This post is a little overdue.
Our school had a festival! If you haven't realized, Japan throws awesome festivals for anything it seems.

 Cloudy and windy. Rained on and off throughout the day, but it was so much fun! There were so many stalls from different clubs and groups selling so much food. I ended up getting yakitori (grilled chicken on a stick) and tamago senbei which is like a fried egg on a cracker sandwich thing with mayo and sauce and it probably sounds awful to you but it's great. I had it twice.

The festival was two days long, over the weekend and everyone got involved! I really wish schools in America could care enough to do this sort of thing. Student clubs are so independent here and are able to do so much!

 Our club, Xiao sold Peppermint Bark! I was so surprised no one knew what it was. No one knew what peppermint was! It's never too early to get into the Christmas spirit. We ended up selling out early the first day and early the second day! We did so well!

That's not all we did though. We also did a Free Hugs event where we literally just walked around hugging people. Yay hugs! 

 The festival continued into the night time with firewords and music performances including the taiko group. Poor things must have been so cold! Without the wind it would have been tolerable.

 Okay this post will actually be two separate, not consecutive days. But it's fits together.

My host family lives in a mansion (an apartment complex) which has a lovely view of this amazing amusement park called Greenland. At night it is lit up beautifully. Like so. Greenland is a very popular, and a very big amusement park (I'll soon find out) and it is always crowded. In the summer, at least.

On the last day of August which is the last day of summer before school starts there is hanabi (fireworks) set off. So we went to their friends for hot pot, since they have a better balcony view of the fireworks.This marks the last day of summer. Literally, the last day of being crowded.

So, a few days later I went to Greenland with my new friend Mai! She is so cute and fun to hang around with! I had to use my Japanese a lot more since she doesn't speak English. There was literally NO ONE at Greenland and it was wonderful. Still humid and hot, but no lines, nothing.

I played with guinea piggies.

Me and Mai!

There were at least ten different coasters, three haunted houses, two haunted theaters, games and many more! It sorta reminded me of a retro theme park because the rickety sounds were a little ah... unnerving, but I am not dead. I definitely had fun!

Disney Land Tokyo is almost a replica of California Disney Land. I don't know if that's true since I haven't been there before. I've been to Disney in Florida which is much bigger.

I went during Matsuri Season which is both good and bad. Bad because there were so many people there it was hard to breathe (or maybe that was the 36 degree weather and 80% humidity). Rides had very long lines, but what's Disney without waiting?

Almost everything was in English, which is probably because Disney is not Japanese to begin with. Under the English sign it says: "Disney Natsu Matsuri" or, Disney Summer Festival! The majority of people there were Japanese or Korean actually, but there were some rare westerners.

Home of the tiki room which is Lilo and Stich themed since Stich is very popular and the western river railroad which takes you all around the park.

Here is where it actually seems Japanese to me. Their large day parade was the Matsuri "Festival" where all the characters performed on large floats. They all had traditional wear too.

Thank goodness for the super zoom on my camera because I was rather far from the main stage. They did come around in a circle though. It was definitely a different take on Disney than what I've seen.

After that I stood in a few more lines for rides like Big Thunder Mountain and It's a Small World. My favorite ride is the Haunted Mansion, which is the same at Disney Florida. Still very fun.

Park food is ridiculously expensive so I didn't eat a big lunch. I had a tiny turkey leg. Nothing like the massive ones in Florida though. I think I ended up drinking five bottles of water. While eating I watched yet another parade featuring all the Disney characters.

Finally rested, a little bit. It was starting to get dark and was still hot, so I went on an indoor ride. Star Tours. The motion movie itself was the same as Disney Florida but the movie played while in the line was different and interesting.

After this, it was getting late and about time for the electrical parade! So, I took my seat on the sidewalk and enjoyed! The music is still stuck in my head.

Shortly after that was the Disney Illuminations. I wasn't as close as I would have liked, but the inside was reserved for VIP's and there were a lot of people. Feeling pretty magical by now.

Honeycombs for Pooh Bear was my favorite one. All in all this was a good day. I really wished my family could have come because we have so much fun whenever we go to the one in Florida. It wasn't as big and I didn't go on as many rides as I wanted, but there were three parades, then the Illuminations. I hope one day I can take them to Tokyo Disney and Tokyo Disney Sea.

I got back rather late and instantly fell asleep. For tomorrow...

DISNEY SEA.