Tokyo Imperial Palace

We had checked out of our hotel and paid a very decent price to have the hotel deliver our bags to the airport. We now had the day to make a few stops around Tokyo for some site-seeing adventures before catching our late evening flight back to our little island. We decided our first stop would be the Imperial Palace, so we bought our all-day/all-trains tickets and headed out.

We came to our stop and found our way to the Imperial Grounds. Rodney was checking the map to confirm our directions when he saw this on the map....

Not exactly sure what it means.... nursing home, maybe? 

One of the gates to the actual palace grounds.

This is pretty much like our White House. Although, I'm not sure they have tours.

 

 

We traded picture-takings here with a couple from Argentina!

 

 

The grounds are lovely... looks like a big park, only you're not allowed on the grass!!!! We witnessed one lady get "in big trouble" from a guard for stepping over the chain into the grass. He was blowing his whistle and waving his arm for her to get off the grass!!

 

 

Definitely Old World meets New World!

Tokyo DisneySea II

We saw C-3PO at the Lost River Delta!!

 

Indiana Jones Adventure: Temple of the Crystal Skull

Same ride as in California, but a different 'in-line' area.

And, yep, Indie speaks Japanese, too....

 

Raging Spirits with its full 360 was a super fun roller coaster! We got to ride it a couple times, too!

 

In addition to Tower of Terror, American Waterfront is home to the S.S. Columbia and its eateries and shops...

New York Deli...

and Cape Cod.

 

Cape Cod is home to Duffy the famous Disney Bear!!
I had never heard of this little bear made for Mickey Mouse by Minnie, but he is a huge hit in Tokyo!! He even has his own show and his own cream-filled pastry (which was our free treat for this park :)

 

We had some little visitors trying to help us eat our Duffys!

By the time we made it around to the Arabian Coast, the rain was coming down pretty steady, so it was time to head back to the hotel and prepare for our next day's adventures and our return to Oki.

 

Peace out!

Tokyo DisneySea

Welcome to Tokyo DisneySea!!!
 

As you enter the park you are in Mediterranean Harbor...
home to the DisneySea Hotel MiraCosta.

 

The gondola ride in the Venice area was nice!

 

 

In the center of the park is the volcano on the Mysterious Island.

 

Inside the volcano go down the round-about ramp to "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea." Not our favorite ride, but we can say we rode it.

Now "Journey to the Center of the Earth" was MUCH fun!! And since it hard started to get rainy when we were at this part, the crowd was minimal which made for very easy wait times, so we rode this one twice :o)

Port Discovery is home to "Aquatopia" and "StormRider."
We definitely preferred StormRider which is a virtual rollercoaster in which you ride out into the 'storm of the century' to fire an experimental device intended to 'kill' the storm.

 

"Tower of Terror" in American Waterfront was the same ride as in CA, but the story behind the ride was completely different!!

The story line here is based on expeditionary Harrison Hightower, owner of the Hightower Hotel, and the artifacts he brings back from his adventures. One such artifact is Shiriki Utundu.

Unhappy about his relocation, Shiriki Utundu, proceeds to "haunt" the tower....

The ride in Tower of Terror is an elevator ride going up and dropping down :)

We had ridden it before in California, so knew what to expect. This was the first ride for the girl sitting beside Rodney.... Even before the doors closed, I start hearing this scared-to-death hollering. I truly thought someone was being silly, but when I looked around Rodney at her, I realized she literally was already scared out of her skin!!! The whole ride, I felt so sorry for her, but it was just so funny, I couldn't help but laugh!!! So, the picture turned out hilarious!! After the ride, her friend in pretty good English apologized to us. Rodney mimed to her that her fear made him strong :)