Theme Parks and Flower Markets

A couple of days ago, we ventured out to Tokyo Disney Sea - an all original Disney theme park created in Japan. It was really great on some levels and only ok on others. But it was still obviously fun. I mean, it's Disney. It's magic.

To help me explain, let's talk about theme/amusement parks for a bit. Mark and I are slowly becoming rather well versed on the subject. On this trip alone, we have visited four. We also spent a family vacation in Florida a couple years ago honing our park visiting skills and have each had a childhood visit or two. Needless to say, if we lived somewhere by a park, we would probably have seasons passes.

So far, it appears that parks choose to usually focus on and excel in one of a number of different areas.* You've got the parks with the great rides, the ones with the most "natural" appeal (i.e. zoo type ones), the ones that have good attractions like shows or demonstrations, and the ones that appeal to your visual senses and overwhelm you with fake, but still awesome, creatures, buildings and even whole worlds. That last bit - that's Disney Sea.

The rides were not so high on the thrill level, but the quality of the sets and props and visual effects was really great. So much to look at everywhere we went! Although, The Tower of Terror was pretty good as far as thrills go - not such a high drop but it's dark so that automatically makes it scary! On that note, why do I still close my eyes in fear even when it's dark? I don't get it.

There was also this show we watched in the "harbour" with all these crazy boat things and magical jet skiis. I thought it was awesome - like a huge as parade on water. The boys apparently thought it was uncool. Whatever.

It was also raining the day we went, but it turned out ok. The rain kept the crowds away which meant no line ups and no waiting for us.

In other news, I needed a break from the testosterone the other day, so I went shopping for a couple hours while the boys went to arcades and karaoke. I really wanted to buy some shoes - all the nice high heels have inspired me to have nicer shoes. But get this - my big fat North American feet did not fit. Nope, not even the largest sizes. And I don't even have that big of feet! Too bad.

I was cheered slightly when I stumbled across one of the greatest little flower markets ever - smack dab in the middle of a Tokyo train station. It's called the Aoyama Flower Market and you (by you, I mean Lindsay) can visit their website if you are interested in such frivolity by clicking on the link.

We are down to only four days left on this journey and it's hard to put into words how I feel. Mostly, I'm very excited to be back in Canada and see some faces that I have missed so much! For further information on what happens next, see the previous blog post. Oh, and tomorrow we part ways with our one and only Dan Child. We aren't really talking about it - too emotional. But we'll see him again soon.


*There is probably a science to building theme parks - I think I learned about it in university, but have forgotten the details, so please don't take my theories as fact. Although I am a recreation professional, I am not really qualified to make any such claims.