We had decided the previous day that today we would end up going to Tokyo DisneySea, but I had an errand to take care of first...obtaining Mushihimesama Futari for the XBOX 360. This game is the first CAVE developed shooter that was deliberately deprived of its region lock in order to gauge popularity of its titles in the US and Europe - apparently a lot of people in the West made noise on the internet after DeathSmiles was released with NTSC-J region lock intact. This change of policy is a big deal, so I wanted to make sure I grabbed a copy of Mushihimesama while I was here. Plus, I really wanted to be able to play through the game without having to worry about being bled dry of my yen by the difficult bullet patterns in the later stages.
We started walking towards Shinjuku station at around 8:30AM JST. The stores around there don't open until 9:30 or later - and to my dismay we arrived at the shopping area around the station at around 9:00. No problem - we grabbed some delicious curry udon and cold soba from a restaurant down the street and by the time we were finished, Yodobashi Camera was open for business. I got in, got the game, and then got out. Then we headed to Shinjuku station for the journey to Tokyo Disney Resort.
The journey to the resort required changing trains at Tokyo station, which went smoothly. The entire trip out there cost us 320 yen each, which wasn't too bad. It was about 20 minutes from downtown Tokyo out to the resort in Maihama. Getting off the train was like stepping into a bizarro version of Orlando, Florida. We exited the station (which was all decked out in Disney decor) and headed to the monorail, only to find - much to our dismay - the same yen-eating ticket machines that guard the entrance to every other train in the country of Japan. "Wait," I said to Lisa, who was about to swipe her card in the machine, "this can't be right. They can't CHARGE to use the monorail..." After some looking at the signs, all of which were conveniently not in English, it became clear to me. Oh yeah, they were charging to use the monorail. 250 yen a pop, in fact, unless you wanted to buy a "commuter pass" and ride as much as you want for 650 yen. Keep in mind that, as I said above, it cost us 320 yen each to ride the trains 25 km+ to Disney, but to ride a monorail that's 3-4 km long at most, it costs 250 yen?!
I thought, "Fuck this, we're walking". So we walked. For about 10 minutes. And found Tokyo Disneyland without incident. But...DisneySea, the park we actually wanted to go to, appeared to be out of reach for us without having to fork over the yen to ride the monorail. What a scam.
So we went back, paid our yen, got on the monorail and rode to DisneySea. First of all, something about the Tokyo Disney Resort. They have it set up so that if you want to visit both Disneyland and DisneySea, you can't do it on the same day with a 2-day pass! You have to choose one day for one park, and one day for the other park. In order to get around this, you have to buy 3+ day passes (or pay for single-day passports to each park, at 5800 yen a pop). My theory is this is to prevent overcrowding in both parks due to day travelers coming from Tokyo, but it also probably generates massive amounts of revenue from the people that absolutely must see both parks in one day, and honestly - there really isn't enough to do at either park to warrant a full day on its own. Fortunately, that particular "gotcha" didn't apply to us, as we were ONLY there for DisneySea.
So we entered the park, and immediately something struck me as bizarre. We were definitely in a Disney park, but - this being Japan - all the signs were in Japanese, and unlike Epcot - where the different "worlds" had cast members from each country represented in the park - there wasn't anything like that here. Everyone was Japanese. Which was fine - it was relatively amusing to see our two "Italian" hosts try to teach us hello and goodbye in Italian when the pronunciation is warped by Japan... "Aribedeiruchii".
But then we hit the "American Waterfront" world in the park, and it suddenly went from weird to weirder. They were putting on this cheesy show in the center of the park, and suddenly Mickey Mouse comes out and starts speaking perfect Japanese ... but HE SOUNDS LIKE MICKEY MOUSE. It was really strange. Then he started dancing to Madonna, which was still all in English. I swear, guys, I can't make this stuff up. I guess this is how the Japanese feel when playing through the International versions of Kingdom Hearts.
Speaking of Kingdom Hearts, just a few minutes walk away from that cheesy musical review, we found it. Tetsuya Nomura's inspiration for the favorite snack of the residents of Twilight Town... Sea Salt Ice Cream!!! Now before you say "Ewwww", keep in mind that this delicious treat merely consisted of vanilla ice cream with a little bit of additional sea salt added. So it tasted sweet, but salty at the same time. And it was really good. It's kind of a shame though, it didn't look like I thought it would have... In Kingdom Hearts, the ice cream was shown as bright blue popsicles. IRL, it's just a dish of vanilla colored ice cream. Disney needs to correct this and serve Sea Salt Ice Cream the way it was meant to be served: as a bright blue popsicle that will send the Roxas and Axel cosplayers coming in droves...
Anyways, after that we rode Indiana Jones and the Temple of the Crystal Skull - which was one of the best rides I've been on in a long time and definitely the best movie-based one I've ever seen, bar none. It was worth the agonizing hour long wait as we saw people who purchased "Fast Pass" tickets outside the ride (yet another Tokyo Disney money grab) skipping merrily past us towards the front of the line. But it was worth it. They stick you in a huge ATV that can hold about 16 people, and send you racing through the temple - with special effects and crazy sights happening at every turn. The track itself had some hills but was mostly flat. The ATV generated all the twists and bumps on its own, culminating with a slight drop occurring just as a boulder rolling forward was about to hit us. Honestly I wish I would have ridden twice - it was that good.
After a couple more hours of exploration - and trying out a few more of Tokyo Disney's culinary treats, we headed back to the gateway to the resort, and attempted to get dinner at one of the restaurants outside. But all the restaurants had the added "Disney Tax", charging upwards of 2000 yen for a single entree, except for one little katsu place called Trail and Track near the corner of Ikspiari. I had reservations about this place, but I figured it wouldn't hurt to try it out. We were seated, most of the restaurant staff could speak decent English, and I felt completely at ease in a restaurant for the first time in a while. But my danger sense started tingling when they asked me whether I wanted "rice or bread" with my chicken katsu. BREAD?! With KATSU?! Uh oh....
Sure enough. I get the plate of katsu, which was drenched in something that certainly wasn't katsu sauce. The sauce tasted like Chef Boyardee Spaghetti-o's sauce. Yuck. Then there was the side of potato salad (WHY?!) and the nappa cabbage, which would have been great if they didn't coat it in an American style mayo-based dressing. Barf... Worst. Meal. Ever. Lisa didn't seem to mind it as much, and this restaurant did in fact serve pretty decent freshly made diner-style cream sodas, so it wasn't a total loss.
After eating dinner, the entire Ikspiari mall was lit up, and the Wishing Tree illuminated as a teenage girl rang the Wishing Bell. For a brief second - just a second mind you - I felt what may have been a sparkle of the magic of Christmas, even as commercialized as it has become. We then returned to Shinjuku, played some Death Smiles II (with villain Satan Claus) at the local game center, had some desserts at what could best be called a Japanese Denny's, and went to bed early. I thought I was catching a cold, because I had a very difficult time getting to sleep and my throat was sore.
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