日本語:「ディズニーランドで三年間楽しみにしていたことができた!」
Almost three years ago, I went to Tokyo Disneyland, and it rained. “Oh well, one day I’ll get to enjoy Disneyland in the sun!” I thought to myself. This time around looked promising. No rain in the morning, and no rain on the commute. So, did it rain at any point in the day?
It didn’t just rain. It snowed.
Yeah, didn’t see that coming. But it was still a fantastic day! I didn’t take my camera but luckily my friend Jon did, so these photos are his.
Here we are, all happy and optimistic! Look at how there’s no water, frozen or otherwise, falling from the sky! It was pretty cold but nothing unbearable – pretty standard early Tokyo weather. We had the choice to go to either Disneyland or Disney Sea, which is more of the same but near the sea. Whoever named that deserves an award. We opted for land for two reasons: Firstly, it was probably colder near the sea. Secondly, when I went three years ago Space Mountain was closed, and I’ll be damned if I’m not going on Space Mountain at least once!
So it was a fun filled day of queues, Japanese practice, and staring. Now I’ve accumulated about 21 months in Japan, and I think I’ve got pretty used to the staring. But this was just something different. I guess early March is not international tourism season for Disneyland because there was about 5 foreigners that I could spot. As a result people were being even more blatant than ever – I think we were in some cases more entertaining than the ride itself. I remember flying past the waiting line on one roller coaster and laughing at their expressions as they followed us with their eyes – Aah! Flying foreigners!
We went straight from the entrance to get fast pass tickets for Space Mountain, which told us to come back at around 12.40. Somehow a wait of three hours had accumulated before 9am. I guess some people really like Space Mountain. We then headed around the park checking out the other rides. At one point the parade went by, and I got to see my favourite character, The Lion King’s Simba. He is grossly under appreciated in Japan. They’re all addicted to that blue alien Stitch.
Anyway, at 12.40 my three year wait ended and I got to go on Space Mountain. At the front, no less! It was fantastic and I recommend it to anyone who wants to experience a roller coaster in the dark. Classic quote comes from the guy sitting behind me, who shouted ‘TOO FAST! TOO FAST!’ throughout the ride about 500 times. It’s a roller coaster, dude. Not a driving test.
The biggest surprise came later on in the day, maybe around 5pm. We were in the 90 minute queue for Space Mountain (to go on it for the second time! It might be 2013 before I get the chance again!) and it started to snow. Snow. Now it wasn’t a huge deal (a lot of the place is indoors or covered) but it makes me wonder what will happen next time I try to go. Fire rain?
It was an awesome day and I would go again in a heartbeat. There’s talk of us going to Disney Sea in the summer, so let’s all look forward to the inevitable ‘There was a black nova at Tokyo Disney Sea’ blog post…








