DisneySea, part 1

~Over the weekend, I did something a little different: a trip to Tokyo Disney! It was a part of my company's tokubetsu kenshu ("special training"), a reward for schools that exceeded their monetary goals by a certain amount. Thanks to the hard work of my fellow staff members (and myself, for that matter), we made the cut and got an all-expenses-paid trip.

^ The company put us up at the Hilton Tokyo Bay, a hotel so gigantic that I had to stitch three pictures together to show you the whole thing. It's only one of a dozen or so huge hotels that line the perimeter of Tokyo Disney, an insanely popular tourist attraction. A monorail runs around the park perimeter connecting the various hotels.

The Hilton itself was well-appointed; however, I could not suppress a cry of horror when I stepped through the front doors and beheld this sight:

^ Gyahhh! Even on the other side of the planet, you can't escape the iron grip of the Starbucks Empire!

Anyway, on to the park itself. It's actually split into two separate theme parks: "Tokyo Disneyland Park" and "Tokyo DisneySea Park" (yes, it's one word), located on the waterfront. The former is geared more towards children while the latter is intended for a slightly older crowd. My school staff went to DisneySea.

^ Aside from the usual Mikey-Mouse-ears-on-everything motif, 2006 marks the five-year anniversary of the park's opening, so the number "5" was ubiquitous.

^ This fountain and globe greet new arrivals. The water actually pours out from the top of the globe, creating a realistic ocean-water effect. Clever.

^ Here's a stylized map of DisneySea. Being a theme park, it's divided into different themed areas: "Mediterranean Harbor", "Port Discovery", "Mysterious Island", "American Waterfront", "Lost River Delta", "Mermaid Lagoon", and "Arabian Coast". We didn't make it to the last two, but from what I'm told, they're geared more towards young children.

^ The detail of the theme sets was incredible. Obviously, the park designers took a huge amount of time, care, and money to add as much detail as possible. For example, the "American Waterfront" area is designed to simulate a turn-of-the-century American harbor town. It's filled with old-style advertisements and posters, right down to the trays in the restaurants. The dock "warehouses" were deliberately made to look old, beat-up, and well-used. Everything was over-the-top old-fashioned.

^ This railway takes passengers from one side of the park to the other. The train operators wore conductor's uniforms (visible at right) that looked like something out of Thomas the Tank Engine.

^ The volcano in the middle of the park is part of a ride (more on that later), and it made a useful reference point to orient oneself when walking around. I've been playing Sid Meier's Pirates! lately, and when I saw these boats in the harbor, all I could think of was "How many broadsides from my 32-gun frigate, The Black Moon of Santiago, would it take for them to surrender?"

The water area above is part of the "Mediterranean Harbor" section. It became increasingly clear to me that DisneySea truly is a theme park, not an amusement park. It mostly consists of shops, restaurants, and parades; the number of actual rides in the park is quite small and they were all very crowded, averaging a one-hour wait. There was a system called "Fast-pass" that let you get on some rides faster, but I was only able to use it once...in fact, during my visit, I was only able to go on four rides! But they were all awfully good...

^ This strange radar-dish-with-oars was rotating very rapidly on top of one of the buildings at DisneySea.

The first ride I went on was a video motion-simulator ride called "Storm Rider". It's the kind of attraction where you sit down in what looks like a movie theater, and as the video plays, the seats move all around to simulate movement. The story itself was quite clever: you're on an airplane flying into a "Category 5" storm with an experimental "Storm-diffusing missile" to break up the storm (Mom, you'd love it, even though you'd make fun of it).

Naturally, things don't go as planned for the Storm Riders. The attraction included airstrikes and a chase scene, and even sprayed water at the audience! 5 out of 5! Amusingly, the supposed pilot of your Storm Rider airplane was named "Captain Davis". The Japanese teachers with me thought this was hilariously similar to my name, and referred to me as "Captain Davis" for the rest of the day.

^ On the recommendation of a teacher who'd been here before, we made for the jungle "Lost River Delta" area, which featured amazingly-detailed fake Mayan temples. The fire-in-the-water effect in the picture above was very impressive.

^ Here's the same place, but from the side. I think it would look good in my bathroom, although it lacks the severed, preserved, pike-mounted heads of my enemies.

There were two main rides in the jungle area. The first one we went on was a roller coaster called "Raging Spirits". Although we had to wait for 40 minutes to get on it, the queue area was filled with interesting signs and displays to entertain people waiting in line. Here's an example:

^ The whole area was set up like an archaelogical dig. This stone head appears to be in the process of being moved. Although it isn't apparent from the picture. The pulley and ropes would lift the statue up every so often, then lower it back into place.

Also amusing were the announcements in English and Japanese. My personal favorite was, "Please be sure to stow all cameras, telephones, and other personal belongings. Unsecured belongings become offerings to the Raging Spirits!"

^ The coaster itself. It doesn't take up much area, but in loops back in on itself and has several 360 degree loops. There were also mist-generators strategically-placed along the track, which would make your coaster plunge into a fog bank, to the sheer delight or utter disenchantment of the riders. One can never be sure.

Naturally, I took the front seat.

Check back tomorrow for more pictures from my trip to DisneySea, and hopefully less hyphens. ~Oyasumi!