Theme Parks and Commercials

So, this weekend I found myself going to Sasebo. A friend knew a missionary couple there that had a small house church that mostly had members from the US Navy base who were more than happy to let us stay the night and feed us. The first thing that struck me when we got there was that if it weren't for the Japanese writing I would believe myself to be in Los Angeles. I assume this was because of the influence from the local base. Also, no one looked at us strangely, Americans are not at all uncommon sights here. On the way to the house we stopped off to see "99 Islands" a small bay with a lot of islands, feel free to count them.

I took some video in case anyone wanted more than stills

After a little more sight seeing around town we headed to their house for lunch. After having a great Taco Salad (not any better than Japanese food, but it was still nice to get a change up... and real peppers, food in Japan is just not spicy, even when they say it is) we headed out to Huis Ten Bosch, a Dutch Theme Park. We got a cheap pass (2800 yen) that let us see many attractions for free, based on what the attractions cost and how many we happened to stumble upon with no real plan it was a good choice.

 There's a point where you just say "Yep, this is Japan" and go on with life

The first place we ended up going was the Teddy Bear Museum. It was interesting and laid out the history of the Teddy Bear (as well as some myths) and had an interesting collection of bears made with different themes.

This one was taken just for my Mom

Yes the Japanese also make "bear ears" too

After the Teddy Bear Museum we followed the cow...

And after seeing some more beautiful scenery and some other plastic cows we were not allowed to ride...

 If you've ever wondered what was in a windmill, there you go

 The wonderful world of cheese

 It's like they knew we wanted to...

We found a snack stand that had ice cream, of more interest was the "cheese" ice cream. It had the slight taste of cheese cake and sour cream mixed with vanilla. It was very good (an opinion shared by all four of us). While eating our ice cream we wandered around seeing more of the sights. The park looked great at night, something photos just can not do justice for.

 Chocolate anyone?

 This was fun to play with, it's always changing colors and the tiles change when you step on them

After we finished our ice cream we went to a theater and watched a 3D movie with really strange geometric effects. I didn't follow the whole plot because it was in Japanese, and I'm not sure it made much sense to begin with, but it basically boiled down to a little girl going on a spiritual odyssey to save her sick dog. I obviously could not record the movie, but have a few photos and a video of neat things in the theater. These first two pictures were of things on the ceiling.

Sorry I cut it short at the end, the show was starting

After this we entered another theater with the title "Grand Odyssey". We were told we would be in the movie, which made us all nervous at first because we thought we were going to have to act and maybe even in Japanese. Our fears were quickly put to rest however when we realized that our faces were going to be digitally mapped and placed on characters in the movie. I ended up being part of the bridge crew and had a few lines, which I spoke perfect Japanese in, it was like I was a native speaker (maybe that's because someone else had done the voice for my character, but you take what you can get). The story was about a colony of humans that lived on a distant planet (maybe a moon?). They had fled Earth after they created machines to eliminate harmful viruses and bacteria, but the machines started to see all non-human life as a threat to humans and began wiping it out. The humans were successful in finally stopping the machines, but Earth was in ruins, so they left to live amongst the stars while the planet recovered. Over time however, Earth faded into legend, until one day a signal was received of waves on the beach. No one knew why, but they were drawn to it. And thus the adventure began to learn about what had happened to Earth in the past and to return to our world. I had hoped you could get a DVD copy of the movie, but it seems technology hasn't come that far yet, but I was able to get a photo print of my character.

After the movie we went on a ride that was reminiscent of the Peter Pan ride at Disneyland where you find yourself watching scenes from a story as you move along on a floating car. All I really followed was that the fairies were good and the witch was bad and that the fairies finally defeated the witch. After exhausting the attractions in the area we headed out again to find ourselves in Thriller Fantasy Town, which apparently was a combination of western music and haunted houses ruled by Michael Jackson...

 This is also apparently where Batman and Superman hang out on their days off

One of the greatest things was stumbling into a music and light show that happens in this little square. The whole area is flashing with choreographed lights while various American hits play.

After this we went into the building, which was a Japanese style haunted house that relies more on being creepy than trying to scare you with shock like in America. The illusion was ruined however when we stepped out and immediately were bombarded by the song "Girls just wanna have fun" playing in the square.

With nothing else looking particularly interesting we headed to the next area and found a tower with some remarkable glass work from around the world.

 

After this we caught Taiko performances outside.

Afterward we visited a few shops before they closed up and headed home.

The next morning we attended the church service at the house. It was like any church service I've seen in the States, there was singing, a time for prayer, an offering, and then a message. I would have also liked to see the service at the Japanese church, but the house church was having a pot luck so we did not go to the other service, though I did meet several people there that are helpful in realizing my long term goals of working and living in Japan.
Around dinner time we headed home. It had been a long weekend and I was happy to come home and relax quietly in familiar surroundings. Even though the missionary's house had been more western I find myself strangely more comfortable in more Japanese arrangements.
The last thing I wanted to share was a few commercials from Japan, they have some very crazy things here, and I find myself looking forward to commercial breaks as much as the shows I am watching just to see what bizarre means they will use to try and sell me things. The last one is subtitled and is by far the funniest (in my opinion).