Golden Week starts at DisneySea

This week is Golden Week, when four national holidays fall in one week, so all of Japan takes off and goes on vacation. April 29 is Greenery Day, May 3 is Constitution Day (fitting that I have my Japanese Law final that day, no?), May 4 is a "Between day," since by Japanese law a holiday falling in between two holidays will also be considered a holiday (nice call!) and May 5 is Children's Day or the Boy's Festival where families hang up carp streamers to pray for the success of their sons. I'm hoping that Golden Week means that Tokyo will be much more quiet and I can enjoy my last few days in Japan (before taking off for Beijing and then home!) in more relative peacefulness.

I started my Golden week with a trip to Tokyo DisneySea, a sea-themed off-shoot of Tokyo Disneyland, which is right next door. Those who know me realize that I have a love-hate relationship with Disney: I love most of their animated features (Aladdin and Beauty and the Beast being my favorites) and the music but I hate the rampant commercialism and the Disney Store and how kids are apparently brainwashed by the whole conglomerate. Yes, yes, before you call me Scrooge McDuck though, I decided to go to DisneySea (instead of Disneyland because we figured it'd be less crowded and we were worried about that because of Golden Week) because I was exhausted after a hectic week of finals. I went with Joe, Rachel, Jerry, Joe's friend Tomoko, and Rachel's friend Mutsuko.

The verdict? Don't waste your money. DisneySea has a few policies regarding some of their rides that I take issue with but will save the details for my complaints to management. I found most of it pretty boring and it's kind of sad that the highlight was a live show featuring a suspended Ariel from the Little Mermaid. But to prove I'm not a total killjoy, I will post photos of our escapades.