Ahoy there friendos!
Happy Thursday!
Hopefully y’all are having a good week so far, it’s been pretty wild over here in Seattle! Sunday evening we had a random snowstorm, so Monday was a snow day at work– Woohoo! ACTUALLY– Tuesday was supposed to be a snow day as well, but you know wouldn’t it be helpful if your job TOLD you it was OK to stay home or take your time on the snow and icy roads? Maybe an email heads up would have been appreciated… I had to abandon Shin on the side of an icy road on Tuesday morning because I was so afraid of being late to work I didn’t have time to drive carefully through the neighborhoods to take him back to his place… Then as soon as I sit down at my desk (on time) there’s an email in our work-accessible-only email inbox saying that it was OK to take today off too. WHAT.
Yeah. Worst girlfriend of the year award goes to me.
I could write a whole book on how much beef I have with my company but that really just took the cake and pushed me over the edge. No scratch that, I’ve been over the edge since I put my resignation in last week. Also– sidebar: My boss still hasn’t read to responded to my letter of resignation. She’s had plenty of time to respond to my coworkers emails… So whatever. On the 24th I’ll just stop showing up and I mean if she doesn’t notice it’s her own gosh darn fault.
Anyway– Wow, OK. That ramble definitely got away from me! On to our main topic for today…
Tokyo Disneyland!
This past Christmas my boyfriend and I spent a day and a half in Tokyo Disneyland and DisneySea! We had such a fun time, despite being super jetlagged, and I wish I had more photos to show off, because the parks themselves are absolutely stunning.
Ariels Grotto… look how pretty! 5 year old Cait was definitely freaking out…
So let me back up a bit, when I was in Japan last year with my friends we got a Starlight Pass (definitely the way to go if you’re going to be heading to the parks… more on that later) to DisneySea, and had a great time! But because we had such a short time in DisneySea last year, this time I was prepared with a mental checklist of everything I needed to do/buy/accomplish during our visit.
Number 1: Couple’s Outfits
Matching. Outfits. This was the big one for me! When we were in DisneySea in 2015 I was blown away by the amount of people wearing matching outfits. Everyone was matching! Couples, groups of friends, families, school groups (Cait, those are called school uniforms) and it was so cute! That is so not a thing in America I was dying to force someone to wear cute Disney matching outfits with me. And that someone came along in my boyfriend.
He only looks slightly tortured…
He was such a good sport about it, even though it was embarrassing taking the train into Shinjuku in our matching fluffy Mickey Mouse Christmas sweaters, it totally made my trip that much more fun that I was able to share something so cute and dorky with him. We saw less couples matching this year than I did last year (maybe its not cool anymore?) but we got a few compliments from staff, and man were we cute!
Number 2: Gelatoni
How many people know about Duffy? Because I certainly knew nothing about Duffy coming into Japan last year. But Duffy is one popular dude!
Photo belongs to the Walt Disney Company
Duffy, “the Disney Bear” is supposed to be Mickey Mouse’s teddy bear? He’s super cute and crazy popular in Japan. Duffy has a few friends, the most important (in my opinion) being Gelatoni.
Photo belongs to the Walt Disney Company
I saw so many people with Gelatoni accessories and stuffed Gelatoni’s and I knew I had to buy one for myself. But unfortunately because we had bought a Starlight Pass last year, the shops were closed by the time we got off our last ride, and I wasn’t able to buy my Gelatoni! I looked online when I got home but since he is a Tokyo DisneySea exclusive, he sells online upwards of $90…
So this time, the second we got into DisneySea, I marched straight into the shop and bought myself my very own Gelatoni.
Look how cute we are… we’re so happy together.
There’s not too much else to say about Gelatoni, we took him around the park and took a lot of pictures of him. I love him and he’s my new best friend (sorry Shin).
Number 3) The Food!
The food in Tokyo Disneyland and DisneySea is famous for being the cutest, and most delicious! What I really loved about the snacks in the parks, is unlike the snacks you get in the parks California Disneyland, are small and (relatively) cheap. You can try just about everything and not get too full, and just about everything was 300-500 yen. A pretty good deal when you consider the $11 turkey leg Shin and I got in California last summer.
My favorite snacks were the Duffy milk tea in DisneySea (this one was absolutely perfect for a chilly day like the day we were there. Fruity, creamy, and sweet, but not too big and not too overwhelming. Perfect!), the potato churro in DisneySea (this one I was skeptical about, I thought it would be like a big hash brown, but it was more like a mochi texture and it was super tasty and not too heavy) and the Mike-pan (Melon bread that looks like Mike from Monsters Inc.) in Disneyland!
Mike-pan, Minnie parfait, and little green men mochi.
If you are going to the Tokyo Disney parks, don’t waste your time on eating at the expensive restaurants, just get lots of little snacks throughout the day so you don’t miss any of the hidden tasty treats!
Now I’m no Disney expert, and Shin and I take Disney pretty easy compared to a lot of people I know, but here are a few little tips to maximize your fun in the Tokyo Disney Parks!
- Take advantage of the Starlight Pass. The Starlight Pass is a great way to see the parks without committing for a full day and for significantly less money. For about $45 USD you can enter the park from 6 PM until they close (in our case in December, this was at 10 PM). This ended up working out perfectly for Shin and I, we were supposed to have one full day in Disneyland and one full day in DisneySea, but when our alarm went off at 5:30 AM in Kanagawa we were like “is 2 days really worth it?” Short answer, for some people, yes it is. For us, sleep was more important. So we took our time getting to Tokyo in the morning, had a nice lunch in Shinjuku, then checked into our hotel around 3:30 PM and bought a Starlight Pass for Disneyland. It was definitely worth it for us to take it easy the first day, and Tokyo Disneyland is very similar to California Disneyland, which we had just been to a few months prior. We saw the few unique things they had to offer, but were refreshed enough the next day to spend all day in the totally unique to Tokyo, Tokyo DisneySea!
- Get those fastpasses! This goes for all parks, but the lines were totally crazy, even mid-week in December! Thank goodness we got fastpasses to Toy Story Mania, and the Haunted Mansion, both of which we weren’t able to ride until way into the evening. But with the fastpasses we planned our day and got to see all of the shows we wanted to see, have plenty of time to sit down and relax, and got to ride all of the best rides.
- Make dinner reservations far in advance. Shin wanted to eat dinner at this one buffet restaurant, but not only was it incredibly expensive (about $60 USD per person!) but when we called the day before to make a reservation, the only time they had left was at around 8 PM. We ended up ditching the reservation and just eating snacks all day (worth it) but I would have liked to maybe sit down for a proper meal at some point.
- Bring cash, but don’t worry if you don’t! Both Disneyland, and DisneySea, as well as all of the surrounding shops take credit/debit no problem with no minimum purchase. If you have a foreign card that has high transaction fees, definitely bring cash with you. The only ATM on the Disney property is for Japanese bank accounts only, so I was not able to get cash while we were visiting.
- Prepare for any weather! It’s really popular to get dressed up as cute as you can for a Disney date, but December weather is not kind. We had rain, wind, and freezing rain. It was cold. It was kinda wet. It was pretty miserable at times. We forgot an umbrella and had to pay $15 for an umbrella from the Disney store! I also got cranky because my hair and makeup kept getting messed up and I didn’t look peak-cute. Dress in layers, bring an umbrella, don’t be grouchy when your hair gets frizzy!
I think that’s all I have, all in all we had a fantastic time during our short trip, and I’m looking forward to dragging Shin there again sometime in the near future!
One last photo, the parks are stunning!
Have a great rest of your week! Weekend’s almost here!
Cait.
Cait Does Japan 