So, what was one to do with all this free time? Well, I didn't know if it was really going to happen, but it did; I went to Disneyland! Hurray!
Since being in Japan, I have heard a lot about the celebrations Disneyland throws for different holidays. Between all the pictures people have been posting on Facebook and the commercials and posters all over the trains, I knew it was pretty spectacular. I had to go. But, there is nothing more sad than going by yourself to an amusement park. So, I found two other girls at my dorm to come too.
We wanted to try and beat the rush of the Disney crowds, so we left for Disneyland at about 7ish. Okay, maybe closer to seven thirty ish- I may have forgotten batteries for my camera. That would have been tragic. Anyway, I had been told that by 11 am tickets at Disney are sold out. Did you know that tickets at Disney sell out? I didn't. So, we wanted to arrive when the park opened. We got there about the time we wanted, and quickly started snapping pictures. I mean, I've been to Disneyland before. But, I've never been to Disneyland during a holiday!
The statues were amazing. I'm not sure if they are there all year round, but they were super "spooky" just for the season! And, even if I hadn't been impressed by the decorations, I would have been blown away by all the costumes! Almost everyone that came to Disneyland was dressed as a Disney character (as per Disneyland's rules). Some of the costumes were so amazing, I couldn't tell if they were the park's actors or not! It was definitely worth seeing!
But of course, we went to Disney for the rides too! And, we were surprised that there really wasn't that long of lines at any of them. Only for Space Mountain was there really a wait, and we were able to circumvent it by getting a fast pass and coming back later. I had never used a fast pass before, but I loved it. In front of each ride, there is a machine. You scan your ticket and it spits out a receipt with the time on it. You can come back at that time and circumvent the waiting line!
I probably should have taken more pictures of the rides' signs, but I forgot. I get excited and forget I have a camera in my hand sometimes. But, besides the Haunted Mansion (which is themed after the Nightmare Before Christmas here in Japan) and the Spinning Tea Cups (which had one of my dorm mates declaring she was never riding them again) we also went on Space Mountain, Pirates of the Caribbean, Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters, Roger Rabbit's cab ride, and the carousel.
Unfortunately the Big Thunder Mountain, Star Tours, and Splash Mountain were under repair. Maybe not so unfortunately Small World was also under repair. I was super excited to go on Roger's ride. I made my dorm mates watch "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?" last weekend, so it was fun to get the references on the ride. And, Buzz Lightyear's Astro Blasters is always of favorite of mine. How can it not be when it's interactive!
Oh! And then I made the mistake of going to the 3D, interactive theater. In the states, I think the film they play is based off of "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids". Here, the film is called "Captain EO". It's a Michael Jackson film, produced by the director of Star Wars. In which Michael Jackson has magical dancing powers. If you want to see a really bad 80's movie, I would recommend it. Personally, once was enough and I will never set foot in that theater again. The interactive part was cool though. The chairs shook, lights in the theater flashed, and air was blown in our faces ( you really wouldn't understand why unless you've seen the movie).
But, as one of my friends put it, you don't really go to Disneyland for the rides. You go for the atmosphere. So, a lot of our time was spent browsing through the shops in the park. Which we then took silly pictures of ourselves in. I mean, some of the merchandise was crazy! But, I suppose in Japan you can sell cat costumes and actually have people buy them. We had lots of fun trying on all the outrageous headbands and hats. I did buy some souvenirs. Though, I was at war with myself for a long while over the second one. I probably would have walked away without it if I didn't have two very helpful dorm mates with me. I bought a heffalump. As in, a stuffed animal. Goodness knows I don't need another stuffed animal. And, I really wasn't all that into Winnie the Pooh growing up either. But, he was so cute! And, all the other stuffed animals I have sitting on my bed back in the states are souvenirs too! Plus, I pretty sure I have an odd number- which means I needed to round it out. And he was really cute! I really need to get this impulse buying thing under control.
Going to Disneyland on Halloween would have been very similar to going on any other day of the year if it hadn't been for one thing: the parade. I think its actually called "Welcome to Spookyville". Which is kind of funny, because it really isn't all that spooky, but the costumes are pretty cool! Though, I had to stand way back so as not to freak out over the mascots. Because, if you know me you know I have a deathly fear of mascots.
Even cooler than seeing the floats was seeing the audience's reaction. You can tell some of them must come every year, because most of them knew the song and dance that the people in the parade were doing. I mean, some of the conductors of the parade were encouraging people to get involved, and the crowd didn't disappoint. I clearly didn't get the memo telling me where the dance rehearsal was. I swear, with the costumes the people were wearing, they could have been in the parade and I wouldn't have noticed that they were actually actors!
We stayed at the park for close to ten hours, and hardly ever sat down. There was just so much to see! And so much to do! But it was great to stay until the sun went down, there is a different feeling in the air once the sun sets. All the lights come on, and Cinderella's castle lights up. Plus, that when the people in costumes get down to serious picture taking. Which is pretty fascinating to watch. A lot of the male characters were actually girls dressed in boys' costumes. So these "lovey-dovey" picture shots were kind of odd to watch. My dorm mates and I had a long discussion about the pros and cons of dressing up as a male character. One of the pros- the costumes are probably a lot cheaper than the girls' costumes. Cons- you have to be in every picture because of the severe limit of boy characters.
We left before the fireworks, which was supposed to be the big finale. Before coming, we had decided to watch "Nightmare Before Christmas" as our big 'horrah' to Halloween back at the dorms. And, with an hour commute back to the dorms, we really needed to leave by 6. We made a stop for some junk food, and then proceeded to the dorm. Where we said our farewell to the holiday by watching Tim Burton's Halloween classic. Hope everyone else's Halloween was as fun as mine was!
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