We eventually got headed out and I had the most interesting and awful subway experience of my life. Naturally it was rush hour in Japan and just like in Korea, most use the subway. It was intense. You get to the point where you think the train is full and yet more people manage to get on - and they push. Do they ever push and squeeze to fit on. I was standing in front of a man sitting down, and there was a man pushing behind me. My knees were jammed up against the guy who was sitting down and my body was contorted trying not to hover over the guy sitting, but also not fall back. I can't even really describe it but it was so uncomfortable. To top it off, the train kept stopping along the tracks (not at stations) for several minutes as there was constantly issues at other stations, so the trains kept getting delayed. It took a long time to get where we were going!
Jessica had been to Tokyo Disneyland before (as she studied in Japan for 6 months previously) so she knew exactly where to go. We arrived and bypassed the ticket lines as we purchased ours online, so we got to walk right in!
We decided to get a fast pass as soon as we got into the park and along the way stumbled on a photo op that was just starting with Daisy and Duck! Theses are the only characters we got a picture with (as just like at Disney World in Orlando, the characters didn't really walk around in the park).
The first ride we went on was "It's a Small World". It was amazing because at Disney World, the lines were so long that we only got to go on one ride. Whereas at Tokyo Disneyland, the lines were still long but not as bad and we got to go on so many!!
Tokyo Disneyland was also Halloween themed which was neat to see, especially since I saw it done up in Christmas in Orlando. There were pumpkins all over the place. Though it wasn't as nice as the Christmas decorations were, and a little bit more childish.
We sat through all of the parades throughout the day.
Naturally, I was tired throughout the day but we found good spots for the parades early which meant we had to do some waiting before they began so I took the opportunity to nap - several times. (I have become such a good sleeper since this trip! As in, I can sleep pretty much anywhere. That or maybe I was just really that tired. I have slept in chairs at the airport now, on the ground at Disneyland, standing and sitting on the train.)
Cinderella's Castle :) Unfortunately I didn't get a good picture of it lit up at night.
My favourite ride was Snow White's Adventures. We were in a mine cart and travelled through the store of Snow White, but it had a perfect amount of thrill. We watched some kids come off the ride super excited and other come off terrified and crying. On the other hand, the worst ride was the Pirates of the Caribbean (which is too bad because I love the movies and I love pirates!) But you sat in a boat type thing and floated along in the water, and the entire ride was in a dark cave type place and you basically listened to the story - which was quiet and mostly in Korean. Basically we were both rocked to sleep - literally. I harsh nodded off. So we decided that we needed to avoid that ride and any like it for good afterwards. We probably went on that ride around 4/5pm and I was super tired, lacking energy and felt like we had done well but we wanted to stay for the fireworks and still had hours to kill. We explored more rides.
Eventually we hunkered down and had a great spot with a view directly in front of the castle to watch the Lights Parade and fireworks. But when the sun went down it got quite cold and neither of us were prepared for that. The light parade was really amazing.
It took all that was in me to stay for the fireworks since I was so cold but I toughed it out. Which was good on one hand, but also quite disappointing. I feel like there is so much hype about Disney fireworks and they were pretty sad. Just a few fireworks shot up haphazardly. Honestly, the Celebration of Lights in Vancouver is by far more amazing by like a million times. We ended up standing for the fireworks relatively close to the exit so that we could book it when they were done and bypass the crowds which worked quite well.
So many people!!
I enjoyed myself so much at Tokyo Disneyland, but it is set up exactly like Magic Kingdom at Disney World. I kind of felt like I had seen everything already (which I had) but this time got to experience everything which was cool. I was excited about the food and having some awesome snacks there, but the food was lacking a bit too. We had some mediocre pizza and hot dogs etc. Funny though - Tokyo Disneyland is so similar to Magic Kingdom that when we bought our hot dogs I turned the corner to go put on its condiments only to discover the whole condiment bar was missing and was incredible confused, only to realize that I was not at Magic Kingdom, rather I was in Tokyo. I don't know if that makes sense at all, but it was a really odd feeling.
When we got back to the hostel that night, a bunch of us hung out in the common space again and had some drinks. I had half of my drink before I just stopped cause I felt so weird - the lack of sleep an alcohol was not a good combo. I was still up until about 3/4am that night. But Jessica and I had decided to go to Disney Sea a bit later in the morning to avoid the rush on the subway because that was seriously the worst. So I got a bit more sleep!
Something I forgot to mention from the previous night - "You are always smiling. You just don't stop smiling. Are you even human? It's not possible to smile that much." Which brought me back to my Grandpa's nickname for me "Smiley". I also spent that entire night talking in a British accent which was wonderful and had a few people believing I was from London.
<3
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