Tokyo Disneyland

We spent the whole day at Tokyo Disneyland yesterday. It was so much fun, but a really long day.

I decided to be stupid Friday night and go out with my friends, even though I had to wake up at 6. I ended up getting 4 hours sleep. It should've been only 3, but I overslept. Naturally. We were all supposed to meet on campus (about 15min away from my dorm) at 7:30am. That didn't exactly happen as planned. I woke up at 7:05, and got ready as quickly as possible. I got there around 7:40, and we ended up waiting for other people until 8. Finally we headed over to Tsukuba Center and the the Tsukuba Express station. It takes about 2hrs to get to Disneyland. We had to change trains a few times too, and we missed the stop one time and had to double back. But eventually we got there.

The train stop for Disneyland was built specifically for Disneyland, so you basically get off the train station and you're right by the entrance. Everyone was really excited at this point. I haven't been to Disneyworld since I was 5, so I was really excited too. I barely remember anything about it. One of the Americans worked at Disneyland in California, so she's been there far too many times to count. She told us a lot of the inner workings of Disneyland, which was really interesting, like how they work extra hard to hide back entrances, in order to make all the magic seem more real I suppose. What a cool job.

There were 20 people in our group. 4 Japanese, 2 from Britain, 1 from China, and 13 Americans. Since there was so many people, we split up right at the beginning. It's impossible to keep such a large group, especially in the large Saturday crowds. Although we really only ended up splitting into 2 groups of 6 and 14. I was with the group of 14, which was still too many people, and unfortunately we wasted a lot of time throughout the day being indecisive or waiting for other people.

We went to Tomorrowland first, to get fast passes (front of the line passes) for Space Mountain for later on in the day. Then we headed back near the entrance and got in line for the Pirates of the Caribbean ride. I don't remember much about Disneyworld from when I was a kid, but I do remember refusing to ride Pirates because I was scared. lol. So I finally get to ride it! It was really fun. They had Jack Sparrow robots, and they were so lifelike.

After Pirates we stopped at the hat stall, and a few people bought Mickey or Minnie ears. Everyone was hungry by then so we went to this hot dog restaurant on Main Street. $10 for a hot dog, a drink, and some fries. Oh Disneyland prices... Oh well, I was starving. The hot dog restaurant was the same restaurant my friend worked in at Disneyland in California, so she was really excited to see the Tokyo equivalent. After lunch we tried to get fast passes for Splash Mountain, but they were sold out, so we ended up getting in line to ride the tea cup ride. I was so excited for it, I love that ride. We split into three tea cups and we all tried to go as fast as we could, to see who could the fastest. According to the people who didn't want to ride, my group lost :(

After tea cups we went to Space Mountain and used our passes to get to the front of the line. This was my favorite ride. I love roller coasters in the dark. It makes them so much more fun. After Space Mountain we sat around for over an hour trying to decide what to do, and waiting for people to eat and use the bathroom, and losing track of where people walked off to. When we finally gathered together to leave, it started raining. It was around 3pm, and it rained for the rest of the day.

We walked back near Splash Mountain and tried to find a ride that didn't have a 3hr wait. Which we failed in of course, because it's Saturday, and the park was packed. There were 3 big rides left, Splash Mountain, Big Thunder Mountain, and Haunted Mansion, all of which had a 3hr wait. We left it up to my one friend, because it was her birthday. She decided we should ride Haunted Mansion, so we got in line. It started raining harder then, and everyone was pretty tired of standing, so I think our excitement levels took a plummet here. It was still fun, just a little miserable at the same time because of the rain. I don't really mind waiting in lines for rides, because I think a lot of the fun of amusement parks comes from the boredom-induced shenanigans you get into with your friends while waiting in line. A good chunk of our pictures are from waiting in line, and since we had so many people, it was usually entertaining. While waiting in line, we got to see the Halloween parade go by too.

Finally, a little over two hours later we got to the front of the line. Even more exciting than the ride, I was just happy to be indoors where it was warm and not raining. In Haunted Mansion you sit on the these moving chairs and you go through a mansion based on The Nightmare before Christmas. It was pretty fun actually (and we got to sit down for a few minutes!), and the special effects were really good. It was dark by the time we got out. We went back to Tomorrowland, and there was only a 20min wait for Star Tours (the motion simulator) so rode that real quick. I'm not really a fan of simulators, I feel like you might as well just go and ride and actual roller coaster instead, cause it's way more fun. Although I do remember riding a simulator just like that when I was little. I think it was at Universal Studios, cause it was Flintstones themed. I remember being scared shitless lol. It was quite anti-scary this time.

Everyone was hungry again, so we back to Main Street to find food. This caused a massive split up of our group, cause everyone wanted to eat different things, and no one could make any decisions. So we split up into groups of 2-4. My group got food at a bakery/deli. I ate some pastry things and a sandwich for another $10. We attempted shopping after dinner, but the shops were so crowded my friend Sara and I decided to leave. We walked through the castle finally. We hadn't even done that yet even after being there all day, and then we went to Toontown where they have all the characters' houses.

An hour later we met up with the remainder of our group, since half of the group already went home. Since it was dark and cold and rainy, the lines for the rides were only about 10min long. So we rode Big Thunder Mountain, the roller coaster, and then went on Splash Mountain. The park was about to close after Splash Mountain so we headed to the entrance.

Just outside the entrance we all got split up from each other, and a few of us waited in the rain for 15min before calling the others and realizing they'd already gone to the train station. We were all quite miserable at this point. We'd been on our feet all day, and all of our shoes were soaking wet, and it was freezing. And of course, the trains were packed to capacity, which made it worse. We had another mishap with the trains going back as well. We got off at the wrong stop to transfer first, so we got back on the train to go to the next stop, but it turned out the train we got on went to the right place anyway. However, due to some miscommunication, some of our group got off at the next stop anyway, so we all got off so as not to be separated. We had to wait 10min for the next train in the cold, and the next one that came was the last one for the night. When we got to the station where we had to transfer to the Tsukuba Express to go back to Tsukuba, we got on the last train bound for Tsukuba. We were so close to having to find somewhere to spend the night, it's not even funny.

Everyone was wiped out, and I half slept on the train. Unfortunately when we got back to Tsukuba, we still had to bike back to our dorms. Mine being 30min or so away. I collapsed in bed when I got home around 12:40, and my feet were throbbing for an hour before I fell asleep. That's what happens when you're on your feet for 18hrs. Despite everything though, it was still the best day ever. I had so much fun.