Journal - more updates

Sunday July 20th, 9:00pm.
We didn’t get home from the LABO party until 11:00pm!! I had a lot of fun, and got to see Riko!! Every mother brought a dish of food to the party; my host mom brought fried chicken (!), and the leftover pancakes that I cooked that morning. All the pancakes went very quickly! And everyone said they were good!! I went shopping before the party, and got some gifts. I got to go to the guide dog school today! (YEAH!) It was a lot of fun; they had a “real” guide dog there with a blind lady, and then a trainer with a dog that can be placed anytime. She showed us how they train them to walk around things, (so that they won’t trip and fall), after that she asked if anyone wanted to come and walk with the guide dog (that was wearing a harness). A whole bunch of kids raised their hands, and she was only going to pick 5. I happened to be one of them! (Lucky me), so I put the blind fold on that she gave me, took a hold of the harness (and the trainer was walking the dog with a lead on the other side), and started walking, it was a really fun! My host mother got pictures so I can post them on my blog. After she finished talking we got to go to the gift shop. They didn’t have any t-shirts, but they had a lot of other things, I got some things, (including 2 guide dog post cards), and then a lot of information on the guide dog school. Once we left the guide dog school, we went and got lunch. I got to go in a bakery to choose what bread I wanted. It was way different from the bakeries I am used to. You got a plate with a handle, and your own picker-up to pick up bread, and all the bread was out on plates. Once you were done you go to pay. They bag each bread in a separate bag, and then in a bag together. It looks, and is, a lot different!! But the bread tasted great!
I was quite surprised when I got to the LABO event, because I saw Charlie!! She was my roommate at the hotel in Japan (she is from America). She was surprised to see me there too, and there were also 2 other people from America. All four of us got up on the stage and had to sing the chicken song (I don’t want to be a chicken, I don’t want to be a duck…), then we got all the kids singing it! We had alot of fun, and also played alot of other games. We did origami too. Then when it ended we went out to eat! It was my first time going to a restaurant in Japan!! It was one that they brought all sorts of different meat to the table and you cooked it yourself. That was soo much fun! I have never done that before at a restaurant! We also ordered dessert; Rieko and I got vanilla ice cream, it was really good. I will be posting pictures of going to my first restaurant and the guide dog school tomorrow (since its already 9:30!). So good night.

Monday July 21, 10:15pm.
HAIR CUT!!
I went and got my hair cut at 2:30pm today, it was a really nice place, and expensive, one cut was 30,000 yen (about 300 dollars!!!), but mine wasn’t too expensive!! (Since I wasn’t getting a perm, or my hair colored!!) I looked through more than 6 big books of hair styles, but didn’t find any ones I liked. So I got the word across “layered” to the person who was going to cut my hair, and told him how short I wanted it. He chose what the style was going to look like, and what the layering would look like. After getting it washed, cut, washed, dried, brushed, and I think thinned, it was done. I really like it, and glad I chose to get a haircut in Japan.
After that we went to a shopping center, and got ice-cream Sundays. Mine was really good, and in the middle of it there was cake. We then went shopping for an hour. Tonight we watched a movie, it was in English but had Japanese subtitles, I asked what the name was, and was told (Lalyie’s Adventure), I know the name Lalyie isn’t right but it was close to the girls name in the movie. I thought for sure I knew what the movie was, but the name didn’t fit at all. Then once it passed a part that Lalyie was given a golden compass I knew the name!! I remember seeing commercials for it. The name I think was The Golden Compass. (Mom and Dad hadn’t intended this movie for our family, but I didn’t know that.)
I have to go to bed now, since we are leaving for a theme park tomorrow, and also staying the night at a hotel. So I want to get my sleep.
Good night!


Wednesday July 23, 8:38pm.
I decided not to bring my computer with me yesterday so I didn’t write in my journal at all. Yesterday’s update is…

Tuesday July 22.
We left the house at 11:00am, and stopped to eat lunch at 12:15pm. I had corn soup (which is REALLY good!!), a hamburger, and salad. After we left the restaurant we got back in the car and went to the hotel. We arrived at the hotel around 1:50pm. At the hotel we got out of the car with our backpacks and things, got to the front of the hotel, and a person came up, took all of the luggage put it on a cart, wheeled it in the door, and handed the cart with luggage to another person, a lady wearing a kimono, (there were about 10 ladies all wearing matching kimonos!!). The lady that had our luggage took it to our room (with us following), and, when we left our room, whenever we came back the room was either ready for bed (all the beds put out), or a small table put out with water, green tea, and a sweet (dessert). And if the lady ever came in when we were in the room, she would always kneel down and bow. Just like when I walked around the inside of the hotel, anybody working there would stop and bow!! But that is what they do in Japan. When I went to school with Rieko last week, whenever a different teacher came into the room, all of us, including me, had to stand up and bow to him/her. If you ever went to this hotel you would think the same thing (it’s REALLY, REALLY nice!!) I got some pictures of it so I can post them on my blog. Well after we got our swimsuits out of our backpacks (only me and Rieko, Rieko’s father was going to take a long bath, and Rieko’s mother was going to take pictures of us) we went to the water park (which is attached to the hotel, well pretty much, it’s not INSIDE, of course!!). We had a blast! There was this slide that after you started you come out into a funnel and go round and round until you fall into the hole in the middle (sometimes head first!!). We also went in a pool that goes around almost the whole water park (which was just like the lazy river at Splash Country). Then there was the “Sea Pool” which is just like the Wave pool at Splash Country! It has waves just like a real sea. Then there was a slide that you climbed up a lot of stairs to get to, it was a really long one! There were a lot of others but I don’t want to name them all, I think this water park was just like Splash Country!!
Once we were done with the water park we went to eat dinner (supper), you know sometimes when you are at a restaurant and you complain that your food takes forever to come? Well if so then you never want to go to Japan!! Because some restaurants like to drag out your supper! I mean we got to our table, ate the little bit of food that was already at the table, and waited, and after 30 minutes, a bowl of soup came, once we finished that (if you liked it, otherwise you would be really bored!) then wait for another, it was a long supper!! But I had a lot of time to get pictures of each food!! When we went to bed I decided to climb up and sleep in where the beds were stored! I convinced Rieko to sleep with me, and from reading the Little House books, it was just like a box bed!! Which is a bed that is just big enough for you and one other person, and has a door to shut (all of it is wood), so if your parents want to stay up and read, you can shut the door and go to bed! I got pictures of it, and will be posting that on my blog too!!

Wednesday July 23,
We went to the theme park today, (much like DollyWood) half the rides were just like ones at DW!! We did Roller coasters first, which I am now calling this theme park the Roller coaster park! Half of it is roller coasters! I rode 6-7 different ones!! One of which was called the Steel Dragon. Now when Rieko came to our house she went to DW and didn’t want to ride the roller coaster that went upside down, (called TN Tornado) but the next day she felt bad for not doing it, so she went on it. And ended up loving it and doing it again! But that didn’t work with Steel Dragon!! She would not ride it (neither would her mother!) but her father rode it with me! This roller coaster was way different than TN Tornado. It is in the Guiness Record Book! It is the roller coaster that goes really, really far up, and almost straight down!! I have pictures of how high it is, but I really wasn’t that scared, and it was a lot of fun! All the other roller coasters Rieko’s mother rode with me, but there was one other one named White Cyclone that was made of all wood (just like the one at DW), and Rieko wouldn’t ride that one either. So her mother rode it with me! Rieko went to ride something called Frog hopping, (one at DW that goes up and down and up and down), and it went up and stopped really fast, and it felt just like frog hopping! Well, I think so, I really don’t know since I have never been a frog! But we rode a lot of different rides, one of the last rides (that Rieko would not ride, and I wish I had followed suit) was a boat that went up, up, and up, then went down into water! It was like the one at DW but you got WAY more wet! I thought it would be just like the one at DW but I was wrong, it was a good thing I got to take my shoes off before doing the ride! I was dripping wet from head to toe, and every part of me was wet!! But Rieko was nice and dry! After lunch (2:00pm) we went back to the water park (since it was getting to hot). I did the funnel ride 2 more times (since it is soo fun!) and then a lot of other rides.
I had a lot of fun, and think the water park and theme park was just like DollyWood and Splash Country!!