Completely Indie

Wednesday, November 4, 2015

Tokyo Disney Sea, Part 2, Japan

It seemed like the last half of our day was a scurry all over the back side of Tokyo Disney Sea, with the realization that there wasn't much time left, yet so much to do; we wanted to leave no later then 9:00 PM, even thought the park closed at 10:00, because we had a 2 hour train ride home, and we wanted to get to the apartment before midnight.

Taking the boat from American Waterfront to Lost River Delta.

You can look over Tokyo Bay from here! So many cool things to see.

We didn't get to explore the Lost River Delta at all. I know there's a roller coaster that was closed for refurbishment, and Indiana Jones, but since we have Indiana Jones back home we wanted to focus on the parts of Disney Sea we can't experience elsewhere.

The Arabian Coast from a distance.

We were going to explore the Arabian Coast, but we got distracted by Mermaid Lagoon.

The Little Mermaid!!!!

It's really like being under the sea.

There's a King Triton concert musical show that features Arial swimming (aka flying about on strings), but the wait for the show was 2 hours, because I completely forgot to get fast passes, so we weren't able to see it. I'll have to see it the next time I visit, because I truly hope there is a next time.

The Arabian Coast. It's just like walking through the Aladdin movie. We wanted to visit the dark ride "Sindbad's Storybook Voyage."

It was a quick walk through. Next time I hope to stroll.

The park has such a fun atmosphere at night. We found a store in Mysterious Island that sells postage stamps so we could mail off some postcards. They stamp the postcard with an ink stamp showing the parks theme, which was the Villains, of course. Rode 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. And stumbled upon Storm Rider, which was a surprise of a ride.

Stay tuned for my thoughts on the unique Tokyo Disney Sea rides.

(Photos by Michael and Sarah Stufflebeam)

Tuesday, November 3, 2015

Jem and the Holograms, mini movie review

Rating: 2 out of 5 Stars

Jem and the Holograms, or what the movie really should be called: How to Succeed on YouTube Without Really Trying!!

Jem was the first television show I was a fan of. I was four years old, no idea how I found out about it, but it was fun. She was a singer, with powers, fighting the bad guys. I even got a Jem doll for Christmas.

This movie could have been awesome!

Jem and the Holograms, based on the popular television show from the 80's, is the latest movie flick to bring a cartoon classic to a new era. Transformers, despite the explosions and crazy, was really successful. The problem with Jem is she got washed over and cleaned up, modernized, and whatever sparkle she had got left with the suds.

Instead of the Jem everyone grew up with, a character with a band and magical earrings that have holographic powers, at least from what I remember from the show, we got a Josie and the Pussycats remake, and not a remake from the cartoon, I'm talking 2001 Josie and the Pussycats theatrical release. Only Josie was quirky with a fun script.

The script for Jem is all over the place with plot points that make no sense. That whole bit about retrieving the earnings?! Why were they put in a safe in the first place, under lock and key?? One thing after another, during the climax, defied logic.

I'm crying on the inside thinking about it.

All the YouTube video inserts started to grow annoying.

On a positive note, I do like the cast. And there's some really great songs that I need to download. The album on both iTunes and Amazon have high reviews.

MPAA: Rated PG for thematic material including reckless behavior, brief suggestive content and some language

Monday, November 2, 2015

Tokyo Disney Sea, Part 1, Japan

Day 3, October 6, 2015.

The big day!!!!

You have no idea how excited I was to finally visit Tokyo Disney Sea, a one of a kind Disney Theme Park, found only in Tokyo. I read on Wikipedia--and you can trust all things wikipedia (:P)--that the plans for a Disney theme park, where each "land" is an ocean harbor, was originally designed for California, centered around the real Queen Mary. This fell through and the plans were given to Tokyo, and thus Tokyo Disney Sea was born.

Getting off the train.

Before heading into the park we nibbled on cute little graham cookie like birdies we bought in the Tokyo train station, grabbed a quick bite to eat, and admired this really cool purse.

And then we took the monorail to the park gate, because walking, after standing on three trains during Tokyo rush hour for two hours, sounded crazy.

A glimpse of Cinderella's Castle at Tokyo Disneyland.

When you enter the park the World greets you . . . and there's a lot of fun Disney character's to get photo ops with.

Walking into Mysterious Island, one of the harbors.

The theme is Jules Verne steampunk.

Really, really cool.

And here you can ride two Jules Verne inspired rides:

Journey to the Center of the Earth and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.

Waiting in line for Journey to the Center of the Earth.

(I'm going to talk about the unique Tokyo Disney Sea rides in another post.)

Classic New York.

Big Band Beat is an AMAZING show. It's also the only show entirely in English with great music, singing, and dancing. The show is so popular that there's a lottery to get fast pass like tickets, except for the first show, which is first come first served. I HAD to see this show and didn't want to risk missing it, so we saw the first showing.

So worth it.

I love swing music.

A fun detail is how they do smashed pennies in Japan. They don't have pennies, so you slip in a 100 yen coin, and the machine drops a pure copper coin which is smashed. I love it. So easy. No searching for clean pennies. And they're bigger with a nice weight to them.

American Water Front.

Duffy the Bear! We watched the show while we ate lunch. It's in Japanese, but the story is easy to follow, and I even understood some of what they were saying! That's always fun.