The Dynamic Duo

Ah Tokyo Disneyland! What can I say? Well, I’ll tell you what Heather said to me, repeatedly: Mom, this is NOT Disneyland, its DisneySea. What’s the difference? THAT is what I kept saying. It seems that they are two totally separate theme parks with different attractions. And, at DisneySea, adults are able to purchase and consume alcoholic beverages at designated locations within. Other than that I don’t think there is a heck of a lot of difference. So lay off, Heather!
We left early, having purchased advance tickets, not wanting to waste any part of our day. I must say I was super-impressed with UltraBob’s driving throughout our stay in Japan, and this day his driving was superb. If I had to pick one day of our trip, aside from the wedding, that stood out as a day of total enjoyment, this would be the one. We were all happy, excited and enjoying everything….
or almost everything…..
The first attraction we came to was a ride called “The Tower of Terror.” As we stood in line waiting for our turn to ride, Tomoko recited the legend of Harrison Hightower, an unscrupulous collector of antiquities, and his ill fated elevator ride so many years before. Tower of Terror As we moved forward in the line, warning signs were prominently displayed: “Don’t go on this ride if you have high blood pressure, heart conditions, suffer from motion sickness or are a general wimp.” Actually, a couple of those conditions sounded kind of familiar, but I made up my mind to be a trooper. Show no fear.
Finally in the bowels of the ride, we were strapped into a giant elevator car, where I closed my eyes, practiced my deep breathing techniques and went deep inside myself to my calm center and, you know, just concentrated on not bolting in terror or throwing up. It didn’t help that my kids kept shoving my arm and asking if I was alright. I wanted to say “Hey, meditation going on over here,” but, as speaking seemed out of the question, I mutely nodded my head and willed them to leave me alone.
It seems that there were marvelous and interesting things to see as we zoomed up and down in this giant stomach-lurching freefall elevator; I couldn’t tell you. My eyes remained firmly shut until we finally stopped moving. “That was great!” enthused my children. Yeah, now it was.

The Tower of Terror Begins….

Actually, it really wasn’t all that bad, but no, I did not want to do it again. My kids alternately laughed at me and praised my bravery, which was kind of fun too.
You may be surmising from this account that UltraMom is not generally a brave, scary-ride kind of person, and generally you would be correct, but I had determined that today I was going to step a little out of my comfort zone. This did not, I decided, include the Raging-something roller coaster that made a 360 degree turn. The line for the ride was long, so my intrepid fellow-adventurers secured “fast pass” tickets from a machine for a designated time. This ingenious method allowed a fast-pass ticket holder to get quickly on a ride, bypassing the regular wait-line. The downside to this was that you missed all of the interesting exhibits, usually coordinated with the ride theme, set up along the wait-line path to entertain you while you waited. Meanwhile, we went over to the Arabian Village and, wearing 3-D glasses, watched Aladdin and the Genie doing some magic…..actually I guess it was mostly the Genie.
While the others went to make themselves sick on the Raging-something roller coaster, UltraMom hung around the Arabian Village and happened upon a show of some Arabian-type belly dancing, which was pretty entertaining. I probably got the best of that deal actually; just as my show ended, the others came back, grumbling that the roller coaster wasn’t even scary. “You could have done that one easily, Mom,” Heather told me. UltraBob seemed quite sorry to have missed the belly dancers. Score one for UltraMom.

The Belly Dancers. And you missed them, Ultrabob

For those of you who were actually at DisneySea with me that day, I issue a disclaimer. I can no longer remember all the things we did, or in what order we did them. Therefore, I may be enjoying a little bit of poetic license and I suggest you enjoy it also, unless you wish to make corrections through the proper channels, i.e. leave a comment.
So, anyway, then we went to the Mermaid Lagoon and watched a pretty awesome The Little Mermaid story retelling, acted out and sung by costumed characters suspended from the ceiling by metal wires and rods. The Little Mermaid herself swung and danced through the air/ocean. It looked like a lot of fun except for the metal rod that appeared to run through her hips, securing her to the wire-swing. All of your old favorites were there: Flounder, Sebastian, the Sea Witch…..all of them. The songs were all the movie-original English, but all the dialog was, of course, in Japanese, but we were familiar with the tale. Heather was rather mesmerized by the aerial gymnastics, and declared that THIS was the ride she wanted to go on, and refused to be dissuaded by the metal-rod-through-the-hips thing. When we were out of the theater, UltraGirl declared that we had our very own Arial (the little mermaid’s name, in case you live on Mars and don’t know), meaning Heather of course, with her long red hair. We then proceeded to pose in Little-Mermaidesque poses. Heather, of course, was the Mermaid; UltraGirl took the role of Sebastian, the crab. UltraBob made a very convincing Flounder; UltraMom, a less convincing Sea Witch. So, yeah, good times.

Flounder, Arial and Sebastian..together again

At one point we went on a bumper-boat ride. Heather and UltraGirl rode together, while UBob and UMom took another boat. As we were getting in our boat, UBob notice a sign that read “No cameras” or “Don’t take any pictures”, or something to that effect. UBob surreptitiously snapped a few shots of the girls in the other boat, but Heather apparently hadn’t read the sign. She was openly taking photos right and left. “Tell her,” I begged UltraBob, “That she isn’t supposed to take pictures.” But he thought it was highly hilarious (which it was) and refused to tell her anything. Now, Heather and I had, by this time, gotten a bit used to having people translate for us. It did not even dawn on me until we were back on dry land that Heather could have understood ME: I could have told her myself! The really funny thing was that with all the time she had the camera held up at the ready, Heather only actually took one picture.

Heather had her Camera up for nearly the entire ride

UltraMom and UltraBob: the One picture Heather actually took

The Flounder Roller Coaster looked to be just about my speed, and it was. Just scary enough, but not too scary. UltraBob, sitting with his wife in the seat ahead of Heather and UltraMom got creative with his camera. He snapped a series of photos of us as the coaster dipped and twisted. What resulted was a great range of emotions and facial expressions. Heather’s expression was, for the most part, laughter, induced by UltraMom’s expression which alternated between screaming terror and screaming laughter, sometimes both at the same time.

Flounder Roller Coaster: Just Scary Enough

And now we come to the best ride of all: Journey to the Center of the Earth. “Travel deep within the Earth’s core aboard one of many subterranean vehicles designed by Captain Nemo himself. Go deep into crystal caverns, encounter giant mushroom forests filled with bizarre creatures, see a storm happening in the subterranean sea, and encounter a giant magma monster before shooting out of Mt. Prometheus, plunging into the depths of the volcano, and whipping across the entire caldera.” says Theme Park Insider. A pretty apt description. We would end up doing this ride 4-5 times. By the 3rd time, UltraMom was keeping her eyes open as we shot out of Mt Prometheus. As we whipped around corners, we saw the aforementioned bizarre creatures, but the part that always got Heather was the storm. The flash of lightning invariable caused her to jump, squeal, and grab the person next to her, usually UltraMom. Journey to the Center of the Earth

Journey to the Center of the Earth: Spectacular!

We did a lot of other things, and since it was near Christmas, and this was Tokyo DisneySea’s 5th Anniversary, there were some pretty spectacular fireworks-type shows going on, especially at the waterfront. I’m not sure where we were, but at one place you could view close hand a number of interesting science and inventions while climbing stairs and turrets.

DisneySea’s 5th Anniversary

Along the way, we had some interesting snacks, such as flavored popcorn…can’t remember what flavor, but very unusual…help me out, UltraKids. For dinner, we selected an Italian type restaurant, and like every meal we had while in Japan, it was unusual and delicious.

Enjoying the meal

We finally piled back into the car for the long ride home, where UltraMom had her usual little nap. What a great day. This is one we must do again.
Tomorrow: another trip to Tokyo, Karaoke and Game Night.

Your Tour Guide,
UltraMom