We both woke up super early today, so we headed down to breakfast at about 6:45. The buffet was quite large with tons of choices (American and Japanese). Thomas isn't a breakfast eater, and all I really eat is cereal and fruit. So, breakfast for the two of us is rather quick (unlike when I ate with my in-laws who LOVE breakfast). There were a lot of people having breakfast at the buffet. We did end up waiting every day to be seated but it moved quickly. After breakfast we went to JR Mahaima station. This was accessible by the monorail or by a direct shuttle bus. We planned to take the monorail, but when we exited the lobby the shuttle bus was there so we hopped on. 5 minutes later we arrived at Jr Mahaima station. I asked the attendant at the ticket window the best way to get to Asakusa (even though I was pretty sure we could have gone to Tokyo Station and switched to the Asakusa line) but she gave us a slip of paper explaining how to get there by switching trains twice...ok? We purchased our tickets all the way to Asakusa ….the equivalent of $2.90 and got onto the VERY crammed train....at 7:45 am....rush hour....to Tokyo....yes it was CRAZY! They just kept pushing and pushing to get onto the train! But I'm so glad we experienced it because it was kinda fun! We made our first switch and then asked an attendant who said we didn't have to switch again after we boarded the next train -- which was great. He pointed us to the right track and we soon arrived at Asakusa.......so early I might add, that the full shopping arcade wasn't even open yet. Just a few shops were open so we took that time to visit the temple and gardens before it got crowded.
At 9:00 we went across the street and into the tourist Information Center and up to the observation deck to get a few photos. Plus, this was all new to Thomas, and it was a GORGEOUS day out (unlike the grey, overcast weather I had the previous week). You can see a lot from up there....including the shops-which were now all open… so we headed back down to do some souvenir shopping! If you haven’t noticed I really have a shopping addiction!
After we picked up some gifts to bring back
to family (and obviously some more for me) we decided to go to Ginza and walk around. We hopped back on
the train on the Ginza line and headed over.
We exited Ginza Station via Matsuya Department store (which is super
fancy shmanzy and GORGEOUS). We were
both a little hungry so I showed Thomas to the escalator and down to the
basement we went....and we found a glorious center of gourmet delights! We settled on gigantic chocolate-chocolate
chip muffins that were delicious! Thomas wanted to check out the Nissan gallery
so we walked over and took a look at the 2 cars they had displayed and then
upstairs to what they said was a gift shop.....not exactly. Just a few items behind a glass case that you
could order. Oh well, it was interesting to sit in some different Nissan cars (we both drive Nissan's...always, it's actually the only type of car I've ever owned - all 3 cars I've ever had have been Nissans and Thomas' cars have only been Nissan's as well). We decided to walk
around Ginza a bit and ended up in a Panasonic showroom and some other electronics
place before heading up to my favorite store 0101! We looked around and then went to the
restaurant section to see what we wanted to eat for lunch but the muffins kind of filled
us up and we wanted to head back to Tokyo Bay to go to Disneyland!
We walked to Tokyo station (a 5 minute walk)
and took the train back to Mahaima on the express train (3 stops). I just have to say how gorgeous Tokyo Station is. As a NYC girl I can totally appreciate this building --architecturally, visually and functionally!
We decided it was best to head back to the hotel to drop off our bags and bags of souvenirs that we purchased. After we made that brief stop, we went right back out to the monorail station to go over to Tokyo Disneyland.
When we arrived at Disneyland we
had to pick up our tickets at guest services- which was super easy. I had printed up the confirmation for the
tickets that I put on a credit card hold before we left the States, and just handed it to
the cast member and in a snap we had our passports - the first one for this day
was a 1 day pass and then we had a 4 day passport that started the next
day.....and then a surprise last minute day on my last full day in Tokyo that
would have been less expensive had I known we would be going back. I would have
purchased two 3 day passports. Oh well.
Now that the tickets were taken care of we were SUPER excited to get inside!
Of course I was jumping at the bit to get into the shops in World Bazaar! So
that's exactly what I did! I'm very lucky that my husband just goes along with what
I want to do. We really weren't
planning on getting on any rides this day.
It was more about just looking around, people watching, parade watching
and just being there. I did purchase my
very first popcorn bucket! I tried the caramel flavor in the 30 year
anniversary balloon bucket. It was warm and really yummy! PS....great lunch today...muffins and
popcorn.
The afternoon parade "Happiness is Here" was about to start so we found a spot because I had really wanted to see it. It was really great- the floats and costumes were amazing! So much better than our afternoon parade at Magic Kingdom. The floats were huge and the colors are so vibrant. It was brutally hot out this day and when the parade ended we decided to take a break and go back to the hotel.
Thomas took a short
1/2 hour nap when we got back to our room and I uploaded photos on Facebook and then when he woke up we were
both hungry and decided to grab a bite to eat for dinner back at Disneyland. We ended up in Tomorrowland and settled into
the Tomorrowland Terrace for dinner. I
had a chicken sandwich "set" which also included fries and a soft
drink. Thomas had a burger
"set" but I had him get his with the souvenir lunch case (which cost
more of course) because I wanted the little insulated lunch Bach that came with
it - it was the 30 year anniversary bag.
Super cute! The counter service meals at TDR are very reasonably priced. I believe we paid about $30 for dinner including the insulated lunch case.
After this the Tokyo Disneyland Electric Parade - Dreamlights was about to start. We got a good viewing spot and stayed to watch....and I'm so glad we did because it was great! Again, the floats are HUGE and so vibrant and colorful. After the parade we made our way over to Fantasyland to go on Its a Small World and so I could go back to grab something I had seen in one of the shops over there earlier. The park was just about to close at this point so we headed back to the monorail. When we arrived back at our hotel we loved that they had set up in the lobby a place to quickly buy water and snacks (even though the conbini wasn't too far into the lobby) it was super convenient to just grab a water and get on the elevator.
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