Wandering Through Fortress Explorations at Tokyo DisneySea, Japan

 (Tokyo DisneySea is currently closed and will reopen March 15, 2020.  These pictures are from April, 2019)

 Walking into a Disney park and seeing a castle is pretty iconic.  Disneyland CA, Disneyland Paris, and Hong Kong have Sleeping Beauty's castle.  Shanghai's is the Enchanted Castle.  Tokyo Disneyland and the Magic Kingdom in Orlando have Cinderella's Castle.  Well, California Adventure's iconic symbol is the Cathy Circle inspired by the art deco theater from the 20's where Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs premiered.  Tokyo Disneyland gives us a volcano, Mount Prometheus, and just under this Volcano sits Fortress Explorations, an Italian Renaissance fortress in the Mediterranean Harbor with Leonardo Da Vinci influences.

All parts of the fortress can be explored with multiple nooks and crannies.  There's a docked sailing ship, permanent, that is brought to life with great details and sounds.  The cooking pot sounds like it's bubbling.  In the corner you can hear someone play an accordion.  I even think I might have heard rats.  And there's a ships creaking sound.  The only thing missing is a gentle rocking.

The Chamber of Planets is my favorite!!  I could spend hours just looking up, sitting against a wall, relaxing away from the crowds.  There's a huge planetary model that can be moved by turning cranks.  But what really heightens this experience is the sounds.  There's chant singing and other whatnot's.  It's just super cool.

There's a Society of Explorers and Adventures (S.E.A) theme at Fortress Explorations, inviting everyone who visits to explore adventure, romance, discovery, and innovation.  There's also this thing you can go to where Leonardo himself invites you on some kind of quest, via projection, but it was all in Japanese.

Fortress Exploration is the sort of attraction that can be easily skipped and overshadowed by other aspects of Tokyo DisneySea, but this little fortress is further proof of how keen the attention to detail is at the Tokyo Disney Parks.

Photos by Sarah, Robin, Steven, and Ty

Duffy & Friends and Those Dang Cute Plush Badges at the Tokyo DisneySea/Disneyland Parks

 (April, 2019)  If there was one Disney Japan souvenir I wish the American Disney parks would sale it would be the plush badges.  They're mini stuffed animals that have both a key chain option and a safety pin that can attach easily to anything.  They're so cute! So well made!  And we don't have anything like them in the States.

Every season there are new Plush Badges to fit the current season/holiday/celebration.  Pictured in this post are the Spring 2019 items.  TDRExplorer is an excellent blog featuring the Asian parks, mainly Tokyo, and they already have the Spring 2020 items posted.  Once again, super cute.

Tokyo Disneyland always has the cutest merchandise.

Some of my favorite Tokyo Disney merchandise is Duffy, the Disney bear, with his friends ShellieMay (a girl bear), Gelatoni (an artistic cat), StellaLou (a ballerina bunny), and the brand new character who's new this year CookieAnn (a dog who loves baking).  There's a show in the American Waterfront in Tokyo DisneySea, Duffy's home.  The food is very reasonably priced, especially compared to the U.S.A Disney parks.

 (A lot of these were gifts.  Aren't they adorable?)

 (Don't know who this Disney bear character is, and didn't buy one, but once again they're super cute, but then Japan is so good at making cute things.  These were in the Disney Store outside of the park in the mall.)