Final Notes
Hey. Made it back safely; the flight was not too bad, especially after taking the Tylenol PM. Plus, there were private showers available at the airport for $5 for 30 minutes, so I took one before the flight to relax. I was completely inoperative at work today, though. Jetlag is no fun.
For you disney folks, I posted a few of the videos on a webpage at
this link - it should give you a little flavor of some of the disneysea stuff, plus you get to hear "zip-a-dee-do-dah" in japanese.
I have a ton of other videos that I couldn't post on that webpage, given the limited capacity of angelfire. So, I've put many of the other videos in my
Yahoo briefcase. The briefcase is notoriously unreliable, though - if it gives you a "no shared folders available" error, just click on briefcase home and then click on the japan folder again. I also uploaded all of the pics to Yahoo photos (I had to create 2 separate folders).
That's the end of it! This will be my last post. Thanks for reading.
X
P.S. Here are a few pics from that final day with the disposeable camera:
I can't explain it, but in Shinjuku they actually have a large shopping mall connected to the train station called "MYLORD."
More stuff related to the opening of Episode III in Japan. I didn't realize Darth Vader used a cell phone (or hung out with Japanese school girls).
Me in front of a lamp-thing on the grounds of a temple
More Star Wars. This was an entire store in Harajuku devoted to selling one brand of cell phones, with a star wars theme throughout. (If you can't tell, those are stormtroopers in all the windows.)
One of the shrines we visited.
Christian in Harajuku. As you can see, a very busy area.
Lamps!
SAYOUNARA JAPAN
That's all folks! We had a great day going through Harajuku and Shinjuku, 2 of the unique neighborhoods of Japan, visiting shrines, eating, and shopping. I mourn my camera's early demise but I bought a disposable this morning and made good use of it. Tomorrow morning it's a morning of packing and getting to the airport, and 9 hours later it's back to the real world! Hopefully I can find some good dvd's at the airport for the flight. Talk to you all soon.
X
Disney, Day 2
We had a great time doing the attractions at Disneyland that were unique to Tokyo (there were only about 5), the most amazing of which was the Winnie the Pooh ride, which was unlike any other dark ride I've seen. The cars bascially don't have a track, and wander around a big room in a seemingly random manner to check out the elaborate audio-animatronics. We also bounced up and down a bit with tigger, and there were some other cool effects. Wish I could have done video but it was prohibited.
The weather was hot and sunny today, and the lines were a little longer as a result, but we still didn't have to wait long for hardly anything. After spending half the day at DisneyLAND, we had done all the unique attractions (a different tiki room, a walk through cinderella castle, the mickey mouse review, and pooh) and a bunch of almost identical attractions to the US versions except the dialogoue. So we decided to go back to DisneySEA, and re-rode the terrific attractions there. We also ate a ton.
Anyway, this is probably it for the pictures, because after we left disneyland my camera went kaput. The lens won't open at all. I've tried replacing the batteries, pressing the reset button, and various other things suggested by the hp webpage, but nothing works. Tomorrow we are going to see some shrines in tokyo, so I guess I'll have to buy a disposable if I want to get any pics. A big disappointment, though the camera has certainly served us well so far.
Ok, another exhausting day. Off to bed. Tomorrow shrines & shopping. So long.
X
IT WAS A TIME OF GREAT EXCITEMENT. That's about the size of it. This was a page from a Winnie the Pooh book, in the queue to the ride (which was phenomenal, btw).
Us in front of the castle (and Walt)
Queen of Hearts - a unique place that we had lunch
Christian and the little green men
Christian on the escalator to space mountain
Space Mountain & Tomorrowland. Note the old 70s/80s color scheme. Some would call this outdated; we'll look at it half-full and call it "retro."
Here's a picture of the castle from Main Street, which is covered in a bazaar like structure. Looks cool but doesn't allow them to do the snow at xmas.
We made it! Tokyo Disneyland. No surprise, it looks a lot like California's Disneyland, and Florida's Magic Kingdom.
The night time show in the harbor. The funky shaped thing in the middle is a dragon like creature that rose out of the water and started spurting fire everywhere.
That's a 2-story carousel in the building behind me.
And the award for the strangest event of the day goes to... these cheerleaders that suddenly appeared in the middle of the aladdin water show. I can't explain it. And they did a little routine to "I need a Hero." Really, really strange. I took some video clips that I'll have to share at some point.
No I dont wanna!
Here's mermaid Lagoon - this is pretty incredible.
Me & the globe
Across from Mediterranean Harbor
Christian - I think we're in the "Port Discovery" section of the park here
Me & Mysterious Island from a distance
This is the scary monster thing that scared the bejezus out of us before we jetted to the end of the ride.
Here's a creepy scene from the "Journey to the Center of the Earth" ride, which we rode 3 TIMES! As with most Disney rides, there is a part of the ride when "Suddenly, Something Goes Terribly Wrong!!!!" The idea here is our vehicle departed from the designated path and instead went into this creepy zone, where these egg-like things are hanging. Yick.
The spiral queue for 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
Here's Christian in the interior of mysterious island.
"Mysterious Island," where 2 of the park's e-tickets are located. As you can see, it's a volcano.
Mediterranean Village. Like I said, tons and tons o' detail at this place. Really puts california adventure to shame.
Entrance to DisneySea
On the monorail in the morning. Very very excited. Note the windows and the rings that you hold on to are mickey shaped.
DISNEYSEA!
Finally, after six years of wanting to go (yes, I've wanted to go before it was even constructed), I got to see Tokyo Disneysea!! And it did not disappoint. The place is just magnificent. The level of detail, the quality of the rides, the SIZE of the place, the entertainment (we saw a lot of shows), it's just breathtaking. I'm so happy I finally got to go. It rained a bit this morning and stayed overcast most of the day, but this helped in keeping the lines SHORT -- we didn't have to wait in a single line all day! We rode the top e-ticket ride, Journey to the Center of the Earth, 3 times! Anyway, we're exhausted as usual. Tomorrow is DisneyLAND.
BACK ON THE TRAIN
Hey again. Back on the train again, this time from Nagoya back to Tokyo & Narita. We finished the Expo yesterday, though “finished” is a pretty loose term because we could have spent a week or two more there.
Yesterday was a crazy early day – we got on our first train at 6 a.m. – because we wanted to catch some of the big “corporate pavilion” rides. Monday, we had tried to get on the Hitachi ride, which they told us had the longest lines, but when we got through security 20 minutes after the expo opened, there was already a 4 hour wait for it. So we tried again on Tuesday, and we did it. You can see from some of the pictures I posted that we were a bit tired though. By the end of the day I was pretty out of it.
It also started pouring down rain shortly after we got there, both Monday and Tuesday. The rain ended by mid-day and it got kind of sunny and muggy. Before Tuesday’s trip, we checked yahoo weather and it said there was only a 30% chance of rain, and so I didn’t bother bringing the umbrella. Christian brought his, though, so we shared the one as we flew around the park trying to get our passes for the various corporate pavilion. At one point we were squeezed in a massive crowd of thousands of people all rushing toward one of the pavilions, all with umbrellas raised, though you’d be surprised how much rain managed to get through and land on us. It was also a little scary because there was no way to see any signs pointing where we were going, or really to control the movement of the horde. Actually, it was one of my favorite moments.
The pavilions at the expo were a mixed bag but some really stood out. The Singapore pavilion was a cool multimedia thing where in the middle it starts pouring down rain (you can see in the pictures, we were standing with umbrellas). Canada had a cool multimedia presentation, again with the new-age music. The US pavilion was hosted by Ben Franklin reincarnated, and he basically just talked about all the exciting innovations that Americans had developed over the years. I felt a little ill hearing him trumpeting the US’s environmental record, though, or space flights that took place 30 plus years ago. Australia had a nice simple display of a bunch of columns showing various video images. Korea was extremely colorful.
Japan had several pavilions, being the host country; the best part was a big room where you stood in the center of a sphere – sort of like the Cerebro computer from the X-Men movie, or that room in the Incredibles where all the black goo was thrown at our hero. Anyway, we were standing on a glass floor in the middle of the sphere, and the entire room showed images above world landmarks, from underwater, or in space, and it felt like we were flying through them. Extremely cool. Japan also had an enormous kaleidoscope that was beautiful; took a bunch of pics of that. Makes your neck tired though.
The Toyota pavilion showed some new personal movement devices (basically glorified neon wheelchairs) in a one-hour presentation worthy of cirque du soleil (lots of dancers, people falling from the ceiling, great music, etc.) And they had the brass band of ROBOTS at the beginning of the presentation. (Unfortunately, most of the corporate pavilions prohibited cameras.)
To get to and from the expo was a bit of a challenge; we rode the subway from our hotel to the main Nagoya train station, then took a train from Nagoya to Bampaku Yakusa, about a 38 minute ride to the east, and then took the “Linimo,” which is Japan’s first MAGLEV train, to the expo site. It floated above the track – pretty cool.
The linimo was just a local train, though – Japan is developing a superconducting maglev train for long distance travel at speeds of around 300 to 350 mph. We saw a 3-D video of the superconducting maglev at the Expo. It was very interesting for the first 10 seconds or so, looking at a train speed by. Then they showed another shot of the train speeding by. And another. And another. And look – here’s the train crossing a bridge. And look – here’s people sitting on the train. And here’s another shot of the train flying by. Get the idea? I’m fascinated by maglevs but wow that movie was underwhelming.
Ok, we’re getting near Tokyo now, so I’ll wrap this up. Once we drop our souvenirs back at the hotel, we’re going to tour a couple of Tokyo neighborhoods that have some shrines and interesting architecture. Tomorrow we have day one of Tokyo Disneyland. Talk to you then.
X
that's all for now - all in all lots of lines but a great experience. I'll write the full story on the train back tomorrow. X
another cute robot. this one actually responded to your voice and touch - made lots of cute purring noises.
another cool shot of this kaleidoscope thing
Largest kaleidoscope in the world
We saw lots of robots at the Expo. This one is a swing dance robot, and is particularly . . . reflective. This one didn't actually move, but we did see a bunch of other robots, including a marching brass band - they actually marched out and played a trumpet, trombone, tuba, and drums.
Hey again. We're back from the 3rd day of the expo, and while we didn't get close to seeing everything, we got in lots of good fun. Here's Christian at a drawing in the Eastern Europe section.
Photos are at Yahoo
Hey again. We're about to leave for the Expo - thunderstorms likely. Eeks. Just wanted to let you know that if you can't view the photos on this webpage (my work computer wouldn't let me display them), they're all available at
http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/xabbe31672/album?.dir=/4f3c&.src=ph&.tok=ph2CDSDBB9qay7D2
Talk to you later.
X
Back in town.. These are two garden bushes cut to look like the Expo mascots.
Inside the Thailand pavilion.
More to report on this later. (Once we ride it).
Xander in the rain while in Singapore.
USA Pavilion.. To be visited on Monday.
This is a great area in the Singapore pavilion where there is a large ran storm in the room. The staff hands out umbrellas to all that are visiting.
Singapore pavilion Library area
Australia pavilion mascot. :)
Here's the Australia pavilion
Hi from Nagoya! We made it here and went to the Expo. I'll post more photos later, but here's a fun scene from the pavilion of the Dominican Republic.
