My Adventures: Tokyo Disney Sea

11.23.07

At 6:30am my alarm went off to signal the start of a day filled with fun and good times to be had all around. I quickly got dressed and signed onto Skype just in time to have a nice long chat with my family. It was good to see that Mom, Aunt Rita, Momma, Papa, Sarah, Dr. Ed, and Mrs. Marge were all doing well. In the back of my mind I wanted to be there enjoying the American Thanksgiving traditional feast with them, but I knew that I was meant to be here in Japan. After talking to them I signed offline, ate a quick breakfast, helped Lauren make lunch, and brushed my teeth. Brushing your teeth is very important, don't you know?

Lauren and I left the house around 8:30am and took a taxi to the station in order to make it to Maihama at 9am. It was planned that we would meet everyone outside the Maihama station at 9am sharp. Since we already had tickets to Tokyo Disney Sea so all we had to do was exchange them at the entrance. We found Azusa in the ginormus crowd of people, and waited for the rest of our group (Min Soo and his friend named Ryoma). Everyone finally arrived and we headed towards the monorail station.

Azusa had warned us to buy tickets in advanced because today was a public holiday called Labor Thanks Day. As a result, tickets for both the Disney Land and Sea parks were sold out by 9:15am; the park had opened at 8am, an exception for the holiday. My insides were bubbling with excitement as we rode the monorail into the park. This would be my first time in a Disney Theme Park ever! It was rather ironic that my first time going to Disney would take place in a country foreign to my own.

We made our way towards the Tower of Terror to see if we could get a Fast Pass. To our surprise the sign near the ride informed us that the Fast Passes for the entire day were sold out! We decided to make our way to the back of the park and see if we could get on some other rides. By the end of the day I had ridden on three of the four major roller coasters: Raging Spirits, Indian Jones, and Journey to the Center of the Earth. Out of the three I rode, I liked Journey to the Center of the Earth the most. It was scary, had really great effects, and the whole concept of the ride was very well designed. I will have to go back to ride Tower of Terror another day. From what I hear, the Tower of Terror ride is also in GM studios at Disney World. If I can't make it to the ride here, I can always go when I come back to the states.

It was also really great to spend time with good friends. I had not met Ryoma before, but he was very funny. It was great that Azusa and Min Soo could also join us. We all got to know each other very well; especially after standing in line for a few hours. But I shouldn't complain, it was well worth the wait! After going on rides all day and walking around the park, we stopped into a cafe to warm up a bit before heading outside again to see the firework display. The park looked completely different at night! It was so beautiful to see all the Christmas lights and hear Christmas music playing all around us.

Even the monorail handles scream "Disney!".

Me, Lauren, and Azusa

Welcome to Tokyo Disney Sea!

Ryoma, Min Soo, Lauren, and Azusa waiting in line to ride Raging Spirits.

Ariel's Underwater Castle in the Mermaid Lagoon area was one of my favorite sites. Some of the other main areas included: American Harbor (New York City in the 1940/1950's), Arabia (think Aladdin), Mystery Island (it was inside the volcano), and The Lost River Delta (think Indian Jones and the Temple of Doom).

Our lunch consisted of egg salad onegiri made by Lauren and I. Our friends said that our choice of onegiri filling was very innovative, but they really enjoyed it.