Tokyo Disney Sea!

“You’ve just completed an internship at Columbia Music Entertainment, it’s your last full day in Japan…what are you gonna to do?”

“I’m going to Disneyland!!!”

…actually…Tokyo Disney Sea Resort to be accurate. Naoko, me, my friend Inoue and his girlfriend all headed to Disney Sea in Chiba for the day. The theme park, which just celebrated its 5th anniversary this year, is actually about twenty minutes outside Tokyo, located right next door to Tokyo Disneyland.

Disney Sea is a relatively new “themed” theme park much like Disney’s California Adventure. The theme here of course is sea travel. The park features “ports of call” in lieu of the traditional “lands.” Examples include Mermaid Lagoon from The Little Mermaid and the Arabian Coast straight out of Aladdin. All of your favorite Disney friends can be spotted at the park too, except they are all in sea apparel. There’s Captain Mickey, first mate Donald and pirate Goofy, just to name a few.

In order to maintain an atmosphere that feels foreign and magical (i.e. not Japanese), all the writing on signs and in brochures in the park is either in English or bilingually printed in both English and Japanese. Also, 1/3 of all the music lyrics and recorded voice material is also in English. All the park employees are required to speak fluent English, and, upon careful inspection, one will see that there are no vending machines in Disney Sea. There are also no opportunities to buy Japanese food within the park.

The gateway to magic is the “World Bazaar;” Disney Sea’s version of Main St. It is a big plaza area which houses tons of souvenir shops and restaurants. Behind the entry way is Mediterranean Harbor, the large man-made lake that serves as the backdrop for the park’s shows.

The show we saw at Mediterranean Harbor was the large nighttime show entitled “The Legend of Mythica.” Inoue and his girlfriend had a spot staked out to the right-hand side of the lake, but Naoko and I got swallowed up by the swarms of people on the way back from the bathroom. It didn’t help that you couldn’t simply walk from the bathroom area to where he was; we had to ascend and descend various staircases in a giant castle that blocked our way.

Mythica told the story of Captain Mickey and his Disney crew’s voyage to the magical island of Mythica. All the Disney characters spoke a mishmash of Japanese and English during the show, but their characteristic voices sounded the same. Once at said magical island, our Disney friends discover magical unicorns, phoenixes, and other mythological creatures (each represented by convincingly animated water floats). Actors on decorated Jet Skis zoom around in the water as illuminated kites sail high above in the air. Everything is great…until the Fire Dragon arrives! The climax of the show came as Captain Mickey, riding on the back of his new friend the water dragon, did battle with the evil Fire Dragon to protect the Island’s magical crystal.

Fire and water jets shot across the arena at each other. At least I think they did. I couldn’t quite tell, because I was in back of a father hoisting his child up on his shoulders. By this point in the show, Naoko and I had abandoned our effort to rejoin Inoue and his girlfriend, and were pinned against one of the walls of the giant castle, enjoying the show as much as we could.

The trademark Disney fireworks erupted over the park as a voice proclaimed that the secret crystal of Mythica was really love and friendship. Who’d have guessed? Then, the bright calypso orchestra boomed in for one final rendition of everyone’s favorite song. This time I could sing along to the English lyrics, having heard the piece several times during the show:

“It’s the beating of our heart
It’s been there from the start
It joins all of us in harmony”

Due to some lapses in communication and a generally slow start, our group didn’t arrive at Disney Sea until the early afternoon. Since the coming Monday was the national holiday “Old People’s Day,” the park was absolutely swamped with families (send some of these people to Disney Paris!). We also encountered monsoon rain during the last third of our park visit. I was happy to see that Tokyo Disney Sea patrons also bought and utilized yellow Mickey Mouse ponchos.

The waiting time for the rides was pretty awful, even with the Fast Pass system. We waited two hours to ride “The Tower of Terror.” I had already been on this ride at Walt Disney World in Florida, but it was a newly completed attraction at Tokyo Disney Sea, so everyone in my party clamored to go. The actual ride was the same as in Orlando, except it featured cutesy Disney skeleton characters instead of a Twilight Zone theme. The other translated ride we did was the Indiana Jones Adventure. This was Naoko’s favorite ride. It was the same as the ride from the California park, with the exception that Indy congratulated us in Japanese once we escaped the giant rolling boulder and made it to the exit of the temple.

The rest of the rides we did were Japanese originals. They included:

“20,000 Leagues Under the Sea” – A ride where you climbed into a miniature submarine and peered out the windows in order to see alien-like underwater sea creatures. I think we battled some sort of white squid create and obtained a magical crystal (this seems to be a beloved story format at Disney Sea). I don’t know for sure though, because I started to feel really nauseous as the ride went on.

“Storm Riders” – A motion simulator where you rode in a weapon enhanced blimp. Our goal was to fire a missile into the heart of a raging twister in order to disarm it. When our missile backfired and crashed into our ship, holes appeared in the theater walls and water started to spray us in the face.

“Journey to the Center of the Earth” – A Splash Mountain clone, where you dive deep into the earth to a land of mole people while riding in a mine car. At the end of the ride you blast out the top of the volcano Mount Prometheus to escape the explosion of lava. Too bad nobody gets wet!

I was surprised by the fact that the food in the park was actually pretty darn cheap. The four of us ate a light dinner at an all-American themed restaurant in the American Waterfront port of call. Nothing but baked beans, corn bread, meat, and taters. YEEHAW PARTNER!

As the torrential rain got stronger, we decided it might be a good idea to head back instead of more souvenir shopping. My only souvenir was Mickey Mouse Senbei (rice crackers - see picture below). Inoue and his girlfriend were nice enough to buy them for me. The four of us traveled as far as Shibuya Station together in Inoue’s car. We said our goodbyes and I headed on a train back to my place in Asakusa. It was the last time I saw Inoue and Naoko. Naoko offered to come with me to the airport, but I told her to enjoy her day off. I would leave Japan the next day.

B.E.W.