I want to start off by saying....I, Lindsey....dodged a train. YES, Indiana Jones, move the hell over, because I have out done you by dodging a bloody train on my 1970's bicycle. Imagine...you are just riding your wobbly bike as fast as you can peddle to make it over the tracks and you hear a sound that reminds you of the cowbell Will Ferrell is beating in that SNL skit...the train...you gotta make it over those tracks...so you peddle faster, and the train crossing bars are coming down over your head...YOU DUCK just as the bar brushes your cheek. Seconds later the train zips by a the speed of light. Oh yes friends, I dodged a freakin train.

I have come to the conclusion that George Orwell got his inspiration for his infamous Nineteen Eighty-Four novel from Japan. Tokyo seems very machine-like at times. The men all dressed alike in business suits, the youth wearing their crazy outfits and the elders in mauve, bland colors. When the crosswalks say walk, 2,000 people walk. When they wait at the train stations, they all are silent and pull out their identical cell phones. And the trains...you can count down to the SECOND for when they arrive. In Sakado, where my brother lives, there is a loud speaker that announces over the town when the children are coming home from school. The female voice sings an eerie song saying "Attention Sakado: The children are coming home from school." And at night everyone rides their bikes with the ghastly lights that shine only 3 feet in front of the bicycle. Couples walk together barely saying anything.

Anyway, we went to DisneySea the other day. It is kind of like...Disney California park. The rides they had were Indiana Jones, Tower of Terror, Journey to the Center of the Earth, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. Those were the main ones, but there were some smaller ones too. This park was FANTASTIC!! I was in AWE of what Disney created this time. They had different worlds like Mediterranean where you felt like you were hanging out in the middle of Venice or Rome. Then there was America...well, New York in the 1930's. Then South America and I think another futuristic one called Discovery. I will add some pictures so you will know what I mean when I say I am in awe. Oh, and here is a link to the ending Disney show. Check it out, it was beautiful. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2cFY-NcY_g

We took a bike ride through the rice patties. Those are the fields. Everything is so beautiful here. 75% of Japan is rural I think. It is almost as if you go back in time when you are in the smaller towns. So much tradition is pouring out from the corners of the towns.

My brother, me and his girlfriend went to this awesome restaurant called Christon Cafe. It was designed to look like a catholic church. It was so high class and romantic. I need to find a place like this back home...well, I guess I need to find a man to take me there first :D Then we went to Shibuya. It was full of people and lights and craziness. I saw many people I like to call Pixies. They are men that dress in black and white suits with these hideously long shoes and their hair is like...straight up and back. They look like pixies! We went to a club called Womb, you might recall it from the movie Babel. It had a $40 cover...and yes ladies and gentlemen, I PAID for it AND my own drinks. It's a shocker, I know. There was a huge disco ball and I think I got every oral drug known to man shoved up to my face! We partied until 5am, took the trains home...and surprisingly everyone was very very talkative on the trains. All the clubbers were coming home just as the business men were going to work.

Every day I have these crazy little things that happen to me. I am halfway through my trip and already have to many stories to fit in an e-mail. I am heading to Nara, then Hiroshima and Kyoto. Hope all is well across the Pacific. Write me! OH, and definitely check out this youtube...we did it for my Washington State Uni people http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQWYAs6Uxlw

Lindsey