Welcome to Tokyo!

Our flight path!

Friday, July 11th we left PDX for a summer in Tokyo, Japan! Our flight left really early in the morning, but eventually we were on our plane! We got in on Saturday, July 12th, and spent our first night there by going to bed early (okay, maybe too early...) so we could head in to Tokyo Disney early in the morning! We stayed at a hotel near the airport, so we had to go back to Narita to catch the train to Tokyo Disney.

Train Selfie... because we're worth it.

Our train ride let us see the countryside (where I realized they literally grow rice everywhere), and once we got in to Tokyo Station we had to transfer once more before getting to Tokyo Disney!

We had to carry our suitcases down the stairs, which was NOT fun, and then go to check in at the counter for our hotel. The room wouldn't be ready until 6pm, and our tickets to get into Tokyo Disney Sea didn't start until 3pm, so we had quite a bit of time to kill!

We started out by getting some food at a French Bakery in Ikspari (Japanese for Experience), the Tokyo Disney version of "Downtown Disney" (except it was really just a giant shopping mall). The food was pretty delicious, and then we wandered through the mall. We caught some interesting sights, like the donuts Krispy Kreme serves:

They are... different. Yeah, we'll go with that.
After that, we wandered through Bon Voyage, a "giant" Tokyo Disney Resort store (not to be confused with the Disney Store of course), that had a pretty large variety of all of the stuff sold at Disney.

Another great place for selfies, by the way.

Then we wandered around the Tokyo Disneyland Hotel for a little while (ie looked around the gift shop, sat in lobby to cool off because it's super humid here) and then took the Monorail over to the Hotel MiraCosta! It is directly over the Tokyo Disney Sea entrance, so we hung out there until we could get into the park. We decided to eat at the resturant in the Hotel, Oceania, which was a buffet. It had lots of super different and interesting food (our first real "dive" into any sort of real food/Japanese food since we arrived), and had some amazing views into the park!

Eventually, after some snoozing and watching a show from the balcony in the hotel (which we decided we would NOT watch in the park due to the buckets of water that were sprayed onto the crowds...), we finally got to go into the park!

Sinbad's Storybook Adventures and Chandu (the cutest ride mascot ever)

Since the park was already pretty crowded by the time we got in, and lines were long since it was a weekend, the first thing we did was head to the back of the park to Sinbad's Storybook Adventures, which is in the Arabian Coast area! (Aladdin themed). This is pretty much one of my favorite things, because Chandu the tiger is SO cute!

Proof that Chandu is the cutest

Then we explored Mermaid Lagoon and some other areas of the park, including Storm Rider at Port Discovery, which is basically a lame Star Tours (not a huge fan, tbh...).

Outside of Storm Rider

After awhile, we headed back to get into our room and take a break from the heat, but not before I bought my own ShellieMay! I was super excited to finally get her, since she is exclusive to Tokyo DisneySea.

On our way back in that evening, we rode Tower of Terror. Due to copyright issues, it is not the Hollywood Tower Hotel, but instead the Hightower Hotel. The storyline is based off a treasurehunter, who steals an idol. The idol is what curses him and sends him plunging down the elevator shaft! It was cool, freaky, and slightly strange because you couldn't understand a word of what they were saying at the same time.

I blame this picture on the fact that the ride is shorter and I didn't realize that's when the picture would be taken...

After that, Dad, Bryan and I rode Raging Spirits, which is sort of a merge of Goofy's Sky School and Big Thunder, which is a really odd combo, since it's a short coaster and so it doesn't have much power. Finally, we rode Indiana Jones: Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, which basically the same as ours but with: a different queue, a different ride entrance, crystal skulls everywhere, it's darker for way longer, and oh, Indiana Jones speaks Japanese. (Sort of weird the first time you ride...)

With that, we headed back for the evening so we could get to bed an wake up early enough to get in at opening!

Well, that's all for now! I will post more about our Tokyo Disney trip in my next post!
Jenny