Tokyo Disneyland

Yesterday was my birthday, and, as it tends to happen, I turned a year older. Sweet. 
As it turns out I've been treated to a visit to Tokyo Disneyland!
It was a good time. And really, if you've been to a Disneyland outside of Tokyo, it's probably very similar, except with less Asian people walking around. The stores probably wouldn't sell Disney-themed chopsticks, either, I guess. But for all other intents and purposes, you would probably have had a very similar experience to the one I had if you went to the ones in California, Florida, Hong Kong or Paris. But I hadn't! I was a Disneyland virgin until just now. All things considered, that's kind of surprising, seeing as I live four train stations away from Disneyland.

You can't deny the castle's got quite an impact.

The obligatory picture.

 Japanese people living in Tokyo have all been to it at some point or another. Whenever I told people I had never went, it would kind of come to them as some sort of shock.
 Many teenagers and young adults make it part of a once a year thing to visit the resort. Tokyo being so big, the result of this is Disneyland being the 3rd most visited theme park in the world. You can kind of guess about the two first, right? I'll spare you the trouble, they're its sister parks in California and Florida.
 Just like its sister parks elsewhere in the world, Disneyland is split into different parts: World Bazaar (the equivalent of Main Street in the USA), Adventureland, Westernland, Critter Country, Fantasyland, Toontown, and Tomorrowland.
 As an added bonus, I was given a sticker to put on my coat saying it was my birthday, so that most of the staff I came across would say "Happy Birthday!" I tended to forget I was wearing it until I was reminded every twenty minutes or so. "Oh, thanks!" I would reply meekly. I could imagine how it would really make a big difference for a child.

The Incredibles!

Unlike many other big theme parks, the focus in Disneyland is on theme rather than thrills. For instance, I feel like you wouldn't give a shit encountering the mascot of Six Flags, but the Disney characters have a certain weight to them. See Donald Duck, standing right over there? Millions of people around the world would scream or do crazy things to stand beside him. Your heart kind of has the right to skip a beat at the sight of him, and the same goes for all the other characters, too. I was particularly cut off guard by the Storm Troopers. It took me a second to remember Disney owned them, too.

"It's my birthday too."

 I did get a chance to try lots of the main attractions, such as the all-in-the-dark roller coaster Space Mountain (130 minute line included), the very well-known It's A Small World, Pirates of the Caribbean and the Haunted Mansion amongst a few others, but it seems to me like the most exciting thing about Disneyland is just the joy of, well, being in Disneyland amongst a bunch of other people having a good time, and just basking in the overall general atmosphere.
 No where else do you get to see a bunch of young people wearing funny hats in pairs or in large groups. Woop, there go the Daisy Duck headband girls, and the potato-head boys over there, and the expectedly frequent Mickey-Minnie couple. It's not every day you get to see a hundred little girls dressed like princesses gathered in front of a fantasy castle. Looks like someone's childhood dreams are coming true.
Of course, I bought a hat too. Fantasia, hurray!

Share a highlight? Well, every evening around 7:30pm, Disneyland hosts the Electrical Parade, a 25-minute long parade with intensely illuminated floats. It was kind of cold, sitting down in one spot in the frigid night air, but I forgot all about it once the parade started. Every float carries its own character and matching music, and it's pretty amazing to see how well the actors play them. It's just genuinely fun to see who'll pop up next, and how ridiculously good-looking the actors and actresses are. Holy shit, Prince Charming.

After that, we were about to head home, when suddenly, fireworks.
That more or less concluded my visit to Tokyo Disneyland, and I'm glad I got the chance. I mean, I really wouldn't have been able to go alone. It'd have been quite lonely.

Oh, pro-tip: don't go on a weekend. I can't imagine how much worst the lines would've been. Probably very.
On a side note, if you're a very big fan of Disney, you may or may not already know that Tokyo is the only city in the world to have a DisneySea park on top of its Disneyland park. I haven't been there, but that's an adventure for another day, eh?