Japan - Day 13  -  Happy New Year!

1st January, 2008

Happy New Year!

Today we visited Toei Movie Land (and an excursion on the Kyoto Bus).  Devin figured out which bus we could take to get to Toei Movie Land (a Japanese version of Universal Studios would be the best comparison).  The only problem was that the bus routes were all in Japanese, so we had to do some asking and wondering if we'd make it.  Luckily, we found a few people willing to help us gaijin with our questions.  So we got off the bus and looked around.  "Where do we go Lowell?"  "Um.  I'm not sure.  Where do you think we go?"  And from David, "Are we lost?"  There was a family using a cell-phone GPS to find their way to the same tourist trap, so we asked if we could tag along.  Isn't technology great?  And the people of Japan were always willing to help us out.  I call it the "tourist blank stare."  It worked almost every time.

Toei Movie Land was high on David's list of places to go in Japan.  All of this for one reason:  Power Rangers!  He has been fascinated with the Power Rangers for as long as I can remember.  He even wanted to start a karate class a few years ago so he could be a Power Ranger.  Unfortunately he didn't really like the karate class, but somehow he still manages to think he's a Power Ranger.  Heck, let the kid dream.  I still want to be skinny.  We all have our dreams.

We had lots of fun here watching David run around all excited.  They also had a cheesy "stunt" show that was a fusion of Power Rangers and other Japanese action heroes.  David couldn't wait for the show to start.  Then once it was going, he couldn't wait for it to finish, as he was a bit scared by it all.  Afterwards, he would only admit to being "a little scared" but he really enjoyed the show.  Then we walked around and looked at Japanese movie memorabilia.  The coolest part for me was seeing the Samurai costumes.  If I had an extra $40 I would have dressed in one and got my picture taken.  (Well, that and the problem of having a costume that would actually fit me.  Minor details.)

Pictures are better here than me simply droning on about the day.

Click on each image to see a larger version.

The sun behind Kyoto Station.	David standing by some pseudo-Power Ranger dude that I can't remember the name of.	Even Japan has grafitti.	Family self-portrait while waiting for the show to start.
David posing with a real-live Power Ranger dude!	David "driving" the Power Ranger car.	Read this advertisement carefully.  (Don't worry, my Japanese is far worse than any English we encountered.)	A character walking around the grounds.
A geisha getting escorted around for us to snap photos.	David next to a geisha mannequin.	The samurai costumes.	Devin by some more samurai costumes.
David posing with the "original" Power Rangers.	Walking to the train station, I saw more agriculture.  Nothing spectacular, just interesting to me to see this kind of thing all over Japan.	A cool three-wheel motorbike.	Bike parking by the train station.
A view of the inside of Kyoto station.	David, with the Kyoto Tower visible behind him.