Cherry Blossoms in Japan: A Detailed Guide to Tokyo Disneyland

While writing this article, I suddenly realized that Tokyo Disneyland was built on April 15, 1983, and today happens to be its 27th birthday. I dedicate this article as a birthday gift to it.

Day 2 (April 5, 2010): Tokyo Disneyland

After leaving Sensoji Temple, we followed the tour guide to the LAOX duty-free store in Akihabara. I wasn't planning to buy any electronics, so I just bought some Meiji hazelnut chocolate and seaweed snacks to eat on the way. Consider it as supporting the tour guide. Next, we split up. Most people chose to visit Shinjuku and Ginza, but we had a clear goal: Disneyland.

This was an optional activity, costing 8,500 yen per person. Although the Disneyland ticket was only 5,800 yen, I accepted it. On one hand, I didn't have to take the subway and waste precious time; on the other hand, the travel agency needs to make some profit, right? The current tour package is already cheap enough. However, my son, who could have enjoyed a half-price ticket at Disneyland, still had to pay 8,500 yen. The tour guide said that the company's rules were like that—a kind of unspoken rule in this industry. Speechless.

At 12:15, we arrived at Disneyland. Let's forget all our worries and go wild!

Tokyo Disney Resort is 10 kilometers away from Tokyo and is the largest Disneyland in the world. It includes Tokyo Disneyland and Tokyo Disney Sea. The former has seven themed lands and a variety of entertainment shows, while the latter is an adventurous and imaginative ocean, also the first Disney theme park themed around the sea.

Our group included both elderly and children, so Disneyland was the most suitable choice. A young couple from the same bus also followed us, after all, Disney Sea doesn't have the grand parades and fireworks.

After ticket inspection and bag check, we entered Disneyland. In an instant, it felt like stepping into a paradise, with a fairy-tale atmosphere rushing toward us.

First, we arrived at World Bazaar, lined with numerous shops full of classic Disney characters. Despite the rain and it being Monday, there were still so many people in the park, all wearing happy smiles. Besides children, even young ladies dressed up as fairy-tale characters, from Minnie hair clips and hats to Tigger's long tail. Plus, large cartoon characters appeared around us at any moment, bringing constant surprises. You felt like you had truly entered a fairy-tale world. No wonder some people say that among all Disneylands worldwide, Tokyo has the best atmosphere.

It was getting late, so we quickly looked for a place to eat. We saw Refreshment Corner, a restaurant selling hot dogs and fries—my son's favorites. We chose this place. The seats were outdoors, sheltered by large umbrellas, but still fully occupied. As we walked out of the shop with our food trays looking for a seat, a middle-aged Japanese man approached us and said something, but we couldn't understand. Then he led us to a table, and his children left. We suddenly realized that he saw our group with elderly and children looking for seats, so he offered us his. What a kind person! We thanked him, and he probably understood.

After eating, we quickly got moving. According to the strategy, we needed to get Fastpasses (FP) as soon as possible. We headed to the first FP-eligible ride, "Buzz Lightyear's Astro Blasters." The queue had already extended from indoors into the rain, and the display showed a wait time of 120 minutes. I thought FP might still be available, but the FP return time was already 20:45–21:45. Completely hopeless.

Not giving up, we rushed to the next FP ride: Pooh's Hunny Hunt. The normal wait time was 110 minutes, and FPs were already gone. Totally hopeless!

Looking at the increasingly heavy rain and the Japanese people around us still eagerly lining up in the rain, I had to admit their狂热 for Disney. No wonder Tokyo Disneyland's profits account for 45% of all Disneylands worldwide.

My son's shoes and socks were already wet. Fortunately, I had brought him a Pooh raincoat. (It seemed strange that Japanese people of all ages and genders preferred white transparent raincoats and umbrellas.) We quickly found a ride with a short queue. Ah, we spotted "It's a Small World." Sure enough, we only waited a short while in the rain before the line moved indoors. Soon my son's complaints turned into cheers. This was a classic ride. Invited by the wonderful song "It's a Small World," we took a small boat around the world, seeing cute dolls from various countries and appreciating their beautiful national costumes. I remembered that many years ago, at Christmas, my wife and I, after a day of thrilling experiences at Disneyland in Los Angeles, also rested and relaxed in "It's a Small World." This time, my son and mother were delighted, and I forgot the troubles of the rainy day. This is the charm of Disney.

This was my son's first close encounter with Disneyland, and it completely ignited his playful spirit. It was already 2 o'clock when music sounded, and the parade began. The streets were already lined with people. I quickly found a higher spot for my son—on top of Dumbo. The towering floats appeared before us.

This classic parade was called "Jubilation!" Each uniquely designed magnificent float recreated classic scenes from Disney movies, presenting the eternal dream world of Disney animation. The parade, performed by 160 performers including Mickey, Minnie, and other Disney characters, ignited the enthusiasm of the audience along the route. At that time, it was raining heavily, but the cartoon characters performed passionately in the rain, and more and more visitors gathered around. The heavy rain couldn't extinguish people's enthusiasm. Music mixed with cheers made everyone truly feel in a carefree fairy-tale world.

For the following rides, my son basically decided. He chose "Castle Carrousel," and then "Alice's Tea Party." These were suitable for all ages.

All the rides in the park looked very new. Can you believe this place is already 27 years old?

I still couldn't give up and went to check "Pooh's Hunny Hunt" and "Buzz Lightyear's Astro Blasters" again, but the wait times had increased to 140 minutes. Oh my!

According to the prepared strategy, some rides had long queues but accommodated many people at once, so they were still fast. "MicroAdventure" was one of them. Indeed, even though we initially had to queue on a small bridge outdoors, in less than 30 minutes we had our 3D glasses and were waiting to enter. Following the instructions, we sat in the second-to-last row, equipped with headphones for the Chinese-dubbed version. The story was based on the Disney movie "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids," so we were hit by the shrinking machine and became tiny, and the world around suddenly became strange. This was essentially a 4D film. I had taken my son to a similar experience at Shanghai Science and Technology Museum. But when the mouse scurried over my foot and the dog's saliva splashed on my face, it felt quite realistic.

Unexpectedly, "Star Tours" had a short queue. But once inside, we found that the long, dark corridor was full of people—a world of robots. We waited about half an hour before our turn. I saw health warnings posted everywhere and quickly reminded my mother that if it got too intense, she could look at the walls on both sides. That would immediately reduce the immersive realism. I knew because I had been on it at Disneyland in Los Angeles. In the end, we followed the robot captain on an exciting space adventure.

My son, holding popcorn (which also required queuing to buy), took us to ride "Pinocchio's Daring Journey" and "Peter Pan's Flight." The latter was one of those rides that looked short but had a painfully long queue, and it wasn't very fun. Definitely not recommended.

The rain kept falling. After playing all afternoon and queuing all afternoon, we felt cold, tired, and hungry, so we looked for a place to get some hot food and drinks. We found it at Plaza Restaurant in Tomorrowland.

When we left the restaurant, the rain had mostly stopped, and our mood immediately improved. Night had fallen, and Cinderella Castle was lit up, adding even more dreamy colors than during the day.

At my son's request, we went to ride "It's a Small World" again. By then, it was walk-on, no queue. So we experienced another wonderful 10-minute fairy-tale journey.

Perhaps because it was evening or dinner time, all the queues at the rides had shortened significantly. We were pleasantly surprised to find that the wait time for "Pooh's Hunny Hunt" had dropped to 35 minutes. We immediately joined the queue, and unexpectedly, it only took 20 minutes to get on.

The four of us sat in a honey pot, following Pooh into the forest to find his favorite delicious honey. Coincidentally, just a few weeks earlier, we had watched the DVD of this story with my son. Now, my son saw the familiar scenes vividly come to life, letting out surprised cheers. Even we adults were deeply immersed in this wonderful fairy-tale world. No wonder this ride is one of the park's top attractions.

After saying goodbye to Pooh, it was almost 8 o'clock. Music in the air announced another major event: Tokyo Disneyland Electrical Parade Dreamlights. The parade was supposed to start at 7:30, but our location was at the end of the parade route, so we caught it just in time. We quickly found a good spot along the roadside to enjoy this luxurious float parade featuring all the cartoon characters. The dazzling lights combined with Disney music made the night even more splendid, enchanting the audience. The entire park turned into a dream world.

Seeing that we still had some time before the 9 o'clock meeting, I suggested going to Adventureland. However, "Pirates of the Caribbean" was already closed. Fortunately, "Jungle Cruise" didn't have a long wait. While waiting, we heard the thunderous sound of fireworks outside—the "Disney Magic in the Sky" show, which started at 8:30. I could only imagine beautiful fireworks blooming over Cinderella Castle. Soon, we boarded a small motorized boat and, led by an experienced female boat skipper, began an expedition along the river through a tropical rainforest. Even though we couldn't understand what she said, we could guess from her expressive face and tone. Various wild animals, "natives," and splashing water made us feel we were there. A night cruise was probably more thrilling than during the day.

At 9 o'clock, the guide was already waiting at the entrance. The young couple from our bus called on a borrowed Japanese mobile phone, saying they were about to board "Space Mountain" and asked for another 20 minutes. I could understand—that was also a very popular ride.

The guide was a young man from Fujian who had been in Japan for seven years. He said he had visited here more than 20 times. Perhaps because Japanese people face high work and life pressures, many come here to relax. Today was Monday, supposedly the least crowded day of the week, and it was raining. He mentioned that when we arrived at noon, the parking lot was only half full. Based on that, today's crowd might be less than half of normal. Thinking back, the strategy guide saying each ride requires waiting 3–4 hours was probably correct. Even today, the popular rides still required over 2 hours of waiting.

We actually played quite a few rides today and saw two parades. It was a rewarding trip. Perhaps the rain actually helped us a lot.

I wrote this article yesterday on my blog. I had to delete all the images here, which might make the text a bit messy. Please forgive me. (Alas, the formatting function of Ctrip's travel journal is very poor.) For more detailed travel notes and many photos of my "Japan Trip," please visit my personal blog.