Nrthwnd

^^ Yuck.

OMG OMG OMG Couldn't believe it, when I saw there amongst all the retro and celebratory souvenirs of EPCOT's 25th Anny... Two of what I bought way back on our first visit to WDW in.... Spring, 1987? Wow. Cool. And thanks for sharing the Oct.01 celebration. Looked great! HAPPY 25TH BIRTHDAY EPCOT! Yes, I bought these in the spring of 1987. Who knew time would fly by.... grin.

I caught the end of it, and thought "Hmmm - next time, next visit - must catch this parade." I saw the float about Dali and figured Only In Spain.... But then - we weren't, lol. It looked trippy - and it also appeared that more than one of them on the floats or walking the parade route, had that Undressing-you-with-their-eyes Look, Louise. Trust me.

Wow. Talk about yer side-by-side paparazzi, hmmm? (see comparison below) And another excellent set of parks caption-ized by A Master of Such Things. And stalling our gokarts on the track in the deep, deeeep forest of Wonder Rakutenchi (bless me!) - downhill side, of course - caused several of the ops there, to all scurry down to me and Rich Au$$ trying to get the dz*$-ed things moving again. They didn't. So we walked back to the station. Uphill all the way. So I'm pretty sure we filled up their day's activity/entertainment cards very nicely. A few of them, heh heh. Thanks for a great ongoing TR, Chuck Your shot. And you win - better focus, LOL! My shot.

Just their way of showing they care... Who knows? Sunflowers are The National Flower of Spain it seems. So a few dozen or so of them frozen in blocks of ice shouldn't be that surprising, hmm?

OMG - Musical Circus kind of made me forget about Shining Luminous Castle "Sparkling Carnival Ride"! And that is it's name on the park map, heh heh. A veritible explosion of lights, lights and ..... lights. I think also, that the temp on Parque Espana's Ice House was a bit 'up' from a few of the others we found before and after it. I took a remote pic with Mark and Adam inside of this one, and fortunately the not-too-cold-inside didn't freeze up my camera. Like some *#^@#!&$ lemon honey sherbet did in TDL later on, lol.

"I'm Still Here" the complete version, as sung by the late great Ann Miller, on the original Paper Mill Playhouse 1998 CD Cast recording of FOLLIES The Complete Recording - and.... it is! Grin.

I voted with the majority, before I took the Japan tour, and later near the end of the tour, I found myself having to ride the kiddie coaster at Fuji-Q because lines were very long on the two remaining bigger coasters (the rodents, Hamster and Mouse) after alllll that time we spent in queues for DipDipWhatever and Eeeeeeeej! So I had to ride Rock n Roll Duncan (seriously, that's it's name!) just to cover one of the three remaining credits to get. Thankfully, they let me (and others) ride it. (Small but triumphant ka-ching.)

I miss Balder. And Liseberg. Hope you remembered us all from last year, Peter.

Just found this out on the tv news.... Happy World Rivers Day! I did not know about this. Cool. Now - go hug a stream, huh?

Couldn't resist showing this. Mike/miniviews took a pic of me with my Sea Salt Ice Cream and the nifty collector holder I got as well, in Mermaid Lagoon at TDS. See, it really IS Sea Salt-flavored! (Uh huh.... Actually more like regular old vanilla. But I got the holder, yay) Oh, and my new neato Nautilus/Nemo cap on, too!

Just found this... Lois Maxwell, the original Miss Moneypenny with the Sean Connery set of Bond films (and up to the 1985 set with Roger Moore) has died, it's been reported. The Canadian-born (woo hoo!) actress was in a desparate situation (ill husband, two kids to feed, etc.) when she asked for and was offered two small roles in one of the early Bond films. Wisely, she chose Miss M, asking that they (the producers) didn't put the character in "horn-rimmed glasses and a tight bun of hair in back." They didn't. And the rest is Bond her-story. The original with the newbie. Lois Maxwell and her younger newer "Miss M," Samantha Bond.

Monday, Sept.17, 2007 Corkscrew at Toshimaen Park Tokyo, Japan Just before heading home from the TPR Japan'07 Tour...

And on we go.... Set C - Five Out of Six Parks Ain't Too Bad Here's what's what: Kijimi Mitsui Greenland Central Park (Tegarayama Yuen) Kurashiki Tivoli Universal Osaka Kijimi had this huge wooden coaster called Jupiter. It was rough, it whacked us around. Once was enough on that one. I also hit #200 here, riding the Gold Rush coaster; also rough and a bit WTF in track layout but better than Jupiter. And then there was ZORB which Robb has already described in his TR. I got to share mine with Peter/bobpuppet who laughed and laughed and laughed, as we went round and round and... I thought he had 'smoked' more than I ever did, LOLOL! It was great. Mitsui Greenland became the park with my First Ever Rollback! Granted it was on the Ladybird Coaster - but hey, a roll back IS a rollback, yes? No? The Fujin Raijin racing coasters were great, once they got them up and running; and most of us felt the standup was much better than the sitdown. We rode seatbelt-less single chair skyrides; an 'okay' Alpine Sled ride; more cheesy horror houses and shoot'n score dark rides; got another drenching, this time on the chutes ride named (what else?) Splash... This is also where Shane my roomie, and a few other hardy souls decided their souls could be bought by a cheap piece of wood with their names on it - by riding an Ultratwister... ten times! And... they did. 8) So Shane's prepping for this (riding that pastel Jet Coaster at Uminon... yes?) paid off, I guess. Crazy idiot. And I did a "Chuck No-No" and ~HIT A RED BUTTON~ inside the "Danger In A Maze" walk-thru! The ops guy even panicked as he wasn't sure what I'd done, LOL. He was racing around inside in the back working area, trying to stop the BEEEP BEEEP BEEEEP. He stopped it eventually. But heck - if you've got a walk-thru that has you pushing buttons of every kind/type/size/color... Well, I just made a mistake, mm'k? Central Park was one of those combo ride and waterparks in the middle of Where-Are-We-Now? Japan. It had a nice invert (Diavlo); so-so other coasters; a nice Space Wheel; an insane Rescue Mission RUN-thru house, complete with guns shooting lasers at everything (even the hostages, hee hee!); and Green Tea Soft Serve, NOT "Green Pea" as I mis-heard it from the service person, heh heh. Also, another Ice House which, like bottled beverage vending machines, became very welcome at parks that had them. (o: And the first (of a few we found along the way) Rastafarian Gift Shop in a Japanese park! No sh**, mon. (Tegarayama Yuen) gets a mention here, only because of what didn't happen. Light mist (okay, Heavy Drizzle) was with us when we got to this park. Robb & Elissa paid our admissions, we all went inside... and then we all find out every ride (well the ones we wanted to ride) was "shut down due to rain." And R&E tried and tried and tried to communicate how the weather really wasn't that terrible (compared to what was ahead of us)... But management wouldn't budge. So that was a couple of hours in travel time and non-riding we could have used at.... Kurashiki Tivoli, a really lovely small park copied after the famous Tivoli in Copenhagen. A pretty main gardens area; some great flat rides (Yay Dessert Ride! and an insane Himalaya that went on and on...); a so-so flume with a WTF spiral lifthill and total (read: pitch BLACK) darkness inside the mountain; and a good quick sandwich with BEER I managed to gulp down before having to rejoin everybody back at the entrance, to leave. And Kristen's First Coaster Credit! I was there - I saw - I was thrilled for her! ~ ~ ~ Could've used more time at Tivoli, but that's how the day went. And this is (later in) The Day when we got The Weather thrown at us, with cancelled trains everywhere in the transit system. Apparently over 200,000 locals (and probably a few tourists, hmm?) got stranded overnight in some stations. But not us - we stuck with it and got to our Nagoya hotel, just under an hour later than orginally scheduled! Way to go, Elissa & Robb - you guys rocked with figuring things out. Actually we ALL did well, considering we gave up our reserved seats and found space where we could (sometimes standing in aisles), on what trains became available. Tired, a bit disgruntled, but we got there. And a super-great hotel awaited us too. More on that, later . But the next day.... Universal Osaka was great. Just great. It had all of the attractions I remember and enjoyed from the two US parks (ET, Jurassic Park, Jaws, BTTF, BackDraft) and SPIDERMAN which for my first time was totally amazing! I loved the effects, the 3-D, the way it all worked together. A very impressive attraction. And Terminator II 3-D was great, not just because of the show itself, which was pretty good, but because of an insanely funny pre-show person who, while I could not understand one word she said, obviously had the audience howling and through her mannerisms and over-the-top "presentation" had even me applauding her when she had to leave and get us into the theater. She was great. Our Jaws boat op was very funny too. But liked the Terminator Lady a bit better, lol. And their new coaster, Hollywood Dream. Not spectacular, but it had your "optional music choices" to have played into your ears as you rode; a great set of lighting on the trains that looked like comets and racing stars when it got darker; a couple of nice air pops; and a lousy Single Riders Line I should NOT have gotten into. Too much time in it (a prelude of what to come at Fuji-Q, hmm?). But the ride was fun. (To be continued...) My 200th Coaster! And no that is not photo shop. Just good old-fashioned pen ink on the photograph, heh heh. This how I felt, after a few seconds on Jupiter. Wanting to get - off - now. Unfortunately, the coaster kept going... and going... and... Universal Osaka - great park - lots of retro (to me) attractions. And SPIDERMAN. Wheeeeeeeeeee! My last-minute sandwich meal at Tivoli- with BEER! And lovely cold, cold water, too. No rides to show. But a really nice central garden at Tivoli. And that's a Hans Christian Andersen statue behind me there. Do I get a statue credit for that? Grin. Noticed this, coming down the other side of the wheel. A man-made crater. With Big Fire in it. COOL! Diavlo, from the Space Wheel. Is that a twisted little layout there or what? And green TEA (NOT pea, sorry) soft serve! I enjoyed it immensely. And a suspended monorail-type ride behind, with creepy animated animals on top of each cab. Ah yes Diavlo. A B&M invert out in the middle of.... well we still couldn't figure out WHY they built it here. But here it was. Not bad, too. At Central Park - I just liked the look of my fave mythical creature, Pegasus, up there on top of the carousel. And that's a piece of Hurricane track in front, there. ...Including a Haunted Hospital walk-thru that was okay. But what IS with this having to hold flashlights (or candles or wands, etc) to activate stuff? Can't they afford to do it themself? (o; (Add-on #4) Me at the hilltop, overlooking Mitsui Greenland. Lotta coasters and rides/walk-thrus there... Add-on #3 - ZORB - one big hamster ball, indeed. It was great fun, esp. with Peter laughing and laughing and... Me attempting another reading of a park map. But Universal's was pretty easy to figure out, not to mention the layout of the whole park. A snap! (Add-on pic #6) Welllll, Charlies Angels we ain't. But it was fun to try. Miles, Shane and moi. With Hollywood Dream - The Ride in back. (SteveC Add-on #5, thanks) Ozland - built for a VERY truncated version of the Broadway show, "Wicked." Only 40+ minues, but the 2 lead females sang great and it was all happy, happy (burp)happy, even the ending! Well, it IS a happy theme park, right? (Advice: see the real show if and when you can.) Me and the Snoop share a moment together, in Snoopy Studios.

Sorry to our TPR USA peeps, but... Our Dollar is SO COOL right now! Never thought I would live to see $ parity with the US dollar... ever again.

I still get a kick out of Camille, when she does something like this... How's this for flexable? Grin.

OMG Chuck this is insane of you! Excellent first-rate stuff. I was getting teary-eyed while laughing and laughing... I think your "theme" for this tour is RANDOM CAPTION OPTIONS A-PLENTY Japanese-style! You rock buddy. So glad you were on the tour.

^ Agreed on. And with that... My take on going totally solo instead of group touring, in parks. IMhO. I have had years and years and (sob) YEARS of solo-going experience. My huz David isn't really into all of this - except he has enjoyed DLPR in all of our past visits - with coaster riding and all. So I have had to do it all, mainly on my own, thru most of the parks I have past visited. By myself and on my own. Until last year... That is when I took My Very First Ever Tour Group trip - yes, the TPR UK Tour in June, 2006 was my very first tour ever, of any kind/type - I was scared to death that I couldn't or wouldn't "connect" with anybody in the group, not fit in - at - all... it's pretty daunting when you are (then) 53 yrs.old and getting ready to tour with peeps mostly in their mid-30s...or younger. Not all of them that young, of course. But still... Well, the tour went fine, I did okay, I made some new touring buds, and then this year's Japan Tour knocked out any doubts or (not too) serious concerns I had about touring with people, in groups, etc. And hey - I did even tour solo on a couple of the tour dates, including a marvelous final day at Tokyo Disney Sea. Ran into several of the guys throughout the park - but it was great going at my own pace, with familiar (and just past) experience and territory to enjoy, heh heh. A TPR Group Tour is an amazing and sometimes eye-opening experience. Not to mention all those parks, coasters and (sometimes, yes!) scenery & culture you get as an added BONUS on the tour, lol. You can still go solo several times during any of these tours. Nobody is forcing you to buddy-up etc. Only sharing a hotel room does help in your travel savings, lol. And actually would help get you started on getting to know another TPR tour-er (hey John/UK and Shane/Japan!)

Um, Robb? No no no no no. Not The Hottest. In Parque Espana. I found The Hottest in the park! (see below) Great TR Robb, by the by. It's a kick remembering it was only a few weeks ago that all this happened, etc. Cool! Are these ladies not dazzling and... HOT-looking? Okay okay, the red color DOES help I know. Still..... hot.

^ I'm thrilled that this set of photos turned out much better than the ones I took on the UK Tour. That said - I think I am getting back into the "old school way" of taking single photos of stuff, without wasting film, etc. And in the near future, I hope I will improve enough to tackle night lighting in the parks, fireworks etc. TDS was awesome for that, yes! And the TDL Night Dreams Electric Parade, too! (Is typing this while listing again to TDS' BraviSEAmo! CD )

^ X:No way Out goes to Spain (via Japan, lol) and comes back to England as "Matador" Bullfight Coaster! Ole', indeed. (Edit: It was No Way Out w/better lighting, more stops, no backwards, and more props {read: capes!} to put you in that bull-killing mood, hee hee.)

OMG it's true! Only 9 more months until The TPR Euro-Tour!

^^ Got it. But it still looked wierd, just having the mord "Memorial" there over the door... ~ ~ ~ ^ And on second glance - Chris doesn't look so happy-as-Kitty either! But Joey's smiling there! And Robb's hiding behind him.... So... maybe Kristen needed changing on the boat?

Yep. Musical Circus > Escalator Ride. And I also nearly missed it too. Nothing out front lets you know WTF is in store for your 'entertainment' lol. Looking forward to that video, heh heh. (Parque Espana ROCKS!)

And so continuing on here... And faster, too! You'll notice I don't have as many pix for some parks as others - a few only get one lonely little photo, sniff. But that's okay. You'll have Robb's and Chuck's and everybody else's TRs to get looks at everything and anything that was part of this crazy Japan Tour! ~ ~ ~ Set B - From Space - to WTF Gokarts - and Helloooo Kitty! Four parks I'm showing now: Spaceworld Uminonakamichi (whew) Harmonyland Wonder Rakutenchi Spaceworld was great with the fake shuttle and all. A great log flume with a coaster-like curving slide - and very wet too; a huge double seat Enterprise to ride; my first Space Wheel to ride - and only 16 min. or so for a complete rev!; a Japanese Stealth, heh heh; a Hyper with the "WTF is That?" screwed up entanglement of track (NOT a 'figure 8' hmm?) near the end of it; and KFC for a meal! Uminonakamichi is a seaside park, which is actually a "nature-oriendted amusement park"... okay. Still, it had one of our first Ice Houses to enjoy (although this first one was freakin' C-C-C-Cold!); the infamous Obstacle Course that TPR has shown before (eh); and a set of gokarts with two choices of pavement... smooth.... or OMF-ING GAWD WHAT IS THIS non-pavement course... It was AWESOME! And totally screwed up and I know there would never be a course like THIS is the US parks, lolol! This definitely made "the park," for alot of us, heh heh. Oh, and Shane decided to make a record out of riding and riding Jet Coaster...how many times Shane? Ten? Twelve? I forgot. Harmonyland was Hello Kitty and all of those wierd (but wonderful) animes or creatures (?) that we all know and can't get away from, lol! A lovely little park, with a "controversial" train/coaster taking us down, down down to this park's version of.... yes, "It's a Hello Kitty World"! Tolerable and actually fun, especially when the penguin got spanked . Wonder Rakutenchi was another park where transport (this time a neat funicular railway, like Orient Express at MM) took us uuuuuup the mountain.... to a wierd double ferris wheel (did not ride); a coaster that still wasn't (I heard) "okayed" by the Japanese Gov't. yet after it had been shut down.. but now it's open! ; a sad, sad-looking zoo (poor raccoons and gorillas); a WTF walk-thru dark house that was pretty neat; and ... Duck Races! (I did not bet, lol). And a great view of whatever city we were looking down on, heh heh. And me and Au$$ie Rich also had dual 'breakdowns" on this wierd driving road sort-of Autopia that took us down down down into the woods - and we then ended up having to hike back up after the cars "died" on us just before the uphill part. ~ ~ ~ Also - I have had some photos sent to me by SteveC, so a couple of (ahem) Add-Ons are making their debut in this photo set, with my thanks to Stephen. Enjoy.... (to be continued) Me and Chuck/cfc (thanks for taking it, Barry) after crossing the suspension bridge at Wonder Raku... Hot day, great view, and a non-Gov't approved credit! Add-on #2 - Here I am at the left, in The Funicular Train Group Photo that Robb took for his TR. I got left out of his photo. But not SteveC's - hah! (o: Another happy boatful of (mostly) TPR peeps just come back from "It's a Hello Kitty World". Although that lady with/hat in the back, looks somewhat unmoved, lol. Add-On #1 (thanks SteveC) Me giving 'directions' to Au$$ie Rich, who is "driving" our Sky Jet at Harmonyland. Yeah, sure he is.... Harmonyland - and a (&^#$# horned Pegasus! Not in my Books of Mythology, buddy. But I still rode it anyway, lol. Jet Coaster at Uminon... and Shane rehearsing what will come in handy later, at another park. That being, riding and riding and riding... how many times on this, roomie? (o; The obstacle course in question, at Uminonakamichi - not on my life, heh heh. Leaving Spaceworld back to the train station - but seeing a great shot of the Wheel, thru Zaturn! (o: "Memorial" Gift Shop? Memorial to what? We never quite figured that out. Also note - wrong footwear on - the blisters start to develop, bwa hah hah! This is me in the Space Wheel (thanks fot taking it, Mark) being happy, that this thing only takes 16 minutes to do a full revolution! My First Sapce Wheel! And a great view of Spaceworld, too. A view thru all of the Zaturn track - and the lifthill. And of course, one must include one's self in a shot of said shuttle. You can't miss that shuttle when you get to Spaceworld, lol!