Bialashu the Panda

Ashley loves pandas, so it comes as no surprise that her favorite stuffed critter is a panda. She named her "Bialashu," which means Ash Tree in Chinese (Ashley means Ash Tree in English).

We brought Bialashu with us to Japan where she had her own set of adventures, fortunately most of them were with us.

Her first adventures were at Tokyo DisneySea. Duffy is huge at Tokyo Disney. Duffy is Mickey Mouse's stuffed bear, which was lovingly made by Minnie Mouse. Americans just don't share the Duffy love. 

All over Tokyo DisneySea are little benches for Duffy to sit on to have his picture taken in postcard-like settings. I put Bialashu in these seats. People got the joke. As Ashley and Don were riding Toy Story, I told people it was "for my daughter." 

I had to use the ladies' room, so she kept me company in the baby seat. Most Japanese bathrooms seemed to have a spot just like this for babies between 5 months and 2 1/2 years old. As a mom I thought this was genius! 

One time we left her in the hotel and came home to find the hotel maid made sure she could see out the window while waiting for us.

I suspect her favorite adventure, though, was visiting the bamboo forest in Kyoto. The bamboo must have been 100 feet tall. It would be like leaving me in a Godiva factory. 

He also comforted Ashley during the flights and in the various hotels. He is a good traveling companion.

More panda pictures

Japan Final Thoughts

It seems whenever we go on vacation we talk about what it would be like to live there. The conversation tends to be a pipe dream, but still fun to think about. We both agreed there is no way we could live in Japan.

Ashley learned enough of the language that when eavesdropping on a conversation taking place in Japanese she knew they were saying something about right hand and left hand (I suspect the woman was giving directions to the man about right hand and left hand turns). Much better than I could do. Don and I were always happy to hear “that nice lady” on the metro repeat the name of the station nice and slow and tell us the station numbers in English.

Food was an issue. We were all willing to try new things, but still wanted the familiar. It is more than that, I wanted variety. At home we eat Chinese, Italian, American, Thai, and Indian food. Just as I don’t eat burgers every day in the US, I’m not fond of eating pig every day in Japan (ham, bacon, pork).

Every meal was a treasure hunt, often a long one. Most restaurants have pictures, or plastic models of the food, but even with the clues we didn’t have it all figured out. One night we went out for pizza and pasta. The picture showed chicken with a teriyaki sauce and some green stuff on top. I thought the green stuff would be basil or spinach. Imagine my surprise when it was dried seaweed! I guess I’d mellowed by that point in the trip because it didn’t bother me much. I miss vegetables – a common issue on vacation.

Despite trying at least 20 new foods (most in Nikko) we did not leave with a favorite fish. I finally tried salmon and tuna, but didn’t love them. I should have tried the shrimp when I had the chance.

We found the mass transportation system highly stressful. When on the bus,

we needed exact change, but didn’t always know what the amount would be until we were getting off. Fortunately I could point to the coins (often 550) and point to the three of us, rather than having 220 ready for Don and I and 110 ready for Ashley. All day transportation cards alleviated that stress for me. When we rode the metro, having to find the correct line (there are two different metro systems in Tokyo, plus the rail line, and they don’t talk to each other), then lining up the map with the name of the station we were stopping at (which might only be in Japanese) before I could then put in the coins with the proper amount as the line behind me grew, was also stressful. Figuring out which direction to take each train (especially when they were loops) was also a challenge. For Japanese friends, picture taking mass transit in Thailand or China.

From what I have seen of my pictures, I am loving the newcamera. It was a last minute purchase when I realized my regular camera was not as crisp as it had once been. Yes, I missed the zoom, but the clarity is stunning! Now that I have a DSLM, I can’t see going back to a regular digital camera. I had fun playing with it. When I came home, I discovered the other one was returned to me from the camera shop. I wonder how much I'll use it now.

We realized we can go in an airplane for a lot of hours and survive. The international flights treat you so much better than the ones in the US. As I type this I am sipping my complimentary wine, so that might have something to do with my feelings. Australia is no longer off of the dream list. We did decide that our next international trip will be to a country where we can at least recognize the letters – which means Spain, Italy, Germany, and Australia are in while China and Thailand are out.

I found I enjoyed wandering more than racing from site to site. While armchair traveling I thought I wanted to see everything, but while in Japan I realized I wanted to sit back and enjoy it. I also enjoyed the challenge of figuring out the transit system, but wished for a little more time to savor the comfort level before moving onto the next city and the next set of rules. We knew it was an ambitious agenda, just didn’t factor in how tired we would be struggling with the language, food and culture.

I normally do not sleep well in new places. I was happy that was not an issue on this trip since we changed hotels so often. I think I was so exhausted from walking that I slept well. Ashley often fell asleep before we made it back to the hotel. Don carried her for the remainder of that day’s adventures. Once we made it to our hotel I spent time gathering electronics to be recharged, checking emails (I know, I said I wouldn’t, but I did), upload pictures (except the last three nights) and write thoughts into a blog. I’m glad I blogged. The blog will help me match pictures to what we did, plus put the scrapbook together. Hope some of you are enjoying reading about our adventures. I look forward to editing the posts and adding pictures over the next couple of months.

The Japanese were friendly. Most tried to help us. We latched onto anyone who spoke English. I wondered how the non-English, non-Japanese speakers were managing.

I missed being able to make small talk with people from shop keepers to waiters. Our conversations were so child-like, and even those were draining. I latched onto times we could chat with Americans. This really stood out to me in the Canadian airport when I realized I could joke with the people as they tried to figure out why Don and I were cleared for customs, but not Ashley. We knew she didn't do anything wrong and that they would figure it out soon. 

Now we can say we’ve been to four out of five (soon six) Disney theme parks. Since we’ve ruled out visiting China because of the language, I suppose our experiences will end with four. After hearing about Tokyo Disney for so many years, I’m glad we went.

Favorite experiences:

Ashley: the Japanese art class at Tokyo Disney, and walking through a cloud at Mount Fuji

Don: seeing the bicycle piano player at Tokyo Disney

Jacquie: taking pictures at the top of the Floating Gardenin Osaka – first chance I had to pull out all the stops with it

Least favorite experiences:

Ashley: using a Japanese toilet, second least favorite was being kicked by a deer in Nara

Don: the flight home and lack of leg room, our flight out was a joy with much more leg room. The flight home was on a 777, hoping to keep that in mind when booking future flights.

Jacquie: being caught in downpours that even umbrellas would not keep us dry

Americana Day in Tokyo

There comes a day on every international trip when we crave all things American. Today was that day.

I’m tired of pork. Tired of the rain. Tired of learning how to navigate a new city. Tired of new rules with a new transportation system. Tired of walking on the right when the rest of the people walk on the left. Tired of not understanding the most basic stuff. And tired of being tired.

Introducing Americana Day!

We slept in a little later and woke up around 8. We could have used more sleep, but we really did not want to miss the breakfast buffet. Once again,

the breakfast buffet was an odd assortment of Western and Japanese foods. Many of the Japanese food items looked good, but they are not what use westerners think of when we think of breakfast – rice, curried chicken, side dishes, green salad, etc. Tomorrow we are trying the Western Breakfast restaurant. We’re all hoping for waffles, pancakes, or (for me) French Toast. We’ll see what we get. (It was the same food, only served to the table rather than buffet-style.)

Being in a new city, and a very large one at that, means everything takes so much longer to navigate. We decided to start our day out on foot with some power shopping. First stop, back to the electronics super store to search for a new (bigger) lens for my new camera. Score one for B&H who works out to about $100 cheaper than the cheap Japanese electronics store for the same model. It is now on my birthday  / Christmas wish list.

We found a 100 Yen Shop (their answer to the Dollar Stores by us), but were almost out of yen, so we had to find an ATM. Next stop was the Disney Store (we forgot to buy souvenirs at Tokyo Disney). Struck out here as most items looked like things we could find back home. The only really unique item was chop sticks, but we are making out fine with the ones we bought from EPCOT a few years ago. In the same mall was a sporting goods store so Don continued the quest for a specific type of kick stand for his bicycle. Still no success.

We then spent a frustratingly long amount of time hunting around the Shinjuku Station for the right subway line to go 4 stops to find Hard Rock Café. It was at this point I was in tears. The Shinjuku Station is enormous. It has several different types of trains and subways coming into it, and each of them has several lines. Each type has their own entrance and their own ticketing system. The signs are mostly in Japanese, with just enough English tossed in to lull us into thinking there is a chance we’ll be able to do this without help.

We successfully made it to the right line going in the right direction. Got off and tried to ask for directions. We found some Americans trying to do the same thing. Somehow we were led to the exact wrong direction. 

Yes, it was still raining. The gentleman at a cell phone store gave us

directions and offered us an umbrella. I spent a year in Belgium without an umbrella, I never use one at home, but this trip is breaking me down to want to join the umbrella group. Tomorrow morning has a chance of rain, then the rest of our trip should be clear -- I hope! I’ve never encountered this much rain, even with living in Belgium.

We finally found Hard Rock Café Tokyo. It felt like a pilgrimage stop. We each enjoyed a nice, juicy burger. 

It was lunch time, so they tossed in a bowl of cream of corn soup. Since it was lunchtime, they were running a burger special – a 6 oz. plain burger for about $10. Ashley was set! We recently learned that Ashley's favorite soup is cream of corn. We didn't even know she liked ANY soup. This will help us with her quest to be a vegetarian.

The peach iced tea with unlimited refills was a whopping $6, but somehow the server forgot to charge us for it. At that point, it really didn’t matter. I wanted the iced tea that much! I was happy it came in a huge, American-sized glass. Don was thrilled to be able to read every word on the menu.

It wouldn’t be a trip for us to an international Hard Rock Café without a trip to the souvenir shop. Ashley left with a t-shirt, I left with a cotton shirt (similar to one I was eyeing up at Kohls a few weeks ago, but with a discreet Hard Rock Café Tokyo on it) and Don picked up a sweatshirt. With the non-stop rain, he left the store wearing the sweatshirt.

We had some time to kill and thought it would be fun to explore Tokyo on foot. How hard could it be? Well, the clerk at Hard Rock Café, who relocated to Tokyo from France, put us in the exact wrong direction. By this time it was 3:30 and we were meeting up with Hiroko at the baseball game at 5:30. What should be an hour-long ride we knew would take us twice as long so we found a station.

We were warned the trip to the baseball stadium would involve three transfers. Since we were not even at our starting location (Shinjuku Station), it would take four transfers. What we had not been told was that each transfer was to a completely different type of train, therefore each one required a different ticket and a different guess as to how much that ticket would cost and what platform to use to catch it. With a lot of help from ticket station guards (they do not have agents in Tokyo train stations) and by showing them our tickets to Seibo Stadium to see the Lions play, we made it to the right station 12 minutes before our agreed upon meeting point.

It was still raining when we got to the end of the line.

Fortunately the Seibo Stadium decided to put a dome across it about 10 years ago. For the most part we were dry. The dome covers the playing field, and the seats, but not the concourse with the food and souvenirs.

Everyone told us just how different Japanese baseball is to American baseball. We were just surprised by the similarities. It reminded us a lot of a Thunder game. The players were announced by position in English as they took the field. The mascot made some appearances. The first pitch was thrown out by a local celebrity (some actress/model). People cheered. Lots of food and souvenirs were for sale. Each player has an individual song that is played when he is at bat.

Some differences: this stadium had a blanket section for cheap seats in the deep outfield. This seemed to be the party section. There was a man in a kimono leading the cheering section, another one in the back beating a 6 foot wide drum, he was accompanied by a couple of other “musicians.” It was very festive. 

Beer was sold until the end of the game
(instead of until the middle of the 7^th inning, for you non-baseball fans). The 7^th inning stretch was replaced by a 7^th inning victory balloon release (hopefully we got a good picture of this).  At one point with two men on, the entire stadium seemed to say a prayer and bow. I didn’t quite catch what was happening. Many people wore Lions shirts over their office clothes. I found that amusing.

The crowd seemed to cheer distractingly loud whenever the situation got the most tense (like when there are two men on base, two outs and a full count). Maybe it’s just me, but this is when I tend to get the quietest. I must go back to a Thunder game to see how others react.

We bumped into someone wearing a Phillies shirt, which led to a conversation. He is stationed with the Air Force in Japan. He keeps asking to be sent to Maguire, but so far he has been sent to London, Seattle and now Japan.

In the bottom of the 8^th inning with two outs, the home team hit a home run. The crowd went wild and stayed that way. The Lions won! More blue victory balloons (available for purchase for 200 Yen (=$2) apiece, you supply the air) were released.

I feel like I’m supposed to say more about this experience, but truly it reminded me much more of a Thunder game than I would have expected. So many people told me I have to check out a Japanese baseball game that I feel as if I missed something. It was oddly a great way to spend a rainy night.

We were dreading coming out of the stadium and having to wait around for a train. They had this covered. There were four trains lined up designated as express trains to where we had to go. This eliminated a transfer for us and its terminus was where we had to go anyway. Hiroko’s friend bought us our train tickets (with our money) so he was able to purchase us tickets straight to the Shinjuko Station.

Only one transfer instead of three. There was only one choice of train at the start (many more at the switch, but Hiroko told us the key words to search for). We definitely made it back to the hotel in much less time.

Tomorrow we break out the all-day subway pass and try to explore as much as possible. This should be interesting. The subway pass I was so proud of purchasing at the start of our trip is only valid on some of the lines. I’d love a map that just shows what we CAN do with our pass, and not everything. I’d be just as overwhelmed in NYC, but at least there I can speak the language.

Here is to hoping for a better night’s sleep.

More pictures of Tokyo

Tokyo Disneyland Everything Else (Part 2)

They post about Tokyo Disneyland was becoming too long, especially with pictures, so I am breaking it down into two posts. The first one focuses on the rides, this one on everything else.


There were a few surprises of the day. The first was that, while we know we are in Japan, we expected to see more non-Asian people. After all, when we go to Disneyland we see people of all races. Especially on that first super rainy day, we felt like the only non-Asian people at Disneyland.The rain kept away most characters. It also kept the PhotoPass photographers home. Speaking of PhotoPass photographers, before they take your picture with their camera, they try to sell you on the photograph. If you don't want it, they'll still take a picture with your camera, but if you want it, you are given a ticket and a 2-hour time window in which to pick up the photograph. Almost reminded me of the days before Disneyland switched to the PhotoPass card system and we came home with a slew of tickets. Except in those days, they did not try to sell their pictures and just took them.

The theme park tickets seemed cheaper than the US parks – even factoring in 100 Yen to a US Dollar (now down to 94 Yen to the dollar, not good). I wondered if one of the reasons is because Cast Members have to pay to get into Disney when they are not working. They also do not get passes to allow their friends to come in for free. Fortunately our friend, Masumi, has an annual pass and could join us in the park after her shift.

Oddly the way the passes worked you had to choose one park for days 1 and 2 of the pass, and could park hop on the third and fourth days. There is a fee to ride the monorail between the parks. We opted for the three-day monorail pass at 1100 YEN ($12) after trying to walk there on our first day. 

Our hotel is directly across the street from one of the four monorail stations. Unlike Florida and California, though, you have to pay to ride this one. Even though the theme parks are within sight (our view from the Hilton Tokyo Bay is almost identical to our view from HoJo Anaheim) it was a half an hour walk the first time we did it (after being in an airplane for more hours than we care to count, it felt good to walk). 

Lunch included a drink if you bought the "set" for an additional 200 YEN (think value meal for $2.25). I had iced oolong tea. I was pleasantly surprised to find iced tea since I could not find it in Canada. I couldn’t even explain the concept to servers, even when I had a friend with me who speaks Canadian French. It just was not happening.

Lunch was at Grandma Sara’s Kitchen. American food with Japanese twists. My BBQ chicken dinner came with ride “from Japan.” Ashley had a tiny sampler platter with a miniscule beef patty, corn, rice balls, French fries and shrimp. She told us later she loves corn chowder, so she’ll have that today for lunch. The corn in the salad was delicious – rivaling the freshness of Jersey corn.

Seems it is not a trip to Disney without a trip to First Aid. This time it was Ashley’s contact lenses. They are new and taking some time to adjust. We successfully described the issue and found a solution. Score one for us! They have three First Aids - -two of which are back stage. We were escorted to the one in Fantasy Land that is backstage. Score one for Tokyo Disney –even with a small park they still have three first aids.

Main Street is covered. It really changes the feel. There were the usual shops, including the art gallery where Ashley took a drawing class. Just off Main Street (on a different covered section) is Club 33. When you leave the covered section, you are not far from the castle. The overall layout is more square than circular, which probably aids in overall traffic flow.

Don had a dream come true – we saw the bicycle piano player – Steve from British Columbia. Steve entertained the crowd in the center of Main Street in Japanese, with a few American phrases tossed in for us Americans. He played a Mary Poppins medly (thought of Ragtime Robert) and then “the boss’s song” in Japanese (“Mickey Mouse”). It sounds like he has worked at Tokyo Disney for years and is a crowd favorite.

We ended the evening in the castle walking through Cinderella’s Fairy Tale Hall. We were thinking it was like the Sleeping Beauty walk-through in California, but we could not be more wrong. There was often a 20 minute wait, which was completely justified. The rooms were filled with art depicting scenes from Disney’s Cinderella. Some were made from cut out paper, others from metal, wood, all sorts of art forms. The highlight was in the last room where they had a couple of magic pictures. I have never seen anything like it. A swirl magically appears if you use your flash, but not if you don't.

When we finally did see the characters, the interaction was amazing. Trust me, we've had some amazing experiences and I can tell you these were supercalifragiliciousexpialidocious! 

Jet lag knocked Ashley out by 4. Don carried her for a bit, we sat for a bit. She woke up around 7:30 to see the Electric Light Parade – people sat to watch it, longer than US, many new floats, different parade – about 25 minutes long. She had enough of a second wind to close the park at 10 PM. A surprise to us all. Fortunately she slept through the second night, after rousing at 3 AM on the first night. Hopefully she can stay awake longer today.

It poured all morning. It was a nice, steady rain. Perfectly fine with a rain jacket. We were the only people we saw without an umbrella or rain poncho! We knew Californians melt in the rain, therefore they stay home when the weather is the least bit off. Well, the Japanese just deal with the weather in their own way. Too bad since once they took off their ponchos we saw some of the most creative and beautiful outfits, including a little girl dressed as Donald Duck.

Our next day took us to DisneySea, where I’ve been told there is often an hour-long ride just to pick up a FP for ToyStory. While that is our favorite ride, we can’t justify that amount of time. We’ve heard this park is completely different.

More pictures from Tokyo Disneyland

Tokyo Disney Parkhoppers

This is our third full day in Japan, and our third full day at Tokyo Disney. We purchased a three day pass. Tokyo Disney has a quirk, though. For the first two days you have to choose which park you are going to visit. On days three and four (if applicable) you can jump between the two parks. There is a monorail between the Disney hotels, the two parks, and the Disney-friendly hotels (like the Hilton where we are staying). There is a fee for this service, but it is amazing! The trains run every 3-6 minute. They are clean and smooth and overall fantastic.

It turned out to be a bit of a crazy day, but loads of fun. We started the day at Disney Sea and hightailed it to ride Toy Story Midway Mania. Yes, I know I said the line was too long. Don spent 20 minutes in the most organized FastPass lane I have ever seen. Ashley and I spent 45 minutes in line to ride it. Don did not feel comfortable joining us, so he met up with us at the exit. His FastPass was for 3:15 PM (by now it was almost 10 AM) so we went to DisneyLand.

We signed Ashley up for the 2 PM drawing class. Yes, the class was entirely in Japanese. This anchored our day even further.

We rode the tea cups and found our friend Ayako (who we also met in California a few years ago). While in line we saw a woman wearing a t-shirt designed by our mutual friend, Brianna, from California. Start singing "It's a Small World" now. Bonus points if you can do it in Japanese.

I had curry for lunch. Don and Ashley had bacon and pineapple pizza (almost a Hawaiian pizza). 

We saw the Country Bear Jamboree on Vacation. The cast member said it was in English and Japanese, so we didn't need a translation. Hm....the songs were in English (Beach Boys, etc.) but the dialogue was all in Japanese. Fairly easy plot to figure out.

We popped through Swiss Family Treehouse. It seemed familiar, though i'm more familiar with the Tarzan version at Disneyland. 

Picked up FastPasses for Splash Mountain. The challenge was the timing of it all with the drawing class and Toy Story FPs. We hung out until it was for the optimal time.

Ashley did amazing in her drawing class. 

Tried to hightail it back to Disney Sea to use our FPs, but got sidetracked

when we bumped into a bunch of characters and NO LINES by the Main Gate. In quick succession she saw Alice, Prince Charming, and Robin Hood and his Merry Men. We spotted Smee, Belle, Eeyore, Piglet, Aurora and Prince Philip, but were not fast enough to catch them all before they went inside. 

Mad dash to Toy Story. After riding, Don and Ashley opted to wait in line to do it again. The line was only an hour (took them closer to 35 minutes, though). While they rode it a second time, I took Ashley's Panda Bear (Bailashu) on the Duffy tour. There are a bunch of photo spots where you can place your stuffed Duffy and it looks like he is on a world tour. It is a really neat concept. 

I kept bumping into rare characters -- 3 Callebreros and Genie, I also spotted Aladdin and Jasmine playing hide and seek together. Saw Cruella DeVil and told her how nice it was to see her. It really is a treat hearing American English this far away from home. They seemed to enjoy seeing us, too.

I also rode 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. Someday I'll figure out the rides are all in Japanese. I don't remember the original. I will say I loved the cars -- they each seated 6 people and were not at all claustrophobic. I have not gone back on the Nemo ride at Disneyland because of the tight quarters. This did not have that issue, but I couldn't follow it.

Met up with Don and Ashley who were tired of waiting (we only have one cell phone between the three of us that works in Japan).

I talked them into riding the gondolas before dashing back for the 5 PM Splash Mountain FP. I'm so glad we did. It reminded me of our trip to Venice nearly 14 years ago, and a different trip we took to Vegas. 

Then the mad dash back....

They rode Splash Mountain, I kept everything dry. Not a bad deal in my book.

Had dinner in Tomorrowland, where we then saw the Electric Light Parade with Masumi. After the parade we rode a few favorites (Haunted Mansion, Pooh, Big Thunder Mountain) again and left as the Park was closing.

Now back at the hotel we are packing up for an early start tomorrow where Masumi and Hiroko will take us to Nikko to see Tom. I anticipate we'll be without WiFi for a couple of days. Then we'll be in Tokyo for a night before heading to Kyoto, Osaka and Nara.

So far we did a pretty decent job with packing. Wishing I packed a three-prong to two-prong outlet converter, band-aids and Noxema. Not the end of the world, but with being at Disney and about to go to the countryside, shopping is on hold.

Wishing I took a picture in the bakery of all the tasty treats. We left without buying any souvenirs. Yes, hard to believe. The picture frames were too small, there were not any Christmas ornaments to be found (a long-shot in June in any country) and nothing else jumped out at us.

More in a few days, unless we find WiFi sooner.

Tokyo Disneyland's Animation Academy

When I wrote a post last February about Ashley's love for the Animation Academy at both Walt Disney World and Disneyland, I had no idea the class is also offered at Tokyo Disneyland, and that she would take it.

On our first day at Tokyo Disneyland we saw the sign about the class, but wrote it off in order to do other things. After all, the class would be in Japanese. How much would Ashley really get out of it?

That wasn't the only difference. The class at Tokyo Disneyland is by reservation only, and has a small fee attached to it (most classes are about 500 YEN, or $5 in our mind). It is set in a room within the art gallery on Main Street. Instead of one person in the front of the room breezing through the drawing, there is the instructor, plus two people going around the room making sure everyone is staying on track.

Ashley was only one of three kids -- the other two had parents with them, and the only non-Japanese speaker. She sat up in the front of the room. We sat in the far back, not close enough to participate, but close enough to keep an eye on her. Probably unnecessary as Tokyo Disneyland only requires kids under 7 to be with an adult. It was fun for us, so we stayed. Every so often one of the assistants would give us a thumbs up sign that she was on track. Ashley later said that the instructor did a great job of miming what she was going to do before she actually drew the shape, this way she saw it happen twice.

I thought the design looked challenging -- Donald Duck holding onto a celebration balloon in honor of Tokyo Disneyland' 30th anniversary.

As you can see, Ashley did not struggle with the image at all.

The class also included a nice portfolio for her picture, which helped us get it back to NJ safely.

The whole class was only 23 minutes long from introduction to putting the last lines on the drawing.

At the end of the trip, Ashley said this was one of her highlights. I'm so proud of her! 

Tokyo DisneyLand Rides (part 1)

We finally made it! It is unbelievable. Tokyo Disney is so familiar, yet so different. To start, the park is about the size of California’s Disneyland, as opposed to enormous like the Magic Kingdom in Florida. They have the usual rides, but with twists – some expected and some unexpected.

I’d say the good and the bad, but there was no bad.

Since this post is becoming way too long, I divided it into two sections. This one will focus on the rides, the other one will talk about everything else.

A high priority was riding Space Mountain because (according to their website), Space Mountain was going down for a refurbishment on Monday.  We rode it twice. The track felt similar to Disneyland’s track, but the ride was much smoother and less jerky. (Picture is a view from the Space Mountain line.)

The Haunted Mansion was mostly in Japanese. It was almost jarring, yet familiar, to hear Madame Leota’s chants in English. The ballroom scene seemed more vivid.

The second surprise was that the Pooh ride has a fast pass. Yes, digest that a moment major Disney fans. And, the FP is totally merited. There are three cars, they run around on an invisible track. The best is when the cars bounce to Tigger’s song. We rode it THREE times in one day. During the peak of the day the line is more than an hour long. 

Pirates was completely in English. Reminded me of the version at Disneyland, but without the Blue Bayou.

Jungle Cruise goes clockwise instead of counter clockwise. To the best of my knowledge (not speaking any Japanese) it is filled with the same corny jokes. The animals were in the same place as in California (plus or minus) but the order was backwards because the boats go the opposite way. It was still fun to ride. 

Tokyo Disneyland has The Swiss Family Robinson tree house. Part of me still thinks I heard the Tarzan music as we "swung" through it.

Alice's Tea Cups are covered, as they are in Florida. We were able to catch up with our friend, Ayako, while she was working at it.

Speaking of friends, we caught up with Masumi at the Snow White ride (which is scarier than the one in California), but did not see Keiko as she is in the states visiting her sister.

Especially since it was raining, and the characters were not out, we rode a lot of rides. Big Thunder Mountain is a favorite in any park. Don and Ashley also rode Splash Mountain (we were already wet, so what difference did it make?). I used that time to go souvenir shopping, but (oddly) left Disneyland without any trinkets. I almost bought a picture frame, but realized the size was too small for a 4x6 image, so I passed. Still looking for the perfect souvenir, besides the giant scrapbook I plan to create when I get home.

More pictures from Tokyo Disneyland

Tokyo DisneySea

We were woefully unprepared for our day at Tokyo Disney Sea in that I did not do any research about the Park. The night before we asked Masumi for advice about must-sees at Tokyo Disney Sea. She told us we had to do everything because it is all so different from other Disney parks. Her preference is for the shows, which was a challenge for us due to the language barrier. I did find it amusing, though, when I heard Lumiere speak Japanese with a French accent during an outdoor show! More on the language-barrier later.

So it was onto the rides. Almost as soon as we entered the park we bumped into Gepetto, Pinocchio, Jiminy Cricket, and the villains from their movie. They were a lot of fun. The characters reminded us of the ones in DisneyLand versus the ones at Walt Disney World. Nothing against them in Florida, but most of our magical character interactions have been in California. Each character made us feel special. After waiting a while, that is a nice feeling.

Unfortunately a few minutes later I realized I had the new camera in the wrong setting. 

Wait, that’s not a ride. Hmm…

After yesterday’s experience with Space Mountain where we told Ashley she would like this version of the ride because it is smoother than the versions in Florida and California, yet she really didn’t like it  we’ve taken to pre-screening rides first. Don rode “Journey to the Center of the Earth,” and picked up fast passes for later. He talked me into doing it, but not Ashley. It was a very mild ride with a lot of theming. I joked that it was the opposite of Space Mountain because it goes inside the earth and instead of into outer space. In truth, though, this was much gentler. We use seat restraints as a guide. This one uses a loose lap bar. That makes it a fairly easy ride.

We walked through Mermaid Lagoon. What amazed us most was how Tokyo Disney utilizes the vertical space. I quipped that is much easier to do when you are not worrying about being ADA compliant. I noticed overall strollers are smaller at Tokyo Disney than at Disney World and Disney Land. More parents seem to carry their babies than push them around in strollers. I only saw a handful of wheelchairs, and only two ECVs. The place is designed for people with two working legs.

The overall theming is amazing and stunning. Don and Ashley compared it to EPCOT, but it was even more than that. The theming reminded me of Universal Studios in Florida (where Harry Potter World is located). The theming is that intense and believable. The use of large walls separated lands which transformed each section into the next. There are clear changes in the path to indicate when you have left one Land and entered the next one.

At Masumi’s encouragement, we had lunch so we could see Duffy’s Show at the Cape Cod Cook-Off. The wait for the food was much longer than his show, but we are glad we did it. The plot was very light. We figured it out without a language guide. The food was okay. A thought on the food – here the choices are as a “set” or “single.” Set is like a value meal – drink and often a salad or dessert includes the meal, the single is just the item itself. They always seem to have cups and a water fountain so you can just have a glass of water. So far my stomach has been fine with the water (it gets upset in Bethlehem, PA and the south end of my own town, so I wasn’t sure).

Duffy is huge here! “Duffy who?” you ask. Duffy is Mickey Mouse’s stuffed bear, lovingly made by Minnie Mouse. His line is often an hour long. In California and Florida, his line is moments long. There are spots along the way that have little chairs for Duffy to sit in so you can take a picture of Duffy having adventures. We want to return tomorrow to take pictures with Ashley’s stuffed critter – Bialashu the panda bear.

Overall I was in awe of the theming in the American Waterfront. They a section dedicated to early 20^th century New York City and another part for New England. This and the Mediterranean Harbor were the most photogenic and stunning areas from an architectural standpoint. Much of the entire park is extremely photogenic just by itself, again like EPCOT.

The line for Toy Story Mania was nearly 2 hours. We were tempted, but we skipped it the first day. The next day we booked it to Toy Story. Don waited in one extremely organized line for 45 minutes to get FastPasses, while Ashley and I waited in a different (also organized line) to ride the ride. The line was just like the one in Florida (mostly indoors). We came back mid-day to ride it again. Then Don and Ashley rode it a third time while I took pictures with Bialashu (the stuffed panda, see the one above).

Raging Spirits – based on the name and the nearby location of lockers, I really

thought this was going to be a water ride. I was wrong. Don went first. I was chicken. He did single rider and felt that took way too long. He liked the ride. I went back alone later. I also did single rider, but made out fine. There is a tiny loop they make a big deal about. Had I realized it was a wooden coaster, I would have been on it much sooner. The only wooden coaster than intimates me is the one at Hershey Park. This ride had a height maximum of 195 cm (6’ 5”). We cleared.

The three of us rode Jasmine’s Magic Carpets together. I believe Dumbo could take some lessons from the Magic Carpet. The line moved much faster than Dumbo in part because we were queued up according to which carpet was ours. No mad dash to get the golden carpet, or whatever the equivalent is (yes, I know the golden vehicle is so 2005).

The two tiered carousel was fun, but Ashley was a little disappointed she missed out on one of the Genie-style “horses.” The cutest thing was seeing a little Jasmine riding a Genie “horse.” Once on it, it did not feel like a two-tier carousel as you didn’t see the other layer. It was even hard to photograph both parts together. At least doubling it up made the line move faster.

Ashley kept asking to ride the boats. We went at 1:15, only to find out they were on a lunch break. There are three ports, we chose the one closest to us I the Mediterranean Harbor not knowing where we would end up (they probably said, but it was in Japanese). We skipped the first port in the American Waterfront. Okay, it must be a full circle tour. But wait – we stopped at the second one in Port Discovery. Not quite where we wanted to be, but we didn’t really have a choice. There was a running commentary in Japanese that we had no hope of understanding. It came across as random to us, but I’m sure it was not.

Aquatopia looked more fun from a distance – looked like bumper boats. Once

on it we discovered there is a track you follow so it is not random. With its name we thought it would be more of a race – like Autotopia.

I went back to Disney Sea at night alone. There is something about Disney that makes it feel safe enough for a woman to travel alone at night. I made out fine. This time I asked cast members for English guides before going on an attraction with words. It was different in DisneyLand where we know the spiels from familiar rides. When I rode Sinbad’s Storybook Voyage the cast member gave me a cartoon sheet I could not read in the dark, but I had the boat all to myself. It was quite amusing. At the Magic Lamp Show a cast member gave me my own gadget so I could see the subtitles. It was programmed in advance so it did not work very well with the ad-libbing that was happening.  The 3D show was not nearly as entertaining as the Hyperion Theater version of Aladdin.

I enjoyed Fantasmic! I've never seen the version in Florida, but the one in California is amazing! While I enjoyed seeing Murray the dragon (isn't that his name?), I missed the scenes Mark Twain and Columbia. I know the story well enough that there wasn't a language barrier, for once.

I rode the DisneySea Electric Railway. Nice high view from up high. I’m glad I finally had a chance to do it. I rode it in both directions and switched sides to get different views.

One of my favorite surprise favorite activities was riding a gondola through  

the "canals of Venice." It reminded me of being in the Bellagio in Vegas and riding a gondola in the real Venice. It was also fun hearing a little bit of Italian even it if was wrong (way too much daylight for buona sera), but it was still good to hear. 

I found one word sentences work best: Water. English. Add Konnichiwa and Arigato and life is really good. We still had some language barriers, but it is Disney so it was possible to find people to help us.

Saw some non-Asian people today. I felt like asking them where they were from and how long they are staying, but left them in peace.

Ashley had a group of Japanese teenage girls ask to have her picture taken with them. Reminded me of the days the Japanese tourists would ask Ashley (who was often dressed as Alice in Wonderland- -- a big character here) to pose with them. This time she was just wearing a Mickey Mouse shirt and shorts. Come to think of it, the group was dressed similarly.

Came back from Disney Sea to find Don and Ashley sound asleep. They fell asleep as I left. I should be resting up for our last day at Tokyo Disney. From here we move onto Nikko where we will be staying in a ryokan. I'd be surprised if we have WiFi service for the next couple of days.

For the real Disney fans who still want to look at more Tokyo Disney pictures, follow this link to my Shutterfly account.