Disney Sea and Memorial Day BBQ

For Memorial Day weekend, Bern and I spent a day at the Disney Sea Resort which is located in the Chiba prefecture (just outside of Tokyo). Disney Sea is what California Adventure is to Disneyland, it's a much smaller park but included a few rides geared more towards older folks. As you can imagine, there were many similarities between Disney Sea and California Adventure but a few differences as well. Here's a look at our trip:

Disney Sea is just one aspect of the entire compound which includes the actual Tokyo Disneyland and a few hotels spread throughout the area. So they have a monorail set up to get guests to their destinations.

Right when we walked through the turnstiles, there was a huge globe that welcomed us into the park.  

We quickly got "X'd" (crossed arms that make an X, a widely accepted Japanese gesture geared toward foreigners meaning NO) by a Disney Sea employee when we brought out a camera extender to take a couple picture. Apparently, selfie sticks are considered weapons so they have banned them completely...which begs the question just how many violent incidents have there been with selfie sticks? haha

We then walked through an Italian inspired town and through the archways we saw Mediterranean Harbor which is the main entrance into Disney Sea. In the background, there is Mount Prometheus which is a part of Mysterious Island.

  

This is a view from the opposite side of the Harbor:



American Waterfront is the area very similar to that of Main Street USA at Disneyland; taking us back to the early 1920's. Bern and I grabbed some lunch at a New York style deli where we had our very first pastrami sandwich here in Japan, not bad at all!

There were a few attractions at the American Waterfront such as Toy Story Mania, a 3D ride where we played carnival style games shooting at moving targets.

And even the Tower of Terror... Never got the chance to ride this at California Adventure so I was really excited. Bern on the other hand wasn't to keen on the idea of a straight free fall but it was a real quick drop that didn't last very long so she did fine.   

To help save us some time and energy, we then boarded a train (similar to the one in Disneyland) that took us to the other side of the resort...destination: Lost River Delta. 

Lost River Delta is their version of Adventure Land, a jungle inspired area that had two main attractions. The first one is the ever popular Indiana Jones Temple of the Crystal Skull ride:

The second was called Raging Spirits, a roller coaster ride that featured a 360 degree loop:

Between rides, we ate at a Mexican inspired restaurant that was no where close to the kind of Mexican food we were used to. The dishes were definitely Mexican inspired (tacos, quesadillas, etc...) but geared more towards the Japanese appetite (i.e. teriyaki beef quesadilla).  

People loved wearing Disney themed hats so we wanted to see what all the fuss was about:

Next, we then hit up the eastern part of Disney Sea which included two distinct parts: Mermaid Lagoon and Arabian Coast. I would lump these two areas together and say it's like their Fantasyland. Starting off at the Mermaid Lagoon, their main attraction was Triton's Kingdom which was themed after the Little Mermaid movie.  

Inside of Triton's Kingdom was a world that made you feel like you were "Under the sea..."

A majority of the rides here were definitely geared towards little kids, but there was one ride called The Whirlpool that we just had to go on which was similar to the teacups at Disneyland. The only difference is that we were unable to control the center wheel that controlled the amount of spinning we did, but it was a blast nonetheless.

  

The Arabian Coast was inspired by the movie Aladdin with a Middle Eastern motif.   

This was where Sinbad's Storybook Voyage ride was located, taking a page from the Small World attraction at Disneyland with all of it's moving puppets. Thankfully, they weren't playing the Small World song at every corner!

Disney Sea's idea of Tomorrowland was called Port Discovery.

Here they had two rides similar to ones also found at good 'ol Disneyland, the first one was called Storm Rider. This was a motion simulator where the premise of the mission was to eliminate a powerful storm by dropping some sort of nuclear reactor to explode in the middle of the storm (not really sure since it was all in Japanese! haha) But can you guess what ride this is similar to at Disneyland? Simple...Star Tours   

And the next one is a dead giveaway; Disney Sea has Aquatopia; Disneyland has Autotopia We were on bumper boats that drove themselves around a shallow body of water.  

Mysterious Island was an area of Disney Sea I briefly mentioned earlier; I would compare this to Frontierland. Mysterious Island also had two similar Disneyland rides; the first one was the Journey to the Center of Earth attraction. It was like a combination of both Splash Mountain and Thunder Mountain. It was a rollercoaster that went in and around the big mountain with a big drop at the end, but there was no water involved.

    

There was also The 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea ride but it was unfortunately closed for repairs, but it did look like it was similar to the old Submarine Voyage ride at Disneyland.

Our last attraction was watching the Fantasmic water show over on the Mediterranean Harbor. This is where Mickey Mouse is a sorcerer that fights some of the evil Disney characters like Ursula in the Little Mermaid and the wicked Queen on Snow White.  

No trip to a Disney theme park would be complete without visiting the gift shop at the end of the day. There were some interesting Japanese snacks/candies with of course a Disney twist:

Three really quick points about Disney Sea I wanted to share:

1. They incorporate the Fastpass system into all of their rides

2. Food and drinks were actually quite affordable!

3. Groups of Japanese guys and girls love to either match from head to toe or dress up in a theme

Bern and I had our very first date back in 2002 at California Adventure so it was nice to have our very first Tokyo Disney adventure at Disney Sea as well!

The following day, we got the chance to unwind and relax with our great friends, The Cariaga's, and enjoy a Memorial Day BBQ on base. Ted rented a gazebo on the northern edge of the base that's right off the water front.

   

He was grill master for the day cooking up the usual BBQ fare with hot dogs, burgers, and chicken:

We had fun throwing around the football and even shooting some water guns:

Kristian loved the bubbles:

We were all jumping for joy that summer was finally here! 

The perfect way to ring in the season!

As always, Thanks for checking in! Hope you're enjoying your summer wherever you are in the world:

        



     

Capsule Hotel

Imagine you're a Japanese businessman/woman tired after a long day's work that includes "Nomikai" (the social aspect of the Japanese workplace where you eat and drink with fellow employees), you live about an hour away from home and it's already too late to take a train (which usually stop operating around midnight)....what do you do? The answer is you check-in at a capsule hotel! These unique hotels offer very affordable accommodations for people who basically need a place to shower and sleep for the night. They are very common throughout Japan and I recently got the chance to stay in one; it's been something I always wanted to do for some reason! There was a two-day Kali seminar in Roppongi so rather than take the 1hr and 40 minute train ride from Yokosuka each day, it was just more logical to just stay overnight in a capsule hotel; especially after an intense session from Mandala Eric from Pekiti Tirsia France:

       
The capsule hotel is exactly what it sounds like, a very small compartment about 6' long by 4' wide and about 4' tall stacked one on top of another:

Each capsule comes with a small TV, radio, and alarm clock along with a small reading light as well as air control:

 

  
It's understandable for some people to feel a little claustrophobic being enclosed in such a tight space, but for me it was actually quite cozy. The front desk issued me a locker just barely big enough to fit a small backpack and hang up my jacket.    

 

The bathrooms were very clean and offered all the amenities of home such as lotion, gel, razors, blow dryers, and even sterilized hair brushes.

 

   

The shower was your typical Japanese style bath house set-up where it's divided into three stations. If you've seen the movie Mr. Baseball then you'll know what I'm talking about. There's a place where you squat down on a stool and wash yourself with soap/shampoo, then you bathe in a hot tub and afterwards rinse off. But there's a very strict tattoo policy here in Japan (for fear that you are a Yakuza, Japanese mafia) that won't allow people to enter these type of places. Luckily, the hotel staff was unaware of my ink but in fear of getting kicked-out, I decided to quickly shower in the third station and cover up my tattoo as much as possible with another towel.

The one night only cost me about $35 USD which was quite the bargain! This was something Bern would never do (women are separated from the men) so experiencing it just once was something I'll never forget about Japan.

           

Our #1 - 6 Visitors

March was indeed a great month... we had some close friends from SD visit us here in Japan on two separate occasions. Even though Bern and I have been away now for over a year, it's really nice to know that we can just pick up right where we started off with these people; a true sign of friendship in my book! We had so much fun showing them around Japan while experiencing some new things of our own. Here are a few highlights...

Our first visitors were Jerry and Grace. Took them to the Great Buddha in Kamakura:

Yokohama's Chinatown:

Because they were able to stay with us for two weeks, we managed to schedule a couple of excursions through the MWR (Military acronym for Morale, Welfare, & Recreation). Our first trip was to Kairakuen in the Ibaraki Prefecture. It's recognized as one of the three most beautiful gardens in Japan with over 3,000 plum and sakura trees. Kairakuen even had a huge bamboo forest towards the back of the garden that we were able to walk through. Afterwards, the tour bus took us to Mashiko, an area in Japan famous for their pottery and this huge ceramic "tanuki" which is mix between a raccoon and a dog. The tanuki represent fortune and prosperity in Japanese folklore.      

The latter part of our trip took us to Chiyoda fruit farms where we were able to eat as many strawberries as we could in 30 minutes. These strawberries were harvested using no chemical substances which made them safe to eat right off the vines; soooooo good!

Our second excursion was the following day in Tokyo for Anime Fest 2015. Anime (animation) & Manga (comic books & graphic novels) of course are very popular here with fans of all ages so this three day convention was all about showing off the new material for 2015 and beyond; very similar to Comic Con. Even though Bern and I aren't really into anime, it was cool just to experience this yearly event.   

Because Tokyo is about an hour and a half train ride from Yokosuka, we thought it would be easier just to stay in the Tokyo area for a few days at the military hotel New Sanno. While in Tokyo, we of course checked out Akihabara since Jerry is into anime but the area is also well known for their maid cafes. These restaurants have girls dressed up in maid costumes serving up a variety of cutesy themed menu items. Halfway through our meal, they turned down the lights and started to sign and dance on stage...hilarious! They try to get the crowd into it by having everyone wear cat ears and yell out "meow-meow" which was uncomfortable for me but somehow Jerry seemed to love it! haha 

  
We even got the opportunity to visit the inner grounds of the Imperial Palace, where the Emperor of Japan lives. The tour only consisted of a few key spots like the official welcoming area for foreign dignitary and the porch where the Emperor comes out to greet the public on New Years Day; but it would have been nice to actually see the palace itself.

A new part of Tokyo Bern and I have never been to before was Ueno Park; it had a man-made lake in the middle of the Park and plenty of stores and restaurants nearby:

Speaking of food & drinks, Jerry and Grace got to experience some popular Japanese cuisines like ramen, yakiniku, shabu-shabu, CoCo House curry, yakitori, and sushi. But without a doubt the best part was all the Sake & Chu-Hi's! (Strongs & Bitterrrrrrrr's)       

The two weeks Jerry and Grace were here was perfect because it gave us just the right amount of time to explore Japan without having to feel rushed. During which we still had some crazy adventures which is why we were sad to see them leave. But just two days later, we welcomed our second set of visitors: Efren, Patricia, Chris, and Mike. Now even though they were here for vacation, there was another special reason for their trip...Efren was planning to propose to Patricia in front of Mt. Fuji. Back in February, I wrote that Bern and I took a day trip to the Lake Kawaguchiko area. The main purpose of that adventure was to do some recon for Efren so he could determine the best place to pop the question. He decided that the view of Mt. Fuji from the Arakura Fuji Sengen Shrine & Pagoda was the perfect spot. So literally a day after Efren and Patricia's arrival, we met up with Chris and Mike who got into Tokyo a few days earlier, boarded a bus in Yokohama and headed towards Lake Kawaguichiko.

Needless to say Patricia was really surprised when Efren popped the question. We were so happy that we got to witness the proposal and managed to buy some sake at the Lake Kawaguicho station earlier that day to help celebrate this joyous occasion! Congratulations again!   

  

Efren obviously wanted to make this day special so he even reserved a suite for him and his new fiancée at the Kakuna no Taze Hotel on the edge of the lake for one night. The suite came with a private spa on their balcony overlooking Mt. Fuji.... a perfect way to end the day!

The following day Bern, Chris, Mike and I met up with the two lovebirds at the Yokosuka train station and ate dinner. After our meal, I had my first karaoke experience in Japan.

Yokohama was next on the itinerary with a visit to Chinatown where the guys got to do something really unique to this area, have little fish eat the dead skin cells off our feet. We all kept laughing because it was so ticklish having these fish between our toes, but at the end of the session our feet did feel a bit smoother.    

  



 Getting around on trains was sometimes very crowded...

and sometimes very empty...

But nonetheless we made the most of it and still managed to see some really cool spots, like Naka Meguro for the cherry blossom night festival:

Shinjuku for the Robot Restaurant; think Medieval Times meets Terminator at a rave:

 

Shibuya & Akihabara for Efren's love of anime:

And with any trip of course is the food; everything from delicious tonkatsu, okonomiyaki, tempura, sushi, kit-kat sandwiches, and even homemade spam-musubi's: 

But Efren loved Pepper Steak the most which is why we had to have it twice!

There is a saying that goes "Treat your FAMILY like friends and your FRIENDS like family" and knowing these guys for over 20 years now certainly lives up to this adage. Japan is on the other side of the ocean so for all of them to take the trip out here means a lot to both Bern and myself. It's not good times, it's always Great Times with these people!

We are so thankful we got to see them and hopefully this opens the door for more visitors to this great country...HINT HINT! THIS MEANS YOU! haha 

On the horizon, we look forward to having Bern's sister Beverly in June, the whole Matsunaga clan in September, and Bern's mom next March. Can't wait!