Tokyo Disneyland Part I (Disney Sea)

Let me spend some time telling you about a wonderful Disney experience: Tokyo Disneyland!  My brother David lived in Japan for 7 years before moving back home with his husband at the end of 2010.  On my second and last visit to him 2 years ago, it was my biggest wish to go to Disneyland (and Disney Sea, too!).  Well, that wish was granted and here are photos from that great trip with my brothers, David and Hiro!

Above is a map of the two parks--Disney Sea on the left and Disneyland on the right.  Below are two murals in the Disney monorail station:

Oh, and there were these straps on the monorails (sooo cute):

Our first stop was Tokyo Disney Sea!

We were there in July, just at the end of Spring Carnival.  This was a big flowers & fairies celebration.  Even the monorails were decorated for it!  Here's some of the balloons available (you'll notice if you didn't know already, Marie, the cat from Aristocats, is very popular in Japan!):

Here I am meeting Jiminy Cricket for the first time in any park!

 What a charmer! I wanted to say something when I met him again in Epcot in Disneyworld, but being the big celebrity he is I didn't want him to be embarrassed if he didn't remember me ;)

Here we are with an active volcano (well, Disney active)!!

Then there's Tinkerbell perched on my shoulder:

And of course Captain Jack Sparrow is a Frenchman in Tokyo...

There were a lot of cute things in the gift shops (I bought them instead of taking pictures, except for some things... like this chocolate pop!)

Tower of Terror! (David & Hiro went on.  I hung out and looked at the topiaries.)

I love me some Mickey-face treats!

They had flavored popcorn here.  And I mean all KINDS!  I think this one was cherry blossom flavor?  But every popcorn station you went to there were new and different flavors than before!

Even the popcorn box was adorable:

We got some great food, too, in this dark, indoor Little Mermaid-themed cafeteria:

Sebastian's Calypso Kitchen!  There were fish lights hanging from the ceilings:

And, if you couldn't guess from the name of the park OR the theme of this particular eatery, they mostly had fishy items on the menu.  Here's an adorable sandwich David got, shaped like a shell:

A little Asian packet of ketchup (a thin tube as opposed to a rectangular pouch), stirrer (with Mickey face) and spoon:

Mmm seafood pizza..

And my fish sandwich:

And my favorite Japanese soda, Melon soda!!  It's green!

Here we all are on Genie's carousel.  A highlight for me (well, what part of the trip wasn't a highlight?) because I LOVE carousels!  Especially old-fashioned, or out-of-the-ordinary, like this one:

Sure, there were horses... But there was also Genie!  Of course all the Genies get taken first!  (If you look at the pic above, you can see purple Genie on the left)

There was a whole Agrabah area along with the carousel!  There was this camel...

And the Magic Lamp theater (requiring 3D glasses.  I can't say I remember what the film was about but I'm pretty sure it was one of those 4D experiences, when they squirt water on you and emit wonderful scents).

 

I tried for quite some time to get a good picture of Ariel's castle at night.  The colors were as beautiful as the architecture, which reminded me of Gaudi's work!  Anyway this was the best I could get (I'd actually dropped my camera somewhere in Agrabah and worried about it the rest of the trip):

There was this great statue of Ariel I should have taken a picture of when the sun was still out:

There was also one of King Triton!

There were these great bubbles floating up in those windows in the background.  Here's one of the pillars of the castle that reminded me of Gaudi:

We ate somewhere called NY Deli which was pretty funny (being from NY and all)...  Oh and I found this Cheshire Cat doll with bunny ears (for the Spring Carnival) on the ground and looked around for who it might belong to, but in that crowd the owner was long gone.  To this day I still have it on my backpack :)

I found this great hat in one of the stores (I didn't buy it because where else could I wear it?)

Some nostalgic decorations:

We went back to our hotel soon after that, and got ready for our next big day: Tokyo Disneyland!!

cupcakes!

I made cupcakes the other day to celebrate Disney Pixar's Brave!  You can click here to get to my other blog, easy there cupcake!  You'll see Brave cupcakes as well as Muppet cupcakes from a few months ago!  Woohoo!

Nostalgia

With the hot weather we've been having lately in NY, I've been thinking of great summer memories.  What made summer so great as a kid?  I have one specific memory of many: my mom picking my friend Teena and me up from our last day of 5th grade to see Pocahontas in theaters.  I remember getting chocolate bars with Pocahontas scenes on them. 

Then I found this ad on YouTube and got even MORE nostalgic.  Can't they make this for Brave?  ...Apparently not.  I just searched "Pixar Brave chocolate" all over Google & Yahoo and I got NOTHING.  I guess it wasn't meant to be.  If only Nestle would read this post and realize there are people out there who would totally buy it.  Maybe they're delivering baby carrots to Shop Rite with Brave scenes all over the plastic baggies.  America's children don't need chocolate.

(Yes, they do.)

Jiminy Cricket!

 

I believe it was April 29 when Disney released this Jiminy Cricket Vinylmation figure.  I just so happened to be going to a Death Cab for Cutie concert that night in the city and stopped at the Disney Store in Times Square to pick up this little fella.  Not only was this a great addition to my collection, but one dollar from each purchase went to the Make a Wish Foundation!  Jiminy!  When you wish upon a star...

Well if there's any other collectors out there, here's some more photos!  Enjoy!

Disney Jewelery

I love Disney merchandise, and I especially love the kind you can wear!  When I was 4, I got this beautiful "gold" charm bracelet, which sparked my love for charm bracelets to this day!

 There's Dumbo, Mickey and Donald...

and Minnie, Goofy (his body has since fallen off!), and Tinkerbell:

My friend Monica got me this beautiful necklace from Disney Couture inspired by The Little Mermaid:

 The bottle has a scroll inside that says "I could be part of your world," which gets me all teary!!  There's sand and little gems, and the cork really does come off!  Good thing it's attached by that chain because it's come uncorked a few times while I was at work!

 There are so many details, like this hook clasp and the tiny portrait of Ariel:

 The studded anchor and pearls:

 And here's the bag it came in:

 There were only two pieces of jewelery I bought while on my last trip.  I know, I hardly believe it either.  I got these Mickey head earrings:

 Simple, and only about $5.  I wear them when I want to feel all cheery and reminded of the magic :)

I also got this adorable and classy Mickey glove necklace:

I get compliments on this every time I wear it!  I like to joke that it's the Hamburger Helper glove, or the Michael Jackson glove.  I just love this one!

 There are plenty of gorgeous pieces you can get in Disney World or on their website!  Look for Disney Couture--those are on the newer side and real cool!  They have a Minnie charm bracelet, some more jewelery, accessories and clothing.  I just bought my friend a cute Snow White shirt for her birthday! 

There's also this great new collection of charms (here's one of Flounder) by Kidada, which you can wear at any age (I say this because I plan to start my own collection, wink wink), along with (sometimes) cute princesses that open up to reveal a necklace with a single charm related to that princess (I just saw the new Rapunzel that has a brush charm--how adorable!) for little girls, and some apparel (I just saw a baseball hat with Mickey [or Minnie]  gloves forming a heart and a chain with a bow charm on the arm like a bracelet--also very cute!)

It also happens to be the 25th anniversary of The Disney Store, so be sure to check their website for special merchandise and deals (right now you can get free shipping on orders over $75)!

Goofy & Dumbo

Working in a bookstore, I get to talk to a lot of people about their Disney plans when they come up to purchase Disney guides.  It's really one of the highlights of my day.  On Wednesday I was talking to a customer who said the Great Goofini Roller Coaster and the Dumbo Rides were up and running!  Hooray!