Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Shameless Plug

Hello readers!

I hope this finds you well. :D I am very well. I'm currently on a 2.25 month spring break and slacking my life away. xD Actually in March I'll go on an ALL JAPAN TOUR!! Well more like a LOTS OF PLACES IN JAPAN TOUR!! or something like that. Anyway I plan to go to Kyoto, Osaka, and Nara, cities in the west side of Japan, and hopefully other places. Actually there's this great deal that happens with JR Trains during major breaks: you can buy one day go anywhere stop however many times you want tickets for 2500 yen, whereas ordinarily it costs 2200 yen just to go to Tokyo, which is two hours away by the regular train. Kyoto is about 6 hours, my Japanese friend recommended, so that 2500 yen per ticket is a DEAL. Only problem is it doesn't start until mid-late March, which is a month-ish from now. D; So I must wait.

Keila and I had plans to go to Korea but money has been a bit of issue, so she may not be able to go, and I'm not entirely sure if I want to go by myself. :( But if that happens maybe it'll be mid-March also. Who knows? In any case ALL/PART OF JAPAN TOUR 2011 will happen. And it'll be awesome.

Anyway my main reason for posting was to tell you this and that nothing exciting has happened since I last posted, except we went to Yokohama's China town for Chinese New Year, but it wasn't especially exciting, there was just some lion dancing and firecrackers. Plus yum yum Chinese food. Good stuff.

Also, a shameless plug! I got to be a finalist for this scholarship competition, but the third round is determined by voting, and currently I'm in 5th place, out of six. :( SO PLEASE VOTE FOR MY PICTURE! Of course it's the one Japan picture on the list, and most of you know who I am anyway. xD
Click Here

Thanks~ <3

Will (probably) update you on things to come! :D

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Tokyo Disney Sea

So my friends and I gave in and decided to go to Tokyo Disney Land! :D

Tokyo actually has two Disney Lands, which are right next to each other. Like directly, as in they share a wall. (This is in contrast with Florida Disney World where the parks are separated by quite wide spaces, I believe.) One is Tokyo Disney Land, which, from what I hear, is much like Florida's Magic Kingdom, and the other is Tokyo Disney Sea, which is unique only to Japan. So we opted for Disney Sea, which was a GREAT choice!

I'm being lazy and not posting photos here, because there's a lot and they aren't really describable. If you are on Facebook, you can definitely look through them there, but if not, I've got a handy Photobucket account which you can access at the below link:
Click here!
(The password is daleinjapan)

So Tokyo Disney Land & Sea, much like Florida's Disney World parks, are surrounded by a monorail which takes you from the train station to the two parks and back. As you can guess, Disney Sea is water themed. xD; The park itself is also separated into different sections, each with it:

Mediterranean Harbor - has Venetian gondolas, a big European style ship, and some European style buildings. It also includes the giant lake you see when you get past the gift shops by the entrance.

American Waterfront - has Tower of Terror, classic cars you can ride in, and a broadway stage

Port Discovery - has Storm Rider (a really kind of terrifying motion simulator where you ride into a storm and almost die xD), Aquatopia (where you ride these things that look like helicopters but that float on the water and follow an unknown path)

Lost River Delta - has Indiana Jones Adventure: Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (a rollercoaster--which I wanted to ride but we didn't have time T__T), Raging Spirits (another coaster with a loop which I did not want to ride), and Mystique Rhythms (this awesome Cirque du Soleil-esque show which I was able to take some pictures of before I got yelled at)

Arabian Coast - has Sinbad's Storybook Voyage (which is like It's a Small World...you ride on a boat and watch scenes pass by. I've never seen the Sinbad movie so I had no idea what was going on xD), a 3-D Genie show, and a carousel (obv the best ride in the whole park)

Mermaid Lagoon - mostly a kiddy area (but it's SUPER AWESOME), has Flounder's Flying Fish Coaster, Scuttle Scooter (you just ride on a sea creature which goes around in a circle), a great show about Ariel deciding not to become a human because being in the ocean is awesome (the effects and costumes were really great), Jumping Jellyfish (you...ride jellyfish...up and down xD), Blowfish Balloon Race (you ride in an air balloon shaped like a blowfish in a circle), The Whirlpool (the Teacup ride!), Ariel's Playground (self-descriptive)

Mysterious Island - has Journey to the Center of the Earth & 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea

For more information about Tokyo Disney Sea, you can check out their website as well! :)

Overall I had a blast. We rode Storm Rider, Journey to the Center of the Earth, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Sinbad's Storybook Voyage, and saw Mystique Rhythms, Ariel's show, and the Aladdin show. Definitely we did not have enough time for everything, but we had so much fun. We did some shopping and I got my sister a Japanese style Micky and Minnie and cell phone charm for myself, and my friends picked up some Duffy merchandise. Duffy is the all exclusive character of Tokyo Disney Sea; it's a stuffed bear only sold there. I didn't want one because it's not really related to Disney at all and it's REALLY expensive (3,000 yen for a standard size stuffed bear--about $37), so I was content with my 2,000 yen purchase.

We also ate some pretty good food throughout the day (various flavors of popcorn, including strawberry and chocolate [but they also had coffee and milk tea flavored], as well as Gyoza Sausage buns and even some Chinese food). It was totally worth it. PLUS, it's about 2/3 the price of the Florida Disney World, if you're a Florida citizen, that is. So if you ever find yourself in Japan, I definitely recommend you go to Tokyo Disney Sea or Disney Land! :)