Adventures with mother: Tokyo Disneyland

Sorry for the wait! Here is the last post of the "Adventures with mother" series. Many of you may have already seen my pictures on facebook, but I'm reposting some of them here.

On the morning of December 30th, mother and I took the train to Tokyo Disneyland. It was my first time visiting Disney (I've never been to Disney in Florida or California), so I was kinda sorta a lot excited.

Welcome Welcome~

The train station at Disneyland is called "Maihama Station". It was named after Miami, Florida ("MAI-hama", "MI-ami") and combines the characters for 'dance' and 'shore' which not only sound like Miami, but conveys a Miami feel kinda sorta, right?

There are two sides of the Disney park: Disneyland and Disney Sea. Being that it was winter and it would be suicide to get wet, we bought tickets to Disneyland. Is ther a Disney Sea in the United States as well?

Me being excited in front of Mickey's passport at the Disneyland entrance. Mickey's nationality: Citizen of the World. But really, Japan is the country that gives Mickey the most love. No matter what age or gender, you can bet a major portion of the Japanese population owns Mickey goods. I've noticed that not just in the park, but also everyday on the train, etc. Mickey is everywhere: suitcases, keychains, hair accessories, cell phone charms, clothes... Japanese people love Mickey, probably because he's cute. He fits right into the cute cute side of Japanese culture.

First we walked through a town-like place that was full of shops. I love this picture. Mother looks just like Stitch! It's so cute!

Before we went to Tokyo Disneyland, I stocked up on research★ I remembered seeing a video done by Johnny's entertainment guys that was all about Tokyo Disney, so I decided to rewatch it. As a result, I found out that if you send a post card from Disneyland, you get a special stamp. And so we stopped inside one of the shops and bought my brother a postcard.

After that,

Our first stop of the day was Mickey churros! They were delicious and cinnamon-y!

...And then I experienced the epitome of Disneyland--the long lines. My first Disneyland ride was The Pirates of the Caribbean. It was quite well done. The pirates look so cool and Johnny Depp turns up at least 3 times and looks SO real~! In the beginning, there was a roller coaster like fall, but it was small enough. I can't handle a roller coaster fall bigger than that...

Also, it was really interesting how the ride was in Japanese and English. The introduction was in Japanese, but all the pirates spoke English. All the rides were the same in that way--the main language being English. If I hadn't been surrounded by Japanese people left and right, I would have been doubted what country I was in.

After Pirates, we went to the Stitch tiki-tiki show. This is the outside: Stitch's space mobile~

This show was completely in Japanese and it was so so cute. There were parrots that were singing and dancing and then Stitch comes and dances with them. So cute.... I shamelessly enjoyed it.

Next, we went on a raft to Tom Sawyer island. It seemed like a strange set-up in Disneyland...Is there a Tom Sawyer island in Florida Disney??

Spitting rock. At intervals, there was water that came shooting out of the eyes and mouth like it was spitting. You had to be careful not to get wet.

Indian camp out.

Samuel Clemens Fort.

It was kind of funny because I was running around the place among the little kids. I felt like a little kid, too! Except that I was bigger than all of them...

Next was Peter Pan's Neverland ride.

This ride was so so cool. We rode in a ship above London and I flew, I flew! All the way to Neverland! It was super magical.

A brief stop to take a picture with Dumbo...

And then, we stopped for lunch at ToonTown.

ToonTown was probably my favorite place. It was the most interesting, I think. Lots of things to see without standing in lines.

All the restaurants were outside for some reason, so we didn't really get any warmth (and it was super cold, let me tell you). We had a Disney-style lunch. Important.

A Donald Duck Burger. It was a shrimp cutlet instead of beef--something very Japanese probably. The bread also doesn't look edible but it was.

Along with the burgur, we ordered french fries, and french fries ended up on the reciept, but for some reason we each got a Mickey pizza...Oh, well...Mother thought it was interesting that they put corn on it. Apparently they don't really put corn on pizza in America? I don't eat pizza at all in the U.S. so I wouldn't know...

Japanese like to put corn in a lot of stuff...It's in ramen, potato salads, cans of tuna, french fries (yeah, really)...I don't know why. I don't especially like corn, but I was hungry so it was all right.

While mother went to the bathroom, I went around taking pictures of a few famous characters. There's so much competition to get pictures with them, that I just gave up and settled with just a picture of them in whatever way.

Here's Donald:

And Uncle Scrooge:

Is it just me, or are Japanese Disney characters super tiny? I feel like the American versions are a lot bigger? I've never seen them in real life, though. Mother says it's because of the beef in the U.S.

Next, we stopped by Minnie's House. She wasn't there, but her house was super cute.

I invaded by sleeping on her bed. This bed was not too big, not too small, but just right. (Although it was a bit too plastic-y...)

Then, Mickey's house. Mickey was in so the line to get into his house was crazy long. I don't even remember how long we waited in line. It must have been at least a couple of hours.

This picture is for Daddy. This is the newspaper that Mickey reads. I thought you might be interested. (Underneath it was El Tiempo Latino, though, of course. Mickey is multi-lingual.)

And then And then. The moment where all little kid's dreams come true---I met Mickey Mouse in person! The couples before us were so cute. Even the guys were crazy excited to see Mickey. One was like "Omg Mickey, you're awesome!" When one of the guys' girlfriends got a hug from Mickey, the boyfriend got upset and was like, "What about me?!?!" Conclusion: No matter what gender, all Japanese people are in love with Mickey. The end.

 Mickey gave me and mother a big hug and kiss and made our day. Gah. It was worth those two hours in line. Mickey is truly a messenger of happiness.

Our last ride was "It's a Small World". Luckily the line wasn't too long, and we got into the warmth pretty fast. This ride was so pretty. The dolls were so well made and it was really cool how they had dolls from each part of the world. Mother and I tried to name each country as the boat went along. The song "It's a Small World" played in the background in different languages.

Spain was cool. We saw Don Quixote and Sancho Panza. I tried to take a picture for Daddy, but it came out kind of blurry. It can't be helped...the lighting in the ride is not for pictures.

I had wanted to go into Cinderella Castle, but the lines were so long, and by nighttime, it was freezing cold. I settled with just a picture of Cinderella Castle at night time.

Finally, it was shopping time. There was a shop devoted entirely to Pooh goods. It was soo cute and the whole place smelled like honey. Mother bought me a face towel as a Reyes gift and I bought myself some dish towels to dry my dishes here at home.

You can seriously spend at least half a day just looking in the stores. There are SO many disney goods. At the main Disney store, I ended up buying some Mickey tights, a Japanese style Minnie cellphone charm, and Mother got me some Mickey earmuffs (cuz I was freezing...).

This was one of the things you could buy in the Disney store....only if you were super rich, though. It costs 5,000,000 yen, which, according to my research, makes it the most expensive souvenir that you can by from Tokyo Disney!

Ah, and let's not forget the famous hidden Mickeys all around the park! Here are three famous and little known ones:

Hidden mickeys make up the windows of the shuttle train that transports people from the Disney Resort hotels to the Disney park.

Outside of Cinderella Castle, you can see these hidden Mickeys along the wall! They look upside down right now, but during the day, when the sun shines through and a shadow is cast, you can see the Mickey forms on the ground.

Finally, this hidden Mickey can be found at ToonTown. It's the smallest Hidden Mickey in the park, measuring a mere 3cm tall.

By the end of the day, it was super freezing. Tokyo Disneyland is by the water, so it's no wonder. There was no place to sit calmly and warm up, so we ended up saying farewell.

Last pictures at Disney:

Thank you, Tokyo Disneyland! It was so much fun!

★★★

The next day, December 31st, I took mother to the airport at Narita. We took the regular trains, which provides a longer ride, but a more scenic view of Japanese country side--you can see rice fields! Narita Airport is really in the middle of no where.

After lunch and getting mother settled with her luggage checked in and her plane ticket in hand, we had our own little New Year's party with our traditional 12 grapes. It was sad to see her go, but I really had fun.

I'm so glad you came to see me mother! We had lots of adventures and saw a lot in just a few days. From now on, I will do my best making my way and living in Japan on my own. I love you!