Japan - Day 10 - August 28th

We had to be out of the apartment at 10am.

Katie polished off the $30 grapes for breakfast that morning.
So, we did end up getting our money's worth.

Because we took time to pack the night before, we were ready to go and even left a tad bit early.

Goodbye, fuzzy couch bear that Katie made me take a picture of!

Goodbye, apartment!

There was a dead cicada on the front step as we left.

We made our way to the train station for the last time.

The cities we visited all had very unique man hole covers.

Here is one picturing a sakura blossom.

We left a little past morning rush hour, so the people traffic wasn't too bad.

We took the Yamanote line over to Tokyo Station.

We took what seemed like a four mile walk THROUGH Tokyo Station (it is THAT big) - with all our luggage- to the Keiyo Train Line.

The Keiyo line took us to Maihama Station.

What's at Maihama Station?

Why, the main entrance to the Tokyo Disney Resort, of course.

When we got off the train, it was pouring rain and windy.

We stopped and broke out our rain coats and umbrellas so that we could walk to the Tokyo Disney Ticket Center to pick up our vacation package documents.

I figured that we'd do it up right with a (kinda expensive) vacation package that I reserved in March.

I'd say it was worth it. It came with all sorts of crazy awesome stuff.

Huzbend would probably answer, "Meh."

The package included:

• two nights in a hotel room that could accommodate 4 people. Did I mention that it is REALLY hard to find hotel rooms in Japan that can accommodate families of four? 
• two buffet breakfasts 
• 3-day park hopper tickets 
• 7 ANYTIME FASTPASSES. Yes, you read that right. One we could use on ANY ride and the other 6 could be used anywhere except for Soarin' and Toy Story Midway Mania.
• 3-day pass to use the Resort Monorail Line. All train systems in Japan MUST be ticketed, so they give you a pass. If we didn't have the pass, we would have to buy tickets every day to ride! 
• reserved seating for two shows 
• free drinks coupon for each in our group for length of stay 
• coupon for lanyards to hold the drink coupon 
• coupon for one free gift for each person
• a coupon for a popcorn bucket with popcorn

I had to add one night on to our stay by creating a separate reservation, but we were able to just stay in the same room.

I also made dinner reservations for each day of our stay. I made sure to check in with Mikey and Katie as to where they were interested in eating.

Again, research paid off.

It was easy to find the Ticket Center and also very easy to pick up our package.

I showed the reservation email, my passport and the cast member handed me our plastic binder of stuff.

We went across the plaza to the Tokyo Disney Resort Welcome Center.

There, we dropped of our luggage to be delivered to bell services at our hotel.

Turns out that they do not allow you to leave your electronics in the bags.

I guess we could've just left it all in there and they would have been none the wiser, but we decided to take it all out.

Huzbend ended up lugging around about 70 pounds of electronics on his back for half the day.

After lightening our load, we stopped at a Mexican restaurant in Ikspiari (Tokyo's version of Downtown Disney) for lunch.

I ordered a "regular" burrito which turned out to be extremely small.

It probably would've satisfied an American toddler.

I sorted out our package stuff.

And when I say stuff. I mean LOTS of stuff.

There were separate tickets for everything.

It was a lot to keep organized.

We headed back out into the drizzly day to our first stop of the day...

Tokyo Disneyland!

After a little confusion at the ticket scanner - we had to be sure that we gave the right ticket to the right age person (kid, junior, adults) - we were in.

It had begun to rain again, but lucky for us Tokyo Disneyland's version of Main Street, called the World Bazaar, has a roof over it.

We meandered around here for a bit, not in any rush to get back out into the rain, taking it all in. 

There were character meet and greets EVERYWHERE and the Disneyland Band was playing.

If you're interested, you can see a map of Tokyo Disneyland here.

We stopped at the end of World Bazaar to pick up our free drink coupons and our free lanyards.

Tokyo Disneyland's Cinderella castle rivals Walt Disney World's as far as size.

As you can see, there are not many people wandering around because of the rain.

We made our way to our first show awkwardly called, "One Man's Dream Two."

Mikey modeled our lanyards (he was the only one who wore it, besides me).

And, before the show started, he planned out our attack.

The show was about 30 minutes long and it didn't miss a beat. Literally.

The characters and actors danced the entire time.

If you're interested in watching the whole thing - with subtitles - here you go.

Obviously, we didn't have subtitles.

I'm not sure how they explained each transition. They seemed very random.

But, it was funny, cute, cleverly staged and entertaining.

It was a great way to start our visit to the Tokyo Disney Resort.

Damn.

These characters could DANCE.

An ant kick line.

They had a face character Hook.

Wendy and Peter flew.

They even had a bad guy part.

This spider costume was really cool.

Check out the evil dudes in robes back there.

AND ORCS!?!?

Mickey took Minnie dancing in Hollywood.

Or something.

Upon exiting the show, we made a pit stop and noticed that the line was nonexistent for Star Tours.

And that officially became our first ride in Tokyo Disneyland.

The queue was deceptively long.

You think American ride lines are long? You have to visit Tokyo.

All the queues are huge winding labyrinths.

The ride itself was the same as the U.S. parks.

Except, there was a lot of screaming from the riders.

Everyone around us was screaming.

Like, happy-on-a-ride screaming.

The kids thought it was hilarious.

This trend would continue for the rest of our stay.

People screamed on most of the rides, even when it didn't seem like the ride warranted screams.

Our second ride was Pirates of the Caribbean. 

It was mostly English, and it was the OLD SCHOOL version of the ride, with a bit of Jack Sparrow added. The pirates were chasing the women around, instead of food, and they were auctioning off the red head ("Strike your colors you brazen wench! No need to expose your superstructure!").

Mikey was disappointed that it was not as long as Disneyland's and that there was only one drop. Boo.

That didn't stop Huzbend from trying on a ridiculous hat.

We headed to our hotel to officially check in.

We were staying at the Tokyo Disneyland Hotel, and as you would guess it was located right outside the front gates of Tokyo Disneyland.

The check in line was pretty long. 

The kids took a load off and watched Alice in Wonderland (which was a recurring theme in the hotel) while we waited to check in.

Communication with the front desk cast member was a bit tenuous, but we muddled through. 

We were advised to wait in the lobby to be ushered to our room by a bell services attendant. 

Eventually, we saw this poor woman schlepping our bags across the lobby. She kept looking down at a piece of paper and we thought maybe she might be confused on how to pronounce our name. 

We intercepted her before she had to try to work it out.

She walked us to our room. 

She opened the door for us, ushered us in and brought our bags in and arranged them. 

Then, she asked if we had any questions. 

We got the feeling that she felt embarrassed about her English, which we thought was pretty good, and after we had no questions, thanked her way out of the room.

The room was BIG. 

Off the hallway, on the right, was the bathroom. The sink area was in the middle. 

Such cute, branded amenities!

The door on the right of the sink area was the toilet, and the door on left was the Japanese style shower/bath. 

On the left of that hallway, opposite the bathroom, there was a bench, a shelf and a mirror (I guess for putting on makeup?). A little farther down the hallway was a closet and then another step farther down a small refrigerator and a tea set. 

In the bedroom area, there were two twin beds along with dressers and a television. There was an alcove with a day bed in it and also a pull-out bed under one of the twin beds. 

The view outside the room was of a well manicured garden area with fountains. 

The fountains were off because it was so windy.

The kids had lost patience with each other at this point.

We got to sit down for a few minutes to rest, and argue, and then it was time to get to our dinner reservation back at Tokyo Disneyland.

Our reservation that evening was at The Blue Bayou.

The Blue Bayou is one of our favorite stateside Disneyland restaurants.

This one was uh....different.

In Tokyo Disney Resort, they offer "low allergen meals".

You can learn more about the meals here (you'll have to use Google Translate): https://www.tokyodisneyresort.jp/en/tdl/bfree/food.html

As with any place that serves food, they won't state that your meal will be safe from allergens.

At Tokyo Disney, they will do their best to accommodate you, IF your allergens happen to conform to the list of allergens limited by the "low allergen meals".

There are no substitutions available.

No one will even attempt a substitution.

This all means that these "low allergen meals" are pretty restrictive in what they offer, as they avoid a lot of specific allergens.

They're pretty plain.

And boring.

I explained this to Katie when I was making the dining reservations.

She said that she could handle it.

I think she underestimated her willingness to eat weird looking food.

And, the Japanese parks unwillingness to go "off script".

She was relegated to this specific menu, whereas at a U.S. Disney Park, they

would've been happy to allow her many options even making other dishes that were not on the menu.

I think she just really wanted a steak.

And, she couldn't have one.

"If I stare sadly at this napkin, maybe it will turn into a juicy GF steak and potato meal."

Mikey ordered the kids meal.

He was hoping that there would be rolls.

The restaurant is similar in theme to the Blue Bayou in Disneyland.

It's dark and situated right next to the Pirates of the Caribbean boat ride.

The boats ride past.

Here's Mikey's meal: a sausage, beef with gravy, some kind of fish, some veggies, potatoes, some kind of salad (maybe potato?), and shrimp.

He ate his roll, the sausage and a bit of the beef.

I didn't get a picture of Katie's meal, but her rice came in a Mickey shape.

She didn't eat very much.

The adult meals were pretty good, albeit small.

I think what Katie was most upset about was the fact that the "low allergen menu" meals came with jellied desserts. She hates pudding and/or Jello.

I thought the adult pecan pie dessert was yummy. Huzbend wasn't impressed.

All in all, Huzbend and I were satisfied, Mikey would survive, and Katie was starving.

Huzbend went to pay the bill. You couldn't pay at the table, you had to visit the cashier. 

The female cast member made a comment about his Master Roshi shirt. Which led Huzbend to share that he had cosplayed as Master Roshi before. And the cast member said, and I quote (as told to me by Huzbend), “Oooooo, macho!”. No lie. He was very happy with himself after that.

We went on a search for something to tide Katie over.

While wandering the park, we noticed that if people were traveling in groups - which they almost always were - they were dressed alike or the same. They tried to match as much as possible.

And, Duffy the Disney Bear and his friends are HUGE in Tokyo. Some ladies had bags and bags FULL of their Duffy stuffies that they carted around the park. It was a wonder to watch them shove these bags into rides with them.
This was especially interesting to watch when we rode Space Mountain. They shoved all those bags and packages into the ride car with them....as well as large umbrellas!

Back to finding sustenance for our daughter.

We took a look around for turkey legs.

We found a counter service place that served them. I asked the cast member at the cash register if they had soy sauce on them, because most things do in Japan, and he said NO. 

That was a good start. We ordered one and NIMA tested it. Results: Happy face = no gluten found.

Hoping that the stars had indeed aligned, she ate it. 

Katie was so happy to chow down on meat. 

Just look at her smiley turkey eyes.

While we were waiting for Katie to finish "dinner", Mikey got himself a churro.

Because.

Churro.

The kids really, really wanted to ride Splash Mountain.

We hoofed it over there, but it was closed for refurbishment.

It turned out that the Haunted Mansion was also closed to receive its Nightmare Before Xmas overlay. Bummer.  

It was time to find a dessert that Katie could eat.

She said she wanted ice cream.

It had to be soft serve due to cross contamination issues with nuts and stuff.

But, can you believe, that there was ONE place in all of Tokyo Disneyland that served soft serve ice cream. ONE!!!

And that one place only offered CONES, for cripes sake.

Maybe they could do a cup? It was quite possible they had never had such a request before.

Using Google translate, I was able to communicate Katie's needs to the cast member and to ask for the ice cream in a cup.

The cast member looked around anxiously for a bit and then turned back to us with a yes.

She found a cup that they must use to for customers who ask for water and put the ice cream in it.

Although the amount of ice cream in the cup was vastly smaller than what they gave in a cone, we were super happy that they could accommodate and the most important thing of all.....

...Katie was happy.

I don’t know if the park was not crowded because of the wind and the rain, but it was lovely. 

No crowds and no giant lines.

We rode It’s a Small World. 

Here is a cute mural they had in the loading area.

Huzbend loves all iterations of It's a Small World.

So does Mikey.

But for real.

After IASW, we hit up Alice's Tea Party.

I wanted to see the Tokyo Disneyland Electrical Parade: Dream Lights, so we headed over to find a spot to sit down. 

Yes, another light parade.

Since we were sort of in Fantasyland, Katie and Mikey asked if they could go off to ride some more rides as we saved seats. We obliged and off they went.

As we were sitting there, a cast member had us move back a few inches from the parade route.

He asked how many people we were going to have watching the parade. We answered four. 

He took out two brochures for summer specialty food items, unfolded them and placed them on the ground so that we could be sure to actually save spots for all four of us to sit down. 

Cast members at Disney routinely go above and beyond.

Most of the cast members at Tokyo Disney did the same, even with a language barrier.

Service was incomparable.

The kids soon returned having only ridden one ride – Snow White's Adventures. 

They complained that it should be called, "The Evil Witch" ride as she seems to pop up everywhere.

Time for the parade.

SQUEEEEEEEEEE!!!

Dream Lights is very much like the Main Street Electrical parade but OH SO MUCH BETTER. 

Sorry, MSEP.

Dream Lights comes in second to my all time favorite, Disneyland's Paint the Night parade.

If you'd like to watch Dream Lights in its entirety, check out the video: 

Interestingly, it seemed that the parade music was coming from each of the individual floats. 

In between the floats, there was a tiny bit of awkward quiet.

All of the face characters spoke English, while the atmosphere characters (those with masks) spoke Japanese. 

The Blue Fairy kicked off the festivities.

She was followed by these awesome knights riding pegasi.

And then, of course, Minnie and Mickey train-sported by Goofy himself.

The floats were very detailed and colorful.

LOVED Pete and his Dragon.

The best part was that Elliot was carrying Pete, instead of Pete sitting on his back.

Genie changed color every second, at least.

Here he is as Donald Duck.

The parade ended with a series of Small World themed floats with various characters on them.

Chip and Dales' hot air balloon float was especially pretty.

When the parade was over, we thought we were being clever and rushed over to Big Thunder Mountain.......

......with just about everyone else that was watching the parade with us. 

What was a 15 minute wait turned into about a 40 minute wait. Oh well.

See all the people?

After the ride, the kids wanted to continue until the park shutdown. 

We decided against that and headed back to the hotel.

We had to be up super early for breakfast the next day.

We made our way out via the World Bazaar.

The hotel was even prettier at night.