David Needham

Today started out pretty good. I woke up at the Ramada and ate some onigiri and coffee milk I bought the night before. I checked out and asked them to hold my bags for me so I didn't have to haul my suitcase and huge backpack to Universal Studios.

Universal is an amusement park sort of like Disney. They have their own JR train line, and fortunately my pass worked to get there for free.

I thought that Universal had some good roller coaster rides, but I could only find one roller coaster (for adults) in the whole park! You can kind of see it in this photo of the entrance.

One of the first "rides" I came across was an ET Adventure, but the waiting time was about 80 minutes, so I decided to move on to the next ride - the Terminator 3d adventure. The waiting time here was only about 30 minutes, so I figured I'd try it out. The line seemed a little long and was mostly outside, but I had my Nintendo DS, so I was able to keep myself busy.

Once we got inside, we were led through another long waiting line. This ride is set up as if we were seeing a presentation by Cyberdyne in present day, the company that created terminator robots. There were satiric posters on the wall that I really wish I had taken pictures of (there were "no photos" signs). They said things like "Cyberdyne - recreating the nuclear family" and showed a family with a glowing nuclear reactor in their fireplace. Another one said "Look Mom! Billy has joined the military!" and depicted a young boy playing something like a video game on a computer (suggesting he was controlling real robots in a real war).

The Terminator ride started out a lot like the Honey I Shrunk the Kids ride at Tokyo Disney. We got our special non-red/blue 3d-glasses and were led into what appeared to be the lobby of Cyberdyne. We were talked to by our tour guide, but it was in Japanese. Se must have been funny though, because people kept laughing. After a short interruption by the rebel forces (and John Conner), we were led into the auditorium. They started off showing their newest robots in a live fire exercise. They brought up 6 life sized robots with assault rifles around the auditorium (3 on each side). They lowered some targets and showed us what they could do. The cool thing about this part was that there wasn't anything in 3d yet - they were actual animatronic robots that looked awesome.

Overall, the ride was pretty good. They did a lot of cool things with the bad guy from T2, robots and bullets flying all over the place, and the seats jumped to give everyone a fright near the end.

I walked around for a little while - deciding that it was time to check out a roller coaster or two to make sure I have time to do them again if I wanted to. I walked all the way around the park before I realized that there was only one - the one I was greeted with at the front of the park. I was pretty bummed about this, but decided to make the best of it and check it out.

Before getting in line, the workers for the Hollywood Adventure ride (roller coaster) require that everyone empty their pockets of pretty much everything. We were each given lockers to put stuff in for 100yen (which we got back when we came back). I tried to sneak into line with my Nintendo DS, but those workers are sharp. They made me put it in the locker, so I had to wait in line for about an hour without anything to do but stand there. *sigh*

Each individual seat had it's own "radio". Basically, you can choose what song you want to hear as you're riding the roller coaster. I could choose between J-pop, Rock, Rap, or Pop. It started out going up, up, up - what appeared to be straight up. It was pretty good roller coaster overall, but it wasn't worth me doing again without my DS for the line. ;-)

Something weird happened around this time. It was only about 11am, but people started leaving the park. I guess they could have been leaving to eat, but the wait times for all of the rides dropped by almost half.

I went through the park again and rode the Back to the Future ride, Backdraft presentation thing, and the E.T. ride. The E.T. ride was sort of like the It's a Small World rides at Disney. You ride on bikes attached to the ceiling like a roller coaster and go through the movie briefly. Then, you zip through a portal into E.T.'s home planet, where large and small E.T.s are humming the theme song. It was weird to say the least.

I needed to get ready for the baseball game that night and secure a room in a capsule hotel, so I headed back. I found the hotel and checked in, then I headed out to eat supper before heading to the Hanshin Tigers baseball game. The game started at 6, and I wanted to get there early, so I went out to eat at about 4. The Hanshin Tigers stadium is just outside of Osaka, so they have their own JR train line (but not applicable for my JR pass).

I got to Hanshin stadium about an hour later and my first thought was that it was incredibly empty for there being a game that night. That said, the stadium doors were open and the shops were selling souvenirs and stuff. I went up to the door and the workers told me that my ticket wasn't right, but they didn't know enough English to tell me why. About that time an awesome guy who knew both English and Japanese very well came up and asked if he could help. He talked to them and explained that even though it was a home game, and this was their stadium, they were at another stadium in Osaka. He showed me where they were on the map and I headed back to the train station. I got to the train station just as the game was starting. I was going to be late, but that was ok. This train took about an hour and a half to get back into Osaka and jumped on the next train around the loop.

Except that train was on the wrong track. Instead of heading around the Osaka loop, this particular train headed straight across the loop. For whatever reason, this train wasn't even on my map. Rather than get off and head back to get on the right train, I decided to ride it across to the other side of the loop and just take it around from the other direction. So I was riding around the loop when we made a regular stop at one of the stations. Everyone got off except me and another person. I thought that was weird, but that happens sometimes at really popular stops. I waited... and waited. Eventually the train started moving again - but in the wrong direction! I was headed back to the last station we stopped at! Arg. So I got off there and headed back again - this time getting off when everyone else did and got on the train right next to it.

2 hours after the game started, I arrive at the train station nearest the stadium the Hanshin Tigers are playing at. It is raining... hard. There is a freak thunderstorm. I wasn't sure if the stadium was covered or not, and at this point after everything I'd went through, I didn't feel much like going any more - especially if it meant that I'd have to get wet. I was fed up so I headed back to the capsule hotel.

Fortunately, my experience at the capsule hotel was MUCH better than the rest of my day. The capsule hotel took up about 4 floors at the top of a 10 story building in downtown Osaka. One whole floor was a bathhouse (onsen) that we could use for free. They also had massage and other relaxation options available, but I passed on that. The onsen was relaxing enough for me. After washing up, I got into the hot water first. Each tub (pool) had a temperature readout, so it was easy to see how hot (or cold) each one was. It's traditional for a onsen to have an outside tub (pool) area, and this one was no different. It was weird with other skyscrapers being so nearby, but there were some privacy hedges around, so it wasn't bad. This onsen was much nicer than the one that Chris, Dan, and I went to.

After the onsen, I went to the tv room to sit in the fancy recliners and watch some TV. There were a lot of people in this room sleeping (why they didn't just go to bed, I'm not sure). There was also a huge bookshelf in this room where they had ton of manga, magazines, and other books that we could read. I caught the last of the Hanshin Tigers game at about 10 - they lost.

I figured it was about time to head to my capsule. I had a top bunk, so I climbed up. The capsules were much bigger than they looked in the pictures. I could lay down and not touch the ceiling. I could reach both walls, but I didn't feel cramped at all. There was a little TV in there, so I had it on while I played on my DS until I got tired.

I wasn't sure what time check out was, but I didn't want to get back to Chris's too early (before he got off work) so I set my alarm for 9. I had no problems falling asleep with other people being around, and even in the morning I couldn't hear their alarms and I didn't wake up until about 8:30. I got up and headed out.

The capsule hotel experience was pretty awesome. The room only cost about 3100 yen (less than $30) for the night, and it included the onsen (which cost us 1400 yen with Chris and Dan). Not only that, but everything we used there was free. We got robes to wear around and even boxers. In the morning, there were combs, razors, hair stuff (spray, gel, tonic, mousse, etc), and even single use toothbrushes (a toothbrush in plastic with a bit of toothpaste already on the bristles). I felt like I was at an exclusive club when I was there.

Compared to my stay at the Ramada for about 10,000 yen or a stay at a $30 hotel in the US, this place was absolutely amazing. I would definitely do this again, and I'd recommend anyone that has the chance to try it again. That said, I've heard that it can get a bit more rowdy on the weekends when there are a number of drunk business men that check in. Since I was there during the week, I didn't have that problem.

So overall my day was pretty crappy, but it ended well enough. :-)

This is the end of my hardcore blogging. The rest of my time was spent in Wada where I took it easy and spent a lot of time at the beach. I'll still blog for these days, but since I didn't do much, I wont have much to say.

Join me tomorrow as I take the Shinkansen back to Tokyo, then head to Wada.