have died down as evening/night came on, but it only seemed to get busier. I went to check out the Magic Lamp Theater, but the line was halfway across the Arabian Coast. Then I figured I might as well check out and see how long the line was at Journey again. Maybe I'd hit it up for another go-around. Nope... the wait time was pushing 90 minutes. Toy Story Mania's wait time was laughably long at over 2 hours. I really wasn't feeling like a roller coaster in Raging Spirits. And I wasn't in the mood to get soaking wet, so Aquatopia was out (though I did watch people on it for a while).

So I just chilled and wandered about back to the Harbor when I saw people had already started grabbing spots for the show... like an hour early. After a bathroom pit stop, I tried to find a spot, but the spot one attendant basically forced me to take was horrible. I had to sit on the concrete (well, on my towel cape on the concrete), stuffed close with everybody else blanketing it up for the next 30 minutes. Then when the show started, we weren't allowed to stand, so I had to watch the whole thing through the bars of a gate. The show turned out nice, but the viewing situation was horrendous.

And that was that. I took in the last gift shop and bought a Tokyo Disney cup before heading off to the bus stop to find my bus back to Shinjuku. (Overall, if you don't count transportation or the actual ticket, I think I only spent somewhere between 50 and 75 dollars. If you count the ticket and transportation, that still only makes it something like 125-150 bucks total. That's not too bad for a Disney excursion, right?) Anyway, I only got mildly sunburned, on my arms and hands--at least from what I can tell right now (and I can't feel it, so that's a good sign). And I ended up getting back to my hotel by about 10:30-ish. It was a long day, but it was really fun. I hate that I had to do it all alone, but I still had a really good time.

But now... it's time for the juicy stuff. The attractions/shows/food reviews!

The Food

This section will be short and sweet (no pun intended). Just a quick description and what I thought of each.

Gyoza Sausage Bun - Best food decision I made all day. It sounds disgusting and doesn't look all that appetizing. I wasn't sure what I was going to feel about it, to be honest. It's basically chopped, steamed sausage and cabbage inside this cooked dumpling dough. But it's freakin' delicious. The meat melts in your mouth, and the dough has a soft, pleasant consistancy. I can understand why everybody goes for these things here. I actually want another.

Ice Cream Sandwich - Not that great. The chocolate wasn't that good, and the ice cream was almost flavorless.

Soft Serve Ice Cream on Watermelon Shaved Ice - On the other hand, this ice cream was delicious, and the watermelon shaved ice really hit the spot during the heat.

Beer Cocktail (Orange) - Already mentioned this one. I'm not a beer fan, so I didn't care for it. The hint of orange helped slightly, but not nearly enough.

Cape Cod Cook-Off (Bacon Burger/Fries) - Not bad. I had better fries at the zoo the day before, though they appeared identical. The burger itself wasn't anything special. The bacon was nice and thick, though. And it had a special sauce on it that wasn't too bad.

Side-Note: I'm sad to say I did not try any of the flavored popcorn the park had to offer. It was everywhere and of all types--strawberry, caramel, black pepper corn, curry, etc. I was tempted by the strawberry popcorn, but I'd had way too many sweets and wasn't hungry, so I passed on all the popcorn.

Side-Note 2: Don't worry, I also drank lots of water today, as well... just thought I'd toss that in there for people who don't realize I drink more water than most people as it is.

RANK (Worst to Best)

5) Beer Cocktail
4) Ice Cream Sandwich
3) Cape Cod Cook-Off
2) Soft Serve Ice Cream on Watermelon Shaved Ice
1) Gyoza Sausage Bun

The Attractions

For this section, I'm going to order the attractions from least favorite to favorite. Now, there are a few factors for order going into this. If I just wanted to talk about the ride itself, it would be an entirely different order. But I'm also factoring in stuff like queue time, the atmosphere of the queue, and whether or not the ride was actually worth the time I spent waiting in line for it. So let's get to it, shall we?

6) Sinbad's Storybook Theater

The queue for this one was nonexistent, and for a reason. I walked in with a few other people and got straight onto the ride. This is basically the "It's a Small World" of DisneySea, but not nearly as memorable. You're in these little boats and go around a watery path watching an animatronic adventure story of Sinbad's travels. And yes, there's a song that's sung throughout, as well. This one just had me kind of bored the whole time, and this is the only one I felt might have been too long. But it did get me out of the sun for a little while.

5) StormRider

The wait for this one was only about 20-25 minutes. Although it was an outside wait, they had a constant mist spraying at you for the majority of the line that kept you cool. Once you finally got inside, you waited in different lines as an actress gave a speech about the weather center and all the technology and everything they do there (fortunately there was an overhead thing that translated it all into English). The idea is that they have learned to control major storms and send in these StormRider ships to experience it from the eye of the storms. And then they can destroy the storms with this giant laser cannon thing.

The ride itself is a giant emulator room, easily the biggest I've ever seen. The CGI for the ride on the screen was decent at best, but they did mix in practical effects, as well (and they even sprayed you with water at times, which was a fun surprise). It all had a very nice atmosphere to it, though you could never really get past the knowledge that it was clearly fake. On the whole, it was worth it because the wait was pretty short as it was.

4) Tower of Terror

I know--so low on the list? It's a fan favorite of the park. The ride itself is great and thrilling, which you'd expect from a free-fall ride. The reason I ranked it so low is because the queue system for this was ridiculous, even with a FastPass. You have the lobby queue when you first go in, which I still didn't bypass all that quickly and still waited there for about 10 minutes. Then they move you into a second area where everybody goes--regular and FastPass people. And this line I was in for at last another 30 minutes. It didn't help that they sent me through with a group for the attraction, but then stopped me again right before the tour to make me wait alone to go with the group after that.

Besides the queuing, though, it was fun. There's a lot of decent atmosphere in the line with fun or creepy decorations to look at. Then you start this tour to get some backstory (none of which I could understand--something about a millionaire who took a cursed idol from some native tribe and was attacked by spirits... that's what I gathered, anyway). There was one amazing effect where a cursed statue disappears right before your eyes, and I'm still not sure how they pulled that off. And then, of course, the elevator drop was excellent. So the ride itself is great, but the queue experience was very disappointing.

3) Indiana Jones Adventure

On the other hand, this was my best queue experience. There were a couple rides, such as this one, that had what they called "Single Rider" express lanes. So if you're going alone, they put you on a separate express path that basically shoots you to the front of the line. I started off in the regular line at first, which was fine, as there was some nice atmosphere to it. But when I saw the Single Rider sign, I told the attendant and she sent me on through. It went from what was probably 30 minutes to an hour wait to maybe 10 minutes altogether.

The ride itself was fun. You're in a convoy and riding along on a bumpy, winding adventure. You're attacked by all sorts of stuff like giant snakes and even the big boulder near the end. It's a very fast, twisty, bumpy ride and is a lot of fun. And though it seems like there definitely could have been, there were no roller coaster drop moments. But it was still thrilling enough. This one probably had the best mixture of wait time in comparison to thrills of the ride itself.

2) Journey to the Center of the Earth

So here it is: One of the big fan favorites of the park. From the time I entered the line to the time I got off the ride, the whole experience lasted about 90 minutes. The line zigzagged all over the place and only seemed to move a handful of feet every 5 minutes. Of course, I came to discover why once I reached the front of the line: They were entirely too focused on the FastPass line rather than trying to balance them out. However, as it was the first ride I went on all day, it was pretty much what I expected from it, even if it turned out to be the longest queue I had all day. The entire thing was inside the volcano, so you were surrounded by fake rock walls. But you also had the gadgets and decorations to go along with the ride itself. I would have liked to see just a little more to it throughout the main queue, but on the whole, it really sets up a nice atmosphere for the attraction.

The ride itself was super fun. I got to be at the front of the cart, too, so I saw everything unimpeded. It was very imaginative and fast moving. And there's a medium-intensity roller coaster drop near the end that I wasn't expecting. Not a huge drop, but a big enough one to catch me off guard and actually make me yell. Sadly, I do wished it were a little longer. I expected there to be more of an actual peaceful journey before the chaos started and threw you into the coaster aspect. But the whole ride lasts maybe 2-3 minutes. Because of that, 90 minutes of waiting for a 2-minute ride didn't exactly blow my shirt up, and that's the only reason I wasn't about to get in line for another 90 minutes to do it again later on in the day. Overall, especially for my first attraction of the day, it's about what I expected it to be. And as I had high expectations for it to start with, I'd say that still ranks it pretty well.

1) 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea

This ride might not be the most thrilling or exciting of the bunch, but it had a perfect mixture of everything. The queue time was only about 30 minutes, and 2/3s of that was out of the sun. There were some nice props throughout the line, and you never seemed to be stuck in one spot for too long.

When you finally get on the ride, you're in this tiny submarine structure with only a few other people. The length of time you're on the ride is perfect, giving you just the right amount of journey and wonder before the chaos starts. And then it calms you back down a bit. But what really makes this work is how it looks and its interactivity. Unlike StormRider, this one I actually felt was real. It gave me the sense I was actually underwater as there was this curved glass that distorted what you saw to give it a watery feel, and they'd send bubbles up the window to make it all work even better. Never once did I feel like I was just looking through a window at a dry stage. Also, every now and then, they'd activate these green spotlights that you could control using a joystick on your side of the sub. What was even cooler was that some of the animatronics actually responded to it. So if you shined the light towards some sea creatures, they would duck behind rocks and the like.

So yeah, while it might not have been the biggest or most thrilling of the rides all day, it had a great atmosphere, a great look, a great length of time, and (most importantly) a respectable queue time.

The Shows

Similarly, I'm going to rank the shows in order from least favorite to favorite. Though I'll be honest, I actually think I liked the shows more than the attractions, so even the lowest ranked show was still pretty awesome. In this case, I'll be looking at wait time for the show, length of the show, and quality/entertainment of the show.

4) Fantasmic!

It's a bit upsetting that the reason I waited around until night turned out to be at the bottom of the list. But it's not really for the show itself. It's more for my experience with the show. I basically had to sit on the hard ground for 45 minutes to watch the show from a poor angle through a barred gate.

It also started off a bit slow, but it definitely picked up (I mean, this thing has Mickey Mouse fighting a fire-breathing dragon with magic!). It has all sorts of stuff going on--water works, smoke, lasers, fire (even the lake itself catches first at one point), fireworks, animatronics, music, boats, Disney characters, and giant screens for animation from all the major animated films.

The story really picks up when all the villains get together and kidnap Mickey and trap him inside the Magic Mirror and then kind of take over the show for a while. It did turn out to be a lot of fun and very well done. But I just wish I had experienced it a little better.

3) Legend of Mythica

Honestly, putting this at #3 really shows the insane quality of the next two on the list. I'm not going to go into what this show entails since I recorded the entire thing and you could watch it. It's pretty awesome and just has so much going on at all times. it almost feels impossible to see everything going on.

2) Mermaid Lagoon Theater ("Under the Sea")

I didn't have to wait around too long for this. I went inside and sat on the waiting room floor for about 15 minutes before they let us into the theater. No pictures were allowed, but I did manage to grab a couple secretly. They do offer English subtitles for the dialogue/non-singing bits, but I forgot to ask for it, so I'm not exactly sure what the story was.

Basically, the show starts off with Ariel singing Part of Your World and being caught by Sebastian. But then Flotsam and Jetsam show up and take Ariel to Ursula, who sings part of Poor Unfortunate Souls. But then I guess they defeat Ursula or something and Ariel decides to stay a mermaid and Sebastian does Under the Sea (with a short reprise from Ariel for Part of Your World).

What's amazing about this show is its production value. The show lasts about 15 minutes and is super colorful and fun. There's acrobatics/aerial/wire work. There's puppetry. And then there's the enormous animatronic that is Ursula's head and hands. She really stole the show for me and was just jaw-droppingly awesome. By the time it was over, I thought this was going to be one of if not my favorite thing of the day.

1) Big Band Beat

And to think this one wasn't even on my radar, and I went purely because I had nothing else to do. I only had to wait outside for maybe 20 minutes before they let us into the building. The building was basically a big old opera/broadway house (balcony and all) and a huge stage (the only picture I could take, prior to the show starting).

The show lasted 30 minutes and was an homage to the Roarin' 20s era of jazz, swing, blues, tap dancing, and show stoppers. It was a very classy act without a single dull moment. And it was a mix of real people and Disney characters (Mickey, Minnie, Daisy Duck, and Missy the Cat). There was an actual Big Band playing live, and none of the performance was faked (except maybe singing from the Disney characters. That could have been a recording for all I know). But even the characters danced and played some instruments, so the people in the costumes had to have actual talent in those regards, as well.

I really can't even begin to describe just how fun this whole show was--oh, and it was entirely in English, so that was a huge bonus on my part. And it actually felt the most like something uniquely Disney (outside of the obvious Little Mermaid show). So yeah, this definitely tops my list.

OVERALL RANK (Attractions and Shows)

10) Sinbad's Storybook Theater
9) StormRider
8) Tower of Terror
7) Fantasmic!
6) Indiana Jones Adventure
5) Journey to the Center of the Earth
4) 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
3) Legend of Mythica
2) Mermaid Lagoon Theater ("Under the Sea")
1) Big Band Beat

Final Thoughts

The park was a ton of fun, even if sometimes all the waiting in line wasn't. The park itself basically has the feel of mixing together Epcot (with the overall world travel feel) and a little Magic Kingdom (particularly with the Steampunk Tomorrowland-ish feel that were given by Mysterious Island and Port Discovery). Ironically, the two most linked to Disney--Mermaid Lagoon and Arabic Coast--felt the weakest (particularly Arabic Coast, which is stretching the whole Sea theme as it is). The only reason I say Mermaid Lagoon is weakest is because it's basically the kiddy land, so it didn't have really anything for me to do there outside of the magnificent theater show.

If you ever get a chance to check out Tokyo DisneySea, I totally recommend doing so. Oh, and sometimes the volcano erupts fire when you're least expecting it, which is pretty awesome.