A very personal Decade of Dreams tour! UPDATED 6/5 - Page 19 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
As of January 1, 2019, we have closed our forums. This is a decision we did not come to lightly, but it is necessary. The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk. The server software itself must be updated, and it cannot be without removing the forums.
So it is with a heavy heart that we say goodbye to our long-running forums. They came online in 2000 and brought together so many wonderful Disney fans. We had friendships form, careers launch, couples marry, children born ... all because of this amazing community.
Thank you to each of you who were a part of this community. You made it possible.
And a very special thank you to our Guides (moderators), past and present, who kept our forums a happy place to be. You are the glue that held everything together, and we are forever grateful to you. Thank you aliceinwdw, Caldercup, MrsM, WillCAD, Fortissimo, GingerJ, HiddenMickey, CRCrazy, Eeyoresmom, disneyknut, disneydani, Cam22, chezp, WDWfan, Luvsun, KMB733, rescuesk, OhToodles!, Colexis Mom, lfredsbo, HiddenMickey, DrDolphin, DopeyGirl, duck addict, Disneybine, PixieMichele, Sandra Bostwick, Eeyore Tattoo, DyanKJ130, Suzy Q'Disney, LilMarcieMouse, AllisonG, Belle*, Chrissi, Brant, DawnDenise, Crystalloubear, Disneymom9092, FanOfMickey, Goofy4Goofy, GoofyMom, Home4us123, iamgrumpy, ilovedisney247, Jennifer2003, Jenny Pooh, KrisLuvsDisney, Ladyt, Laughaholic88, LauraBelle Hime, Lilianna, LizardCop, Loobyoxlip, lukeandbrooksmom, marisag, michnash, MickeyMAC, OffKilter_Lynn, PamelaK, Poor_Eeyore, ripkensnana, RobDVC, SHEANA1226, Shell of the South, snoozin, Statelady01, Tara O'Hara, tigger22, Tink and Co., Tinkerbelz, WDWJAMBA, wdwlovers, Wendyismyname, whoSEZ, WildforWD, and WvuGrrrl. You made the magic.
We want to personally thank Sara Varney, who coordinated our community for many years (among so many other things she did for us), and Cheryl Pendry, our Message Board Manager who helped train our Guides, and Ginger Jabour, who helped us with the PassPorter-specific forums and Live! Guides. Thank you for your time, energy, and enthusiasm. You made it all happen.
There are other changes as well.
Why? Well, the world has changed. And change with it, we must. The lyrics to "We Go On" for IllumiNations say it best:
We go on to the joy and through the tears
We go on to discover new frontiers
Moving on with the current of the years.
We go on
Moving forward now as one
Moving on with a spirit born to run
Ever on with each rising sun.
To a new day, we go on.
It's time to move on and move forward.
PassPorter is a small business, and for many years it supported our family. But the world changed, print books took a backseat to the Internet, and for a long time now it has been unable to make ends meet. We've had to find new ways to support our family, which means new careers and less and less time available to devote to our first baby, PassPorter.
But eventually, we must move on and move forward. It is the right thing to do.
So we are retiring this newsletter, as we simply cannot keep up with it. Many thanks to Mouse Fan Travel who supported it all these years, to All Ears and MousePlanet who helped us with news, to our many article contributors, and -- most importantly -- to Sara Varney who edited our newsletter so wonderfully for years and years.
And we are no longer charging for the Live Guides. If you have a subscription, it's yours to keep for the lifetime of the Live Guides at no additional cost. The Live Guides will stay online, barring server issues and technical problems, for all of 2019.
That said, PassPorter is not going away. Most of the resources will remain online for as long as we can support them, and after that we will find ways to make whatever we can available. PassPorter means a great deal to us, and to many of you, and we will do our best to keep it alive in whatever way we can. Our server costs are high, and they'll need to come out of our pockets, so in the future you can expect some changes so we can bring those costs down.
Thank you, thank you, thank you for your amazing support over the years. Without you, there's no way us little guys could have made something like this happen and given the "big guys" a run for their money. PassPorter was consistently the #3 guidebook after the Unofficial and Official guides, which was really unheard of for such a small company to do. We ROCKED it thanks to you and your support and love!
If you miss us, you can still find some of us online. Sara started a new blog at DisneyParkPrincess.com -- I strongly urge you to visit and get on her mailing list. She IS the Disney park princess and knows Disney backward and forward. And I am blogging as well at JenniferMaker.com, which is a little craft blog I started a couple of years ago to make ends meet. You can see and hear me in my craft show at https://www.youtube.com/c/jennifermaker . Many PassPorter readers and fans are on Facebook, in groups they formed like the PassPorter Trip Reports and PassPorter Crafting Challenge (if you join, just let them know you read about it in the newsletter). And some of our most devoted community members started a forum of their own at Pixie Dust Lane and all are invited over.
So we encourage you to stay in touch with us and your fellow community members wherever works best for you!
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Tuesday 31 March – part two: Japanese crafts and temples
We headed back out of the park and back to the station and then completed our journey on the subway to the end of the line at Asakusa, where we were going to see the Senso-ji temple. I wasn’t 100% sure where I was going when we got off there, but I took a chance and within a few steps, we found the entrance to the temple. Just like the park, it was pretty busy with people, mostly Japanese, but also a range of foreigners, more than we had seen at the park. I heard a range of languages, including French, German and what I guessed were Scandinavian languages, as well as seeing some American tourists. Generally, they appeared to be in groups, but there were a few who were touring independently, like us.
We walked up the Nakamisi-dori, which is essentially a shopping area, full of Japanese crafts. I had read in my guidebook that this was a good place to shop and so it proved. We walked along, looking at all the various shops, as we went. I made a mental note of the things that I liked the look of and there was so much from fans to handbags to hanging banners and kimonos and yukatas. There were also lots of toys on sale and the more traditional items you’d expect to find everywhere, such as fridge magnets and postcards, although less of the latter two than perhaps you’d get at other places. The vast majority of things for sale looked genuinely Japanese and as I love Japanese crafts, I was in heaven.
As we walked, we tried to browse, but it was packed and, at times, I felt like a salmon swimming the wrong way! This was more what I expected Tokyo to be – crowded with no personal space and it was certainly living up to that expectation today!
We browsed, but didn’t stop to buy anything, figuring that we’d do that on the way back down here and instead headed for the temple. Popularly known as the Asakusa Kannon, this is Tokyo’s most sacred and special temple. It started life in 628, when two fishermen fished a small golden statue of Kannon, the Buddha goddess of mercy from the Sumida River. Their masters then built first a shrine and then a temple to her.
When you get to the temple complex, you first come across the Nade Botokesan Buddha, which has been polished smooth over time by the hands of those hoping for healing and good luck.
Then you enter through the Hozo-mon Gate, which was built in 1964.
From there, we headed to explore the area around the five storey pagoda, another reproduction from 1973. We were already finding that Japan does a lot of reproductions, which I think is nice as it means that if something does happen to the original (and let’s be honest, a lot of it happened during World War Two), in years to come you can still see it.
We wandered around the western end of the complex, seeing the hexagonal temple that dates from the 15th or 16th century and visited the main hall. Sadly, no photos are allowed in here, but it has 12 Buddhas in it, one for each of the years of birth. It seems that the Japanese operate a very similar system to the Chinese, but not exactly the same as here, I’m a mouse (with Mickey!) and not a rat.
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You being compatible with Mickey doesn't surprise me one bit.
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Oct '99: CSR ~ May '02: CR ~ Nov '04: SOG ~ May '06: SOG ~ Dec '07: Solo @ Pop ~ May '08: Pop w/friends ~ Oct '08: SOG ~ Dec '09: Pop w/LeAnn ~ Sept '10: Solo @ Pop ~ Spring '11: AKL ~ Jan '12: Pop for 1/2 Marathon ~ Sept '12: 1st trip for DL 1/2 Marathon? ~ Feb '13: Pop w/pals? ~ Mar '13: Tokyo Disney w/PP's?
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Cheryl, even more wonderful installments to your TR. You're making me fall in love with Japan just from your TR and your photos. You and Mark most certainly picked a wonderful place to travel for your 10 year Anniversary!
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