Tokyo Part 2: Disney Sea

Day 2:

Tiffany and I went shopping for a few hours and met up with Brian and Joseph around 2pm.  We had a great time shopping and spent some of our hard earned money.

Next, Disney Sea!
This park was pretty amazing.  Not as crowded as the Magic Kingdom but just as fun, if not even more so.

We went on a few rides and did some more shopping.  We also saw many characters.

 

 

 

 

Something we noticed a lot of while at Tokyo Disney was the absence of Disney Princesses.  They wern't to be found.  There were many other characters like Scrooge McDuck, Jiminy Cricket, Marie the Cat, and a few others.  We didn't once see Mickey or Minnie Mouse, or any of the princesses. 
Even in the shops there were not any Disney princess merchandise.  Loads of Alice in Wonderland though.  It was pretty neat to see different kinds of merchandise instead of Mickey and the princesses all over the Disney stores.  It was nice to see different kinds of Disney items for purchase.

We went on many rides, but not as many as the day before.  Joseph and Brian went on Indiana Jones Temple of the Crystal Skull (a roller coaster), Raging Spirits, Sinbad's Stoybook Voyage, and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.  When we met up with the boys, we all went on the Tower of Terror, Raging Spirits (again), Indian Jones (again), Jumping Jellyfish, Blowfish Balloon race (the best swing ride ever), and Journey To the Center of the Earth which was a really fun, though short, ride.

 

 

To end our night we ate together at the ship restaurant, S.S. Columbia Dining Room.  It was delicious.  While waiting for our table the boys went downstairs to The Teddy Roosevelt Lounge and had a beverage.

 

 

Tiffany and Brian told us about the Duffy Bear that apparently is a huge thing.  Apparently Mickey Mouse gave Duffy to Minnie Mouse as a gift and now it's a thing.  We saw so many people with Duffy bears.  Tiffany and Brian bought their contribution (along with the appropriate accoutrements) while Joseph and I waited for the Indian Jones roller coaster ride. 
After that, Joseph and I went to the MiraCosta Hotel lounge and enjoyed our last night at the parks.

Next up, Tokyo!  :-)

These school girls spotted Joseph and thought he was handsome and cute--and they were right!
Japanese school girls...there was a little bit of an argument to see who would sit next to him.

 

Tokyo, Japan Trip July 29-Aug 2, 201. Part 1: Magic Kingdom!

Joseph and I had a lovely time in Tokyo.  We were able to go with our good friends, Tiffany and Brian.

The four of us laughed, sang and talked our way through Tokyo Disneyland and Tokyo itself.  It was our first vacation with other people not family and we had a really good time. 

We spent 3 full days in Japan.  The first two days at Disneyland and the last full day in the city of Tokyo.  The other two days were spent shopping in the airport duty free shops and wandering around the two airports waiting for our flights.

Day 1

After Starbucks and something slight to eat, Joseph and Brian got our tickets into the parks.   

Magic Kingdom!!  We went on so many rides and Joseph was saying that the rides were not updated like in Florida.  Japan basically has kept the rides as true as possible.  Each of us got to choose one ride that was non-negotiable--per park.  Even if the line was 140 minutes...The rest of the rides were voted upon or some went on one ride and others went on another.  No biggie.

there were 4 of these along the Space Mountain que. Japanese people are scardy cats?

Toon Town!

Ding, Ding, Ding Went the Trolley!

waiting in line for Winnie the Pooh has never been so much fun

Space Mountain was a blast.  Faster and darker than the Florida version.  Pretty fantastic.   Big Thunder Mountain, Monster's Inc., Toon Town shenanigans, The Haunted Mansion, Pirates of the Caribbean, Pinocchio, The Jungle Cruise, Winnie the Pooh (AWESOME), and The Tiki Room were just a few of the main rides we went on that day.  Oh, and some shopping to get our head gear before our day of fun.

 

Tokyo Disneyland has a pretty keen bit of advertising unique to these parks:  popcorn.  All over each park are different kinds of popcorn.  Delicious tasting, gimmie more, popcorn.  Curry, soy sauce, corn soup, honey, strawberry, sea salt, black pepper, caramel, milk tea, and apple cinnamon were some amazing flavors.

Among our groups favorites were honey, caramel, curry, soy sauce and strawberry.  We had a good time stopping at each different flavors cart and tasting it.  Gotta admit though, when Brian first mentioned this a few months ago, we had our doubts.  Upon taking up our quest to try all of the flavors, we began with Brian first buying a box and sharing to each of us having our own boxes.  It was super fun and yummy!

We can now say we have tried and tasted all of the various flavors of popcorn Tokyo Disneyland has to offer.  Boo-yah.

After an enjoyable albeit tired day at the Magic Kingdom we were hungry.  Near the hotels were a lovely shopping area complete with restaurants.  We happened to arrive about 10pm when most of the restaurants are closed or not serving anything anymore, so we ate the T.G.I. Fridays.  Delicious.  Not a Korean T.G.I. Friday's either.  An American one.  Complete with Jack Daniel's shrimp and chicken.  Yum, yum, yummy.

Until tomorrow...

Miserable in Japan

So we are going to Japan on Monday....Three and a half days.

Joseph and I are going with good friends, Tiffany and Brian.  Tiffany and I are sick and Joseph is getting over whatever it is he had.  Super goodie.

All of us at work are sick to some degree.  About half of us are going to Japan for our summer vacation. Will we get better before our trips?

Let's hope so!

Korea seriously needs to consider selling Nyquil and Dayquil.  They'd make a fortune.

Summer Vacation in...Japan

Summer vacation begins at the end of next week. Friday, to be exact.

Joseph and I are pretty excited.

We are going to Japan for a week!  We will be visiting Tokyo and staying at Tokyo Disney.  We will play at Disney for 2 days then a day and a half playing in Tokyo.  We are planning on living it up for sure.
Japan here we come!

Shopping, eating yummy Japanese food and shopping.

We are going to eat the crap out of some sushi.  And sake.  And more sushi.

Cannot. Wait!

Summer vacation lasts only one week at our school so we have to make it count.

J.A.P.A.N.  :-0)

Silent Bob Strikes Back

Theatre!  Thespians!  Drama!  Acting!   

Joseph and Stephen's huge acting debut!  So proud of them!  

This past weekend Joseph was a part in a series of 6, ten minute plays put on by local Daejeon actors.  The plays were really quite good and the actors all did a great job.  Stephen and Joseph acted in them so this was a biased moment for Emily and I. 

Joseph acted in the last play titled, Misfortune which is about a couple in a restaurant who gets death threats in the form of fortune cookie notes.  Joseph is at another table and at the end of the threats, he leaves the stage only to return seconds later with a chopstick in his eye and he dies spectacularly and loudly on the middle table where the couple is sitting arguing about who is supposed to die and how it is supposed to be done.  Opps!  The fortune cookies of death were given to the wrong table!