Japan Trip 9: Tokyo Disneyland

Well, I found time to go to Tokyo Disneyland after all. i grew up in a Disney home. We went to Disneyland California almost every year and the Disney channel was always on (back when it was good). When I learned that I was going to be going to Tokyo on a business trip I knew that I had to find time to go to Disneyland. Here are some of the pictures I took with some commentary. This year they are celebrating Tokyo Disneyland's 25th Anniversary so you might see "25" in some of the pictures. It is also Halloween time so there were pumpkins all over the place and the Haunted Mansion was all dressed up in the "Nightmare Before Christmas" theme.

Here is a view from the train I took as we were coming upon the train station that leads to the entrance of Tokyo Disneyland. You can see Space Mountain and others in the distance.

Yeah! I made it! Wait! that guy is going the wrong way!


Aren't the monorail windows oh so cute!

This is the new Disneyland Tokyo hotel. It looks very nice and fancy.
Tokyo Disneyland can't get enough of Mickey Windows.

Here is the entrance to the Winnie the Pooh ride. This is so much better than the ride at Disneyland Ca.

While you are walking through the line, you can read Pooh stories so you don't get board.
Finally the ride!

Now on over to Space mountain for a real man's ride. This is the same as California.

The only difference is the interior. The spaceship kind of looks like Sea quest. Sorry it is blurry. My camera is afraid of the dark and likes to blur with little light.

When exiting from Star Tours this crazy little Alien greats you. Star Tours is the same as California.
This picture is to show you how wide the walking areas are for the large crowds. This was in the morning so it was not crowded yet.
The loading area for Snow White. Even scarier than California's. The witch is even more involved. The ride should be titled "Look at how much fun the witch can have scaring little kids."
Here is Small World.
The loading area is inside.
I love the look of the haunted mansion. Creepy!

Another view from the line. This line took 1 hour and 40 minutes. I like the ride in California because the line goes a lot faster. I wonder if the one in California has more entry rooms to bunch people up into.

Cool decorations in the line.

Finally I am inside. I really liked the "Nightmare Before Christmas" overlay. It was fun and had fun music and story that went along with it.

A view of the river and the Big Thunder Mountain. This ride seemed longer and faster than California. I liked it better. Splash mountain was about the same but the turns and drop were in different places, except for the main one of course.

And here are some shots of the Castle for the girls.

There is not a "Main Street" in Tokyo Disneyland. Instead, there is a large covered area called "World Bazaar". It is pretty much the same as in there are shops and ice cream places.

Those are the best of the pictures I took. I hope you enjoyed them.

Fun fact about Tokyo Disneyland: Tokyo Disneyland is not owned by Disney. It is owned by "The Oriental Land Company", which licenses the theme from Disney.

Another though: I also liked the Jungle cruise ride at Tokyo. There was a part where you go into a cave that is part of an ancient India Civilization with cobras, a tiger, and cool statutes.

Nissan GTR Vs Shinkansen bullet train

I love "Top Gear" and I am excited for the US versions. I wish they would ask me to be one of the hosts. haha! Anyway, here is a two part video of the episode where they raced the GTR against a Bullet Train across Japan. Enjoy!

Japan Trip 8: Nissan Gallery continued

Here a few intersting vehicles they had at the Nissan Gallery we do not have in the States. Enjoy!

Interesting looking van.
Oh, it's so cute!

The X-Trail. It seems like almost every country has this cool SUV but us. It is supposed to very good.

Japan Trip 7: Nissan Gallery

One thing that I really wanted to do in Tokyo was visit the Nissan Gallery. Anyone who knows me knows that I am a huge car guy and I especially have a soft spot in my heart for Nissan sports cars. I myself own a 1973 240z that I am currently working on.
I read on the Internet that sometimes the Nissan Gallery displays classic vehicles. I hoped to get a peak at an old 240z or Datsun roadster in pristine condition.
I knew that the Nissan gallery was in the Ginza area which was a few blocks away from my hotel. So I left my hotel and walked around for a while with directions I memorized from the Internet. Needless to say I got lost. I didn't want to walk back to the hotel to look it up again so I decided to just walk around and look at other sites. I walked a few blocks and then looked up and saw this:


I knew that must be it so I walked in that direction until I came upon it.
I was very disappointed because they were no longer showing their classic cars. However, they did have a couple of Nissan's new super car the GTR. This is one of the fastest production cars today. I had read a lot about them on the Internet but never saw one in real life. This car is beautiful. Here are some pictures of the silver and red versions they had.


One of the ladies working there noticed me taking a lot of pictures and asked me if I wanted to sit insideone. I said "no". Just kidding. The seats fit like a glove. I guess they would have to when going 0-60 in 3.3 seconds. I would love to have one but I think I will have to wait 25 years when the price has gone down from the current price of $80,000. Of course by then I don't think I would want to restore all the electronics and computers that help this car go so fast.

Japan Trip 6. Around town

Here are some pictures I took while walking around the Ginza and Shidome area. Enjoy.

Commuter train leaving the Shidome station.
I love pictures of tall buildings.
A park acros from my hotel. Planning on going there soon.

City shot in Ginza area.

Another cool tall building shot
And another.
This is a cool clock that does some neat stuff around different times. I have not seen it go off yet.
City scene.