東京ディズニーランド

Teacher's Trip Day 1 - Disneyland

On Saturday I met the teachers from one of my elementary schools at the Noto airport, to begin the adventures of our weekend teacher's trip. The flight from Noto to Haneda airport was only a short hour long. As we left the Noto peninsula I could see Mt. Tateyama over the clouds, which was awesome since I climbed it just a month ago. Also, it was a very clear day and we had a great view of Mt. Fuji when we got close enough.

We arrived in TOKYO (my favorite place in Japan) and made our way to China town for lunch. We ate at a pretty fancy restaurant in a private room, and they served us course after course of food- a day and half after that lunch I still felt full from it.

A huge chandelier in the middle of the restaurant, and the room we had our meal in!

Peach sour, but I thought the glass was cute!

Salad. With cornflakes on top.

Clockwise from right: salad, corn soup, Sweet and Sour Shrimp, creamy squid dish

Sweet and Sour chicken, very much like the American version

Dessert- pineapple, coconut jellies in a milky sauce?

Chinatown gate

After lunch we rode about half a dozen trains (no exaggeration) to get to Tokyo Disneyland. We were in disneyland from around 5 o clock until 10 when they closed. The environment was very pretty, everything lit up with Christmas lights. Our first ride was the Pirates of the Caribbean and it was awesome! I was constantly amazed by the animatronics in all the rides!

The group, about to enter Disneyland!

Pretty hotel (?) next to Disneyland

The Entrance into the park

The inside of the entrance hall, decorated for Christmas

Pirates of the Caribbean ride

Disney Lights parade

Cheshire Cat from Alice in Wonderland

Snow White

Peter Pan!

Aladdin!

Nemo

Um, yeah. We got wet.

Splash Mountain

Cinderella's castle

"Original style" Puricula booth we found at our hotel

The hotel we stayed the night in was super nice and new. They offered a "Viking" night buffet, so after arriving at the hotel around 10:30 several of us ate at the buffet for dinner. They offered lots of different delicious foods. While waiting for our group leader to get our group checked in, a few of us played in the puricula booth (see above). I finally got to sleep around midnight, and set my alarm for 6:00 a.m....

Teacher's Trip Day 2 - Disney Sea

We left the hotel at 6:30 a.m. and took the train to Disney to line up an hour before the gates opened at 8 a.m. As I was told, Japanese people love narabu, which means waiting in line! As the crowds moved closer and closer to the gates, the level of excitement and tension in the air steadily rose. As soon as we scanned our tickets and got in, we set off running across the park to the Indiana Jones ride. It was funny to be with a group of mostly middle-aged women and see them sprinting to rides like a bunch of excited kids. I laughed and made this comment, to which one of the teachers replied, "ディズ二ーランで、皆子供よ!" ("At Disneyland, everyone is a kid!")

The Entrance into Disney Sea

The Indiana Jones ride was very exciting, and was actually my favorite out of our rides from the weekend. After running across the park to beat the crowds, we had a very short wait of ten minutes to start the day. After that, we went to the Raging Spirits ride, which was an actual roller coaster, or as they say in Japan jet coaster. We also went to the Hightower Mansion of Terror which was an awesome ride, it is supposed to be a haunted elevator so you ride in darkness and it has sudden drops to scare you.

After that we spent the last three hours at the park shopping for omiyagae and eating lunch. I was surprised how much time they allotted for shopping, but the Japanese really like souvenirs and they always buy little things to give to everyone they know! During our shopping time I spent a few minutes walking around the main concourse. The buildings around it were a kind of fake beautiful, made to look like what I imagine romantic French and Italian cities look like. There is a big lake, complete with gondolas and a huge ship, and on the other side of the water an impressive man made volcano.

We even saw Mickey Mouse, what trip to Disneyland is compete without that...

It was my first time to ever go to a Disneyland theme park, and it was quite impressive. After everyone finished their shopping, our group met back up to catch a bus to the airport and head back to the Noto.