Being as big of a Disney fanatic as I am, I couldn't let this year pass me by without going to visit the happiest place on earth, Japan version: Disney Tokyo!
I went with Marianne and a Japanese friend from school who frequently visits Disneyland and knew perfectly how to get there cheapest, which was a really lovely bonus.
We decided on going two days. One day for Disney Sea (a second park, similar too France's Studio's Park) and one day for Disneyland (the original park). We took a night bus at around 9 o' clock in the evening and after a hellish busride and no sleep whatsoever, we arrived right at the Disney parks at 6 o' clock in the morning. Instead of checking into a hotel, we simply put all the luggage we wouldn't need in the park into coin lockers provided by Disney and went straight to the entrance of Disney Sea to wait for the opening of the park. The park only opens at 8 but this way we were sure to be one of the first people in the park.
Disney Sea
Disney sea is Tokyo's secondary park and I have to say I could kind of tell. There weren't all that many rides to do. The biggest two rides there are Tower of Terror, which is quite similar to the one in Paris, except they changed the theme a little bit; and Toy Story Mania, a shooting game, similar to the Buzz Lightyear shooting ride in Disney Paris, except more for kids. They're both really good though!
Aside from this there's an Indiana Jones ride that is nothing like the one in Paris, there's some flight simulations and it seemed like there were many in door shows you could go to. I went to see a funny magic show based on Aladdin, which was pretty good. They also have that 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea attraction that most people never go on at Disney Paris. So instead of riding rides, we did a lot of goofing around and shopping that day.
A part of the park I did really love was the Mermaid Lagoon. First of all, it's name comes from Peter Pan, so there that of course, but it's also absolutely stunning! My pictures honestly don't do it justice!
The outside looks amazing and the inside is even cooler! This is pretty much how I want my future bathroom to look like. I'm serious. There's some kid's rides, some shops and a restaurant called Sebastian's Calypso Kitchen!
After a long and tiring first day at Disney Sea we grabbed our stuff from the coin lockers and took a free bus to our hotel. It was a nice place with a free breakfast buffet included. We checked back out and put our stuff back into some coin lockers.
Oh and the castle differs as well of course. Paris has the Sleeping Beauty castle whereas the Tokyo one is Cinderella's.
There is also a Winnie the Pooh ride at Disney Tokyo called Pooh's Hunny Hunt and I was really impressed by it! First of all, the outside looks and smells amazing (they make sure the whole area smells like honey!!). The waiting line is absolutely gorgeous. It seems as if you're in between the pages of a Winnie the Pooh book, which is cool because that's how the cartoons are done as well. The ride itself was obviously a very new one since the technology used was stuff I'd never seen before. You're in a honey pot car that moves without being on any kind of rail or track, so you never quite know where you're going to go next and this way, you experience one of Pooh's adventures. It's really, really good!!
That is something I really appreciated: the attention that was given to some Disney characters you would never see at Disney Paris, such as The Aristocats, Stitch, Mike and Sully from Monster's Inc, Oswald The Lucky Rabbit or even The Three Caballeros!
The weirdest thing was, there is this Disney character that I bet 99% of the people in Europe have never even heard of. His name is Duffy and he's Micky Mouse's stuffed animal.
I'm mentioning this because this guy was EVERYWHERE!! So many Japanese people walked around with Duffy merhandise (our Japanese friend included) and Duffy even had his own huge shop at the park (that was super crowded!). I have no idea why this little bear is unheard of in Europe and why he's so immensly popular in Japan, but yes, it's a thing.
Lastly I want to talk about the parade and the castle light show at the end of the day. This was by far my favorite part of the whole trip!
For so long I've wanted to see the Disney parade at night and, ever since the start of the castle light show in Paris, I've been dying to see them live but somehow something always came up that made me unable to.
This time I was determent!
I waited in the freezing cold (pretty sure it was below zero) for over 3 hours so we could have the perfect viewing spot for both the parade and castle light show. Luckily we made friends with some other people who came from Osaka so we could take turns in getting hot beverages for us to warm up a bit. In the end it was all worth it though because I finally had my dreams come true!! The parade was so beautiful! I loved Aladdin and the Giant Cheshire cat and the Cinderella ballroom thingy and mostly Tinkerbell because even though Disney kind of butchers her original character sometimes, she's still my number one!
There I said it! I'm a Disney loser!
In any case, the show was amazing! It differed a little from the original, which might be because it was Japan or because it's been updated throughout the years, but it was absolutely stunning! I was so overjoyed it was embarrassing hahaha!
We caught the nightbus home that same evening and arrived home early in the morning the next day. It was a wild ride, but it was so fun!!!!! I'm glad I've been at Disney Tokyo now. I think that overall, I do still prefer Disney Paris, however that might be out of nostalgia, I'm not sure. In any case, it was fun! ^^
This post just made me want to watch Disney movies hahahahaha
Oh before I go, can we talk about how appropriate my fashion was at Disney?
 |
| NAILED IT |
I'm mentioning it because I notice a lot of people in Japan go to theme parks in costume and if they're in group they do group costumes. I tried to capture some on camera, as you can see in the video at the top haha, but it was difficult!
Anyways... until next time!! ♥♥♥♥♥
No comments:
Post a Comment