Land of the Rising Mickey - Nov 15, 2001

Land of the Rising Mickey
Page 1 of 6

by Marc Borrelli (archives)
November 15, 2001
This month Marc Borrelli looks at how Tokyo DisneySea is everywhere in Japan and also touches on the early attendance issues and the effects of September 11th.

Golden Week Syndrome

Travel with me through time and space... It's 9am in Tokyo, a couple weeks before the grand opening of Tokyo DisneySea Park...

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We're walking through Jujo Ginza, a long time shopping district which, about a decade ago, was covered by a retractable glass roof... I feel it created the best of both worlds - the charm and spirit of a genuine neighborhood marketplace, one filled with family owned small businesses, and protection from the elements.

Jujo Ginza is the vibrant center of my little neighborhood and I wasn't 30 seconds out the door of my apartment that morning when I saw two of these posters in the windows of a local appliance store -

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If customers purchased select appliances they could be entered in a contest to win tickets to Tokyo DisneySea.

I walked for a couple minutes more, rounded a corner...

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...and stopped for a cup of coffee at my favorite coffee shop. Sitting on the counter was a stack of these -

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Customers could send in the bottom half of this flyer and be... entered in a contest to win tickets to Tokyo DisneySea.

These DisneySea ticket lotteries are just a couple of examples. Others were also offered and well advertised by - a bread company, an express mail service, a toy maker, a film company, a credit card provider, an English language school (office ladies love the English), a dog food manufacturer...