Q

sunrise at 4:30 am, Yamanashi Prefecture

I am probably the only person who would go to a theme park after climbing a 4000-foot mountain. haha but that’s Alice style. 
I went to Fuji-Q Highland today, a well-known theme park that houses four of the world’s biggest roller coasters. They all held a title at one point. For example, dodonpa used to be the world’s fastest roller coaster. One of them still holds the record for being the most inclined.
Before that, I need to explain a couple of things. Yesterday, as we descended Mt. Fuji, we lost one of our companions for hours. She didn't pick up her phone, didn't call us, and we couldn't see a trace of her. After we reached the bottom of the mountain, we waited for about an hour to see if she would catch up behind us, but she didn't. Left with no choice, we decided to go ahead to the hotel first, hoping that she knew where it was. 
Anyway, it ends up the Sunabashiri trail led us to the other side of the mountain and we needed to take an hour or so long bus ride to get to our hotel (which we booked to be located nearby FujiQ). By the time we got there, it was already well into the afternoon and Alexie was still unable to be reached. Then, when we stopped by a 7-eleven, suddenly she picked up! And for some reason or another, she was at the same 7-eleven five minutes ago! So it turns out we met up at the right place at the right time. She actually took the same trail down that we took up, and rested at a rest stop because the weather was too hard to bear for her.
I don't know how it worked out, but I thanked god that she was okay and that everything was okay.

My sneakers =\
Looks okay in this picture. Well, in actuality, it really was fine--just dirty--but it was time to say goodbye; I've had them since high school.

The place we stayed at was actually a hostel. It wasn't too difficult to find (with the help of a GPS, of course), but it was located inside a tiny alley, which felt kind of sketchy, but not dangerous. The owner was really nice and knew who we were right away (probably because we were the only customers booked for that day). The place was pretty spacious and included a kitchen, laundry, shower, bath, etc--basically everything you would need.

The area was pretty nice, to me, of course, because I appreciate the peace and quiet.

Fuji in the background! 

Doesn't this look like a painting? The clouds are so pretty!

We went to get breakfast at Mc Donald's, since one of us was craving it. I rarely ever eat fast food, and I go to McDonald's only about once every two years, not of my own will, but because someone I'm with wants to go, but I must say, from what I've had before, the food in Japan is definitely better. Everything was freshly fried and tasted a lot better.

Anyway, today was Tanabata, and it was a Sunday, so I’m not sure if it was because of those two reasons that the park was not as jam-packed as I imagined it would. The lines were only about an hour wait each for the more popular attractions. We arrived pretty late (around midday), so we decided to just do pay-per-ride instead of the day pass in case we ran out of time. The park closes early (at 18:00), so we only had about six hours to go on the rides we wanted.

Inside FujiQ shopping place.

Our first stop was this haunted house, which is actually the second biggest haunted house in the world. To be exact, it was a haunted hospital. There were four floors, and it was a walk-through with things popping out to scare you. All you’re given is a flashlight and you follow the path that is line up for you and get scared haha. It took about forty minutes to get through the entire thing. Despite the fact that I held on to my friend’s backpack most of the time, I still felt it could have been scarier. That’s not to say it wasn’t fun, though.

dead body at the entrance

Like one would expect in Japan, you buy tickets through a vending machine. ¥500 for the haunted house, not included with the day pass.

creepy, but I love it. 

LOL and to remember our experience inside haha

Next, I headed to eejanaika? A 4D roller coaster (meaning the seats also rotate). I’ve been wanting to ride this ever since I first heard about Fuji-Q from my friend in class. I’ve never been on a 4D roller coaster before, so it was really exciting. We had to take everything off, though: our shoes, jewelry, earrings, glasses--basically anything that threatened to fly off. We were really securely strapped, so the ride was actually not as scary as I imagined. I actually did not get that rush feeling in my stomach this time. Safe is good, though.

I was itching to get onto another one right after, though, and went to look for my friend who had gone on dodonpa instead of eejanaika? She agreed to go on Fujiyama with me at first and went ahead to the bathroom while I queued. When she came back fifteen minutes later, though, she told me she couldn’t get on anymore! I had already been waiting for fifteen minutes, so there was no way I was getting of the line at that point. Thus, the traitor left me to ride Fujiyama alone. It was my first time going on a roller coaster by myself. This ride was actually really long (in terms of time), and you could see Mount Fuji as you ride it.

Then, I went to ride my last ride of the day: Dodonpa, the fastest ride of the park. And it was, indeed, fast. The ride was probably less than a minute because it was going at such a fast speed, but it was a lot of fun.

And you see this as you reach the end of the ride. We waved to each other! 

We decided to head home after that and took the Highland bus.

cuteeee..

not! This is the back side. 

random guy who was walking 24688 dogs. 

The rest stop/waiting area for the Highland bus.

We had all-you-can-eat samgyupsal for dinner at Shin-Okubo, Koreatown. We went to a place called Tomato and ate plates and plates of meat. We ate until we reached the time for the last train back home. 

Meat never tasted so good..

Unfortunately for me, I made it to the last train, but it stopped at Akabane, two stops short of where I lived and two hours away by foot. There was no way I was walking home (I just climbed a mountain!), and the taxi cost about ¥4000, so I decided to wait out the few hours and slept outside the station. :(

I boarded the first train at 4:45 and returned home a little before 5:30. I took a shower because I felt disgusting and did my homework. Then I slept for about an hour and was about to go to school, but when I opened my room door to go out, a huge heat wave blasted at me and made me shut my door immediately. It was sooo hot. Tokyo was going through a heat wave. It was like forty degrees (Celsius), enough to make me cut class. So I decided to stay home and just rest up.