Showing posts with label Disney. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Disney. Show all posts

Friday, January 11, 2008

Winter 2008 part 4: New year and Disney Sea

>stevelee
Yeah, you put it on the table, said it was Cheong's...then you ate it!! You did warn us....but you shouldn't eat it after warning us. That's like telling Adam not to eat the apple....

>Chong Shen
Wow....most of you guys have started working and I'm still a "student". Damn...I feel so left out. You'd probably say that student's life is the best...but after 16 years of staring at the blackboard smelling chalk, I have had enough!

>calvin
Well, yes and no...Mom was strict during the ski trip but she's ok on other times. Quite fun to talk to as a matter of fact. And yes, it's an annual thing...someone always step up to organize this kind of trip. Make sure to join us next year!!
By the way, I number people in my pic cos'....you wouldn't know them even if I mentioned names right??

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For me, 2008 started out with a sneeze followed by a cough. Then a few occasional shiver as my fever acts up(I had influenza, remember)? The year have not been that nice to me. Probably 2008's a shy guy...guess I'll have to work hard for him to warm up to me.

In Japan, they celebrate New Year by going to the shrine....you know, offer prayers hoping to get rich, get girls, those sort of typical wishes. Another tradition they have here is eating "Toshikoshi Soba(年越しそば)" which means eating "New Year Noodles"......just like us Chinese always do with "Longlevity Noodles" during Chinese New Year. And, as sick as I was...I didn't want to miss out so.....

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Empty boxes of instant noodles...eating instant noodles rather than normal noodles means that happiness/luck will come to me faster than everyone else.

Anyway, I've manage to get better and join a group of exchange students to Disney Sea!! There an old saying.....pictures are worth a thousand words......and i know that you'd rather see a few pictures that read a few thousand of my craps. So here it is...

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Lining up to go in Disney Sea. This pic was taken 30 minutes before opening time...yes, people love Disney that much.

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The surroundings near the gate...the olden-days-style buildings were very realistic. If not for my futuristic video camera, I'll be completely be back in time.

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I later found out that these old buildings are actually hotels. Not too high class looking but cost hell-a-lot money to stay in them.

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Wouldn't call it Disney Sea if they don't have a sea...

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A volcanic mountain. It's actually from a ride called Journey to the center of the Earth. Your ride comes out from inside of the volcano. Only steam comes out during day time...but by night time, the volcano rumbles and a blasts out a HUGE fireball!! Cool...

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The ride is full of cheesy fake plants and fake animals...only the volcano thing is good.

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Aww......soooo cute. Makes me want to take a picture with Daisy Duck.

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And that's what I did. Almost made me look cute standing beside Daisy right?

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Some random picture of the road. It's really a nice place...

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Close up picture of the new ride "Tower Of Terror". An elevator inside takes you to the top floor then free falls...

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A crashed elevator door. I manage to miraculously survive the first crash to ride a second time.

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Place where the half tuna lives....um, I meant mermaids....

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Triton...the mermaid king who likes abusing dolphins.

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No, they don't have a mosque in Disney Sea. Mickey is not Islam....It's actually Aladdin's place.

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Once again, not a mosque. Look closely...mosque don't have carousels in them.

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You could almost believe that this was Iraq during the better days...

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This was from a ride that does the 360° turn....check out the stairs, they manage to set the water on fire. A cool effect but do not smell pleasant at all.

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Taken from the Indiana Jones ride....apparently, plenty of people died to get to this ride. I know Tae Kwon Do...so, no one dared to mess with me...wah ha ha ha...

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The group I went with.
The standing ones, from left:
Bird from Cuckoo land. Works part time for Disney.
Cute girl from China. Haven't been to Hong Kong's Disney before...
Guy from Switzerland. Doesn't carry the Swiss army knife.
Guy from Spain. Had straight hair but grew into two big ears...
Girl from Germany. VERY afraid of roller coasters...
Bird from Mexico. Shook hands with Colonel KFC once...

The squating ones, from left:
Guy from Malaysia. Spends a lot of time with cute girl from China.
Girl from India. This one don't smell like curry powder...
Japanese. The prettiest girl in the group....she have the nicest smile...captures my heart each time she smiles for the camera.

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Another group photo during lunch break. I started by placing my camera on the table and setting the timer. 11 cameras followed suit afterwards....

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Evening view of the bay.....

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Picture by night time. It's more beautiful than it looks.

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I forgot what this is...

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The globe with the train station as background. A very pretty view...

Disney Sea was a fun experience. The most memorable moment I had was when I went to take picture with Ariel, the redhead mermaid. Couldn't post the pic yet cos' it was taken with a different camera and I'm yet to receive it. Having watch "The little mermaid" all the time when I was a kid, it was really a memorable moment getting to see Ariel. Especially when she flapped her tail as a welcome....totally priceless....such fantasy-come-true moment almost made me mad. Will try to post the pic of Ariel in the near future....

So there you go.....the end of my Winter Holidays. It was unfortunate that my holidays was interrupted with influenza....gawd damn flu....

Friday, July 29, 2005

Magical wonderland of Disney

First and foremost, I would like to express my sincerest thanks to my host family who took me to Tokyo Disneyland...

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Welcome....

Seriously, I'm having a hard time making this entry because....gawd, it's so hard to express the magical feeling in words!!
To really enjoy yourself there, all you gotta do is relax and ... enjoy! Nothing more fun than going back to being a kid. And so I was a montrous behemoth oversized and overgrown kid that day....heck I even bought myself a mickey headgear!! One warning though..... Disneyland definitely not a place for "I have matured mind " and "I'm a 20 year OLD man" or "are you kidding? I don't do cartoons at this age" kind of dudes....

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Well, got off for an early start to Disneyland....it opens at 8. Me and my host family was there at 7.47...not good enough, still gotta line up. Lining up wasn't that bad because you have mickey's people all over smiling and welcoming you to his land. Once inside, we were instantly greeted by Chip and Dale...got no chance to snap any pic...kids instantly swarm over them, squealing, and all you see is a lump of legs and hands. Not daring enough to approach the massacre, I headed inside to a boulevard of beautifully decorated shoplots. Oh, yeah, forget to mention, since it's Disney, everything is western style. Anyway, right at the center is a guy with a piano...showing off his skills of "Shadow hand" ( Remember Wong Fei Hung?? No, well, it means really really quick hands) He was a dedicated dude jamming his piano with Disney tunes.

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one of the beautiful ones..

And at the end of the boulevard, you instantly get a glimpse of the all familiar Disney Castle....I don't know how to describe my feelings accurately but at that moment....I mean, just after seeing a few cartoon characters and emerging from a uniquely beautiful sunroofed boulevard, you see something you have been fantasizing all the time while you were a kid....right in front of you!! It's like you have just emerge from a teleportation tunnel.

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help....me....kids.....all over....

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heh..heh...I uhh...grabbed the small kids by the collar, threw them into a pond and had Donald Duck all to myself..

While I busy myself taking countless shots of castle and things around, my host family were having discussions on where to head to....Westernland, Adventureland, Tomorrowland, Toontown or I-forgot-what-land-is-it-land...
Well, Westernland was about the old wild wild west...why am i sick of hearing the term wild wild we....eurgh...old west buildings, coasters and boat ride. Tomorrowland have Buzz Lightyear and Emperor Zurg....Toon town have Mickey's house, Minnie's house, Goofy, Roger Rabit .....hmm, funny I didn't see Bugs Bunny anywhere...Anyway, we were here and there and here...the beautiful letdown is that we had to line up for everything..rides, buy popcorn, drink water, toilet, you name it....

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toon town...

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this whole thing is a clock....oh, lookie, it's 12!

I enjoyed the rides especially Haunted Mansion but the thing that really bring out my buried kiddie spirit was the parades...We had about 4 parades in total....all in different themes. Watching the parades....It's amazing to see my fantasy world parading right in front of me. It's like living in dreamworld only to realise that I'm are awake...and as I try to grasp reality my mind swirls towards the magical world. It's like being there but feels like I'm actually elsewhere...drifting. Felt like I'm parading along with them dancing and singing. And they had to start the parade with 5 pixie fairies....then came the elaborately decorated floats along with Mickey and friends on top of it, waving and blowing kisses to loyal fans who brave the scorching sun and the burning ground. All the while blaring the hypnotic Disney songs on the speakers. Just like a dream, the parade ended when it felt like it just started. It's hard to bring yourself back to the real world after that....It's not as easy as swallowing the red pill but ... I had lil' difficulties walking with my eyes still mesmerize. My step-father asked me if I'm dizzy from the heat...i gave him a very stupid looking face and said...heat? huh? What's hot?....he gave me back a stupider face and pointed towards the sun....bummer.....

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this one sprays water....hid my vidcam just in time... phew!!!


Well, we then proceeded to visit R2-D2 and C3-PO and had lunch afterwards...pizza and soda...very very american...and we had cheeseburger with fries for dinner. Just having back my brain returned from Toon Town...I found myself again on the sidewalk waiting to watch another parade...yet again sweet dizziness seized my brains and robbed me of my reality conciousness.

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tit tit tit tut tut tit tut tut tot...

But had to say that highlight of the day was the parade no.3 which was at 8 at night. They had fire to go along with the parade...imagine the effect it had on me! I remained seated even after everyone picked their butts off the ground.
Well, exited the place at about 11 at night after waving goodbye to Pocahontas....she was the prettiest, sexiest and most charming of the day.

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this pic....heh heh...forgive my randyness

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As we walked back to the car, I just couldn't believe the day I had.....truly....truly...... magical.

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