Tokyo Disney Sea - Day 7

For our final day in Tokyo, we had told the girls we had a surprise for them. We decided that it was best to keep it for the end of the trip (a token of appreciation for good behavior) - and we told them the night before we went to the park. SO exciting!!

So, in order to get to Tokyo Disney from our hotel we had to take the subway - all in all, the trip took us about an hour (with walking etc.) and the train dropped us off at a connection with the "Disney Line"


Here are the girls on the Disney Monorail - unfortunately I didn't get a good photo of the windows which were shaped like none other than MICKEY.

Here is Daddy Brad and his girls making their way into the Happiest Place on Earth.

Inside the entrance of Disney Sea - a giant globe (we have a bit of an obsession in our home with maps and globes, so this was a great treat!)

 
The water area (this is where the night light show would be held)

Right on our way in we came across Jimney Cricket!

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (our first ride of the day, completely scared Olivia to death)

Made our way into Ariel's playground - and a version of the "teacups"
A photo before the ride began...

And I had to add this - because they were SOOOO funny - giggling the whole time.

The little kid roller coaster (the girls' first ever). Loved it so much that when Olivia and Brad went on later to the "big" roller coasters (where Olivia got to go on one that went upside down), Alessandra and I came back here and had to ride this one 3 more times, so she could sit in the front.

A 2 story carousel in Aladdin Land (I don't remember what it was really called)

Now, a note on the locals and their love of Disney. In truth, I have never seen anything like it. When we got into the park area we started noticing people with their Disney items with them - bringing them INTO the park.

At one point Daisy Duck was in a spot where you could take your photo with her. The girls wanted to do that, so we waited. While in line one of the "Daisy Handler's" told us it would be 20 minutes and that we could take 1 photo - and that was all. These two young women in front of us were waiting also... Please notice their Daisy items...

They got up to Daisy and I figured they would have the staff member take their photo, but NO, they took a photo of Daisy - by herself. And then proceeded to have her autograph one of the other MANY photos they had of her in their photo album that they whipped out of their Daisy bag. Fascinating.

Our girls and the coveted 1 photo rule.

Alessandra posing outside of the roller coaster exit that Brad and Olivia went on

And both girls with a few of their new friends.

Later on in little Mexico (again, forgetting the name of this part of the park) Donald came through with a train of people. Our kids waved at him and he grabbed their hands and off the went... we caught up with them down the way a bit..

Happy girl.

Alessandra and Brad

and into little America (or something like that)

We stopped at the fruit stand for a snack and Lo and Behold - check that out... fresh pineapple from the Hudson River Valley...  teehee

Water from the Hudson River Basin also... If only it was Kingston City water...

And check this out - Captain Jack Sparrow. (Olivia had no idea who he was, since she hasn't seen the movies, but she was pretty stoked about the "pirate guy"

On the way home... A great ending to a wonderful vacation.

Tokyo - Day 6

I bet you thought I was never going to get back to our trip to the Mainland...

Day 6. The thing we realized about Tokyo is that there is SO much to do, that making the decision on what to see is half the battle. Since we had seen some royal landmarks and some important historical goodies, we decided to venture out a bit.

We took the subway (have I mentioned how much I love the public transportation system in Tokyo yet?) up to Ueno Zoo. I consider myself a bit of a zoo snob (thank you Jack Hannah and The Columbus Zoo), and since living in Asia have decided it is best to put all of my expectations aside and just see how it goes.

The Ueno Zoo is inside a larger park complex. As we approached it we assume that at some point there MUST have been a Panda here, because there were statues of Panda all over the place. Here (however) is the sign at the gate where be bought tickets...

The girls were happy as clams with the fake plastic panda to sit on.

And now we digress. There is really nothing more funny in Japan as the signage - so please excuse my random photos of signage at the zoo.

We spotted this one outside of a monkey cage. I assume it is telling us not to feed the monkey because he will then get sick... ??

Here is Alessandra outside of the tiger enclosure - he was pretty close there.

Again...more  signage...

Comparing ourselves to gorilla statues.

And, mom's everywhere - taking the kids to the zoo for the day.

A group of school children - LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the matching hats. You see this all over Okinawa also, matching colors.

I have to say I didn't know these guys existed.

Don't pull a rope of the flamingo's might escape.

This was my favorite. There were these trees hanging over the walkway from the sloth enclosure - apparently the sloth's would go into those trees? And poop would fall on you? hmmm

And then we found this giraffe. He was causing quite a stir as he was eating leaves out of the rhino's enclosure next to his.

Olivia imitating his large tongue.

Thank you, I will be sure not to stick my finger in the sharp teeth of this animal.

After lots of walking at the zoo and park, Alessandra passed out on the way to our next destination.

The Shibuya Intersection
The Shibuya intersection is supposedly one of the busiest intersections in the world. We decided we had to see it for ourselves.

An awake Alessandra getting a "tall American" view

Olivia's vantage point

AND, you didn't think I could talk about this little place without video did you?
You are in luck!!

All in all, the video really didn't do it justice. We walked across the street 3 or 4 times - never getting bumped or anything. Really incredible that THAT many people can be in one place at one time and not run into one another.

On our way back, I caught a photo of the map of the subway system. Talk about an enormous system - amazing.

Another reason why a college education (and beyond) is helpful for a stay at home mom.

Yes, I painted that on Alessandra's face.

And I painted that too.

All of my time in college helped give me the patience to paint little pictures on my children's faces (and 2 more small girls that live in the residence above me). Not the creativity mind you (because in truth, it all was shown in a book). For a few brief moments (and with the help of Laurie's awesome face painting kit), I was the coolest mom anywhere. Thanks to knowing how to read, deciper instructions and be able to make something look really groovy on the face of a kid.

(and no, loyal readers, I haven't forgotten you. I WILL finish my posts on Tokyo this week).