Japan (Day 2) – Tokyo Disneyland

I have never been to Disneyland in my entire life! Now that I’m in Tokyo, I know that I just HAVE to go there! To me this is one of those must-visit places before I die! (Okay, so this post ain’t gonna interest the guys much. But I love all things pretty! And Disneyland is one pretty and cute place!)

We woke up early in the morning and made our way to Shinjuku Station. Over there we lost our way for a little bit before eventually boarding the correct bus to Disneyland!

Err… But wait, that’s DisneySea! Disneyland was quite a distance away. We had to take another train via the Disney Resort Line to get there.

The Disney train itself was Mickey-themed! The windows were in the shape of the Mickey Mouse head. Cute!

Even the grip handles had the familiar black Mickey Mouse ears! If you look closely, you would notice that each grip handle has the red Mickey Mouse pants with yellow buttons too!

The Disneyland Resort Gateway Station was really beautiful, with intricate designs on the walls, arched ceilings and skylights that cast shadows within the station. Look at the hands on that large Mickey Mouse clock!

Mickey Mouse made out of flowers!

Yes, it’s true — we’re in Disneyland!

The band welcomes us!

We found Pinocchio walking about and had our picture taken with him! Look, he’s a real boy! In the Shrek movies, Pinocchio is my favorite character after Gingerbread Man and Puss in Boots!

I found Chip ‘n Dale too! All the kids were clamoring to get pictures with them because they’re oh-so-kawaii. I love them! But they were running somewhere really quickly (in separate directions, no less!) and I had to run after Chip for a long distance before he finally took a picture with me! I wondered why they were in such a rush! (I found out eventually. Read on!)

This is the world bazaar. It consists of two intersecting streets that form the entrance to Disneyland. You would find shops, cafés and restaurants lining both sides of the streets. All the shops here are Victorian-styled!

Even the lampposts and rubbish bins look beautiful! How very quaint! I love this purple shop called Pastry Palace. It sells all kinds of cookies and pastries.

Isn’t this confectionery pretty? Love those brick walls!

Ahhh!

A cute Disneyland mailbox! I think that all letters posted from this box would bear the Disneyland postage stamp.

The most beautiful shop of the lot has to be this pink one. It’s a gift shop! I waited forever for the crowd to pass so that I could take a good picture of it! And trust me, there were THAT many people. Even though we were there on a Friday, the place was teeming with people, mostly Japanese. I wonder why they didn’t have to work or go to school!

Huge balloons in the shapes of various Disney characters!

Before hitting the rides, we stopped for lunch at the refreshment corner. The selection wasn’t impressive — just some (not very good) chicken burgers and fries at expensive Disneyland prices. Over here I got my first clue that Japan seems to be a land with no chili sauce; people dip their fries in ketchup instead.

This is me looking dreamy with burger in hand and the Disney castle in the background. Check out the heart-shaped pink and white chairs around!

Whilst having lunch, we saw Chip ‘n Dale, Mickey and Minnie, and Donald Duck dancing with vigor upon a moving float in the distance. So THAT’S why Chip ‘n Dale were running so fast! They had another appointment!

Seeing that picture above always gets me giggling hysterically! The Japan summer weather was so freakin’ hot at that time, it was pushing 40 degrees Celsius! In that hot summer heat the poor chaps still had to wear those thick and heavy costumes and dance with hype and vigor at 12 freakin’ noon! And boy, did they dance! My gawd! I hope they get paid well.

Youtube link

Here’s a video of the parade with colorful moving floats and characters such as Snow White and Beauty and the Beast.

After walking through the World Bazaar, we came upon the highlight of Disneyland. This castle forms the centerpiece of the entire Disneyland park. It’s really big and tall! You can see the castle from most places in the park.

Ahhh! I was expecting more castles though, like Snow White’s castle, Sleeping Beauty’s castle, Beauty and the Beast’s castle. But as it turned out, this was the only castle we saw in Disneyland.

Beyond the World Bazaar, the park is divided into 6 areas — Adventureland, Westernland, Critter Country, Fantasyland, Toontown and Tomorrowland. We had a chance to explore the entire park and take rides in each of the 6 areas!

Alice in Wonderland!

Castle Carousel! I had a really hard time climbing and stumbling onto a horse. Of all horses (there were 90 of them) I picked the one that was mounted the highest! It was like 1.5 meters high!

Sprinkled around the park were numerous gift carts selling hair bands, hair clips and hair gear all in the style of various Disney characters. For example, there were Shrek ears, Mickey Mouse ears, and Stitch (as in Lilo and Stitch) hair bands.

Got me these Minnie Mouse ears! (and now I have no use for them anymore. Any takers?)

The big Thunder Mountain was a wild ride on a runaway mine train through the mountains! Because the place was so crowded, every single ride we went to, the queue time was at least 40 minutes!

The queue for this mountain ride was so long, we had to get a Fastpass. With our Fastpass, we could come back at the designated time printed on our ticket and take the ride without having to queue (for too long).

There is a certain length of time during which everyone is only allowed to hold one Fastpass. The machines dispensing these Fastpasses are smart enough to tell if you’re trying to get hold of a second Fastpass before the allowed time. We had no choice but to queue for the Haunted Mansion.

The haunted ride took us through a long tunnel (it was an underground ride I think). It wasn’t that scary since this was after all a kids-friendly place; we ended up scaring ourselves more! What impressed me about the ride was when we saw translucent spirits floating about. They were probably done using holograms and the effect was pretty darn real!

A steam train runs round the Adventureland and Westernland. People would wave back at you when you wave at them.

This is Peter Pan and Wendy. Wendy’s gorgeous! She’s the most gorgeous girl I’ve seen in Japan, the land of beautiful people. The irony is that she’s not even Japanese!

In the end, we spent most of our time queuing for rides than taking the rides themselves. It was a hot summer afternoon and we sweat like dogs!

So, we hopped onto the Mark Twain Riverboat for a leisurely ride through the rivers of America.

This was a rather long boat ride.

Spotted several native Americans and their teepees along the way!

Then, we saw this boat. Can you tell what’s so ridiculous about this photo?

People were rowing the boat vigorously! What’s most ridiculous isn’t the fact that they were all rowing completely out of sync with one another. What’s most ridiculous is that it was 40 degrees Celsius and people would still queue to canoe in the hot afternoon sun. The dude sitting at the back had his shirt soaking in sweat! My gawd!

Trees pruned to various shapes! Oblongs, cylinders, etc.

Over at the Fantasyland, we went into Winnie the Pooh’s cottage and peeked at his cosy little bed.

They had a large selection of Pooh and friends merchandise. Cookies and pastries in the shapes of cartoon characters are the norm in Japan. I’ve seen all sorts of character-shaped cookies including Hello Kitty, Doraemon, and now Winnie the Pooh!

It’s A Small World! This is one large building that’s extremely eye-catching and very colorful!

Over here, people are boarding the boat rides.

I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. As it turned out, “It’s A Small World” is meant in its most literal sense. The long boat ride took us through a world of little people singing — what else — “It’s A Small World”! There were colorful props and backdrops. It was very pleasing and delightful!

Check out the videos of our musical ride!

Youtube link

Youtube link

Other than taking rides and visiting cute Disney merchandise shops, there are also a number of parade routes plying the park at certain times of the day. People would sit at the designated picnic areas, roll out their mats and start picnicking while watching the floats go by.

A word to advice to Disneyland visitors: go there the moment it opens in the morning and stay there until it closes at night! The place is so huge and the lines are so long, one whole day is barely enough to see everything! By the end of the day, we had taken the following rides:

- Haunted Mansion
- Big Thunder Mountain
- Mark Twain Riverboat
- Castle Carousel
- Snow White’s Adventures
- It’s A Small World
- MicroAdventure
- Splash Mountain
- Space Mountain

The Space Mountain ride was the most dizzying and thrilling ride of all! Just don’t expect any 360 degree rotation though. Disneyland is still primarily a kids’ paradise.

My souvenir from Disneyland — a gold necklace with key and lock charms in the shape of Nickey Mouse.

Yay! I finally went to Disneyland!