This year the Smith’s School of English Golden Week (GW) holiday is from April 21 to May 6. We Smith’s teachers teaching English in Japan are very lucky to have such a long holiday. Thank you very much Smith’s Head Office! I am staying in Japan for the holiday and want to share some of the things that I did with you here on the Soapbox. One of them was going to Universal Studios Japan(USJ) with my family on April 23!
My daughter, now about 2 years 8 months old, calls Universal Studios Japan “Elmo Park”. She likes Elmo. Earlier this spring on TV, she saw some promotion for Universal Wonderland, a place for kids there, and until we went, had been asking us to go there. It was our first time there together as a family. Before going, we decided to get 1-year passes because we knew Tina would want to go again. We chose to get special one-year passes they offer which are cheaper than the regular passes. On some days they can’t be used during busy holiday times. They were 15,800 yen each. We just needed just two, one for my wife and one for me, because there was no entrance fee for kids under 4 years old. I figured it was worth it if we went at least 3 times in the year, otherwise paying one-day tickets would be cheaper. We could go as often as we wanted.
On the day that we went there, we used a big stroller we have (made in the U.S.A.) which is good for carrying infants like Luke, who was about 3 months old at the time. It could also be used by Tina for sleeping. At that time, my wife would carry Luke in a nice on-the-body baby carrier which we had. We also used a new, cool device we had recently gotten which attaches to the stroller, allowing a child to stand on it. It’s called “Bumprider”. You can see it in the photo. It’s great and Tina liked it! (^.^)
To get to Universal Studios Japan, we took trains to Universal City Station which is near the entrance to Universal Studios Japan. We bought our one-year passes at the entrance. Then we enjoyed a nice picnic lunch. My wife had prepared us some sandwiches which were delicious. The weather was good. During the day, we went to Wonderland (twice) and had churros and caramel popcorn. We had a great time! For my students of Smith’s School of English Tsukaguchi (スミス英会話 塚口校) and Smith’s School of English Kawanishi (スミス英会話 川西校), I bought some Elmo cookies as a souvenir gift (omiyage).
I look forward to our next outing at Universal Studios Japan! (^.^)
Derek
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