M-I-C-K-E-Y....M-O-U-S-E

(We are freezing...but still having fun!)

When: January 21, 2008.
Where: TOKYO DISNEYLAND
Info: It was FREEEEEEZING!! And totally amazing!

(Why can't my daily commute include this train?! It'd be so much more fun!)

We got up early, put on our ears and caught the Mickey express. I was surprised how many people, especially kids were in line. I mean, didn't those kids have school to go to? Or did mom and dad pull them out of crazy, stressful Japanese school to run around Disneyland? We stood freezing for about 40 minutes until the park finally opened. Our first stop was Tomorrowland, where we Fastpass-ed Buzz Lightyear's Astro Blasters. On our way over to Westernland we stopped to have pictures taken in front of Cinderella's castle.

(Don't these people work? Don't these kids go to school?)

Unfortunately, Big Thunder Mountain was closed for the day so we walked around and checked out Fantasyland. Here we found super short lines for Peter Pan's Flight (two people per flying sailboat = cool), Snow White's Adventures and Pinocchio's Daring Journey.

(Pinocchio's Daring Journey = the things nightmares are made of. Now I remember why I hate that movie)

(Snow White's Adventures was also terrifying - you drive through on a mine-cart and try to avoid the wicked witch...)

(Castle Carousel - I love carousels...)

My favourite ride in Fantasyland was Alice's Tea Party. I LOVE those spinning tea cups!



(Taryn - I tried to face my fear of this song face-on. We went on It's a Small World, a boat ride where you float through different scenes of scary puppet kids from all over the world singing the song in like 20 languages. Kind of terrifying. I don't think it worked.)

After Fantasyland we headed back into Tomorrowland where we went on Space Mountain. Now Elspeth told me it was a kind of ride in the dark. She failed to mention that it was like a traditional rollercoaster in the dark with stars whizzing by you. I was screaming and laughing so hard that I almost peed my pants. Hilarious. Instantly my favourite ride! I mean, any ride with multiple 'escape pods' along the entrance in case you change your mind...

Next we decided to see if I could still drive at the Grand Circuit Raceway. I think the track made it harder to stay in a straight line....but who knows...maybe I have forgotten how to drive...

(I think this is my favourite picture...EVER)

We ate lunch at the Queen of Hearts Banquet Hall, which is designed to look like your eating in the hedgemaze. It was fantastically insane. I mean, the place is advertised as a Buffeteria! That's right say it to yourself...buffeteria!

You grabbed a tray, got in line and then through a combination of taking what you wanted (buffet) and asking for your main dish (cafeteria) you got your food. Actual roast chicken? YES PLEASE. Something we'd both been dying for...

And you can't go to an Alice in Wonderland themed buffeteria without eating un-birthday cake! Delicious!

We wandered around for a bit and then bought some honey flavoured popcorn in cute Winnie the Pooh honey pot shaped containers (plastic popcorn containers with shoulder straps = very popular souvenirs) and decided to stake out places to see the parade. We unfolded our HelloKitty butt sheets (plastic sheets sold for festival/parade watching) and watched the 'sweep sweep guys' come around making sure the road was spotless.

(The 'sweep-sweep' guy. Elspeth dropped some popcorn on the ground and he came by to 'sweep-sweep' it up!)

The parade was great. Apparently, it was slightly scaled down due to part of a float falling off the week before and almost killing some spectators. The most hilarious part were the foreigners! I mean, I can't imagine dressing up like Alice or Cinderella every day and lip-synching to a Japanese song...

(Peter Pan was VERY happy and VERY short!)

After the parade we used our fast pass for 'Pooh's Honey Hunt'. It had been shut down due to a technical problem but was back up and running by the time we got there. In line, you walk between huge pages of the book. The ride was OK (you zoom around in huge honey pots while following Pooh) but I thought it was cool because it used the same trackless system as Aquatopia in DisneySea.

We stopped to laugh at the unfortunate foreigner who was forced to wear a gold lame jumpsuit and sing at the Theatre Orleans and then headed over to Pirates of the Caribbean. It was pretty well done (the pirates actually looked real) and the final scene had a Johnny Depp -wax figure-mannequin-robot-thing with a recording of Depp's voice. Now, if only they had a Orlando Bloom from the 3rd movie scene...

One of our last attractions was The Enchanted Tiki Room. This was a boring musical robot-bird /Tiki god song thing. I fell asleep again. We couldn't believe an entire tiki hut/theatre was built for it....what a waste.

We escaped the tiki hut and ran to One Man's Dream, a dance and song performance. This was cute and had fire. Need I say more.

After a little omiyage shopping, the sun had set and the Cinderellabration began. Archways were lit up all the way to the castle. We waited and waited...my feet were so cold....where the heck was Cinderella? Seriously...she was going to be late for her coronation (I know...how cheesy was this...). Finally all the characters showed up to celebrate her coronation (even Aladdin and Jasmine), did some dances and then she and Prince Phillip/Charming (was that his name?) rose into the air on a platform and fireworks were set off. Ooooo...aaaahhhhh...

(Elspeth actually heard girls saying that the prince was handsome...now either they have super amazing eyesight because he looked like an ant to me or they thought he was good looking just because he was a foreigner...)(that reminded me of when one of my adult students said she wanted to be a princess and that her childhood idol was princess Diana).

After Cinderella was crowned, we said our goodbyes and left Disneyland. We caught the Mickey train for the last time and then caught the train to Tokyo. Going back to everyday life was kind of hard...I mean, life is a bit dull when you can't wear Minnie ears.