One of the primary reasons I wanted Mom to come with me to Japan was that I want to help her get to all the Disney Castles at all the Disney Theme Parks. So today there was this:
What follows is a massive upload of various photos of the day. I’ll add a few comments here and there but this really is more a photo gallery post of “How I Spent My Tuesday Between Two Marathons in Japan.”
We have arrived:
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The Haunted Mansion — there may be nothing more chilling than an all Japanese warning to look alive and step into the dead center of the room. Well that and a blood-curdling laugh afterwards by a Japanese ghost host.
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These folks were lined up for the 3 o’clock parade… at 8:53 AM.
The Jungle Cruise. Much like Haunted Mansion, it was all in Japanese. The Skipper was great — very enthused. Not entirely sure WHAT she said, nor if she did my favorite joke about seeing the back side of water (I video’d that segment and sent it to my brother for translation… we’ll see what he says).
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Yo ho, yo ho — Watashi no tame no kaizoku no jinsei!
I honestly don’t know if this is a typo in the English translation or if “Outlow [sic]” is a thing… like the opposite of “Downlow In the Vast Sea.” Maybe being “outlow” is slang for being really in your face and telling the world. Hmmmm… if not, maybe I’ll try and make that happen.
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Food, glorious food?
An abomination — eating Mr Potato Head potato chips?
Mike Wazowski Melon Treats…
As we opted out of Space Mountain and Big Thunder Mountain (each with a 90 minute+ wait time) and used FastPasses for the two other super-long waits, the longest line for us were to get lunch.
This wasn’t a kids meal — the burger’s had Mickey Head buns. Over at Huey, Dewey, and Louie’s they had Donald Duck burgers with webbed feet buns.
We eventually went to a no-ice medium sized Coke Zero — apparently the Disney pour at TDL is akin to the “pint to line” level in the UK.
I don’t do popcorn — it empties my soul — but apparently popcorn is HUGE in Japan. This was the line for just one outlet — the guide map devoted an entire corner of its printed real estate to popcorn locations.
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Other stray shots from the Guide Map.
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It IS a Small World After All — second verse, same as the Japanese first! Third verse though was in English.
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I don’t normally like Winnie The Pooh. For years I thought the theme song included the phrase: “Winnie the Pooh/Winnie the Pooh/something-something-something-he’s dumb as rocks.” I’ve been corrected but I stand behind the fact that he’s a dumb bear — I mean, seriously, how many times has he gotten his head stuck in a honey pot? Learn your lesson, Bear!
Having said that, he works much better for me in Japanese. Not sure why that is but I much preferred hearing him obsess over his addiction to hachimitsu; I particularly enjoyed his thoughtful place, out of body Zen experience into the world of woozles. No wonder this is one of the most popular rides at Tokyo Disneyland, even after 17 years since it first opened.
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Merchandising! Merchandising! I had long heard the merch at Tokyo Disneyland was the bee’s knees. I was disappointed at the paucity of TDL identified items but they do make a lot of cool hats!
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This is a shot from the stage musical “One Man’s Dream II: The Magic Lives On!” Hearing the songs in Japanese was a treat — as was the entire Philharmagic 3-D movie. You haven’t lived until you’ve heard Japanese Goofy “a-hyuck” or Donald intone “Oh, Phooey!” with a Japanese accent.
But back to One Man’s Dream II — I was worried we’d have trouble following the story since we hadn’t seen One Man’s Dream I, but even with the language barrier, we got the gist — and the costumes? Much like the rest of Tokyo Disneyland — even when we didn’t know what people were saying, we could absolutely appreciate the art design and attention to detail. Look at this crocodile! And the chorus line bugs from A Bug’s Life were pretty great too. I do need to google the full show on youtube and see if I can make out what the lyrics were saying in the show stopping Mickey in 70s spangle yet 1980s Miami Vice wear finale. I swear it was the repeated refrain of “Mickey Mouse – Yakuza!” Mickey’s in the Japanese mafia?! That can’t be right… can it? I mean members of organized gangs are not allowed in the park…. it says so in the guide map!
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The Daytime Parade: “Happiness is Here!”
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Monster’s Inc – Ride and Go Seek!
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Star Tours – The Adventure Continues.
I suppose I shouldn’t have been surprised to hear C3P-O speaking Japanese. He is fluent in over six million forms of communication. I’m sure it’s like a second language to him.
I had never seen the “Beware Hitchhiking Droids” pre-show scene before.
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We checked out ToontTown to see how the art design was — very much in keeping with what I’m used to at other parks. Roger Rabbit was indeed closed but this is the place we saw the most characters out and about — and we couldn’t resist snagging a shot with technicolor Scrooge McDuck!
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Frozen Fantasy Parade
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At dinner, I was insistent on trying the Little Green Men dumplings. I had the dessert ones, so they were chilled and filled with strawberry, chocolate, and vanilla. Once you got over the weirdness of biting into the head of a little green man, well, they were… surprisingly good. Looking at other tables, I suspect these little dumplings are amongst the most photographed items at Tokyo Disneyland… not just by me but by EVERYONE.
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Despite Mom’s increasingly germ-y cold catching up with her, I forced her to stay until dark to see the Toyko Disneyland Electrical Parade Dreamlights.”
It was probably 38 degrees… but the wind chill was brutal. Thanks for sticking it out, Mom!
Given the winds, it seemed highly unlikely that there’d be fireworks to close out the night… plus Mom and I were popsicles. I got us lost coming back on the train and freaked out a bit… only because I really wanted to get Mom warm. Hopefully I’ll do better at picking out which second star to the right we need to follow in the morning as we head to Tokyo DisneySea.
