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Wednesday, December 6, 2017

My Adventures at Tokyo Disneyland

The most famous Disney park of course, is Disney World in Orlando, Florida, where they have the most parks and many visitors from around the world. The second most known Disney park is Disneyland in California. Not everyone may know this, but there are many Disney parks outside of the United States. Some of the different countries are home to a Disney park or two, with its own unique twist due to its location. Today, I'd like to introduce you to Tokyo Disneyland!

As the name suggests, Tokyo Disneyland is located in the Tokyo area. Specifically, it is in the Tokyo Bay area of Urayasu, Chiba Prefecture. It's kind of like Narita International Airport, has the status of being in Tokyo but not physically in Tokyo. It's really easy to get to by train. All you have to do is take the Keiyo Line Tracks from Tokyo station. This track line includes Tokyo Disneyland as one of its stops. You'll follow the station exit that reads "Tokyo Disney Resort." Tada! You're at Tokyo Disneyland!

The Tokyo Disney Resort contains two theme-parks, a shopping/dinning strip, and four hotels specifically used for Disney guests. I'll be only discussing my experience at Tokyo Disneyland theme-park since the hotel I stayed at is actually a part of the other Disney park Japan has called Tokyo DisneySea (which I will discuss in a separate blog post).

I went to Tokyo Disneyland towards the end of November, so they were already prepared for Christmas at that time. The park is a nice size and can be fully enjoyed in one day. It was great to see the differences of this park from the one I'm so accustomed to in Florida. They had a ton of familiar sights such as the street parades, designated photo spots, the Disney castle and, of course, the rides.
Catching a bit of the street parade.
They had plenty of rides to choose from, some more familiar to me than others. If the rides had some sort of voice recording, it was obviously done in Japanese. Even though I couldn't understand everything the characters were saying it was still fun and interesting to experience it in Japanese. An example of this was for the rise Star Tours, the Star Wars themed ride.

But be prepared for the lines for rides and food. I mentioned this in a previous blog post but Japan has a queue culture and is totally fine with waiting in lines. Doesn't matter how long the wait is, they will be waiting in line. We didn't bother with their paper ticket fastpasses for Tokyo Disneyland because the longest wait for us was only one ride at 90 minutes long and it was our last ride of the day. It was well worth the wait as it was the most popular ride at Tokyo Disneyland, for good reason, called Pooh's Honey Hunt.
The line inside of Pooh's Honey Hunt. 
There were some rides that barely even had a wait though and were easy to ride such as Snow White's Adventures. What you may have possibly noticed by now is that Tokyo Disneyland has paid tribute to many older animations like Winnie the Pooh and Snow White. I didn't mention it yet, but they also have a Pinocchio ride. This dedication to these older characters is my absolute favorite thing about Tokyo Disneyland. At Disney World in Florida and Disneyland in California they are always trying to keep up with all the new characters coming out from their animated films. I completely understand their reasoning for it, as they need to keep thing relative for the next generation visiting the parks. Japan is somehow different though. As you walk around the Tokyo Disneyland park you will start to notice that the park is probably enjoyed more by children than adults since all the rides are pretty much kid friendly. Even with this fact, they still keep all the old characters in their parks. Coming from the 90's, I really felt the nostalgia when experiencing Tokyo Disneyland.

Speaking of nostalgia and older characters, there was an Alice in Wonderland themed cafeteria you could eat at during your stay at Tokyo Disneyland park. The food was another great thing about Tokyo Disneyland. Japan knows how to do food, and you can tell they put so much effort into their food. I can't recommend the Queen of Hearts Banquet Hall enough! I'm a HUGE Alice in Wonderland fan, and experiencing this just made me so happy. Everything about this place was so perfect, from the decorated details in the interior to the elaborate food designs.
Inside the Queen of Hearts Banquet Hall.

Hamburger steak and cake at the Queen of Hearts Banquet Hall.
Even though you are experiencing Disney in Japan and think it will lose all the Disney magic you are so used to, it really doesn't. The Disney magic only increased in my opinion. It's an experience I will never forget. I hope many of you get to experience Disney in Japan too.
Cinderella's Castle at Tokyo Disneyland.
I hope you enjoyed this topic of Tokyo Disneyland. I'll be working on a Tokyo DisneySea post really soon. If there are any questions or concerns you may have please don't hesitate to ask me in the comment section below. I'd be happy to talk with you. Hopefully you make Tokyo Disneyland one of your stops in Japan. I'm sure glad I did!

For more information on Tokyo Disneyland, visit the website: http://www.tokyodisneyresort.jp/en/tdl/

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As always, thank you for reading my blog. Until next time!