January 13
Sunday began with breakfast, followed by a trip to Toshima-en, an amusement park in Japan. We began our adventures in the park with a ride on ancient carousel, the oldest working carousel in the world - it had been shipped to Japan from Coney Island, New York in the earlier parts of the last century. The next ride we went on was called Biohazard 4D Executer. It required 3D glasses to behold, so we all shuffled in with these enormous glasses on our noses. The "ride," if it could be called that, began placidly enough, but soon erupted in graphic gore and -- combined with the tiny air jets and drop-back seats, made for a rather strange experience. It was apparently geared to scare, but it ended so gruesomely that I half-wondered while leaving whether that could qualify for entertainment. Perhaps the placid carousel, though it was dated and old, had been more fun. After all, we had gone twice on that but no one felt compelled to give Biohazard another whirl.
We then wandered around to various rides, testing them out and having fun. Many of the rides, I noticed, did not have a 6' 2" individual in mind when they were designed -- i.e. some of the seats and security levels were very tight. But all in all, it was fun, and one of the rides, called "Indian" had us all laughing as it rolled us around and upside down.
After a lunch of curry chicken, Debra and I wandered to the game room and shop. We played a quick game of Air Hockey, and I'm sad to say that I lost 5-3 (though we played with 2 pucks at once -- her idea ;). I even managed to score on myself once, when I hit one puck towards her and didn't notice that by doing so I pushed the other puck back into my own goal.
Much of Japanese merchandise is very soft and plush -- all in all, cute. And the number of various cell phone holders -- I could only stand astounded. After about an hour, we headed back and left the park, feeling a bit like little kids again. The park manager gave us parting gifts of these "fake" fur animal hats, and we snapped a photo wearing them. With me still wearing mine, we walked back to the van and returned to the hotel.
We ate dinner and then rented What Women Want, which turned out to have a more interesting subplot than the main plot (at least to me). But it was funny at times and a good way to relax. Then, exhausted, I decided to go to sleep and get well rested for once. I guess I still had the strange "2 days in 1" aftereffects in my system.