yes, disney seas

Okay, so you can laugh if you want, but last week I was feeling so homesick that I decided going to see Mickey Mouse would do me good here in Japan.

Cause you know, he's a familiar face.

I've been visiting him at different points in my life for as long as I can remember and I just knew if I went to his home here in Tokyo, it could be comforting.

Like soul food.

Only with rides and New England, Old New York, Acraba, and a surprising amount of popcorn stands.

So, we set off to Disney Seas today, after the show, of course.

And I was not disappointed.

Rumor has it that Disney Seas is the best park to come out of the Imagineers yet and I can see why. It's very beautiful, full of wonder, and not at all geared towards little children and cartoons. Though they would love it too, it's sort of like Epcot in that it's interesting and stimulating for all ages.

And it's really big.

You can also see Tokyo Bay from it, which adds to the magic.

Here I am, totally excited to have just purchased my half-day ticket for only 31,00 yen, I may add. That sounds like a lot, but it's really only about $31, American.

Now, we only had about three and a half hours in the park, so I needed to be a little die hard about it. Our first stop was Journey to the Middle of the Earth. We waited in line for about an hour, but it was well worth the wait.

I honesty loved it. I mean, you get shot out of a freaking volcano, for goodness' sake. What's not to love about that?

After that we saw some of a killer light show on the water, and when Mickey Mouse came out in a headdress and speaking Japanese we all started laughing. I'm sorry, but you would have too.

However, being me, I had gotten really hungry. Again. I spend most of my time in search of food here, it seems. A few of us made a beeline for Old New York, thinking to find some familiar food there and getting excited when we saw a "deli."

But every sandwich had mayonnaise. Of course. And it's really hard to explain how much mayo ruins a sandwich for me using the Japanese words that I know: please, thank you, good morning, yes, no, good-bye, and hello. Realizing that my chances of actually getting a mayo-free sandwich were slim to none, I opted for the chicken and vegetable soup just like mom makes, or so it said.

Yeah well my mom doesn't just heat up water, throw a few things in there to float in it and call it soup. Just saying.

But I put it in my stomach anyway, cause remember? I was hungry.

At that point, David and I broke off to do the Indiana Jones ride. And once again we couldn't help laughing at Indy speaking in Japanese. I also couldn't resist saying in frustration over and over again, I Can't Speak Japanese!, a la Chris Farley in the SNL skit in which he was an American tourist in some Asian game show.

From there, we literally ran through Cape Cod, Ariel's Grotto, some sort of outdoor show, and a whole heck of a lot of people to try to make the Tower of Terror. Thinking we wouldn't make it, we settled for 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, a ride that we had both been on as kids at some point.

It was another blast. We had our own pod, we were in control of Oxygen, depth, and steering. We saw Atlantis, which, as it turns out, isn't lost after all. There were alien like sea monsters who we were sort of afraid of until we saw that they were helping us and then felt badly for judging them. Of course there was a giant squid and he was just plain bad. That much was clear even if the whole narration was in Japanese.

As we strolled past the Tower of Terror, we were happily surprised to see that it was still open and waltzed right in. And to make it even better, it was a different theme, too. Because the Twilight Zone doesn't mean anything to the Japanese, the story was about some sort of doctor who took a little statue into his home and then the statue came to life, cursed the good doctor's mansion, and suddenly disappeared. Of course, we could have misinterpreted because again, I DON'T SPEAK JAPANESE!!!

At the point when the creature disappeared, it was such a special and unanticipated effect that David and I started clapping and cheering wildly. Our Japanese ride-mates joined in and by the time the lights were back on all of us were laughing hysterically and there was a really nice feeling of camaraderie.

He we are in the top left corner with all of our fellow elevator riders.

And I didn't find out that Minnie, Mickey, Goofy, and Donald were on the same elevator (!!!) until I saw this; otherwise, I totally would have said konichiwa.

And then here is just another glimpse of the park, Venice.
There were gondolas, too, but by this point it was past 10 o'clock and we were all getting gently and magically encouraged to please leave, arogoto gunzymos!

My feet are killing me, but it was totally and absolutely fun. Oh, and I also had two rounds of carmel corn. Yum, yum, yum.