Disney Sea

WAAAHHH!!! This was beyond great!! I haven’t told you about this yet?! Why not?! Oh, that’s right. I take forever to blog. My bad. Now on with the show!

Going to Tokyo Disney Land and Sea are a Soul Run tradition. They always go to D. Land on the last Friday before finals, which is a given reading day, but who ever reads, right? Then they also go to D. Sea on the next Friday which is at the end of finals. I really, really, really wanted to go with the group, not so much that I love Disney Land/Sea (I’ve never been), or that I was such a Disney kid growing up (which there is no denying – animated musicals all day? Sounds like a party to me!), but I love the Soul Run members and it is always better when you can go with a group of friends. Trust me, I’m a loner for most activities, but an outing is so much better when you can turn to someone that you know and say, “Wasn’t that cool?” or“Dude, we so have to try that!” Going in a group also get you a good discount! The first Friday, as it turned out, I couldn’t go; I had been writing a paper since 2 pm the day before and pulled an all-nighter, but still

wasn’t finished by 7:30 am, when they were all meeting at the train station. I finished the paper by 11, by the way, but I was so bitter about it that I stopped caring (side note, I got an A).

Luckily, not as many people were planning on going to the Disney Sea trip, so I just switched my plans for that day instead. Why not? It was break and I wasn’t doing anything that day.

I didn’t know the differences then, but apparently Disney Sea is better for young adults anyway. The themes are all around water, but very few are water rides. This makes sense because I don’t think that the Japanese like to get wet and then walk around like that all day (they are kind of like cats – always trying to stay clean and neat) and we went during late fall, so the weather was too cold for a water park adventure anyway.

Instead, they had an Italian-Mediterranean-Greek area (each one blurred into the next, pretty much), Atlantis, Atlantica (from the Little

Mermaid), Agraba on the coast, a Boston Harbor area, a lost island place, and even a European coastal town. Everything there was perfectly done and meticulously decorated and detailed. It was too perfect, like being in a drawn world, and maybe it was the weather or my friends, but I loved every-single inch of it. Being there made me seriously consider applying for a part-time job as one of the actors there. I could so do Mary Poppins or Belle, why not?

There were some pretty memorable part to the day: a trio of foreigners dressed as chefs played trash cans, pots, and pans while talking and singing in Japanese, I got to go on some awesome rides, we all met Aladdin and Eric (such sweethearts, and I think that they are actually brothers), watched the Japanese

belly dancers, eat some strawberry flavored popcorn, and take a lot of pictures (I’m so much of a shutterbug, but at Disney Sea, that’s okay). Back to the Aladdin and Eric guys: Eric was wicked tall and had such a pretty face, none of the girls could get over how young and lovely he was. He smiled, acted, spoke, and stood just like a Disney

character, and as we were leaving he said, “If you guys see Ariel in the Mermaid Lagoon, send her my love, okay?” Isn’t that just so charming and princely!? You don’t get it, he was too good. Hardly had we gotten over that shock, then we went to Agraba and met Aladdin. “Hey doesn’t he look familiar?” “Um, yeah, he looks like Aladdin. Duh!” “No, no, no. Its something else. Doesn’t he kinda look like a shorter version of Eric?” “….O….M…G…They’re totally brothers!!”

Here is our theory: Either Eric or Aladdin came to Japan to pursue his career as an international model because the American agencies wouldn’t use him saying that he looked too young and feminine. Maybe he started out with commercials or ads, but soon he was scouted by Tokyo Disney and hired into their full-time staff. He was doing so well, that he called his brother, who was now looking for som

ething to do, and hooked him up with the other prince job. Disney was overwhelmed, of course, because now they had two young, handsome princes – one tall and pale, the other shorter and willing to get a fake tan – and they all lived happily ever after. The End. Or something like that. I think. Anyway, not only was it Tokyo Disney, but it was Christmas themed Tokyo Disney.

Like I said before, the Japanese don’t have a concept of Thanksgiving (because it is an American holiday), so as soon as possible, they throw up the Christmas lights, decorate everything with snowflakes and call it good. One of the little decorations that we saw everywhere was Pablo the Penguin. Okay, here is where we tell the die-hard fans from the casual observer. As every true Disney kid knows, Pablo the Penguin premiered in movie where Donald Duck learns about birds from all over the world, most notably those from South America (and then he makes two friends from Brazil and Mexico, thereby making the Three Caballeros! Arriba!). But here is the thing, besides the half-Hungarian-half-Mexican girl and me, NOBODY knew who Pablo was. Many of them also didn’t know that Goofy had a son named Max! But there was a character that can only be found in Tokyo Disney called Duffy; he's a light brown teddy bear from who-knows-where, but the Japanese love him. His girlfriend is call Constance Mae, or something like that. :S

It was a fantastic time and I wouldn’t have had it any other way. I’ll try to be as detailed I can on the pictures, and a little video, too.