It’s Day 2 of our Tokyo Sojourn.
Despite being exhausted and tired, brother and I force ourselves to get out of bed for a trip to Disneyland.We were very sleepy. Breakfast went by in a blur.
On the bus our tour guide – Miwako Saito – gave us lessons complete with visual aids. I appreciated these, I felt like I was in school. I was nodding off though and took a nap in between her lectures. Definitely felt like school.
It was a very cold day, we got to the park before it opened. There were lots of people.
We waited outside a while. To amuse ourselves, we took photos. My ninja brother.
My parents begged off this activity because they were exhausted and according to them they already graduated from the Disney Days..meaning, they already paid their theme park dues when brother and I were still little. Needless to say, it was just Bro and I to experience Disneyland as adults. The last time I went was in Orlando when I was a pre-teen so I was pretty excited. I even researched and mapped out which rides I wanted to try. No one is too old for Disneyland. Or maybe I’m just young at heart.
Here was my list of to-do’s and to-see’s:
- Pirates of the Carribean
- It’s a Small World
- Jungle Cruise
- Peter Pan
- Pinocchio
- Cinderella (not a ride but I didn’t know it at the time)
- Captain EO (also not a ride but a 3D feature)
- Buzz Lightyear
- Stitch Show
- Haunted House
- Race Circuit
- Monster’s Inc
- Pooh’s Hunny Hunt (don’t laugh at this name, the wait for this was 2 hours long, we didn’t bother)
- Mickey’s Philharmagic
- Snow White
Yes, I know. There are no thrill rides on here like Splash Mountain or Space Mountain. It’s because my brother and I are big babies, we can’t take rollercoasters or heights so we did all the baby rides. Laugh all you want, I don’t care.
So we got inside the park and head straight for the Buzz Lightyear ride (#8 on our list). Miko gave us a Fast Pass which allows us to schedule and be “priority” on the most popular rides. The Fast Pass is an interesting system which I won’t explain here. But it explains why people run to get into the park, it’s because they want to get tickets on the popular rides first. We walked leisurely and got our Fast Pass tickets and a schedule for 1:00pm – 2:00pm. Keep in mind this is at 9:30am and our schedule was for 4 hours later.
We had some time to explore. The park was quiet in the morning. We took so many pictures with the castle because it was quite pretty.
The fun thing about Disneyland are the HATS. We had a lot of fun with these. I resisted the temptation to buy a few for myself. I guess there are indeed some things I am too old for. What a shame though. If only I were 15 years younger. I settled for a purple knit beanie with tassels.
While killing time, we through the other rides on our list. We chose our rides based on wait time, anywhere from 25-40 minutes seemed pretty good to us.
#1) Pirates of the Carribean – It was in Japanese so it kinda killed the magic. However it’s exactly how I remember it from my childhood. It was a great boat trip down memory lane. A pirate’s life for me!
#2) Jungle Cruise – Again another ride from my childhood. I have vivid memories of my dad taking me on this cruise and me being kind of afraid of the hippos and other animals. My brother and I weren’t really drawn into this ride because the boatman, who basically narrates the entire cruise, did so in Japanese. The rest of the passengers were laughing and “frightened” but brother and I were in blissful ignorance, making up our own commentary.
#3) Snow White – No photos. It was a lame ride. Again in Japanese so we didn’t get it. It seemed kinda scary and ominous though. Many kids came out crying. We just left feeling confused.
#4) It’s a Small World – The babiest ride of them all. This is the ride my mom took me on because it was the least bit scary. Since it’s the most PG ride, it had the shortest line of about 10 minutes. I took my brother on it and we both had a terrific time. Since it was the Holiday season, instead of regular “it’s a small world” the soundtrack was a remix of that with Jingle Bells and other Christmas Carols. It was also decorated beautifully.
#5) Buzz Lightyear – Ummmm awesome. Fast Pass works, we walked right in and waited maybe 15 minutes on a 2 hour ride. The ride itself was super fun, you get to shoot stuff while you ride through. I took photos so I couldn’t concentrate on fighting evil Dr. Whatever but brother really got the hang of it and scored a ton of points.
#6) Circuit Raceway – Again a baby ride. You sit in a little go-cart and ride around a track at minimal speed, guided by a center rail to make sure you don’t turn it into bump cars. My brother was kinda disappointed with this, he wanted to go zoom instead he just kinda went chugging along at a grandmother’s pace.
(driving while taking photos, not safe. don’t try this at home kids.)
#7) Captain EO – We watched this 3D movie only because Michael Jackson was in it. Keep in mind, they made it in the 80’s so it is VERY old and dated. I can’t speak much to this because brother and I took this opportunity to take a nap. Sorry Michael, I still love you. Please don’t be mad.
#8) Cinderella’s Castle – just a walkthrough museum. Nothing special. We just went through it to say we went inside the castle. And of course take loads of pictures. We were both enthralled by the castle. Super pretty.
#9) Pinocchio – Just another cute baby ride.
#10) Peter Pan – photo finished with this ride. With about an hour to go and a 35 minute wait, we cut it really close by falling in line last minute. We finished the ride with about 15 minutes to spare, leaving us enough time to walk to the bus and speed shop.
In the end, the rides we missed (because the lines were way too long and we ran out of time) were: Pooh’s Hunny Hunt (2 hour line), Haunted House (1.5hour line), Monster’s Inc (2 hour), Disney Philharmagic (ran out of time), Stitch Show (it was in Japanese so we passed on this.)
In between rides, we ate of course. Snacking is one of the best parts about being at a theme park. While admittedly, their food prices are what we can consider highway robbery, you don’t have much of a choice. Plus you’re in the Happiest Place on Earth. Why deny yourself some Mickey Mouse shaped food items?
We started off with the Mickey Mouse Steamed Pork Buns. What a pleasant surprise, there is meat and filling in the ears too. It’s like getting a big siopao, two extra mini siopaos and a bowtie!
Next up, Mickey Mouse Churros, some hot chocolate for me and earl grey tea for my brother. So yum we went back for seconds. We love churros. This made us warm up a little, it was very cold.
As if that wasn’t enough, my brother also got a Turkey Leg. These are a theme park staple. The sheer size of it, almost comical, fits right in in the fantasy world of Disney.
We also got some space Pizza with interesting flavors. It was surprisingly good.
I got a pretzel stuffed with cream cheese. It was okay. As pretzel’s usually go, it was very filling.
While walking around the park, we even ran into a parade! We were super excited. What is Disneyland without a parade?! The only thing missing were the fireworks but it was still bright out.
All in all, we got a lot done. We made 10/15 attractions and got to stuff our faces with Magical Food. Brother and I had such a great time. We already agreed we would go to Disneyland in LA to experience all these same attractions in English. 🙂
After Disneyland, the tour took us to a CHINESE RESTAURANT for dinner. Again there is something seriously wrong with this itinerary. I am in JAPAN, having Chinese food?! WHAT?! In fairness, the food was decent. Still, I would have preferred Japanese food.
When we got back to the hotel, Brother and I mustered up all our energy to walk around Ikebukuro with our well-rested parents. We bumped into a Takoyaki truck which we couldn’t resist.
We also walked through Tobu’s food section where, since it was late at night, the food was on sale. We picked up some sushi and gyoza at a steal. Impromptu picnic in our room!
Called it a night. Onto Day 3!
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