Tokyo Disney Sea

The few days I had back in Kansai before heading to Tokyo were nice. Not too busy.

On Friday I went to school in the morning and then caught a bullet train to Tokyo. Nozaki Sensei (who was in Tokyo for a conference) met me on the platform at Tokyo Station and we caught another train to the Disney theme parks area, about 20 minutes away.

Disney Sea - Tokyo
I’ve been to Disneyland in Tokyo twice, but I’ve actually been trying to get back up here for a while to check out Disney Sea. Disney Sea is an adult-oriented magic-and-discovery-themed amusement park that is designed to look like various major ports of the world. While there are Disneylands in a few other countries now, the Tokyo Disney Sea is the only one in the world, and I have to admit, I was a bit surprised by how much I LOVED it.

Nozaki and I bought evening passes (tickets are cheaper after 3 & 6 and fast passes are free) and were able to go on pretty much every ride even though we didn’t start until 5pm. We also ran into a huge group of my colleagues from the conference I am heading to, so we ended up spending the latter half of the day with them, which also turned out to be pretty fun (the gondolas are way better with groups you know!). Here's us on the second round through Tower of Terror (I think everyone on the ride had been on it at least once before, but I love how terrified my friend Caroline looks):

The Disney Sea park is located adjacent to an actual ocean port (fitting for the park theme, no?) and the Disney recreations of global port cities (Port Discovery, a science/underwater area, The Lost River Delta, an Arabian Coast - with a square that REALLY did look like the inside of a middle-eastern mosque!, the Mermaid Lagoon, Mysterious Island - a lake inside the volcano, Mediterranean Harbour - based on several Italian cities and an American Waterfront, complete with a Titanic-sque steamship and old New York sidestreets) were surprisingly accurate-looking. We stopped in a gallery showing a small-scale model of the park and photos of the places the buildings were based on and I found it really impressive how much research Disney put into their work (not a huge shocker).

Anyways, I recommend going to the park if you can. The highlights of the DS park for me were:
1. The “Legend of Mythica” fountain, fire & light show at the end of the evening (in addition to the performance in the Mediterranian, the volcano erupts with real fire – a lot of the rides actually used real fire – and you could feel the heat!),
2. The Indiana Jones tour... I got to sit at the steering wheel :-) ,

3 The Tower of Terror (went on it twice ),
4. The Gondola rides (we surprised one of the girls in our larger group with cake, a light-up ring and a HAPPY BIRTHDAY serenade under one of the bridges... was really funny when we finished and this Japanese guy told us it was his girlfriend's birthday and had us sing again for her),
5. and definitely the rides inside the volcano, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and the more interesting Journey to the Center of the Earth (traveling to the earth’s core with Capt. Nemo).

6. The food and souvineers were, of course, of the standard Disney prototype and price, but I did like the gyoza dog (Chinese dumpling shaped like a hotdog) and the pepper-flavored popcorn wasn’t bad (they have different flavors of popcorn in the different ports).

The place turns you into such a kid! I don’t think I’ll be back again while I’m still in Japan, but I had a ton of fun and was really glad I got to go with Nozaki.

At the Hotel and Ready for the Conference
Now I’m at a hotel in Ryogoku, an area in central Tokyo by the Edo Museum. The jetlag has been making me get up early (4am regardless of bedtime), but I'm feeling OK.

But I’m in Tokyo! I shouldn’t be spending all my time online so I better go. From what I hear, the next few days could

be a little crazy busy, so not sure if I’ll be able to check in again. If not, happy weekend to all and more next week!