After finding out that we were going to be stationed in Japan and
researching the country, one of attractions we were most excited for was
Tokyo Disney! We honeymooned in Disney World so Disney holds a special
place in our heart. Finally after being here for almost two years, we
were going to experience it! Japan has 2 Disney parks, Disneyland and
DisneySea. I had heard DisneySea was better, so I decided to the save
the best for last.
On Tuesday,
we headed out bright and early to Disneyland. I tried to buy our
tickets online in advance but since my MasterCard was not issued in
Japan, it wouldn't let me. I had read that once the park sells the
allotted amount of tickets for the day, they don't let anymore in. For
this reason, we decided to get there before the park opened at
8:30AM.
Disneyland was much like Disney World's Magic Kingdom. They have the
castle that looks similar to the one in the states and many of the same
rides. We must have picked a perfect day to go as we didn't have to wait
long in very many lines for all the rides. It was nice! We did get
rained on a couple times throughout the day but nothing major that would
ruin our day. The big thing in Tokyo Disney is the flavored popcorn.
There were a ton of people with Disney themed buckets hanging around
their necks which contained popcorn inside. We decided to try the Carmel
corn, which was pretty good. One of my favorite parts of the day was
watching the parade. It was cool to see all the different floats,
characters, and performers. We hadn't seen any Caucasian theme park
employees so we were kind of surprised to see that some of the
characters were not Asian! Speaking of ethnicity, we stuck out like a
sore thumb, which isn't surprising but we got MANY stares. Whenever we
saw other white people, we would ask each other where we thought they
were from based on their clothes, look, and accent lol. We even had this
group of Japanese teenage girls say Hi, Hello to us while waving and
when I said Hi back they acted like a celebrity just talked to them! So
funny!
On Tuesday,
we were not in a big hurry to get to Disney like the day before because
we had already bought our ticket for the day. We slept in and then took
the 30 minute or so subway ride to Disney. Once we got off at the main
station, we had to take Disney's monorail to Disney Sea. Their train was
super cute. The windows were in the shape of Mickey and so were the
handles that people are standing hold on to. Once we entered DisneySea, I
was in awe. The park is so visually appealing, it's wonderful! The way
it is set up, is that you walk through like different countries. When
you enter the park, you're in Italy, and the streets are decorated like
so. This is definitely one of the best and most unique Disney parks that
I have been to. It's a must see for anyone who can make a trip to a
Tokyo, in my opinion.
Compared to Disneyland, a lot of the rides are geared toward the older
population so we had a lot more fun here. The first ride we went on was
the Toy Story one, which is just like the one in the states where it's a
3D experience where you shoot to score points and compete against each
other. This was our longest wait, which was about 45 minutes. We noticed
that our wait was so long because people who had grabbed a fast pass
ticket earlier in the day were able to cut in front of us. After seeing
that, we decided to get fast pass tickets for the rest of the big
attractions as that seemed to be the way to go! The way fast pass works
is that you grab a ticket and then you have to come pack at a later time
and basically get to cut everyone else in line. It was nice but I don't
really think the system is fair.
So while we were waiting for our time to go on the ride we tried some
more popcorn flavors. The first one we tried was Strawberry, which was
pretty good. I liked Carmel better but Chad thinks it's a toss up. The
next one we tried just to say we tried it was Curry flavored. I found it
absolutely disgusting but Chad said it was alright. We ended up feeding
most of it to the hungry birds.
We didn't stick around to see any of the shows, even though I would have
liked to. It started raining as we were getting ready to leave and with
this being the 3rd straight day on our feet, we needed the rest! One
thing that I found different about the Japanese is they would just sit
down in the middle of the sidewalk to rest covered by their umbrella to
shade them from the sun. They also are really serious about their
parades. People were sitting down at their spot for the parade hours
before it started. Nothing wrong with any of it, just found it different
than American culture. Overall, we had a great experience at the Disney
parks and I do have to agree with everyone that I've talked to and read
reviews on, DisneySea is the better of the two parks. It's awesome!
If you haven't already, make sure to check out
Tokyo: Part 1 of our trip! Tokyo: Part 3 will come shortly!
Awesome! Love the pics
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