Advertisement
Published: August 11th 2013
Edit Blog Post
Universal Studios, Japan
This is near the entryway to the park Konnichiwa!
Today's entire day was dedicated to Universal Studios in Osaka. I'm not a huge amusement park guy but I do enjoy walking around and seeing the sites. The problem was that today was hotter and mustier than the devil's armpit after he ran a triathlon. It seems each day keeps going up in temperature. "You still think it can't get hotter? Well, let me move the heat dial from an 8 to a 9 and see how you like it!"
Seriously, it was baking hot. I knew I was going to be a sweaty mess, but I felt relieved when I saw that all the Japanese people were sweaty messes as well. And speaking of the Japanese people, the park was crowded with them. Like, I think all of them. That place was jam packed.
The curious thing for me was the way a lot of them stared at me and Ronn. At first I thought it was rude, but then it was explained to me that many of them had rarely (if ever) seen a white man before. I considered that pretty laughable at first, but further explanation was that many of people there were from
Cyberdyne Systems
T2 is pretty old, but it still draws a crowd. out in the rural country areas not on the tourist destination maps. What cemented it was when a couple young girls ran up with their cameras and asked Ronn to take a photo. Ronn started to reach for the camera to take the picture of them when they corrected him and said they wanted to take photos WITH us. Not only did they take a bunch (like 6 or 7) but they were super excited, like they just won some fabulous dream apartment in some downtown Tokyo highrise instead of taking a photo with two overweight gaijin (foreigners) covered in sweat from the high humidity. I attached a photo of them for you to check out.
Overall the park was like Universal Studios in California. The rides were pretty old. They had Back To The Future, Terminator 2, Jurassic Park, etc. As far as the people go, they are really into their pop culture. There are several animes that are very popular right now like One Piece and they wear crazy outfits and special hats and outfits. In America if there was one person (customer, not paid employee) dressed up in costume and walking around people would think it
kinda weird. In Japan it's very normal. I saw hundreds if not thousands of people wearing hoods or weird hats to full on costumes. It was like Halloween.
By the way, today's Japanese Word of the Day is Atsui. It means "hot". I used it quite a bit today to break the ice. Japanese people can appear aloof or cold or disinterested to foreigners, but the truth is every person I tried to speak with was very polite and friendly when I made the effort to talk to them. It was pretty easy finding something in common - I would just look at them (usually when they were looking at me curiously and pretending not to look if I caught them) and say "Atsui! Atsui atsui atsui!!!" while fanning my face with my hands and they would laugh and say "Hai!" or something similar, because they were also dripping in sweat and miserable while pretending to not be affected. Sometimes they would rattle off some long-winded response, which would lead to me looking confused or running away. Not really, but it is pretty fun too say something and see them be surprised. Like if they ask to have you
It's all about the hats
Two girls wearing hats from the "One Piece" anime. take their photo and you count in Japanese. "Ichi, ni, san!" (one, two three), usually they start laughing along with you.
Another thing I want to point out - Japanese children are VERY well behaved. I walked all over that park in the extreme heat and humidity from 9:00AM to 10:00PM and I did not see a single temper tantrum all day. Heck, if anyone threw a temper tantrum there it was ME! I was absolutely hating the heat and I lost my sunglasses and I felt like laying down and kicking my legs and screaming, but the Japanese kids bore it in silent misery like their parents. Very impressive. There were no parents screaming at their kids like we are used to in the States.
Tomorrow we head to the museum at Hiroshima, which should be a sobering and reflective experience. We will be taking the bullet train there and back. We actually will be coming back around 6PM, which is great. I realllly need to get some laundry done.
Sayonara for now!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.084s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 6; qc: 48; dbt: 0.0564s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Kill Bill
non-member comment
your American
she wants American Pie LOL