Man, writing long blogs every day is tiring. I'll be honest, I don't want to do it today. So I'm gonna kind of bullet point it and give more general summaries.
Seriously, where the hell are we?
Anime boat, just to prove that we are still in Japan
We were back in Huis Ten Bosch this morning. More of the same super weird European stuff in the middle of Japan. There are more attractions than rides at this place, but some of them are good. The best part is this "Thriller Town" area, where all the attractions are built around scaring you (sort of). Favorites included the zombie scavenger hunt type thing we had to do last night, where they set you up with a tablet that you use as you go through the maze to find clues and shoot zombies. Then there was this cool virtual reality concept thing, where they hook you up to a virtual reality headset that has a camera, and they mix video in with actual footage from your camera, so it flows really well together to make you think you're dreaming, which is the theme of the attraction. And, while mentioning virtual reality, we got to try out Oculus Rift also. Twice. The first one was a pretty short and kind of lame ski jump thing, that was only cool because you could see the fully immersive atmosphere. But the second one was a horseback riding thing where you sat on a horse machine, kind of like those motorcycle video game motorcycles, and it moved while you rode it. So it actually felt and seemed like you were riding the horse, and left you feeling pretty disoriented and somewhat dizzy afterwards. But it was awesome.
Oculus Rift!
There were other awesome things there, and some disappointing things, but overall it was great. And I want to know more about it and why the hell it's there in the first place. This is the 2nd place like this I know of in rural Japan. The other is a Hawaiian themed spa resort in the town I used to live in, Iwaki, but I know the story of that because they made it into a famous movie (called Hula Girls, if you're interested). It makes me wonder what else is hiding in this country. I kind of want to figure it out and make the definitive list. This could become a new pet-project/obsession. Oh! And I ziplined for the first time!. That was fun.
The place to get a Sasebo burger without actually seeing Sasebo
We finished up in Huis Ten Bosch about an hour earlier than we expected, so instead of going straight on to Nagaski we went 30 minutes in the other direction to a place called Sasebo. This place is famous for the Sasebo burger, which is supposed to be really authentically American. It's not, but it was good. It was actually kind of ridiculous because we went 30 minutes in the exact opposite direction of our destination, only to walk down the stairs and eat a burger while still inside the train station, then get back on a train and leave. We didn't even leave the station and see the town. We just ate a burger. But we're fatties and that's what we do. I have no shame about it. And actually, the burger was pretty good.
This lady with a cowboy hat made our burger. Very America.
Sasebo burger with fries and... oolong tea.
Lanterns in Chinatown
And now we're in Nagaski. I had a bit of a wander this evening, caught some lanterns in Chinatown, and now getting to bed kind of early. We have an early start tomorrow to go to what is probably the thing I'm most excited about on this entire trip. You'll be seeing what that is tomorrow.
So all that's left for today is to give you a song. Since this Japanese music sharing thing all started with karaoke, I'll share my go-to Japanese karaoke song. It's 真実の詩 (pronounced Shinjitsu no Uta, meaning Song of Truth/True Song, off of 2002's album True Song) by Do As Inifinity. Do As Infinity is another band I used to love. I think they broke up then got back together then broke up again? I'm not really sure. But this is my favorite song by them, and I love doing it at karaoke. And I love the use of erhu. They're another super famous band in Japan, also, so any Japanese friends you might have probably know of them.
If you like that, other favorite songs by the band include Oasis, Yesterday & Today, Tooku made, and We are. And there's also solo stuff by the lead singer, Tomiko Van.
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