Otakara Ichiba (Treasure Box) お宝市場; Daiba Ichome Shotengai 台場一丁目商店街; Decks; Odaiba; Tokyo

Welcome to another round of wonders and oddities coming out of the land of the rising sun.  This one involves a store of... Mystery boxes!!!  That's right, you don't know what you will get in the box, maybe tickets to Tokyo Disneyland, maybe an iPod or maybe a pig sculpture or a keychain!  You can find this shop in the Daiba Ichome themed area of Decks shopping mall in Odaiba.   This area replicates 50s, 60s and 70s Japan, known as the Showa era.

 Now in all honesty this mystery box thing got us really excited and as silly as it seems,  I had no problem paying 300 yen for a chance at (really rare) getting Disney tickets or an iPod.  Every New Year's holiday, Japanese retailers have a similar concept with fukubukero (lucky bags) where people buy mystery bags from stores.  A lot of times it is stuff retailers weren't able to clear during the year but other times it is truly good stuff.   Even the Disney store has these mystery bags around the New Year's holiday.

So on with the festivities!

Here we have a lovely lady picking out a chance for something special.  It is customary to shake the boxes to get an idea what is inside.  The premium prizes are like that golden ticket from Willy Wonka; they are certificates hidden in normal prize boxes.  So the Disney tickets wouldn't be any lighter than normal boxes.  However,it is still fun to shake as many boxes as possible.

Here are more boxes.  The gold ones are 1000 yen a piece and have better prizes.  The cheap Chinese part of me prodded for the 300 yen box.   However the gambley Chinese part of me kept prodding about the more expensive gold boxes.  Cheap won out in the end.

We have a cutie opening the box here.  You have to open the box in front of the clerks.  They as well as interested bystanders observe the fun.  If you get a premium prize,  the clerks ring a bell and everyone goes nuts.  Well, as nuts as Japanese people get, which is just saying すごい!!!(great).

Here is what we got, a mini Care Bear, which to be honest, was a good deal and made our little one quite happy.   Had we got an I Heart Seoul pin or a cheap compass, we definitely would have felt the 300 yen was not worth it.

Thanks for reading, and please try your luck at getting a 300 yen iPod!

Disney Turkey Leg, Aeon, Tokyo Disneyland, Chiba

The Disney Aeon turkey leg- there are many things to talk about here regarding the turkey leg.  Where should I start?  Well, first, all of you Disney Parkoholics out there understand the significance of the turkey leg.  The turkey leg has become a sacred symbol of visiting the parks and during my time as a character performer, a fellow face character had actually spent time working at one of the turkey carts in her past at the Magic Kingdom.  Imagine that, Mulan serving turkey legs. Back to Japan, the Japanese folks have taken the turkey legs out of the parks and have brought them to the supermarkets!  This demonstrates the love they have here for the Tokyo Disney Resort.   But the turkey legs aren't an ordinary find.  Turkey is not very popular here and the reason I could find them at Aeon is related to a second point, the Christmas holiday.

Christmas is the most romantic Japanese holiday.  Not followers of Christ,  Christmas is the time you spend time with your boyfriend or girlfriend and have a nice meal of... chicken!  You must reserve your chicken from KFC or Costco a few weeks in advance of Christmas or you run the risk of not having our favorite feathered friend for dinner.  So you must be wondering how the Disney turkey leg relates to Christmas.  Well, Christmas is romantic and going to Disneyland is romantic.  What better to rekindle your romantic Disney memories with your love on Christmas than a Disney turkey leg (especially if you neglected to reserve your chicken)?

The turkey leg tasted just like the ones at the parks minus the 8:30 firework show.  Maybe this one will become a tradition and replace the Colonel's bucket.   I give it five gobble gobbles out of five gobble gobbles. For your information though, I'd rather enjoy them at Disneyland instead of my 2LDK apartment.

Halloween at Tokyo Disneyland, Maihama, Japan

Starting early September, one can experience the Halloween festivities at the Tokyo Disney Resort.  These festivities include Halloween decorations, special Halloween parades and shows, seasonal Halloween foods and beverages, and of course, limited edition Halloween goods.  The latter two categories, limited edition foods, beverages and goods, are hallmark to Japan.  As the seasons change, so do the menus and selection of things.  For example, during cherry blossom season, you can get cherry blossom flavored Kit Kat bars.  Or during the fall you can get chestnut flavored doughnuts.  Or mango flavored Starbucks drinks during the summer.   The list goes on and on and Disney is no different here with limited edition pumpkin flavored mont blanche pastries, pumpkin sundaes, and black colored gyoza dogs.  Other than the limited edition ghost shaped popcorn bucket we got (for 2000 yen/25 dollars each, ouch!), we did not enjoy any of the Halloween specialties.  However, for your viewing pleasure, please enjoy viewing some of the Halloween festivities we saw:

The Halloween décor starts at the monorail station.

Another Halloween themed monorail sign.

Just outside the park lies a haunted coach ready to take you to the afterlife.  

Even ghosts can be sexy!

Bet this guy isn’t too heavy for his steed.

Due to occurrences of native American massacres and battles like Little Big Horn, there are more than a few ghosts like these two combatants.

Even Toon Town and its kid-friendly atmosphere have gotten Halloween treatment. 

Ah!!! The scariest of all, Captain EO aka the late Michael Jackson!!!  Actually, it was quite nostalgic seeing this movie again, the dancing and costumes warped me back all the way to 1986.

Even the Country Bears have gotten into the Halloween act.

Since Disney (well, OLC in this case, but since Disney controls the theming at TDL, I guess Disney is appropriate here) is king of theming, no need to rate it on that one.  The food at TDL is well, as anyone who has visited a Disney park knows, above average quality at well above average prices.  The music of the Halloween parade was extremely catchy and I almost caught myself spending 2000 yen for the CD.  Luckily, I ran out of money and didn't feel like going to the ATM.  Back to Halloween theming, the Haunted Mansion features a special Nightmare Before Christmas theme, and this will last until Christmas.  So please make it out to TDL if you can to enjoy the Halloween fun.  On an unrelated note, please see my updated Enchanted Tiki Room post.

On a last note to all you boys and ghouls, here is a very eerie bear controlling the popcorn...

Muwahahahahahahahahahahahahaahhaaa!!!  Happy Halloween!

 

Ikspiari (TDR's Downtown Disney), Maihama, Japan

I had a chance to visit Ikspiari this weekend, which is the Tokyo Disney Resort’s answer to the Downtown Disneys at the Disney World Resort and the Disneyland Resort.  Ikspiari definitely has the Disney feel (although, like the rest of TDR, it is owned and operated by another company via a license from Disney) with its themed shopping areas and music.  Ikspiari features some shops/restaurants familiar to Americans such as Gap, Godiva, Starbucks, Rainforest Café and T.G.I.Fridays, and of course, has many Japanese stores such as Shinseido music, Monsoon Café and Lupica Tea.  Like its Downtown Disney brethren, Ikspiari has a multi-theater cinema.  Here are some Ikspiari pictures for your perusal. 

For our lunch, we decided to dine at the food court at Ikspirari, which features about nine restaurants, and you can eat everything in the food court from Italian to British pub to Japanese fare.  Here is a sampling of the restaurants’ food:

We went for udon and ramen.  Here are some pictures of the ramen shop as a well as one of the food court itself.  

Our group ordered plain udon with tempura chikuwa, tempura pumpkin and inari from the udon restaurant, and tonkotsu and shio ramen from the ramen shop.  As you can see from this picture, we greedily wolfed down our food. 

Our lunch totaled about 3,000 yen which is about 35 dollars U.S., not bad compared to the rest of the restaurants at Ikspiari.  Rainforest Café is particularly expensive here in Japan.  To be honest, the food was nothing too spectacular, and the speed we ate was mostly due to us being really hungry.  I personally find udon rather consistent from place to place, having a clean flavor and light broth.  My ramen, the tonkotsu ramen, was particularly garlicky and a little too salty.  The ramen noodles had a chow mein quality to them and I prefer thicker noodles.  As a result, I give our noodles three slurps out of five slurps.  

One note, like most food courts in Japan, there is limited seating space at Ikspiari's food court.  Accordingly, since lunch and dinner at Ikspiari’s food court are quite busy, it is best to eat a little before or after the meal rush.

Enchanted Tiki Room at Tokyo Disneyland featuring Stitch

Well here is the first Tiki post on my blog. (Please see the update below incorporating more pictures of the Tiki Room from my most recent trip to Tokyo Disneyland).

A few months ago, I had the chance to go to the Enchanted Tiki Room at Tokyo Disneyland.  In this incantation of the Tiki Room, Stitch has taken over the show.  The interior and actual show were too dark for me to get any good shots, so we are left with pictures from the exterior.  The show is very entertaining, even if you do not understand Japanese.  The show features the song, Hawaiian Rollercoaster Ride, and a life-sized audio-animatronic of Stitch sings and plays the ukulele.  The show definitely beats that lame-ass Tiki Room Under Construction that I saw at the Magic Kingdom in 2004.   I wonder if all the Disney Parks have switched to the Stitch format...  Enjoy!

 Nice sign.  It lets you know that Stitch controls the show.

 Tikis Ahoy!!!

 Real Hibiscus Flowers

 Nice Tiki Pagoda

Update.  I returned to the Enchanted Tiki Room last weekend and was able to get more pictures to further give you an idea of Tokyo Disneyland's latest incarnation of the attraction.  That said, since the blog is named Tokyo Tiki Room, I feel obliged to give you guys a detailed view of TDL's Tiki Room.  Please enjoy!

This lets guests know that the Tiki Room has an extraterrestrial visitor

More Tikis

Good view

Yet more Tikis

Here'be warned that an extraterrestrial is on the loose!

Next we have a series of pictures of the show itself.  The actual interior of the Tiki Room theater is identical to the WDW version if my memory serves correct.

Not a great pic, the interior was a little too dark for my Ipod camera.  If you can't tell, this is a picture of the overhead birds, the stars of the show.

Here is an interior singing Tiki

More singing birds

Singing flowers

Yet more singing birds

And finally...

The show's headliner, Mr. Stich!!!

Thanks, and please see my posting describing the rest of my most recent Tokyo Disneyland trip.