Tokyo Disneyland

It was the first visit for Kristine and Kimberley. I have been there once, with Kylie, in 1993. So it has been a long time. Mickey Mouse still looks the same, except the brotherhood handshake after our photo session in his 'house', 16 years later.

It was an early start at 630am, catching a bus to Tokyo station to change for a train to Disneyland. I knew I had to catch a Keio line to Maihama station for Disneyland, but the board shows the names in Kanji (Chinese charaters - Kanji - without the Japanese pronunciation)!!! The station conductor was very polite and obliging, but my Nihongo was much worse than his English! A Latino looking young guy appeared and offered help in English. After guiding me through direction and even the ticketing machine, I thanked him for his time. He said it was just 5 minutes and he was on his way to work anyway.

Looking after 3 kids with different preferences and theme park restrictions (Goofy's Bouncing House has a height limit of 1.4m) and long queues was very demanding. First up was a performance at the Cinderella Castle. Adele and Kristine didnt want that and we ended up in Toontown. Just before leaving Cinderella Castle, my Lumix slung off its pouch and fell hard onthe ground. Luckily it landed on a corner near the battery compartment. The closure is a bit off now but camera and lens were saved. Later that day when we walked past around the same spot, we saw a Japanese couple asking a lady for help to take their family photo. As they were getting ready with big smiles, that lady stepped forward to ask the man a technical question on his camera. It fell off her grip onto the ground. This time, the LCD was frozen. Their big smiles fizzled, and all replaced with either embarassed or worried pretend smiles.....

Most popular rides in Disneyland had waiting time of 40 (Its A Small World) to 100 (Monster Inc) minutes. A walk through Mickey Mouse's house and a 3 minutes private photo session with the character took an hour. It was much better early in the morning or late in the evening. Splash Mountain waiting time was 110minutes through the day, but by 830pm, Kristine and Adele could have as many rides as they wished. The park closed at 10pm. We left at 945pm. It was a long day, and a tiring day with temp in low 30's.

Kristine was most grumpy on the way home, complaining about her shoes, about the long day (I missed an exit in Tokyo station and ended up taking another train home instead of the same morning bus which would drop us right at our door step), about my demand to have a shower before sleep etc. This morning, she told me she wanted to go to Disneyland again. Next time, we will choose a rainy day to avoid crowd and waiting time. Almost all the rides are indoor anyway.

All in all, we didnt do badly. We tried 10 different rides yesterday. Xiaogugu and Adele's best (least crowded on a rainy day) visit was 12 rides, and worst was 5 rides. Kimberley is now a fan of theme park too, showing much more confidence and less fear for the turbulent rides. In Star War simulator, she laughed when others screamed.

Photos:
- Sleepy faces in morning train to Disneyland, worst on way back, even the camera man didnt hv enery to take camera out!
- Cinderella Castle, before peak crowd
- plenty of shaved ice, ice cream, icipop, iced drinks, and even splashing tap water on face and arms to cool down
- on top deck of Mississippi River Boat
- Wall mural in Cinderella Castle
- Spinning cup, we all went dizzy....
- Toontown fun
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