Today we are visiting DisneySea, a unique theme park unlike the other Disney theme parks around the world. Walt Disney originally envisioned a nautical counterpart to Disneyland, but it was never built in his lifetime due to problems with Euro Disney.
According to Wikipedia:
Tokyo DisneySea (東京ディズニーシー) is a theme park at the Tokyo Disney Resort located in Urayasu, Chiba Prefecture, Japan, just outside Tokyo. It opened on 4 September 2001, at a cost of 335 billion yen. The Oriental Land Company owns the park, and licenses Disney characters and themes from The Walt Disney Company. With a size of 176-acre (71.22 ha), Tokyo DisneySea attracted nearly fifteen million visitors in 2018, making it the fourth-most-visited theme park in the world.
Wikipedia
The official website is available in English.
Journey
We woke up and had breakfast at the hotel. We have stayed in many “business class” hotels in Japan 9 years ago and know that the quality and variety of what is offered for breakfast can range from basic to amazing. On this scale, the breakfast was at least 8 out of 10. I had a selection of Japanese dishes including my favourite chawan mushi but they even had kare (curry). They also had a full range of Western dishes – I tried the bacon and sausages and they were both delicious. Since I knew I will be skipping lunch I had extra large helpings. The coffee was from a machine and was okay. By the time I finished, I was waddling out with a full belly.
The journey there involved changing across three sets of trains plus a short walk between stations. Once again Apple Maps proved to be very useful. It knew all the underground connections and even gave us a shortcut not officially signposted. We were lucky enough to catch a Rapid train which halved the journey time to the Disney Resort Gateway. After that we boarded the Disney line which featured cute Mickey Mouse shaped windows (like the similar train in Hong Kong).
I noticed on the subway that the Japanese dress very conservatively for work. It was a sea of black and grey clothes – we definitely stood out in pink and purple. But once we got on to the Disney line we finally saw the kawaii outfits. Lots of girls wearing various shades of pink clutching teddy bears (and some were wearing furry outfits too).
I noticed a real trend in girls wearing matching outfits to Disney Sea. And by matching, I mean identical clothes, jackets and even makeup. It was very surreal, but I guess it helps to spot your friends if you ever get lost.
