Tokyo Disney Sea, here we come!

Hello there!

On Saturday, we headed to Disney Sea for an adventure in the first theme park we’d ever been to in Asia.

Disney Sea is an interesting place. As we approached the park via train- about a 20 minute ride from Tokyo, we noticed a few things. Many groups of girls on the train were dressed exactly alike. they were usually at least 15 years old- some groupings looked in their early 20s. They all wore the same hair, massive Minnie bows, skirts and shirts. When people in the US go to a Disney Park, we don’t dress up- but that’s not the case in Japan. These girls, as well as grown women- were often in chiffon dresses and stiletto heels (great if you have any Disney fantasies, I guess). If they weren’t dressed up, they were decked out in Disney gear. And some of the most tacky Disney gear I’ve ever seen. People in Japan use towels a lot, too. It gets really hot here- and they carry towels with them to clear the sweat away. It makes sense, but at first glance, it’s kind of odd. Well, at the Disney Sea park, they don’t sell kids t-shirts, they don’t sell plush animals of famous characters. What do they sell? you guessed it, towels. It’s so strange to see thousands of people walking around a park with hooded towel capes- men too- of Minnie Mouse, Donald Duck and other famous characters.

Disney Sea was fun. It was nice to be somewhere familiar, even if it was very different. We went specifically for Mermaid Lagoon- for Luna. There is a whole land dedicated to mermaids and Luna was in Heaven. Luna still hasn’t seen The Little Mermaid, but loves the story and mermaids, so this was a big Birthday present for her and we were all excited. We rode Flounder’s Rollercoaster, The Pufferfish Balloon race, Luna met Ariel, and we went on other fun rides. It was interesting to see how Disney had repackaged things at the park to make them appeal to a different audience, or to new themes that they were promoting. In the Middle Eastern Land- where Aladdin was the flagship character, they made Dumbo into flying carpets! In Mermaid Lagoon, the teacups were disguised as seashells.

We had a blast- but as always, observed some very interesting things:

1) Japanese people apparently love popcorn. This park is supposedly famous because it sells about 12 different types of popcorn throughout the park- with only one kind being sold at each stand. People wait for 30 minutes for caramel popcorn, jalepeno and cheese, green tea, salt and milk tea. Milk tea was especially smelly and Josh and I literally ran past it because it smelled so awful to us. At this park, they sell bins, or collector buckets on straps that people carry around with them all day filled with popcorn. It was so strange. There were Christmas santa mickey popcorn bins, minnie bow bins, pooh bear bins, nantucket wicker baskets (from Cape Cod land in the park), and they become collector’s items! It was a riot.

2) The next thing that astonished us was the spectacle show that was put on mid-day. We were eating lunch and they ushered us out on a big balcony with some other folks to see it. We had no idea what was going on, or that there was even going to be a show, so we didn’t plan on going. However, we were happy to see it, and so it began. We were watching the lagoon, where the water floats were coming out on- they were all tropical themed and music was blaring, regular Disney style. Then something interesting happened. People dressed up in big colorful costumes came out and began spraying the crowd with what looked like fire hoses. Then the floats began spraying water at the crowds. People were screaming, music was blaring and everyone was soaking wet. I have never seen people go this crazy. Not for anything. This was so comical and surreal that we just laughed as people begged to be soaked to the bone. They were all dancing, screaming “hot-hot-hot” in English and then, when all 5,000+ Japanese people were drenched, the music ended, the floats went away, and people went on their way. The strange part? People lined the streets of this park for 3+ hours to get wet.

Overall, Disney Sea was really fun. It was wonderful to see Luna playing and so engaged in her imagination. She loved being there and exploring and seeing the stories in her head come to life. And she loves roller coasters, so we rode that three times. We’d recommend this for anyone wanting to get a Disney fix while abroad.