Tokyo Disney Resort Trip Report Discussion

[HostDave]

They have only started to push Tinkerbell the past couple of years, but without much success. She has her own float in the daytime parade at Tokyo Disneyland, but I don't recall seeing any merchandise. That doesn't really mean there isn't any though. The stores are so crowded we just elbowed our way through to see if there is anything we want (no) and we're out of there. They're really into some obscure Disney characters here. Today we saw Goofy's nephew...I think that's who he is anyway. The monkey from Aladdin was out yesterday. Capt. Jack Sparrow accosted Bill because he was wearing a birthday button and told him to celebrate by eating eggs tomorrow (on his actual birthday)...no idea what that meant, but he was pretending to be drunk (is that really appropriate for Disney???) And then the over the top popularity of Marie the cat! I thought it was Hello Kitty until I asked and someone told me. I don't think I've ever seen that character in our parks and she is in every parade and character greeting they have here. There is always an audible gasp whenever she appears on a float. I'll admit, it is heartwarming to see how much all ages love Disney here. I can't imagine a teenager at home being seen in public decked out from top to bottom in character gear.

[YFlower]

Your Japanese language prowess is impressive. I recall your mentioning on your previous trip you knew some basic Japanese, but you knew birthday...tanjobi?! That seems more than basic! I'm Japanese American and recognized it when I just google translated to see what it was (since presumably somewhere in my childhood my grandmother had said it), but no way would that have popped up from the recesses of my brain. When I say sukoshi wakarimasu ka, I mean sukoshi. How did you learn the language?

[HostDave]

Don't give me too much credit...I remember the strangest words! I used Rosetta Stone originally. The best thing about that is that I learned pronunciation and how sentences are constructed. It is hard to learn much vocabulary from it though. This year I tried to learn specific phrases I would need from the Lonely Planet pocket guide. I think tanjobi came from Rosetta Stone because they start out with a lot of things I didn't care about learning...about kids, families, things like that. It isn't aimed at travelers specifically, so I found it frustrating because I just wanted to move along and it wanted me to learn colors

I have trouble remembering words until I have actually used them in public. I'll probably never forget birthday since I had to come up with it in real life. I'm very bad at languages in general. I used to be fluent in Russian...reading and writing...but I remember none of it now.

[HostDave]

All of the photos from the Tokyo Disney Resort have been added to the Japan 2014 Photo Gallery. Check it out.

http://www.jetsetenterprises.com/cruise ... 202014.htm