Day 13 - Tokyo - Funky and lovely Monday

W: Tokyo Disneyland today, frustrating and fun in equal parts.

The usual breakfast in Shibuya then take two trains out to Disneyland. Seemed surprisingly busy for a Monday. Unfortunately the sky is grey and dull today.

Once we got inside we found it was much busier than we could have imagined. Maybe it was a school holiday or something. Parents and kids everywhere.

We headed straight for the Haunted Mansion, but Tony picked out something in the Japanese announcement about a 40 minute wait. He misheard - it was actually a 140 minute wait! And they'd just opened!

We got out of the queue and got a Fastpass instead, to come back at 2:45.

We went to some of the less popular attractions such as the Enchanted Tiki Room which was corny and fun and thankfully in Japanese so you didn't have to understand the bad jokes. There was less that was "tiki" about it than the one at Disneyland in Anaheim, it was more the animatronic birds that carried the show. The version of 'Fever' one of the birds did was sensational.

After climbing the Swiss Family Robinson treehouse (not very popular with the Japanese, there was almost nobody else up there - same deal in Anaheim I recall) we headed for the Pirates of the Carribean, about a 40 minute wait but worth it. Amazing ride, dark, and a tad bawdy for Disney. Then we went on the Western River Railroad for a circuit of Adventureland. Still queues everywhere so we tried to find something to eat.

Almost nothing vegetarian to eat, and they won't let you bring in food either which considering what's on offer is pretty unfair. If we went again we'd smuggle in rice balls at least. In retrospect we should have got pass-outs and found something in the suburb outside. Basically we had chips :P

We went on Pinocchio's Daring Journey which was about a 45 minute wait for a 3 minute ride and not really worth the trouble. Snow White's Adventures was a similar wait but much more satisfying. It's quite a frightening ride for kids - even saw one crying after it - and the outside gives little clue as to how dark and scary it is. We kept trying for the Peter Pan ride, but the queues were endless and there's no Fastpass for this ride.

Tomorrowland was disappointing as it didn't have the sixties retro-futurist feel that Disneyland at Anaheim has. It does however have great music playing. I only recognised some from Air (the Premiere Symptomes CD) but all of it was great. There was some that sounded like The Gentle People too.

With our Fastpasses we headed back to the Haunted Mansion which turned out to be a big disappointment. We both love this ride - I rode it at Anaheim and Tony rode it at Tokyo Disneyland in 1984 - but it was presented as a "Nightmare Before Christmas" special ride which basically meant there was Tim Burton imagery all throughout and it really didn't work. It just looked tacky and stuck-on. Also, the huge crowds meant that part of the ride itself ended up being used as interior queuing areas which spoiled things even more. All in all it was a great disappointment.

Luckily we had picked up a Fastpass for It's a Small World. This ride also had a similar Christmas treatment, but in this case it was marvellous and the ride was better than we both remembered from before. Mary Blair's designs are brilliant.

So, we walked a lot and waited a lot and could find very little to eat - I even resorted to a sweetcorn-filled pretzel thing that was edible if a bit sickly - but all in all it was a good day.

Headed back to Shibuya on the train and decided to try a Japanese curry place. Unfortunately the vegetarian curry came embellished with small pieces of meat - they'll make it without the meat if you ask specially. We'll know next time. Did a bit more shopping then, exhausted, back to the hotel.

Watched a TV show "Funky and lovely Monday" featuring a guy in a yellow polyester suit singing an enka song. I love it here.


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