#NerdsUnite: Around the world with @HeatherReusz
<editorsnote> Nerds, meet my buddy Heather. She's a nerd who is currently living in Japan by way of Chicago. Yep, talk about a culture shock. She's here today to talk about her life, love (which she is currently balancing long distance) and all things nerd. I only have one more thing left to say ... HIT IT HEATHER!!!</editorsnote>
#TalkNerdyToMeLover's @HeatherReusz
This weekend I finally got a chance to go to Tokyo Disneyland. I’ve been before to Tokyo Disney Sea but never Disneyland. I really wanted to get to both parks before I left Japan. I made the decision to go kind of last minute so unfortunately all of my friends who said they might come bailed on me. I have to admit, going to Disneyland alone made me feel a bit like a sad sack loser at first; but I quickly got over that so I could enjoy myself.
Part of the reason that I visited this weekend was because they were celebrating a Japanese festival called Tanabata. It celebrates the story of two star crossed lovers who are cursed to only meet on one day a year. The day that they are allowed to meet on is July 7th. It’s a popular holiday where people write their wishes on brightly colored paper and tie it to a bamboo tree in hopes that the star crossed lovers will help their wish come true. The entrance at Disneyland greeted you with a giant bamboo sculpture with Mickey and Minnie dressed as the two lovers. You could get a colorful piece of paper in the shape of Mickey’s head to write your wish on and tie to the tree or the other wooden structures around it. I grabbed one and wrote a wish for safe travels home and some kind of job when I come back.
Looking at the two parks you wouldn’t think that there are too many differences between Tokyo Disney Resort and the Disney Resorts in America. Tokyo Disneyland is basically a small replica of Disneyland California. Disney Sea has a couple of different rides and features Ariel’s castle as the center of the park instead of Cinderella’s castle which is epic if you ask me. The Little Mermaid was one of my favorite movies growing up so I highly enjoyed seeing Ariel’s castle.
On closer examination, there are some big differences. The main one is the rides. There are not many rides in either Disney Sea or Disneyland. People don’t really come to ride the rides. The rides are also less intense than the rides in America. There was only one roller coaster that did one 360 degree loop and there were warnings all over the ride that it was the most intense ride in the park. I haven’t been to Disneyland or Disneyworld in a while in America but I’m pretty sure that there is more than one roller coaster or attraction that makes a loop or spins around.
Instead of going on rides people mostly go to buy park exclusives, eat strange flavors of popcorn, and take pictures with characters. The popcorn stands are everywhere. They sell very unique flavors that you can only find in Disney Resort like honey, curry, soy sauce and butter, and strawberry; those are just the flavors I tried the other day. The characters that are popular here are also different than the characters that are popular in America. In Japan, they LOVE the Aristocats especially the cute white kitten named Marie. Now, I'm going to be honest, I haven't seen the Aristocats in about 20 years so I barely recognized the character when I first got here. I told one of my older students that and she looked at me like I was insane for not knowing her name. They also really like Chip and Dale, Stitch, and the Genie not Aladdin or Jasmine. In fact, there was not a single statue or mention of them in the Arabian town area. It was ALL about the Genie.
I had a great day exploring the park. I went on a Monday so it was pretty empty which was very nice. I got to ride almost all of the rides and saw all of the parades. I held my composure pretty well even though there were a couple of moments when I had to stop and realize that this was one of my last weekends in Japan. I couldn’t think of a more perfect way to end it than to watch fireworks over Cinderella’s castle in Tokyo Disneyland. I’ll be home soon! My next post will be my last post from Japan.