When we got to the train station, I first helped Matsuko get her train ticket and return ticket for wherever she was going. It was somewhere past Osaka I believe. Again, I was surprised just how well I was able to communicate and understand the Japanese station worker who helped arrange Matsuko's train ticket. By the way, even though Matsuko is a Japanese name, Matsuko grew up in the States. Her grandparents happen to be Japanese, or at least her grandmother. So, anyway, she didn't speak any Japanese and would have had a little trouble.
So, after we got her ticket, we all headed to Tokyo station. Now that was a nightmare. I have been on some bad early morning trains but I have never been on trains that bad. I was literally pressed against the train wall and had some old guy's knee digging into my leg. I couldn't have fallen over even if I wanted too. And poor Ashley and Matsuko were no better off than I was. And we had to stand like this all the way to Tokyo station. To make matters worse, there were delays at a few stops, probably because the train had to wait for other trains to move, and we were on that train for over an hour. Boy was I glad to get off that train. Reminded me of why I liked to walk to school with Nathaniel even though it took an hour to get to school by walking.
Anyway, I was glad to get off and I got Matsuko to the Shinkansen (bullet train) before we parted ways. Sadly we never ran into her again on the trip. I will have to try to get in contact with her sometime while we are both in Korea. Back on topic, we got on the train to Maihama and headed towards Tokyo Disneyland. Thankfully, this train was much less crowded. I gave my seat up for some kids and it was really cute because they tried talking to me with the few English words that they new. Their parents said a few things to me as well, though mostly thanking me for letting their children have my seat. But as it was only three stops, it wasn't really that big of a deal.
We got to Maihama, and went straight to Tokyo Disneyland as I knew the way to go as I had gone their previously and it really was easier to find. Kind of hard to miss. With our E-tickets we were able to go straight in and headed over to get a fast pass for Space Mountain. On the way, we spotted Daisy and Donald together and snagged a picture with them. It's a shame we didn't really get any other character pictures during out two days at the Disney parks. After figuring out how to fold our E-ticket properly to get the fast passes, we stopped at some pizza place for a bite to eat. It wasn't great but that's okay. I feel like Disney World in Florida values the food quality more so than Tokyo Disneyland, though it is almost identical to Magic Kingdom in Florida in most other aspects.
A pumpkin kissed me. O.O
At this point, I don't really quite remember the order of things, so I'm just going to talk about them as I think of them. At one point, we were really tired and went on the Pirates of the Caribbean ride, which included the additions of Jack Sparrow and Captain Barbosa, just like the ride in Magic Kingdom. Both Ashley and I nearly fell asleep on the ride as the water slowly rocked us along the river. It probably didn't help that everything was in a quiet Japanese murmur which I only half understood to begin with. But we came out of the ride nearly asleep and vowed not to go on something like that again because we'd never make it through the rest of the day. Also from Adventure Land, we killed some time climbing the Swiss family tree house. It would have been a nice spot to see the fireworks later in the day.
I know we got on Big Thunder Mountain sometime after Space Mountain. We stood in line for a while and tried to take pictures of the train coming out of the tunnel. I only got a few good shots but that is okay. Space Mountain is an indoor, in the dark coaster and I feel like the Japanese Space Mountain is more intense than the one in Florida. I don't know why I feel like that but I could have sworn I said that to the other Ashley that I went with to Tokyo Disneyland with two years ago. Ironically, both times I have gone to Tokyo Disneyland, I have gone with a girl named Ashley (two different Ashleys). Hehehe.
We also went on Snow White's Adventures. Right before it was our turn to get on, two cars came out with younger kids. One car had kids who were about to cry because they were so scared and the other car filled with kids who were really excited and hyper after the ride. It was interesting seeing the two reactions side by side. And there really were elements to the ride that I could see scaring kids. We got on the It's a Small World ride because Ashley wanted to know why everyone who went to a Disney talked about it. It wasn't that big of a deal to me, but maybe that is because I've been on it many times before at the Florida park. I just remember my mom singing that song a lot to annoy my sister. :P
Sadly we missed Splash Mountain and the Haunted Mansion, which would have been cool to see since Tokyo Disneyland was decked out in Halloween decorations. It was a good time to come since the last time I went to Tokyo Disneyland it was Christmas time and decorated for Christmas. But we did catch the Halloween Parade which was cool. I remember Stitch was dressed up as Elvis and that some of the street dancers were really cool and had great attitudes for what they were doing. I think the ones I liked best were probably the cowboy and cowgirl couple and the twirlers in blue dresses. Ashley ended up taking a nap on the street before the parade. I don't know how she made it through the day as she was going on even less sleep than I was. Go Ashley! I remember talking to some Japanese guys during one of the parades. They were talking about speaking English in Japanese and I was like, um I can understand you. So I ended up chatting with them for a while though they didn't speak any English.
We also saw the Disney Lights Parade which is always nice to see. They had some really nice floats that sadly my camera did not like taking pictures of because it was dark out. I wonder if it is time to buy myself a better camera..... Will have to think about that .... but first I need to stop breaking the cameras I already have. :P Then there was the fireworks. I have to say that though I enjoyed the fireworks show as I love fireworks, I believe that Disney could have done a much better job. It was only a quick set of fireworks and there wasn't any really cool ones either. T.T Though we did meet someone who spoke English while waiting for the light show and fireworks. He recommended some things we should check out when we went to DisneySea the next day.
Anyway, at this point we were both pretty tired, and we went home. Thankfully, the trains weren't nearly that bad, and I had only bought a few things to send home as gifts. It was pretty quite when we returned home, but eventually people were around and we hung out for a while before I went to bed as I needed sleep if I was to survive another day at a park. Also, I forgot to put sunscreen on and I was bright red. And I rarely burn. Even my knees were red. Usually it is just my nose and shoulders, but I mean my arms, knees, feet, everything was red. I really thought it was going to hurt the next day. And to be honest, it kind of amused me to see myself that red. I mean, I know it is bad for the skin, but I kind of looked like a tomato. Hehehe. Anyway, hopefully I didn't miss too many details in this blog. Problem with being busy and not being able to write right away. T.T Oh, I should mention that not only was Tokyo Disney celebrating Halloween, they were also having their 30 Years Celebration. Yay Disney!
Did you have any issue getting your e ticket to print on one page? "bleeds" over to a second page. I just wondered how strict they were and if the fast pass barcode was clearly read for you. Any info would help. Thank u!
ReplyDeleteI think we did have issues getting it on one page but I don't remember as it has been a while. You should be fine as long as it is not the barcode that got split. I remember I folded up the paper where only the barcode was showing and scanned it at the entrance gate and under the fast pass ticket booths without having any issues.
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