BYOT: What do you want for your birthday?

I WANNA GO TO DISNEYLAND!!! And so we did. Hubbs was out the day before but had leave for my day through a few more and after bringing me konbini cake (gotta love 7-11) and flowers (that still looked great after being out of water for 3 days) we headed to the Tokyo Disney Resort for 3 days. We took the train up there and like Disney in CA having their own freeway exit, well Disney Tokyo has its own train station. Once there we went to Bon Voyage (the giant Disney store outside the park)went downstairs and gave them our bags. For 500Y (yes roughly $5) they took our bags and delivered them to the hotel. And off we went for a fun filled day at Disney Sea. It was awesome. I cannot describe how cool the place was. Between the two parks we took roughly 500 pics and 90% of them are keepers. The park is water based and each land has an aquatic theme. The rides ROCKED!!! Especially 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and Journey to the center of the Earth. It was just a tone of fun and we were constantly moving. it was hotter than Hades but for the most part the park is planned for that, it is on the water so yeah 85 degree and 100% humidity WOOHOOO!!! We saw people walking around in Yukatas and jenpai and we thought they actually looked like they were dealing with the heat better. And the ones wearing geta on their feet and not limping by the end of the day got major respect from me. I spent most of the day just in awe and having the best time. It was so comfortable to be at a Disney park and although we did not understand much of what was said we knew the drill. We did decide though that it is not for a Disney novice who does not speak Japanese, that would have made the experience nerve-wracking I think. Of course from time to time we would meet someone who would drop into perfect English and even confuse us by having better English than some Americans we know.

So we were there from open to close then we went looking for the bus to the hotel. we found it. We get to the hotel and check in and show them our luggage ticket. Not only was our bag there (score!) but it was already delivered to our room and we were checked in, no worries and it was 11pm (DOUBLE SCORE!!). The Japanese have travelling down, seriously. So the luggage is delivered, the hotel has toothbrushes, combs, slippers, pajamas and all the stuff you expect, so you could show up with the clothes on your back and a change and be good to go. Of course considering you pay per person you should get something. Our room slept 4 and we only paid for 2.

Next day bright and early and off to Disneyland. It is very similar to Disneyland, CA but Thunder Railroad kicks CA Thunder's ass. It was just AWESOME!!! We went to the Mickey Mouse Revue which is the only one in the world. It opened at the opening of Disney World and then instead of being recreated in Japan it was shipped here in pieces and was here for the grand opening 25 years ago of Disneyland Tokyo. it was funny they tried to turn us away because it was all in Japanese. It is times like that i really wish we knew how to say something like "of course it is and it would be very rude for us to think otherwise" in Japanese. In truth the history of Mickey in Japanese is still obviously the history of Mickey and while the words are different the tunes to all the songs they sang are the same, no translation needed. It was just an awesome day and to top it off they had an Electrical Parade, that made me uber happy as the hubbs and I were at the last Main Street Electrical Parade in CA. Oh I loved it and we got a seat right in front of the ropes just like when I was a kid.

Ok the quick things, I had wanted to write this sooner before I forgot things but I have been sooooooooo busy as you will see from my posts.

A lot of people speak English very well, but not everywhere.
There are maps and schedules in English
The food and drinks are reasonably priced. 200Y for a bottle of water that is 150Y from a vending machine is good for me. And one of our counter lunches was 2500Y ($25) for the 2 of us. The buffet we hit was that each but it was all you can eat and hella good
All the art is in English, not Japanese (weird)
They only have 50-60% of the voice acting translated on the rides
All signs have 2 - 3 languages on them. Always English which is also usually bigger, clearer and listed first
Lines everywhere not just for what you expect but for the perfect picture spot too or to get a pic with a character.
The people are very polite, most of our character pics don't have us in them BUT we could have done it, every one took a turn.
Finding food that is not totally weird to us Americans was hard but doable (the English map helped ALOT), I just do not do corn or seafood on pizza.
A lot of the souvenirs were reasonably priced, yeah my 25th anniversary mickey in a yukata was 4000Y but the tin of cookies for people at work was only 1000Y and lots of other little things for 1000Y or less.
Ok my hands hurt from typing and I have fuji stuff too, oh yes there is more.

There are 4 galleries. DisneySea, Disneyland, Ikspiari (the mall area at the resort) and fun stuff like every flavor of popcorn we saw.