Tokyo Disneyland!

Way way back in December, I went to Tokyo Disneyland. It was great to go at this time because the whole complex was decorated for Christmas. Everything was Christmas themed including the parades. Ruth, Sarah and I left from Sendai at midnight and took an overnight bus there. I don't sleep very well on buses and this time was no exception. The first place the bus stopped was in actual Tokyo. A lot of people got off and I was able to sprawl out in the back of the bus where 3 seats are next to eachother. Thus, I was able to get a few hours of sleep before heading out.

I was really excited to go to Disneyland because I had actually done a ton of case studies on it during college. We often compared how successful Tokyo Disneyland was in comparison with EuroDisney which was a complete flop.

The first ride of the day was Space Mountain at about 8:30am. There was already a 40 minute wait. It was really fun. I had forgotten how much I enjoy roller coasters!

The second ride we went onto was It's a small world...each country wearing the clothes and showing the cultures from fake dolls dancing to the song. Of course, they were all in Christmas attire! This wait was for an hour and a half.

From this point on, it got incredibly crowded and the waits were ridiculous. We figured out something called Fastrack but you could only hold one ticket at a time, unfortunately. The other rides were got on was Pirates of the Caribbean, the Haunted House, and another roller coaster ride (but I've forgotten the name of it) 2 or 3 times.

We witnessed a few parades and went to a 3D movie that was luckily also showed in English for us. We went and checked out the different Disney characters floating about the complex.

One thing that we had a good laugh at was the extent that Japanese people take when going to Disneyland. Grown adults were wearing these ridiculous hats of their favorite Disney characters. It was ridiculous when girls my age were wearing them but then it was just pathetic when their boyfriend was wearing a matching one. I can understand little kids getting into the Disney spirit and begging their parents to wear these hats but I had a good laugh at grown adults doing it as well.

All in all it was a great weekend trip and I am glad I got to go Disneyland in Tokyo. We took another overnight bus from Tokyo to Sendai and caught the 5:30am train back into Ishinomaki. On the train, we ran into this guy named Paul who is an English teacher in Ishinomaki but through a different program. He was really drunk, coming home from the bars at 5:30am dressed like Santa Clause. He was ho-ho-hoing everyone that came onto the train. The people you meet overseas...

Click here for all the pictures of Disney!