Welcome to Tokyo!

Our flight path!

Friday, July 11th we left PDX for a summer in Tokyo, Japan! Our flight left really early in the morning, but eventually we were on our plane! We got in on Saturday, July 12th, and spent our first night there by going to bed early (okay, maybe too early...) so we could head in to Tokyo Disney early in the morning! We stayed at a hotel near the airport, so we had to go back to Narita to catch the train to Tokyo Disney.

Train Selfie... because we're worth it.

Our train ride let us see the countryside (where I realized they literally grow rice everywhere), and once we got in to Tokyo Station we had to transfer once more before getting to Tokyo Disney!

We had to carry our suitcases down the stairs, which was NOT fun, and then go to check in at the counter for our hotel. The room wouldn't be ready until 6pm, and our tickets to get into Tokyo Disney Sea didn't start until 3pm, so we had quite a bit of time to kill!

We started out by getting some food at a French Bakery in Ikspari (Japanese for Experience), the Tokyo Disney version of "Downtown Disney" (except it was really just a giant shopping mall). The food was pretty delicious, and then we wandered through the mall. We caught some interesting sights, like the donuts Krispy Kreme serves:

They are... different. Yeah, we'll go with that.
After that, we wandered through Bon Voyage, a "giant" Tokyo Disney Resort store (not to be confused with the Disney Store of course), that had a pretty large variety of all of the stuff sold at Disney.

Another great place for selfies, by the way.

Then we wandered around the Tokyo Disneyland Hotel for a little while (ie looked around the gift shop, sat in lobby to cool off because it's super humid here) and then took the Monorail over to the Hotel MiraCosta! It is directly over the Tokyo Disney Sea entrance, so we hung out there until we could get into the park. We decided to eat at the resturant in the Hotel, Oceania, which was a buffet. It had lots of super different and interesting food (our first real "dive" into any sort of real food/Japanese food since we arrived), and had some amazing views into the park!

Eventually, after some snoozing and watching a show from the balcony in the hotel (which we decided we would NOT watch in the park due to the buckets of water that were sprayed onto the crowds...), we finally got to go into the park!

Sinbad's Storybook Adventures and Chandu (the cutest ride mascot ever)

Since the park was already pretty crowded by the time we got in, and lines were long since it was a weekend, the first thing we did was head to the back of the park to Sinbad's Storybook Adventures, which is in the Arabian Coast area! (Aladdin themed). This is pretty much one of my favorite things, because Chandu the tiger is SO cute!

Proof that Chandu is the cutest

Then we explored Mermaid Lagoon and some other areas of the park, including Storm Rider at Port Discovery, which is basically a lame Star Tours (not a huge fan, tbh...).

Outside of Storm Rider

After awhile, we headed back to get into our room and take a break from the heat, but not before I bought my own ShellieMay! I was super excited to finally get her, since she is exclusive to Tokyo DisneySea.

On our way back in that evening, we rode Tower of Terror. Due to copyright issues, it is not the Hollywood Tower Hotel, but instead the Hightower Hotel. The storyline is based off a treasurehunter, who steals an idol. The idol is what curses him and sends him plunging down the elevator shaft! It was cool, freaky, and slightly strange because you couldn't understand a word of what they were saying at the same time.

I blame this picture on the fact that the ride is shorter and I didn't realize that's when the picture would be taken...

After that, Dad, Bryan and I rode Raging Spirits, which is sort of a merge of Goofy's Sky School and Big Thunder, which is a really odd combo, since it's a short coaster and so it doesn't have much power. Finally, we rode Indiana Jones: Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, which basically the same as ours but with: a different queue, a different ride entrance, crystal skulls everywhere, it's darker for way longer, and oh, Indiana Jones speaks Japanese. (Sort of weird the first time you ride...)

With that, we headed back for the evening so we could get to bed an wake up early enough to get in at opening!

Well, that's all for now! I will post more about our Tokyo Disney trip in my next post!
Jenny

Our Final Trip

Well, it has certainly been awhile, but I figured I should write something about our last excursion of the summer...

On July 31st, we visited Stonehenge and Bath!

We left our flats at around 8am on the coach, so we arrived at Stonehenge pretty early in the morning, around 10:30 or so. We waited awhile to get in, and then we got to walk around it and learn about it. It's interesting because despite how popular it is, nothing is really known about it other than that it has been there for a few thousands of years. It was cool, but wasn't that exciting at the same time. I mean- it really was just a bunch of rocks. A bunch of really heavy rocks, anyway. I bought a postcard to send from Bath, and then we were quickly on our way there!
 

Once we got off the coach in Bath, Rachel, Janessa, Angel, Megan, and I went to a cute little restaurant and got food. I got a ham and cheese panini and a milkshake. The milkshake really was literally just that - but it was a frothy, delicious drink all the same!

After that, we wondered around Bath for awhile before our 2:25 tour of the city. We walked all around and got to see the different types of architecture Bath held and also on Roman Bath.

 We ended our tour by visiting the Roman baths, which were very interesting and cool. I hung out with Rachel and Janessa and we had lots of fun exploring the baths.

Our adventure ended as we headed back to our coach from Bath- we took a group picture, then we all piled on and headed back to London for our final night, which was filled (for me at least) with packing and trying to fit everything into my 2 suitcases and 2 bags. And visiting the Tardis. Which is a completely different story, especially since I don't even watch Doctor Who. The things I do for friends...

 Well, August 1st came, whether I liked it or not, and I had to get on a plane to fly home. With way too much stuff. Maneuvering the tube with 4 bags was a challenge I'm glad I will probably never have to do again. Eventually we made it on the plane and headed home. Even if we almost missed our connecting flights in Dallas!

 

Well, thats it! The end of my summer in London. Even if it's 3 months late, I finally posted it.
Thanks for the memories!
Jenny

The Last Full Week

Monday began the first day of our last full week in London. While we still have another partial week left (Monday to Wednesday, we leave this Thursday!), it is crazy how little time we have left!

On Monday, we toured St. Paul's Cathedral.

Unfortunately, as with most places in London, you couldn't actually take pictures inside the cathedral. After our tour, we walked up the 528 steps to the dome, which included three different levels that you could see London from! The top gallery had the best views and it was awesome.

After that I went to Hamley's on Regents Street, which is pretty much the largest toy store I have ever seen... I wanted to get something cool from Build-A-Bear since I collect the bears... and I would say my trip was pretty successful. PS: the British outfits are so cute.

After that I went back to the flats to eat dinner and study.

On Tuesday, I went to the Warner Brothers Studio Tour - the Making of Harry Potter!

Studio Tour bus!

I even wore my owl earrings! :)

We got there an hour early, since our tour started at 5, but we were able to go in early (probably around 4:15 or so) and it was super cool!
Obviously I cannot post all my pictures here or this blog post would be super long, but I took around 721 pictures there (including all of the ones of people in my group), so it was really cool!
We got to see a lot of different sets including the cupboard under the stairs, Dumbledore's office, the Gryffindor Common Room, and a ton of sets from the Ministry of Magic! We also saw a ton of cool props, like all of the wands, and the horcruxes and things like that.

Little Boom and I riding Hagrid's bike!

I also got to open the doors to the Great Hall, so that was really really cool! If you want to see more pictures, you can ask me to show them to you once I'm home or check out the ones I did post (not very many though) on Facebook. It was such a cool experience and I loved every minute of it!

On Wednesday, we went to Dover Castle and Canterbury Cathedral. We took a coach there, and our first stop was Dover! We left at 7:30 and made it to Dover by 10 or so.

We got to take a tour of the Secret War Tunnels (used in WWII), which were so cool! After that we got to go into the castle part, and the view was incredible!

We had to leave after a while of enjoying the great view, since we had to be on our way to Canterbury! When we got there we had an hour of free time so we could eat lunch and such. I got Subway (which was delicious), and then we all waited for our tour of the Cathedral.

 

The Cathedral was really pretty, but our tour guide was impossible to hear, so that was kinda lame. However we got to see lots of stained glass and we could take pictures inside, so that was super cool!

At 5 or so, we headed back to London after a long day. We finally got back at 7:15 or so, and got the chance to relax. It was a fun but exhausting day!


On Thursday, we went to Greenwich after class. We took the boat cruise down there, and got to see lots of the London sights again:

Tower Bridge

We finally found the London Bridge!

Once we made it to Greenwich, we went to a market and hung out for a little while before heading back. The boat ride was super fun though!

Friday was my birthday! We had class from 10-1, so I got a birthday muffin and the class all sang me Happy Birthday. It was really nice.

After class, Alex and I went to the Natural History Museum. We got to see the dinosaur exhibit, which was really cool, and then we walked around an explored for a little while. We were only in there for about an hour, but we still saw lots of cool things! I even found a Giraffe!

T-Rex!

It was a really cool museum and we both loved it! We wandered around the area near there for a little while, before we headed back to the flats to get ready to go out for dinner! First we stopped at Kings Cross Platform 9 3/4 for pictures.. :)

And then we went to a cute little Italian restaurant for dinner. 

 

It was yummy and a fun birthday dinner! After that we came back to the flats and enjoyed some cake!

And then this happened.

It was a really fun day and I really enjoyed it. It's definitely a birthday I will never forget!

Well, that wraps up our final full week! For the next 4 days I have to be in serious study mode for my paper (due Sunday at midnight), and two finals on Monday and Tuesday. Wednesday we are going to Stonehenge and Bath so that will be lots of fun!