Those are happy tears, right?

Today officially concludes the Disney section of our trip.

It was our 2nd day at Tokyo DisneySea, and we are nothing if not quick learners, so instead of heading to the gate queue an hour or more before Happy Entry was scheduled. We nonchalantly strutted down there just 15 minutes before the horde was released. This brilliant plan meant we didn't enter the park until a full 30 seconds after the people at the front of the line, but we saved standing in the queue for an extra 45 minutes, so totally worth it.

Grinning smugly at my own brilliant line hack I headed directly to the popular DisneySea ride I hadn't got to yet, Toy Story Mania. This is a fun interactive ride which is also in California Adventure in Anaheim, but yet again, here in Tokyo, it is longer and somehow even more fun than its American counterpart.

Exiting Toyville I walked the 50 metres to the Tower of Terror and almost fell over with shock when Jean surpisingly conceded to come on the ride with me. She is NOT a fan of drop rides. I may have said something like I'd do the luxing for a year if she went on it, obviously as a joke. Whether this swung the deal or not, we'll never know. Anyway, without going into the gruesome details, I can say that after what will definitely be her one and ONLY drop ride ever, this has not changed.! In fact, I may have accidentally made her fear worse! I'm not great at reading signals, but the tears when she exited were a clue that even I picked up on.

When the screaming and sobbing had subsided, (kidding, mostly) we staggered to a more sedate, less threatening ride, the transit steamer. This is a boat that sails through the waterway that divides the lands of the park. It's a great way to see all of the very different lands, take a break, and distract anyone, if you needed to do this for any reason. ;) Heart rates and tear ducts now under control it was time for another spin with Indiana Jones.

By this time it was just after 11am, and since our hotel checkout time was 12pm we headed back to the Miracosta, packed up our stuff, checked out, stored our bags and headed straight back into DisneySea for a couple of last rides. As we were walking to the next ride we spotted someone coming towards us that we recognised. It was Chris Provost, the host of the Disney-centred YouTube channel Provost Park Pass. Jean knew he was due to be in Tokyo Disney around the same time we were and had been hoping to see him, so she was very excited to bump into him. Coincidentally we had also seen him the last time we were at Disneyland, in October 2022, but that was at Disneyland in California. We had a great chat with Chris, and we look forward to watching his YouTube episodes about Tokyo Disneyland and DisneySea

Around 2pm we bid a fond farewell to Tokyo Disney, collected our luggage and ordered an Uber to take us to our Central Tokyo hotel.

We are now based near Ginza for the next 6 days and will be trying to cram in as much Japanese goodness as humanly possible. Banzai!

On a completely unrelated note, can I just say that Japanese TV is absolutely freaking nuts, but a weird part of me actually enjoys it. What can I say, I'm a complex man.Meer informatie