Universal Studios Japan

In the morning at 6:45am, was breakfast at the hotel. It was a large meal, but as I learned from the previous day, don't eat too much because there's more on the way. It was pretty good, miso soup, some rice, some eggs, sausage, fruit and a variety of other things.

Then it was back to the rooms to get our stuff and then to the busses to head for Universal Studios in Osaka, Japan. I was sitting with the Yuri class, which is Japanese for Lily. Each of the classes are named after flowers. They are one of my best classes on Tuesday, so it was nice sitting with them on the bus. I was also sitting with one of the tour guides and the homeroom teacher. I started making conversation with the tour guides for the trip, but his English was limited too. He had spent a few years in Brittain to study, but he was studying at a Japanese school.

The tour guide of the bus company was there to ask the students questions and talk about the Universal Studios and what to look forward to. They also did a game where they would have to guess what word was it, because in Osaka they have a different dialect than in the Tokyo area. We arrived there after an hour on the bus. Afterwards, we were all rushed into an area to get a group picture and I sat in with the Yuri class, so that was pretty cool. Most of the other classes had two teachers as homeroom teachers.

Then they were all free to roam around the amusement park and the teachers separated into a few groups too. I stayed with the two younger teachers that I've been talking to during the trip. It was fun, the first thing that we did was go on the Spiderman Ride. It was really interesting how they mixed the 4-D with the ride. It was a great ride.

After we did that we went to the Backdraft behind the scenes ride. One of the teachers really liked the movie, so we decided to go. I would have liked to go on Back to the Future, which was right next door, but I chose Spiderman, so it would be nice to concede one to the next person. It wasn't as impressive as I originally thought. Since it was all in Japanese too.

Then we saw some students that went on Jurassic Park, and were all wet, so the other teachers told them to stay in the sun to dry off. And then Mr. Suzuki was filming because he's advertising the school. So he was trying to get some good footage to sell the school. We were just hanging out till we had lunch. We went to Lombard Landing. It was a really nice restaurant. I ordered the Califorian Course, which was a whoping $41 or roughly about. That's how the teachers at this school eat out. I was like, you're crazy, but the meal was delicious. It included a nice San Francisco Clam Chowder, a nice fillet mignon, a strawberry cake, a salad, and some other stuff. This school is ballin'.

After lunch, we wanted to go on the Terminator 3-D show, but waiting in line for about 30 minutes and had to leave because Mr. Suzuki had to film the Waterworld show before we left the park for advertising purposes. But the other teacher and I separated from him because she had to buy some souvenirs for some students that weren't able to go, and he had to rush over there. Ms. Oyama bought some E.T. items, and then we went over to find the waterworld entrance, but before we got there, we ran back into Mr. Suzuki. Turns out that all the tickets were sold out and he couldn't get in. It was too late to go back to Terminator. When we were in line, it was only a 25 minute wait, but as we were leaving, the time changed to 65 minutes. We needed to leave by 2:30pm so we just went shopping very slowly till we had to leave.

I didn't buy anything. I didn't feel anything was worth buying. It's a shame I think, the products weren't worth the money. And since I don't have that much money left, I decided maybe it was better not to spend it on something that I didn't feel worth it. Actually there were a few things, but then they were over priced. Well, maybe next time. I hear that in the winter, the teachers will go on the same trip again as a Teacher's Vacation trip.

We made it back to the bus and as we were leaving the Bus tour guide was crying because of the connection that she had with the students and even some of the students were crying. Amazing I think. We got on the shinkansen, the fastest one in the world. When we got to Nagoya, the members from the other group, joined the train. So there were the 10th graders and 11th graders on the train. As we were going to Shizuoka, there was a splendid view of Mt. Fuji that I didn't see on the way down or on my previous trips through the area. So we were very lucky since it was also dark. I'm glad another teacher pointed it out to me. It really is remarkable and you can really tell, oh that's Mt. Fuji. When we got back to Tokyo Station, all the members from all the trips got together to meet families and go back home.

The teachers had a dinner get together afterwards, which I wasn't told about, but kind of assumed that there would be one. It was a really good experience. I really felt as if I got closer with the teachers that I would be working with. We were joking and talking all night about various things, and I had to thank the headmaster for allowing me the opportunity for going on the trip, a Japanese custom to thank the boss for everything. The meal was delicious and of course, way too much for me. Looked quite expensive and everything. But I really really enjoyed the trip. Everyone really is welcoming, and I hope that I can do a good job as an English teacher.