Tokyo Disney Day 1 and 2

Ahhh!!  I am so excited to blog about this because it was so awesome.  We took the 1 hour and 1/2 train(s) to Tokyo on Saturday with the Urban's and walked around our hotel.  The hotel we were staying at is a DOD (department of defense) hotel and you have to show your Government Employment/Military ID and Passport just to get on the grounds.  It is a really nice hotel and it is so cheap!  The room rate depends on your rank/pay grade and we got a queen bed and a queen pull out couch for $73/night in downtown Tokyo!!  Now who wants to come visit us??  Also our hotel, called the New Sanno, is right by a ton of Embassies so they have a lot of foreign food around, and our LDS Temple!!  So awesome.  Then the street you walk to the hotel from the train has 5 separate, really expensive golf stores.  One was called the Pearly Gates and I just thought of my Dad! 

Here was a French restaurant across the street from the French Embassy with a huge picture of Napoleon, made me think of my Daddy-waddy again!

We stopped at a small park for lunch and the pigeons just bombarded us!!  They had no fear they just jumped in Cora's lap and ate her sandwich from her hands.  Cora and Kevin had a lot of fun chasing them.

The Temple, we could actually see the spire from our hotel room.  It is right in between buildings and across the street from a park, just jammed in the middle of all the chaos.

Quite the different sign from most temples.

The boys just relaxing in preparation for a crazy day!

TOKYO DISNEY SEA!  There are two separate parks right next to each other, Disney Sea (the only park of it's kind) and Disneyland.  Disney has it's own train that goes around to the parks and hotels.  It was freezing cold (only 42 degrees) and windy so we thought it wouldn't be very crowded even though it was a Sunday, we were wrong.  It was packed!!  There was a line for everything.  And for all the masses of people, the parks were absolutely clean.  I mean Disney takes great pride in being clean, but this place was spotless.  I would say Disney Sea may have been my favorite because it was just so new!  Kevin and I decided that if we ever go to Europe we have to go to Euro-Disney to hit all the parks in the world!  I was able to get my smashed pennies at both parks and the train station!  Are you ready for all the pictures??

At the train station, Mickey windows.

The handles are upside down Mickeys! Have you ever seen anything so cute?

Kevin!

Don't you love the icicles on the globe?  Yeah, it was that cold.  This globe was awesome and rotated.

The line to take photos at this spot was enormous so we just snapped a picture from the side.

Donald, Daisy, and Pluto walked up and rubbed Cora's head, but I was a little slow with the camera so I just caught her waving bye.

Awesome.

The front of the park was all Mediterranean themed.  And then a whole section was Italian.

Looking back at the Entrance.

The beautiful tulips!  Too bad they were all frozen.

They had a mock-Roman Ruins set up.  Reminded me of my parentals and our great time there!

 So the first area we went to was Mysterious Island.  It had the rides 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and Journey to the Center of the Earth.  Two movies I didn't see, nor care to, but the rides were pretty awesome.  And it was something totally new!!

                                              

The next section was Mermaid Lagoon!  This section was a life saver and of course the kids favorite.  It was 99% inside!  The rides were perfect for the girls, and they had this live, Cirque Du Soleil style, Ariel's top songs performance.  It was AMAZING!  The songs were in English!  Then they had a play area with different sections from the movie, one was Ariel's cavern with all her trinkets and you can touch things and stuff happens, then a playground, then an Ursula Maze, the ship with the shark, etc. etc.

Coolest entrance ever.

The inside part, where it was warm!

Cora and Kevin on a Jellyfish

The girls taking a licorice break

 The next area, Arabian Coast.  This was so cool.  I didn't get to see the 3D Genie show, but it would have been in all Japanese anyway.

Abu!  Cora hasn't seen this movie, but she thought the monkey was awesome and he kept rubbing the monkey backpack she had on and laughing.  It was pretty cute!

 

The view of it all, so pretty.

 

I love Cora's expression!

Double story Carousel

Yeah, we were excited.

 Next land was Lost River Delta.  This area had Raging Spirits, which looked like the COOLEST ride, but it was closed for repairs, and Indiana Jones, which we didn't get to because the line was 130 minutes! We only got to fast pass once because they all ran out before our time was up again!  Also I don't know if you noticed, but all the signs are in ENGLISH!  How awesome is that?  We ate lunch here at a Mexican restaurant and it was not Mexican.  Their tacos were beef patties in a tortilla shell, eww.

The ride that was closed...360 loop!!

 

Trevor just found out his wife is expecting and is sure getting baby hungry.  We are totally ok with it because he was willing to carry George around while we went on a ride!

 This area was Port Discovery.  All new again!  Aquatopia was closed, and that is just fine because it was freezing still, but they they had StormRider.  It was like Star Tours with a goofy pilot riding into a storm and your seat vibrated and moved just like that with a different theme. 

You notice the gate with water pouring in?  On the other side is the ocean, Tokyo Bay, that was a cool effect, hopefully.

The last area was American Waterfront!  It was cool, but looked familiar so wasn't as cool to me.

Milk Tea Popcorn, yum.

TOWER OF TERROR

We made it back to Ariel's land before the show to warm up and was really cool at night.

 

Ariel's cavern

 The show was on the water, and was probably the coolest thing ever.  They had 6-7 boat tanks that floated around and had characters on them and props and fireworks, and just plain fire.  It was so awesome.  They had a huge HUGE dragon from Sleeping Beauty come out and wow.  It was the best and worth the cold.

I never thought I would be "that" parent who leases their kid, but I'll be honest that monkey backpack has been the greatest thing ever.  Cora likes wearing it and I can handle both kids SO much easier.  It was even better when Abigail held it so I didn't have too.  I mean they don't call her Crazy Cora for nothing! :)

 

The girls have a moment alone...with Strawberry Churros.

I love this photo...Abigail kept saying she couldn't see, but I didn't understand her until she tried to look up at me.  I took a picture before helping her!

So it was incredible.  We had so much fun!!  A few differences we noticed, they don't have the Mickey Ears hats we do in the States.  And no pins either.  Their big thing was popcorn.  They have different flavor popcorn all over the park and at each station they sell a different souvenir bucket that you use to get refills.  EVERYONE HAD ONE.  I mean at least one per family, at least.  The flavors of popcorn were indicated on the map and there were only certain flavors available in certain areas.  In this park was Black Pepper, Caramel (so good), Apple Cinnamon, Curry, Strawberry, Milk Tea, and Sea Salt.  We didn't brave the gross kinds because it was pretty expensive.  Also there are hardly any kids, it was all teens/adults.  Even in Ariel's land.  They would wait 40 minutes for a 20 second kid ride...that I didn't understand.  And they all wore Disney merchandise, headbands (even the guys), hats, bags, etc.etc.etc.etc.  It was insane!  We bought Minnie Mouse ears at the consignment store before we went and gave them to Cora there...then she lost them!