Trip Report - Universal Studios Japan and Tokyo Disney November 2013

[FireflyFi]

Welcome to my first ever trip report! I've always wanted to write one, and planned on doing so for the trip I made to Japan in November 2013. I even bought a laptop before travelling with the idea of keeping some notes down while I was away, but alas, Japan is just too much fun a country and much too easy to find things to do, that by the time I would take some rest, I was pretty much exhausted! So this report will be entirely based on memory, with hopefully some jogging from the many, many photos I have taken

So, Japan has been one of those countries on my list for a while now, and earlier in the year I read an article at work talking about how the Yen was the best currency in terms of it's buying power against the AUD for the year. Originally, 2013 was going to be a quiet travel year, with maybe a domestic trip. (Oh yeah, I'm a 32 years old, single and in Australia.) I thought maybe a trip to the Northern Territory or something like that for 2013. Turns out it's much cheaper to go overseas than travel in your own country...! So after reading that article, I spoke to a friend who has been to Japan a number of times and she mentioned 'they have a Disney, you know...?' SOLD!

I think this was about April, so I started doing some research. I found the TDLR crowd calendar to look for some of the quieter periods, and started planning from there. I also made a list of other places I wanted to visit, and pretty much had it set for a week in Osaka followed by a week in Tokyo, including four days in Disney. Disney was put towards the end of the trip so I wouldn't have to drag around all the merchandise I was sure to buy hehe

I won't go into detail on the other days in Japan, but here's my itinerary in the end:

7 November - fly Melbourne to Cairns
8 November - fly Cairns to Osaka
9 November - free day. I ended up needing to find an Aus/Japan power adaptor, so I started walking in the morning and ended up at Shinsaibashi for lots of fun shopping
10 November - Universal Studios Japan
11 November - Nara
12 November - Minoo
13 November - Kyoto
14 November - Kyoto
15 November - Osaka shopping, bullet train to Tokyo, Disneysea
16 November - Odaiba
17 November - Harajuku
18-21 November - Tokyo Disney
22 November - Tokyo shopping
23 November - Fly to Cairns to Melbourne

So if you're planning on going to Japan and want any info on these places, let me know and I'll see if I can help. There is lots of information out there for touring Japan (google Japan Guide), not quite as much on Disney (well, not to the level most Disney tourers are after! ) and almost none at all on Universal Studios. I wanted to be able to give some information back to the world that might assist with people's planning, and I was a bit disappointed that I couldn't find the time or energy to keep notes on what I was doing and what I had discovered - because there were a few tricks that I hadn't seen mentioned anywhere that could be a great help. That's why this report has taken so long! haha so let's start now...

 

[planningjollyholiday]

Looking forward to reading more! You're right that there is not much out there for disneyland planning, and so I am greatful for any tips you might be able to pass along.

 

[FireflyFi]

Alright, I'll go chronologically and start with Universal Studios Japan.

When I first started planning, I had a look at the park, and thought it really wasn't that much different to Universal Studios Orlando, which I had been to just the year before and likely to return to in 2014. So it was initially struck off the list. Then a couple of months into planning, during one of my many late night / early morning googling sessions I came across a new experience they had put together called Biohazard: The Real. To say my interest was piqued is an understatement. for those that don't know, Biohazard is a series of video games, better known to the rest of the world as Resident Evil. So they had basically built a real life 'game' for people to run through (with zombies and mutants, but I'll get onto that later).

As a new experience, it was only going to be around for a short time, and was going to close in time with the closing of Hollywood Horror Nights. That was just two days after I arrived in Osaka. Talk about fate! So shuffle the itinerary, and USJ is back on the menu

I'll just say that buying tickets from USJ was a struggle. You can buy them online, but to get all the different ticket variations (and there are many!) you need to use the Japanese site. From memory, there are only a couple of the most basic tickets available through their English website. And because I was going during HHN, the options were even more confusing.

From what I can recall (and what I could understand...!) they were running three different HHN experiences - The Mummy, Jason and Biohazard. You could choose one, and only one, to combine with your ticket or just buy a vanilla HHN ticket.

I had monitored the tickets for a while (the website has a calendar of availability) and looked good to buy a HHN ticket including BtR...up until the time I actually decided to buy, and suddenly they were all sold out! Cue much clicking backwards and forwards between the ticket pages trying to somehow manipulate the system to sell me a ticket for BtR It seemed that if I wanted to buy a HHN ticket (which was about $50-60) I would also need to be a normal entry ticket as well (about $60-70). The tricky part was I couldn't buy a HHN ticket that included BtR plus a normal ticket, but I could buy a normal ticket that included BtR plus a standard HHN ticket.

I took a chance, made the purchase and hoped for the best! Ok, enough background, let's start the trip...

Like just about any trip around Japan, it all starts with a train ride and USJ does have a dedicated train that is all stickered up with pictures of their park characters. Unfortunately, because it was one of my first train rides around Japan and I was a bit nervous, I didn't get a picture of it, but you'll find plenty of them around the internet. I'll add here that, after a couple of goes, the trains in Japan are very, very easy to travel with. The ticketing system is amazing, the layout of the stations is usually easy to navigate, and the signs are almost always in both Japanese and English (along with the announcements on the train). I would recommend that anyone visiting should learn the katakana and hiragana characters to help you get by.

So, back on the platform, I knew I was in the right place because I was surrounded by teenagers and most of them were either dressed up or made up like zombies. I'm surprised I can't spot more of them in my photos, because they seemed to be everywhere! See if you can spot them haha

Once you exit the train, just follow the signs (or the crowd) up to Citywalk. I had a few shots along the way, but the crowd was hustling so much that most of them came out blurry (and I was clearly out of practice when it came to photo taking). This one as at the end of Citywalk, looking to the right:

And then looking straight ahead:

All pretty for halloween oh yeah, and it was drizzly that day. Didn't seem to bother me, but for the Japanese it seemed it took just a couple of drops for all the umbrellas to come out hehe what you can't quite see is just beyond those gates in the ticket gates. USJ is quite the opposite of TDLR where almost everyone needs to line up to talk to the person at the window (to buy or swap online bought tickets). So the line was thick, deep and very slow moving. I'm pretty sure I was lined by about 8:45, but didn't get through the gates until about 9:10.

At USJ you can buy 'express passes' and these are much the same (from my understanding) as those you can buy for USO. You get one FOTL pass for a ride (or in some cases a choice of rides). So once passing through the ticket gates I had to go to Guest Services to pick up my express passes. That part was quick, and like anytime I had to interact with a customer service person, they were very courteous. With a quick 'arigatou' and a little bow, I was on my way. Because I had to give up my express pass tickets one at a time, I took photos of a couple of them. Lucky for you guys, eh

And then onto main street

This shot is of a girl getting her face painted for halloween. There's no one waiting there at this time in the morning, but later in the day the lines for these stations (they were dotted around the park) were about 30 people long

Love the detail in the decorations in Japan. Look at the second floor window of this store and you make out a little ghost.

Oh, and speaking of theme-ing (is that a word? Google doesn't like it...), the whole time I was at USJ they only played halloween (sorta) songs. Loudly. And repeatedly. I have no idea how many times I heard the Purple People Eater or some other song about witches that I hadn't heard of before, but it was seriously mind numbing! They were all in English, which was odd, and made me think it might be less noticeable and annoying to the Japanese visitors. But yeah...wow it was strange!

Here's The Mummy. I'm not sure that it's actually a ride. I didn't get to go because it was closing at 3pm to be made over for HHN and so the lines were long all day

And Terminator.

Terminator is one of the express pass options - don't waste it. I walked right on, and because it's a theatre show, lots of capacity. Even though it was in Japanese (even the videos of Sarah and John Connor were dubbed) I still enjoyed it. Pretty easy to follow along, it's not the most complicated of stories lol

And I think if you keep walking down main street, on the left there is Space Fantasy and then a big store is the last thing on the left, and then this is directly in front:

i love a big Christmas tree, and this one was huge! It was only the start of the Christmas decorations, and pretty much all they had so far. Would love to see it all lit up! I think the lighting ceremony was about a week later (I saw ads for it, looks like it was a big deal).

Then turning right, there's Spiderman:

And next along is Biohazard: The Real

Now here's a sign that caused me a bit of confusion:

When I read it, to me it looks like it's pointing to the ticket buying to BtR next to Spiderman and the actual experience is more towards the middle of the park. So when my allotted time was nearing, I stood at the entrance of this (studio...?) but there was no one in site. There were a few other Japanese people who did the same thing. Eventually some service people came along (dressed in Biohazard gear hehe) and spoke to the Japanese people, who looked disappointed and walked away. Not knowing what they said, I continued to stand there looking confused. They were a bit hesitant to approach (there was a lot of this through my trip, sort of a hesitation about their English language skills, but more than made up for by their willingness to help!) and one tried to explain that the tickets were sold out. I tried to explain that I already had a ticket, and had to pull it out to show him, and then he pointed back to the sign to say I needed to be over near Spiderman.

Anyway, back to the story, right next to BtR was a photo place that had displays of Biohazard gear (almost all the merchandise was sold out ) and where you could have your photo taken in a Umbrella vest in front of a green screen. I had a photo done (of course I did!) but it's not fit for print here lol so here's some shots from the store

The experience itself...well, this is the only photo I could take

You walked into the building, and then up a couple of sets of stairs that were made to look like a subway. It was dusty and dark, with graffiti sprayed across the walls. It was really quite nerve wracking. Eventually we came to a little hallway, and were told to wait in front of a door. The wait wasn't terribly long, but the constant screaming from inside really set me on edge. Once the doors opened a CM started explaining to everyone about the 'guns' we had to use. They were like a long wrist strap that velcro-ed on. It had a LED display for your level of infection and had a cord connecting to the plastic gun that you held in the same hand. Just a handgun. I've been playing these games for a long time, and I knew I'd be better off with something a lot more powerful...! The objective is to remain alive. Each time a zombie got too close to you, your level of infection would rise to the point that you would become infected (basically, dead...or undead!) I was handed a laminated page in English that explained all this...and that the experience would be terrifying, so if I had any medical issues that would cause me to die from fright, I should probably sit it out. Pfft.

So then we waited at the next door, which opened to a sort of alleyway scene. I have to say, that the rest of my 'crew' (there were maybe 6 or 8 of us) were all couples. And they were all pretty much useless because the girls were all scared and clinging to the guys, and the guys couldn't do much because the girls were hanging off them hahaha so, walk through the alleyway and then a zombie pops out from behind a couple of garbage bins. I shoot at him a couple of times, and then another crawls out from around the corner (she is literally sliding army crawl style across the floor). To keep the crowd moving, a zombie comes out from behind the door we first entered to scare us and push us through the next scene. All the scenes were partitioned.

So after the first scene, I was pretty much at the front of the pack, with the clingers and clingees dawdling on behind me. Not that I was some kind of plastic gun slinging Milla Jovovich! Each time a zombie popped out I screamed. And screamed and screamed. But someone had to take the lead. So through the next door and it's a bar scene. The door opens to the right, the bar is on the left and there is another door just on the other side of the bar. As I walk through the door (first) a great big zombie (imagine an undead version of one of those padded sumo suits - I think it was actually an inflatable) rushes out and flings himself across the bar at me. Wahhh! I think it was at this point that I became infected. It was another couple of scenes before I had the nerve and sense to check the level on my wrist, but I'm pretty sure this is what took me out.

Of the other scenes that I can recall (I'm surprised I can remember, it seemed to go really fast!) there was one that was a tight, maze like walkthrough that was lots of corners. At one point you turn a corner, and there is a short wall in front of you (just a little taller than me) and on top of it sits a Licker. *shudder* It's an animatronic, but if you've ever played the game, you will know these things are lethal! One swipe of their claws or whip of their tongue and you're a goner! And it was positioned in such a way that you had to walk closely around it

The last scene I remember was probably the end of the trip. You walk into a room that's a lot more open than all the others, and there were two big arched gates. I think this was kinda like Resident Evil 4 where the ogre like monster comes out. There's a CM there waiting for us and she checks all our infection levels. We're all dead (or undead) so we're told to go through the gate on the right and the experience is over. I have a feeling if you manage to survive, you take the gate to the left for an extra part. Apparently the survival rate was less than 1%, so I don't feel too bad about my efforts lol

And then I took a knees-still-shaking walk down the stairs back out into the light and had a little sit down to calm my nerves hehehe

Well, my laptop is running out of charge, so I might have to stop here and do USJ part 2 later. (btw - just as well I stopped, I didn't know about the 25 images rule. I had to take all the emoticons out to fit! So just know the original version had a lot more smilies and laughing lol)

 

[FireflyFi]

Continuing...I forgot to add that right before I went for BtR, I thought I better get a quick snack. I couldn't face the zombies on an empty stomach. I didn't have enough time for a full meal, so I stopped by Beverly Hills Boulangerie for a quick snack. This was to set off my many adventures of food shaped as things, which can be found all over Japan:

Looks cute, doesn't it? It wasn't all that exciting to eat. Like most cakes in Japan (not that I tried too many, but they all looked this way) it was just sponge with lots of cream. There might have been a hint of flavour there, but not enough to tingle my overworked western tastebuds.

Ok, so after BtR I thought I would stop for lunch to calm down a bit. This is directly across the road from the BtR building:

And then next door to that is Mel's Drive In:

I really wanted to try this, as I missed it at Orlando - disappointing given the number of times my dad made me watch American Graffiti as a kid. But I walked in and saw the place was basically counter service and saw that the hamburgers were about 2800Y...!!! Uhmmm, no. That was an outrageous price for a theme park hamburger. In most cases, the park food in Japan is quite affordable, but this just took my breath away. So I walked back out, must have looked at the map and figured the other best food places were towards the back of the park, and decided to finish off the big rides in the New York area of the park.

So that means I jumped on the Spiderman ride (just as I remember from Orlando) and on Space Fantasy:

Now, if there is one ride you should run to in the morning, this is it! See, there's such a lack of info on USJ, I had no idea...but this ride was just so much fun! It's a little like Space Mountain, it is a loopy, lifty, droppy indoor rollercoaster.

I walked up to entrance, and as soon as the CM out the front spotted me, she directed me to a test seat - it is a very small ride, and I'm not built like most Japanese people. In the ride you sit in these little two person plastic molded pods, and I think there was a bar that came across the top of you. So when I sat in it, my knees touched the edge of the pod. I'm only 163cm tall, and you have to be at least 122cm tall to ride, so a pretty narrow range. Although, I am a big girl, so if your behind is smaller than mine, you could probably be a little taller and get away with it after giving me the ok sign (all the CM's in Japan, both at USJ and TDLR give what I think of as the 'perfect' sign with their hands - tips of thumb and index finger held together in an O shape, other three fingers held straight up, it's very cute, cuter than a thumbs up ) the CM was distracted by another guest and then I couldn't figure out the split between the normal line and the express line. I ended up in the normal line and tried asking a couple of people, but they couldn't understand what I was trying to ask. Luckily, a CM spotted me and came over and directed me towards the express line, but first tried to get me on the test seat again (it's ok, I've done that) so then sent me to a set of lockers. You're not allowed to carry anything on the ride, and the lockers cost 100Y. I didn't have the right change, so I had to ask the CM what to do, and he pointed me towards a change machine.

With my bag safely stored, I walked back to the line and found a third CM who tried to direct me towards the test seat again after assurances from one of the first couple of CM's that I've already done it, they sent me down the corridor towards the ride (I really didn't mind all the insistence on trying the test seat - better than have me waste time in line for a ride I couldn't fit on).

So the corridor is pretty long. It's all blue and lit up with tv screens above and in lots of the walls. There is a little show beforehand that I think is something about a fairy asking us riders to travel to some distant planet and save the little aliens. It was in Japanese, so this is just my interpretation of the images lol and then eventually you come to the travelator that runs alongside the ride's track. The pods come in pairs, one behind the other (and possibly away from each other?), and they each independently spin. So sometimes when you're travelling up or down the track, you might be going sideways or backwards, depending on what pod you're in (you don't control the spin). I don't really remember what the scenes included, other than they were stunningly beautiful! I remember, at least at the very end of the ride, that it was all shiny and sparkly (and I love that!) and with the movement of the ride I just had one of those wide eyed, mouth agape in slight smile expression the whole time. I can't remember how they achieved the shiny sparkle - was it just lights? Was it LED screens? Was it some kind of metal shapes on the wall that made the light bounce? I cannot remember, so the best I can describe it is....wowwwwwww

Most of the rides at USJ make you exit via the gift shop, and that's where I spotted these guys:

So the little yellow guy is the mascot (?) for the Space Fantasy ride, and these are stacks of (adult!) underwear featuring his design. It was such a bizarre piece of merchandising. If you like characters on your underwear, get yourself to a theme park in Japan, because they are everywhere! I took the photo of this one because it's such an obscure character. I can imagine their might be a market for Pink Panther underwear or Sesame Street character underwear or Spiderman underwear, but for a character that only exists for a single ride in a park...?

After this, I walked over to Amity Village to check out the food options.

I came across a couple that were seafood and asian, which didn't excite me, but then found Amity Landing Restaurant. This place has fried chicken, which was actually pretty good:

Oh, the Chip and Dale pouch I bought in Shinsaibashi Disney Store as I couldn't find my original camera holder thingy. It's a gorgeous store, but I couldn't buy too much at that point (day one hehehe).

If you get a window seat at this place (and it was pretty quiet when I arrived) you look out over the water route of the Jaws ride:

And if you look closely...look close...do you see that? Ok, here's a closer one:

Hogwarts! It wasn't open when I was there (I think it opens early this year) as you can see from the muggle scaffolding still on the outside of the building. A shame I was too early to enjoy it, but still, a bit of a thrill to just look at the window and 'is that...what I think it is...??'

I've probably filled my image quota, so next post...

 

[FireflyFi]

Ok, this should be the last post on USJ...

Just after lunch the overcast skies finally gave up and it started to rain. Not too heavy, so I pulled out my poncho and pressed on...and made the stupidest decision of the day. I figured that because it was raining a little, I might as well get on the Jurassic Park ride. I mean, I'm a little wet anyway, the splash at the end won't make too much of a difference. Ugh....

Before I get to that, here are a couple of photos:

Now here's a tip - there's a restaurant up near the ride that is supposed to look like the lobby from the movie. There was a CM that was spruiking out the front that was offering an extra express pass if you eat there. Too bad I had already had lunch (although, I'm not a huge fan of the JPR, the drop...) but yeah, if you're heading there, might be worth checking out. I didn't go in - actually, the area around JPR is a bit confusing, with lots of little winding paths surrounded by big jungly trees.

So I handed over my express pass and got in line. There's a hilarious safety video showing at the end of the queue that talks about not smoking or eating or drinking on the ride. All of these bad behaviours were done by a large western guy while the surrounding Japanese tourists all looked horrified haha

As I got on the ride, I realised how wrong my decision was. I had completely forgot that half the ride takes place outside and without any sort of cover. So all I could do was sit there in the slow moving boat while the rain got heavier and heavier and I became more and more saturated...! Ugh, very unpleasant! The ride was much the same as the Orlando version, if maybe a little shorter in the inside part.

By the time I got off my jeans and long sleeved tshirt were soaked through and heavy and uncomfortable. The rain had eased, but I wasn't feeling like rushing to the next ride, so took a few minutes to sit under a tree with a Snoopy bun. You haven't heard of these? That's a damn shame!

The Snoopy was full of chocolate custard, and the Hello Kitty full of strawberry. And they're warm Snoopy was really quite yummy, but perhaps a little disturbing to bite into his face haha

Once I pulled myself together I walked over to Jaws. The rain started again. I haven't been on the Jaws ride before, and the CM gives commentary completely in Japanese, but the jumps and bumps of the shark and the explosions was still effective. I think it was about 5pm at this stage, so dropped by the Jaws store and bought a few things including a Universal globe and Jaws Nanoblocks, and shark shaped mittens, complete with teeth and fins hehehe and this was my first experience with the Japanese idea of buying gifts.

I assume that this goes along with their gift buying culture, but every time you buy multiple items (from theme parks, I didn't notice it much outside of this) the store will provide you with the same number of bags as the number of items that you purchase. So if you buy six things, they will pack everything into one big bag, and then provide six extra bags to fit the individual items in. It works really well that you can then give souvenir gifts to people you come home to in a themed bag. I did quite a bit of this (although, the percentage of stuff that I bought as gifts was small compared to the amount of stuff I bought for myself, so I have many leftover Universal and Disney bag )

Then I decided to go check out the Backdraft experience. I've heard it's a bit of a dud, but it's one of those that only exists in USJ (I think) and being not that popular, could be knocked off before I get to go back. So I may as well check it out.

When I first walked up, from the front it looked like it was a walk on. But you walk around the back of the building and there's a long roped off line. Figuring it was an experience that has lots of people standing around watching it, I thought the line would move pretty quickly. But it didn't. I stood there and waited...and waited...and waited...it must have been about an hour at least and the line hadn't moved! And I got to the point where I had been standing so long, I didn't know if my back would be too stiff to crawl under the rope and escape. Meanwhile, there was drizzle every now and then, and the bags of items that I had bought - Universal's bags are paper - were disintegrating. So I made an escape.

By the time I made it out of there, the crowd level had significantly increased. It was getting dark and places were being shut off for HHN. So I walked over to Back to the Future and traded in my express pass (all dubbed in Japanese), bought some more stuff from the store there (including a big square plastic bag which I wasn't charged for, I think that was a mistake).

At this point I was getting pretty miserable. Still wet, and getting tired, and struggling to work through the crowd. I walked back towards the Hollywood Dream, which I still had an express pass for. I had put off using it because I don't like outdoor rollercoasters, and I needed to psych myself up for it. Anyway, it shut down when the rain started (phew, haha). So there was a massive backlog when it opened again. When I walked past it was...wanna guess the wait time?...you'll never get it...! 180 minutes for the EXPRESS LINE The non express line was somewhere in the 300's. So yeah, I had a good excuse to not ride it hahaha (really dodged a bullet there!)

So instead, I shopped. One thing to keep in mind is, because of the gift giving culture in Japan, the shops get super crowded towards the end of the night. So it's a real battle to get the gear that you want, and there is just so much cool stuff to buy. I have just one photo to share (I didn't want to elbow some kid in the head pulling out my camera every other minute):

Snoopy waffles! The display model is plastic, of course

So with my bag loaded with more Nanoblocks and making the big effort to walk away without a Pink Panther plushy, I left USJ. So I didn't even see any of the HHN! A real shame (not to mention waste of money buying a ticket I didn't use - not that I really saw them making any sort of effort to monitor who had tickets or not) but I was so over the wet and the crowds, I needed to move on.

I stopped at Hard Rock Cafe and bought some expensive enchiladas. I love Mexican, and tried it a few times in Japan, and it was always delicious. Not surprising given Japanese attention to detail and emphasis on freshness, which works well with Mexican. The HRC in Japan experience was made just that much more special by a guy playing acoustic guitar in the restaurant. In particular he played a version of Take Me Home Country Road, which just made me think of that Studio Ghibli movie I had watched before my trip (Whisper of the heart?). Oh! And I just remembered, when the bill arrived, the waitress had hand drawn a picture of Spongebob! Damn...why didn't I keep that? Or at least take a photo...? Oh well...look out for the start of the Disney experience in the next post

 

[PrincessInOz]

YAY!! You're doing a Japan TR.

I'll be avidly reading along.

Great start.

 

[PrincessInOz]

WOW!!!! Hogwarts? At USJ? Wonder when it's opening?

ETA. Just googled. "sometime in 2014".

 

[ChrisFL]

Great report so far. I've never been to USJ or Osaka yet, and interesting to have some first-hand accounts of it.

I think the only permanent unique attraction they have is Space Fantasy, compared to Universal in the states.

Backdraft is (was?) in Universal Hollywood.

 

[FireflyFi]

WOW!!!! Hogwarts? At USJ? Wonder when it's opening?

ETA. Just googled. "sometime in 2014".

Thanks for the feedback

I still get emails from USJ and the last few I got were for tickets to the opening. I didn't exactly read the details (my reading skills have disappeared fast!) but I got the impression certain tickets were already sold out. So I'd assume it opens soon

 

[FireflyFi]

Great report so far. I've never been to USJ or Osaka yet, and interesting to have some first-hand accounts of it.

I think the only permanent unique attraction they have is Space Fantasy, compared to Universal in the states.

Backdraft is (was?) in Universal Hollywood.

After writing the Space Fantasy bit, I did think I would go back if I could get 10 express passes just for that ride lol but yeah, other than that a better time could probably be had in the US parks. Although the merchandise is probably a bit more unique in Japan.

And I haven't made it to Universal Hollywood yet. Maybe next year

 

[zanzibar138]

I made it

I had to laugh at your experience with all the CMs asking you to try to test seat

I really enjoyed your account of the Biohazard attraction. I've always wondered what those scary things are like, and there's no way I'll ever find out for myself

 

[brenda1966]

Can't wait to hear more about your TDL adventure. Love seeing the photos!

Would also like to hear what sightseeing things you did in Tokyo. Am planning a fall trip and would likely have about 4 days in Tokyo to see the city outside of our 4 disney days.

 

[FireflyFi]

I made it

I had to laugh at your experience with all the CMs asking you to try to test seat

I really enjoyed your account of the Biohazard attraction. I've always wondered what those scary things are like, and there's no way I'll ever find out for myself

I know, the CM's were very thorough!

While they do make a bit of an effort to put you on edge and raise your adrenaline in the Biohazard experience, at the same time I did find myself still thinking 'these zombies are just people acting and they're not really going to touch me'.

If you want a lesson on the sorts of things that can be used to make someone nervous, there's an experience I tried in Joypolis in Odaiba that was based on the movie The Ring. They walk you through a tiny pitch black hallway that have sheets hanging down, then you sit in a chair and put on big over ear headphones. From then on it's all just creepy audio of the girl saying (I'm guessing) scary stuff with sound effects of wind, rattling chains, swinging of an axe and blood spatter etc. Because it was in Japanese, and I can't understand it that well, I didn't buy into it, but it was fun to observe haha

 

[FireflyFi]

Can't wait to hear more about your TDL adventure. Love seeing the photos!

Would also like to hear what sightseeing things you did in Tokyo. Am planning a fall trip and would likely have about 4 days in Tokyo to see the city outside of our 4 disney days.

Thanks! There are so many more to come. Just gotta get myself committed to spending the time uploading them all haha

I'm so excited for your trip! If you're going in fall, have a look at whether you're going at the right time for the autumn colours. It's a pretty big deal in Japan, and you might want to base at least some of your other sightseeing around that.

What did I do in Tokyo? It seems so long ago now...! I have to actually look at my photos to remember!

Ok, it looks like I had a day in Odaiba - that was a lot of fun! It's a great little area with lots of attraction sorta things to do. Catch the monorail train out there, have a look through some of the stores. I mentioned Joypolis in the last post, and in that same building there are whole floors of just UFO machines (like the machine the green aliens live in Toy Story). It was a real only-in-Japan moment for me. There's a few different shopping malls down there, as well as a huge ferris wheel and a giant gundam that's pretty spectacular.

I had a day visiting the Ghibli Museum. That was amazing. It's not huge, but it is very well put together and the detail in the building is incredible. It has a very impressive shop, too, if you're into Studio Ghibli.

And then I had a day through Harujuku and Shibuya. Great shopping. If you go on a Sunday you might see people all dressed up in the park nearby.

After the Disney days I was pretty exhausted, and just wanted to catch some last days shopping. So I visited different areas like Akihabara and Ginza. I have to admit, if you're more energetic than me, a lot more could have been packed in! I'm a pretty slow tourer. Also, I found Tokyo really overwhelming. Osaka was busy, but it was still easy to get around and not so much sensory overload. It might have been the areas I was in, but it felt like Osaka was roomier where Tokyo was lots of alleys and really tall buildings and my brain just wore out a lot quicker!

 

[Tanzanite]

I am loving your report we are going next year June my sons 21st birthday. I lived in Japan several years ago for a few months loved it. I didn't get to tour as much as I would have liked .We are going 9 days Japan, 4 days Hong Kong and 4 days Singapore. My younger twins are so in to Manga and cant wait to go to Akihabara for video games and books. We are going to Universal in both Japan and Singapore .I cant wait to hear more about your trip.

 

[FireflyFi]

Ok, time for another update. I think I've been putting this off for two reasons:

1. It took me two days and three (?) posts to cover Universal. And Universal was just one day. I have four and a half days of Disney to cover...!
2. I know the order of stuff that happened at Universal because it was all in one day. I know I'm going to get confused and mix up what I did in the multiple days at Disney. So bear with me...!

So, four and a half days is an odd amount of time for a Disney trip, right? Especially when it's half a day, three days break, then four days. Well, the reason for this is that when I booked in for Disney Tuesday to Friday months in advance, the schedule of ride closures was fine. Only a couple of minor ones I wasn't interested in. A month or so out and they added Sindbad Storybook Voyage...! It was due to close on 18 November, and I was arriving 19 November. So...I rearranged plans, cut half a day out of Osaka, and added a visit to Disneysea for the night I would travel from Osaka to Tokyo (15 November). It was a pretty long day, but totally worth it!

First of all, the train ride seemed to take a long time. I think I left at about 4:30pm to get to the 6pm Twilight time. Actually, it's not just the train ride, it's the walking and walking and walking through the endless subways. Anyway, I don't have a lot of detail on that, I just remember it took so long to find the right platform, it felt like I was lost (I wasn't really, it's just a really long subway!). So let's get onto the more interesting stuff, photos!

Now, I love my point and shoot camera in the daytime. I'm really not a photo freak, and just want to buy something that does all the hard stuff for me, but I have to say the night time shots are not all that great. Add to this that the park is just so dark!! I was so surprised at just how dark it was. I struggled to read the map when I was walking around, and I wasn't the only one because I'd often see other people huddled under a lamp post squinting at their maps.

Those first couple of photos are just past the ticket gates in Disneysea Plaza (I have a map I brought back sitting beside me to help haha). Loads of people line up in front of these displays to catch a photo in front of them. And then you walk through the Park Gateway:

So cute. I love how the different parks had different Christmas themes. You could even buy big carry bags (and by the end, I needed one!) that were Christmas themed, with the Disneyland theme on one side and the Disneysea theme on the other.

Now, because my only objective for this night was that one ride, I didn't really know what else to do, and didn't feel the need to rush for anything else. I still had another four days left up my sleeve. So I wandered through the gateway, turned left and headed for the American Waterfront. This is on the corner:

I checked out the Toy Story area (and the line! ) took a bunch of photos and checked out the merchandise:

I then walked over the bridge towards Mysterious Island. It was reasonably quiet this night, and easy to get around. I remember standing for a little while and waiting as Mt Prometheus exploded:

And obviously turned around and took a photo back towards American Waterfront, with Tower of Terror and SS Columbia

And then turned right at the end of the bridge onto 20,000 Leagues.

The ride was a walk on. The CM at the top of the entrance was actually motioning people to come in. It's a great setup, you walk down this long spiral ramp, and then the little bathyspheres roll up. I had a real Bioshock moment there (another game lol) and then the whole ride has that sorta vibe if you've ever played the game.

The bathyspheres are setup with three positions that you can sit in, each with individual portholes - front, left and right. I was seated on the right hand side, and while it was still a great show, if you've got time it's worth having another ride or asking for front position. It's also worth googling how to ask for front position in Japanese, as when I was back there a few days later, it took quite a few hand signals to try and explain what I was asking the CM for hehehe

Then I thought I better get on with what I was here for, and walked over to Arabian Coast. Now, this part of the park - Mysterious Island and Arabian Coast - even in the daylight hours, I was constantly getting lost. With Mysterious Island, I repeatedly struggled to figure out how to get out of it, and Arabian Coast I seemed to just keep going in circles.

So I would start in the open area of Arabian Coast, with the fountain and near the merry go round, huddle under a light to check the map, head north where I thought I needed to go, and then find...nothing. I would get to about the bazaar / marketplace and turn around and just find empty walls. Looking at the map now, it looks pretty easy. I think I was walking through the marketplace which, you can't really see from the map, has a few windy walkways through it. Hehe, anyway, eventually I gave in and asked a CM how to get to Sindbad.

Once I finally arrived, it too was a walk on, with the CM's calling people in. By the time I walked through the ropes, I think I was on the next boat. This was the first of many times where, as a single rider, they didn't mix me in with other people. I don't know if this is just a Japanese thing, whether they don't mix any groups together, or they don't mix Western groups with Japanese groups, or singles with groups...I don't know what it was, but I enjoyed a lot of the rides with either the whole car to myself, or in the case of Sindbad, the whole row to myself. Even though the boats are about the same size as the PotC boats or the IaSW boats, I got the whole back row to myself. Just before the boat took off, a CM came running up and handed me a slip of paper. It tells the story of the ride (the dialogue and most of the songs are in Japanese). This isn't just some black and white copy, it's a beautifully decorated illustration. So if you ride, make sure you get one!

The row to myself was great because I could sit there with my stupid 'in awe' expression on my face, and sway my head in time with the songs and not have to worry about anyone else seeing me lol it really was worth the extra trip. It is just like IaSW with a slow moving boat through long scenes of animatronics, but it's just so much more interesting! The sheer amount of characters they have in the displays, and the intricacy of some of their movements (I remember being really struck by a group of chickens in one of the market scenes lol).

Sorry for the lack of photos here. I probably do have some, but whittled and whittled them down to a reasonable amount to show people IRL, and that's what I ended up uploading to Photobucket. I at least kept the important ones, like the food shots lol:

I think this was at the Yucatan Base Camp Grill, and was part of their special Christmas meal (notice the last shot of the dessert looks like a tree?). It wasn't too bad for park food. The restaurant itself was nice to sit in, with big rustic wooden furniture, and lots of space.

Yucatan is up in the Lost River Delta area, just left of Arabian Coast. So after dinner, I jumped on the Indiana Jones ride! I haven't been to Disneyland, so this was new to me, and boy it was fun. Oh, I should mention, the theming as you walk through the line was incredible....!!!! It felt like I had walked into one of the movie sets. Because I was a single rider, I didn't have to wait in line, so I sorta rushed past them all and, again, no shots so you'll just have to go and find out for yourself! There was a funny little moment as I walked through the line. I think in the beginning I walked through the standby line, and then after a few metres, noticed a wooden barrier like a swing door with a 'single rider' sign. I walked up to it, gave it a slight push and it didn't move. Then I just kinda stared at it for a while, looked around (am I doing the right thing here??) and then a CM spotted me, gave me a 'push harder' motion with his arms, and I worked it out hahahaha (head bow, arigatou!)

I did get photos of the outside of LRD:

Then I walked down past Port Discovery and jumped on StormRider, another no wait ride. The only waiting was really the load time. And the presentation that occurs before it (in Japanese, and very serious sounding!). While I was standing around not understanding I snapped this picture:

At which point a CM walked towards me and crossed her arms in an X shape in front of her. So no photos inside StormRider.

 

[FireflyFi]

And then after StormRider I figured I would just walk back around the American Waterfront towards the exit. I'm pretty sure it was at this point, walking back towards the bridge, that I noticed that the sweet smell of -something- was everywhere. It smelt like...Christmas! And it was amazing. And I thought, how wonderful is it that the can make the whole park smell like Christmas?! That is real attention to detail!

....then I found the popcorn cart it was a caramel one, and of course I bought a bucket! And it was just magical to wander around such a beautiful park crunching down some sweet, sweet popcorn:

So there's a few trees there. I mean, it's a huge park, you can't just have one, right?! So the one that is in front of ToT is a big (and I mean BIG) fake one). It had all sorts of presents and character models underneath it. The one on the water, the one that looks like it's leaning lol, that's actually not a tree! It's a big pyramid shaped LED screen, with an image of a tree and baubles that sway. And the other little mini tree pyramids floating around are from the fireworks show (that I only saw a little of, but I'll explain more of that disappointment later ). And then the last one in front of the Miracosta is a real tree. It is really quite big for a real tree, and looked so beautiful and fitting in the Mediterranean area.

And then a few shots of the monorail and station:

Yep, the interiors of the monorail are completely themed! There will be more shots of this in later posts

 

[FireflyFi]

I am loving your report we are going next year June my sons 21st birthday. I lived in Japan several years ago for a few months loved it. I didn't get to tour as much as I would have liked .We are going 9 days Japan, 4 days Hong Kong and 4 days Singapore. My younger twins are so in to Manga and cant wait to go to Akihabara for video games and books. We are going to Universal in both Japan and Singapore .I cant wait to hear more about your trip.

Nice! Are you prepared for the heat? I hear it can be pretty brutal.

I remember Akihabara as one of those crrrrrrazzzzzy places in Japan. It was so busy when I went (I think it might have been a Saturday), and there were maids out on the street trying lure people into the cafes, and spruikers on every corner. I remember seeing a stand with some seriously discounted Disney watches.

If your kids are into old video games, Super Potato is a good place to visit. It is hard to find, but worth the effort to see so many old titles and systems. Otherwise, for current games and system any of the Yodobashi or Bic Camera stores are like heaven!

And there is so much other manga stuff available, I didn't really need to go looking (but then it's not really my thing, so I don't know if what I was looking at was all that exciting ) I don't know how old your twins are, but...well, I did come across some really raunchy stuff looking through some of the stores (and I was not looking for that!) It's so weird, I'd walk past display cabinets of cute little animal figurines, and then...oh look at that, figurines of naked girls...

There was a store that is supposed to be the ultimate for manga (I just had to google to find it...) Mandarake. There's a small mention of it here - http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e3003.html

 

[PrincessInOz]

More updates.


It's dark? okay. I might need to think about my lenses for TDL.

And was it just that one ride you weren't allowed to take pictures or was it all of them?

 

[FireflyFi]

And was it just that one ride you weren't allowed to take pictures or was it all of them?

It was the only one where they told me I couldn't. It may have been the only one where they had you standing around inside supervised long enough to take photos. I took photos through the line of Space Mountain and Star Tours, but there's no supervision there. I also took photos of rides when the cars pulled up while waiting in line (like Snow White, Peter Pan, etc) and that was never an issue, neither was taking photos while on the ride itself. So...maybe it's only for those that have a sort of show? Or maybe it is just StormRider that you can't take photos of?