Tokyo Disneyland Adventure (Again)

I heard there were some issues with the pictures on this post, so let's try to visit Disneyland again...
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This past weekend I took my final trip with my friend Tarynn.

Our destination was Tokyo Disneyland and DisneySea!

Tokyo Disneyland opened in 1983 and was the first Disney park built outside of the US.

It is the same style as Disneyland in California and Magic Kingdom in Florida with almost the same exact rides and attractions. The Tokyo Disney parks are actually owned by a Japanese company (who license the theme from Walt Disney Co.), and they are the only Disney parks not officially owned by Walt Disney Co.

The tickets (like most things in Japan) did have bizarre rules, including:

-- no attending both parks in one day

-- multi-day tickets must be used on consecutive days

-- dates and parks must be specified when purchasing (even online) due to capacity restrictions at parks

(some times the parks are so full that people with "open" tickets get turned away!)

Tarynn and I in line for our first ride "it's a small world".

Massive crowds every where I looked! It's no surprise to me that Tokyo Disneyland was the third most visited theme park in the world in 2009 (behind only Magic Kingdom and Disneyland)!!

Tarynn wanted to ride Dumbo The Flying Elephant, but even this ride had a 45-minute wait, so we settled for a cute picture instead.

Everything was so cute. I loved trying on all of the Disney "head gear". Some would say Dumbo suits me...

But I think Bambi is super cute!!

Now which one did I really buy and wear for the next two days?!

While waiting for the parade even the sanitation workers get into the theme music and teach us the motions to go with the special Halloween song (in Japanese, of course).

If Disney’s (former) slogan is… “The Happiest Place on Earth”,

then perhaps this park is “The Happiest Place in Japan”!

Kerri sitting in a big crowd watching the parade!

Mickey makes an appearance on this crazy float.

Japan loves their vending machines!!

Tarynn sports the classic Mickey Fantasia ears!

With the Toy Story aliens.

Yummy lunch!! Pork cutlet curry with some cute cups!

Kerri and Cinderella's Castle

I always say how small everything is in Japan.

Here I feel like Alice in Wonderland when she ate that candy to make her BIG!

Kerri in her new Minnie Halloween head gear ready to eat a delicious Mickey ice cream sandwich.

Splash Mountain

Going down Splash Mountain.

I love that the parks let you take a picture of the monitor rather than buying the actual picture. The rules were different here. In fact, the park didn't have a ban on "line jumping". We always had people cutting in to meet up with their buds line (some times the workers even helped them) and no one seemed to mind. Except me... I always stared and gave a dirty look! Some American habits die hard...

Within the massive crowds, check out the people who just sit on the ground!! Many people even brought "leisure sheets" with them (those plastic sheets to put on the ground). Unbelievable!!

Tarynn in front of a cute obake (ghost) display.

Dinner time! We found a cheeseburger restaurant, and I bought 2 desserts (one to share with Tarynn, of course) so I could keep the souvenir plates!

I had been eyeing the Mickey and Minnie mini plates all day!

Another sweet souvenir... an LED rainbow-lighted necklace.

Cool Halloween display at the "Nightmare Before Christmas" Haunted Mansion.

Even though Japan doesn't have pennies, I found plenty of "Souvenir Medallion" machines that pumped out smashed copper circles!!

Yay! I had such a hard time choosing which ones I wanted to add to my collection.

I'm fairly certain Pluto's girlfriend "Fifi" is a made-up character specifically for Japan. I've never heard of her before, and Japan loves girl characters. By far the most popular made-up character I've seen is "Miss Bunny", Thumper's unnamed girlfriend in the movie Bambi.

Crowds of people sitting and waiting for the night parade. I don't remember people sitting for these events in America. I think it's because Japanese are used to kneeling for a lot of events (so it's no big deal to sit on the hard ground for an hour), and it's more polite because many people can see, including children.

The awesome Tokyo Disneyland Electrical Parade!

Beauty & the Beast float!

Buzz Lightyear and his spaceship surrounded by aliens.

Our last ride of the night, and one of the coolest!

It is a 4-D movie from 1987 that stars Michael Jackson. Cheesy with delightfully cool dance movies!

Super excited about the show because we both love MJ!

Tarynn finally got herself some popcorn in a souvenir bucket!

Popcorn has to be the #1 treat in this park. Everyone was carrying buckets around with them. Since refills are only $5, people had old buckets with them, too, like Christmas ones or labeled with the year 2006. 
I thought it was very strange that there was no "Butter" flavored popcorn, though.  There were other options, such as Caramel, Black Pepper, or Curry instead.

It's closing time, but don't get too sad because tomorrow is DisneySea!!

The fun continues at Tokyo DisneySea

Day 2 of our weekend of Disney fun!

Riding the Disney train to get to DisneySea. 

Aren't the Mickey windows and handles so adorable?!

DisneySea opened in 2001, and last year it ranked as the fifth most visited theme park in the world.

It was also the fastest theme park in the world to reach it’s 10 millionth guest, only 307 days after opening. (Previous record holder was Universal Studios Japan at 338 days.) 

The park has an overall nautical theme.  The entrance is a Mediterranean Harbor with 6 additional “ports of call”, such as American Waterfront, Port Discovery, Lost River Delta, Arabian Coast, Mermaid Lagoon, and Mysterious Island.

It does not have a hub-like layout centered around a castle like many of the other parks.  This one actually has a giant volcano and lake in the center, so you are constantly circling the park.

Visiting a theme park in a foreign country can be tricky though. 

The shows were in Japanese.  

Most songs were in Japanese. 

Ride commentary was in Japanese. 

Detailed maps and ride descriptions were in Japanese.

And really, why should they accommodate us? These parks certainly don’t attract many non-Japanese people. We saw maybe 10 other “foreigners” each day.

(Thankfully, most park signs, ride names, and food menus were also posted in English.)

 

KG in front of the rotating aquasphere of the world.

Another busy day at a Disney Park!

Fancy pumpkin light poles

The Halloween theme of DisneySea was "Mysterious Masquerade", so there were party masks everywhere.

The Tower of Terror.

Line for 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea ride .. it circles down and goes underground!

Tarynn in Mermaid Lagoon. 

Mermaid Lagoon was my favorite area. 

Pictures don't do it justice, but things were sparkly & beautiful and actually based on Disney cartoon characters.

Chinese for lunch... spicy shrimp and fried rice. 

The food here was fabulous!!

There weren't too many Disney characters wandering around to meet at either park. 

Most were lame, like Daisy Duck or Geppetto (from Pinocchio). 

Arabian Minnie was mobbed by about 100 people and children.  The only reason I could tell who it was is because I'm taller than most people in this country and she had a tall pointy hat. 

We did see Jafar, and that's one job I could have. 

Since he's the villain from Aladdin, he's mean to everyone.  He kept lunging at people, trying to scare the children, and then throwing his arms up dramatically when people tried to get close for a picture!!  I was cracking up the entire time!

KG next to an Aladdin fountain in the Arabian Coast.

 

Going for a camel ride :)

Beautiful Arabian Coast!

Trying to peddle my goods in a market!

 

Over to NYC in the American Waterfront.

Festive Halloween decor.

This afternoon snack was Mickey-shaped pocket full of custard and some Disney water!

More of the Mediterranean Harbor.

 

A lovely view of the Arabian Coast.

Children and adults at DisneySea all seemed to be carrying a stuffed bear around.  There were even special "photo spots", where you could put your bear on a tiny seat and take his picture.  It was all too bizarre!!

This man even had a special bag to put in his bear in. 

This Disney Bear's name is Duffy, and his slogan is "The Bear of Happiness and Luck".

Seriously, this bear and his paraphernalia was all over the gift shops.  He even has his own book!

Is this just another made-up Japan souvenir?!

We waited on the street for about 30 minutes to see this fiesta dance that lasted about 60 seconds!

People started following the short fiesta parade because the park was so congested there was no where else to go!!

Mob scene in the American Waterfront area!

I like any booth selling something with "All-American" as a tag line!!  The hot dog was yummy!

Tarynn & Kerri explore Triton's Kingdom in Mermaid Lagoon.

 

Made for small children, but still one of the coolest places in the park!

My camera didn't do well with the low lighting, but the place was so beautiful!!

Mediterranean Harbor at night!

Break at the Cantina for some chips & salsa and Mexican music!

I even found a sign with my favorite Spanish word...

(I have no idea why it's upside down!)

Scary fun times in the Lost River Delta!

We were waiting all day to use our Fast Passes and explore the Indiana Jones Adventure: Temple of the Crystal Skull ride.

Our photo from the ride.  I was scared, but clearly the girls in the front row with their double "peace signs" were not frightened!!

All day I couldn’t help but compare DisneySea to a trip to Las Vegas, since many of the same attractions you can find in Sin City. For example:

• Erupting volcano (Mirage)
• Fountain show (Bellagio)
• Canals of Venice & gondola rides (Venetian)
• Roller coasters (Stratosphere, NYNY)
• Streets of New York City (NYNY)
• Cirque du Soleil show (6 venues in Vegas)
• Pirate ship battle (Treasure Island)
• Beautiful mosaic sculptures (Bellagio)
• Arabian village (Aladdin Hotel & shopping mall)
• Roman ruins (Caesar’s Palace)
• Giant pyramid (Luxor)

While DisneySea was visually impressive as the most expensive theme park ever built in the world (over $4 billion), I will admit that most everything had an edge of “cheesy” to it. The canals of Venice were barely recognizable and evoked no longing for me to return to Italy (while Vegas’ Venetian never fails make me reminisce of my trip over a decade ago!); the Mediterranean Harbor was cheap looking (even the window “shutters” were only painted on the building)! And I would have never known we were in American Waterfront, except the trash cans said “New York City” on them.

Unfortunately for Tarynn and I, DisneySea was a day full of poor timing and misunderstanding.

Everything seemed to go wrong from the moment we tried to board the Tokyo Disney Resort train and it started moving in the wrong direction!  We rode all of the wrong rides, Fast Passes ran out too soon, lines and entrances for the “cool” rides were hidden away in caves and underground, we weren’t able to watch any good shows or parades, and to finish the day off, we missed the last bullet train back to Nagoya and it took us 3 tries to find a last-minute hotel in Tokyo! (And getting up at 5am the next day to take the first train back home so I could make it to work on time was no fun either.)

I would definitely go back and do it all over again now that I know the “system” for most things, but not being able to read Japanese and not knowing anything about the park beforehand made for a difficult day.

Here's my sad face after we realized we were stuck in Tokyo for the night, and I had to take the 6am train to Nagoya instead.



At work this week, I mentioned that DisneySea didn’t really feel like “Disney” because often when you looked around at attractions you recognized no characters or themes or Mickey ears (besides the Mermaid Lagoon), which were so ubiquitous from the previous day at Disneyland. My co-worker explained that DisneySea was intended more for adults since they sell beer (unlike Disneyland), and they have faster, scarier rides!  This all makes complete sense now, but I wish I had known earlier!

What's New This Fall

Bread or Rice?
When I was at the hamburg steak restaurant recently, there was a choice of side with your meal: bread or rice.  As a foreigner, everyone assumed I was getting the bread, and they were shocked when I corrected them by asking for white rice instead.  Rice is my new staple food, and I think it's delicious.  Sure, I'd love a bun to go with my hamburger, but that's not what they were offering by way of "bread".  I saw crusty rolls at other tables, and I knew I didn't want that.  As an FYI sticky rice in Japan is totally better than the rice I eat in America...

Chopsticks can be your friend
Speaking of stereotypes at meal time, every once in awhile restaurants will bring a small tray with a knife & fork on it and set it right next to.  I should probably consider it nice that they want to accommodate foreigners, but it also gives me a complex like I suck at using my chopsticks or they assume all foreigners are idiots.  Which is not true on either account.  In fact, there are some foods I have discovered are actually easier to eat with chopsticks!  Like salad, cabbage, corn, peas, etc...

No thanks to dessert?!
I'm getting smarter regarding food in Japan.  This week, there was a special menu at one of my usual lunch spots.  The "special" part was you could order a slightly smaller portion of lunch and get a small dessert for the same price as a regular meal.  My lunch friends thought this sounded like a great deal, but I declined because I really like the regular-sized meal, and honestly I was wary about this "small" dessert.  (It's weird I'm turning down dessert though, right?!) 

Anyway, I made the right choice.  As it turns out the "small" dessert consisted of 2 grapes (with seeds), a half of strawberry, and a slice of orange that would be better suited on the rim of a cocktail glass.  Yeah... have I ever mentioned my strict policy against fruit as a dessert?!  It's completely unacceptable in my world.

Farewell Parties & Gifts
You may notice that I go to a lot of dinners with work.  They are usually to (1) welcome a new team member, (2) say goodbye to someone leaving, or (3) host a visitor.  I guess I've never mentioned how these things get funded.  Mitsui only pays for item #3!  When a new team member joins or one leaves, all of the dinner guests have to split the bill.  (This goes for farewell gifts and karaoke as well!)  You never really know how expensive things will be when you first sign up to attend.  (But no one in Japan really worries too much about money.)  The dinner organizer contacts you later to let you know how much you owe, and everyone pays promptly!  It's a handy, honest system but sometimes they delay in collecting money.  For example, I had to shell out over $140 one day this week to settle 3 different parties.  Good thing Japan is a cash society, and I always have plenty of money laying around...

Welcome to Fall!
I heard from the locals that Japan summer heat ends on the day of Autumn Equinox (September 23 this year), and I was doubtful.  How can they really predict the end of summer weather to ONE exact day!  But alas, it seems to be accurate... Sept 22 was over 90 degrees, and Sept 23 was 78.  It has never even reached the 80's since it "officially" became fall!  Usual high these days is 76, and low is 62.  (One weird thing is that Japan does not really have heat waves or cold fronts.  The temps vary maybe 1 degree each day.  It's really strange compared to the yo-yo weather I'm used to in the midwest.)

I'm loving the fall weather, but fashion has changed again.  I am enjoying my short-sleeved shirts (and finally slacks) at work, but I was recently scolded for still wearing my "summer" clothes.  When I looked around, yes, I am the only one wearing short sleeves, and everyone else has suddenly pulled out their turtlenecks and legwarmers again!!  WHAT?!  It's 76 outside, and 82 in the office...  these people are nutty!  I may not wear another long sleeve shirt before I leave just in spite of these rules!

The sun officially sets before 17:30 starting this week, so even if I leave work on time (at 5:30, which never happens) it means I am walking home in pitch darkness again.  Not so bad... at least the temperature is nice!

Fashion frenzy
11 months in Japan has made me bold with clothing.  I recently bought some jeggings (jean leggings) that I plan to bring back to the good ol' USA with me!  (They may be 2 sizes too small, but come on, they are supposed to be skin tight anyway, right?!)  And one day this week I accidentally put my shirt on backwards while dressing, but once I looked in the mirror, I decided I liked it that way and wore it for the rest of the day!

Favorite new word
At work they love to use the word ikemen, which means "most handsome guy".  The ladies are always talking about who is ikemen is certain departments.  When they announced that a new team member will be joining a neighboring department soon, the General Manager described his history, current assignment, and said he was ikemen!!  Everyone laughed, and then looked at me to make sure I caught that, even though it was in Japanese.  I assured them I knew what ikemen was!  How weird for a man to announce that type of description for a future male colleague...

Interestingly, there is no Japanese word for "most beautiful girl".  I've asked many guys, and they all think about it, and then shake their heads.  One clever guy said it was because "women are the ones who have time to sit around and judge the men and make up these new words".  (It's technically slang and became common around 2001.)

Everyone is a Sports Fan!
The Chunichi Dragons baseball team won the Central League pennant this weekend, and everyone in Nagoya was super excited!  Why you may ask?!  Because each year the Dragons win, the department stores will have 3-day sale following the final game.  This is a big deal because there are usually only two "sales" in Japan.  (January 1st for 5 days and July 1st for 4 days.)  Talk about a great way to get women excited about sports and have them follow the games... The ladies need to know if they should go shopping tomorrow!!