Garet's Japan 2012 Tour

Add the fact that Tokyo Disneyland has a sign explaining why Captain EO has returned to a very, very long list of the many, many reasons why I love this resort and miss it so dearly.

I am so looking forward to seeing the parade again, hopefully a bit closer than last time (up near the covered main street). It's really an amazing electrical parade and just out-does IMhO even the Original Main Street one (gasps). So I do want to see it again.

And we saw Captain EO when it first - appeared -

at the Imagination Pavilion Kodak Theater at EPCOT...in 1987!

And we still have one of the posters we bought there. I re-saw it in

TDL two years ago, and it really held up well, for what it could do,

with what technical stuff was available.

And with Lucas, and Jackson, AND Coppola on board - it was NEWS!

And Angelica Huston, fresh off (tv series) SMASH, in a younger more, uh,

animated role, lol.

Part 7: Disneysea

Disneysea was amazing, there's not really much else to say. It's completely stunning and one of those parks where you could just walk around all day and do nothing but stare at the scenery. After my quiet day thanks to snow in Disneyland, it seems all the people who stayed away on the wednesday were out in full force on the thursday, lines were at a minimum of 45 minutes to an hour for most of the smaller rides and 3 hours minimum even during parades and fantasmic for the bigger rides. I wonder what disneys return policy is since most rides had been shut down wednesday due to the snow, on the day I visited peopple were out with signs indicating where lines started since they were spilling out onto the paths and into other zones (journey to the center of the earths line started near aquatopia) and even getting snacks took 15 minutes with them selling out about an hour before fantasmic started in some cases (people were out with notepads writing down orders and counting off the stock until it hit 0). Despite signs saying you couldn't settle down until an hour before shows or parades people were camping out for fantasmic almost 3 hours before it started.

I think it may have been Robb who said the single rider lines weren't overly advertised at Disney but a lot of people were using and abusing when I went. What shocked me was though the park was mostly teenagers it was the families trying to abuse the single rider lines and avoid the lines, whereas the teenage groups were happy to split up, on a few occasions, I would see a father with a child or 2 being spoken to by people at the ride entrance presumably about being split up when the ride operator called out for 1 and would approach the child, the father would get in a heated discussion for a minute or two and refuse to split up or leave when the exit was pointed to. It was kind of shocking since it was only on this busy day I saw it and was completely opposite all the Japanese culture i'd see so far but I saw it maybe 3 times this day and never on any other days. In the end they quite often just got let on the ride which was kind of annoying. The single rider lines were a mixed bag the day I went, the indy staff was hauling ass and I don't think I ever waited more than 10 minutes, raging spirits had quite a lot of people in the single rider line and just didn't seem to move, after 30 minutes I gave up and got a fast pass. Tower of Terror seemed to have a very thorough cast member, she kept yelling at people taking pictures in the line which seemed strange because i'd been allowed to take a non flash photo in the pre-show, on some rides and in most lines on the other rides and every-time one person was asked for would walk up and down the main queue to check first and also sometimes took a group of two out of the line who were happy to split up, I don't know if this was common for the ride or just a lady who takes her job very seriously, there was only 10 people ahead of me but i waited around 45 minutes (still better than 3 hours).

There was one thing that seemed very un-disney though, some of the bigger rides shut before their stated closing times with no warning (journey and tower) , I went to see if journey was quieter 10 minutes before fantasmic was due to start but it still had a 3 hour line so I decided to watch the show and come back to find it was closed, I pointed at the ride closed time and showed the cast member my phone to show there was 10 minutes left but she just made an X with her arms, I realize with long opening hours and a 3 hour line that if they let all the crowd into the line after fantasmic then the ride wont finish until the early hours of the morning but I was a little sad not to get a re-ride, i'd always assumed disney had the same policy as when i went to alton towers - that the ride closed time was when the queue line closed not the ride no matter how busy it was.

Oh crap i've accidentally gone to universal

Oh wait, there's amazing theming that can only be Disneysea

Amazing theming is all around

This popcorn was delicious

Hello tower of terror, I will see you later

It was a bit too cold to ride those for me

Very Jules Verne

I think I went inside this in Paris

The 20,000 leagues ride was fun but I'm glad I did it early and didn't wait an hour for it

Hello Journey, I'll see you when my fast-pass time comes up

Also delicious

Stormchasers was next although for the life of me I can't remember what the ride was about, it seemed to be about clouds or something. Actually I remember the gun......

.... At least I think it's a gun

And people think disney is full or naughty images

Aquatopia for reasons i'm still not sure of was one of my favorite rides of the resort

Heading towards Indiana Jones

Geez that movie sucked

It opened an hour after the park and although I got there 5 minutes after it opened, it'd already built up a line

Line themeing

I see dead people

Part 2

Heading over to raging spirits

The little twisting car on the loop sign was a nice touch

Finally my fast-pass was up for Journey

i'm one elevator away

And we are there, this was an incredible ride.

A quick break from the rides to enjoy more scenery

Tower of terror

Great little effect

Final Part

Heading to Morocco

Stitch was all over the japanese parks

I'm suprised the Disney machine hasn't made this a movie yet

This tiger seemed to sell pretty well.

Bumped into Aladdin

And a creepy Apu

The magic lamp theatre

for some reason the fastpasses for it were only giving half hour windows

To try and help me understand the plot

The Underwater area was beautifully themed

Down for rehab

This was a fun little show

A great touch by the disney cleaners

Not my favourite flavor if i'm honest

Although the brit in me was doing back flips over this one

Tower of terror still had a big line before fantasmic

Next update will be of fantasmic and some night pictures

This probably is my favorite park.

Awesome Japan report! I don't think there are any TRs I enjoy more than Japan ones - I never get tired of reading / looking at them. Japan is definitely on the top of my bucket list. I especially loved the snow covered Disneyland pics. What an experience you got to visit a Disneyland in the snow - something that will never happen ever in CA or FL (or probably Hong Kong). I liked how Disney opened most of the outdoor rides the moment the snow stopped and had plenty of indoor rides to keep people occupied in the meantime. Having the snow also scared away enough people to keep the lines short for the rest day to your benefit (although they came back the next day). You made a smart decision going to Disneyland instead of DisneySea that day.

On Fuji Q, looks like you had a decent day there especially with the circumstances you had to deal with in the morning, and the weather cooperated. You got on all four of the major coasters so it looks like a Fuji Q win to me.

Part 8: Disneysea Night & Fantasmic

People were putting blankets down for this show 3 hours before the show started (even though there were signs saying it wasn't allowed until 1 hour before the performance), thankfully I got lucky, some japanese kids wanted to practice their English while in a line, although as a teacher on vacation sometimes I do wish I could just say no and have a break from teaching but the kids were enthusiastic so I entertained them, the dad spoke English and said his wife was holding a spot for the show and I should join them and gave me a business card, 3 hours later just before Fantasmic was due to start I rang him to see if his spot was any better than mine, after he came and found me, turns out his wife had grabbed a spot right at the front. Sweet! Fantasmic Japan really is an amazing show to see that must be seen in person, even Robb's amazing videos just don't do it justice.

The hat starts to light up and the show begins.

It had a lot of water

and a lot of fireworks

And a lot of disney movies to see

Worryingly Mickey got nowhere near as much applause no matter how many tricks he did as opposed to when Stitch or his girlfriend showed up

World of color

Wish i'd got a better picture of the snake, the thing was huge

Some disney characters join the fun

The volcano makes for an amazing back-drop for the show

These were put to pretty good use

I really do love how much stuff they fit into the water just for this one show

Even Cinderall couldn't get the crowd going as much as Stitch

Bad guy time

Lots of fire

Even the volcano is pissed

What is Murphy in japanese?

Maybe I got a bad night but the dragon was nowhere near as active as it was in Robb's video. The head didn't rise like in the video and mostly you just saw the laser image claws

Chip & Dale shot for Elissa

holy crap that's a lot of people

Part 2

DisneySea at night looks fantastic

The volcanos eruption really lights up the whole park at night

Really neat effect

Line was closed after fantasmic (I think they weren't expecting such heavy crowds a lot of the bigger rides closed early to avoid the rushes of people leaving the show) I really wish I could have got a view of disneysea from the top at night.

These people may have been in line 3 hours but I bet they got a great view for their patience

Mickeys dressed for Japanese weather

Aquatopia looks amazing at night and was thankfully still open

I would now say this area looks great at night, but its Disneysea it all looks great 24/7

Honestly don't think I'll ever visit a park better than this

Thanks for reading, just a few small parks left now

Hope no-one minds but since the official TPR Japan trip is running and photos will be flooding in, i'm going to round up my update earlier than I planned and post the last two updates back-to-back

Part 9: Tokyo Parks

On my 3rd disney day I was greeted by heavy rain so I decided to grab tickets to the ghibli museum in the afternoon and grab a credit in the morning at the Aqua Stadium. Also included in this update is a park whose name I don't know but I think it has japan's oldest roller-coaster, I hadn't planned on visiting it but it turned out to be next to a temple I had seen in a guide book.

A rainy day at the aqua stadium

Turns out the ride didn't open until the afternoon so I checked out the quite small aquarium with a dolphin pool

i really hope this tank was bigger than it looked because it seemed like their manta ray didn't have much room to swim it filled most of the tube.

Really nicely themed rides

The reason i'm here

It was fun, nothing overly special or worth going way out of your way for

The train really reminded me of a giant aqua trax for some reason maybe because of the restraints

The weather went from horrible rainy friday to a nice hot saturday so I decided to check out a temple and ended up getting a surprise credit

i spy something beginning with S

It had a very original name of spaceshot

hmm maybe the mouse didn't just steal the idea of the lion king from japan

First time i saw one of these squirrel cages in Japan

They were very proud to be in the RCDB

It was a really fun little ride

And the suprise on the last drop had me smiling

Part 10: Tobu Zoo

The mega-lite was awesome, I had to make a decision and although I really wanted to go to Parque Espana to ride the famous B&M invert I made the decision to try out the mega-lite instead, a tough decision but it leaves me a park for if i ever go back (that and nagashima spaland). I felt almost sad for the ride it was the first warm sunny day in my whole trip and a saturday but the park was so empty they were having to use fuel cans to weigh the ride down and sending people out with just the front and back cars, all the other parks had had at least 20-30 minute lines on cold days or week-days and it was almost sad to see such a world class coaster so empty. Regina looked impressive but was riding really rough on my visit.

The other thing was when you leave the subway they have a corridor filled with pictures of their new attractions for each year, there were so many rides I started to worry I hadn't planned enough time but sadly I guess Tobu Zoo doesn't have the crowds so they take out the old ones for new ones, there was plenty of open space in the park so I don't think that could have been the issue for their removal, anyone know more?

I'm here, it was a bit of a long journey on the subway but worth it.

I sure hope that red sign doesn't mean down for rehab in japanese

Regina

and Max

This thing felt old, it was really clunky on the way to the top, which for a drop tower was an odd feeling

I rode this a few days after the Brazil incident and for some reason seeing random seats chained up made me nervous

Creepy mascot rabbit thingy

A missed credit

The reason i'm here

The longest line was just before it opened and these are the only people I saw for most of the day

At least you had a 50% chance of a front or back seat ride

Hair-time

I've never been so sad to see a train having to be weighted down, and the black-train looked so lonely sitting on the transfer, in another reality both trains would be flying round with a line of happy people who can't believe a mega-lite has finally come to the US

You'll notice the same riders in a few pictures, the train spent most of the time sitting in the station just waiting ( despite the lack of line they didn't allow re-rides I had to get off and run-around again to the entrance)

Sorry for the lack of train I went round the ferris wheel 3 times to try and get shots and only saw 1 train go round.

Regina likes it rough

Sorry for the lack of photos but after I rode it I never saw another train go around

Last photo of my trip, a credit for some strange reason I really wish I could have tried

Final Part: Tokyo Culture Stuff

Sorry for the huge delay, end of term reports and parent open classes got in the way, I can finally upload the last few pictures of a round-up of the non-coaster stuff I did while in Tokyo. Mainly this is pictures of the ghibli museum which I was hugely interested in seeing, things I did when the rain meant I couldn't go coaster hunting and the temple that led me to get a credit I didn't realize was so close by.

I couldn't leave Japan without visiting a sushi conveyer belt restaurant, asfter 3 years of korean sushi this was delicious.

Although not as delicious as the home cocking near my hotel.

Excelsior!!! Coffee wasn't great but I visited this place daily purely for it's great name

Even the map in the hotel for visiting looked ghibli-styled

The bus to take you to the museum, normally i'd have walked even in the rian but the bus looked too awesome

Lots of little details

No photos are allowed inside sadly.

Even on rainy days this place was packed, I wish i could have gone in the morning since people from the earliest slot were still in the museum but only tickets for the 2pm visit were available, the restaurant had an hour wait and the gift shop was more packed than a japanese subway

Totoro is waiting for the tickets

It's a great looking building

Fancy tickets

amd shopping bags

Apart from the movie where else was this robot seen?

One of the first ghibli movies released under the ghibli name and the second ghibli move I saw.

A rainy Tokyo Tower

The temple was crowded yet on the same first sunny day of the week (and a saturday) Tobu Zoo was empty

I never did find basashi ice-cream to take a picture of it, any-one from the TPR trip see it or even know of its existance Although I never found strawberries and milk pepsi either

Thew sky tower wasn't open when I visited

It's a real working temple, I've visited a few in Korea but there have been nowhere near the amount of people, it was kind of strange to see people having service as thousands of tourists took pictures

Lots of people watching people having prayers

I think it's law that all temples have incense

and koi fish

I don't know why but the (e) cracks me up

Shinjuku was a great place to stay i'm glad my hotel was only two subway stops away so I could walk back each night through shinjuku

I left Korea on vacation and yet everywhere I looked was korean-pop music being advertised

I feel like I played a game recently and this was in the background

The famous crossing

Thank you for my favourite episode of Futurama