Crowds throng Tokyo DisneySea on the park's opening day. (Kyodo) MEGABYTES OF MICKEY: Leading-Edge IT Draws Big Crowds to New Disney Park December 3, 2001 A new theme park opened adjacent to Tokyo Disneyland on September 4, and it has been attracting overflowing crowds almost daily, even on weekdays. One secret to the popularity of Tokyo DisneySea has been the innovative, elaborately designed attractions, such as boats that seemingly move at random without crashing into one another and a volcano that erupts to the beat of music. What few visitors to the latest bastion of the Magic Kingdom realize, though, is that cutting-edge information technology is busy at work behind the scenes to keep them entertained. A Splashing Success Tokyo DisneySea was built by Oriental Land Co. - the Japanese partner of Walt Disney Co. that also operates Tokyo Disneyland - at a cost of ¥338 billion ($2.8 billion at ¥120 to the dollar). It is the first Disney park to center on a marine theme. Laid over an area of 478,000 square meters (5.1 million square feet - roughly the same as Tokyo Disneyland), it is divided into seven "ports," such as the Mediterranean Harbor, the American Waterfront, and the Arabian Coast, offering 23 attractions (there are 47 at Disneyland). While Disneyland is primarily targeted at children and young people, DisneySea is hoping to lure older visitors as well. The shows, restaurants, and shops, accordingly, appeal to grown-up tastes; for instance, the ban on the sale of alcoholic beverages, which is still in place at Disneyland, has been lifted. Oriental Land expects 25 million visitors to pass through the gates of the two parks each year - 8 million more than Disneyland alone. Travel agencies estimate that some 800,000 people flocked to DisneySea in its opening month. There have been so many visitors, in fact, that admission has had to be restricted - even on weekdays. The wait for many of the popular attractions is one to two hours. The restaurants and shops are also doing well. One unlikely hit has been "gyoza dogs": sausage buns resembling gyoza, or Chinese dumplings with minced pork and vegetable stuffing. The line in front of the wagon selling this DisneySea original is almost as long as those for the attractions. Fiber-Optic Fantasy Upon entering DisneySea, visitors come across an elaborately detailed re-creation of a south European harbor, beyond which rises a "mysterious" volcanic island. It erupts from time to time, but not even park employees know exactly when the next explosion will come. It rumbles and erupts in time with the music and lights, though, during the nighttime coastal show. A ride on the sea of the future is another big favorite; while the boats seem to be moving aimlessly without any rails, they never crash into one another.   Your Name What did you think of this article? It was interesting. It was boring. Send this article to a friend What most visitors do not realize is that these attractions are powered by the latest in IT. While Disneyland next door relies on copper wires to relay data from one area to another, DisneySea is internally linked by more than 150 kilometers (93 miles) of fiber optics, enabling instantaneous and mass-volume data transmissions. And while lights, sound, and special effects are controlled separately at Disneyland, they can be coordinated from a single command center at DisneySea due to the fiber-optic link. Not only volcanic eruptions but also steamship whistles and gushes of geysers can therefore be easily orchestrated into a show to create a more spectacular and memorable multimedia experience. The appearance of random boat movement, meanwhile, is created through radio waves, transmitted by antennas located underwater and along the coast. There is a computer aboard each boat, moreover, that keeps track of the movement of the other boats. This is the first ride in the world that can be freely controlled by radio waves. DisneySea is the brainchild of Japanese park designers and incorporates both cutting-edge technology and the wealth of experience and know-how cultivated over the years in the management of Disneyland, which opened outside of Tokyo nearly 20 years ago. Copyright (c) 2001 Japan Information Network. Edited by Japan Echo Inc. based on domestic Japanese news sources. Articles presented here are offered for reference purposes and do not necessarily represent the policy or views of the Japanese Government.