Went to see the sanja matsuri at Asakusa yesterday. I’m not into these types of things and I’m very claustrophobic in crowded streets so instead I had lots of fun with our new zoom lens~

Sanja matsuri is a festival where half-naked men carry around an extremely heavy shrine all over town, all day long. With a ton of camera-toting people swarming around them. My mom loved it since she’s Japanese and understands the point of this. I would have liked it better if there weren’t as many people and could have gotten better photos.

Oh, also, yesterday we went out and bought at “cheap” zoom lens for our DSLR so that I can take better pictures at the festival. I. Love. This. Lens. Because getting photos of the actual shrines was near impossible with the hordes of people following them around, I just stood there taking pictures of passer-bys and kids. Japanese kids are freakin’ adorable.

As an unrelated side note, for some reason the text editor here won’t let me double-space anymore, even if I try fixing the HTML, so if the text in all of my posts seem crowded this is why.

And for the grand finale…

MAN WITH NAPKIN ON HIS HEAD!

Aaaaaaaand!!

SHOOEEEEEEE!!!

]]> http://nipponlaifu.wordpress.com/2010/05/16/people-watching-is-more-fun-than-festivals/feed/ 2 Mari http://nipponlaifu.wordpress.com/2009/06/10/tokyo-disneyland-pirates-of-the-caribbean/ http://nipponlaifu.wordpress.com/2009/06/10/tokyo-disneyland-pirates-of-the-caribbean/#comments Wed, 10 Jun 2009 07:32:07 +0000 Mari http://nipponlaifu.wordpress.com/?p=330 ]]>

I really hope that our pop culture has come to the point where this ride needs absolutely no explanation whatsoever.

Japan is just as much on the Pirates bandwagon as we are, so every time I went there was a huge line outside. Though somehow in Japan whenever you’re on line for anything, the queue progresses much faster than you expect it to (except for Pooh’s Hunny Hunt; that really does feel like two and a half hours). 

On a random note, for some reason there’s an American flag waving from the outside of the Pirates of the Caribbean building in Tokyo. Do they know that it’s a British story?

Anyway, outside there are a few signs; one that give the guests a vague idea of what the ride is all about and another 25th Anniversary display of the ride’s history. Of course, the sign that explained the story was in English, so I don’t know what good it actually does. When I went with Irina we just stood in line and read them out with announcer-voices; “See fun-loving pirates sack and burn a village seaport!”

The waiting area is divided into two sections. The first area looks like an office of the East India Trading Company; the walls are lined with various maps, paintings, chandeliers hang from the ceiling, and there’s a staircase that goes up to a second floor (where Jack Sparrow occasionally come out from). 

The second area looks like the inside of an ocean-side cave. Think Isle de Muerta. Along the wall is a single worn map of a village (the one featured in the ride, no doubt), with a giant “X” over the treasury building. As you walk deeper, the right wall breaks off and instead you can see the running stream carrying the ride boats through, which, after you board the boats, eventually turns into a huge body of water with the terrace dining area of the Blue Bayou Restaurant right across the way.

Since it’s a dark ride, none of my photos came out… except for one!! When you get to the end of the ride, all of the boats stop and form a queue to the docking area where the Guests can all climb out of the boats. The second time I rode this, my boat stopped right next to the final Captain Jack Sparrow area… and I was sitting at the side of the boat right in front of him! What on earth were the odds of that?! Out of all the times I’ve ridden it, that was the only time it’s ever happened. So, thanks to this enormous stroke of luck, I have a Jack Sparrow ride photo that I was able to salvage~

Arguably the most popular ride in all of Tokyo Disneyland, rivaled only by the holiday version of The Haunted Mansion. The wait time for Pooh’s Hunny Hunt, on average, is 2 and a half hours and Fast Passes usually run out for the day before lunchtime.

I’ve only been on this ride twice, once in June with Noriko and once in December with Irina, and it’s one of my favorites. That said, I am not a fan of Winnie the Pooh. Sure, I think Eeyore is adorable as much as the next girl but I’m not the type to go out of my way to get on a Winnie the Pooh ride, especially one with a ridiculous wait time.

The first time I went on it was because we had to kill time until our Big Thunder Mountain Fast Passes kicked in. Also, as we were staring at the 2 hour wait sign, we heard some passing girls saying, “that’s a surprise, it’s usually 2 and a half hours!” So we got on the line. In the middle of our wait it started to rain. Thankfully, there are a lot of trees and plants along the path to block the rain. Some of the trees had some kind of yellow-orange fruits growing from them, too. 

From the outside, Pooh’s Hunny Hunt looks like an enormous English storybook. Even the pages on the sides turn up to add dimension. As a complete bonus, the maple leaf illustrations on the right page go from 2D to 3D off the tip of the page. Very cool. On the left title page there’s a big hole, disguised in the illustration, where the guests on line inside can look out. It also puts in perspective how gigantic the “book” actually is.

Once inside, the walls are actually giant hanging story pages; in English, numbered, illustrated, and each from a different Winnie the Pooh story. Once you reach the end of the maze of book pages, there’s a conveyor where all of the honey pots pull up for the Guests to climb into. The wall behind it is a full map of the 100 Acre Wood. I absentmindedly took a quick photo of the map before getting “yelled at” by a Cast Member. Oops. You’re apparently not allowed to take photos in this ride, so I only have some of the outside and the giant pages (and the map). 

The ride itself has some really great technology behind it. The honey pots move on a track, yet the floor is completely smooth. You travel around to different areas depicting different locations in the 100 Acre Wood, all while following a wayward Pooh Bear flying ahead with the blue balloon. Every so often Pooh Bear disappears into the trees, only to reappear every now and then after a few stops into the story.

Sometimes, instead of stopping at a scene, the honey pot stops in front of another giant page as the Guests watch the illustration become cleanly animated with dialogue in Japanese to match (the text of all of the pages are in English, though). One of the instances where this happens is a scene with Tigger. As Tigger hops, your seat in the honey pot hops along with him. It feels kind of strange because I’m not entirely sure if it’s just the seats that go up and down (though I don’t ever remember the honey pot’s rim getting lower as I went up) or if the entire honey pot that does. However it works, it’s really cute, and really cool.

Eventually the honey pot travels to a vast, lively, room where the pots spin around as if at a party. There are elephant-looking hot air balloon things bobbing up and down (these things are the only thing from the Winnie the Pooh film that I can remember from my childhood), and I’m pretty sure there were also Heffalumps in the picture there somewhere. All of the figures, dioramas, and sets are all extremely high quality and look absolutely terrific.

When I went to Tokyo Disneyland with Rina (who is a fan of Winnie the Pooh), we got there half an hour after opening, power-walked to Pooh’s Hunny Hunt, got Fast Passes for around 2 pm, and then headed for The Haunted Mansion to wait on line. We actually ended up missing the entire Fast Pass time window by 3 minutes because we were watching the afternoon parade, but the Cast Member let us in anyway.

Above and beyond, people! Above and beyond!

And so begins my revamped posts (and layout?!). First up is Tokyo Disneyland’s night parade: Dreamlights. This is my absolute favorite of all of the Disney parades that I’ve ever seen… though granted that’s not saying much.

For reasons completely unbeknownst to me, it’s extremely difficult to take photos of parades (my friend also had this problem). Nearly all of my Tokyo Disneyland Halloween parade photos are completely blurry, and I saw Dreamlights 3 times during my stay, so this is a new compilation of my best photos. 

And for the Holiday version variants…

The only thing about this parade that annoys me is that with all of the generic floats and the Prince Charming float, couldn’t there be one for Aurora? Like with Cinderella’s dress (“Bibbidi-bobbidi-bo!“), Aurora’s dress could have been the perfect setup for alternating color lights (“Make it pink!” “Make it blue!”)! 

Ah well….

Right across from Alice’s Tea Party is the Queen of Hearts Banquet Hall. As implied, this is a food court of sorts with an enormous wait line and standard menu. I’ve never eaten here but I waited on the line just to get inside to take pictures. 

The entire outside of the Banquet Hall is made too look like the Queen of Hearts’ enormous hedge maze, complete with Card Soldiers standing guard and Card Servants painting the roses red. I’m almost positive that these guys are also to scale. Love it.

The inside, or as far as I’ve been inside, is divided into two sections. The first area is filled with tables and is modeled to like the Wonderland forest, with the giant colored and patterned leaves. The ceiling is painted to look like a dark sky, and Tweedle-Dee and Tweedle-Dumb are painted high on the wall that leads to the next room, in the forms of the sun and moon (“The Walrus and the Carpenter“). Below them is a statue of the Queen of Hearts (and the King) looking down at all of the Guests from a sculpted castle tower/ledge. It’s really well done and a little unnerving, as someone who knows about the Queen of Hearts’ temper.

The second room is where the crowded buffet is. The interior looks like a topsy-turvy kitchen; patterned wallpaper,  giant vent hoods dropping down from the ceiling, enormous pots and pans hanging from those, a ton of light fixtures all over the place, giant shelves, and I think a giant fireplace. Though you don’t feel nearly as miniscule as Alice was, the perspective does make you feel a lot smaller than you’re supposed to. Bravo.

There is one thing that completely baffles me, though. When you enter the kitchen, there’s a really great display of a variety of small cakes… none of which are on the menu. Cruel decorations at it’s worst?

Also, is it just me, or does the kitchen totally look like it can be an extension of Wonderland in Kingdom Hearts? I can totally see a tiny Sora jumping all over the place and shooting Thunder off everywhere…

Okay, so most people who know me are quite aware that I have a slight obsession with the Mad Tea Party from Alice in Wonderland. There’s something about the style, the colors and the complete and total absurdity of it that I absolutely love. It’s also the first ride that I have any memory of (along with the famous Dumbo ride).

Too bad the tent area itself isn’t that large, because that means fewer photos… 

If you have no idea what this ride is then this is the explanation: you sit in a gigantic teacup that has a metal wheel in the middle. When the ride starts the tea cups start rotating and slowly spinning on a track, but you can spin the wheel in any direction and as fast as you want to control the cup you’re sitting to spin with additional speed and direction. That’s pretty much it. Oh, and every now and then the Dormouse pops up from inside of the giant teapot in the middle. =D

The tent also looks gorgeous at night because all of the colored lanterns get lit up. <3

The designs on the teacups are apparently different in every Disney theme park. Tokyo Disneyland’s are my favorite (above Walt Disney World’s). I also have a favorite: an orange cup with a pink design going across it (the 6th photo~). It reminds me of Starbucks for whatever reason so I call it my “cafe latte teacup.” Every time I’ve ridden this ride, I bolted out and nabbed the cafe latte cup. The last time I went, when I was with my friend Rina (who had never been to a Disney park before) I let her pick out the cup she wanted beforehand. When we were waiting for the next round, the cast member suddenly said there was an extra and that we can go in early. I was disappointed because we couldn’t ride in the purple and blue one that Rina wanted, but the left over one that they gave us was… the cafe latte teacup. Seriously, what were the odds?

Also, I’m kind of notorious, among my cousins in Japan, for spinning ridiculously fast on this ride. I usually ride by myself because no one else has the stomach for it. I rode with my cousin Noriko (who’s an established coaster junkie) once and she started wailing at me to stop spinning around 5 seconds after the ride began. Rina lasted extremely well, though (she freaked out at first but she helped me spin). =D

So that’s the end of my nostalgic anecdote. Here are what few photos I was able to take! =3

Ueno is where our usual hotel is, so the area between the hotel and the train station is extremely familiar to us. I was killing time waiting for the hair salon to open ($70 straight perms!) so I just walked around and took photos as I went. It must have been like 9 am, so there weren’t that many people out and about outside.

I rather like morning photo walks, to be honest (as if going to Shibuya at 6 am wasn’t a clue).

Places of interest directly outside of the station are Marui department store, Yamashiroya (similar to Kiddy Land), and that old man who sells amazing roasted chestnuts on the street. 

Ueno station is one of the biggest train stations I’ve ever had to stop at. I’m pretty sure it can rival Tokyo station, but where it lacks in rail lines it makes up with the sheer number of shops and restaurants. It’s completely indoors and there are stores (a ton of boutiques and I think I found a Uniqlo there once) and restaurants (including a Hard Rock Cafe) located in “side streets” inside of the station.

For some reason there’s a giant mural of humans and various animals above the “turnstiles” that I’ve never quite understood. There’s also a giant fan-patterned mosaic above the wall of ticket machines.

When you leave from the central gate, the first thing you see to your right is a Starbucks, and across the street, Marui and Yamashiroya. Yamashiroya has signature advertisement panels above the entrance and around the pillars to the side. I left Japan a week or so after Dissidia: Final Fantasy‘s release, so the ads were still lingering outside.

Right outside the station is a gigantic system of overpasses that lead to various streets and subway entrances. It’s extremely convenient when you have luggage to carry, since you can avoid street crowds and waiting at intersections. There are also a bunch of sculptures, displays and a fountain along the paths. The homeless also set up their cardboard boxes closer to the station below the overpasses to protect themselves from rain.

There are tiny alley-like streets, across the entire block adjacent to the station, that lead to pachinko parlors, food stands, and all other types of touristy night-life goodness. I’m not a fan of that kind of thing so I haven’t gone at night since June. I went through one while I was walking around and there was a massive line outside of a pachinko parlor at around 9 am. At just this one particular place, though. Compulsive gambling means you have to wake up early, apparently.

Ueno is pretty convenient if you’re a tourist. It’s less than 10 minutes from Tokyo (and 24 minutes from Tokyo Disney Resort). It’s also quite close to Akihabara. The downside is that it’s 30 minutes to Shibuya and around 25 minutes to Harajuku. Ueno is like the opposite of Takadanobaba (where my apartment was), where it’s 8 minutes to Harajuku, 11 minutes to Shibuya, 30 minutes to Tokyo, and an hour to Tokyo Disney. Also, the Skyliner, which is located 5-10 minutes from Ueno Station, stops at Narita Airport. 

And now, for something completely random: 

I just love this mascot.
  

Yamashiroya’s GIGA PUDDING.

All posts after this will be coverage of Tokyo Disneyland. I have to figure out a way to categorize the posts and whatnot. Saw the Jubilation! parade with Irina so I’ll have a post about that soon. I also took more Dreamlights photos (after my initial coverage post) so I may redo that one, too…

So before leaving Ikebukuro, we spent some time at Sunshine City’s observation deck. It was the cheapest attraction and we wanted to go see it anyway, so we went.

Anyway, the entrance was impossibly complicated to find due to lack of signage. On one of the ground floors you go down a random stairway to find an elevator with a hostess waiting for you. We made a stop on the 60th floor, and then you go even higher up to the 70s or 80s (I don’t remember which). The elevator was extremely fast so it felt kind of unnerving after we passed the 60th floor.

Once you pass the ticket counter, the inside is basically an absolutely huge floor with carpeting, some couches, a juice bar, and a ton of windows on all 4 sides. And for whatever reason, the entire inside was decked out in WALL-E decorations. There was even a mini gallery inside filled with concept artwork and such (no photography allowed, though). 

At the windows there were also those big metal binocular machine things (I forgot what they’re called) that you put money in to see further. But with the RIDICULOUS ZOOM POWER of Rina’s giant camera, they were hardly necessary. 

There were also maps and images all over the walls that labeled major points of images visible from that particular window. Apparently you can see Tokyo Disneyland from there, but I couldn’t see anything. =(

Out of one of the windows you were even able to see the station by my apartment (I was actually amazed that it was even on the guide map). I couldn’t get a photo because it was a bit too far and the sun was in the way, but Rina got a photo of it. I should probably ask for a copy…

Update: June 4, 2009 – Going through all of my posts for editing and all that good stuff. Trimmed down the photos to only my favorites because they all looked more or less exactly the same and got really boring, really fast. WHOOYEAAAAAHHH!

And there wouldn’t be couches without…

A few months ago I read about this giant building in Ikebukuro called Sunshine City that had an observatory, an aquarium, and a Toys ‘R Us inside of it and figured that it was worth checking out as long as I was living 2 train stops away.

Rina agreed, so we went and had a touristy adventure.

I had never been to Ikebukuro before so when we got there we spent a lot of time trying to get out of the station, staring at street maps and trying to figure out where on earth we were supposed to be walking. You know, when we weren’t taking photos of buildings and pigeons. 

First off, Ikebukuro station is really big. Not nearly as big as Tokyo station (which I’m used to thanks to my Disney trips), but at Tokyo station there are really vast halls, a lot of signage, and a bunch of stationed officers in case you get lost. Ikebukuro station is like some weird combination of Times Square station and Shinjuku station, except with way too many stairway exits. At first there were some signs that pointed in the general direction of Sunshine City, but then those signs just sort of disappeared after a while. Then we figured, “Oh hey! There’s a foreigner! Let’s follow him!” until we realized that he was just as lost as we were. 

Instead we just picked one of the stairway exits and went up to the street. We found a map and it looked like we were like 10-20 blocks away from where this place actually was, so we started walking.

At one point we were taken to a crosswalk that was underneath a freeway (like Hatsudai, but not as nice) so you seem like you’re lost, even though you’re not. Beyond the freeway is actually a load of office buildings, a Tokyu Hands, and to my surprise, an Animate right across the street from Sunshine City. Whooo!

I, for one, wasn’t really sure what to expect from a place with an aquarium and an entire Toys ‘R Us inside of it, but the inside of Sunshine City is basically a giant shopping mall. A giant shopping mall with it’s own aquarium, observation deck, planetarium, and something called “Namjatown.” I’m not really sure what Namjatown is, but my cousin said that they were having a gyoza (dumpling) festival. We were supposed to meet with Rina’s friend Mai-Linh afterwards so we didn’t have enough time to go and see after shopping and whatnot.

First we went to Toys ‘R Us because I was looking for game accessories (I’m still looking for a decent UMD case) and Irina wanted to check out some DS games. In the end we had some fun arranging giant stuffed Pikachus, Irina tested out some electric keyboards, we stocked up on some DS screen protectors, and then ran across an interesting Mentos vending machine at the exit.

After that we wandered around trying to find the aquarium. We got off at a wrong floor and wound up in some kind of construction zone. When we finally found the place we thought that it was a bit too expensive so instead we went to check out the observatory before heading back. 

A majority of our time was pretty much spent trying to find our way around and taking photos. Touristssssss.

I went down Omotesando St. with Irina on Christmas day, after we went to Hatsudai, to go to Kiddyland and to just waste some time before we met up with my cousin Masako for dinner. 

Harajuku is apparently the main place to go if you’re shopping for trendy Japanese fashion goods. Honestly, everyone in Japan dresses in the same trend so all of the stores sell more or less the same things no matter where you go. I personally don’t see how Harajuku is any different from Shibuya, but it could just be me. I also can’t fit into anything in Japan, except for the occasional t-shirt, so I know next to nothing about where to shop for clothes in Tokyo (I’m more into silver jewelry, hats, and casual bags).

Anyway,

…there are possibly more tourists than Akihabara. 

I remember a few years ago I ate lunch at an open-air Italian restaurant with my mom in Harajuku somewhere around Takeshita-doori and we counted the number of foreigners that passed by during our lunch (I counted those coming from one direction and my mom counted from the other) and tallied them up on a memo pad. I think we wound up with like 47 or something.

Anyway, there are a few particular things on Omotesando St. that amuse me. One is Kiddyland. Another is this oddly shaped building that’s actually a Gold’s Gym or something. The other is the totally normal presence of Condomania. No, it’s not some unfortunate English naming accident; it’s completely intentional. Apparently it’s also a chain, since so far I’ve seen this one on Omotesando St. and another one that I noticed a few years ago on Center-Gai. in Shibuya.

I mean, honestly, what else would you expect to see next to a Lacoste?

The one advantage to Omotesando St. is that every seems to naturally walk very slowly, which is great for taking pictures. There are also a huge amount of tourists walking around so you won’t be the only slow person holding a camera.