Why yes, when I go to the Tokyo I DO want to go to Tokyo Disney more than I want to look at temples, what’s your point? unfortunately, my travel partner (he’s only going to be here during my first few days in Japan), wasn’t anywhere as enthusiastic as I was, and went pretty much straight into a teenage funk upon our arrival, which made it much less fun for me. By the time we’d only been there for only three hours (after paying $75 to get in.. grrrr), he declared he was leaving, and I could stay if I wanted to….
To be fair: He hadn’t wanted to go the park in the first place (claiming he’d been to Disneyland in LA already), and had thought we might go to DisneySea instead… and then because we went on the Saturday, instead of the Friday as initially planned (because it had been raining, and my brain was unusually fatigued from flying only two months after a major concussion; so instead of Disney, I given him the first day agreeing to do whatever he wanted, which was indoor stuff mostly anyway, and also because fair is fair); but I therefore expected that on the second day we’d do the parks, which is what I wanted and was a more outdoor thing. But, as a result, however, we ended up going on weekend day (and where it’s a general rule to NEVER go to any of the Disney’s on weekends, this is doubly true for Tokyo). As such, the park was densely packed with massive crowds and almost every ride had waits of over an hour or more. When he cried uncle, offering that I should stay by myself, I knew I wasn’t well enough to do that; that it was in effect actually unsafe for me to be there alone … because my balance was still a bit off (an actually worsened by the recent flight), and too much information was coming at my brain at once, so that it was a tad overwhelming, etc. …. so we left. (By the time we were doing dinner… not at the park, I had decided to spend the tomorrow at the airbnb resting and let him wander on his own).
That said, he was the one who took the above photos of me with Jiminy Cricket and Cinderella’s Fairy Godmother … because for SOME bizarre reason Tokyo Disneyland has not instituted roaming professional photographers everywhere, like the US parks have. (One of my ongoing annoyances with Tokyo Disney is they are nowhere near as skilled as the US parks at separating the customer from his/her money… but then again they don’t need to be because, it’s also been one of Disney’s most profitable parks, since its opening… in large part because of how much the Japanese love all things Disney.)
… Anyway, on this day we were able to have grab a meal, at Plazma Ray’s diner, one of the new (since my last visit) counter service/takeaway restaurants in Tomorrow Land
I had the vegetarian curry. First, I am seriously curious about how did they get the eggs to look like that, and secondly, in my 30 years of coming to Japan, translation into English has only barely improved. It SHOULD say, “Please dispose of sharp objects in the specified/designated container”
After our lunch we walked around a little bit; and this was an interesting thing to see. Historically Disneyland USED to have the canoe rides, then got rid of them, and then brought them back temporarily while the Rivers of America steam boat was undergoing refurbishment… but
I think Tokyo Disneyland MAY (and I could be wrong about this) be the only place left which still has Walt’s original plan of canoes, rafts and a Steamboat all sharing the Rivers of America area at once. It would make sense if that were true, because Japanese, even today, would never do something like intentionally try to tip the canoes, etc., which is something US teenagers would totally do.
I was really tempted to get some of this barbecue flavored popcorn in the Lightning McQueen popcorn case; I mean could a combo be more southern than a NASCAR based cartoon character and barbecue? That and it would have been a new flavor of popcorn for me to have tried (As I discuss in this post, Tokyo Disney is into multiple flavors of popcorn — and please note barbecue isn’t even on the list of the blog post I linked to — the same way their Kit-Kat bars come in huge assortment of flavor), but it was off my diet and I wanted to lose some of the weight I’d gained in Australia
Anyone who has ever been to Japan knows they really LOVE, I mean LOVE vending machines. they are everywhere, and while most of these sell drinks, if you look hard enough you’ll find vending machines selling pretty much EVERYTHING (and I mean everything, check out this blog), so it was no surprise that in spite of there being no shortage of shops, food stand and restaurants, Tokyo Disneyland would of course also have a vending machine.
For those who don’t know it, cleanliness in Japan is a cultural obsession, to the extent that the same word “Kirei” is used to mean clean/tidy and/or pretty/beautiful. But whereas, in Korea the focus is on making things look clean (in actuality if you were to walked barefoot in the hallways of my university, or run your hands along the handrails, both would be quite black with muck by the time you were done) Koreans don’t so much clean as they try to hide the dirt by spreading it around. The Japanese aren’t like that, for them clean is hygienically clean. Japanese traditionally take hot soaks daily, but only after scrubbing themselves clean outside of the bath, so as to not dirty the water; in places like hotels, after maids clean a surface, like a handrail, you’re sure to find inspectors coming along as soon as they’re done and giving the surface the white glove test, just to be sure. You find this same obsession in the park.
Although on this first day we only managed to be there for three hours (after paying $75, grrrr) I was really happy that we managed to get at LEAST into the Japanese version of Country Bear Jamboree (I have at this point located and downloaded to my iPhone pretty much all of the original songs the original show was based on, no I’m not a geek, why do you say that?) This show was slightly different that the US one, so for instance I know enough Japanese to know the translation of “Mama don’t whop little Buford” isn’t correct, plus there are some additional songs.
and, we also managed to get into the Enchanted Tiki Room, which had been modified to include the Lilo and Stitch movie — I have to say this new version it beats the crap out of when the Magic Kingdom changed its show to include Iago, annoying parrot from Aladdin, a change which happily they have undone (its back to the original)
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