Kawaii Amusement

I had planned to go to DisneySea again and had persuaded Montana to celebrate her birthday with me there!

I ended up taking a new an exciting route and Odaiba gave me the present of these colourful gates and the most futuristic bridge.

And then we were there! And we ran into Jafar weee!

I was dressed as Honey Lemon that day! Aladdin was hanging out too but his line was too long so we headed for the anniversary show instead.

We had delicious ice lollies and went on Indiana Jones twice since the line was so short after our fastpass! We had a really good group that second time and nailed our pose yessss.

Journey to the Center of the Earth was open all day and we had gotten fastpasses early. We went to the Into Shadowland show (which was super original and very Japanese and Disney at the same time) and I could feel my nerves starting up - but I did it! I got on the ride and afterwards I was actually relieved at how not-bad the drop was. And the details in the ride are so great!

We went on a few Ariel rides since the Mermaid Lagoon was empty and then headed for a spot for Fantasmic. It was an odd show that isn't as great as the Anaheim version - and Maleficent was even broken on the night we were there haha.

But Midway Mania's wait wasn't too long, so we did that just at park closing! And it was great! The line system is gorgeous and much better than the LA one.
The Tokyo Disney Resort is close to Narita and there were so many airplanes flying over the skies - I snapped this shot of one.

And with that, it was adieu to DisneySea.

And hello to DisneyLand! I had planned to go to this park with some couchsurf people, but they ended up going to Sea instead - worked out tho, because Montana ended up having so much fun in Sea that she decided to come to this park too!

I met Scrooge?!

The castle was even prettier than I remembered. I got there in good time to get a late Monsters Inc. fastpass and get a good seat for the Dream Up! parade. I was so disappointed with the costumes from DisneySea but my god... the Disneyland ones were to die for. Cute in a distinctly Japanese way, well executed and vibrant af.

The parade was also very long! So I had tons of time to gawk at the characters and parade performers.  I LOST MY MIND at the Peter Pan float where Wendy and Peter BLOODY FLIES in the cutest choreography possible. My mouth fell open, I'm so happy I hadn't seen photos or videos before going.

The Pooh elephants were probably my favourite costumes, my god.

Montana came a little late, so I did the parade and met up with the Parrs before getting to see her. And then we grabbed popcorn and mochi!

In ToonTown some old friends appeared and I lost my shit at Max. I tried to do the perfect catch or Eye-2-I but he didn't get it - odd to not train the cast in their movie's contents. Toontown's cuteness made up for it tho.

I loved this gag machine. We ran into the parade again and it was fun to see it in a different setting!

We then went inside the castle to see the Cinderella exhibit which was surprisingly big and artistic - I really liked all the different interpretations of the story. And the hidden Tim and Bum was too cute.

 Night fell as we entered Stitch's Tiki Room and took a ride around the park with the train and then we settled in for the night time parade. It was gorgeous too! I really liked that they included the Blue Fairy.

 We made it on the Small World ride before it closed and waited around for the fireworks which were cancelled last minute. 3 days in Disney and no fireworks - I have rotten luck haha.

Saturday I met up with Laila in Koenji and we went around to see the acts for the "Circus festival". And we also did some vintage shopping!

From one festival we headed to Odaiba to meet up with some of Laila's friends at the Oktoberfest. And afterwards we went to Nikku fest, Pudding fes and Hawaii fes - 5 festivals in one day, wow.

I got to see the Gundam change! It was cool but I've never watched any Gundam haha so it dind't really mean anything to me.

We missed going up in the observatory by like 10 minutes :( My Digimon heart cried.

Sunday was my second to last day and it was that morning that Tomo-kun asked if I could eat dinner with him that night. I had planned the next two days so tightly that I had to say no, bu I felt confused why he hadn't asked me earlier - I had stayed with him for 10 days and had asked if he wanted to eat together some time in the beginning. 

So I headed to Roppongi to see the museum and the spider.

And I saw some trendy teens taking snaps of each other. Power couple !
I then met up with Montana at the Starbucks for a final hangout around Shibuya.

I showed her the Akira wall that I had noticed a week prior but hadn't seen close up.

And we went to the Disney Store and Shibuya 109 and got all our girly snaps in.

I then went by Yoyogi to see the Rockabillies and 2nd time. It coincides with a sketch meetup I had found, so I went to hang out with some sketching people. I was so tired of meeting new people by then, but because of the mutual interest in art I still felt up for it for this specific occassion.

My second to last stop of the day was to head north of the city to a place from one of my favourite manga, Ao Haru Ride. I can't explain why I like it so much, but it deals with connecting to others in a very meaningful way. It also happened to be a riverbank that looks like a location from many manga and anime so I felt like 12-year old me would be proud.

I stayed until dark when I was accompanied by a nearly full moon and some bat friends.

Last stop was meeting up with Kyle to catch up one final time at the MilkyWay cafe. We got some sweet parfaits that satisfied my kawaii hungry heart. I really like that Kyle was game for anything and didn't shy away from the cutesy things in Japan. We ended up going to Roppongi to eat afterwards though and I introduced him to Okonomiyaki, which he fell in love with.

My final day wasn't any less ambitious. I went down south to Kamakura which ended up being much more of a real, difficult hike than I had anticipated. When my maps told me something was 200m away it actually took me half an hour because of the terrain...

When I had put the surprising hike and my annoyance behind me it was very lovely by the sea side tho! I liked seing the small town and because of Golden Week many Japanese were in full Holiday mode.

Fuji was even showing his face! And the surfers and high school students were socializing.

I liked seeing a more relaxed and low-key side of the Japanese and that part of the morning trip made me forget about the first part.

I really wanted to get to this restaurant in Asakusa for lunch and according to their opening hours I actually got there late, but it seemed like the hours posted were wrong because they seated me and the other Japanese people who came after me with no issue. Kikko serves a bento style meal that concludes in a live music performance. They played beautifully and I even knew one of the songs from bon odori at the sakura festivals.

 The food was delicious and half the time I had no idea what I was eating. I am not a person that loves food, but in Japan I really do. And good food doesn't even set you back too much! It's amazing.

I went to buy more art supplies and basically ran to try and get to the Fuji TV viewing deck before they closed - but once again I missed it by 10 minutes. The weather wasn't super clear tho, so it was fine.

I did some final shopping and then went home to pack. In the morning I got a taxi to Tokyo station, only speaking in Japanese to my driver. I thought it would be impossible for me to regain even a fraction of my prior understanding of the language, but this month actually did make me remember some things... I got on the bus, then the plane and - VOILA, I was back in Denmark.