Sunday, January 13, 2013

Walking on Dragons and Jumping On the Best Trampoline

Yesterday, Yuuki and I were on a mission to take a train we've never taken to explore a place we've never been to before. We switched a few trains and ended up in Tachikawa before hoping on another train and finding an epic park, Showa Kinen Park. I just realized that it was one of the places that I wanted to visit! Recently, I've been looking up places to go like a tourist and this was one of them. Oh gosh. So awesome. But first, Tachikawa -
Melon Pan is always a good way to start the day. This one's edges tasted like cookie. ^___^
 There wasn't too much in this city...
We went to an arcade and did a Purikura and played some air hockey ^___^.
This was the craziest air hockey game ever. First, we played with one puck and then all of those colorful pucks slid down and it was madness. Yuuki dominated me. His score kept on blinking though when I was trying to take a picture XD. I'm pretty sure his was 770. woof.
 There were alien pods in the arcade.
Yuuki gave me this Black Thunder Candy bar! So good. It was like a crunch bar with peanuts mixed with a brownie. AwWWww YeahaHh.
And then we ate 5 different types of Taiyaki ^___^ Plain, Sweet Potato, Apple Cinnamon, Chocolate, and some other one that I can't remember..
This is what they look like:
They have a pancake-like bread to them. ^__^
Look at all dem bikes:
I wish I could post all of the Purikura we did, but we only has access to one that they chose x___X. I'll take a picture of the paper they gave us sometime, though. I asked Kirsty if her sister could possibly recover them again, which I feel bad for >___<. But maybe she can sometime and I'll post them ^___^.

For now, here is the one they sent us:
chu chu chu.
This was in one of the stations:
There were 3 different colored balls that you had to get in the correct colored cup at the bottom. When I put the ball on the top to go through the maze, it rolled through it normally and then just jumped and plopped down into the correct cup. lololol. Well, it worked. XD
We hopped on another train or two and arrived at the Showa Kinen Park. Yuuki had been here already, but hasn't visited since he was about 12 years-old.
 This belongs in a video game:
 ART:
 ART:
 MORE ART!:
I may have posed by her...
Openness ^____^:
BIKERS. I begged Yuuki that we walk instead of renting bikes because I am absolutely terrible at biking.
THEN THERE WAS THIS THING, OH MY GOSH. It was like a huge blow up trampoline-type bubble thing. I don't even know. But it was amazing and we jumped on it. We were toatz mcgoatz the oldest ones jumping on it. lolol.
It was the perfect day, too. The weather was about 56 degrees, in the middle of January O__O. Everyone was flying kites or playing badminton or soccer. Well, everyone was just happy and that was awesome.
Spring must look amazing here. There were Sakura trees in a few places. Man, I wish I could see Spring in Japan.
This tree was pretty amazing:

 This was a puzzle where you had to bring the blue rope from one side to the other.
We failed miserably with a few people watching us in our dismay. lolol. I bet Shawn could solve it, though.
 Then we walked around the huge park some more ^___^.
 There were ducks! Ducks in this thing!
 Edward?
Did I just ruin that picture for you?
Looking over and...
 whirlpool of doom!
 REAL BAMBOO, YOU GUYS:
 REAL. BAMBOO.
 As you can see, Yuuki was born in the year of the Sheep:
 Oh gosh, more amazing jungle-gym stuff:
 Spider children:
 But only little kids were allowed on it =[[.
AwWWww yYeeaAhhh, slide that we def went on:
And took out a kid at the bottom. YOU CAN'T JUST STOP AT THE BOTTOM.
Then there were these hills that we defeated before reaching the mini-pyramid in the background:
 They're in the Lava! They did not defeat the hills.
 Link could do it.
Atop the pyramid:
 Then. There was a sea of the crazy-awesome-trampoline:
But it was only for little kids and there was a police man to make sure it stayed that way =[[[. Well, adults could go on it too if they were watching their kid. So really, Yuuki and I just needed to find some random kids and pretend they were our own for a few minutes. It was tempting.
Dragons! There were dragons! I really like the one freaking out in the background. Yuuki was brave enough to try to defeat it.
 And he
 was eaten.
 Ah! No, he defeated it!
However, I never saw that little girl again...
More dragons O__O:
 And a mine:
 Oh hai. My name is Kat and this is my dragon.
After climbing all of the dragons and walking on their backs, there was a cave tunnel that led to a bunch of huge rocks that we climbed up and on to get to the other side. When we reached the top of a hill, there was a little boy that asked me 「どうしたのオレンジがみさん?」or "What's up, orange hair girl?" lololol.

REACH FOR THE STARS:
Yuuki and I went on this roller slide and then walked around a bit more. It was so pretty outside. We arrived back near the beginning of the park again and the tree still looked awesome.
It was the tree of life, man.
Yuuki went fishing before leaving first.
 Big jungle-gyms do exist in Japan!
 Yuuki was caught from jumping on the awesome-trampoline:
I still don't know if we were able to jump on the one we did XD. We didn't see any sign like the other ones had. Wahaha.
After leaving, we took a train to Yuuki's hometown. I got to see a traditional Japanese home! It's a lot different than an American home. w00f. His grandparents live downstairs from them and I got to meet them ^___^. Su-pa- nice people!
Then, Yuuki and I went to meet up with his friend, Taiko, who we went to Disney Sea with a little while ago. We happened to meet up by this sweets shop XD. We bought dorayaki, a small ice cream filled macaroon, and a few chocolates.
The dorayaki is filled with red bean paste and tastes pretty much the same as taiyaki when it has red bean paste in it too. So, like a pancake with a sweet paste in it.
The chocolates were like a crunch bar + dry brownie, which ended up being really good. And I had a bite of the macaroon, which pretty much tasted like an ice cream sandwich ^___^.
Yeah, that's blood on my pants. I may have got a little scratch from climbing the rocks at the park XD.
Hard-Off:
lololol. Beth.
Yuuki then drove us to Seijo station. It was a good 45-ish minute drive and it was awesome seeing more of Japan. Honestly, I couldn't imagine being the driver. It's scary >__<. I still can't get over the 1-lane roads with random cars, bikers, wild cats, and pedestrians to watch out for.
I also walked over to the wrong side of the car to get in. lolol.

We ate dinner together at a family restaurant near the station ^___^. I got a shrimp salad with tomato and bacon bit soup. We all shared our dinners with each other too, so I tried a bit of the steak and sausage plate that Yuuki got.
And then Taiko made a crane out of the wet towelette that we got. Now this is art.
I still can't believe she could do that. Magician!
After, we went to an electronic-Best-Buy-like store called Kojima. We found some massage chairs and sat in them, getting a massage for 25+ minutes. We didn't even get yelled at to get off for hogging them. I gotta say, I felt incredibly relaxed after XD. Yuuki even fell asleep in his chair. lolol.
We played around with cameras and other gadgets for awhile and then headed to the station where I walked home from there. ^___^

It was a pretty darn awesome day. I loved being able to go to a huge park and running around. I think this park beat any park I've ever been to. It must have been the dragons.
With one place off my list, there's still a ton of places I want to venture to and also places I want to revisit.
Tomorrow is my last day of school. Wahahaha.

And today is Coming of Age day where people aged 18 and 20 have a celebration, so we have off of school today. I am not complaining. My adventure side has now officially overcome my studious side and I can hardly concentrate on studying anymore. Must...venture...
But yeah! Today is pretty chill. I'm debating on going to the kickboxing gym or not because I'm not positive it's open and I wouldn't want to go there for nothing. But hey, it's a nice walk. It's about a mile or more from the station in Shimokitazawa, which is a nice warm up. ^___^
I do have to study as well though. And pick up bananas. Always with the bananas.

Oh gosh. It's snowing ^___^'.

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