May 4th-The Ocean Dome
Today…………………..fantastic………………..すばらしかった
(subarashikatta)[was wonderful].
Japanese doesn’t have enough adjectives. Well, before I get into today or my frustration over the lack of
colorful and varied adjectives in Japanese, I’ll start with something that I’ve
been meaning to do for a while. Here it
is!
I’m sure there are more things than
that. But that’s what I can think of
now. If I think of more things I’ll add
them, ok? Ok, good. Anyhoo, let me get into today. This morning I was sleeping sweetly, getting
my much-needed beauty sleep, when I was awakened by an e-mail from my dear
friend Oana. Well, she was just letting
me know that there’s a small error in the media section with some confusion
over a misleading link, but if you’re reading this, I’ve already fixed it! After I exchanged a few e-mails with her I
went back to sleep for about half an hour.
When I got up around 9:10 I took a shower, got my stuff together (towel,
bathing suit, money, cameras, etc.) and headed out the door. I didn’t have any time to eat breakfast so
when I got to Miyazaki station I bought some orange juice and drank it while
Chie and I waited for the bus to go to Sea Gaia (resort where the Ocean Dome
is). While we were waiting, I got a
one-word e-mail from my Mommy (biological) that said, “Yo!” I responded to this e-mail but I didn’t get
a response back…how rude. Well, when
the bus finally came I was certainly ready to go. But as we got closer and closer and the 45 story Sheraton Hotel
complex next to the Ocean Dome got bigger and bigger in the window I started to
get a little nervous. Would it be as
fantastic as I imagined it would be for so long? Would it be closed for no reason? Would they not let foreigners in? Would it be adult swim? I
knew those were silly, but when I get close to doing something that I’ve wanted
to do for a long time, I start to have strange worries. At any rate, we finally got there, I paid my
470 yen and stepped onto the bus. The
Ocean Dome was bigger, more magnificent, taller, wider, and more Japanese than
I ever could have imagined! Without
wasting any time, we went inside, got changed, and headed to the beach…indoors!
I
won’t spend a terrible amount of time and space here describing the contents of
the Ocean Dome itself. Why? Because there are pictures on this website,
and as we all know, a picture is worth 1000 words. I’ll just talk about what you might not be able to tell from the pictures. Well…at one end of the dome there were a
number of smaller pools like had water that was different temperatures. There was a also a long circular shallow
river that flowed around an artificial mountain. If you stood on line and walked up the steps on the mountain you
could slide down either of two long water slides. One of them was outside the mountain and was bright, obviously,
and the other went inside and was completely dark except for some strobe lights
on the inside that made for a cool effect.
When we decided to go on the waterslide, we took the dark one. That was really cool and when I got to the
bottom I couldn’t stop laughing. It was
a lot of fun. Chie and I also had lunch
there and there were extensive snack counters serving all the good stuff like
curry rice, yakisoba, squid-nuggets, potato salad, soda, and beer. We also ran into two little girls (I’d say
about 6 or 7 years old) from Chie’s dance class. They were SOOOOO cute and so much fun. We played with them for a while.
It was really funny because when we got into the deeper water both the
little girls would either try to swim and start sinking or they would cling to
me. I guess they were very comfortable
around me because they wanted me to give them piggy-back rides in the water and
they said I was like their father because I was helping them and watching out
for them. What was more funny was that
when we got into the deep water, I had to have an arm out for Chie to grab onto
too because she can’t swim!!!! She
loves going in the water, but she can’t swim.
I thought that was pretty bad, but it was funny too. I really enjoyed feeling like the beacon of
safety in the water. It made me feel
like I would enjoy being a father….but only if my kids were really cute and
sweet like those two little girls were.
A few times during the afternoon they opened the roof of the dome
up. I got really excited because the
roof (about 900 feet long) is fully retractable and they open it on nice
days. Before they opened it, they made
everyone get out of the pool. Then they
had a couple brief surfing demonstrations.
Yes…the waves in this wave pool are big enough to actually surf on. And these aren’t the slow lumbering waves
that you get in wave pools in the US…these things really really move! After the surfing for a few minutes everyone
ran back into the water too cool off.
Of course they control the climate inside the dome and I think it’s kept
at 85 degrees all the time and it’s humid in there too so you feel like you’re
in the tropics. At 4pm we got out of
the water and got changed. I bought an
Ocean Dome t-shirt and then we got back on the bus. When I was going home it started to rain so I stopped in at Mos
Burger and had a coke, fries, a fish burger, and a fresh burger (whatever that
is….). Then I went home…and it was
raining harder…but it was ok. I just
got a little wet. When I got home, we
all had dinner….three kinds of fish….sashimi, broiled fish with bones, and a
baked fish with more bones. I got some
rice and tea too. At any rate, today
was a really awesome day and I had a fantastic time. I need to work on fulfilling more of my Japan dreams. Well, tomorrow is another day! Speaking of tomorrow…tomorrow is still
vacation and I intend to sleep late. I
don’t know what I’ll do though. I might
get some exercise since we haven’t been having boat practice…like…go for a run
or do some calisthenics, or I might just explore town on foot, or I might go to
a movie because I feel like seeing a movie but I don’t want to see one by
myself…that’s lame. I haven’t been able
to find anyone to hang out with cuz people are busy. Maybe I’ll just walk around and see if I can make a new friends
hehehe, that’s always interesting. Well,
whatever I’m going to do I need to be rested for it, so I’ll let you know later
what happened tomorrow.
-Maikeru