Day 16 - Tokyo Disney SeaToday me and Yuka had planned to go Tokyo Disney Sea. I woke up hoping the weather wasn't crap, opened the window hoping for the best and... Clear blue skies, awesome! I had to be up really early, I woke up at 6 and had to meet Yuka at Koshigaya at 8, now, the problem with that was, when I left, I forgot which Koshigaya I had to meet her at. There are 3, shin-koshigaya, koshigaya and kita-koshigaya...
I went to kita-koshigaya, the wrong one, already I was late, so ran back to the train and went to shin-koshigaya, go to the meeting point (starbucks) but no Yuka... I waited 5 minutes and still, no sign of her, went to a telephone box, no answer... At that point, I thought she had got fed up of waiting, went home and was ignoring my calls.
Thankfully, wasn't the case, she was just late herself. We got some snacks from the convienent store and then got on the train, it was going to take a long time because of our meeting point, so about an hour. I prepared myself with those maple sandwhich things again.
The train ride wasn't too bad, Yuka was tired and fell asleep while I was enjoying the view, for just one moment, I could clearly see Mount Fuji in the distance. When we arrived, we bought our tickets and headed for the monorail station.
The monorail takes you to Disney Land or Disney Sea Tokyo, it took about 20 minutes to get there, or so it seemed. The train was really nice, the windows and handles were shapped like Mickey Mouse.
When we got there and passed the ticket area, there was a giant globe display, there was actually a long que to line up and take pictures with this thing. I didn't bother.
After going through the main gates, there was a large lake in front of us, just as we got closer, a show started with dancing and singing characters on a boat.
After the mini show, we went to the Mountain area, from the enterance, it was just a short walk.
In the Mountain area, we went on the Journey to the Center of the Earth ride twice and the 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea ride. Both were really cool, rides. JCE was like a ghost train type ride, go through in a car slowly looking at thens then suddenly, the car picks up a lot of speed and it turns into a roller coaster coming out of the mountain twice. 20,000 was more of a on track look around ride but it was really cool because you were in a submarine, shared with 4 other people, each got a window seat and a controller to guide a light around to look at things. It was lots of fun, even better the second time we went on it when we were the only ones in the submarine...
The next area we went to was the Little Mermaid place, it was for kids but also really nice, one of the best and most interesting places there. We walked around and only went on rides that wasn't too childish. There was an inside area like an underwater cave, that was really good. There were fountains that shot water in bursts out and over people into holes. Yuka was trying to be clever and dodge them but didn't notice the fountain on the group going up and got soaked
After the first area, we went to the Aladdin area for some lunch. The Aladdin area is themed like the setting of Aladdin, the music from the cartoon was played in a traditional instrumental style in the background to match the setting, it was really nice. We had a curry for lunch, I had chicken curry and Yuka had the 25th anniversary special, not sure what it was but it was 3 times the cost of mine.
Lunch was really good but the portions weren't that big. We went on a carosel in the area then to a 3D magic show which was really cool, I wish I got that on video. Basically, when we got in, a snake in a pot told a story before we were taken into a theatre, then, actors did a show and on the screen above, there was a 3D animation of the genie so he was a character in the performance, it was really good!
After the show, we got a snack from the food stand, some churo(?) type thing, was really good but can't remember the name. It was like what I had a mister donut but sesame seed flavor and hot. From the Aladdin area, we walked round to the Indiana Jones area, there was two rides here, a roller coaster and the Indiana Jones ride.
The roller coaster was ok but not that scary, it was fast and did one loop but that was about it. I was worried my bag would fall out from by my feet on the loop but thankfully, it didn't. The Indiana Jones ride was really cool, you went around like in the first two rides of the day but in an Indiana Jones themed place in a car shaped cart. The end of the ride was the boulder dash from the first film. Great ride!
From the Indiana Jones area, we went to the Tower of Terror ride, basically a lift drop. This ride was one of my favorites, the area where you had to queue was really interseting, the whole building was themed like a hotel full of historic and cursed relics. When you first go into the main queuing area, there is a little performance giving you some back story to the ride with a very cool illusion trick. The lift drop itself is brilliant, when you got to the top, you can see the whole park clearly out of the top window for just a second before falling down. Went on this alot of times, it was really nice at night time so we could see all the lights and candle display on the lake.
After the Tower of Terror ride, we repeated a few rides. We later went back to a fast food place to eat to catch the show inside the main hall, as we got there, just out side there was a really nice performance of the disney xmas carol, great timing.
We watched that then went in to eat, had to wait about 10 minutes for the show to start but we managed to catch the last one of the day. It was a good show, nice to eat and watch a performance, the food wasn't so great but the overall experience there was nice. The Apple Pie was amazing.
After the show we walked around the park a bit more, it was really nice walking around in the dark because of all the lights. We went on a few more rides, the queues weren't so bad, half an hour max. Later in the evening there was an xmas candle light show on the lake, it was beautiful, boats went round the lake filled with candles, making reflections on the water and then a giant xmas tree of candles in the middle of the lake came in and lit up. Hard to describe but it was really nice to see that show.
It was getting late after the light show so we did a few more rides before heading back to the train to go home.
Disney Sea Tokyo was brilliant, it wasn't very busy so we got on a lot of rides, the weather was great, clear blue skies. We was very lucky to be there in November, it was xmas season there and also they were celebrating the 25th anniversary. The shows in the evening were really nice, the candle show especially, that was beautiful. Overall, it was a really nice day with Yuka.