Tokyo, 2018/10/28
Tokyo Disneyland, a place metamorphosed to become joyful imagination, realized. I should have been tired. My legs should be hurting. Me shoulders should be aching from carrying the backpack all day yesterday through the journey. But that was not the case. Sure there was the sluggishness that I had to overcome just upon waking up, but it was not a difficult hurdle. As I finished preparing small bag pack that I was going to carry, I thought about a good schedule to in the park, like where to go first, where to find lunch, and other activities possible in the theme park. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized I have no idea what is appropriate since we have a kid among us and I was pretty sure that there are height requirements. So this made me realize that I had a lot of unknown and my anxiety started to brew a little bit.
But it was holidays! And I think my family would not appreciate it as much if it was filled with anxiety. During these times, I figured that the best way is to inform them as soon as possible that I may not be able to provide top notch information during this part of the trip. I was glad I did that, because apparently, Bang Andre and Astrid were more informed regarding these. It also helped with my own state of mind, because after I said that, I quickly felt how cheery their mood were and it was definitely a much better state of mind to begin this visit to the land of fantasy. As we walked down to the bus stop (which was literally just 50m from the hotel lobby entrance), we quickly noticed a growing queue. Luckily we were only the 10th on the line. That queue grew significantly in the next 5 minutes as we waited for the bus. 8 am was definitely a crowded time to go to Disneyland.
As we arrived on the entrance area, the queue to buy tickets and enter the park was really REALLY long. The problem was, I had no idea which queue was to buy tickets and which is actually to just enter the park. I found out days earlier that a pre purchase for entrance ticket is available in the internet from various providers. Some travel-focused websites offer various combinations for Disneyland tickets with other trips. I was not sure whether we were going to other places in Tokyo during this trip, so I bought the tickets from the official Disneyland Japan website. I remembered clearly when I discussed with Astrid which ticket we should buy and we had some sessions in discussing the best price-value to enjoy the park.
Basically there were 2 parks, but entry to each park requires different kind of ticket. So the purchase was packaged to 1 day access to 1 park, 2 days access to 2 parks, up to 3 day access to 2 parks. The slightly strange part was that we had to decide specifically which park to visit on which day. During that particular day, our pass would only work on the previously specified park. I thought it would be nicer if we can just switch parks as the day goes by, but apparently that was not an option. Perhaps it was to have a better prediction of the number of visitor per day? perhaps that would allow them to organize the events and allocate resources appropriately for risk management? oh well...
The advantage of pre-purchasing the ticket online however was so apparent. The purchased tickets were available to print personally. On that self-printed ticket, there was a QR code attached that is readable directly on the entrance. Which is another queue by the way! Since we bought the tickets beforehand, we were able to just queue for entrance and skip the queue for purchase altogether! It felt really good because we had no time wasted as we just passed the security check and directly to the entrance gates. We passed long queues of people waiting for their chance to purchase their tickets. I do strongly recommend purchasing entrance this way, it was definitely a more time-efficient and convenient method.
Entering the park was quite a surreal experience. Kids running around, youths walking together in groups or as couples. Senior citizens looking around in amazement of either looking at their company's delight or just the sheer cheerfulness of the area. It was a hallway with stores on the sides with even more joyful insides. Disney characters figures as plushies or on costume attributes were easily spotted here and there. Strangely enough, there were no people walking around as Disney Characters. Perhaps it will be a much more difficult condition because people will naturally gravitate towards them for pictures. In the middle of the entrance area was a statue...monument of some kind. It was a symbol of celebration for 90 years of Mickey Mouse. Naturally there were many Mickey figures across the years on the monument, but it was also fitted with some of Mickey's entourage such as Minnie Mouse, Donald Duck, Goofy and other famous faces.
Alka looked awestruck at that moment. Barely hanging on to Astrid, she was looking around and I assumed just absorbing the environment. There were so many people, so many colors and so much noise! Must have been an exhilarating experience for her, perhaps. I was quite amazed myself and was trying to find some kind of a guide of this place. I found a board with the Park's map and some park employees were walking around carrying booklets. I asked them for the booklets and was quite surprised to see that it was all only in Japanese. Not that I mind so much at that time, but I just assumed that such an international place would have some English information leaflets.
The application was easily obtained through the Android Store. Luckily, we had a mobile modem available. Just another preparation step that I was so thankful we made. I ordered the modem online and was quite a fast one with satisfactory area coverage. We were able to move around quite a bit and still got coverage. My father carried the modem diligently in his arm jacket pocket and knowing that he will be always be in close proximity made him the greatest choice. In addition, I have internet naturally from my phone, so I could just move around safely. Apparently, Bang Andre said that there were also roaming packages that he bought from Indonesia and it was quite well worth the money. This was very different compared to the time that I went to Japan in 2004 during which we had to rent specific Japanese flip phones from the airport to obtain communication ability. It still certainly much easier and more convenient now. Oh, and that application I was talking about earlier, had so much information about the park. It listed all the rides available and even the approximate waiting time in queue for almost all of those rides! This made it much easier to find an available ride and allow us to consider whether the waiting time will be worth it or not. There were also details on each of those rides from minimum height requirements, type of ride and any warnings that might be attached to said ride.
Moving on the day, we easily enough found a place to eat. There were quite a number of different restaurants available in the park. Sure it is pricey, but it is difficult to refuse for the simple convenience of having them in the park. There were also various ambiance available depending on the location of the restaurant, including decorations like in the Wild West, Tree House, underground dwarf houses and other places in the realm of Disneyland fantasy. The food were... well, they were theme park food. Slightly higher in quality that I would expect, but it was definitely nothing gourmet. It was served on paper plates with disposable spoon, fork or chopsticks provided. We had to decide what to order as we queue because we order the food and paid directly as we order. After which we were directed to another counter to wait and receive our food. We decided to find a place outside just because it gave more space for us and brighter too. Somehow, the place we picked had a dwarf-home kind of decor and the lighting inside were really dim. The temperature outside was not that cold (around 16 degrees) and it was less obstruction for Alka to wonder around.
Waiting for rides was a routine of first finding where the line began! Sometimes the queue was so long, that a park employee had to hold a board titled "starts here" in Japanese and stood just where the queue had reached. Then it was a matter of finding the baby-stroller parking area. Some rides, understandably, could not allow strollers to go in the queue and the rides. So often they provide a stroller-parking area nearby the queue. There was even a park employee that was on duty to move the strollers around and made sure it remained a tidy group of strollers, thus ensuring strollers did not just clump in one area and made it difficult to take out when people finished the ride. One ride which we waited quite long was the "Small World". During the wait, every 15 minutes, a clock decoration opened and the song "Small World" played. Followed with a line of dolls that danced around the clock. We waited there for quite long that Alka started to get familiar with the song and even pointed excitedly to the clock just near the time it would do its routine. It was adorable and admirable at the same time.
Another priority attraction from the Disneyland was the parades! We had quite unique timing because it was time for Halloween, but also during the celebratory period of Mickey's anniversary. HOURS before the schedule parade, park officers were already cordoning the standing areas. It was areas that the parade will move through and people were already starting to sit around there just waiting for the parade. We did not join them directly, instead we enjoyed the park a bit more and just around 30 minutes before the parade we walked around trying to find a place that were kinda available to stand on and saw the parade. There were lines of people sitting along the designated areas with many also standing slightly more behind. I truly admire the Japanese people ability to wait. Or perhaps they sit there and consider it efficiently resting after a tiring session of activities around the park. Yeah, that sounds believable.
The parade is definitely a work of art. Designed uniquely for each of the appearing characters, the parade cars were colorful and detailed. The dance and music were also catchy and cheerful, and somehow can be heard quite clearly from any position in the park. They must have connected the park's entire sound system for the parade. During the parade, I observe the people in the parade dancing to the music, sometimes in a synchronized choreography with all the parade and sometimes with movements unique to their theme. For example, the dancers in skeleton suits had different move-sets than the dancers on the parade cars. More interestingly however, it seems that all the park employees were able to dance the major synchronize move-set. During one of the moment where they all dance the same move-set, the park employees standing around guarding the areas were also dancing in sync. So that was either... all the employees had to learn the dance to join in the joyous occasion or they have seen it so many times that they unintentionally memorized them. Whichever it is, I appreciated it so much because it added to the atmosphere that Disneyland presented.
As the day went by, we began to feel the tiredness and started to look for rides with much shorter wait times. We also started to go into different souvenir stores and I bought a multi-functional Mickey blanket. I remember the significant part of my heart gets cold easily and would surely appreciate a special way to keep warm. Astrid meanwhile were looking around for more unique items, and I learnt from her that there were different tiers of Disney items. There were the ordinary mass-produced ones, then there were the special edition ones. Similar to other kinds of collector items, those special edition ones can be real beautiful and valuable. Her specialty in Disney-related products is probably akin to my specialty in noticing various things in the gaming world.
We then started a quest to look around for a different place to have dinner, which was not difficult. At that moment we were quite tired and did not think much of the place anymore, we just wanted a place to rest and use the time to regain some calories. There was a place around the middle of the park with kinda of a futuristic outer space decor. I suppose they were drawing inspiration from Buzz Lightyear's fantasy world. The place was a lot bigger and there were more seats available indoor. Luckily the lighting was much brighter, so we were lucky to get quite a large space in a corner. At this moment, there was another parade soon to go around and a fireworks show later on. The other parade was more focused on light shows! We got the chance to saw all those that day and it was definitely a sight to remember.
The day was getting cold and there was another fireworks/dance show near the time of Park Closing. However, knowing the age range of my group, I realized that my parents were getting tired. Alka was starting to lose interest in some stuff. On the other hand, I also thought Bang Andre and Astrid should get the opportunity to enjoy the entire experience of Disneyland. So I informed them of the last available bus back to the hotel so they can have more time in the park for activities like shopping, watching the closing show, and maybe even more picture taking! The sight of the Disney castle in the middle of the park was definitely majestic, I was sure they could use more time to fully unleash their superb mobile photography skills on that site. Meanwhile, my parents, Alka and I would leisurely go back to the hotel, avoiding my anticipated uncomfortable large stream of people exiting the park closer to closing time. The accurate information of bus timing really add comfort to people like me that appreciates knowing all the options of transportation. This information was easily found on the internet, specifically in the hotel's website.
The entire day felt like an adventure and I had a lot of fun. I am sure it sounded kind of boring.. just walking around, queuing for rides, finding food and visiting souvenir stores. But for a person like me, the environment was a sight to take it. I appreciate how the park took into their hearts to present the atmosphere of fantasy and cheer. I took the time to have various conversations with my family about life, experiences, life and their impression of Japan so far. I was pleased for the time I had learning about the various perspectives they had on these time spent together. All above though, I felt happy to share the experience with my family. The best part? There was still the next day for us to visit DisneySea!
But it was holidays! And I think my family would not appreciate it as much if it was filled with anxiety. During these times, I figured that the best way is to inform them as soon as possible that I may not be able to provide top notch information during this part of the trip. I was glad I did that, because apparently, Bang Andre and Astrid were more informed regarding these. It also helped with my own state of mind, because after I said that, I quickly felt how cheery their mood were and it was definitely a much better state of mind to begin this visit to the land of fantasy. As we walked down to the bus stop (which was literally just 50m from the hotel lobby entrance), we quickly noticed a growing queue. Luckily we were only the 10th on the line. That queue grew significantly in the next 5 minutes as we waited for the bus. 8 am was definitely a crowded time to go to Disneyland.
As we arrived on the entrance area, the queue to buy tickets and enter the park was really REALLY long. The problem was, I had no idea which queue was to buy tickets and which is actually to just enter the park. I found out days earlier that a pre purchase for entrance ticket is available in the internet from various providers. Some travel-focused websites offer various combinations for Disneyland tickets with other trips. I was not sure whether we were going to other places in Tokyo during this trip, so I bought the tickets from the official Disneyland Japan website. I remembered clearly when I discussed with Astrid which ticket we should buy and we had some sessions in discussing the best price-value to enjoy the park.
Basically there were 2 parks, but entry to each park requires different kind of ticket. So the purchase was packaged to 1 day access to 1 park, 2 days access to 2 parks, up to 3 day access to 2 parks. The slightly strange part was that we had to decide specifically which park to visit on which day. During that particular day, our pass would only work on the previously specified park. I thought it would be nicer if we can just switch parks as the day goes by, but apparently that was not an option. Perhaps it was to have a better prediction of the number of visitor per day? perhaps that would allow them to organize the events and allocate resources appropriately for risk management? oh well...
The advantage of pre-purchasing the ticket online however was so apparent. The purchased tickets were available to print personally. On that self-printed ticket, there was a QR code attached that is readable directly on the entrance. Which is another queue by the way! Since we bought the tickets beforehand, we were able to just queue for entrance and skip the queue for purchase altogether! It felt really good because we had no time wasted as we just passed the security check and directly to the entrance gates. We passed long queues of people waiting for their chance to purchase their tickets. I do strongly recommend purchasing entrance this way, it was definitely a more time-efficient and convenient method.
Entering the park was quite a surreal experience. Kids running around, youths walking together in groups or as couples. Senior citizens looking around in amazement of either looking at their company's delight or just the sheer cheerfulness of the area. It was a hallway with stores on the sides with even more joyful insides. Disney characters figures as plushies or on costume attributes were easily spotted here and there. Strangely enough, there were no people walking around as Disney Characters. Perhaps it will be a much more difficult condition because people will naturally gravitate towards them for pictures. In the middle of the entrance area was a statue...monument of some kind. It was a symbol of celebration for 90 years of Mickey Mouse. Naturally there were many Mickey figures across the years on the monument, but it was also fitted with some of Mickey's entourage such as Minnie Mouse, Donald Duck, Goofy and other famous faces.
Alka looked awestruck at that moment. Barely hanging on to Astrid, she was looking around and I assumed just absorbing the environment. There were so many people, so many colors and so much noise! Must have been an exhilarating experience for her, perhaps. I was quite amazed myself and was trying to find some kind of a guide of this place. I found a board with the Park's map and some park employees were walking around carrying booklets. I asked them for the booklets and was quite surprised to see that it was all only in Japanese. Not that I mind so much at that time, but I just assumed that such an international place would have some English information leaflets.
We were kind of directionless at that time, so we just walked along the road while I tried to decipher the map as best as I can. Through a fast glance I found that there were not that much thrilling rides in Disneyland. Most of them were more...tame, I suppose that is an appropriate word for it. I ask everybody what kind of ride they would like to go to, but at that point they were as clueless as I was! So we just decided to queue on whatever ride we saw first, which was some kind of a forest train ride. During the queue, we kept Alka busy by pointing at stuff and talking to here. She interacted really actively and was really responsive to the many new sensory inputs around her. I downloaded an application that is specifically made for going around in the park.
The application was easily obtained through the Android Store. Luckily, we had a mobile modem available. Just another preparation step that I was so thankful we made. I ordered the modem online and was quite a fast one with satisfactory area coverage. We were able to move around quite a bit and still got coverage. My father carried the modem diligently in his arm jacket pocket and knowing that he will be always be in close proximity made him the greatest choice. In addition, I have internet naturally from my phone, so I could just move around safely. Apparently, Bang Andre said that there were also roaming packages that he bought from Indonesia and it was quite well worth the money. This was very different compared to the time that I went to Japan in 2004 during which we had to rent specific Japanese flip phones from the airport to obtain communication ability. It still certainly much easier and more convenient now. Oh, and that application I was talking about earlier, had so much information about the park. It listed all the rides available and even the approximate waiting time in queue for almost all of those rides! This made it much easier to find an available ride and allow us to consider whether the waiting time will be worth it or not. There were also details on each of those rides from minimum height requirements, type of ride and any warnings that might be attached to said ride.
 |
| Inside the "small world" |
Another priority attraction from the Disneyland was the parades! We had quite unique timing because it was time for Halloween, but also during the celebratory period of Mickey's anniversary. HOURS before the schedule parade, park officers were already cordoning the standing areas. It was areas that the parade will move through and people were already starting to sit around there just waiting for the parade. We did not join them directly, instead we enjoyed the park a bit more and just around 30 minutes before the parade we walked around trying to find a place that were kinda available to stand on and saw the parade. There were lines of people sitting along the designated areas with many also standing slightly more behind. I truly admire the Japanese people ability to wait. Or perhaps they sit there and consider it efficiently resting after a tiring session of activities around the park. Yeah, that sounds believable.
The parade is definitely a work of art. Designed uniquely for each of the appearing characters, the parade cars were colorful and detailed. The dance and music were also catchy and cheerful, and somehow can be heard quite clearly from any position in the park. They must have connected the park's entire sound system for the parade. During the parade, I observe the people in the parade dancing to the music, sometimes in a synchronized choreography with all the parade and sometimes with movements unique to their theme. For example, the dancers in skeleton suits had different move-sets than the dancers on the parade cars. More interestingly however, it seems that all the park employees were able to dance the major synchronize move-set. During one of the moment where they all dance the same move-set, the park employees standing around guarding the areas were also dancing in sync. So that was either... all the employees had to learn the dance to join in the joyous occasion or they have seen it so many times that they unintentionally memorized them. Whichever it is, I appreciated it so much because it added to the atmosphere that Disneyland presented.
 |
| The Halloween parade! |
As the day went by, we began to feel the tiredness and started to look for rides with much shorter wait times. We also started to go into different souvenir stores and I bought a multi-functional Mickey blanket. I remember the significant part of my heart gets cold easily and would surely appreciate a special way to keep warm. Astrid meanwhile were looking around for more unique items, and I learnt from her that there were different tiers of Disney items. There were the ordinary mass-produced ones, then there were the special edition ones. Similar to other kinds of collector items, those special edition ones can be real beautiful and valuable. Her specialty in Disney-related products is probably akin to my specialty in noticing various things in the gaming world.
 |
| The "Dream Lights" Night Parade! |
The day was getting cold and there was another fireworks/dance show near the time of Park Closing. However, knowing the age range of my group, I realized that my parents were getting tired. Alka was starting to lose interest in some stuff. On the other hand, I also thought Bang Andre and Astrid should get the opportunity to enjoy the entire experience of Disneyland. So I informed them of the last available bus back to the hotel so they can have more time in the park for activities like shopping, watching the closing show, and maybe even more picture taking! The sight of the Disney castle in the middle of the park was definitely majestic, I was sure they could use more time to fully unleash their superb mobile photography skills on that site. Meanwhile, my parents, Alka and I would leisurely go back to the hotel, avoiding my anticipated uncomfortable large stream of people exiting the park closer to closing time. The accurate information of bus timing really add comfort to people like me that appreciates knowing all the options of transportation. This information was easily found on the internet, specifically in the hotel's website.
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| Alka reading stuff before sleep time! |
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| Alka's Loot from Disneyland! |
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