Trip Report - Universal Studios Japan and Tokyo Disney November 2013

[PrincessInOz]

It was the only one where they told me I couldn't. It may have been the only one where they had you standing around inside supervised long enough to take photos. I took photos through the line of Space Mountain and Star Tours, but there's no supervision there. I also took photos of rides when the cars pulled up while waiting in line (like Snow White, Peter Pan, etc) and that was never an issue, neither was taking photos while on the ride itself. So...maybe it's only for those that have a sort of show? Or maybe it is just StormRider that you can't take photos of?

Maybe. Or it might have been that CM.

 

[FireflyFi]

Maybe. Or it might have been that CM.

Yeah, that too

 

[tinibee]

I got the big x for taking pictures in the Toy Story Mania queue.

 

[Dizzy4DL]

Really enjoying your report! I doubt I'll ever make it to Japan, but it looks/sounds wonderful.

 

[Tanzanite]

Nice! Are you prepared for the heat? I hear it can be pretty brutal.

I remember Akihabara as one of those crrrrrrazzzzzy places in Japan. It was so busy when I went (I think it might have been a Saturday), and there were maids out on the street trying lure people into the cafes, and spruikers on every corner. I remember seeing a stand with some seriously discounted Disney watches.

If your kids are into old video games, Super Potato is a good place to visit. It is hard to find, but worth the effort to see so many old titles and systems. Otherwise, for current games and system any of the Yodobashi or Bic Camera stores are like heaven!

And there is so much other manga stuff available, I didn't really need to go looking (but then it's not really my thing, so I don't know if what I was looking at was all that exciting ) I don't know how old your twins are, but...well, I did come across some really raunchy stuff looking through some of the stores (and I was not looking for that!) It's so weird, I'd walk past display cabinets of cute little animal figurines, and then...oh look at that, figurines of naked girls...

There was a store that is supposed to be the ultimate for manga (I just had to google to find it...) Mandarake. There's a small mention of it here - http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e3003.html

Thank you my son knows Super potato was it as nice as it looks hes so in to used video games. .I know the humidity will kill us but we cant go any other time. Thank you I will look at that store did you buy your Universal tickets on their website before you left? im thinking we will get them before we leave. I wish the Resident Evil hadn't ended my son loves that game. There is a lot of seedy areas in Tokyo .I am enjoying your report so much.

 

[ChrisFL]

DisneySea at night is one reason why I wish I had a good camera for nighttime photos.

The first year I went, in 2009, I had just bought a $200 Kodak camera....was totally worthless in the dark

The next year I went, it was pouring most of the day, so I didn't stay til dark

 

[FireflyFi]

Thank you my son knows Super potato was it as nice as it looks hes so in to used video games. .I know the humidity will kill us but we cant go any other time. Thank you I will look at that store did you buy your Universal tickets on their website before you left? im thinking we will get them before we leave. I wish the Resident Evil hadn't ended my son loves that game. There is a lot of seedy areas in Tokyo .I am enjoying your report so much.

Super Potato was pretty mind blowing. They do have a few stores, but I only went to the one in Akihabara. I hope you're not claustrophobic, because from memory you can only enter the store in this teeny tiny elevator. And then when you get there, it's a reasonably small store, pretty much windowless and with shelves and shelves of games. It felt like a cave lol. It is spread over a few floors, and there are stairs in between. The top floor is an arcade.

Yeah, I bought the Universal tickets before I left. I think I wrote about this in one of the first posts - it's not an easy thing to do! I think if you're just buying basic tickets, there is an English website, but if you want any kind of variation (and there are a lot of them!) you can only get those through the Japanese website. You could try and buy tickets on the day, because even if you buy tickets online, you will still need to exchange them at the ticket booth when you arrive, but you could run into two problems - 1. Depending on the day, they could sell out, and 2. The language barrier will likely be pretty bad at the ticket office (although you lived there for a while, right? May not be a problem for you). Let me know if you have any other questions

 

[FireflyFi]

DisneySea at night is one reason why I wish I had a good camera for nighttime photos.

The first year I went, in 2009, I had just bought a $200 Kodak camera....was totally worthless in the dark

The next year I went, it was pouring most of the day, so I didn't stay til dark

I have a Panasonic DMC-TZ40, and it takes some (IMHO!) pretty good photos with very little effort. It has loads of preset options, but I mostly keep it to HDR during the day.

It does have a night option that is a bit hit and miss...I find the shots that it takes aren't all that sharp but one of the night time options it has is great for theme parks - it will take a series of shots in quick succession and then decide which ones are the best. It works so very well when taking photos of say the castle of space mountain at night when the lights are cycling through different colours. It seems the camera thinks, for example, the castle lit blue and the castle lit pink are two different photos, and keeps both of them. Hopefully I've kept a few so I can show what I mean in later posts

 

[Ebiten]

Could you upload a picture of the illustration/translation paper you got from the Sinbad ride? I'm interested in seeing what it looks like. Thanks!

 

[jsilvers]

Could you upload a picture of the illustration/translation paper you got from the Sinbad ride? I'm interested in seeing what it looks like. Thanks!

See http://www.thirdamendment.com/SindbadsVoyageStoryPaper.pdf.

 

[ShaiBrooklyn]

Just stumbled on to the board from google for the Biohazard thing. Couple questions if you can answer. So the Biohazard The Real was limited? It's not a normal attraction? What about the cafe?

Tokyo Disneyland, how did it fair for a Lilo and Stitch fan? I'm hoping to surprise my mother with a trip next year and she's a huge Stitch fan.

 

[ChrisFL]

Just stumbled on to the board from google for the Biohazard thing. Couple questions if you can answer. So the Biohazard The Real was limited? It's not a normal attraction? What about the cafe?

Tokyo Disneyland, how did it fair for a Lilo and Stitch fan? I'm hoping to surprise my mother with a trip next year and she's a huge Stitch fan.

I'm not the OP but I can tell you that Stitch has his own show at the Tiki Room and its quite cute....MUCH better than Stitch's Great Escape at WDW...Stitch sings songs and plays a ukelele

 

[FireflyFi]

Just stumbled on to the board from google for the Biohazard thing. Couple questions if you can answer. So the Biohazard The Real was limited? It's not a normal attraction? What about the cafe?

Tokyo Disneyland, how did it fair for a Lilo and Stitch fan? I'm hoping to surprise my mother with a trip next year and she's a huge Stitch fan.

Yeah, Biohazard The Real was limited as far as I know. I just had a look at the USJ website, and looks like they're running a Monster Hunter The Real experience for the next few months. So I'd say it's pretty safe to assume it's gone.

I had no idea about the Biohazard Cafe...! I found a link and clip on Destructoid. Looks ok. Not really mindblowing, but if you're a fan, might be worth a look. I probably would have made the effort if I had have known about it at the time. As it was, I finally found a Mos Burger on the day I was in Shibuya, so I still think that was a good day

And as the PP pointed out, Stitch is a regular feature in the park, with the Tiki room, you can find his car parked just outside of that, and he's in the Tiki display. He is very popular in Japan, and is my favourite character as well, so I was looking out for him. I think I actually prefer the Great Escape to the Tiki Room. I haven't seen the original Tiki Room, but it felt a bit hokey. Cute, but the singing birds and stuff...? Ehhh... I prefer the experience that goes with Escape.

There is lots of Stitch themed merchandise! There is also a lot of 'couples' merchandise in Japan. There seems to be a huge emphasis on love and togetherness, with linking necklaces and phone charms that come in pairs and stick together magnetically and what not. In the parks you can find this in some of the plush toys, and I picked up a Stitch and Angel plush where they stick together at the side with magnets. Stitch is also holding a Scrump. It's very cute

 

[FireflyFi]

Ok, let's start with my first full day at Disney.

I checked out of my hotel in Ikebukuro pretty early and made the trek through the subway out to Disney. I had thought there was only one train out to Disney, but this subway seemed a whole lot different to the one I caught the previous Friday night. I could be wrong. Whenever I needed to catch a train that wasn't a 'name' destination (ie, it's not listed as one of the main stops of the line) or required a connection, I'd just hit the Hyperdia website and follow whatever that told me to do. So this subway was a series of - walk down a long, straight corridor, go down an elevator, walk down a long, straight corridor, go down an elevator, and repeat, repeat, repeat. The claustrophobic in me tried not to think about how far underground I had gone (probably not that far in reality...)

This may have felt even longer due to the amount of luggage I was dragging with me. It was still only one suitcase, with a second one pack inside, but it was almost at bursting point. I even had to leave a couple of items of clothing in the last hotel room (I had prepared for that). Also, because I was trying to get to the parks at opening, I was battling peak commuter time. I know a lot of people mention this, but it's really not that bad to deal with. If you've ever dealt with peak commuter time in a train station in any major city, you'll be fine. The same rules apply - try to go with the flow of traffic (most places have an obvious side that everyone typically walks on - careful if you visit both Tokyo and Osaka, one of them sticks to the right, the other sticks to the left), if you're on your own going against it, walk along the walls, and if you have to stop, do so somewhere out of the way. In most train stations in Japan I found this pretty easy because they have lots of pillars throughout the area, and if you stand against the pillar on the opposite side of where the traffic is coming from, you're never in anyone's way. It's like water running past a rock, people just flow around you.

Anyway, getting off track...but sticking to the subject here is the train station you arrive at, JR Maihama:

Look at that beautiful, clear blue sky. I had that pretty much everyday I was in Japan. A couple of things to point out in this photo, on the very left hand side you can see a big brown boxy building, that's Bon Voyage a massive Disney Store:

Just in front of that is a bridge walkway that you can walk over to Disneyland:

And on the right, you can't see it, but in that direction is the Resort Gateway Station, Resort Welcome Centre and Ikspiari. I don't have any photos of those (yet) so you'll just have to trust me.

Because I was travelling alone, and I don't consider spending a lot of money on a hotel room I only really sleep in worth it, I didn't stay at any of the Disney Hotels. However, because of the location of TDR, it doesn't make much sense to stay much further away than at one of the Official Hotels.

I ended up booking Hotel Okura, which cost at least half of what a Disney hotel cost, and, because of the way the resort is laid out and the efficiency of the monorail (arrived every four minutes at peak time, or every six minutes during the middle of the day and probably took maybe 10-15 minutes to do a full loop - not that you'd really do that - just amazingly easy) there really isn't that much benefit. Unless you really like the prettiness of the hotels, and I'll admit, they do look very pretty:

Or the extra *15 minutes* early entry the Official hotels are just as convenient as the Disney hotels.

So, back to arriving. I walked into the Welcome Centre, this place covers both the Disney and Official Hotels. Disney Hotel check in is on ground floor, Official Hotels are checked in downstairs. Japanese efficiency strikes again - from 7:30 or 8:00, you can go in, drop off your bags, and they'll be delivered straight to your room while you're free to hit the parks! Then I walked over to the monorail station. The monorail isn't free, it costs something like 200 or 300 yen per trip, which isn't that bad, but can quickly add up if you're there for a few days and especially if you like to take a break in the middle of the day. The other option is to buy a multi day ticket. I bought the four day ticket, which cost 1400 yen, I think. This gives you a card to swipe rather than a single paper ticket, which is easier to deal with than having to stop at the machine each time, and the card is also super cute and Disney themed.

Here's a few more shots of the monorail, first from the station looking at one approaching:

Theming at the station:

And Christmas theming inside:

In just a few minutes, I reached DisneySea (I never actually spotted the Disneyland entrance from the monorail...):

I'm pretty sure I arrived just on or before opening. I really wasn't prepared for the number of people who were already lined up! I had read other trip reports about arriving an hour before and being surprised at finding 50 or 100 people already waiting. Each day I arrived, and I always arrived just before opening (damn Hotel Okura and their horrible beds) there was probably a few hundred people at each gate! And because I was arriving via monorail, all I could do was look at the window in silent awe, and try and shuffle as quickly as I could (along with everyone else) to the line.

I should add here, the monorail was never really that busy, even if the parks and lines were. I'm not sure quite how that works, unless it's just because the monorail runs so frequently it keeps up with demand. But it was definitely nowhere near some of my experiences on say a WDW bus in terms of cramming people on.

Another thing I'll add here is that each 'gate' has two sections. One line for people buying tickets, and one line for people who already have tickets. Trust me...no one buys tickets. Everyone is already organised. So at each gate there's a great wall of people lined up waiting to get in, and then an equally big space of emptiness lol There are announcements continually playing explaining there's a line for buying and a line for pre paid in Japanese and English (on the last day I was there, they got the English part of it the wrong way around and I lost about my spot in the line by about 100 trying to clarify...grrr...)

It's also worth noting that the only place I could find to pick up an English map was at the ticket box. I saw many CM's walking around with a stack (no exaggeration) of maps in their back pocket, but I never asked if they had any English ones, so maybe they did. Given the number of westerners in the park (so very few, I think I saw four the whole time I was there), I doubt they would, but you never know. As I was on my own, this made getting an English map a bit tricky. Once that gate opens, the line moves very quickly! You do actually walk right past the ticket booth, so each morning I would lean over to the window and make a quick 'Englishmapplease' request as the line was moving lol. If you're there with other people, I would suggest one person gets in line and the other person goes to the window and asks for maps.

I had already planned that the first stop I would make would be to Toy Story Mania, which I missed the Friday before, and have also missed at WDW. I figured being there at opening, I'd have a pretty good chance. So, through the plaza, turn left at Mediterranean Harbor, and head towards American Waterfront. It's not that far, over a bridge and turn the corner into a longish, straight street directly into the ride entrance. It's at this turn of the corner that I was confronted with this:

All of these people were lining up for fastpasses! And can you see just how far the line of heads extends, how tiny they get at the end? And that sort of blank white wall down the end? At the left of that is the fastpass machines. It blew my mind to see that many people heading towards just one thing...! I figured if I tried to line up, by the time I got there the fastpasses would probably be gone. I was probably wrong, and from my later experience with the parks, the machines would have been manned with CMs to get people through as quickly as possible. Still, it would have been a big commitment of time to get just one fastpass.

So, instead of standing around with just about everyone else, I walked over to Journey to the Center of the Earth. On the way, I found the station where you can try for a ticket to Big Band Beat.

Looking at the map, I can't see the place actually marked, but from memory, it is just to the left of the entry to Myserious Island, where it meets the end of the bridge over Mediterranean Harbor. There weren't many people inside, so a CM came over and helped me through the process. There is an English button, and then I think you had to pick which show you wanted, how many people you wanted to secure tickets for and then scan your ticket, and then cross your fingers in hope for a positive Tinkerbell brrrrrr-ing sound And that's what I got! I was kinda...oh yeah, cool...about it, but the elderly male CM gave a little positively surprised reaction, so I figured I was luckier than I first thought!

Then I walked over to Journey, grabbed a fastpass, and then jumped on the ride. Given everyone else was lining up for TSM, the ride was a walk on.

I was a bit nervous about this ride, given I hate drops, and more than that, I hate not knowing when a drop is coming. When I rode Indiana Jones, I had no idea what was going to happen at the end of the ride. So when *spoiler* the ball came rolling towards us, and then the car tilted down, I could feel my body flooding with adrenaline to prepare for a huge drop, when really it was just a little dip and then out to the exit *end spoiler*. I felt ridiculous for my body's overcompensation, but I can't control it.

When you walk into Mysterious Island (where JttCotE is located), it's a big volcano and crater. You can't really see the ride from outside, but it does travel through part of the edge of the crater. This part is open air, and is part of the drop, so you can hear the screams from people riding. This is what I was worried about. So the first time I rode it, I was gripping the front bar with all my strength lol. Turns out it's not that bad. Not as long as, say, Jurassic Park. I'm glad I made myself try because it's such an amazing ride! I won't give a blow by blow of what happens (I don't really remember to that much detail, probably from stressing about the upcoming drop lol) but the whole trip looks incredible. It's all set underground, so there's shiny crystals, and fire and lava, and then you turn a corner and there's a....you'll have to go and find out

Given my fastpass was less than an hour away, I figured I'd hang out in the area. So I took a few photos, booked a table at Magellan's, picked up one of the sausage gyoza buns that are sold nearby, and sat down and took in just where I was:

So, a couple of final notes on these photos - that sausage gyoza was gawdawful in my opinion...! I'm not a big fan of buns at the best of times, and this one really didn't change my mind. Sweet and sticky pastry wrapped around a salty, slimy, chewy roll of meat...bleh...I had a few bites to keep me going, but threw most of it out.

And the ticket to Magellan's - there was a CM waiting out the front, where there is a small desk and computer to make bookings. This amazed me all the way through Japan - the keyboards are all in English! - and so I lined up behind a couple of women who were standing beside the CM giving their details. When it came time to make my booking, I stood in the same spot as the previous people and gave my name. The CM tapped away at the computer, and I admit I was watching what she was doing, but just in a 'what else am I going to do' kinda way, but it must have made her nervous. She stopped tapping and then motioned for me to move and stand on the other side of her. I couldn't see any other reason for her to do this other than to have me standing less 'over her shoulder'. And then when I read the ticket, I realised she must have been struggling with my name. If I've got my Japanese characters (I think these are Katakana) she actually spelled my name as Tiana, or Tiyana. My name is actually Fiona, so it was pretty close. Still, I was chuffed that she gave me the name of Disney Princess Next time I'm booking into a Disney restaurant, I'll have to try Aurora...Snow...Cindy...Jasmine lol

 

[PrincessInOz]

OMG! Look at that line for FP.

And I'm such a noob about Japan. Is that Big Band Beat ticket one of those lottery things I keep reading about (but haven't yet paid too much attention to)? If so, WOW! You sure scored.

 

[FireflyFi]

OMG! Look at that line for FP.

And I'm such a noob about Japan. Is that Big Band Beat ticket one of those lottery things I keep reading about (but haven't yet paid too much attention to)? If so, WOW! You sure scored.

I know, it was just insane! So, if you wanted to do annnnnnything else in the park that morning, you probably would have been able to do it quickly, easily, and multiple times

Yep, Big Band Beat is the lottery. And you only get one chance a day, so if you miss out, you miss out. Before I left I had read (probably on here) that you do have a better chance at getting in to a show if you're trying to win tickets within about half an hour of it starting. I didn't apply that tactic on this occasion, but I probably had better chances being a single. It's pretty easy to fill in a single seat (and seats are allocated for this one, they're not for the show at Disneyland - One Man's Dream II). I think for both these shows the very first show of the day is a walk up, so if you absolutely have to go and don't want to take a gamble, that is an option.

But, you're right, I was lucky. I didn't realise how lucky until I had the lottery experience at Disneyland.

 

[PrincessInOz]

Yup. That's the one I was reading about; but I didn't pay attention to the name of the show. Seems fairly random; but I guess it gives everyone a decent chance of making the show. Well done!

 

[FireflyFi]

So after throwing out the sausage gyoza, I think I still had some time to kill (if my photos are anything to go by):

So these are all photos of 20,000 Leagues. Did I ride it again? Probably! I don't really remember, but I know I did it multiple times while I was there.

I did go into Nautical Gifts and spent a lot of time trying to decide between a Marie or Chesire Cat furry hat / scarf / gloves combo hahaha. I ended up going with Marie, and it is probably my favourite souvenir. First of all, it's so lovely and fluffy! It's very comfortable to wear, and there were a couple of times during these days where there was a little wind chill, and all I had to do was cross the gloves at the end of the scarf, and my chest was all wrapped up and warm. The second thing is, it's just so cute! It's really hard to explain this when my photos don't seem to support it, but the Japanese crowds really get into dressing up at the parks, and I saw so many people with hats and scarfs and capes and multiple ticket holders hanging around their necks. The parks themselves do a great job in supplying many, many items to dress up with for sale haha and the CM's and characters you meet make a lot of positive comments on the things that you wear and it was just so much fun! I have never felt so comfortable just letting my inner child out and playing dress ups for a few days hehehe

Oh, after buying my hat / scarf / gloves combo I spotted this guy:

Oh, look at that, there are two women in that shot wearing the Chesire Cat hat / scarf / gloves combo. The one a little to the left of Goofy is also wearing the leg warmers. And there are few other people wearing headbands. They had some really cute versions of these, themed around the different characters (so not just Mickey ears, although there were MANY variations of these). I thought the one with the Chip and Dale heads on top were pretty cute, and also the ones where you had a large character head on top of your head, and then a little body hung down the back of your head. And then there was the ones that wrap around your head, like Bullseye or T Rex, and velcro under your jaw so that your head was basically sticking out of the characters mouth. Yeah, lots of options! lol

Then rode Journey again, and found this at the end of the exit stairs, which I luckily made it down without falling as my legs were still shaking from the drop lol:

Then it looks like I walked over to the DisneySea Electric Railway:

Just me and about eight other people hehe. I only rode it once, so I don't know what the view is like on the other side, but the setup of the train is great for photos. The seats are bench style in the middle of the train, so you're looking straight out the side. This is Port Discovery:

StormRider is just to the right of this (not pictured) and you can see Aquatopia on the left in the water. I didn't bother with that ride, it didn't look exciting at all.

Oh, here's Storm Rider (and more Aquatopia):

Then it looks like I just walked around for a bit back in American Waterfront (probably after taking a hopeful walk over to TSM and discovering all the fastpass machines covered over lol):

And then Mediterranean Harbor:

And then back to check out SS Columbia:

Whoo, blurry!

My feeling from DisneySea, it's a park you -experience-. It doesn't have a lot of little 'filler' rides, where you can run from one thing to another, but it is laid out in such a way and with such detail, that the joy comes from just walking around and being amazed. It is a very relaxing experience, and I never thought about how much I was walking or how much time I was spending, because I just didn't notice, there was so much to discover.

So I think one of the reasons I walked back to American Waterfront is that I was considering getting a fastpass for ToT. I haven't been on this ride before (eek, drops!) but I had read about the fact that ToT in Japan has a three point seatbelts (or similar) compared to WDW lap sash. So if I was going to take the plunge, it would probably be less scary. In the end, all I did was walk past the machine and go 'ehhhhhhhhNO' lol

 

[FireflyFi]

I didn't walk all the way around the ship, just up the main stairs in middle. I looked down the sides of the ship, and it is open to explore, but I couldn't see that there was anything all that interesting. If the detail in the rest of the park is anything to go by, it probably is worth a look, but I was feeling the pressure to keep moving.

So I walked into the ship on the 'ground' floor, and walked out at the second (there is a platform of stairs next to it) where, turning to the left, I spotted this:

Here's the rest of the crowd (my guess is that they had been there an hour already...)

An announcement came over to say the show would start in half an hour and, not wanting to give away my position and have crowds gather around me and CMs tell us all to move on, I thought I'd kill a little time and then sneak back hehe. So, turned around on the same platform for this photo:

One day, ToT. One day. (Maybe hahaha)

I also grabbed a couple of snacks. These guys:

They're custard buns! They're cold, and one was filled with strawberry custard, one plain custard and one green tea custard (which, after a bite, quickly got dumped into the bin bleh). At this point I was *still* hungry (I seemed to be constantly hungry while at Disney, don't know why!) and cold, so I found a nearby popcorn cart, which was salt and black pepper and was so delicious!

I should add, it's probably not news to anyone that there are many different flavours of popcorn available at TDR, it's one of the things it's famous for. However, I only noticed yesterday when looking at the map again that they actually list the locations of all the popcorn carts along with the flavours they have. Doh! Ah well, next time.

So after this I snuck back up onto the platform, and I obviously wasn't the only one to make this discovery. There were three other people up there. I didn't want to push in, but a woman turned around and spotted me and motioned for me to come over and stand next to her (love how friendly the Japanese are ). Here's a few shots from the show:

I don't really know what the show was supposed to be about. Something about being served food from different cultures...? The characters appearing were dressed up in costumes from different countries / cultures.

After the show I walked over to Cape Cod.

There isn't much to see there, unless you're into Duffy, in which case you've probably discovered heaven. It is only a small area, but only has a few shops and food outlets. I didn't look in any of them as they were crammed with Duffy fans. I did find this guy, though:

And I always wanted to see this, and it seems the characters in Japan are extra talented, as he didn't need to hold the autograph book right up to his character eyeball to achieve this:

And keeping with Japan's love of all things love, Thumper also brought his girlfriend:

At this point, this was only my second random character experience in Japan, but the trend continued throughout my trip - they didn't want to come near me I would try and wriggle my way into getting a photo with them, along with everyone else, but they would always turn to other people and pose with them. It was a little tricky being alone and trying to achieve this, so maybe that was it, although they did have handlers that were taking photos for people. I didn't have the experience that others have reported where people are shoving and grabbing for a photo. It was all very polite, although still a little pushy.

I kept walking back along Lost River Delta:

This is the waiting area for Mystic Rhythms, and it's probably an hour and a half before the next show at this point:

And then more character spotting:

Where I was ignored again (sad face) A few steps away I found a meet and greet spot with Donald. So, giving in to my frustration, I lined up for half an hour for a photo with him in his sombrero. There were some pretty displays to look at while waiting (in addition to the fun in watching other people get shots with him).

I have a couple of photos of my meet with him from my camera - when I first walked up to him, he stroked my scarf thingy and gave me a big hug hahaha - as well as the professional photo, but I might keep those for myself hehe

 

[PrincessInOz]

Loving your photos. Thanks for sharing.

Seems like a few cultural differences in Japan like the way they 'queue' for characters. Shame you didn't get in the pushy pushy frame of mind. Those character costumes are lovely.
I know you're posting about food that you tried and binned; but I'm enjoying seeing them and hope to be able to enjoy them myself one day.

Disney Sea looks gorgeous.