Universal Studios Japan

So the latest installment of my Japan adventure!

This past week was Golden Week, which allows for nearly a week of vacation! Unfortunately this means everyone went home for the break, so Andrew and I decided to meet up with our friend Tetsuya at Universal Studios Japan! USJ is located just about 1/2 hour outside of Osaka. It's a lot like the Florida Universal, but not exactly the same.

To get there, Andrew and I took a night bus--big mistake! It was soooo exhausting. I couldn't sleep and was really tired throughout the day. Nevertheless, I still had fun. :)

When you first arrive at Universal City by train, you are greeted by a Starbucks (of course) and a very Universal-feeling shopping street.



Then you walk a little more and you get to the main gate!


We went during Golden Week, which is basically the equivalent of Thanksgiving Week for America, so there were sooo many people. Luckily Tetsuya bought tickets beforehand, so we didn't have to wait in line to buy them. I recommend this for any park you go to! The price of standard USJ tickets is 6200 yen. I was really surprised; this is a lot of more expensive than Disney Sea was! Well anyway, it was a good time, although everything inside is ridiculously expensive--I think going once is just enough for the amount of money you pay.

Anyway, inside USJ:









Universal is fun, though. They have some pretty good rides. We rode Hollywood Dream, which is a fun (but not intense) roller coaster; Back to the Future, an exciting 3D ride through time; Jurassic Park, which is a water ride with cool dinosaur statues and then an awesome steep drop at the end, and which we waited in line for for TWO HOURS (omg I thought I was gonna die lol); Space Fantasy, a really fun and fast roller coaster through space with an added bonus of spinning cars; and Spiderman, another really fun 3D ride. All in all it was a good day. The only rides we missed were Terminator 2 3-D and Jaws, which is fine, haha. Although we did miss some shows. Since we had to catch another night bus back at 10 we had to leave a little earlier than we would have liked. But overall, we had a lot of fun. I recommend it!

Sakura Paradise

Finally, it's the spring post!

If you know something about Japan, it's probably that during spring, Japan is covered with the beautiful pink and white of cherry and plum blossom trees! It's wonderful. Mishima itself is quite beautiful, and Mishima Taisha is a grand sight to be seen. All in all spring is absolutely beautiful in Japan, although the beauty lasts for at most a week and a half. It makes enjoy the sakura, or cherry blossoms, even easier. :)

So I'll just post a bajillion pictures I took of flowers and trees. I'm kinda lazy to put descriptions, but I will tell you where they were taken. :) Enjoy!

In Ryoanji Temple (Kyoto):




In Tenmangu Shrine (Kyoto):







At Kiyomizudera Temple (Kyoto):

At Osaka Castle (Osaka):


Of course...when we went to Kyoto is was ever so slightly too early to see the trees in full bloom, but shortly after returning to Mishima, we had many great views!!

In Mishima Taisha:









(Only at the end did I realize that using the Vivid Colors setting would make it look soo much cooler. lol)

At Nichidai (my school)




Various places around Mishima:





At a park nearby by Nichidai (where we went to play soccer haha):



In Fuji City, where we went to do a Hanami (Flower Viewing Party), which partly failed because most of the flowers were gone, lol. Oh well. We had fun, and we enjoyed the good food. :)





As you can see I was perfectly smitten with the tiny cherry blossom flowers. xD; But I love spring in general anyway, because in Florida we don't really get much of a spring. When I moved to Ohio I went crazy taking pictures of all the blooming flowers, haha. Anyway, that's it for now, hope you enjoyed the 1934897t024709657 pictures! For the record, I did have to restrain myself from uploading every single one. haha.