BigMike's 2013 Japanese Vacation [many pics!]

[BigMike]

Nice details all around


Red train...


...and Green train


We took a Beaver Brother's canoe ride which was fun.


Getting ready to board the canoe!

I learned how to paddle from a full-time Hawaiian oarsman from a famous family canoeing lineage (he had a special tattoo, had competed professionally, and even canoed round trip from Hawaii to California and back) so I was eager to apply my little used skills at canoeing. Well, as the tallest and largest human on the boat, I thought I was doing most of the work when I decided to stop to see what would happen ... and the canoe just kept going. Dog gone it Disney, you have some sort of self-propulsion system installed on these boats. No wonder no one was concerned about our speed. Boy did I feel like a tourist.

[BigMike]

After the canoe ride we used our Fast Pass (yes they have fast passes!) for Pooh's Honey Hunt. This is one of the most busy attractions with wait times usually exceeding the 200 minute mark. YES, MORE THAN THREE HOURS and people were STILL entering the line. CRAZY.

In fact Tokyo Disneyland is so busy that by about 10am they close the ticket counters because the park has already reached capacity. And it's not that the place is small compared to Disneyland California, both parks overall feel about the same size to me. Ticket prices are a bit lower, about $70 per park per day, and there are a TON of people everywhere. Disneyland is doing VERY WELL in Japan for sure.




Inside Pooh's Honey Hunt


Nice to see some English ha ha


Here are some pics from within and on the ride

[BigMike]

The ride itself isn't exciting but all the details and craftsmanship really make it a good time and each new section we enter is another chapter of the book so its great to use your imagination and follow the story's progression


This was cool, there was an additional honey pot with riders aboard who were actually part of the show. Their honey pot was moving around with ours and everything. You'd look back and there they were spinning around behind ya




Check out these cool vending machines


Ha! We found Santa Claus in Japan!

[BigMike]

While walking around we happened upon another parade




Look at the little dolls on their backpacks. Japanese go CRAZY over buying memorabilia. All of the gift shops were JAM PACKED with people buying Disney goods.


As it starts to get dark many lights start coming out


Looking back towards the entrance

[BigMike]

Santa's Workshops began coming to life




Next we rode Buzz Lightyear's Astro Blaster. It's identical to the one back home. Needless to say I DESTROYED Misato


What in the world are these things?


There were a lot of 30 year anniversary things throughout the park

[Wainiha]

Talking cigarettes.  I passed out as a little kid at the CA. Disneyland.  Too much smog and cigs.  I had a hard time breathing. 

Boxes of cigarettes were(are?) common gifts to the pilots when bringing your ship into port.

[BigMike]

World Bazaar coming alive


I know this one is blurry but I really like their smiles so I'm posting it!

So at this time Ayami and Ryuji had to leave to catch a flight back home, so we exited the park to see them off


This is outside the park near the monorail station

Also check out how short that lady's skirt is. Even when its below 40-degrees they are dressing like this. There is a lot of social pressure to be extra cute over here. It's crazy (more on this soon)


Now Misato and I are back inside the park after having seen off Ayami and Ryuji. Disney is always so pretty at night-


Now that we are back in the park, it's time for some dinner! Waiting in line

[BigMike]

Finally made it to order before our stomachs digested themselves


The menu. I got the チキンカリー and it was delicious


Tasty チキンカリー


Neat paintings

[BigMike]

Ahhhh the ONLY parade I'll enjoy sitting through. The Disneyland Electrical Parade!!








The Genie was AMAZING. All of his lights had a very large color range, and all of his colors were moving and changing. It was incredible. I took a video of it but I'll have to find out about uploading it somewhere first. I have other videos that I think I should share as well... Not sure if I will use my YT account or Photobucket. I'll figure something out sooner than later.

[BigMike]

Love this parade, great music, great lights

[BigMike]

HA! "Lost Children". It's sad I know but I thought a less harsh translation should be "Missing Children" (dictionary says they are correct of course, "mai" or 迷 = lost, astray)


And this is the last photo I took as we were leaving the park from our first day back in Japan!

[Cheesemaker]

A friend of my wife's goes to Disney every month.  And he's a amateur photographer, and he finds the coolest things to photograph.  He's even been given after hours tickets to stay in the park for 2 more hours.  And the night time scene is the most beautiful of all of Disney. 



It's been forever since the wife went to Orlando.  They were just building Epcot when she was there.  Matter of fact, they were pre-selling tickets to Epcot.  She has ticket #0051. But she never went back to use it.  Maybe one day.  She looked into how much it was worth today in unused condition, and the only info she got was they would still honor it as an enterance. 

[BigMike]

Time for day #2! I realize what I've posted so far was just of Disneyland, which if you've been to the location in Anaheim or the Magical Kingdom in Florida, isn't all too interesting. Today we went to DisneySea, which is their adaptation of all things ocean related to Disney, plus a few others. It's an alternate park in the same way that California Adventure is to Disneyland.


Here we are in our hotel heading up to get our complementary breakfast. This is how Japan sets out their しょうかき Fire extinguishers. I thought it was interesting because you don't have to break anything to access them.


This is looking out the hotel towards Disneyland and Disney Sea. I took this picture because the whole time while we were here we never saw even a single car in this massive parking lot. As this is all man-made, add-on land, I wonder what could be so important at such a high square footage cost.


Check out all the juice options here. The purple one at left is a fruit smoothie.


Some American food products!


Their breakfast trays were right at a window overlooking the Pacific. Pretty cool!

[BigMike]

Build-your-own Udon soup with a ton of super delicious vegetable options.


Salmon!


This is back at our hotel room where Ayami's boyfriend Ryuji had prepared some Cheese Cake for Misato and me! It was very delicious, thank you Ryujikun!!


Now for something new to most people, welcome to Disney Sea!!


For those who like anything maritime, they have a lot of great architectural design here.

[BigMike]

Before we entered the park, we needed to get a locker. Well as you can see we are quite 1337!!! I was so pumped when my wife chose this locker.


Outside the locker area we found Daisy Duck.


Here is what you see once you walk through the entrance. There is a lake at center with walk paths around both sides.


Here is a map of Tokyo DisneySea. Larger version with additional labeling: http://www15.plala.or.jp/gcap/disney/wcs.jpg


We headed around to the right to get a Fast Pass for the Journey to the Center of the Earth, my favorite ride of the entire park.

[BigMike]

Very cool architecture.


Castle themes



This is something pretty cool. Each park here has just over a dozen different flavored Popcorn stands scattered throughout. It is so "important" to visitors that they even have a separate "Popcorn Map" to find all the vendors and different flavors, complete with arrows guiding you around the park in the most effective path possible to hit all the stands. Yes, this is Corn Potage flavored Popcorn


Cool tunnel systems with nifty old style powered lights overhead (using exposed separate polarity wiring).

[Fjcrawler]

Looks like fun

[Rocksurfer]

I know a guy that's a performer/artist for Disney Resorts, he spent the last 2 years performing at Toyko Disneyland, he plays guitar and of course can blend into a performance. He normally performs in the Barber quartet at Disneyland and is a Madhatter at The Mad Tea Party in California Adventure plus other events. I imagine he was there when you were there and you may have seen him performing.

[Wainiha]

I work security for Disney.  Man, are they uptight.

[iNfErNaL]

Awesome pics as always Mike. I live through your Japanese vacation pics so I always tell people I've been to Japan at least twice 

[BigMike]

Hey Peps! Thanks, and thank you for bringing this thread back up, I'll post some updates later tonight

Regards,
BigMike

[Cheesemaker]

Mike is such a post tease!!   

[BigMike]

I guess it's time for some more updates

Continuing with our 2nd day at DisneySea...


Here is what you come out to after passing through the tunnels. Another lake with a submarine, bubbles, and speakers all around providing a lot of ambient noise as if we were really at the base of a volcano.


There is a lot of machinery stuck into the side of the volcano with more speakers outputting really cool ambient sounds. Near that drilling rig there are the sounds of hammers, drills, and grinders of men inside working on equipment.




Here is the submarine Nautilus to match the nearby 20 Thousand Leagues Under The Sea ride. It is not, just for decoration. The bubbles are always going and there are sounds of sonar and other submarine sounds, really cool.


Here is "hot molten lava" oozing down the hillside with actual steam emitting where it makes contact with the creator lake below. Really cool

[BigMike]

Atop this fencing are bits of lava rock that has blasted out and fallen from the volcano. This is a walkway so we are rather fortune that the fencing caught them


Hello Misato!


It was really windy and very cold here! Especially with the added coolness of the water below.


This is the entry to a ride. It's really cool but having to stand there to wait for the ride with this wind and cold breeze coming off the water is pretty rough.


Here is a line for a ride and you can see there are more of these really cool separate polarity light fixtures overhead.

[BigMike]

Close-up of the wires


Looking up back towards the other side of the volcano crater.


The glass fixture about the light had these blue and purple "electricity" lights as if there were some sort of a vacuum tube. There were dozens of these fixtures.


As mentioned earlier, it was very windy!!


Check out this sweet ride. There were a number of different really cool vehicles offering transportation services throughout the park.

[BigMike]

We headed over to the "American Waterfront" and this is looking back towards the lake, castle, and volcano





Welcome to the American Waterfront!


New York Deli


This is how their Fastpasses operate in Japan. They use a barcode instead of a magnetic strip which was far more reliable than their American counterpart.

[BigMike]

Combined picture looking towards the American Waterfront


Back at underneath the volcano, it's the Journey to the Center of the Earth -- the best ride here!


A lot of cool architecture. To the right is "My Friend Duffy" which is a lunch-and-theater we got to enjoy. If you were like me last year and had never heard of "Duffy", well don't feel bad. Just don't mention this to anyone who lives in Japan. As we will see the Japanese are ABSOLUTELY CRAZY about Duffy, which is the "Official Disney Bear".


This is the line we waited in for the lunch-theater.


To the left of the line I found the Milk Tea Popcorn! I love Milk Tea so we'll have to try this one out sometime

[BigMike]

Christmas theme in full effect


My MASSIVE lunch. Carl's Jr $6 dollar burgers got nothing on this bad boy.


私のおくさんはとてもきれいですね？


Here is Duffy "The Disney Bear" that no American has really heard of


Overhead the light fixtures were of upside down empty paint buckets. Cool!

[BigMike]

After the theater we indeed picked up some Milk Tea Popcorn! Oh man it was so good. I love Milk Tea. Too bad its next to impossible to find in the States...


After lunch we found Duffy The Bear Headquarters Japan. Check out the images from inside....


Here we have a nice Duffy display right as you enter the store. The female version apparently is Duffy's girlfriend ShellieMay. More info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duffy_the_Disney_Bear and http://disney.wikia.com/wiki/ShellieMay_the_Disney_Bear


Ok, we have a price tag. Hmmm how much for a large stuffed animal....? $50? $75?


TRY $500!!!!!

[BigMike]

Combined pics of the store. Wall to wall Duffy The Bear


Misato with ShellieMay


Nice Duffy Bag


Light house outside. Light houses are an iconic structure of American maritime locations but in Japan they really don't have much history or cultural significance.


This apparently is water coming in fresh from the ocean, which is on the other side of this wall. But I'm not sure about this. I did notice water leaking in so I snagged this pics-