Disney Adventures, Part I

Saturday started off our Tokyo Disney experience with Tokyo Disneyland. We were not prepared for how the day unfolded. It took us three tries just to get out of our room that morning. This was the first day we were going somewhere that Ed hadn't been. I was already in a bad mood because it was raining and I'd had to change out of my new boots (which I hadn't worn yet). We finally got to Tokyo Disneyland around 10:30am. Our first impression was the one that would stay with us all day... it's just a smaller version of Anaheim. And it was too! In a fairly small footprint, they crammed as many of the Anaheim rides in as possible... all the same, but still slightly different. We noticed right off how clean every thing was. With as much popcorn that is sold in the park (I'll talk about that in a minute) you'd expect to find little kernals all over the place, but there were almost none!

We quickly learned... Rain is not a deterrent. The mass number of people swarming the park was overwhelming. I can honestly say that I have never seen so many people in one place at one time!Lines were easily two hours long. We immediately got a fast pass for the haunted house ride and then got something to eat. We used this time to get over my dissappointment and form a plan of attack for the day. After eating and deciding where we were going we finally started to have a little fun. Although the lines were long, they moved faster than any US lines I had ever stood in.

Throughout the day we were stared at by lots of little kids, but the crowds were big enough that we fit in... kind of... Ed towered, I blended. We bought hats, as is our tradition, and tried really hard to make the most of the day. As we walked through the park, we noticed people carrying and eating popcorn out of various containers. By the end of the day we had counted 18 different varieties of containers. There were popcorn venders throughout the park and the lines were long for popcorn as well. After purusing the selection of containers to buy (Ed desperately wanted a Halloween container, but as it was Christmas in the Park, no Halloween items were available), we selected ours and began to sample the popcorn. The different flavors offered throughout the park were Carmel, Salted, Chocolate (which smelled aweful!), Soda, Curry, and Honey. We started with the standard caramel corn, but were quickly tempted by the honey (and it was yummy!), and then we got daring and tried the Soda (which really wasn't great)... needless to say we got more honey.

As we walked through the park we had to develop a strategy to travel around the parades... there were at least three that day. And there are some diehard parade fanatics who popped a squat as soon as they were allowed. Most even brought little matts to sit on.

Then our day was over. In spite of the crowds and rain, we'd managed to ride all of the rides we wanted, and even made it on the Haunted House ride twice! All in all, we prefer the Anaheim Disneyland, but it was interesting to notice the little differences. Plus we loved the popcorn thing!