Tokyo Disneyland

The day started with some frustration. I purchased a phone from T Mobile to use for travel only. I will cancel service when we get home. For $50 a month their plan includes unlimited texting and data in over 130 countries! We have always had Verizon and not used our phones in other countries because of the expense. We thought it would be nice to be in touch like we are at home with continual service. If it works. I tried and tried to conect to a cellular network here in Japan with no success. I finally called T Mobile with wifi calling. He walked me thru what to do but I couldn't do it while talking to him on the line so I hung up, tried it, no luck. I called again. This time he called me on Mel's phone so we could work on mine at the same time. In total I was talking to T Mobile for over 40 minutes. I was finally up and running. By now it was 8:30. We were to meet friends of mine in the park at 9. We were cutting it close. We went to a diner in the hotel for some breakfast, it was closed. I ended up getting a Starbucks iced latte at the convenience store and a roll. Mel had coffee in the room. The bus to the park was waiting when we went to get it, good timing. At the park the lines were HUGE! Fortunately some of the announcements were in English saying if you had your ticket you did not have to wait in line. We went right to the gallery where we were to meet. They were selling a pin or something, there was a long line coming out of the Gallery so we were unable to go in. We waited about 2 minutes before our friends showed up. The last time i saw them was in 2004. It was nice to see them again. 

       

The crowds in the park were massive. Yasuyo said she had never seen it that crowded. Great! We went to get fast passes for a show, gone. We went into another line for fast passes but this one you put in your request then hit the button. If you are lucky you get tickets. I didn't see anyone getting tickets around us, nor did we. A lottery fast pass, guess it is necessary when you have so many people. We were able to get into Mickey's PhilharMagic after a short wait. It was cute. Kiyohisa had a wait time app on his phone so we tried to hit attractions with the least wait times. Next was Small World. From there we headed to Pirates after which we ate at the Blue Bayou. The menu was very different. I told my friends that the gumbo was the tradional food from New Orleans. They both ordered it and thought it was very good. 

 Haunted Mansion

After lunch we shopped. Kiyohisa carried all our bags which was very nice and made shopping easier. Everything is so different and cute here. Hard not to buy a lot! But we had more to see so continued on. The Haunted Mansion here is beautiful but unfortunately closed for renovations. We decided to not worry about the 80 minute wait and go on Peter Pan. Well worth it. It was different in many places than the one in CA. For one the ship was larger and you flew across the deck. There were 3 or 4 dead pirates sprawled out beneath us. You don't see that in CA! We went into the Tiki Room. They gave us a small unit that had English subtitles on it, that was nice. Then on to Country Bears. Nice to see them again even if they did speak in Japanese. From there we went to the train. It does not go around the park, just around their Westernland. I wanted to try Thunder Mountain but the line was over 2 hours long! 

By this time we were tired for lack of sleep and walking all day. We headed toward the entrance. The street area was packed with people. They were waiting for the castle show. They project images on the castle. We were able to see some of it, interesting. We headed to the disneyland Hotel adjacent to the park. It is a beautiful one, we just looked around. In the lobby was a beautiful doll house with each room themed to a different film. There was a Cinderella room, Peter Pan bedroom and a very cute attic play room. 

We took the bus back to our hotel and parted ways with our friends. It had been a good day in the park. We tried to get into the buffet in the hotel, Chef Mickey's, but it was totally booked. We ended up eating at a small diner. I had a pita sandwich with shrimp, avocado and smoked salmon. Almost went back for another the next day, it was delicious. We had the lights out by 10. 

Beautiful castle!