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It has been more than a year since our honeymoon in Japan. We were there for about 10 days from mid-March, most of which were spent in Tokyo. I’m hoping by documenting our trip, we will help other travellers to plan their trip better!

So here we go…

Day 1: Tokyo Disney Sea

We arrived at Narita International Airport, Tokyo at about 7 am in the morning. And our first stop for the day? Tokyo Disney Sea at Urayasu.

Yup, that was my clever planning of “oh look, Urayasu lies between Narita and Tokyo, so let’s go there when we arrive”! In hindsight, that probably wasn’t the best idea. We boarded on the Airport Shuttle Bus that took us straight to the Disney Resort area. We have already booked our Disney Sea tickets online (I’d recommend that) to skip the queueing crowd.

We stayed at one of the hotels within the Disney Resorts area which was reasonably cheaper than the Disney-branded hotels. More on the hotel later. We didn’t have to check in by going to the hotel, which was awesome. Instead, at Disney Sea, there is an area where you can check in to any of the hotel and leave your luggages with them so you don’t have to waste your time. Once we’ve done that, it was time to explore Disney Sea!

We tried (and I think successfully) to at least walk past every world listed above. Here were some of the highlights:

We were there when Disney Sea was celebrating its 10th year Anniversary. They had special stuff happening all around the place, but I’d assume you’d just have a different special events happening at any other time. That’s what you’d expect from Disney!

When it was time for lunch, we saw a long line of Japanese queueing for these gyoza hot dogs. Yup, basically, dumpling skin and dumpling filling but in the shape of a hotdog, or something like that. After about 20 minutes of queueing (no kidding), we finally ordered our gyoza-dogs. (We ordered three because we decided that it would be crazy to go in the queue again just in case this was really that good!) They were yummy, but not sure if it was worth the hype. But then again, after a while we realised that the Japanese queue for everything. So maybe we shouldn’t have had high expectations in the first place.

At various times during the day, they had a parade by the river side where Mickey and Goofy and friends would wave at the hundreds of visitors from their ship. We had this special 10th Anniversary “Mickey Mouse hat” ship when we were there.

As you’d expect, if you would like to have the best spot, best to line up early before the parade time starts. We didn’t, but we still managed to see enough anyway. One thing worth mentioning was: be good to the Disney traffic police who kindly tried to organise the crowd; it must be a tough job for them!

One thing I really love to do is people watching. Not in a creepy way or anything, I just love seeing the style and fashion, the facial expressions and the total kawaii-ness of the Japanese. And you know what’s cool? Most of the Disney visitors were local tourists and yet they looked way more excited than us and even bought way more merchandise than us! I love the enthusiasm!

My favourite section at Disney Sea would have to be the Mermaid Lagoon. Either because I’ve always loved The Little Mermaid, or because they really looked magical. The Mermaid Lagoon is located underground (or should I say, under the sea?! *wink*) and was lit up with this dark bluish magical tinge. There are a couple of kids-safe rides that we didn’t try, but everything just looks nicely themed and all pretty! Enough words, here are the photos:

After all the magic, we were hungry (and tired!) so we decided to go to one of the Disney themed restaurants within Disney Sea. Expect cuteness and themed food but not the tastiest or cheapest meal you’d have. They had half of a boiled egg with Mickey silhouette yolk. How awesome!

After we filled our tummy, we walked a little bit more around the area before hopping into one of the boats that took us around. Halfway on our boat trip, the sun started to set and the sky changed its colour. It was a rather pretty sight!

We then wondered if we should wait for the night show of fireworks display and more. However, the hubby was not used to the cold (it was pretty cold) and decided we should probably retreated back to the hotel instead. So we bid goodbye to Tokyo Disney Sea… It was magical indeed, if only we weren’t so jetlagged.

Now let’s start talking about the hotel and its surrounding area. We stayed at Sheraton Grande, a few stops away on the Disney train – still within the Disney Resorts. I would highly recommend it for 3 reasons: (1) Convenience, (2) Large hotel rooms, (3) Much more affordable than other hotels around the area. And then there are other pros like good amenities, great view (we could see the fireworks from our room) and they’ve got a small convenient store as well as a gaming area next to the hotel.

The next morning, once we checked out from the hotel, we visited Ikspiari, a shopping area within Disney Resorts. They had a reasonably sized food court with plenty of choices. This being our first proper non-Disney-related meal in Japan, we opted for omurice (omelette rice). Very Japanese indeed! Prices and quality were pretty normal for food courts.

And that was it! We took one last ride on the Disney train, themed with Mickey Mouse shaped windows and handles. We weren’t all Disney-ed out, but one day at Disney would definitely be enough for us! :)

Tip: Going to Disney on the first day of your Japan trip might not be such a good idea after all. Disney requires excitement and energy. Although we were totes excited, we couldn’t say we had the most energy that day. After all, we just touched down after a 7 hour flight, we didn’t expect the cold and we were very jetlagged. So there you go, learn from us.

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Note on the type of travellers we are: The hubby loves to just walk around and immerse himself into the culture, getting lost in the process and tasting local foods. I, on the other hand, love photography and I love people watching. Oh and I’m a keen observer of all things kawaii. We both appreciate the beauty of nature, but are more the type who love big cities and the hustle bustle. Castles and temples won’t make us go WOW! as much as Kit Kat in different flavours.

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The rest of the days of our March 2012 Japan trip:

• Day 1: Tokyo Disney Sea, Urayasu
• Day 2: Tokyo (rest day)
• Day 3: Hakone
• Day 4: Kyoto
• Day 5: Kyoto and Kyoto (rest day)
• Day 6: Tokyo – Harajuku, Yoyogi Park, Akihabara
• Day 7: Tokyo – Shinjuku
• Day 8: Tokyo – Ikebukuro
• Day 9: Tokyo – Imperial Palace & Shibuya
• Day 10: Tokyo – Odaiba

Have you been to any Disneyland? What do you like most about being in Disney?