Our family loves (or, is fascinated by [-Jem]) Disney. I have been a Mickey fan on and off for decades. Jem wrote his second-year graduate research paper about Disneyland and the history of Southern California, and gave a memorable presentation on Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride. He was the first person I ever met with an Annual Pass, back when the AP got you front row parking at Disneyland and cost $99 a year. When the girls were little, of course we gave them and bought them all things Mickey.
As Aunt Sue once said of this picture, the Mickey Apple doesn’t fall far from the Mickey tree.
So, any trip to Japan includes a stop at Disney, which is what we did for our first week in Japan. Tokyo Disney Resort, made up of two parks, Disneyland and DisneySea, has many advantages over the U.S. parks. It is cheap compared to U.S. prices. About $700 for four people for four days, which is basically the price for one day in the U.S. The difference for four days compared to U.S. prices at the park is almost the airfare. The Tokyo parks are indeed crowded (which is what happens when there is a Disney park in a metro area with 35 million people) but some days are better than others and we think the last week in May is among the least crowded, which is why we aimed for Tokyo Disney that week.
We stayed at the Sheraton Grande Hotel, literally across the street from the monorail and about as easy of a commute other than staying inside the DisneySea park at the MiraCosta Hotel (which Jem and I did at great expense for our honeymoon in 2010 and discovered that it was not worth the money, so we aren’t doing that again). The girls were super-excited to go to Disney, and skipped and held hands on our way to the monorail and the park.
We bought a 4-day multi day ticket, which is the max. You have to pick either Disneyland or DisneySea for each of the first two days and then you can park hop days 3 and 4. So even though Disneyland in Tokyo is not that different from Disneylands everywhere else, we still hit it at least once. It has a ride that is only available here, Pooh’s Hunny Hunt, which is a truly world-class (and unique) ride. You travel in a four-person honey pot through Pooh’s honey-induced coma/nightmare/dream, and because the ride vehicle is not constrained to a track (it roves around semi-autonomously), you get a different ride every time.
The other TDL rides are comparable to the U.S. parks so we don’t really spend much time on them. With one exception: Country Bear Jamboree! That was an animatronic show that used to be in Disneyland but they took it out years ago. So, we definitely hit that show. (Lil also feels a certain nostalgic patriotism toward the ride, having grown up in rural Tennessee. [-Jem].)
We learned later that photography was supposedly prohibited. They made no such announcement in English, which is very unusual (if there is something they want non-Japanese speakers to know, they generally announce it very clearly in English), and since there is no way we would have caught the restriction in Japanese, we snapped a few pictures before someone came to tell us we were breaking the rules. So, we have these quasi-illicit pictures now. The advantages of being “gaijin.”
This time we also did the Tiki Room, which is like the Florida version — a Hawaiian themed animal audio animatronic show featuring Stitch. Of course, the version here is in Japanese. I learned that I speak more Hawaiian than I do Japanese in so far as I recognized and understood “aloha,” “ohana,” “e komo mai,” but nothing of the Japanese.
The rest of our three park days we spent at Tokyo DisneySea. This time we finally made it to the high end restaurant there called Magellan’s. Of the 10 times or so we have come, we have never been able to get in. Until this trip. What an amazing restaurant. I guess a random Wednesday in May at 4 pm is they way to do it. The girls had their first fine dining experience and they did great!
Our favorite part of DisneySea is the Sindbad ride, which only exists at Tokyo DisneySea. It is a slow boat ride that features Sindbad the Sailor, going on adventures with pirates and whales, bringing home exotic treasures, such as bananas, with his trusty sidekick tiger, Chandu.
We had purchased a stuffed Chandu last November when we were here last, and Sophie instantly became so attached that he traveled and slept with her every day for the past six months. As her constant companion, he was looking a little worn, so we were looking to pick up an extra one this trip. Luckily, there were plenty in the store!
And of course everyone wanted one now, so we are inundated with Chandus. (The original is now “Grandpa Chandu,” according to Sophie.) We will need to buy a new suitcase.
