Nrthwnd

I think I would have the most fun doing the coasters (outdoors and in) and all those great-looking dark rides and walk-through funhouses. Then of course, there IS the beer, heh heh. Thanks for sharing another great Oktoberfest in Munich! Hope you didn't get too sick or ill from all that beer, and Dirndls, LOL!

And I'm still a-BUZZ-BUZZ-BUZZing over Winnie The Pooh, AAAAAAAAAOMG over Indy Jones & The Crystal Skull (soon to be a major motion picture!) and sssSMILEeee over Sinbad and Hightower's Tower of Terror.... And I am going to really try and keep The Great Feelings going, thru the Holiday Season at least, lol! Man, I thought Elissa and Robb would need a bit more rest time than just a few days or so. You guys are truly awesome!

First of all, a quick explain here. I am still one of those peeps who hasn't taken to the all-delightful ownership of a digital camera...yet. My camera is a PENTAX ESPIO 115M model, taking rolls of film, one at a time, heh heh. That said - I am very proud that (litrerally) every photo posted here is one that turned out just fine, and that I did indeed take just over 100 photos for the entire tour! The only two I tore up, were two taken by other tourists who thought my camera was digital and assumed, nautrally, that more than one pic could be snapped again and again. Thankfully I stopped them after they took the second shots, lol. So here's one Photo Set at a time, posted every 2 days, with my look at the TPR Japan'07 Tour! I hope you enjoy it, brief as some park photo visits are (meaning sometimes only one pic taken, lol). ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Set A - The Tour Begins - at Yomiuriland This was a nice park to begin the tour with, taking a gondola car up the mountain to get there - and gliding through one of their coasters, Bandit. Ah yes, Bandit. SPLASH BANDIT actually. Every other set of cars that ran the track, turned into one of the WETTEST RIDES I have ever been on, even counting flumes and chutes! It was awesome, and I first thank Brian for accompanying me on this OMG ride; thanks to all of you who lined up there with super soakers in hand to make sure we didn't stay dry, heh heh; and a special OMFG to that woman sitting near the end of the ride, with an f-ing FIREHOSE, ready to blast us out of our seats, if she could! Awesome. (to be continued...) Speed up to near end of visit - and AFTER Splash Bandit ride - I was wet, my shoes was wet, my eyes still watery. Awesome ride!!! White Canyon wooden coaster. A very rough ride for most of us. Once was definitely enough on this one. And two drop towers I didn't get to ride, time not permitting, boo hoo. We enter the park and head towards Bandit, naturally. And no that's not water in front there - just paint. We head out to Yomiuriland, and our first Japan Transit ride together. Can you count 30 TPR-ers there in the crowd? Grin. One last look back at Yomiuriland, on the gondola, thru Bandit(Splash). Thanks for the wet memories, LOL! What IS this thingin the middle there? I don't remember asking, and it wasn't on the park map so...? Heading back to our train station - thru Bandit again. Water park and "something else" in distance.

Now that I have got some "order" to all of my TPR Japan Tour stuff - i.e. photos, souvenirs, maps, literature...and stuff - I thought I would post a couple more sets of the recently bought things on the tour. First up, my pins. The photo shows the lot, on top of the Tokyo Disneyland Halloween 2007 pin bag also purchased. The three on the bag's edge are: Tower of Terror w/slider elevator car; a big round TDL Halloween button; and two NBC/HM pins on a card, right one with My Hero, Scary Teddy, heh heh. Three in front are: Tokyo Disney Sea 6th Anny pin; a Dale pin I got as a "non-winning prize" (there was a choice of several available) in one of the games of chance they had in the Arabian Coast of TDS... ...and a treasured Sherriff's Star pin that was only won by shooting ten-out-of-ten shots in the Westernland Shooting Gallery at TDL. I couldn't do it, even if I was two feet away from the (&%^#$@ targets - but my touring buddy Peter/Loefet offered to win me one (awww) and - he did! Thanks again, Peter. Much appreciated for this special souvenir you got for me. This was enough pins I thought, at the time. But there's always next visit, hmm? Grin.

For me it's all the parks listed in the Japan Tour, plus a few add-on parks here and there. So, in order of going to... Hanayashiki (one of oldest parks in Japan, and Add-on #1) Aqua Stadium (not really a park - but it had a coaster!) LaQua Yomiuriland Space World Uminonakamichi Harmonyland (hellooooooooo kitty!) Wonder Rakuntenchi Kijima (home of my #200 coaster - Gold Rush!) Mitsui Greenland Central Park (Tegarayama Yuen - rides closed due to..um...rain?) Kurashiki Tivoli Park Universal City Osaka Parque Espana Nagashima Spaland Nagoya Zoo (Add-on #2) Lagunasia Hamanako Pal Pal Tokyo Disney Sea Tokyo Disneyland Fuji-Q Highland Sea Paradise Cosmoworld Toshimaen (Add-on #3!)

My gaydar is now old, somewhat rusty and definitely has it's BZZZT - WRONG moments, lolol. But try, try, try again I will, heh heh.

Aw Chuck. I think you're doing just fine with whatever-the-f theme you've got going here.... I think. I didn't take my camera for that first add-on park, so many thanks Oh Most Honorable One From Hummel Land (arrrrhhhh) with Your Most Elegant Intrepid Camera Work and Truly Artsy (not fartsy, perish the thought) Caption-ing.

Or you could follow Robb and Co. around the park for the entire day and just stalk them, hee hee hee. Not that I'm suggesting anything like that...

^ Looks tasty. Was it?

^Congratulations!!! Hope it works out to your liking.

^ Well maybe it actually beat out the park that actually closed it's coasters w/o letting E&R know about it, due to "drizzle" hmm? - and they let us in, paying admission, and then let us know about the closed coasters? Yep, Fuji-Q beats even that scenario, lol!

^ And it's TRUE, too! Kurashiki Tivoli Park ~ Tivoli Railway ~ I was there and watched her enjoy it all, lol.

^ Wait. I was there, too. She's getting more credits in one year, than I would in my entire childhood. But still - CONGRATULATIONS KT - you little screaming charmer.

^ Peter!!! The Group Shot is AWESOME! My smile went immediately WIIIIIIIIIIIIIIDE when I saw you'd editted in the shot of us and "Our Gals," lolol! Great! Ka-ching!!! (ARE you planning to be on the Europe tour, BTW? Just asking, heh heh... )

^ Hmmmm. That place definitely needs some new management in place. What with long lines, even for the smaller coasters we found out, and now you tell me, they ran out of squid-on-a-stick? At the (usual) dinner hour???

Damn, I forgot I was really REALLY in a 'minority' here, age-wise. But hey - two TPR Tours down (UK'06 & Japan'07) and probably many, many more to take, ahead of me, hee hee. (EDIT: Um, first coaster was most-likely a kiddie coaster "way back when," back in the 50's. )

Damn long waits on their two big coasters ("Dumb-Dumb-Sh**" and "Euthenasia") made me totally forget about squid-on-a-stick! I so wanted to try that, at least once on the tour. Ah well - always another future Japan tour to try again, hmmm? (EDIT: I did get to finally try my first-ever {Japanese-style} DIPPIN' DOTS at Fuji-Q! )

Title track from the CD Dog & Butterfly by HEART

You are correct in assuming that. Patience.

^ THE band Heart??? Nancy and Ann Wilson? That Heart? Wow - good for them. I have been to several of their concerts, back in the 80's. ("Dog & Butterfly" is still one of my all-time faves CD with them.)

Playland Vancouver, Canada: The Coaster - The Only Reason my home park still is around, AND doing okay financially. That, and all the times it and the Corkscrew get "rented" for use/background in films and tv-movies, etc. Celebrating 50 years, next year! A nice woodie that still has great airtime and throws you around very nicely, lol.

Something performed by Glenn Gould Sept.25, 1932 - Oct.04, 1982 CBC 2 Radio stn.in Canada is starting a ten-day celebration of Gould's music, using every piece of tape and DVD/cassette recording it can find, in it's music library on him. He passed away ten days after his 50th birthday, hence the ten-day salute. And it's called "Glenn Gould 75" which would have been his 75th birthyear had he lived this long. One of The Best in Canada, music-wise. Just a selction from the Amazon.com available CDs, on Gould.

^ Probably two coach busses full, if I'm not mistaken? So that would put the total number on that tour, over 100 . That's the possibility of the Europe trip as well, being a two-coach tour - or maybe a "double decker bus" I remember being mentioned?

^ I thought the "sneeze screen" was put there to prevent people from spitting on to the ground below. Just a thought on it.... Great TR! Man, I wish MM was like that (minor crowd size) when I was last there, a number of years back. Disneyland of course, will always be busy, no matter what - although there are some times of the year... or so I've heard, heh heh. Thanks for sharing your honeymoon tour pix! And congrats on your marriage, and Bright Blessings for Continued Happiness, always.

^ Um, I think you already heard what was #1, when I first read The List on the last night of the tour? How soon they forget.... Anyhoo, my cat Camille got fed up herself, waiting and waiting and... So, she's just plonked herself down in front of my desk for a snooze - and will resume an "Interested and Attentive Posture" when I finally post TTP#1 on Thursday. Man, I wish I could relax like this when I need to nap. Grin.