Jeff In Japan

Yep. My first earthquake. It happened while I was sleeping. I remember waking up and feeling my whole bed shaking – it felt like being in the ocean, waves just moving your body back & forth (or – imagine someone rhythmically shaking your bed). I thought to myself, “Hmmm… this must be an earthquake.” I stayed in bed and enjoyed the ride (ignoring all the advice of find a safe place under a doorway, a table, etc… Hey, I was tired – cut me a break). People who were awake or who jumped out of bed and looked out the window said they saw bikes on the street swaying and that the building was actually moving. Pretty scary stuff for a New Yorker… my host family thought it was hysterical that this was my first earthquake.

You can link to the article here.

The question was asked – do the Japanese people celebrate Halloween? The answer – oh yeah. Big time. Apparently Halloween “arrived” in Japan about 5 years ago and has caught on… Disney may have something to do with that (The Nightmare Before Christmas is HUGE here – much bigger than in the U.S.). Even the convenience stores have embraced Halloween…

This goes on for a bit… but if you’ve never seen the Disney Light Parade (and I hadn’t), it’s pretty cool to watch. If you have seen this before, then you know what to expect.

I suppose it’s a bit sad that I’ve grown up in the United States and have never been to DisneyLand or DisneyWorld. Still, the people I went with assured me that Tokyo Disneyland was a near carbon copy of the ones in the U.S. (Considering that almost all the signs were in English, I’m willing to believe their assessment – though I don’t know that the U.S. versions offer octopus dumplings on their menus). I rode the Star Tours & Pirates of the Caribean rides (C3P0 and Pirates speaking Japanese – interesting experience).

A wacky looking fish –

Here I am with Tracy (from Florida), Holly (from Ohio) and Mickey (from Japan via Florida)…