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In Which Claire ALMOST went to Tokyo Disney

As some of you probably saw, I posted a very enthsiastic, capital-letter message stating how I was totally going to Tokyo Disney. And indeed, that WAS the family plan...which subsequently got interrupted becuase my host father got sick. So I did some other fun stuff instead.

Like going to a zoo and becoming an excited five-year old, because chicks are soft, fluffy and cute.

And watching monkeys.

And eating a bunch of sausage at this market which was full of pork. It was literally a shop full of meat and then full of people scrambling to buy said meat. Probably because ot was really good. One of the best hot dogs I've ever had. EVER.

And then I did something I've wanted to do since I came to Japan and saw an advertisement for it. You may know (or if not, you know now!) that I love, love love love love Studio Ghibli, which does these amazing animated films. Of which there's a new one that just came out in July.
 
So I went and saw it. In Japanese.
Then I surprised myself by actually understanding the plot. Occationally I didn't know what a character was saying specifically, but I easily followed along with the movie and did understand what characters were saying at least half of the time.

That was really cool.
So in the spirit of things, here's the teaser trailer. Enjoy, and if it comes out in the US, GO SEE IT!


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