Alright, I confess. I am a geek. A Harry Potter geek to be specific. I started reading the series 13 years ago and have been hooked ever since; some of my best summer memories are of getting the newest book and curling up in a hammock to read, not wanting to do anything else till I’d finished. And then I usually would read it again, just because I could (I know pretty much the entire series by heart). Eventually my entire family became hooked and so for Father’s Day this year we gave my Dad a family trip to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Studios in Orlando.

It was like walking into the movie (if you ignored all the tourists ^-^’). The recreation of Hogsmead is amazing, all the details are there, down to the voice of Moaning Myrtle occasionally making comments in the bathrooms. And looming beyond the village is the hulking mass of Hogwarts Castle. I’ve been waiting to walk through those gates since my eleventh birthday (upon which I received a Hogwarts school letter delivered by a wonderful snowy owl; guess it just took a little while to get my credits transferred over ).

The details in the castle are beautiful, especially the holograms of the characters talking to you and the moving portraits. The interior of the castle is actually the queue for the ride “Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey”, a roller-coaster/ virtual reality experience that takes you on a flight through the school grounds and the forbidden forest. Closet you can get to actually hopping on a broom and taking off.

We spent two days in Universal Studios (both parks), starting and ending in the Wizarding World with big mugs of butterbeer (the frozen butterbeer is fantastic!). Our third day was a slight change of pace with Disney’s Animal Kingdom. A good park in it’s own right but somewhat anti-climactic after the sheer awesomeness of the Wizarding World.  The landscaping in the park is spot on, from Asia with it’s looming version of Mt. Everest and prayer flags to Africa with it’s sprawling savannah (complete with a safari ride). Definitely not a ‘high thrills’ park but Expedition Everest is a decent coaster and the safari ride is pretty cool for what it is (especially for those who have never been on a real safari, which is probably the majority of people there). My sister thought that part was pretty neat as well and called it a good preview for the next two months, which she will be spending as a medical volunteer in Kenya. Probably one of the big highlights of Animal Kingdom for me was the “Festival of the Lion King”, which was a musical and aerobatic performance of the Lion King (my favorite Disney movie). Made me even more determined to see the Broadway performance while I’m in the city.

More to come soon,

Cheers!

Alright, so just a little post to break the silence but I wanted to give you all an update on life and the blog. Some of you know that I’m back home now and am in the process of transferring all my files to a new computer. As they get transferred and edited I will be updating the blog with the remainder of my trip, including Spain, France, Germany, and Switzerland. So stay tuned for updates over the next couple weeks!

Sorry for the long gap between posts, life here has been pretty crazy. I’ll make up for it today though with lots of new pictures.

So let’s rewind to new year’s day and recount our adventures in kimono-wearing. Tara, Maiko, Michael, and I got all dressed up in our kimonos to go to a temple and have lunch with Maiko’s mom in Kamakura. It took us almost two hours to get dressed because Maiko was the only one who knew what they were doing and well, kimono are complicated. It was really cool to learn how to put one on though and I look forward to using the knowledge to do some more kimono-themed photoshoots in the future.

Actually wearing the kimono out though was definitly an experience I won’t soon forget. Normally the Japanese don’t give a second look to foreigners but put those foreigners in kimono and wow, suddenly it feels like everyone is staring at you. It also probably didn’t help that Kamakura is on the beach and was incredibly windy the day we were there. Wind + Kimono = very cold legs and an intense desire for a safety pin to keep the bottom part closed.

After lunch we went to go see one of the largest outdoor Buddahs in Japan. The statue it self was quite impressive but the coolest part was getting to go inside. The interior walls are scatterd with coins that people have lodged there with prayers for good luck and good health. The rest of the temple complex was pretty but nothing overly special except for the fact that it was out of the wind.

Our next stop was going to be a garden in Kamakura but it was getting dark and after a warm, tasty stop at a Mister Donut, we decided that it was time to call it a day. We even splurged and took the green car (quieter cars with nice comfy seats and fewer people) for the train ride back to Maiko’s apartment. The expense was totally worth it and made for a pleasant end to a very fun but very cold day.

The next day was the emperor’s new year’s address to the people and is one of the two days a year that the Imperial Palace is open to visitors. So of course we went. The palace is beautiful once you get past the incredible amount of security (bag checks, pat downs, and a large number of what I can only guess were Japanese federal service agents). We then got to stand in another large, non-moving crowd (felt like new year’s eve all over again, only warmer). When the imperial family came out you could barely see them for all the flags that the crowds were waving. Makes me glad that I’m taller than most Japanese people. The emperor is a tiny, frail-looking old man but he stood up there and waved and waved before giving his address, which was short and entirely in Japanese so we have no idea what he said but the crowd seemed to like it so it must have been good. We just thought it was cool that we got to go into the palace and see the imperial family really, how many people can say that they’ve gotten to do that?

The rest of the was spent wandering around Ginza and Shibuya, window-shopping and people-watching. Ginza was amazing simply due to the buildings and the names on them. How about a Gucci skyscraper? Or a two-building Hermes skyscraper made out of translucent glass blocks? Or the 8-story Sony building complete with 3-d movie theater? Shibuya was amazing in a different way. We ventured into Shibuya 109, which is one of the biggest department stores for young, trendy fashion, on January 2, which is the biggest shopping day of the year. The place was packed and in front of every store there was a girl with a bullhorn yelling about their new year’s sale. Total sensation overload. We made it out alive though and sat on the second floor of Starbucks to enjoy a chai and watch the sea of people cross the largest crosswalk in the world.

Sunday found us in Harajuku in search of street fashion on the bridge in front of Meiji Shrine. When we arrived there were only two people dressed up among the masses that were making their way to the shrine. So we abandoned our original plan of exploring Meiji (we decided that next weekend would be a better time to do that once the new year’s celebrations were over) and went for a walk around Yoyogi park, which was pretty but not very interesting. Then we went in search of the architectually-interesting Prada building, which was cool but alot further away than we thought. The walk back took us past an absolutely amazing cake shop so we stopped in for a snack and to give our feet a break before continuing on to La Foret (another young, trendy department store) and Takeshita-Dori (the alternative fashion street of Tokyo) for some more window-shopping and people-watching. Dinner was street food from the vendors that set up shop for the week after new year’s followed by Harajuku crepes (which I’ve determined are among the most amazing foods known to man).

That’s all for now, we’re off to hike Fushimi-Inari today so stay tuned for the next update, which will be all about Kyoto and Hiroshima.

Yup, that’s right. The first night of this epic journey finds us at a Holiday Inn in Dallas, TX. Kinda anti-climactic isn’t it? Oh well, it means we’re finally off and it’ll make for a pretty funny story later. Next step is the flight to Tokyo, a quick little 13.5 hour jaunt over the Pacific Ocean. My sister is with me for this flight (she’s along for the first two weeks in Japan) so I’ve got someone to play cards with and I promised to teach her some basic Japanese before we land.

Sorry for the lack of pictures with this short little update, the next one will be from Tokyo and there will be pictures, I promise.

See you in Japan!