the time I was sent to Disney for work...

yay for national holidays~ :) the 3rd Monday of every July is officially proclaimed "海の日" (Umi no Hi - aka "Ocean Day") and because it was a national holiday, I got off work for the day  - yay for oceans <3 I visited my friends at school and had a chill day seeing lots of familiar faces :)

But in relation to my post: yes, I was sent on a special mission for my internship one day; and that day's itinerary read: TOKYO DISNEYLAND :D Like whattttttt (O_o) - yea, that was what was going through my mind when I was told that I was going to Disney the night before. See, STA Travel U.S. and U.K. have this ridiculous internship opportunity called a "World Traveller Internship." Approximately 8000 people apply for a 3 month opportunity to travel around the world for FREE, and 2 oh-so-lucky applicants get chosen to blog about their adventures for STA. 

This whole impromptu trip to Disney began the day before when I was approached by my boss, asking if I was busy that day. I mean, I always have something to occupy myself with, but I'd never consider myself legit "busy, busy" all the time. But he told me about one of the chosen interns from STA U.S. and told me that I was probably going to meet her sometime in the near future. I, of course, got excited over this because: a) she was a college student from the U.S., and b) I get to speak English - WIN. Well the "near future" was really 2 hours from the time he first mentioned this topic to me... 

My boss sent me and another girl who works at the counter for STA Japan, on a special assignment for the day to show the girl from STA U.S. around Tokyo. Her hotel was right around the corner from Tokyo Tower, so we were told to take her there so she could get like a good panorama view of the city, and then to take her wherever she wanted. 

This is a shot from the viewing platform of Tokyo Tower - I hate glass floor windows... there were kids like legit jumping on the windows and doing cartwheels... nah dude, I'm fully satisfied with just put my toes close to the edge 

  

And this is a picture of Tokyo Tower's mascot: Noppon. He actually has a brother who sports a pair of blue overalls, but they didn't have him on display that day :(










Anywho, the girl had never been to Japan, so me and the other girl from STA Japan decided to take her to Harajuku and Shibuya before having to meet up with my boss in Shinjuku for dinner. We figured those places are easily recognizable for most people even if they're not knowledgeable about Tokyo (^_') For dinner we went to the Sumitomo Building in the west side of Shinjuku, and we had gotten there a little early, so we decided to go up to the observatory on the 51st floor before entering the restaurant. 

The Sumitomo Building has 3 sides like a triangle and goes 53 floors up... looking down the center from the 51st floor makes it look like a lonnnngggg wayyyy downnnnn (O_o) 










So while at dinner, we were talking about where the girl from STA U.S. had travelled before arriving in Japan, and asked if she was really eager to do anything in particular. She mentioned Tokyo Disneyland light-heartedly because she's been to Disney World in Orlando with her family over 20 times, so she said she thought it would be interesting to see compare the 2 before having to go on a Gap Adventures tour around Japan. Well my boss heard that and said: "Oh really? that'd be exciting" and then told me and the other girl from STA Japan that our assignment for the following day was to go to Tokyo Disneyland.


like what? just like that? - yup. The next morning, the 3 of us were on a train to Disney, which is only 20 minutes away from Tokyo Station, and were all still trying to grasp that fact that we were actually going for "work." 

We missed going on the monorail but look at the windows!!! They also have Mickey-shaped handrail-loop things inside <3
My 1st time going to Tokyo Disneyland, and it was for free? WIN x 10^(billion <3) :D


We thought it was going to be ridiculously busy, but we it was shockingly like almost "not busy" for what you'd expect for Disney. We aimed for Space Mountain first thinking it'd be a good way to pump us up - only 20 minutes!!! We made a complete circle around the park, hitting all of the sections (O_o) The longest we waiting in line for was 35 minutes, and that was for the special "Captain EO" movie for the re-release of Michael Jackson's mini-movie. 




I couldn't help taking a picture of this Monsters Inc. bread when I saw it :) It's Mikeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee <3

We went right before 七夕, which is the Star Festival in Japan. The traditional decorations for this festivals is stalks of bamboo and you hang pieces of paper on them with your wishes on them :) It's said the higher you can hang your wish, the more likely your wish is to come true~

Color strips of paper are normally used for people to write their wishes on, but  because this is Disney~ everything gets a little Disney-spin on it (^_') special Mickey-shaped pieces of paper for people to write their wishes on <3








I went home exhausted that night, but still in disbelief that I had actually been to Disneyland. Disney seems like such a regular activity here in Tokyo - I found it hard to get my mind around that when I would hear that some people would go to Disney like once every couple of months (O_o) But I guess it's a legit option since it's so close, and costs less then ¥250 to get there. And there's also this thing called "After 6," which is a discount on the entrance fee after 6 p.m. So you see high school kids in their uniforms running throughout the park once the clock strikes 6. Since when can Disney ever be considered an "after-school hangout?!"

Another thing I recently did was check out the new Venus Fort outlets in Odaiba. You might recognize the view a little from back when I posted a picture of the bay in the winter? Well this time you can see summer is in full-swing with the abundance of party boats out in the bay. It was really pretty looking out and seeing the city from a distance with the water dotted with rainbow colored boats :)

And this is just a shot of Tokyo Tower on my walk back to my apartment from the subway station. There's nothing special about the tower in this picture, but the overcast night just kind of made it stand out a little more for some reason :)


The rainy season finally ended this weekend~ ... but that led right into the start of the intense heat.... wooo ..... hopefully everyone has been having a good summer so far :) 36 days until I come homeeeeeeeeeeeee (>_<) I know I'll miss glancing over at Tokyo Tower on my walk home everyday... but Tokyo sights will be replaced by the smell of the ocean at home, and then by the ever-so-familiar night skies of Philadelphia <3