Before we left for Japan, Nicole and I agreed that we needed to visit Tokyo Disneyland. We grew up watching all of the Disney movies (as most kids born in the 90`s did) and wanted to see how this compared to the Disneyland in Anaheim since we frequented it all throughout our childhood. So we devoted an entire day to spend there!
We started out our day by having breakfast at the Moomin Cafe located in the La Qua shopping center near the train station. It was the perfect start to our day because it was a theme cafe and had cute stuffed animals in various locations that you could enjoy your pastries and drinks with.
We hopped on the train and arrived at Tokyo Disney Resort. The resort features 2 parks: Tokyo Disneyland and Disney Sea. We only planned on visiting one of the parks for today to see as much as we could. Not only was it our first time in Tokyo Disney, but it was also the first time we were visiting the park during the Halloween season.
We experienced a lot of familiar sights such as Disney Characters, Parades, and even some of the same rides from the Disneyland in California. With that we also experienced a lot of new things. We had never been to Disneyland during the Fall season before, so we saw the park decorated for Halloween and saw the Parades and attractions with that theme. Some of my favorite aspects of the park involved the people that attended. Usually, only kids can go to the park dressed up as their favorite character, but during Halloween, the adults can dress up as characters too. The cosplay style from Harajuku could also be found at Tokyo Disneyland.
The costumes people had on were very impressive. It looks like a lot of time and effort was put into getting the details just right. I am so proud that I was able to ask the girls dressed up as characters from Alice in Wonderland if I could take their picture (in Japanese of course!) Speaking of Alice, Tokyo Disney had a number of unique eateries including the Queen of Hearts Banquet Hall. Our food was heart-shaped, and I had a dessert that included a cute souvenir cup.
We stayed at the park and as you can from the photos, we had a blast! The night ended with the Electrical Parade and fireworks celebrating the Park’s 30th Anniversary. Of course, no trip is complete without buying some souvenirs, and we left carrying a few bags full of Disney-themed cookie tins. I thoroughly enjoyed the cultural experience of seeing Disney from a different perspective and appreciating how universal having fun really is. Tokyo Disneyland is a must see and I regret we didn’t have the time to visit Tokyo Disney Sea. (Next time for sure!)
Hope you enjoyed the photos I selected, there were 500 to choose from so it was tough narrowing it down to the ones that I did. Stay tuned for Day 4 which details our day in Asakusa and a surprise festival behind our hotel.
Brandy