  We got some free tickets that were about to expire so on Monday we got Keita, Gracie, Grandma, Grandpa, Rie and myself all packed into the car and headed off for urlLink DisneySea . DisneySea is Disney's new theme park next to Tokyo Disneyland. It is a long drive from Ome to the other side of Tokyo so we left the house at 6:00! We got on the expressway and wondered how our friends Mark and Renee were doing as they needed to drive to Narita Airport to pick up Mark's parents, missionaries from Africa. Rie got on the cell phone and told them that we had just passed the 11.4 kilometer mark. Renee called back that they had just passed the 11.2 kilometer mark.
They were only about 10 cars in front of us. So we soon caught up with them and went through the downtown traffic jam together. It was a drizzly morning but by afternoon the weather had turned really nice. We started off with a urlLink gondolier ride, then wandered over to hop the electric train in the American Waterfront to Port Discovery. At Port Discovery we were going to ride the Aquatopia but they had it down for a bit, I think because of the rain. So we ended up going to urlLink Ariel's Mermaid Lagoon.
This was great because it is all underground (or underwater!). Grandpa and Gracie went for a Jellyfish ride, we all got some food and enjoyed Ariel's playground. We also saw the show at the Theater. Very cool show with excellent puppet work for most of the characters and Ariel flying around (swimming) for most of it. The big Ursula Octopus is a bit over the top for some of the younger kids though. The next stop was urlLink the Arabian Coast.
Here they have a "Magic Lamp Theater" but it is different than the one at Anaheim Disneyland. The one in California is more of a comedy routine with audience participation for the little kids. This one is a 3-D glasses movie with a stage performance built into it. There are also a few surprises thrown in for kicks. Of course it is all in Japanese but my son liked some of the one-liners. After the show, we hopped over to see Sinbads voyage.
This is like "It's a small world" with lots of dolls, but the detail is really well done. Next was the carousel. This is Gracie's favorite and because of the rain and going on a monday both Gracie and Keita got to ride on the Genie. There are two levels and four genie's on each level. When they open the gate of course everybody wants to ride one of the genies so you have to run quick! Gracie rode the pink one and Keita got the traditional blue.
About this time we were getting pretty hungry so we headed over to the American Waterfront and dined in the S.S. Columbia's dining room. The food was ok, but the atmosphere is what is cool. We were seated right by the pianist in his white tuxedo so I requested "When You Wish Upon a Star" for my little lady. That was pretty fun to get a song played just for her. Well we did a lot more but will write back later! 
