Epcot on the 4th of July

 EPCOT! It happened to be the 4th of July, so fireworks needed to be had. Even though we already got space-fireworks last night already. So after roaming around Florida in the morning, we headed over here to catch the show, and some other stuff.

Wee-wee! My French is not that good. We checked into the Yacht Club which is a short walk over to the France part of the World Showcase lake. If you've never been to Epcot, none of that made sense to you.

There are themed areas around the lake that match countries from around the world. This applies to the characters, too, so it looks like the princess from Sleeping Beauty, Aurora, is from France, if you didn't know that.

Over to the new ride around here, Remy's Ratatouille Adventure! We were going to have to stand in line like common rats. Yikes that did not sound as cute as I thought it would. Sorry. There was no lightning lane options to take advantage of.

The ride was closed down right before we got into the building. After having already waited 45 minutes. Everyone who was in the building got a free Lightning Lane pass to come back later and skip the line, but not us. But, we were literally 2nd in line, so when they were going to re-open it, we'd get right on. With the choice of waiting for them, or coming back later and re-waiting in the whole line, we chose to wait. Whew what a long explanation. Kind of similar to our wait in line? 30 minutes later they re-opened and we scrambled through the empty line queue like rats through a maze!

And five minutes later, they shut it down, again. This room is usually dark but they turned the lights on to get everyone out safely. The good news is that THIS time, we DID get the free Lightning Lane pass. So we could come back later and skip the line. Um, at least we got to check out the cute rat cars.

Well that was a bust, but you can't get mad, stuff happens. Check out these adorable rat plushies in some tasty cheese. See? All cheer'd up.

My friend got his Ham and Cheese Croissant as a snack, while we were in the neighborhood. It's one of his favorite things in Epcot, so it's good to have things to look forward to, and then getting. I've got a separate batch of food pics, so you'll get to see those later.

Do they need to change the title of this movie to Beauty and The Beauty? How dare they call someone a Beast, these days... At the beginning of the movie, he's not a nice guy, so Beast might be referring to his attitude and not his appearance. So that still tracks with the title.

Topiary Kermit. Even as plants, it's not easy, being green. Hey, I'm green, too!

Fountain in Morroco. So many tiles! Was that fun for somebody to do? Must have taken a long time.

You mean you can just BUY a magic lamp? Sure, they'll tell you whatever you want, just buy the lamp. It's probably magic, you're just not rubbing it right.

We noticed this restaurant and thought about coming back later to check out what Moroccan foods would be like, but it was closed.

Our Disney theme park expert friend told us the story of what used to be here, where this odd closet is in Morocco. It's not the type of thing I can blog about, but it's a funny story of why they had to change it. If you know, you'll get a laugh out of this picture.

Morocco has got a lock on the tile game. So beautiful and impressive, I just had to get another picture.

We hid from the rain for a minute in this place, which looked like a kung-fu movie action sequence could break out at any moment.

There was a small break in the rain, and we hurried over to the Japan area, and got a little wet as the rain picked up, right before we dove into the very huge gift shop there. We knew this would be a good place to wait out the rain, as there's a ton of cool stuff to check out in here.

Where did they come up with the name King Ghidora? This is Godzilla's um, arch nemesis? Every hero needs a good villain.

Always fun to see anime merchandise for the game Kingdom Hearts. Which is a game that involves Disney characters. So it's fun to see that, at Disney World.

Hatsune Miku! Kawaii! That's Japanese for SO ADORABLE!

Suck your thumbs little kids! Just like the Monchhichi. Or pull the thumb out and pretend they are trying to hitchhike.

Pokemon fans recognize the different tails on the Pikachus here. The one with the notch is a girl. I mean, can I assume she's a girl by the notch on the tail? What does she identify as?

Corgi! There was a whole section with corgi merch, I suppose they are popular in Japan?

A couple of cute Hello Kitties. The rain was lasting a while, so we had to roam around for quite a while in here.

Authentic Japanese Kimono? Pretty.

The wall scroll is not as good as a real painting but still much better than a regular poster. 

Samurai Kitties! I think I got a picture of these the last time I was here? If I did, well, they're still here!

Almost certain I've seen this before. So cute! With the solar panel rocking her head back and forth. 

What does it say on the head band? Something cool? Or is it "check out this silly ignorant tourist?"

Ninja socks, with the little notch for wearing sandals. I watch a lot of kung-fu movies, so I recognized them as something a real ninja would wear. At least... movie ninjas wear them.

How exclusive is this?! It's a Hatsune Miku t-shirt for $100! I kind of WANT one! Should I know how rare this is? Or is this some kind of gimmick to sell shirts for a crazy price? Does it sing songs for you?

Cool embroidery cat. I don't recognize the character, but I can appreciate the nice dapper artwork. Classy.

That Rilakkuma looks sooooo comfy! Has the rain let up yet?

The rain did let up, but before we left we quickly stopped in to the small "Kawaii Museum" behind the gift shop.

I've been here before, and it's neat to check out this part of Japanese culture. Cute outfit is cute.

Zoom in and check out the tiger-suited Hello Kitty on the Frosted Flakes box! They'rrrrrrreeeee Cute!

Some genuine anime art cells in the cabinet. That's real art, for sure.

They have cool looking robots, but also the cute version. Both are equally Japanese.

This art statue has been here for a long time, why not get another picture of it? How many people get pictures of this?

Here's the info plaque about the statue, zoom in and read it if you want. I recognized that artist on a recent TV news article where they talked about his sushi restaurant in New York. I was like, I think that's the statue guy! And it was!

Whew. The rain finally stopped. We spent a lot longer in there than we wanted to, but at least we're dry. One more picture of the impressive Goju-No-To, or five story pagoda, as we wander out.

Hungry, we went over to the smokehouse place in the ironic America section of the World Showcase. I know we're already "in" America, but they have to be included in this thing, too! I've said it before, but I'll save the food pictures for later.

After we ate, we went back over to get on the Ratatouille ride, but because so many people got the Lightning Lane passes, both lines were too long. We would have missed the fireworks if we waited, so we passed on the ride and instead picked out a spot to catch the show. Check out the other person taking pictures, too, hahaha.

A mid-show picture, I didn't get pictures of the big finale, instead I just enjoyed being in the moment. It would have been a neat thing to get a picture of because they threw up so many fireworks at once it's like the whole sky exploded. Disney is very familiar with impressive fireworks shows, they do a lot of them. Happy 4th of July!