DisneySea

DisneySea is the Disney theme park next to Disneyland in northern Chiba (near Tokyo). I went there last Saturday with my buddy Kana. A bunch of people were supposed to go but it just ended up the two of us. I woke up SO early to catch the train (it's about 2 1/2 hours from Tateyama). We met at 9:30 to begin our LONG day trying to cram as much of DisneySea in as we could! The coolest part of DisneySea was that there were so many different themed areas that looked like different countries. There was an Arabian area that had big buildings and mosques, an English castle, an Italian waterfront (with gondolas!), a Maine coastal town, and Central American temples and markets. I have always loved miniatures replicas of different places (like the "log cabin" I spent half of my childhood pretending I was a pioneer in!) so the atmosphere of DisneySea was right up my alley. We hit all the big rides- Indiana Jones, this roller coaster (my first time to go upside down! It was quite anti-climactic, probably because I kept my head down the whole time and the loop was really small!), Journey to the Center of the Earth (in Japanese pronounciation, "Earth" becomes "Ass"- no joke...we got more than a few laughs out of that one), and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. Perhapsh my favorite part of DisneySea was the Broadway show. I have never been a huge fan of the shows at Disney theme parks because I love the rides so much, but we decided to go to the Broadway show towards the end of the evening. I was pleasantly shocked at how professional and entertaining the show was! It consisted of a variety of clips from famous Broadway musicals. There I was, singing along (and unable to stop myself from dancing in my seat), when I turned to Kana to serenade her with some "Hello, Dolly!" only to find her slumbering away! I don't know who was more shocked, me, or Kana when I woke her up. I have never seen someone wake up and be shocked that they had fallen asleep. Anyways, I think I probably enjoyed the show more than anyone in the theater because I was familiar with almost all of the music (and it was all in English and most of the actors were foreigners!) It was very cool and made me want to get on a plane and head to Broadway! Our last ride of the day was another round of Indiana Jones (such a great ride!) After our ride we ran to try and catch the end of the fireworks show. We weren't 10 yards from the exit of the ride when Kana told me she lost her cellphone on the ride. Laughing, I told her "funny" and kept running. She said, "Ellie, really, I lost my phone on the ride!" Again, I didn't believe her- how could you lose your phone on a ride when you take so much care NOT to lose it before the ride begins? But she wasn't pulling my leg- apparently it had fallen into the pouch we put our bags in during the ride. She quickly told a staff member and, sure enough, true to Japanese service, it was retrieved in only 15 minutes. I was pretty impressed...I thought for sure the cellphone would have been eaten by the ride. We ended up being able to see a bit of the fireworks before heading out. I had a long ride ahead of me so I had to catch a 9:30 train. Nothing can replace Disneyland in my heart, but DisneySea was a great time! I was ridiculously tired and fell asleep on the way home...but it was all worth it!