First full day in Japan was well spent at Tokyo Disneyland!

The weather was perfect! We had been checking the weather the whole week before we left California and almost everyday said it would be either cloudy and 50 degrees Fahrenheit or there was a chance of rain. To our delightful surprise it felt not too cold and not too hot, with only a light sprinkle half way through our day. I’m so thankful we listened to our friends and made sure to layer our clothing.

We were skeptical at first about going to Tokyo Disneyland because we had previously heard it was just like Disneyland in Anaheim, CA. I’m very glad we decided to go anyways though. It was worth experiencing the differences between the rides, entertainment, and food. It amazed me how many upgrades Tokyo Disneyland had compared to our Disneyland in Anaheim, CA.

We arrived at the park right when it opened. As soon as all the guests made their way through the turnstiles, they bolted through the park to achieve claiming FastPasses for all the major rides. It definitely took us off guard because we had no idea where everyone was running to. Immediately we took out our guide map and decided to head for Tomorrowland.

We were lucky we had gotten the opportunity to go on Space Mountain twice! We strategized by getting a FastPass first and then waited in line to ride standby. Then we went on Star Tours because there was only a 5 minute wait but we unluckily got the exact same sequence we always get when we ride the one at our Disneyland in CA.

The Space Mountain ride at Tokyo Disneyland was similar to ours with the same space pods and same loading area. The loading area was far more efficient than the Disneyland we’re used to. However, the ride itself was darker, a smoother track, and was missing music throughout the ride. It was still quite enjoyable! For the ride Star Tours, the line and waiting area for the ride was extremely organized. You don’t feel rushed at all to grab your 3-D glasses and line up in the boarding area.

A pleasantly surprising experience was riding the Tokyo Disneyland Monsters Inc. ride. This ride was extremely different from the one at Disney’s California Adventure, and was definitely worth waiting 4 hours before our FastPass was valid to use. On this ride, you use flashlights attached to your car to light up the different characters as you pass through the different scenes of the ride. I would have loved to see a point system like Astro Blasters or Midway Mania.

After running around to all those different rides we decided it was time to eat. We settled on pizza port in Tomorrowland, and picked up a chicken calzone and the cutest Star Wars mochi filled with chocolate, caramel, and strawberry. All of the food at Tokyo Disneyland were so cute! And there were so many unique flavors. More to come on food…

After eating what was essentially our first meal of the day, we were off to take in more of Disneyland. We made our way to the incredibly cute Stitch Encounter where we were greeted with an adorable alien code named 626, Stitch, while we didn’t understand what he was saying since it was all in Japanese, we enjoyed all of the conversations that were being had, and the music (that we attempted to sing along to.) This experience was very similar to Talking with Crush at Disney’s California Adventure in Anaheim.

Finally we made our way to the Castle. This castle felt massive, and it definitely is. According to https://nomidnightmedia.com/ it is the 3rd tallest of the six different castles at various Disney parks around the world. This castle, Modeled after Cinderella’s Castle is a whopping 168 feet tall (almost 100 feet taller than Sleeping Beauty’s Castle in Anaheim.) No wonder it felt so much bigger!

After taking the obligatory tourist selfie in front of Cinderella’s Castle, we made our way to find more food! We stopped to pick up FastPasses for Pooh’s Hunny Hunt but our FastPasses weren’t available to use until ten in the evening. Near the FastPass distribution there was a delightful scent of honey butter in the air which led us to the honey popcorn stand. Who would have thought that putting honey on popcorn would make it taste so much better? Definitely one of the best popcorn flavors we tried today.

It’s a good thing we had some popcorn because it was definitely starting to feel like it was time for lunch. We spent much of the next hour just walking around looking at the park and trying to decide what to eat. The real problem with Tokyo Disneyland is there are too many different food options and so you could easily spend a couple of days here if you wanted to take your time and try all of the different foods. We ended up settling on Hungry Bear Diner which was similar in ambiance to the one in Anaheim and it also served comfort food which consisted of rice plates with curry. Very Oishi!

With lunch behind us there was more of the park to explore so it was time to keep on going! The next adventure was to find more flavored popcorn, as if we hadn’t just stuffed ourselves. We ventured off into Adventureland and while searching for the Curry Popcorn and Milk Chocolate Popcorn we got to see parts of the parade. We even came across a ton of Totem Poles with Stitch standing on one of them! From here we headed into the Enchanted Tiki Room which featured Stitch as he presented Aloha E Komo Mai which was great! I think I actually enjoyed it more than the Tiki Room in Anaheim.

After The Enchanted Tiki Room, we headed to the Western River Railroad which was a very small version of the Disneyland Railroad, however not nearly as scenic. This was probably the one thing I wasn’t really thrilled about in this park. It could be that I was expecting it to be massive like the one in Anaheim. Although it was nice to use it as a means to get off our feet!

Is it time for dinner yet? After more exploring, and riding Pirates of the Caribbean it was finally time to decide where to eat. We decided after all the traveling and walking around Disneyland we should treat ourselves to a buffet, and decided to eat at the Crystal Palace. The buffet had a good variety of American, Japanese and seafood to wet our whistles. I think we had three to four rounds each, plus dessert.

Now that dinner is over, time to catch an evening parade. The Disneyland Electrical Parade is one of my favorite parades of all time at Disneyland and I was so glad to see that there was one here in Japan too! Of course the best float was from Rapunzel since that’s Alexis’ favorite Disney character of all time! One year we even celebrated Halloween as Rapunzel and Eugene Fitzherbert. After that parade passed, it was finally time for Pooh’s Hunny Hunt.

Pooh’s Hunny Hunt was perhaps the most unique ride experience at the Tokyo Disneyland Park. This ride has a completely different story than the one in California and had technology unlike anything in California. They should really consider changing the one in California to be like this ride. The ride vehicles hold four passengers and are able to move in any direction without the need for a dedicated track system. This meant you would eventually experience the same ride as other cars, but in a different sequence or from a different perspective. We truly never knew where we’d end up going next. Pooh’s Hunny Hunt was worth the wait.

Tokyo Disneyland you have thoroughly impressed us with this one. ‘Til next time!