They served breakfast on the plane at an ungodly hour. I was fast asleep and wham lights on. I think it was around 2 am Indonesian time. I was hungry, but with an unhappy stomach so I didn’t eat too much. Upon exiting the plane, it was freezing! Only 2C/33F. All the passengers were shivering. You could see your breath. At immigration I first went in the wrong line as the re-entry permit line only had one small sign and was separate from the special permanent residents and Japanese citizens area (unlike what I had read). The flight attendant onboard actually asked me which forms I need as well so it was easy to only get the customs form. My bag was one of the last ones out. I immediately pulled out my wonderfully warm jacket. Customs asked me more questions than my first entry where they basically waved me through. Nothing weird or complicated though.

I saw the bus ticket sign right away like my JTE said. Super easy, but more expensive than I had been expecting, 4650 yen to Takasaki station while my bus from Tomioka to Shinjuku only cost around 2000 yen. The airport is so much further out from Tokyo, in Chiba. The first bus left at 8:30 am and it was only 7:15 so I hunkered down in some chairs near an outlet to charge my phone. I made a few excursions to the atm, the toilet (my poor, poor stomach), and to buy Pocari Sweat. Need to keep those electrolytes up.

Nothing like leaving a country to really make you appreciate it. The cleanliness, the safety. Actually understand more of a language ha.

It took us a little over 2 hours to get to Takasaki where I then caught my train back to Tomioka. My next train left in 4 minutes so good timing! Got home about 12:15 and immediately started packing for the trip back to Tokyo. I biked over to the post office to mail my cards to the US and pick up my package. It was very busy with the new year’s cards rush. People were dropping off gigantic packs of them. Ravenous but only dared to eat four pieces of bread. No time to nap, but I read a bit in bed, until I went to meet my teacher and her friends at 3:30 pm so we could drive to Tokyo Disney Sea. There was an unbelieveable amount of people waiting in line. We were cordoned off in sections. Some people were sitting and had been waiting since the morning. When we arrived all the day guests were leaving and the restroom lines were also insane. This even beat the Eiffel Tower lines. We got there at 6:30 pm. The park was supposed to open at 8:00 pm and it took us about 30 minutes to get through the gates and security. I got rather cold just standing there for that whole time. I wore an insane amount of layers including my wool long underwear because it’s right on the ocean. Thank goodness for the 2 hour jet lag, because I was much less hungry than the others at this point. As the herd spread throughout the park, it wasn’t as bad of a crowd. Actually less people than I had expected.

This was my first time ever going to a Disney park and I was blown away. My jaw kept dropping. Every area was something different and intricate. I felt transported into all these different worlds. Honestly, the design and architecture interested me more than the rides. We split into two groups, E and I went to get in line for food and her friends to get us some fastpass ride tickets. The place they had wanted to eat had a four hour wait! And still, people kept getting in line. We backtracked a bit to a restaurant that was just serving one dish, seafood chowder. No wait here. I got some hot tea to warm me up as well. It was super delicious. The first ride we rode was the Indiana Jones Temple of the Crystal Skull. With Fastpass, we didn’t have to wait in line at all. Again, the details were astonishing. The ride had no ups and downs just sideway movements so it was okay with my motion sickness. Not too scary either ha. We also did an interactive 4D video about storms that I did not look at since I knew I’d get sick and I didn’t join them when they later rode a roller coaster ride.

For the countdown and fireworks, we found a spot up top a huge boat with a great view of the water and the fake volcano. Surrounded by people counting down in Japanese, I stuck with English. I’m pretty sure I was the only foreigner in the park (didn’t spot or hear any others) as you have to win an advance lottery to get tickets. This was the earliest I’ve celebrated, only my Aussie and Kiwi friends beat me.