The day after my birthday, Sharron and I went on a tour run by the base to Tokyo Disneyland. It was our first such tour and it seemed perfect as it was on a Monday and we figured the rest of Tokyo would be at work/school. The tour group was pretty huge, 4 busses, and we found that many of the other attendees thought the same thing as us. As we approached Disneyland, after 2 hours driving in Tokyo traffic, we encountered a large traffic jam. This was our first clue that something was not going to plan. An hour later we were finally parked and ready to go, us and the other 2 billion people at the gate. As it turns out all the local schools in Tokyo were off that day and they all decided to go to Disneyland. We still had an enjoyable time, especially since Sharron had never been to any Disney park before, but it’s safe to say that it was slightly diminished by the long lines and large crowds.
The first thing we did in the park was get something to eat. After our quick breakfast of Pop Tarts, we needed something else. We ended up having waffles. The amazing thing was that it only cost us about $5 for food for two. Very strange and very indicative of the whole trip. At any of the American parks, we would have paid at least twice that much. The first ride we rode was the Pirates of the Caribbean. Sharron wasn’t sure what to expect and I think she was very surprised that it was a dark ride. A dark ride is a ride where you slowly tour through the ride as opposed to a roller coaster or other thrill rides. We also weren’t sure if the rides were going to be in English or Japanese. It was a little of both on Pirates, but mostly Japanese on all the rest. Oh well, I think I was able to narrate most of the stuff from memory. :-) We next rode the Jungle Cruise. Even in Japanese, the boat driver was pretty funny. He was very animated and Sharron seemed to get a kick out of it. Next it was time for lunch so we consulted our map. We couldn’t really decide on anything American, so we headed to a Japanese venue.
After lunch, we headed over to Space Mountain. This was to be Sharron’s favorite ride of the day. The line wasn’t even as long as we thought it would be, so that was a huge plus. After Space Mountain, we headed to Star Tours which I had a lot of fun explaining to Sharron. She had no idea that there even was such a thing as a Star Wars ride anywhere. She loved it and was very happy to run into some old friends, even if they did speak Japanese (At least, I think R2-D2 was speaking Japanese). We took a short break for a snack and soda and then got stopped by a parade. In lieu of watching it (cough), we tried out the Microadventure! It turned out to be the Honey I shrunk the Kids 3D movie, but they had headphones with the English sound track so that made it better. Sharron had never seen a 3D film before, so that made it completely worthwhile. We next headed to my favorite ride, The Haunted Mansion. It really loses something when the narrator only speaks Japanese, but like I said, I think I was able to translate the basic gist to Sharron. Our last ride for the day was It’s a Small World. It too is in Japanese, but there is still a small section where the song is in English.
For dinner we tried to go to the Queen of Hearts banquet hall, but when we went it we found that it was just a general cafeteria type place. It was really cool looking, but we instead ate at the Blue Bayou which is the restaurant that’s inside The Pirates of the Caribbean. It was pretty good food and a fun place to eat.
We ended up missing out on Big Thunder Mountain and Splash Mountain, but we can always hit them the next time we go. Overall, the park is amazingly similar to the American ones, but still a fun place to visit.
The second trip we’ve taken recently was to Tokyo. We stayed at the New Sanno hotel which is right in the middle of Tokyo and is run by the Navy. Most hotels in the area are crazy expensive and can run from $200 and up! The New Sanno for a normal sized room runs about $55 a night. Not bad for a normal hotel, but this one is actually quite nice. It has several restaurants and even offers room service, which we partook of for breakfast. Dinner was also quite good as we were able to get some actual American food that didn’t suck. :-)
The reason behind this trip was for Sharron to take her GMAT. She’s been interested in getting her MBA and anybody that wants that has to take the GMAT. We were lucky enough to find a testing center that wasn’t too far from the New Sanno. We tried to get there both by train and by taxi. They were about the same cost for two, but the taxi only took 15 minutes and the train took over an hour. Weird.
During Sharron’s test I was able to head to Ueno to the toy store I like there and then over to Akihabara to see all the tech stores and another toy store I like. I didn’t spend too much money, but I did pick up a new Transformer (Binaltech Meister if you’re interested).
As the title of this post indicates, about 2 weeks ago I did switch jobs again. A wing position, titled the Wing Informations Operations Officer, opened up and it just happens to be my career field. The wing tasked my squadron commander to provide a body and I was the lucky one selected. Last week was a base readiness exercise so I got to learn what my new duties entail during that and then this week I’ve been trying to figure out what my normal duties are. The guy I replaced was less than helpful in figuring this stuff out, but I’m trying to muddle my way through it.
It’s a good job to have as it’s at the wing, but I really was having a good time as a flight commander. I’m not sure if I’ll be in this job for 1 or 2 years either. I guess I’ll just do a good job and see where life takes me.
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