One Day in a Dream Land: Tokyo Disneysea

I knew about Tokyo Disneyland before coming to Japan. At that time I was stalking on one of my friends facebook page and found h** photos in Disneyland during h** exchange in Japan. Then I set a dream to visit Tokyo Disneyland someday. Later, I realized there are two Disney parks in Tokyo: Disneyland and Disneysea. I knew that from my friend's blog here. People said that Disneysea is more suitable and romantic place for teenager and adults to visit. Once I arrived in Tokyo and lived here, I put in my mind that Disneysea should be the ultimate amusement park I have to visit. So I refrain my self to go there until I get a special moment or go with a special person :D

Actually I was planning to go there in summer this year during my family visit. However, plan changed, added precisely, and I paid a visit with my friend last week. To be noted: he is not " a special person" I was defined earlier :p

Tokyo Disney Resort is always crowded in the weekend, that's what people said. So I tried to secure my visiting time by buying the tickets two days before at Disney Store near my dormitory in Odaiba. There are several Disney Stores in Tokyo which also has a Disney Ticket Counter, and the nearby store in my area is in Aqua City Odaiba. I bought two tickets in advance which cost 6,200 yen each. Actually there is a discount for Tokyo residents until next month, but we have to go there on weekdays. And unfortunately I couldn't able to leave my undergoing thesis experiment during weekdays.

We left for Disneysea in the early morning of Saturday. We went by subway Rinkai Line, bound for Shin Kiba (the last station) and transfer to JR Line heading for Maihama Station, the nearest station in the front of Disney Resort. Then from there we took Disney Resort monorel train which stop in the four stations inside the resort: Tokyo Disneyland Station, Bayside Station, Tokyo Disneysea Station and Resort Gateway Station. The resort open from 8.00 a.m. until 22.00 p.m. We were planning to arrive there as early as possible, but...whoaa...it seemed people had the same mind with us.

Visitor of Disneyland. Very crowded during weekends. Similar situation with Disneysea.

Disneysea has two side entrance/exit gates and each gate has several gates. All of them were crowded. Although we got advance tickets on our hand, we still have to line up up to 15' until we finally reached Disneysea Plaza (kind of welcoming area).

Disneysea Plaza

Mediterranean style building

"Spring Voyage" - seasonal theme during my visit

Main landmark of Disneysea: Volcanic mountain - Mt. Prometheus, it has the same height with Cinderella castle in Tokyo Disneyland

Another Piece of Puzzle

Maka nikmat Tuhan kamu yang manakah yang kamu dustakan?
QS Ar-Rahmaan

Saya ingin menulis sesuatu yang berhubungan dengan tulisan saya beberapa waktu lalu di sini.

Perjalanan hidup ini bagaikan puzzle. Setiap kita meletakkan satu puzzle yang berhubungan dengan puzzle yang telah kita letakkan sebelumnya, kita akan melihat satu gambaran baru. Dan akhirnya kita merasakan bahwa kejadian-kejadian sebelumnya dan yang akan datang memang sudah diskenariokan oleh Sang Pembuat puzzle.

Sudah berapa banyakkah puzzle yang telah saya dapatkan? Tentunya sangat banyak sekali, sebanyak pengalaman yang telah terekam dalam memori saya. Inilah beberapa puzzle yang pernah saya dapat dalam hidup saya:

Nonton Konser: Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra

Dalam periode tertentu International Center Advising Room Todai selalu menawarkan tiket gratis pertunjukan seni untuk mahasiswa. Kadang, bahkan tak jarang, jika peminatnya banyak dilakukan sistem pengundian. Pertunjukan seni yang ditawarkan itu bermacam-macam, ada pertunjukan tradisional Jepang seperti Sumo, Bunraku, Kabuki, hingga pertunjukan orkestra simponi. Beberapa kali saya melewatkan kesempatan itu karena waktu pertunjukan yang tidak pas dan kalah dalam undian. Saat itu saya pesan dua tiket untuk pertunjukan orkestra simponi, dengan pertimbangan nanti bisa ngajak teman siapapun itu. Ehh, ternyata sepertinya konser tersebut banyak peminatnya, dengan memesan dua tiket ternyata kans saya semakin kecil. Akhirnya niat saya untuk mencoba menikmati "konser mahal" pun tidak terlaksana. Sebetulnya saya bukan orang yang pandai bermusik ataupun "fans" musik klasik. Saya hanyalah simpatisan. Hal ini berawal dari hobi saya membaca komik biografi tokoh dunia saat SD yang diantaranya ada biografi Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart dan Ludwig van Beethoven. Lalu saat SMA saya dikirimi ayah saya kaset musik klasik/ baroque karya Beethoven dan Mozart. Sejak saat itu hanya musik klasik dan lantunan Al quran saja yang bisa menemani saya belajar tanpa mengganggu konsentrasi. Kalau saya belajar sambil mendengar musik yang berlirik, konsentrasi saya pasti buyar.


Meskipun gagal dapat undian untuk nonton konser, akhirnya kesempatan lain pun datang. Salah satu teman saya diberi jatah tiket konser dari pemberi beasiswanya dan menawarkan satu tiket untuk saya. Ternyata kursinya pun dapet yang paling mahal, uwow! Beruntung banget. Akhirnya berangkatlah saya di hari Kamis sore tanggal 18 April itu. Sebenarnya siangnya saya sedang melakukan eksperimen, dan sore itu hasilnya kurang memuaskan, jadilah dengan emosi saya langsung escape dari lab :p

Konser Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra

Cityscape: Parking Tower and Non Signaled Crossroad in Shimbashi

Today I was accompanying my friend strolling around Odaiba and Shimbashi. After getting out from Tamiya Plamodel Factory in Shimbashi we separated and I took a walk toward Yurikamome Station in Shiodome. There were two fascinating photos I took along the street. The first one is a picture of Parking Tower in Shiodome area. Perhaps it's common for Tokyo citizen, but for me, I imagined that the building will also be appear in hometown which already suffer from traffic jam. Private cars everywhere without enough public transportation. Once good public transportation has been established, this kind of building should be placed near the hub or station that access public transportation system. I guess this parking building adopt automated parking system like in this video. Imagine how efficient it would be to tackle parking-space problem. In addition, in the back side of the building, there are integrated service station and gas station.

Parking Tower in Shimbashi Area

I continued my journey and entered Shiodome district. Shiodome was a freight station for Tokyo before it was converted into commercial and business district. On the weekend this area is quite peaceful, not like on the weekdays when it is fulfilled with salaryman (Japanese workers who wear suit). The interesting thing here is there are many crossroads without signal (traffic light) and it is guarded with at least six police officers in each crossroad as you can mention in the picture below. Their job is to make sure pedestrian cross safely by controlling traffic flow. I'm not sure if they are temporarily stationed there due to signal construction because I didn't see any construction work. If they work there everyday just to guard the crossroad (I counted there are three crossroads without signal), it's amazing! 6 officer for just one crossroad!

Non signaled crossing road guarded by 6 police officers

That is my story today from the city I lived in: Tokyo

Assembling a Dream

I was asking my friend to bring me a map of London when she finished her research visit in that city. Why a map?
Firstly, I like geography. By exploring a map, I can make an imagination about the place. It's very interesting. When I was in junior high school I have an A0 size map of China. It was sent by Chinese Embassy as a reply to my mail for asking them to give me some materials about China. I was enjoying that map while playing "Three Kingdom" game in my computer. Every time I enter new stage, I checked the location in the real map, so I can imagine where did I play.

Secondly, as I said, map can help me imagine places. If you can vividly imagine one thing and have a passion to pursue that thing, then it will foster you to achieve that image/dream. By having this map, I hope I can step my foot in that city sometimes in the future. Do you know why I can be here in Tokyo? It was started from a dream and imagination about this city. By staring at a map of Tokyo in my room, I can saw my self strolling around the city.

So, looking at map and starting to imagine a future, is a first step to realize your dream. I hope I can be here someday... London.

Map of London