This fact pretty much sums up my Tokyo Disney Sea experience:
Number of rides ridden: 4
Number of snack consumed: 10+
Maihama station (aka Disneyland) is an hour train ride from Kashiwa...and once we got through the crazy morning commuters traffic we arrived and transferred to these cute Disney trains with Mickey handholds!
Apparently students get a discount to Disneyland if they wear their school uniform!
Started off the morning right with coffee and Mickey pastries. (The egg one I got was really good)
One of the most popular items at Tokyo Disney is the Popcorn! They sell these reloadable popcorn buckets that practically everyone carries around all day...filling them up with one of the many creative and delicious flavors! Disney Sea has: caramel, cappuccino, milk chocolate, white chocolate, black pepper, curry...and possibly a few more that I am missing. There is even a map with all the locations on it...and for 310円 (less than $3) you can get a decent sized box of popcorn goodness. My favorite was cappuccino...with caramel coming in a close second!
Fun story: my dear friend Caroline happens to be Ariel at Disneyland (yes, it's true) and performs in the King Triton show inside this incredible building. I had been wanting to go see her show for some time now, so actually being there was seriously the best thing ever! She is an Ariel aerialist (say that 10 times fast) so she flys up in the air on a harness all while wearing the huge mermaid tail and lipsinging in Japanese. Spectacular!
Right after Caroline's show...I rushed over to Aladdin-land to find my friend Declan who happens to be Aladdin! haha. I knew he was doing a meet and greet at 4, but I wasn't sure if i'd find him...but once I ran over there I spotted him pretty quickly and he ran towards me (in full costume, mind you) and gave me a big hug. The Japanese people around me were probably thinking... "uhmmm did Aladdin just hug that random girl?" haha
The decor here was straight out of my dreams! So beautiful.
*how creepy is that giant Woody head?! It's like he is eating the people that walk in the store!"
These tiny alien mochi (filled with strawberry, chocolate, and vanilla cream) were possibly my favorite snack all day. They were so uniquely Japanese and so so cute.
Apparently matching with your friends at Disneyland is the big thing to do...and I am not exaggerating when I say we saw over 100 matching groups. And I don't mean just matching t-shirts...I mean HEAD TO TOE matching EVERYTHING. Shoes, socks, pants, shirt, jacket, backpack, make-up, hair...identical! It is crazy and one of the most entertaining things about this place!
I think Tokyo Disney sea should win an award (have they already?) for their architecture and design...because these building are so beautiful. I really felt like I stepped into some cozy European city.
Curry popcorn verdict : smells stronger than it tastes. pretty good!
All day we kept seeing this long line for some food cart...in the afternoon we finally decided to wait in line and see what the hype was about. Turns out people were waiting in line for these 500 円 ($4) steamed pork buns! It was pretty good...especially on a cold day!
We ended the day with some shopping...and then the BEST acai bowl from Cafe Kaila which is right outside Disneyland at their version of Downtown Disney (ikspiari).
MY RECOMMENDATIONS:
BEST POPCORN: Capuccino
BEST SNACK: tiny alien mochi (outside toystory ride)
BEST RIDE: Journey to the center of the earth!! (we waited 1.5 hours...but it was worth it!)
BEST SHOW: King Triton (of course!!)
Also, did I mention tickets to DisneySea are only 6900 円 ($57!!)