Blog Neglect

Burg houki

I’ve neglected the blog for a whole month. I’m kind of impressed with myself. Well, not really, but I’m not disappointed with myself either. It’s a blog. That about six people read regularly. I’m not sick physically or mentally, and I’m not in trouble or anything, nor is anyone else in my family.

Let’s see. The Pumpkin Prince and Princess are on summer vacation. A couple weeks ago, we went to Disneyland and Disney Sea. They’ve become tall enough to ride almost everything, so we rode attractions that we hadn’t been able to try until now. 

We also did the obligatory overpriced but irresistible treats, 

like the Mickey Mouse popsicle

and the Little Green Man (man means dumpling in Japanese. These are mochi skins containing chocolate, strawberry and vanilla custard.)

In the hot summer sun, the passion fruit/ beer cocktail was to die for.

The cost performance of the food is, of course, better outside the park. There was an upscale shopping mall right next to the park, so we had lunch there the second day. Soba with assorted tempura and a small unagi bowl.

I saw a kid with an R2D2 popcorn case, and I had to have it. I mean, the Pumpkin Prince saw a kid with one, and begged me to get him one just like it. Yes, that’s it, that’s what happened...

The last day at the park, I ran a single lap (about 6k) around the whole thing. I could see some of the Disney Sea attractions, but nothing of Disneyland (I got a good view of the Disneyland Hotel, though). Never thought the day would come when I’d go to Disneyland and use my running shoes, but I guess that goes to prove you should never say never.

Then we went to see the cousins (my brother’s sons). They took us day camping, which meant they loaded up the grill and a tarp in his minivan and set everything up in the campsite and cooked stuff and the kids played catch and then it started pouring rain so we hid under the tarp for about an hour until it passed, and we packed everything up and went back to the hotel for a nice shower. My kind of camping!

On our way back, we saw this cloud that looked so much like a nice big cup of shaved ice. I’ll take mine mattcha/ condensed milk, thank you....

Its usual state

Honrai no sugata

I have to write something that's not rowing because this is not a rowing blog.

A while back, I went to Indonesia for work stuff. Both the temperatures and the food were hot. I love the interesting combinations of flavors and scents in Indonesian food. Lots of stir-fried vegetables (love!) and fried meat and fish (love!) with interesting sauces (love!). One of the more interesting (but less delicious) things I tried was this:

(TMI alert) It's beef lung. The lung didn't taste like much of anything, but I could taste the cooked blood that was in the lung. I dipped it in one of the sauces and it didn't bother me as much, but once was enough.

Indonesia is predominantly Sunni Muslim, so we encountered very little alcohol while we were there, which was just fine with me. Flavored shaved ices with fruit seemed to be a big thing, and I ate a lot of those. They were great.

Girls doing the peacock dance. They were so beautiful!

I was gifted with a batik tunic, and when I wore it…hotel staff spoke to me in English. I wore my Uniqlo ankle-length (it's probably mid-calf length on most people) dress, and hotel staff spoke to me in Indonesian, so I got the chance to say "Saya tiduk bisa bicara Bahasa Indonesia!" (I can't speak Indonesian!) This is different from when I was in Vietnam and I wore an ao dai. 

The Indonesian language seems to use a pitch accent, and the vowels and consonants aren't very difficult. It's probably a lot easier to learn than Mandarin Chinese or Vietnamese.

Jakarta doesn't look very different from Tokyo, especially at night…they could probably use a good subway system, though.

And when I got back, the book I'd ordered from Amazon had arrived, and I read it, and I started thinking about that time when rowing was important to me. 

"A waste of money"

Mudazukai.

So I'm sorting out how much the Disneyland trip cost me...I know, a scary task, but I have to come to grips with reality.

I have a receipt from the gas station the Monday after the trip for 2913 yen, or 23.3 liters or so of gas. I think about 20 liters of that was burnt on the trip there and back, so 2500 yen for gasoline. (Thank goodness for the Pumpkin Prius!)

I don't remember exactly how much was spent on tolls. I'm thinking something like 4000 yen. This probably shocks my American friends, but tolls are expensive in Japan.

The hotel room we picked at the Ambassador Hotel (Standard Floor, Deluxe Room) was 53,000 yen. Yikes! But we really wanted to stay at the Ambassador so we could take the Pumpkin Princess to breakfast at Chef Mickey (6,600 yen for two adults, the 2 year-old Pumpkin Princess ate for free) and since we started planning late, it was the only room available. Other than the suites. Which, um, no. The Pumpkin Daddy also drank stuff in the mini-bar, which came to 1,450 yen.

2-day park passes for two adults were 20,000 yen.

Other expenditures for Day 1 (Tokyo Disneyland Park) follow.

Breakfast: two sandwiches, a large cookie in the shape of Mickey's gloved hand, a lemon muffin in the shape of his head, and a juice pack of apple juice at the Sweetheart Cafe. 1650 yen.

The Pumpkin Princess, after leaving "Tiki Room", started going on about "the thing that shines and goes around my neck".



It took nearly an hour before we figured out it was a crystal Mickey Mouse head embedded with an LED light that she'd seen another girl wearing. 900 yen.

Lunch for three at Grandma Sara's Kitchen (children's platter, seafood and rice in cheese, which is like mac and cheese except with rice in place of the mac, omlette with fried rice, cream of corn soup, Swiss Roll, 2 sodas), 3,486 yen.

Snacks (Caesar's salad and fresh fruit) and beverages (soda and coffee) at Queen of Hearts Banquet Hall, 1,626 yen.

Pictures taken at Image Works, 1,575 yen.

Diamond Horseshoe Revue (Goofy's Frontier Revue) for 2 adults, 7,400 yen. Cute, fun show but really bad food that I don't care to recall, except for the cheesecake, which was pretty good. And the free refills for soft drinks.

Expenditures for Day 2 (Tokyo Disney Sea Park) were:

Drinks (beer and two soft drinks) and an order of fries at New York Deli, 1,247 yen.

Lunch at the New York Deli (3 deli sandwiches, an order of fries, 3 soft drinks), 2,950 yen.

Stuffed Minnie Mouse that the Pumpkin Daddy HAD to buy for his Princess, 3,500 yen.



I put it next to my Pyrex measuring cup so there is a size comparison.

Helium balloon in the shape of Aristocat, 700 yen.



Yes, it's sorry looking right now, like a kitty taken in an animal shelter after wandering the streets for a week, but for a helium balloon purchased 8 days ago, I think it looks pretty good.

Various cute tins and packages of candies and cookies to take to our co-workers and families, 6664 yen.

This comes to a total of 119,248 yen. At the current exchange rate of 97.08 yen to the dollar, $1228.35.

Um, yikes????

I think this is where I go bury my head in the sand. Or something.

The story was interesting.

"Hanashi ga omoshirokatta."

The Pumpkin Princess slept until 7:30 the next morning, which is surely a new record for her. I guess all of the previous day's excitement had caught up with her. No matter, we'd planned a late start. We'd made reservations at Chef Mickey, but could only booked for a 9:10 breakfast, which turned out to be more like 9:30. The Pumpkin Princess waited patiently, all things considered. Once we were seated, there seemed to be groups leaving their tables, but no additional groups being seated. This meant the characters made longer, more frequent stops at the remaining tables. By the time Donald stopped at our table for the third time, the Pumpkin Mommy and Daddy were like whatever. The Pumpkin Princess was a bit more impressed.

We went to Tokyo Disney Sea Park, which is Disneyland with a martime theme. It's marketed as a more mature Disneyland (is that an oxymoron or what?) and it showed. There were fewer strollers and more younger couples than the day before. The plan was the same. The Pumpkin Daddy would try to snag Fast Pass tickets, while the Pumpkin Princess and Mommy would follow slowly to meet him later.

As it turned out the attraction we'd wanted Fast Pass tickets to, Magic Lamp Theater, wasn't issuing them that day because no long lines were expected. So the Pumpkin Daddy got Fast Pass tickets to a different attraction, and we walked through the park to the Magic Lamp Theater. I thought that perhaps the darkness would scare the Pumpkin Princess, but she sat through the entire show and when asked how she liked it, she replied, "the story was interesting." Um, o.k. She seemed a bit more obviously excited about the Caravan Carousel.

We thought she would like the Mermaid Lagoon, but she was not all that impressed. I thought this sign was very Disney, but it was unfortunate that the Japanese just says "staff only."
I was a bit apprehensive when the Pumpkin Daddy announced that the "alternative" Fast Pass tickets were to 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. As expected, the Pumpkin Princess started crying about 15 seconds into the ride. Fortunately, we had the "submarine" all to ourselves, so the crying wasn't keeping other people from enjoying the ride.
We had a late lunch of sandwiches at the New York Deli. The Pumpkin Princess likes turkey sandwiches. Who knew? (Turkey as a luncheon meat is kind of hard to find in Japan).

Everything was Christmas. I think the first week of November is much too early for Christmas trees.


We bought some more Disney printed cans of cookies, a helium balloon of the Aristocats and a stuffed Minnie Mouse for the Pumpkin Princess, loaded up the Pumpkin Prius and headed home.

Btw, sheri, I'm sorry I wasn't clear, I would expect you'd bring stuff home as presents, but what I meant to ask was if the tins of cookies are a big thing. I can understand if the cookies and candies are shaped like Mickey's head, but sometimes you get candy that's just plain round in a cute can printed with pictures of Mickey decorating a Christmas tree or something, and I've always thought that was strange. Oh, and while you're helping me out, is flavored popcorn a big Disneyland thing? Here, they've got maps showing you where to find which flavor of popcorn.