Robb & Elissa Go To Japan & Don't Ride Any Roller Coasters!

[gardyloo!Which came first the turtle or the donkey?]

There is no such thing as too much Japan! Visited it for the first time last year (no theme parks, but we did climb Mt. Fuji) and I can't wait to go back! Tokyo is one of the most amazing cities in the world. Over 30 million people in that area, but it all works... only in Japan

[PKI JizzmanJizzy jizz jizz jizz jizz]

The lights, confetti, projections, floats.. all look outstanding! Looks like it is really easy to have an incredible time a TDR without riding any coasters. Can't wait for the next update!

[jedimaster1227Delicious & Refreshing]

I miss Japan so much... This takes away a little of the sting of not being there as I live vicariously through this report. Thanks for sharing!

[pǝʇɹǝʌuıWhat would donkeys be like on the moon?]

I'm half Japanese and lived in Japan for a total of 6 years of my life. There's so much to do there! I'm hoping to make it back out next year, but honestly, I plan on hitting Nagashima Spaland and Universal Japan (I've already been to DisneySea and Fuji-Q) and that's it for parks. Well, maybe I'll go to Tokyo Disney again...haha. My point is, there's a ton to do in Japan and it does bother me a bit with enthusiasts get their entire impression of Japan from a couple dozen obscure theme parks. I'm excited to read more of your report and see what you guys did!

I am curious, though. Obviously you guys go to Japan a lot and are very familiar with the culture, but, how good is your Japanese? Do you speak to people when you go?

[robbalveySite Admin]

I am curious, though. Obviously you guys go to Japan a lot and are very familiar with the culture, but, how good is your Japanese? Do you speak to people when you go?

Good question! We know enough to "get by" like asking for things like train tickets, park tickets, ordering food, asking for an English menu, "do you speak english", "I'm sorry my Japanese sucks ass" etc, etc... And really our Japanese is probably "pretty good" as an American asking for things in a language we obviously are not fluent in.

But here's the interesting part... I do try to speak as much as I can and as often as I can because I like to be respectful of the culture, but sometimes we get into that situation where if we start speaking in our broken Japanese, some people will think we speak the language and then start saying or asking things we don't understand at all.

So it's more the right balance of being polite and speaking what we can, and then having to basically say in Japanese, "I'm sorry our Japanese is terrible, do you happen to speak any English?"

And also thanks to thinks like Google Translate, there hasn't been any situations where we couldn't at least figure things out.

[scubaskiWhat's with the donkeys anyway?]

One day soon if I can get the wife to go. Thanks for all the pics. Great as usual.

[NrthwndBAYSIDE STATION!!!]

^ I swear that Tokyo DisneySea is one of The Most Romantic Theme Parks you could ever go with your spouse/partner. It just reeks of romanticism, especially in the evening with all the lighting on when you're both just strolling around, hand in hand, drinking in all the atmosphere each Port has to offer. And eating a great flavored popcorn that TDLR has to offer.

My 5 Yen.

[robbalveySite Admin]

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So on our official "Day One" of the trip we went to our favorite theme park in the world... Tokyo DisneySEA! And while we love this park so much, there is one HUGE PROBLEM with it... There is too much to photograph!!! I took 2,700 photos on day one!!!

Obviously I cannot post 2,700 photos in one trip report (Well, I can, and then even Adam Roth would be all "Damn! That's a LOT of photos!!!" and then you know I would have accomplished something!) Anyway.... I actually managed to sort through them and come up with about 120 photos... but that's still too many for one trip report, so we'll have to break this up! I will start with "Part One" of our first day at Tokyo DisneySEA! (Yes, we were here multiple days and the 2,700 photos was from ONE DAY!)

I will continue to post more and long as YOU continue to comment more! So the more comments I see, the more I'll keep this thread going. When the comments stop, I'll just assume everyone is bored of seeing Japan pics and move on to something else.

Deal? Good! Here we go....

Hey, guess what? We're back at Tokyo Disney! Shocking, right?

When you get to the Tokyo Disney property by train, you have to buy a ticket for the monorail to get to the park you are going to. (Unless you just walk to Disneyland, but we weren't going there today...) The machines will have different themed tickets depending on what machine you use.

Easter was around the corner so we bought one of the easter themed tickets for the upcoming event!

Hello Mickey shaped handles on the monorail! Did I mention that I have one of these in my car. (And no I didn't steal it like a horrible America, I did actually buy one when they used to sell them and now they don't sell them anymore and I AM NOT SELLING YOU MINE!!!! So don't ask...)

Did I also mention that we brought some friends of ours to the park today? ShellieMay and StellaLou! I should also point out this neither one of these belong to Elissa as she will have nothing to do with this because she's lame.

Oh hello Mr. Large Volcano thingy!

And hello there ShellieMay!

Whereas Elissa doesn't carry plush animals around the park, she goes RUNNING towards the life-sized, more deadly rodents walking around the park! We weren't even in the park five minutes and we saw Clarice!

For those of you who don't know, Clarice is the "girlfriend?" to Chip N Dale. In any case. She's a girl. And she hangs out with Chip N Dale.

Since Journey to the Center of the Earth has been recently undergoing some fairly extensive rehabs (it was closed on our last trip and it's actually going to be closed again on our next trip) one of the main reasons we are in Japan is to ride this! And no, this does NOT count as a "roller coaster" even though it does have roller coaster track under that floor that the ride vehicle sits on!

ShellieMay is also going to ride because she loves it!

The theming inside this ride is just amazing. One of Disney's best. The attention to every detail is just wonderful.

When you make it to these "elevators" your journey is about to begin!

The entire queue "under the volcano" is crazy impressive.

You can see the loading area from when you exit the elevators. From this point, you've got less than ten minutes before you're on the ride!

Gotta love the theming!

When you get to this point of the ride, you know some crazy stuff is about to go down!

Well, HELLLLOOOOOO Lava Monster! Aren't you pretty today?

TRUTH!!!

Elissa not to happy about holding the bears. Fine. I'll take them back and love them as they should be loved!

Can we just take a moment to stop and bask in the beauty of this area?

Ahhhh, yes....

So much beauty....

Vulcania is a restaurant. They have food here. We will eat that food. It is the circle of life.

When we talk about the attention to detail in the attractions, it doesn't just stop there....

This is inside a restaurant!!! Not even a "fancy" restaurant... A "Quick Service" restaurant!

I don't love Nori, but I love the Mickey Mouse printed on the Nori! It's photo worthy!

I love this Chinese fried chicken. Delicious!

While the Easter festival was not officially starting yet, they did have some of their food items available! Every menu at Tokyo Disney is in Japanese and English, so you'll have no problems ordering... unless you don't speak Japanese or English... then... I'm not sure why you're reading this and I can probably say horrible things about your mother and you won't know I said that either. Your mother looks like a foot.

Yes, they hang out with us and eat with us.... and we fit right in because....

... at the table next to us, these Japanese set up a table JUST FOR THEIR BEARS!!! Like I said...these are my people!

We'll hang out with our bears and Elissa can make fun of us all she wants. The bears will probably murder her in her sleep one of these days!

Ps. Sarah is here, too... because she now lives in Japan... or... at least she did. She's back now. But she was living there when we were there on this trip. How's the job hunt going? :P

Some of you may remember that a couple of years ago we reported on these Mickey Mouse shaped soap dispensers going into the park. The first one was over by Splash Mountain. More of them have popped up and this one is by Journey. You basically just put your hand under the nozzle, push the button, and a Mickey Mouse shaped soap comes out!

Apparently Sarah totally sucks at washing her hands. She never got a Mickey. She just got a glob of crap on her hand!

There... I had no issues getting the Mickey because I am awesome at dispensing corporate mascot shaped soap. And it's amazing!!!

And yes... if you really love the Mickey shaped soap so much you can buy a Mickey shaped soap dispenser for your home! (Yes, we have one in our home!)

Time to do some more wandering around the park and just take it all in... Hello Tower!

Yes, this is a THEME PARK!!!!

There are places where you walk around Tokyo DisneySEA and it just honestly does not look like any other theme park in the world.

Areas of this park just look so "functional" like they could be real world places. There is so much to explore here!

The attention to detail never stops.

We figured we might as well bang out the top two attractions at the park right away!

This gives you an idea of how crazy busy the park is. It's still the morning, the standby line is already 80 minutes, and the FastPass return time is at park closing. It doesn't matter. I'd still rather be at a busy Tokyo DisneySEA that anywhere else in the world!

But thankfully we got our FastPass earlier so here we are! The queue area also looks nothing like any of the other Tower of Terror rides. (That's a good thing!)

Hiya Shiriki! You don't look as mean and evil as a tissue box sitting on my desk, but you are pretty mean and evil when you aren't a tissue box!

ShellieMay and StellaLou love the ride!!!

So let me just take a moment to explain the whole "Duffy" thing... because you're going to see it a lot. This is ShelieMay. She's like a girlfriend or something to Duffy who was the original Japanese Disney Bear.

The Japanese love Duffy & Friends and there are MULTIPLE STORES at Tokyo DisneySEA dedicated exclusively to Duffy merchandise. The characters are sold ONLY at DisneySEA.

It is very common to see people walking around the store with baskets FILLED with the stuff they are buying.

That's StellaLou. She's the bunny chick. She might be kind of a whore, we're not sure. But she's one of the friends of Duffy & ShellieMay.

That's Gelatoni. He's a cat. And yes, here he is eating gelato and it's the best thing you're going to see all day!

You will also see some Japanese people just lay their Duffy & Friends out for everyone to see and take pictures of. Almost every time we've been at the park, we've seen someone set up a "scene" with their bears!

It is a REQUIREMENT that every Japanese person, boy or girl, young or old, have at least THREE Duffy items on their person at any given time. We will use this girl as an example. She's doing it right! Well, done!

These girls are actually DRESSED as the different character! So yes, the take away here is... "The Japanese are obsessed with Duffy & Friends! And we think that is AWESOME."

AHA!!!! In this "stalker shot" we actually catch Elissa properly holding Geletoni! Secretly, deep down...she really DOES care about them! She may not be aware that she is one with the Japanese obsession... but one day she will be!

Speaking of the Japanese dressing up... you will see all sorts of "Disney Bounding" and crazy themed dress-up all over the park. There are so many Tokyo Disney Instagramers everywhere! And they are all so creative and amazing with what they do. Seriously, just follow some of the Tokyo Disney Instagram accounts.... you'll be impressed!

Not only do the Japanese go crazy for the merchandise, but also the food. The new Easter food had just come out and this was the line to get one of the items. I honestly do not remember which one but I do remember that I thought this line was long, right?

WRONG! It's even longer! lol By the time I got to the end of it, I had already forgotten what the food item was! lol

OK, we will end this report here for now... That should give you enough to ask questions about or come up with something witty to say about this report. Remember...

POST YOUR COMMENTS!!!

CLICK HERE FOR PART THREE!

[NrthwndBAYSIDE STATION!!!]

<sighs> That's all I can muster up, right now. So much DisneySea Goodness to ride, see, eat, be a part of.

[ytterbiumanalystWhy do I still have a donkey title???]

That's Gelatoni. He's a cat. And yes, here he is eating gelato and it's the best thing you're going to see all day!

That is ridiculously true.

Every time I read one a Tokyo Disney report it seems like there's more awesomeness around the next corner, like they're just never content to say "Yeah, this place is incredible enough. We're good now."