More than ten years ago I stumbled upon a blog from a Disney adjacent writer. She chronicled her whirlwind, two week trip to Tokyo Disneyland and DisneySea. I was vaguely aware that there was a Disney park in the far east, but I had no idea of the beauty and scope of this place, especially DisneySea. I hunkered down and read all seventeen installments in one weekend. Ever since then, Tokyo has been a far off distant dream that I hoped would come true, but reality prevailed…until last summer.
My son Matt also longed to visit Japan, but for completely different reasons. He loves Japanese culture and had been keeping an eye out for extremely low airfares. Then, it happened. Round trip tickets for less than $800.00 popped up. Matt, his best friend Bryan, my daughter Meghan and her boyfriend Evan were all going. It took about a half a minute to decide we wanted in! We booked our flights in July of 2018 for a March 2019 trip. So exciting!!!
Now it was all about planning, itineraries and fretting about all the details coming together. Added into the mix were a new job, a move just weeks after we would be coming home, and to top it off, we adopted a dog too. Yeah, it was crazy.
Jeff and I decided to break up the legs of the trip and do an overnight is Los Angeles before the thirteen hour flight to Tokyo. This was a good move. We arrived quite late in LA but we were sure we’d be able to get food and drink. Not so much. The only place open and serving food was a seedy casino.
This will do.
It looks nice in pictures.
We got a nice, cheap and cheerful room at the La Quinta
A beautiful day in sunny California.
We grabbed a Lyft and headed back to the airport. We got there about a million hours early because this lady was a bit uptight about being on time. No worries, there was plenty of food and drink to be had while we wait.
The Border Grill
The food was fantastic and reasonably priced for an airport.
These chips smelled so good frying up, we had to try them. Had to.
It was finally time to board our flight on Singapore Airlines.
Why, thank you.
This is an extremely long flight, and not very comfortable if you’re flying coach as we were. The good people of Singapore Airlines are well aware of this, so they keep you distracted by constantly feeding you, giving you free drinks and lots of hot towels. It helped.
White wine was a-flowin’
Not the best food we had on the trip.
A more familiar snack.
Oh, look! More food.
We made it! FYI: They don’t like it when you take pictures in customs.
We arrived just after 8:00 pm which means everything is closed up tight at the airport. No shuttles would be running to get to Disneyland Hilton where we where staying so we (I) decided that we would stay at an airport hotel rather than try and figure out trains after our brains were scrambled with fatigue. This was a good call.
Ahhhh….
Look at these cute tea cups! I didn’t take them.
The hotel provides a freakin’ IPhone for your use!
Nice clean facilities.
Then, there’s the toilets. My friends, the Japanese toilets are A-mazing! This will not be my last ode to the bidet.
The Japanese know what they’re doing.
This baby had a heated seat, warm water for the forward and the aft.
I forgot to grab any of these.
We found the pub.
A little hint of the “Sakura” or Cherry Blossom fever ahead.
This was our first experience with the diminutive drinks of Japan. This Manhattan had less in the glass than what usually gets spilled on the tray at home. It was cheap though.
Can you see that the cherry takes up half the glass?
We had a good night’s sleep and gathered our things to check out.
Yup, we’re in Tokyo.
A Zen garden in the lobby.
They had a New York themed coffee shop down stairs. Just the ticket.
Coffee!!!
Cute.
There’s always a warm towel for your hands before eating.
Two perfect cups of Joe.
This was even better than it looks, and it looks scrummy.
Back to the airport to take the bus to the Disneyland Resort! First, a pit stop.
Adverts for the super-toilets!
The public toilets are even more elaborate than the hotel.
The button on the far right is for rushing water sounds so that no one hears your business. Too much bathroom talk?
On the bus!!! Are you tired of all the traveling? Me too.
Tadahhh!!! The Disneyland Hotel. We’re not staying here.
We’re in!
They were celebrating 35 years. We’ll be seeing a lot of this.
The monorail here is sooooo cute!!!
Look!!! Mickey shaped everything!
Entering their “Main Street”, called World Bizarre.
This area is all under glass. A stark difference.
Lots of charming facades line the street.
More 35th Celebrations. There was a mini-show of lights and music everything twenty minutes or so.
We decided to just take a walk around a soak things in first.
The castle is similar to Orlando, but much more detailed.
Beautiful!
Gorgeous tile work throughout.
Snow White’s Grotto, just like California.
Spring has sprung! They were a good month ahead of the states.
I had a very long list of foods to try. Disneyland has mostly american foods with a japanese twist. This sandwich is a perfect example:
It’s Mickey Shaped, but it was a juicy chicken thigh instead of a dried out breast patty. Fries were just as expected.
These Little Green Alien Mochi are decidedly Japanese!
Tomorrowland looks quite different.
We finished our lunch and set about trying a few attractions. It was a real trip going on rides you’re familiar with that are completely in Japanese!
A little Star Tours in Japanese.
The Country Bears were strangely about half Japanese and half English.
No videos allowed. Boo!
I’m not much for character greetings in the states. There are long lines in fixed locations, mostly revolving around princesses. Here, there are a plethora of rare random characters just bopping around! If there is a line it is a queue organized by the guests and not ropes.
Geppetto out of the workshop. Note the outfits on the girls. More on that later.
Gideon or Foul Fellow. I’m not sure.
I’ll be making some cultural observations here and there that will be mostly anecdotal and probably ignorant. Japanese people don’t mind queuing up or waiting, no matter how long it takes. They are also polite, conscientious and considerate. No one was pushing or vying for a spot for parades. They bring their mats, set themselves down and wait….quietly.
A sea of patience.
No way I’m doing that!
I said it was a sea of people, right?
We were ready for a nap back at the hotel. We made our way back to the front of the parks, not before running into a few more character friends.
Keen eyes will notice a lot of twinning on the outfits.
The 35th celebration popping off again. You’ll see it all lit up later tonight.
Eeyore was sad to see us go.
I can’t.
If you cant say anything nice, call me!
Time for a nap!
We got checked in to the Tokyo Bay Hilton. Let’s take a tour around the room whilst they look for our lost luggage, shall we?
A king bed.
Lots of sleek storage.
Clean bathroom.
Fancy, magic defogging mirror.
Tea and water. No coffee.
A gift for being Hilton rewards members. I just filled out a form.
This view was fantastic! Ill have better pictures later.
You made it through the most boring bit of the traveling! Well done. Next we’ll be exploring Magic Kingdom lit up in it’s glory.