10D9N Spring Japan Trip: Characters Meet and Greet at Tokyo Disneysea
I just read somewhere in the news that an owner of a big corporation (which supposedly Disney's rival) was laughing at Disney's plan to open a Disneyland in Shanghai. He was so adamant that the Chinese does not have any attachment to Mickey Mouse or Donald Duck. I started to wonder that the Chinese watch when they were small kids. But, looking at the Chinese visitors in Disneyland Hong Kong, I don't really agree with the tycoon's viewpoint though. Here in Tokyo Disneysea, Disney characters are so popular up to the point you can give up trying to take picture with them. Really. If you still want to give it a try, you could probably start by going around Disneysea Electric Railway.
Every Disney theme park basically has a train which can take you from one point to another point in the park. But this is not the focus of our activity for the day, I guess.
Right at the back of the train station, you will be able to see an active volcano, Mt Prometheus, which is also the icon of Mysterious Island area at Tokyo Disneysea. It will spew out smokes at a certain interval. But, once again, I guess this is not the reason of why we were lingering around this area.
The main square right in front of the train station is the area where you have a high chance to stumble upon a Disney character walking around. We stumbled upon not one but two characters. The first one is the ever-popular Goofy. All the kids love Goofy and they follow him everywhere. Rule no.1 in taking picture with characters in any Disney theme park in Japan is kids always win. The character will prioritize kids over adults when both are rushing toward him/ her to take pictures. Okay, kids, you guys win.
The second character seems to be more popular with Japanese school girls instead of kids. Maybe Japanese kids need to watch more Chip and Dale show. Hahaha. Similar to the kids, these school girls also follow...(okay, which one is him? Chip? Dale?) everywhere he goes.
If you still don't get the level of love that the Japanese show towards Disney characters, just take a look at their bags. There are so many dolls pinned to one bag. I feel so under-dressed here, with a plain bag in sight.
I kinda bet the Chinese will love Disney as much as the Japanese. Especially, if they have a lot of money to spend.