It's Small World, Tokyo

If you read this blog quite often, you already know probably that I belong to the half of the world who loves it's a small world so I guess it's no wonder I looked forward to riding it's a small world when I visited Tokyo Disneyland. I heard it was somewhat different from the one I remember and love , the Disneyland Paris one.
Well, it was different, definetely and I'm sorry to say it was not better. The exterior features much brighter colors instead of the light yellows, pinks and blue I'm used to. But that wasn't an issue.

What disappointed me most, was the queueing area, totally unthemed and even a little too claustrophobic (just a passage with white walls) and the large load/unload area, a giant room with nothing but painted walls. I mean, Mary Blair's artwork was still stunning and beautiful but it looked to me as it was just slapped on the walls of a huge hall. A detail: the roof was black dark, while in Paris it's more like a dark blueish violet. I prefer the last one even though I must admit that black is much more consistent to the style of Mary Blair's conceps, in which she usually loves putting together in a vibrant contrast bright colors on a dark black cardboard. I don't know... maybe sometimes being to faithful to a style that looks perfet on paper is not the right thing to do?...

Attraction Posters

Attraction Posters are one the wonderful work of art you can enjoy only if you take your time and, instead of rushing through the gates as if you're running away from some evil creatures, you take a deep breath and take a stroll to the attractions... and the stroll itself will become an attraction itself!

At Tokyo Disneyland, before entering weird but functional World Showcase, you can take a look at some attraction posters. At first I didn't pay to much attention to them, then I realised Tokyo Disneyland has attractions my Disneyland (Disneyland Resort Paris' Disneyland) doesn't have (i.e. Cinderella's Castle Mystery Tour) and some slightly different (i.e. Snow White's Scary Adventure). So I started to look at them more closely and easily became addicted to it! Here are a few pictures of them I hope you're going to enjoy as much as me!

Useless pictures

Matterhorn1959 has post in the past weeks in his wonderful blog Stuff from the Park a very interesting collections of pictures os signs taken in Disneyland: some amusing, others just beautiful, all definetely worth a look.


But you know what I like most about this kind of pictures?
Even if when I took them, I sometimes feel like a stupid, or when I show them to my friends after my expensive vacation at Disneyland, it always makes my friends think that I'm a really weird but funny guy who spent lots of money just to take pictures of useless spots, the truth is that as time goes by those pictures get better and better, while other get easily forgotten.
What I mean here is that everybody takes pictures of, say, Main Street Usa with the castle shimmering at the end of the street, and after a while there's nothing personal, peculiar, really interesting in this kind of pictures and they all start looking the same. But those pictures taken almost by chance... They never stop to interest me and to spark my curiosity.


So here are some pictures of store signs and details I took at Tokyo Disneyland's Fantasyland... with the hope in the fifty years or so they will get more and more intersting.



By the way, thanks to all the people who visited my blog during these months. I really appreciate and please, leave comments if you like: I'd love to hear your thoughts and suggestions!

Disney's Ambassador Hotel

When I decided to visit the Tokyo Disney Resort, I first tried to book a room at the Miracosta, but the least expensive ones were already gone and the available rooms were way too much expensive for my pocket. So I switched to the Ambassador wich was a little less expensive. I didn't take into consideration one of the official hotels because I was curious about staying in a Disney Hotel during my stay. Simply put, my experience at the Ambassador was breathtaking: the services was top notch, every cast member always strove for perfection and the theming was incredible.
For instance, have a look at these pictures of the Tick Tock Diner.



The official website describes it as "Styled after a 1950s diner" but to me it reminds me much more an Art Deco 30's kind of diner. Cold. Classy. Elegant. A little mysterious. Just think about "Dark City", the almost forgotten 1998 sci-fi movie and you'll get what I mean.

Unfortunately I planned to visit the Tokyo Disney Resort during my last days in Japan, so I didn't have all that much money. Otherwise I would have tried this small sandwich diner. Instead, I wander for a while, taking pictures and being gently but firmly stared at by the kind cast members behind the counter.


After a full day at Tokyo DisneySEA, how about being welcomed by this classy porte-cochere?

Tokyo DisneySEA Announcement

Sometimes sounds are much more helpful in recalling memories than pictures. It may sounds silly but among the hundreds of pictures I took back in 2005 when I visited for the first time Tokyo DisneySEA is a tiny video I took just to record the official announcement that was airing in the morning. I want to go back!
Have a super Sunday Brunch tomorrow!

Captain Nemo Submarine

Captain Nemo 's adventures under the seven seas has always fascinated me: it has always embodied a sense of adventure, mystery, unknown and exploration together with a strong trust in a better future: in a few words, Walt's vision of the future.

I guess you can now understand why I always loved so much Disneyland Paris' Discoveryland and was literally blown away by Tokyo DisneySEA's Mysterious Island. Last time I visited the French park I took some pictures of the interior of Nemo's Submarine.

Before entering the submarine, you follow a narrow path built under the earth: very mysterious and it really helps in building the right expectation (remember my past post?)
Then you enter the submarine itself and the colors, sounds and props capture your mind: you're under the sea.

Where's Captain Nemo? Maybe he just left the room with that staircase.

What's waiting in the nex room?