Many years ago, back in 1989, when we still used actual film in a camera, Janis & I visited Disneyland in California. I remember we were in the lineup for Splash Mountain, which had just opened. As we slowly moved through the long winding line, I was excitedly taking pictures of all I saw. I was shooting the features, railings, buildings, signs, and just about everything else in sight, including the stamped concrete walkway. In a space of less than a hundred feet, I had used four or five rolls of film, which were twenty-four pictures each. At that point, the lady behind us tapped me on the shoulder and expressed her amazement that I had gone through so much film and yet had not taken one picture of my lovely wife - which is what most ‘normal’ tourists did. She asked who I was and what could be the purpose of ALL of those pictures. We explained that we were in the business of creating themed environments, and our visit to Disney was part of our research.
This trip to Tokyo Disney is very much the same. If someone followed us, they would observe we stopped very often and took many, many pictures of seemingly random things. The thousands of pictures we are taking will be carefully cataloged and used as inspiration for future projects. While we won’t copy what we see, we will learn from our research. Disney Imagineering (the design and build arm of the company) are the best in the world without a doubt, and we’re taking notes.
