![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shirenomadAs yesterday was a national holiday (Japan has a lot of these, not that I'm complaining), the Kitais thought it might be fun to take me somewhere for the day: namely, Tokyo Disneyland. Fun, and I'm grateful for the opportunity... but I'll admit to coming home a little disappointed. Anyway, the following not only describes the park but kinda assumes you're familiar with the version in Anaheim, so if that's not true, or if you just aren't interested in reading, feel free to skip it.
Most of T-Disney is taken directly from the original; I saw only one attraction on the map that didn't have an equivalent at home ("Pooh's Honey Hunt", which we gave a miss), and some of the stuff from home was absent here (Matterhorn and Indy's Adventure, most notably). Space Mountain and Honey, I Shrunk the Audience were identical save for the language switch (plus the latter was renamed "MicroAdventure!"), and Pirates of the Caribbean only differed by cutting out the last bit where your boat is raised back to the surface level (you get to walk up a moving ramp instead). Haunted Mansion had you get in the chairs immediately after the stretching room; the stuff you'd normally see walking in the hallway was moved to right after boarding, followed by a few parts the were unique to the Japan version (a library, music room, and a hall with some big spiders)... then you hit the fortune teller's head-in-a-glass and from there on there's nothing new.
Yuki-chan got tired early, so we only had time for those, lunch, some shopping (didn't see anything I wanted), a parade, and Jungle Cruise (more on the last two in a minute). I can't blame her: it's a two hour drive from Tsuru to that part of Tokyo, so we got going at 6:30am, and even I was feeling wiped when we left Disneyland 11 hours later. That plus no FastPass implementation at all but a few attractions didn't leave us time to hit more.
I was astonished how much of the park was in English. Many shop and attraction signs didn't even have a Japanese translation beneath, save when naming a sponsor, so if you couldn't read English -- or, even worse, the Roman alphabet at all -- you had to resort to the guide pamphlet (where they listed the names in both languages). Pirates and Haunted Mansion had all speech but the narrator monologue in the original language as well. Considering you can't graduate high school in Japan without taking a few years of Eigo, I suppose it's not quite as bad as it seems, but still... plus it meant I couldn't practice my own language skills much.
The two big exceptions to the above rule were MicroAdventure (dubbed over) and Jungle Cruise. No surprise on either: the first would be pretty hard to follow without proper narration, and half the point of the second is to groan at the guide's bad puns. Which were now going over my head. *shrug* The "back side of water" joke translates pretty directly, though (yes, they have that here too). Mostly the same scenery, but they had a new part of the river which went through some ancient ruins... or maybe it was an old part? It seemed familiar, like it was in the American version the first few times I rode it but not recently; I'm wondering if they diverted the river to make room for Indy's Adventure and wiped that part in particular since the two had the same theme.
It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas... at least at Disneyland, which has started its holiday season at the beginning of November and plans to keep celebrating right up to the actual day. Wreaths and lights everywhere, plus one mondo tree in the center of their Main Street equivalent (they call the area "World Bazaar"; basically the same concept but more shops). Also a Christmas parade, complete with a ton of Disney characters (talking in Japanese! finally! they do speak that language here after all!) Donald speaking in Nihongo is something you've just got to hear for yourself.
Final review: if you've never been to the Anaheim park, you might want to check this one out when you're in the neighborhood. If you have, and especially if you've gone within the past year (for those who forgot or missed one of my older updates, I went just this July)... well, you've seen one Disneyland, you've seen them all. Go to the sister park (DisneySea) instead.
Got home, wiped, with full intent to crash early even for me.... and was prevented from doing so for an extra half hour due to fireworks in the near vicinity. >_< Wasn't aware this was that big a holiday. Must keep better track of these things.
Most of T-Disney is taken directly from the original; I saw only one attraction on the map that didn't have an equivalent at home ("Pooh's Honey Hunt", which we gave a miss), and some of the stuff from home was absent here (Matterhorn and Indy's Adventure, most notably). Space Mountain and Honey, I Shrunk the Audience were identical save for the language switch (plus the latter was renamed "MicroAdventure!"), and Pirates of the Caribbean only differed by cutting out the last bit where your boat is raised back to the surface level (you get to walk up a moving ramp instead). Haunted Mansion had you get in the chairs immediately after the stretching room; the stuff you'd normally see walking in the hallway was moved to right after boarding, followed by a few parts the were unique to the Japan version (a library, music room, and a hall with some big spiders)... then you hit the fortune teller's head-in-a-glass and from there on there's nothing new.
Yuki-chan got tired early, so we only had time for those, lunch, some shopping (didn't see anything I wanted), a parade, and Jungle Cruise (more on the last two in a minute). I can't blame her: it's a two hour drive from Tsuru to that part of Tokyo, so we got going at 6:30am, and even I was feeling wiped when we left Disneyland 11 hours later. That plus no FastPass implementation at all but a few attractions didn't leave us time to hit more.
I was astonished how much of the park was in English. Many shop and attraction signs didn't even have a Japanese translation beneath, save when naming a sponsor, so if you couldn't read English -- or, even worse, the Roman alphabet at all -- you had to resort to the guide pamphlet (where they listed the names in both languages). Pirates and Haunted Mansion had all speech but the narrator monologue in the original language as well. Considering you can't graduate high school in Japan without taking a few years of Eigo, I suppose it's not quite as bad as it seems, but still... plus it meant I couldn't practice my own language skills much.
The two big exceptions to the above rule were MicroAdventure (dubbed over) and Jungle Cruise. No surprise on either: the first would be pretty hard to follow without proper narration, and half the point of the second is to groan at the guide's bad puns. Which were now going over my head. *shrug* The "back side of water" joke translates pretty directly, though (yes, they have that here too). Mostly the same scenery, but they had a new part of the river which went through some ancient ruins... or maybe it was an old part? It seemed familiar, like it was in the American version the first few times I rode it but not recently; I'm wondering if they diverted the river to make room for Indy's Adventure and wiped that part in particular since the two had the same theme.
It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas... at least at Disneyland, which has started its holiday season at the beginning of November and plans to keep celebrating right up to the actual day. Wreaths and lights everywhere, plus one mondo tree in the center of their Main Street equivalent (they call the area "World Bazaar"; basically the same concept but more shops). Also a Christmas parade, complete with a ton of Disney characters (talking in Japanese! finally! they do speak that language here after all!) Donald speaking in Nihongo is something you've just got to hear for yourself.
Final review: if you've never been to the Anaheim park, you might want to check this one out when you're in the neighborhood. If you have, and especially if you've gone within the past year (for those who forgot or missed one of my older updates, I went just this July)... well, you've seen one Disneyland, you've seen them all. Go to the sister park (DisneySea) instead.
Got home, wiped, with full intent to crash early even for me.... and was prevented from doing so for an extra half hour due to fireworks in the near vicinity. >_< Wasn't aware this was that big a holiday. Must keep better track of these things.
