Summer-Caitlin
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Aug 15, 2006
- Messages
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Day 4, Part 6
Our crossover to Japan was smooth, one minute I was staring at a building reminiscent of colonial Philadelphia and the next a five story blue-roofed pagoda:
Since I was a child I have loved all things Japanese. My very first ornament, when I was only five years old, was of a Geisha that played traditional Japanese music. She was made of porcelain, was ghostly white and twirled gracefully to a haunting tune. I loved this ornament that my Grandmother had given me and had it for many years. Unfortunately on our trip back from Malta, my Geisha broke in my suitcase despite all of the overprotective packaging. I was heartbroken, I had grown up with her and although she was only an ornament to most she represented so much more to me. She was solace.
I would sit alone in my bedroom, turn the key, watch her dance, and listen. She was my entry to another world, and to me, she had been everything.
Upon entering Japan, the air filled with that haunting melody once again and I shed a lone tear for my Geisha.
We slowly walked through the Japanese hill garden, which has beautiful waterfalls and rustic bridges; we even found some Koi swimming amongst the rocks. I told my mom and Steven that all the plants in this garden had been imported from Japan but they didn’t seem to share my enthusiasm for the beauty of this place.
I have wanted to visit Japan since I was a little girl and my home now, even has some Japanese theming. From the Geisha doll and fans I own, to the wallpaper displaying Japanese symbols and my love for the rich décor of black, red and white, I had brought little bits of Japan to me. I do plan on visiting this beautiful country one day, I have a love for it that I can’t explain, but until that day I will happily tread the walkway of the ceremonial and coronation hall in the World Showcase.
Several years ago I read a touching book called Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Holden. It has now been made into a movie, which I am unsure that I will ever watch, as it could never live up to my expectations. Why mess with perfection? This book was beautiful, no word was wasted and I became completely immersed in her story. Since then, I have tried to read many books on Japanese culture as I find the world of the Geisha fascinating. None have come close to Memoirs, but they still all shine in their own way.
But I digress, my reason for this is, that I wanted to share a piece of me with you. This is why Japan in the World Showcase was my favourite country there and this is why I visited every store they had to offer and chose Japan as part of our Honeymoon shoot.
We entered into the Bijutsu-kan Gallery, which exhibits some authentic Geisha and Samurai costumes. The fabrics are beautiful and it took all my strength to not make a purchase. We came across some fans:
And we noticed beautiful swords, ornaments and jewellery on display. I swear I could have spent all my money here, but I refrained from taking out my purse as I was afraid it may never find it’s way back.
We must have spent about 40 minutes in this land and you can tell I loved it here.
Japan was beautiful, the buildings were magnificent and I felt Disney had gone out of their way to bring authenticity to this pavilion. I would highly recommend coming here, even if only for a short while, and just immerse yourself in the magic of Japan.
After my journey in Japan I wasn’t too excited about moving on to Morocco, but I knew I couldn’t stay forever so it had to be done.
Immediately I felt transported to Marrakesh with the markets and stall traders and the winding streets. The romance of this pavilion practically shouts. I didn’t expect to fall in love with this part, but it was stunning. The attention to detail was second to none and I felt like I could get lost among the many doorways and secret walkways I found. This was truly exceptional and although we didn’t visit Restaurant Marrakesh we came across a Belly dancer, dancing to traditional Middle Eastern music at the exit of the Morocco pavilion. I had wanted to get a bastila, but as I had chickened out of making a reservation here, I had to forget about it.
We visited the museum here and it was filled with exotic items and Moorish art. It seemed everywhere you turned there were more things to look at; it was like an Aladdin’s Cave.
We went into the area that can best be described as a Turkish Bath, really this is what it looks like, and stopped to take some pictures:
We were all getting really hot by this point and we all wanted a seat. I decided there was never going to be a right time to bring up the wedding meal to my mom, so I just had to go for it.
I hadn’t thought much about what I was going to say, but I began anyway…
“Mom, you know how we have our wedding meal booked at Victoria and Alberts?”
“Yes”
“Well you do realise it’s a very fancy menu, with loads of courses AND you will be out until at least midnight. Do you think it might be better if you stayed at the resort?”
“But I thought you wanted me to come”
I explained to her that it wasn’t that I didn’t want her to come, even putting my selfish needs aside, to be honest I didn’t think she would enjoy it. I had arranged to eat at V & A before Mom had decided to come to our Wedding. Initially it had just been Steven and I, and we were going to have the Intimate Ceremony just the two of us, but Mom had become very upset at the thought of missing her daughter marry and I didn’t want to be the one to deprive her of that. So we helped her come for the week of the Wedding. I had been looking into V & A for months before actually booking the wedding and I knew it was the place for us. It was the type of meal that would be so memorable and we would likely never do something so extravagant again. Steven and I were really looking forward to this, and after this week’s events, really wanted to do it alone.
I didn’t tell my mom this however as I knew this would hurt her feelings but I honestly thought it was in her best interest to stay at the resort. We would be waking up at 5.30am and it would be non stop until midnight that day, it would be a very long and tiring day for us all, but my mother would be standing around a lot as we would be getting our pictures taken after the ceremony and after the meal. I didn’t want her to not enjoy herself and I wanted her to look back fondly on the wedding day. The meal at V & A was definitely not to her taste, not that she wasn’t adventurous, but she wasn’t in to fancy food, I knew she would have felt out of place and I didn’t want her to be uncomfortable. I had catered to Steven and my tastes for our wedding meal and had specifically requested The Chefs Menu that night so we could sample all they had to offer; it was a once in a lifetime experience. Steven was never that adventurous with food, but he agreed it would be memorable.
I tell Mom all this and she says “but you knew I’d be tired and that I wouldn’t want to eat that much”
“I know but Steven and I really wanted to eat here for our Wedding meal, it’s supposed to be beautiful”
“So what am I supposed to do, I’ll miss your wedding, I mean that’s why I came”
I tell her that she won’t miss the wedding at all, everything else is still going ahead as planned, we will still have lunch at Citricos after the wedding, it just means after lunch we go back to the resort and she can stay there for the rest of the night. I explain to her that if she’s hungry later on she can go down to the Food Court, get something to eat and use one of her credits.
She seems disappointed and guilt overcomes me, I know deep down there are selfish reasons there but there are also kind reasons, thoughtful reasons that she doesn’t seem to understand. Steven jumps in to help me and tries to explain it more. She then says…
“Well I will be tired, but I thought you would be offended if I didn’t go? I’d quite happily sit in my room and read a book. Are you sure you wouldn’t be offended if I didn’t go?”
I feel relieved but also annoyed. For days I had been asking my mom’s opinion on what she wanted to do that day, where she wanted to go, what she wanted to eat, etc, etc. I had been asking this for months prior to the wedding so that I could arrange a schedule and we could do everything she wanted to do in a week. But at no point, not once during this vacation, had she ever made it clear to me of anything she wanted to do, it was always my suggestions, my decisions. This would be fine during the 2 weeks we had alone, but I wanted my mom to really enjoy her vacation and get everything she wanted out of it and sitting in her room, reading a book was not the right answer. She could do that anywhere, but she didn’t spend all that money and fly 9 hours to do that.
She always worried that she would disappoint me if she didn’t want to do something, but I had based all my decisions on her go ahead prior to us going to Florida. It just seemed that once we arrived, she had lost all knowledge of hers and our plans and we were right back at square one. The only time I was ever disappointed was when it was clear she wasn’t enjoying herself and didn’t say. I mean, I wanted her to express her opinion and make suggestions, geez, but she relied on me constantly for everything and I was nearing breaking point. Steven and I needed the alone time to be fair to all of us.
“Mom, I will not be offended if you don’t go, I think you would prefer to eat ‘normal’ food and I know how tired you will be, you said yourself you want to get to sleep at a decent hour and there is no way we will get home before 12am”.
“Well okay, I would prefer it anyway, I don’t want to eat 10 courses and it’s all fancy food. I’ll just get something to eat later and maybe look round the resort”.
“So are you okay with that? I mean I’ll show you where to go to get food”.
“Yeah, I’ll be fine, it’s better this way”.
Steven and I look at each other, both clearly surprised at her magical turnaround. I breathe a sigh of relief and make a mental note to call V & A to change the reservation to 2. Mom gets up and seems much happier so Steven and I take each other’s hands and sidle out of Morocco.
We escape into France, unsure if my mom will be able to maintain this façade. We bypass Les Chefs de France and I express my disappointment at not keeping our lunchtime reservation. I had originally booked to have lunch here at 12pm but as we would be paying OOP and eating at Le Cellier at 6.00pm I didn’t see the reason behind booking 2 TS restaurants so close to one another, so we skipped out on this one. The exterior of the restaurant was beautiful and the warm, smell of pastries drifted up through the air. It seemed extremely busy; it was obviously a very popular spot.
Although I missed out on our reservation this time I decided I would make another lunch booking for our next visit (hopefully next year). I had heard mixed reviews about the food so had no intentions of coming here for dinner but the set lunch menu sounded gorgeous and it was worth a try.
We walked on and saw a glorious fountain with the Eiffel Tower as a backdrop. Pillars were decorated with newspapers, just like in Paris and there was a little garden with decorative miniature hedgerows overlooking the International Gateway.
I had already decided not to view Impressions de France. It was 20-minute show and although this didn’t bother me, I didn’t think my mom or Steven would enjoy this attraction so it didn’t matter how long it was. We didn’t even go up near the Eiffel Tower; in fact we actually viewed it more from the bridge, as we didn’t spend much time in France or take any pictures.
We did however take these pictures from the bridge of Morocco, Japan and France:
I am hoping next time to spend more time here, I know, I’m beginning to sound like a broken record! Although I was enjoying World Showcase, I knew I wasn’t giving it the time it deserved. We planned on coming back so hoped to take more time and more photos. So on our third time round we did exactly that…
Coming up…
What, the UK already? Canada, and does dinner at Le Cellier meet our expectations?
Our crossover to Japan was smooth, one minute I was staring at a building reminiscent of colonial Philadelphia and the next a five story blue-roofed pagoda:
Since I was a child I have loved all things Japanese. My very first ornament, when I was only five years old, was of a Geisha that played traditional Japanese music. She was made of porcelain, was ghostly white and twirled gracefully to a haunting tune. I loved this ornament that my Grandmother had given me and had it for many years. Unfortunately on our trip back from Malta, my Geisha broke in my suitcase despite all of the overprotective packaging. I was heartbroken, I had grown up with her and although she was only an ornament to most she represented so much more to me. She was solace.
I would sit alone in my bedroom, turn the key, watch her dance, and listen. She was my entry to another world, and to me, she had been everything.
Upon entering Japan, the air filled with that haunting melody once again and I shed a lone tear for my Geisha.
We slowly walked through the Japanese hill garden, which has beautiful waterfalls and rustic bridges; we even found some Koi swimming amongst the rocks. I told my mom and Steven that all the plants in this garden had been imported from Japan but they didn’t seem to share my enthusiasm for the beauty of this place.
I have wanted to visit Japan since I was a little girl and my home now, even has some Japanese theming. From the Geisha doll and fans I own, to the wallpaper displaying Japanese symbols and my love for the rich décor of black, red and white, I had brought little bits of Japan to me. I do plan on visiting this beautiful country one day, I have a love for it that I can’t explain, but until that day I will happily tread the walkway of the ceremonial and coronation hall in the World Showcase.
Several years ago I read a touching book called Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Holden. It has now been made into a movie, which I am unsure that I will ever watch, as it could never live up to my expectations. Why mess with perfection? This book was beautiful, no word was wasted and I became completely immersed in her story. Since then, I have tried to read many books on Japanese culture as I find the world of the Geisha fascinating. None have come close to Memoirs, but they still all shine in their own way.
But I digress, my reason for this is, that I wanted to share a piece of me with you. This is why Japan in the World Showcase was my favourite country there and this is why I visited every store they had to offer and chose Japan as part of our Honeymoon shoot.
We entered into the Bijutsu-kan Gallery, which exhibits some authentic Geisha and Samurai costumes. The fabrics are beautiful and it took all my strength to not make a purchase. We came across some fans:
And we noticed beautiful swords, ornaments and jewellery on display. I swear I could have spent all my money here, but I refrained from taking out my purse as I was afraid it may never find it’s way back.
We must have spent about 40 minutes in this land and you can tell I loved it here.
Japan was beautiful, the buildings were magnificent and I felt Disney had gone out of their way to bring authenticity to this pavilion. I would highly recommend coming here, even if only for a short while, and just immerse yourself in the magic of Japan.
After my journey in Japan I wasn’t too excited about moving on to Morocco, but I knew I couldn’t stay forever so it had to be done.
Immediately I felt transported to Marrakesh with the markets and stall traders and the winding streets. The romance of this pavilion practically shouts. I didn’t expect to fall in love with this part, but it was stunning. The attention to detail was second to none and I felt like I could get lost among the many doorways and secret walkways I found. This was truly exceptional and although we didn’t visit Restaurant Marrakesh we came across a Belly dancer, dancing to traditional Middle Eastern music at the exit of the Morocco pavilion. I had wanted to get a bastila, but as I had chickened out of making a reservation here, I had to forget about it.
We visited the museum here and it was filled with exotic items and Moorish art. It seemed everywhere you turned there were more things to look at; it was like an Aladdin’s Cave.
We went into the area that can best be described as a Turkish Bath, really this is what it looks like, and stopped to take some pictures:
We were all getting really hot by this point and we all wanted a seat. I decided there was never going to be a right time to bring up the wedding meal to my mom, so I just had to go for it.
I hadn’t thought much about what I was going to say, but I began anyway…
“Mom, you know how we have our wedding meal booked at Victoria and Alberts?”
“Yes”
“Well you do realise it’s a very fancy menu, with loads of courses AND you will be out until at least midnight. Do you think it might be better if you stayed at the resort?”
“But I thought you wanted me to come”
I explained to her that it wasn’t that I didn’t want her to come, even putting my selfish needs aside, to be honest I didn’t think she would enjoy it. I had arranged to eat at V & A before Mom had decided to come to our Wedding. Initially it had just been Steven and I, and we were going to have the Intimate Ceremony just the two of us, but Mom had become very upset at the thought of missing her daughter marry and I didn’t want to be the one to deprive her of that. So we helped her come for the week of the Wedding. I had been looking into V & A for months before actually booking the wedding and I knew it was the place for us. It was the type of meal that would be so memorable and we would likely never do something so extravagant again. Steven and I were really looking forward to this, and after this week’s events, really wanted to do it alone.
I didn’t tell my mom this however as I knew this would hurt her feelings but I honestly thought it was in her best interest to stay at the resort. We would be waking up at 5.30am and it would be non stop until midnight that day, it would be a very long and tiring day for us all, but my mother would be standing around a lot as we would be getting our pictures taken after the ceremony and after the meal. I didn’t want her to not enjoy herself and I wanted her to look back fondly on the wedding day. The meal at V & A was definitely not to her taste, not that she wasn’t adventurous, but she wasn’t in to fancy food, I knew she would have felt out of place and I didn’t want her to be uncomfortable. I had catered to Steven and my tastes for our wedding meal and had specifically requested The Chefs Menu that night so we could sample all they had to offer; it was a once in a lifetime experience. Steven was never that adventurous with food, but he agreed it would be memorable.
I tell Mom all this and she says “but you knew I’d be tired and that I wouldn’t want to eat that much”
“I know but Steven and I really wanted to eat here for our Wedding meal, it’s supposed to be beautiful”
“So what am I supposed to do, I’ll miss your wedding, I mean that’s why I came”
I tell her that she won’t miss the wedding at all, everything else is still going ahead as planned, we will still have lunch at Citricos after the wedding, it just means after lunch we go back to the resort and she can stay there for the rest of the night. I explain to her that if she’s hungry later on she can go down to the Food Court, get something to eat and use one of her credits.
She seems disappointed and guilt overcomes me, I know deep down there are selfish reasons there but there are also kind reasons, thoughtful reasons that she doesn’t seem to understand. Steven jumps in to help me and tries to explain it more. She then says…
“Well I will be tired, but I thought you would be offended if I didn’t go? I’d quite happily sit in my room and read a book. Are you sure you wouldn’t be offended if I didn’t go?”
I feel relieved but also annoyed. For days I had been asking my mom’s opinion on what she wanted to do that day, where she wanted to go, what she wanted to eat, etc, etc. I had been asking this for months prior to the wedding so that I could arrange a schedule and we could do everything she wanted to do in a week. But at no point, not once during this vacation, had she ever made it clear to me of anything she wanted to do, it was always my suggestions, my decisions. This would be fine during the 2 weeks we had alone, but I wanted my mom to really enjoy her vacation and get everything she wanted out of it and sitting in her room, reading a book was not the right answer. She could do that anywhere, but she didn’t spend all that money and fly 9 hours to do that.
She always worried that she would disappoint me if she didn’t want to do something, but I had based all my decisions on her go ahead prior to us going to Florida. It just seemed that once we arrived, she had lost all knowledge of hers and our plans and we were right back at square one. The only time I was ever disappointed was when it was clear she wasn’t enjoying herself and didn’t say. I mean, I wanted her to express her opinion and make suggestions, geez, but she relied on me constantly for everything and I was nearing breaking point. Steven and I needed the alone time to be fair to all of us.
“Mom, I will not be offended if you don’t go, I think you would prefer to eat ‘normal’ food and I know how tired you will be, you said yourself you want to get to sleep at a decent hour and there is no way we will get home before 12am”.
“Well okay, I would prefer it anyway, I don’t want to eat 10 courses and it’s all fancy food. I’ll just get something to eat later and maybe look round the resort”.
“So are you okay with that? I mean I’ll show you where to go to get food”.
“Yeah, I’ll be fine, it’s better this way”.
Steven and I look at each other, both clearly surprised at her magical turnaround. I breathe a sigh of relief and make a mental note to call V & A to change the reservation to 2. Mom gets up and seems much happier so Steven and I take each other’s hands and sidle out of Morocco.
We escape into France, unsure if my mom will be able to maintain this façade. We bypass Les Chefs de France and I express my disappointment at not keeping our lunchtime reservation. I had originally booked to have lunch here at 12pm but as we would be paying OOP and eating at Le Cellier at 6.00pm I didn’t see the reason behind booking 2 TS restaurants so close to one another, so we skipped out on this one. The exterior of the restaurant was beautiful and the warm, smell of pastries drifted up through the air. It seemed extremely busy; it was obviously a very popular spot.
Although I missed out on our reservation this time I decided I would make another lunch booking for our next visit (hopefully next year). I had heard mixed reviews about the food so had no intentions of coming here for dinner but the set lunch menu sounded gorgeous and it was worth a try.
We walked on and saw a glorious fountain with the Eiffel Tower as a backdrop. Pillars were decorated with newspapers, just like in Paris and there was a little garden with decorative miniature hedgerows overlooking the International Gateway.
I had already decided not to view Impressions de France. It was 20-minute show and although this didn’t bother me, I didn’t think my mom or Steven would enjoy this attraction so it didn’t matter how long it was. We didn’t even go up near the Eiffel Tower; in fact we actually viewed it more from the bridge, as we didn’t spend much time in France or take any pictures.
We did however take these pictures from the bridge of Morocco, Japan and France:
I am hoping next time to spend more time here, I know, I’m beginning to sound like a broken record! Although I was enjoying World Showcase, I knew I wasn’t giving it the time it deserved. We planned on coming back so hoped to take more time and more photos. So on our third time round we did exactly that…
Coming up…
What, the UK already? Canada, and does dinner at Le Cellier meet our expectations?
Sounds like it will be delicious!
Definately some lands are way better than others. I do love World Showcase though, but I loved it much better the 3rd time round.
I don't think I'll be able to eat there this year, but maybe next year when DH & I go to celebrate our 25th Anniversary!
I hope it didn't last too long. 
