Land of the Rising Mickey
Page 2 of 2

Back to Meet the World... It and Tokyo Disneyland itself have something very basic in common... They're both almost completely ignored.

I've noticed that in the United States, Tokyo Disneyland is the forgotten Disney park. I find it ironic that the most popular theme park in the world receives so little attention in this country. I think much of the reason stems from a common belief that an actual trip to the park is virtually out of the question. I won't go into detail about all my theories concerning why so few American's travel to TDL - the sheer distance (just sleep on the plane) - the intimidation of the language barrier and a very different culture (English signs are everywhere and the cultural differences are fascinating) - the expense (it's not as expensive as many think) Obviously, I feel all three of those possible concerns are overblown. But detailing the common misconceptions regarding travel to Japan isn't the point of this column either. It's really about the fact that I believe TDL's out of sight out of mind status is about to change.

Actually, I think it's already started and the fact that you're reading this is a little bit of further evidence. The folks here at LaughingPlace.com think there's enough interest in what's going on in Tokyo to run a regular column about it, the number of visitors to my DisneySea website has shown me there's enough interest to write it, and, obviously, you're interested enough to read it. I believe we're all just at the beginning of something.

As with Disneyland in California's expansion into the Disneyland Resort, the intention is to expand the length of stay of TDL's guests and build the hotel rooms they'll stay in. DCA's Grand Californian features 750 rooms with enough land set aside for a 250 room expansion. The now open Tokyo Disney Resort Ambassador Hotel and the opening in fall 2001 Hotel MiraCosta (located inside DisneySea Park) are 504 and 502 rooms respectively. Also like the Disneyland Resort in California, but on a decidedly larger scale, the TDR is trying to cover all the bases. It features two world class theme parks to occupy the days (deserving a minimum of two days each, in my opinion) and to fill the nights, Ikspiari - an extensive multilevel themed development with 100 shops, 31 restaurants, and 16 screen theater complex.

Official figures state that 97.8% (!) of the guests who visit TDL are Japanese. I believe the transformation of the single park into the Tokyo Disney Resort (TDR), in particular the construction of DisneySea, is bound to effect that statistic. Over time, I feel the effect will be dramatic. I'm confident that, upon it's opening, reports of DisneySea's sheer imagination, quality, and scale are going to put the resort on the radar of many more Americans and other non-Japanese. The parks opening day is nearly a year away and I'm already hearing (and reading) an increasing number of Americans state their intention to visit the resort.

Commodore Perry's Black Ships and the coerced openness they symbolize are still very much a part of the Japanese psyche. One of the tactics used early on by some of Tokyo Disneyland's competitors was to negatively refer to the park as kurofune (black ship) in an attempt to portray it as an example of hostile American cultural imperialism. It was really nothing more than a dishonest (and ineffective) marketing ploy, but I believe that in a more fundamental and positive sense that analogy can now be drawn. In creating a resort with international appeal, Oriental Land Company and Walt Disney Imagineering are taking Japan another step down it's long road toward truly meeting the world.

Jikai made - ogenki de!
(Until next time - Take care!)

-- Marc Borrelli

© Marc Borrelli and LaughingPlace.com. All rights reserved

-- Posted September 5, 2000