Our final week in Japan was a mixture of Tokyo Disney and exploring more of Tokyo's many neighborhoods. On our way back into the city from Kyoto, we stopped at the Ghibli Museum in Mitaka. Photos weren't allowed inside, so these are all from outside, but this is a definite must for fans of animation, film-making, and illustration!
After a wonderfully kooky lunch at the museum, we headed towards Tokyo Disney - a resort area featuring two parks: DisneySea and Disneyland. We are so grateful that we got to stay on the Disney property, thanks to a wonderful wedding gift and a "friends & family" discount at our Hilton hotel.
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| The view from our hotel room (that's the Tokyo skyline in the distance, and Daikanransha, which was the world's tallest Ferris Wheel at the time of its construction (1999)). |
We stopped in our room just long enough to see that our luggage, which we had sent over a week earlier when we first flew in to Tokyo, had arrived. [Seriously, the luggage delivery system in Japan is awesome.] Then we headed out to the first park: DisneySea. DisneySea is unique to Japan, and instead of having differently themed lands (ie, Adventureland, Tomorrowland) has ports of harbor (Port Discovery, American Waterfront, Mediterranean Harbor) - it is set up like an island, and each area is themed by different water-based characters and locations. It's super cool! I'll let the pics do the talking:
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| Is anyone surprised that Mermaid Lagoon was my favorite? |
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| Hidden Mickey! |
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| A romantic gondola ride to end our night! |
We spend our second (full) day at DisneySea as well. It was just as magical as being there at night! I should also mention that we had zero issues with crowds. Because it was the week after Thanksgiving, there weren't many American tourists, and since it was cooler out and a weekday, there weren't huge Japanese crowds either. Tokyo Disney is a "locals" park since it is easy to get to with public transportation - meaning Japanese visitors quite often go for a day trip, or on the weekend, or they get the evening pass and come after 6 pm. We really lucked out and rarely had to wait in lines for rides!
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| The Christmas theming was Jesus's favorite. |
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| Mermaid Lagoon/Triton's Kingdom remained my favorite! |
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| 10 months later, I still think about these custard-filled dumplings. |
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| By the end of the night, we were literally the only people in line for the Indiana Jones ride! |
We spend our final day at Tokyo Disney at Disneyland, which is comparable to Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World or Disneyland California - it has all the familiar characters, and many of the same rides. Jesus had never been to any Disney park, so the most entertaining part for me was to see his enthusiasm and childlike wonder.
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| The queue for Pooh's Honey Hunt was amazing! |
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| Of course I found the giraffe ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ |
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| And they lived happily ever after... :) |
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