Japan 2006, Part 3

Day 3

Day 3 started like the last 2 in the hostel, with a small breakfast with the cute kitchen staff. I wish I took pictures with them. Kuya Phil and I went ahead as the other 2 were late getting up. After all of us got done with breakfast, we packed our things for checkout. We asked the staff to keep our luggage in a separate room as we rented lockers for our backpacks.

We took the local trains to our next destination, Universal Studios, Japan. Like their state counterparts, there was plenty to do there. It's like going to the ones in America, but with the added obstacle of not knowing what's going on. We rode several rides: Back to the Future, Spider-man, and Jurassic Park. We also sat around for the Terminator 2 show.

Back to the Future ride was very fun. For some reason, I thought I rode this in the past. However, with the experience that happened, I knew this was the first time. I wish I knew what the story was, as Doc Brown was speaking in Japanese. It seemed that he wanted us to stop Biff from stealing the Delorian by using another one. The ride itself is modeled after the inside of a delorian. It would rise into a dome structure where you had a panoramic view of the chase. The car would rock, shake and move to the video, making it a bumpy ride. It also sprayed dry ice at various parts. My car in particular spewed out lots of ice and the people sitting in the front seat got so much that a lady started coughing at it..haha.

The next attraction we went to was the Spider man ride. Lines for these rides were pretty long, usually waiting hour and 30 mins to 2 hours. I've never been on this one, but I heard it was pretty good! True to the word, it was very exciting. Not only did the ride shake and move, but you wore 3d glasses as stuff came out at you from all over the place. Again, during the wait in line, there was supposed to be some story behind the ride. From what I picked up, the Daily Bugle designed these news vans that looked like small tanks without the cannon. The ride took us through the city looking for news when All of Spiderman’s nemesis came out and wreaked havoc upon our poor little vehicle. The thing I liked about this ride was the sudden jerking movements it would make. It seems that Universal studios took great pains to sync the movements with the activity. I thought it was even better than the Back to the Future ride.

After Spiderman, we had to navigate our way behind the crowds lined up for the parades, which seemed to happen every hour or so. We ended up in front of the Terminator attraction. I've always wanted to hear Arnold speak Japanese, so we waited in another line to get into it. This particular attraction was not a ride, but more of a show. They would gather everyone in a waiting room before heading into the theatre. In the waiting room, there was this lady that showed up on a balcony above us and started explaining about Skynet and all its wonders. She also was some sort of comedian because everyone would laugh after her lines, which I and my group couldn't understand. After about 10 mins of her comics, we headed into the main theatre where we took our 3d glasses and watched the show. The story was that John Conner is running away from the 2nd version of Terminator (the liquid morphing guy). They run in and out of the stage using 3d and real actors. It was pretty exciting, especially the part where they head into skynet headquarters where there was a huge metal liquid 3d spider fighting the actor Terminator. It was nicely timed with a very loud explosive ending. I highly suggest trying it if you find yourself at a Universal Studios.

It was getting late already, so we decided to go on one more ride, Jurassic Park. Actually, it was just me and kuya Phil because the other two got scared. The ride itself is like the ride in the states, so I knew all that was going to happen. However, the Japanese got me again and had no idea what was said. This time around I bought a poncho so I wouldn't get wet. I think my cousin got really scared the drop because when we saw the picture, he had his eyes closed with a look of horror on his face. It was one of the funniest pictures I've seen!

After the ride, kuya Phil wanted to buy some Back to the Future goods before we left. What was supposed to be a 10 minute shopping trip became an hour easy, as well as $350 out of his pocket. The funny thing was, he said he had to hold himself back from buying anymore. I have no idea how someone can spend that much on one movie. He attributed the fact that it doesn't sell in the U.S. anymore. After hearing all the moaning and buyer's regret, we headed back to the hostel. If you remember, we checked out of the hostel that morning, so we had the staff store our luggage in another room until we returned. My luggage is not very light, and there was a lot of walking, taking trains, and switching trains on the trip to Yokohama. At least this time when we boarded the shinkansen, we used our reserved seat power and got first class seats. Thank god we did, because these seats were nice. The reserved cars in the shinkansen consisted of 4 seats per row, as opposed to the 5 in the non-reserved cars. They also had attendant service where they gave you a small wet cloth to wash yourself as well as a cart full of goods. The ride over was about 3 hours with 3 stops at other terminals. Unfortunately, someone ended up sitting next to me, so I didn't have a row to myself. It didn't matter because the seats themselves were like the seats on the business class/first class of an airplane.

Our stop was at the Sakura-gichou terminal where we saw the InterContinental Hotel from the track. We had to trek about a mile carrying our entire luggage with us. By this time I was already tired from walking all day so this really wore me out. At least by the end of this trip, I would've had a great workout week. Getting back on subject, the hotel is widely known in Japan because if it's architecture. The building itself looks like a huge sail. We got a room on the 22nd floor and the elevator we took was a glass one, so we were able to see how far up we went. The view we have here is absolutely priceless! It overlooks the harbor with the Yokohama skyline in the background, truly a postcard picture moment. This hotel also gave me something I didn't have access to so far, internet. The minute I logged on, I checked my email; IM'd some friends/family, and let the rest of my group do their own emailing and such. We finally got in touch with folks/business back home, so it was a good way to end the day.