My New Year’s Resolutions:
1. Try to get better at doing my makeup and hair. At least run a straightener to my hair before work.
2. Don’t kill feet with crappy shoes.
3. Be better at Japanese.
4. Be nicer and more helpful around the house.
5. Come up with a menu for dinner that is not “thai curry from a box” or “mabo tofu (from a box).”
6. Blog more?
In the last two weeks, I have succeeded at pretty much none of these, but I still have another 50 left.
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Back to blogging about our Christmas break! This year we drove down to Glendale with my parents to spend a few days in their neck of the woods. They live in a new apartment building in a super convenient area with shopping and food and a Tivo– I could have spent months there. (Only thing missing: cats.) Too bad Glendale doesn’t recycle (??? what is up with that).
One of our big plans for going to LA was to hit up Disneyland in Anaheim. And we did! Except when we got there Disneyland was sold out. fff! My poor dad caught the announcement on the Electronic Sign That Should Be Placed Before the Drop-Off Area Not After and swung back around to pick us up: denied by Disney. We went home and fell asleep on my parents plush couch, and made plans to go later in the week.
So we made our triumphant return two days later, this time getting to the park before it opened and lining up with the (other?) Disney crazies. It was freezing. This was actually a feature of my entire trip to California– I was cold the entire time. Cold inside the house, cold outside the house, cold in Glendale, cold in Disneyland. I made the mistake of associating California with warmth and only brought my light for 60-70 degree weather coat, so when it was in the 40s and 50s every. single. day, I was appropriately freezing. Anyway, we got in the park no problem and, naturally, Noji’s first comment: “Is that the castle?”
In Tokyo Disneyland, the central castle is Cinderella’s Castle, like at Disney World– it’s 200 feet tall. So Sleeping Beauty’s tiny pink castle is a bit of a different first impression (charming as it is). We wanted to get through both parks though, so we hurried to get a FP for Indiana Jones (?? we ride this all the time at Disney Sea but whatever, I like the walk-through to the ride), rode Matterhorn after freezing for an hour. I thought after we got off that maybe screaming on the ride with the dry air made my throat feel scratchy, but instead it was the beginning of a cold that lasted a week! Lovely. We wandered around the park for a little while, then decided to get on Haunted Mansion (? another ride we have in Tokyo but the outside of the house is different!) and ended up in front of a white guy and his Japanese girlfriend, speaking in Japanese. I felt copied! And my veil of being able to gossip about the people surrounding us in Japanese compromised. What are the odds?
Then, we got yelled at by a cast member. “Keep going!” She huffed and puffed and then left the line because “someone isn’t doing their job” and my Disney experience was officially tainted. Well no, but there were a lot of things about Disneyland that made me a bit wistful for Tokyo’s, which I’ll go into later. Haunted Mansion was pretty much the exact same, including that weird few minutes where they stop the ride during the ride (why is this?). We rode Indiana Jones (also pretty much the same, i.e. awesome), then decided to split to California Adventure.
Man, I love California Adventure. It’s like Disney Sea, not as crowded and more fun rides plus it’s covered in CALIFORNIA!!! We got lunch (not so good for me tbh), ate about 18 churros (better than Japan), rode Tower of Terror and peed ourselves from fright. It was so much better than the Tower of Terror in Japan, although the story is a bit unnecessarily creepy. By this time, it was starting to get cold and I was feeling progressively worse, but we explored the park and toughed it out for a few more rides. Noji’s favorite was Soarin’ Over California, natch, but we never got to ride the Toy Story ride– we waited a few hours for different rides already that day and I don’t think I could have handled another 90 minute wait. As we puttered around feeling tired and cold, we asked Guest Services for a Amtrak schedule and realized that if we wanted to get home and have dinner with my parents, we had to leave… right then! So we ran to a taxi, got to the station, and took the longest, slowest train ever. We crawled for no discernible reason. Noji is no longer allowed to complain about the subway by our house after riding Amtrak. But then we got to Glendale, had some delicious baby back ribs, and the next day we were on a plane back to the bay!
I hate being the one who’s like “Well, but Tokyo Disneyland is more fun,” but there is a lot of stuff that TDL does much better. The most noticeable for me was crowd control. TDL is almost always busy– and by busy, I don’t mean “wait in line an hour,” I mean lines that are 320 minutes long. Of course, it is crazy but the craziness generally has a place, as well as several cast members who are busy directing people here and there. The day we went was a crowded day for Disneyland, but whereas everything seems relatively corralled in TDL, Disneyland didn’t feel as well-contained. New Orleans Square is half taken over by snaking lines for Pirates of the Caribbean, lines have to be broken up so traffic can pass through them etc. Most of it was relatively minor and I would guess that the design of the park only allows for so much flexibility, but it impacts the overall experience and how much you feel the crowds. I saw a few rude cast members, which was unfortunate too. Japanese service can be very robotic and fake-nice/fake-polite, but rude it is not. In general, there was less of a fantasy, special “Disney” experience in Anaheim than in Tokyo– though the rides are def superior.
My biggest surprise was the merchandise– or lack thereof. Tokyo Disneyland could give Disneyland a lesson in consumerism; the sheer amount of goods at TDL is incredible. It changes depending on the time of year as well as the theme of the park (which changes on a quarter system), so in October you can buy Mickey-shaped ghosts and pumpkins, while the first week of January will have Mickey-shaped daruma and bunny themed New Years goods. Supposedly right now they’ve switched to Girl’s Day. It’s sick actually– but for Disney fans, it’s one of the main motivations to go back to the park. New goods, new decorations, new theme. I’m sure there’s a perfectly good reason why Anaheim Disneyland doesn’t do the same (armchair media studies sez: Americans don’t like cute things?), but I felt underwhelmed with the selection which was:
1. Things that light up
2. Clothes
3. Mickey ears
4. Stuffed animals/dolls for children
There were some delicious Mickey-shaped candied apples (for like 14 bucks) and I got a keychain from the Tower of Terror ride, but mostly I just wanted to eat some churros. To be fair, we weren’t really there long enough to really judge. But I wish I had a day off to go to Disney Sea right about now.
All that said, pictures!
Coming into the park.
Haunted Mansion was still in Nightmare Before Christmas mode.
Aforementioned expensive but yummy looking candied applies.
Where Walt Disney’s apartment is!
Entering California Adventure!
One of the few characters we saw in the parks.
Tried to take our own pictures…
But then a stranger offered!
Sunset over Disney.
Well, that was long.
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