PTR: Don and Monica's Massive Japan Update!

I'n not the first say that Blue Fall looks jawdroppingly good!

I really hope Don and Monica brought me back something really cool from Japan like I asked him. Because if they didn't, I don't want to talk to them anymore.

Can you tell me more about the haunted house walk thru at Fuji Q? It was closed when I was there, and I read in Guiness that it is the longest walk thru in the world, themed to a hospital.

True?

Thanks!!

^OK.

It is an upcharge. I can't remember how much, 500 yen, tops.

You start by giving your ticket to a nurse or orderly in blood spattered hospital gear. After waiting in the dark lobby for about 5-10 minutes your eyes begin to the dark and they move the group (usually about 10-15 people) into the next room. Here you watch a movie (In Japanese) that gives the rules for the attraction and sets up the story.

The first time I did this there was a story about horrible unnecessary surgeries and the subsequent results. This time, the story was more supernatural. I don't know if the movie is selected randomly or changed periodically.

Next the group is walked to the next waiting area, where you are broken into groups of 4 or less. Each group is given a single penlight.

You have your group photo taken and you are given a reciept to look at your picture later.

Then the fun begins. There are branching paths. There are live actors. (Lots of 'em!) There are countless props from hospitals from real body bags to infant incubators and x-ray machines. You go through OR's private rooms, ER, and of course, the morgue.

It takes upwards of 30 minutes to get through, and the best part is the actors seem to delight in chasing shreiking Japanese girls well beyond the range of their zone! I had one guy follow me at least 50 feet down a hallway, setting me up pretty good for the next guy.

After the exit (there's more than one way out) you enter a snack shop and souvenir store where you can look at and purchase your photo. The shop attendants are also in bloody scrubs, so they might be actors on break. This shop carries the breast pudding cups, if you are looking for them!

Hopefully that was spoiler free, I tried to avoid details, and I'm not sure what you see down some of the paths.

Seeing all of these pictures is really making me excited for my Japan trip next month! Thanks for posting.

Allright guys, time to get this train rolling again. Sorry I've been slacking, insert your own new apartment, video project, girlfriend, skateboarding injury excuse here and away we go!

Day 5 continued

Yokohama Cosmoworld

Brief syopsis; the park is located in an awesome setting by a bay in Yokohama. I had seen pictures and video from this park but only at night so it was nice to get to see all the shiny white skyscrapers in bright sunlight!

pictures:

We did good and finished the park in about a half hour. Then we went across the street for some crazy Japanese mall shopping! Joypolis photos will be next!

Here's some Cosmoclock porn for you giant wheel lovers...sickos!

Looking down through the ride ending helix to the omnipresent Log Flume. This ride seems to wind through the entire complex. It's like the heartworm of log flumes!

The spinning mouse was pretty standard, but spun way too much for it's own good!!

Vanish taking the Togo Toilet Bowl, our second one of the day!

Vanish is of course the big draw here and it was actually pretty fun. It takes this drop into a tunnel about midway through the ride and then decends into a pretty powerful helix.

The park enterance we used seemed buried beneath the huge rides towering overhead.

They had a nice assortment or rides on the other bank. Next time I'll try and make it over there and explore a little.

The main park sits on small penninsula between another amusment area and a huge shopping mall.

It was a nice clear day, slightly windy, but still pretty cold! At least the bay wasn't frozen over!

Then you are greeted with this once you cross the street.

This is the first thing you see once you exit the train station.

Hey, Don! It's taking you longer to get these PTR's up than it did to hit all the parks!

Oh, wait. Never mind. I'm still sitting on stuff from December.

Press on!

^ Hey, work was really crazy today. I've already let 2 people die while I've uploaded pics for you guys, how much blood do you want on my hands?!

The rest should be up tomorrow, including the awesome Disney pics!!

-Don

Japan must be really awesome! I liked the part where the coaster goes into the tunnel, with the water effect! I ma really looking forward to watch your videos from this trip!

--Sören

So after Cosmoland we had enough time to finally go and check out Joypolis. When we got there we realized that Joypolis is only a small part of another huge japanese shopping/entertainment area!

We got to play with condoms, watch a monkey walk on stilts, and play absurd electronic games of skill. It was awesome!

OK, now we're really, finally done with everything in Tokyo! Can we go to Disney now?!

Somewhere in that blur Monica is being underwhelmed by Linear Gale!

WOW! That really WAS faster than the train!

Screw the train! Let's take the teleport over to LaQua!

Next time Palette Town, next time!

It's not a giant japanese shopping area without the requisite Giant-ass Wheel! Palette Town from the joypolis side of the expressway.

"Don! It's an inflateable cat with cats for arms! We're totally going in there!"

We almost made it out of there when Monica spotted the kitty store.

After that we took in the usual sights.

OMG the stilts were just too much. Funniest thing ever!

MONKEY!!!

I'm still amazed that there was still snow around by this point.

Wandering around outside we caught the Tokyo Rainbow Bridge at sundown.

Now I'm finally starting to get into the capsule machines. It's a keychain of the train we took to get over here. How existential.

Oh yeah! That has got to be the crepe of crepes.

Finally, a way to inflict pain on my girlfriend! This was just before she swept me 3-0. Next time I musn't duel her left handed.

Luckily these...uh...cats with bats...were pertty docile.

Man, that Doremon near the top of the pile was furious at having his picture taken!

Kind of a strange ride, almost like a stand up 'rockin' tug' only you can (somewhat) control the rotation.

Halfpipe canyon looked like fun but there was about a 45 minute wait. Plus they were only running 2 of the tracks. I'll wait until I can get all four credits thanks.

At least the restraints are comfortable, otherwise this jerky ass ride would surely draw blood. For some reason I kept picturing Dan talking about how this ride "Hurt my ass". Weird.

Hey look! It's the reason we came! Personally I thought Speed Boarder was a fun little ride, but it is in no way smooth AT ALL and doesn't really require a re-ride. Still, I did enjoy my one ride, and the wait was only about 10 minutes.

I shot a lot of video but I didn't really take too many pictures of the inside. It's hard to tell, but the entire complex is awash with neon, dance lights, pumping music, and plenty of energy. It was also pretty humid due to all the peeps, yuck.

Yay! After nearly a week of dodging this place we finally found time to check it out.

No we didn't go in, but we couldn't help wondering, just what the hell would be inside the Shell museum? A food court with really oily fries?

Thanks for the hospital/haunted house description. Sounds strange....and not sure I could handle it!

Oh man, Haunted Hospital was so worth the $4.25 or whatever it came out to. First off it was 3 floors, full of live actors, and had at least one spot where there were 3 different paths we could take!

The themeing was really good, very gloomy/creepy, with a ton of old hospital and surgical equipment, and even some old X-ray stuff!

When I wasn't being chased by mental patients I was actually getting distracted by stopping and reading the xrays on the walls! It was cool seeing some of the old equipment I used to practice on when I was in school.

So yeah, it was much more elaborate than some Knotts maze, and was actually on a much larger scale than even some of the stand alone haunts that I've been through.

^So you took vacation from work to pay money to go back to work, then oogled all the old machinery and charts....DORK!

Thank goodness all those pictures are over, and now we can finally get to what we want to see, lots of Disneyland!

Seriously though, thanks for all the photos, I'm definitely jonesing for a trip to Japan. Maybe next year....

OK, I've got a break between patients so I'm going to update the pictures right quick.

Tokyo Disneyland:

We stayed at the Tokyo Disney resort for 3 nights onsite at the Ambassador Hotel. It was such a change from our Shinjuku room! The beds we're easily 3 times the size and the toilet and shower/bath were in two seperate rooms!!

Since we were onsite guests we were able to buy a 4 day pass that allowed park hopping all 4 days! It was an extra 1000 yen for the pass but it was totally worth it being able to park hop all of the days we were there.

As much as I really wanted to go to DisneySea, we stuck with the plan to hit TDL first so I could finally check out the awesome Pooh ride.

Pictures!

Oh yes, Pirates chasing women without food! I love this park!

Except um...yeah, hi...It's not 'Club 31' and it's definately not a glass shop. No, nothing about this adds up at all!

Yeah, this looks crazy familiar.

Their Jungle Cruis was pretty good. Our skipper was telling a ton of jokes and getting really into it. The ride itself looked just like the CA version with the FL temple at the end.

Is this where I rent a locker? Where is the wave pool?

Their Adventureland sure is much bigger than any of the others (save paris). Even if it does look REALLY similer to Typhoon Lagoon!

Who knew that this would be one of the best popcorns on the trip?! This stuff was awesome!

You were right Robb, this TPR hoodie really is a chick magnet! It must mean something else in japanese! lol

Here they are! You know those leather bracelets you can get with your name burned into them? Yeah, that's what they're waiting hours for, to make thier orders to pick up later.

Man the japanese can be really weird. I can give you 10 guesses as to what they're waiting for and you'd probably not get it. Remember, this was taken 20 minutes after the park opened.

Having spent a lot of time at the origional park as a kid, walking around TDL was much like stepping into a time machine. sorry I'm geeking out on you guys here...ahem, moving along...

No way! Tucked away in the corner of the park I found a Mile Long Bar! And it's not some stupid Pooh candy store! Damn you Disneyland! Why do you have to ruin everything!

I really liked the overall look of the land. Their island looked really cool too, unfortunately we ran out of time.

They even have a 'Mark Twain' here too, none of this 'Liberty Belle' nonsense!

Westernland's layout really made a lot of since here. Since it was built later, none of the recent additions at other parks are shoehorned in here. Splash and Thunder are at either sides of the river, and the train just makes a small loop around the area.

This really is a 'best of' park. Too bad they were still taking down the NBC overlay.

When it did start to rain a little, this roof sure did make alot of since. It totally doesn't distract from Main Street at all either.

Big Al can still bring a tear to your eye. I miss you man.

You know, this Magic Kingdom might not be as beautiful as the Paris one, but at least here they know well enough to leave the damn rides alone! Pirates chase women, Space Mountain has cheesy effects, and the Country Bears have a theater to do their show i

This castle has something WAY awesome in it's basement though! I hope they're not really getting rid of this. Long live Black Cauldron!!

Yes, yes, you can actually see the castle...

We turned around and saw literally the ENTIRE park lined up for something. We asked around and found out that it was for a souvineer cup that was being released that day. The line easily wrapped around most of toontown. No wonder they got rid of Pin tradi

One morning, on our morning pooh run there were tons of people making a mad dash with us. Just before they got there though, they all went for toontown (wtf?). So after pooh we went and walked-on Roger Rabbit and wondered where all the people went.

Oh man, it starts!

This ride is so damn fun! It was nice having walk-ons all morning too!

Wow, Star Tours has it's own building...and it's huge!!

Boy did these things get used!

Allright we're here!

More:

Ugh...Do we really have to go!!! Oh wait, I forgot about DisneySea! Let's get the crap outta here!

Still more:

Back to the massive monorail station to head to Disneysea! Soon they'll be an equally massive hotel behind it.

Oops, forgot this one earlier. This one was pretty good as well.

Once you reach the ticket booth there is still a huge queue to get through. While waiting for the park to open we timed this small part of the line at just over 30 minutes! By the time we were ready to park hop the line was still full of people waiting to

This happy little line is just to buy tickets! THEN you get to get in the outher line.

Dude, seriously.

Did I mention that it was only a little bit crowded on our last day there? This was the line to enter the park at opening.

So for all of those who asked me to pick up pins, this was all I could find.

Did i mention how much bigger their Main Street is? For point of reference, I'm standing at the Carnation cafe looking across the street toward the dentist office.

Hey, It's the Disneysea pictures. The park is awesome, look at the pictures.

I still have a ton of pictures so if you guys want to see something specific just post it here!

Thanks for reading!!

-Don

I wonder where I'd have to connect to fly with them?

And then we had to leave and come back to our own country. We were both sad for a few days. Japan was just so cool, we didn't want to leave!

If you're waiting to go to Japan you're waiting too long! We were going to wait for a group trip in '07 but we ju

Right next door to the Dreamgate is this Newdays convience store. When it started raining and umbrellas at the parks were going for over $20 I went here and got one for less than $5! This place is awesome!

OK, here's another thing I didn't know about. There is a secret hotel right at the Maihama train station! It's actually currently the closest hotel to TDL. I'm going to look into this place next time I come here.

OK, nobody told me that there was a skatepark across the street from the Miracosta! I'm kinda dissapointed with you guys. If I knew I totally would've packed my board. Next time Don, next time.

Tower just looks massive. Much better than the DCA building IMO, even if it will have the same ride system.

An overview of the park enterance with Tower over there in the background.

Ahh, there we go!

Wow, the cool thing is this pyramid has nothing to do with the actual ride building. They built the whole thing just to look bad-ass. It just needs a coaster going around it.

Here's Monica and I out in front of 'good' Indy!

At one point late one night i was the only person riding this. The three hot girls working the ride asked me how old I was. I left to go find a buffet to go cry in my gravy. The coaster was pretty fun btw.

Whoever told me that I wouldn't be able to find food that I liked was way wrong. This thing was like chocolate covered crack, I loved it!

The line for the Gyoza buns. This was during that crowded day.

I was here for 4 days and I was never at a loss for things to do. I don't get how IOA keeps getting voted the best theme park.

First off Gondola Rides weren't like $100!

Nobody really talks about the Venice area. I thought it was so much better than the real one!

I didn't know that this was actually inside the park. Before I thought it was just like an entry plaza.

What did I eat in Japan? This is what I ate in Japan. And it was really good!

This update brought to you by Crunky Kids!

Thanks for FINALLY posting what we've all been waiting for DisneySeas looks really amazing and from your pictures I finally know there is a Venice area. I'm totally going next year, even if my Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X does come out and ends up being like $50,000 from the release! Heck, I'll just pick one up in Japan for cheaper and ship it back!

Thanks again for sharing your trip with us, looks like the two of you had a really great time. Hopefully you'll do a DVD, 'cause I just can't get enough of those CRAAAZY Japanese!

Great photos Don! I love DisneySizzle. I cant wait to go!

Great pics you guys, enjoyed every update. I wanna go to Japan!! *sulks* Glad you two had so much fun!

Great TR!

What is it with Disney Souvenir Cups? I guess if it cuts down the lines, it's a good thing though. More ride time!

Hi,

thanks for all the great photos and reports.

I`ve some questions:

I`ll stay for three nights at the Miracosta and would like to know if you first checked in at the Welcome Center to get your monorail passes and tickets or did you go directly to the Ambassador?

Because we decide to go to the Welcome Center first, get our tickets and leave our luggage their (the`ll send it directly to the Miracosta) to hit the parks and do the check-in later at our hotel.

Where did you eat? Any recommandations? (beside the popcorn)

Greetinx

Andy

What a fantastic Photo TR, Don! The Disneyland pictures were awesome! I never visited Tokyo Disneyland, but after seeing all the great pictures from Robb and you, I really have to go! However, all in all it was a good TR, I really enjoyed it!

--Sören

Wow, Tokyo Disney and DisneySea look amazing!! God, Japan looks great.

All of Tokyo was just amazing. Japan (what I've seen of it) totally rocks! We can't wait to go back!

Andy, we stepped off of the JR train and went right into the welcome center. If you've already made your reservation (yoyaku) head down stairs and you can take care of everything at the desk (leave your baggage, pick up your monorail tickets, resort coupons, even buy park admissions and charge them to your room!)

From there you can go directly to the parks. You still have to check into your hotel later at the desk, but that doesn't take too long and they'll walk you up to your room!

As for food Ikispiri is huge and full of dining and shopping. We spent 4 days there and diddn't see all of it. We liked the french bakery on the main floor, 'Chez Something' for sandwhiches and bagels/croissants. Newdays and the burger place next door at the JR station has just about every thing else you'd want really cheap. Plus Ikispiri doesn't open until 10am so Newdays was our breakfast spot!

We ate at the Rain Forest Cafe one night and that was pretty good. The two of us both had an Entree, drinks, and dessert for 5500yen. Since we we're resort guest we had a 5% discount coupon as well. It was very resonable.

Other than that there is a planet hollywood, an italien cafe, and assorted other eateries that we didn't try. You shouldn't have any problem with food at all, even if you don't like shrimp!!

-Don

The Blue Bayou restauraunt at TDL looks just like the one at Disneyland in CA. Stop here if you feel like having a nice meal at the park. The menu is fairly japanese however.

If you do go to the RFC, don't leave without your Volcano! They are actually pretty good here!

Just head here and go down the spiral stairs inside and to your left

Ikispiri, gateway to the gastronamie!

Beckers, the English burger pub...sort of.

Here's the station and the shops located around, labeled for your convience!