Tokyo Disney, Day 1

The long Culture Day weekend (November 2-4, 2013) saw a reunion of some Atlantic Canadian JETs at none other than TOKYO DISNEY!

The four of us in front of Cinderella’s Castle at Tokyo Disneyland!

A, T, N, and I all trained/bused in to Tokyo from our scattered placements around Japan on Friday, November 1. We stayed at the Sakura Hostel in Asakusa – which, for the record, went way beyond my expectations, given my last experience at Hostel Asakusa Smile – in a private, four-bed room. Arriving to such nice (yet cheap!) accommodations was a great way to start the trip.

T, N, and I all arrived late on Friday, so after some Starbucks and McDonald’s, we headed straight for the hostel to meet up with A and call it a night.

First gingerbread latte of the year!

We woke up bright and early on Saturday, eager to get our weekend started at Tokyo Disneyland! This was my first ever trip to any kind of Disney park, so I was already thrilled; however, even I couldn’t anticipate the overwhelming feeling of joy as we walked into the main entrance to find the biggest Christmas tree I’ve ever seen in my entire life! For those who don’t know, Christmas is by far my favourite holiday of the whole year. To find out that Disneyland was already decorated for Christmas?! I couldn’t have been happier!

The gorgeous, ginormous Christmas tree at the entrance to Tokyo Disneyland.

We spent the day walking around the park, looking at the different Worlds and riding a few of the rides, including Space Mountain. Space Mountain was amazing, but it made me remember that I’m not good at roller coasters/motion sickness-inducing rides, haha! We ate park food and did some shopping, then A, T and N went on one more ride while I stayed outside in the rain to see the Happiness Parade. Best. Decision. Ever! The Happiness Parade was so… happy! I’ve come to the conclusion that the dancers at Disney have the best jobs ever. I kinda really want to be one… :)

The Winnie the Pooh float from the Happiness Parade.

It was raining and our feet were hurting, so we left the park somewhat early around 3:30pm. We had plans to meet up with fellow Atlantic JET, K, and her friend, E, at 7:30pm for supper, so with a few hours to spare, A and N took naps while T and I headed out to see more of Asakusa.

At Sensoji!

It was dark by this point, so although I had seen Sensoji when I came to Tokyo in September, I hadn’t seen it all lit up. It was amazing! The rain had stopped, so T and I spent our time taking pictures, appreciating the view, and trying some different foods sold at the many food stands.

Fried manju – aka, deliciousness. 

With still more time to kill, we took the subway to Tokyo Skytree. We didn’t plan on going up to the top because it was quite foggy, but we got to stand at the bottom and appreciate the shear height of it. As a reference for my Canadian readers, Skytree is about 80 m taller than the CN Tower at 634 m and 553 m, respectively.

Skytree was SO TALL.

We did a bit of shopping in the many stores around Skytree, then took the subway straight to Ueno to meet up with the other girls for supper.

Supper was a delicious meal at an izakaya. We ate so many different things! I love these types of meals. And, considering how much we ate, it didn’t cost us a fortune.

What a feast!

We didn’t finish eating until close to 11pm, so we went straight back to the hostel and crashed. We were exhausted, and we needed to rest up for Day 2 of Tokyo Disney!