11/10 - Kaiyukan Aquarium

Since our ride on the Aqua Bus ride at noon, we hadn't eaten a bite.  And now it was around 2-3pm.  So after the Santa Maria, we ran into the Tempozan Marketplace for food.  N had a KFC craving while H wandered into the "Old Osaka" replica area of the food court and grabbed a egg wrap type snack.  It was a quick and somewhat smaller than desired lunch.  H wishes he had gone KFC too because the giant KFC puff pastry looked oh so good and oh so much more filling.

After a very quick lunch, we headed into the Kaiyukan Aquarium [海遊館].  This is advertised as one of the largest aquariums anywhere in the world.  The way this aquarium works is that they send you to the top of the building first and then you snake your way down through the collection of different climate displays and giant tanks.  There were tons of fish, of course.  In the Amazon display, there was a giant arapaima.  I could fit inside the belly of that fish, I think.

A little further down there were the piranhas.  I didn't realize how small these fish were, but they are really eerie to look at.  The whole school of them just float there with their noses pointing to the surface.  They lie their waiting for their next prey to fall in the water.  One can just imagine the frenzy that would ensue if some meat did fall in the tank.  Very unnerving.  Luckily we're on the other side of the glass.

In another window was the Antarctic exhibit complete with penguins.  On land, these penguins careen their pudgy bodies around the surface, but boy do they move like torpedoes once they get in the water.  Case in point below.  Penguin on land looks all sedate and wonders who this yahoo is taking a picture of him.

Then his pal a few metres over is in the water jetting around up and down and every which way possible.  H got lucky with one shot where he could actually get a clear view of the eyes of a darting underwater penguin.

As we descended, there was the one giant tank that was in the middle of our path.  It was the largest of the tanks that went up almost the entire height of the building.  Within this tank was a giant ray that hover hither and fro.  He also had quite a few fish in tow.  Cleaning fish?

There were also a couple of large whale sharks in the giant tank.  I believe the whale shark is their main attraction in this tank.  It was hard to get a good head on shot of the shark.  The best was a shot of the large fish swimming away from the glass.

As we descended beyond the giant tank, we came into a darker area.  This was the perfect set up for all the jellyfish on display in the aquarium.  I think this aquarium probably has way more jellyfish than the Vancouver Aquarium.  The jellyfish are all lit up in their bright colours.  Everyone loves to watch these bright creatures dance around in the dark waters.  It's definitely worth all the space on the memory card to get a good shot.

As we came out of the depths of the aquarium and into more light, there was a section where you could get up close and personal with a few of the aquarium residents.  There was one section with no barriers between you and the penguins.  Obviously, it is verboten to touch the penguins.  However, that was not the case with the baby rays and baby sharks in small shallow tanks near the penguins.  After washing one's hands, you could reach in a feel the bodies of the rays and sharks.  The rays were all squishy feeling like Jello; whereas, the sharks' skin was very coarse and rough to the touch. 

Then last but not least was a little critter that didn't seem to belong in an aquarium.  Actually, I shouldn't say little.  The creature I am talking about is the world's largest species of rodent.  It's known as a capybara.  When I first saw, I was thinking what the heck is that thing?  You get close it and you can tell it has the head of rodent, but it has the giant body.  Now that I think about it, it really resembles a beaver.  So we ended our trip to one of the world's largest aquariums with what looked like a land mammal, but apparently these guys are semi-aquatic.  These must be the South American cousin to our Canadian beavers.

11/10 - Santa Maria

This day was definitely a tourist day.  You can blame the Osaka Unlimited Pass that I keep mentioning.  It has a sheet of coupons for different attractions, some of which are free with the pass.  So why not take advantage of it all. 

After the 1-hour Aqua Bus Liner tour, we walked from Osakajo Pier to Osaka Business Park station to get back onto the subway.  There may have been a JR Osaka Loop station right by the pier, but we would have had to pay extra for JR today.  All the subway rides were unlimited today with the Osaka Unlimited Pass.

In order to get into Osaka Business Park station, we had to go through a shopping mall at the bottom of a large office tower.  As we were looking for some facilities to use inside the mall, we came across a dog cafe.  Literally a cafe designed for dogs to enjoy their treats in style.  They really love their dogs in Japan. 

We finally found the subway entrance after a few minutes search and were on our way to Osaka-ko [大阪港], or Osaka Harbor.  Then we had to speed our way to the harbourfront known as the Tempozan [天保山] Harbor Village.  It was about a 15-20 minute walk from Osaka-ko Station.  Our brisk walk from the station to the harbourfront was through a noticeably newer part of town.  The buildings were not so crowded in together.  The roads were wider.  If you look on a map, the coastline here looks very square and unnatural.  So my guess is that this area is totally built on reclaimed land.

We finally found the harbourfront area where we would spend a few hours at a few of the tourist attractions and shopping centre.  But where was the ticket office for the Santa Maria?

The Santa Maria is a motorized replica of the actual Santa Maria that Christopher Columbus used during his voyages.  Now it's here in Osaka to cater to the tourists and help them to explore Osaka's busy harbour.

We had found the Santa Maria's berth and asked where we could get our tickets.  The attendant sent us back indoors and up to the second floor.  We exchanged our Osaka Unlimited Pass' coupon for an actual admission ticket and we were good to go.  We lined up with only a minute to spare and we were soon boarding the replica sailboat.

The 45 minute boat ride would take us on a loop of Osaka Harbour.  At the beginning, we would pass right by the 112.5m tall Tempozan Giant Ferris Wheel.  Before the completion of the London Eye, this was the tallest ferris wheel in the world.  As H looked carefully at the ferris wheel from the boat, he spotted a special rider on one of the cars.  See if you can tell from the photo. 

Further down, we passed under the very large Hanshin Expressway Osaka Harbor Bridge.  It reminded me of a bridge in Shanghai that I have seen in photos. 

Just on the other side of the harbour, we could see Universal Studios Japan.  We were just there the day before.  Seeing the park from the harbour, you could tell that we were looking at the back of a lot of the buildings.  But these weren't real buildings, but only a facade.  So on this side, we could see the empty backing for what it was.  The day before on the other side, it looked like a real American skyline.  It didn't look so impressive on this side, but it was an interesting look behind the scenes.

At least from the water, I could get a better view of the Hollywood Dream roller coaster.  You could even hear the screams from this far out.  That was kind of fun.

We turned around and headed past the Tempozan Harbour Village and then rounded the edge of Tempozan.  We could see a whole new area of Osaka, Port Town.  There were new shiny towers jutting up into the sky and some fancy buildings down closer near the water.  One of the smaller buildings was a large glass dome, which I found out was the Osaka Maritime Museum.  This area is just chalk full of tourist attractions.

Even further down from Port Town was Osaka's only Ikea.  It was huge, like most Ikeas, and in the middle of nowhere, also like most Ikeas.  But there was no mistaking the characteristic blue and yellow colours of this Swedish furniture giant.

After spending most of the ride up top in order to take photos, it was getting really windy.  Ominous clouds were also rolling in over the city at this point.  We were hoping that it wouldn't rain too badly.  At this point, we decided to explore the rest of the ship. 

Hey!  Look!  It's Chris!  Christopher Columbus, that is.  Hm...I wonder if he knows his way around Osaka Harbour.  He seems to be pointed off towards the port side of the boat.  I think we should steer the ship starboard, though.

11/10 - Aqua Bus

We headed north of Osaka Castle towards the Okawa River.  Along the way, we passed by the large Osaka Hall.  It looks like there were some large touring buses and trucks for a Japanese band or something.  I didn't recognize the name, but it looked like there would be a big concert in the hall soon.

When we arrived at the Aqua Bus Liner's ticket office, we discovered we had just missed the previous boat by 15 minutes and would have to wait 45 minutes.  It's hard to time everything perfectly, but the wait wasn't that bad.  We walked back up from the pier to the plaza just outside the Osaka Hall. It looked like a large school group was gathering in the plaza.  A teacher was giving them instructions.  It turns out that this large group had a private booking of the Aqua Bus.  We watched them board two Aqua Bus Liners.  We could also see that they all had bento boxes stacked on the tables too.  Lucky group.  They had lunch included with their ride.

Our boat finally arrived on time.  We boarded and took our seats; however, there was some confusion about the seating and we ended up moving so that a quartet of Japanese tourists could sit together.  We weren't complaining, though.  We got our table all to ourselves after moving.

Shortly after leaving the pier, the boat started to demonstrate the hydraulic system that lowered the top of the boat in order to slip under the very low bridges over the Okawa River.  N took a video of the whole demonstration.

You could see some of Osaka's river front life as we went up the river.  As we got closer to Nakanoshima, an island in the middle of the Okawa River, you could see some people walking through the park or sitting and enjoying lunch.  Also, Nakanoshima is famous for the older European style buildings that dot the island.  The Osaka Civic Center probably being one of the most famous. We saw that as we arrived at the Yodoyabashi Pier.

After so much walking for over a week, it was nice to have a tourist experience where we could sit for an hour.  Because it was close to lunch, H was feeling peckish from all the walking.  So we ordered some snacks.  The biscuit they had was pretty good, but a little on the pricey side.  That's what happens when you're on a tourist boat.  Actually, N ended up sleeping for most of the ride because she was so tired.  My feet were just happy not to have my full weight on them for 60 minutes. 

Pretty soon, we had completed our loop around the Okawa River (marked in red above) and disembarked at Osakajo Pier where we had started.  It was a nice, relaxing way to see the city, but we didn't really see that much.  You could see some of the taller buildings that were near the water and you could see Osaka Castle, which we had just been to.  Otherwise, not much to see.  However, it was definitely a welcome rest for our feet on Day 9.  Plus, the 10% discount from the Osaka Unlimited Pass didn't hurt.  Now, we had to rush off to the harbour front to catch another boat - the Santa Maria.

11/10 - Osaka Castle

After our breakfast, we headed back to Hommachi [本町] station and hopped onto the green line, or Chuo Line [中央].  Today was the first day of our Osaka Unlimited Pass.  If you remember back to one of my first posts, the Osaka Unlimited Pass that we bought was a 2-day pass that gave us unlimited travel along with special coupons for discounts or free admission for various attractions.

We only travelled for two stations to Tanimachi Yonchome [谷町四丁目] station (Japanese station names can be so hard to remember).  We climbed back out to the surface and were instant greeted by a tall beige building.  This was the Osaka Museum of History and the local NHK television office.  We would later return to the museum, but we were more interested in the large park across the street.

Osaka-jo [大阪城] Park, or Osaka Castle Park, is a large public park with Osaka Castle smack dab in the middle of the park.  The castle is complete with moats, but sans water.  It was nice to see so much green in the middle of overwhelmingly concrete cityscape of Osaka.

Once we entered the park we saw "our ride" coming along.  Our ride was the Osaka Castle Park Road Train.  It was slowly chugging along the wide concrete park path.  We had to book it because we were afraid that the train would just pass the stop and they we would have to wait a half hour for the next one.  Or heaven forbid, we'd have to walk through this lush green park to the castle in the middle.  Lucky for us, we got it in time.  It was a free ride for us because we had a coupon from the Osaka Unlimited Pass.  We were the only two on this train this morning.  It slowly made it's way around the southern and eastern perimeters of the park before turning in towards the centre where the castle is.  All along the way, a tourist description of the park and train were broadcast over the train's loudspeaker in a few different languages.  I could pick out Japanese (of course), English, Mandarin, and Korean at least.  That tells you who most of the visitors to Japan are.  I think there were some European languages, but I can't recall with any certainty which ones were used.

We disembarked in front of the main gate to Osaka Castle.  We crossed the wide and, surprisingly to me, empty moat.  The moat was completely void of water.  In it's place, greenery like vines had overtaken the otherwise bare stone surface.  Inside the castle walls, we proceeded up to the main building.  Many locals were just hanging around in the park, but there was definitely a Chinese tour group milling about the grounds as well.  We came across a large time capsule that dated back to the World Expo in Osaka way back in 1970 (Oh my gosh, that's 40 years ago!  How old does that make me feel?)

We walked up to the castle.  It had a very distinct white and green with gold trim colour scheme going for it.  It was definitely not as impressive as Himeji Castle, but having a local castle in town is impressive enough for me.  How many towns can boast that (barring European cities, that is)?

Now some people may be disappointed, but I was totally okay when I walked through the main door of the castle.  Osaka Castle is not a real castle; it is the rebuilding of an actual castle.  It has the shell of a real castle, but inside is actually a very modern museum that tells you the local history.  It was a surprise to me, but I thought it was still a very neat place to visit.  So you have to walk in with the right expectations.  It was definitely not the authentic castle experience of Himeji Castle a few days back.

The castle museum hosts a fascinating exhibit of local history.  There are many dioramas.  By the way, I think the Japanese love their museum dioramas.  I, for one, love these dioramas too.  There were dioramas of old local buildings and dioramas of entire armies.  On this day, we were also lucky to sharing the museum with lots of noisy preschoolers on a field trip.  I wonder how much these 4-5 years old understand in this museum.  Or do they just love being outside of the school grounds running around with their classmates?  You could tell they were all from the same class if they all shared the same little preschool cap.

The castle also gave wonderful views of Osaka from the top outdoor viewing areas.  We could see west to the NHK and Osaka Museum of History buildings.  To the north was the river and a host of more modern office buildings plus the large Osaka Hall dome.  To the south, it was flat, but there looked to be a wide open space with what looked like foundations.  I wasn't sure what this was until we went to the Museum of History the next day.

Once we were done with Osaka Castle Museum (which we had gotten in for free with our Osaka Unlimited Pass), we made our way towards the Osaka Hall and the river.  We were aiming to catch the Aqua Bus Tour of Osaka.

11/10 - Moving Day, Sayonara Shinsaibashi

The night before was our last night at the Hearton Hotel Shinsaibashi.  The rooms may have been small leaving very little room for luggage and moving around, but it was clean and comfortable.  The smell of stale smoke lingered somewhat, but fortunately, I could just ignore it.  Plus, we even got cable TV in our room which was awesome when we were resting our extremely tired feet.

Early this morning, we checked out of the Hearton Hotel with our luggage and proceeded to go to our next accommodation.  Before leaving for Osaka, N had looked up a few accommodation options.  One was a guesthouse run by Taiwanese lady.  This was a place featured in one of her Chinese-language travel books for the Kansai region.  I can't remember when, but a few days earlier N called up this lady to book a room at her place.  Fortunately, there was still space available for the few days for which we were extending our stay.  Perfect.

We thought the guesthouse was pretty far from where we were, so the plan was to hop onto the subway, go the one station, then walk over to the guesthouse.  When we got down to Shinsaibashi [心齋橋] subway station, it was right smack dab in the middle of rush hour.  True to their reputation, Japanese subways are notoriously packed during rush hour.  We waited for 3 trains before even attempting to get onto a subway car with our luggage.  If it was too packed, we didn't want to force our way on.  We thought it would really rile the polite-savvy Japanese.  In the end, it was still tight and we were only going the one stop to Hommachi [本町] station. 

Unfortunately, many Japanese subway stations are not designed with accessibility in mind.  I'm not sure how a person on wheelchair would get around, but we constantly lifting and lowering our luggage through a series of staircases.  Then we counted our blessings each time we encountered an elevator.

Later on, we actually discovered it would have been faster, easier, and a lot less work to have just walked from the hotel.  Grrr....

So we walked a couple of blocks south from Hommachi Station to the guesthouse and checked in with the owner.  A group of Taiwanese tourists were leaving for a day's outing in Osaka as we entered.  We had to leave our shoes in the entryway and took a pair of slippers.  When we entered the guesthouse on the ground level, the kitchen was right by the entry and there was a small living room where a giant flat screen TV dominated the room.  There were a couple of guestrooms labeled with room numbers just behind the living room.

N chatted with the owner and got our keys for the small guest room on the second floor.  She reminded us that the guesthouse is usually locked up in the middle of the day as she runs her personal errands or visits kids and grandkids.  N and the owner worked out the costs and we were set.

I think the lady owner was a bit absent minded, though, because she kept thinking we had just flown in from Hong Kong.  N had told her a few times already that we had flown from Canada and had been in town for many days already.  It just didn't seem to really register in her mind even a few days later.

The staircase up to the upper floors was directly across from the giant flat screen TV.  This staircase was super narrow too.  We had some difficulty lifting our North American size luggage up as the staircase twisted upwards.  There was no landing to speak of, so it was non stop up to the second floor.

Our room was bare and very minimal.  No complaint here.  There was no bed, but simply a floor level mattress on which to sleep.  Of course, there were two pillows and a comforter to make the sleeping amenities complete.  There were a few hooks on which we could hang jackets and/or towels.  On top of a small table beside the door sat a small TV set.  Oh oh.  No cable and only 3 working channels.  The evenings would not be as entertaining here.  A look out of the curtained window showed that our room looked directly upon the road below.  Luckily, it was not a busy street by an stretch of the imagination.  It was a narrow one-way street with only the occasional mini-lorry or car rolling by.

Just outside our room was the shared bathroom - shower.  And boy was this ever a small and tight set up in the bathroom.  Very narrow door to enter the bathroom and the toilet is literally right there upon entry.  I had a couple of few square feet to turn around.  I could literally sit on the toilet and rest my head on the opposing wall. That's how small it was.  The toilet featured a lever that could be pushed down on or pulled up upon.  Down was labeled "big" for a big flush and up was labeled "small" for small flushes.  I don't think I have to explain more.  The toilet had a small thin pipe that run up the side with a spot that hung directly over the middle of the toilet tank.  With a flush water would flow out of this small pipe and into a hole on the top of the toilet tank.  I guess the idea is that you could wash your hands using the water that would fill the toilet tank right after flushing the toilet.  I thought that was a good way to maximize the use of the toilet water.  Then there was the shower.  Oh my gosh, this shower stall had the sink and mirror inside the stall.  Very awkward and very tight.  I always hate it when I end up tracking my wet feet outside of a shower stall and make everything wet and dirty.  I was not looking forward to the shower tonight.

The day was wasting away, so we just dropped off our belongings and took what would need for the day and get a move on our day.  The first order of the day was to get some sustenance in our tummies.  I didn't really want to have Matsuya for the umpteenth day again, so I suggested we eat breakfast at all small Western style bakery we passed on the way here.  It was called the London Coffee & Bakery, or something to that effect.  It served dead simple continental like breakfast.  That was fine with me because I just wanted something different.  N, however, wasn't all that happy.  And for some strange reason, I had been craving coffee all this time while traveling through Japan.  I usually don't have coffee so this was really an out of the ordinary kind of craving for me.  N grabbed a pre-wrapped pork cutlet sandwich and ordered a glass of milk.  I ordered something off the menu; something because I wasn't altogether sure what I was order, and a cup of coffee.  Apparently what I ordered was honey drizzled toast of some sort.  Hmm ... a little more plain Jane than what expected.  In other words, not what I was looking for.  Whatever, though.  We partook in our daily bread and were quickly off to Osaka-jo [大坂城], or Osaka Castle.

11/9 - Universal City and SMAP Bistro

So we finished all our rides and we saw most of the shows at Universal Studios Japan (with the exception of Waterworld, Wicked the musical, and some smaller ones).  We exited the park and made our way to JR station to head back to our hotel in Shinsaibashi.

However, we still had one more destination to cross off our checklist here at Universal City just outside of Universal Studios Japan.  It was the Takoyaki Museum.  All right.  It's not really a museum in the sense of exhibits and info.  This museum is a collection of different takoyaki (fried octopus balls) stalls and styles.  It also doesn't hurt to have huge cartoon drawings and statues marking the entrance to this "museum."  N and I, but particularly N, are fans of this great Japanese snack.  Takoyaki has its origins in the Osaka area, so it's only natural that a Takoyaki Museum can be found in Osaka.

We wandered around the shopping area of Universal City for a little bit.  That's when we came across a different food stall selling onigiri.  Onigiri is usually a simple combination of cooked rice shaped into a triangle, then half-wrapped in a small sheet of seaweed.  Well, this onigiri stall sold a variety of different onigiri with different sizes and shapes.  The one that got our attention was the Takoyaki Onigiri.  A whole takoyaki ball wrapped completely in a rice ball which is then completely wrapped in sheet of seaweed.  It looked like a giant bomb!

So we took our giant takoyaki onigiri ball back to hotel to snack on later.  We were already pretty full from the takoyaki we tried upstairs in the takoyaki museum.  We hopped back onto the JR train back to Umeda, then transferred to the Osaka Subway to get back to Shinsaibashi.

After a long day of play at USJ, we kicked off our shoes and turned on the TV to relax for the rest of the evening.  When we turned on the TV, we discovered SMAP Bistro was on.  SMAP is a five person idol group in Japan.  They are most famous for their J-Pop brand of music, but they also have a popular TV show.  Part of which is the SMAP Bistro.  Not to mention that a few of the members are headline actors in many TV dramas and movies.  N's Japanese tutor lent her a few episodes of SMAP Bistro for N to practice Japanese comprehension, so we were familiar with the show and were quite excited to be actually watching an episode on Japanese TV.

Every episode of SMAP Bistro has a celebrity guest judge.  In previous episodes, they have had actors, politicians, and even Jane Birkin. This night was a Japanese comedian.  Apparently, he's really funny because he has all of SMAP laughing, but we haven't the foggiest idea what he's joking about.  The idea is that one of the members, the shortest of the five, plays chef de maison for the Bistro while the other four are split into two cooking teams.  Each team must make a dish requested by their guest(s) or with ingredients requested by their guest(s).  It's actually a pretty fun show to watch even if you don't understand Japanese.  So what more can you ask for -- a great day at USJ, a giant takoyaki onigiri to split between N and I, and a cooking competition to end the night.

11/9 - USJ Shows and Parades

We got off Hollywood Dream, The Ride and realized we had hit all the major ride attractions in the park, with the exception of Spider Man.  Wow.  I don't think I've ever gone through an amusement park so quickly.

N has a thing for parades at theme parks.  The afternoon parade was supposed to pass by soon (soon as is in 30 minutes soon), so we found a spot along the curb side in front of the "Beverly Hills" shop.  Pretty soon, you could hear the music of the parade making its way to our location.  One by one, the floats passed by us with all the trademark characters at this park.  Snoopy was one of the first.  There was Woody Woodpecker.  Hello Kitty??  How did USJ steal her from Sanrio?  Hm...Pink Panther.  Elmo of Sesame Street and "tickle me" fame.  I guess when you're in Japan, you are in a totally different realm of copyright. Peanuts, Sesame Street, and Hello Kitty.  How does that all work together?

Once the parade was done, we went for a second loop around the park.  This time we went into to see the show attractions.  The first one along the way was Shrek 4-D.  Hmm.. 4-D.  So vibrating chairs, right?  Well not just that.  When you get to a scene with Donkey sneezing, he literally sneezes on you as water is sprayed onto your face.  That creates a lot of "ughs" in the audience.  Ugh must be a universal sound of disgust.  Also when a the wind is blowing, you feel the wind blowing.  And when spiders or rats run past your legs, you feel them run past your legs.  Now I just need a universal translator to figure out what Shrek just said to Donkey.

Just down the road from Shrek 4-D was Terminator 2 3-D.  Admittedly, after the 4-D experience, 3-D is not as cool, but we were treated to live actors running on stage pretending to be a young John Connor escaping all the machines.

Because we were doing a second loop of the park, we had to pass by the Spider Man ride again.  This time, though, we saw that people were lining up for the ride.  We were in luck, the ride was open again.  So obviously got in line.  In this ride, you sit in a car that moves from room to room and is similar to Indiana Jones in a way, but you also get the 3D aspect where Spidey sometimes lands on your car to protect you from all his unfriendly Spidey villains.  I'd definitely ride it again if I went to Universal Studios stateside.

Okay, now we had truly exhausted all the ride attractions that we wanted to ride.  We continued on our loop around the park and started snacking.  I found a place with this neat little waffle treats.  I felt a little peckish, so it was all good timing.

When we passed Jurassic Park, we noticed a few people having "Jurassic Legs" in and around the area.  Basically Jurassic Legs are giant turkey legs that you're supposed to eat like a neanderthal.  N couldn't resist and wanted one.  I had one too.  Look at the size of that thing!

With the night beginning to fall, that meant one more big show in the park and the Magical Starlight Parade. The show was a romantic Christmas stage show.  In Japan, Christmas is not so much of a family event as it is a romantic event.  It's almost on par with Valentine's Day for it's romantic value in Japan.  So the whole story of the show centred and two star-crossed lovers who fall in love, but are sometimes separated by circumstances.  But low and behold on Christmas Day, they find love with the help of Christmas angels.  It ain't no Nativity story, I tell you.

The show ended with the lighting of the giant Christmas tree overlooking the plaza and stage.  Plenty of photo-ops for star-crossed lovers here.  Man, that's a gigantic tree.  Nowhere in Vancouver have I ever seen such a huge Christmas tree.  I guess we too poor in Vancity.  We're busy paying our mortgages :P

We then made our way over to the "Main Street USA" section to grab a seat for the night's magical light parade.  Again, we arrived about half an hour or so before the show.  We tried to entertain our selves by watching people scream nearby on the Hollywood Dream ride.  Finally, the show was making its way to our section.  The parade kicked off with a giant Elmo in the lead.  Snoopy and Hello Kitty were in direct tow right behind Elmo.  Elmo's so big he covers up Snoopy in the photo.

After the initial trademark characters floated on by, different floats based on different stories came by.  First there were a whole set of Alice in Wonderland floats.  Then there were the Aladdin and Arabian Nights themed floats.  Lastly, there were the Cinderella floats.

All right, we were, at least I was, pretty "floated" out by this point.  It was time for one more ride on the Hollywood Dream.  We raced into the queue for the ride right after the parade passed us by.  This time I figured out how to choose my Beatles song.  "Get back!  Get back to where you once belonged!"