I muster allllll my strength and get out of bed after yet another 2am waking. I make scrambled eggs on super soft bread, thanks to yesterday’s grocery haul. By 6.30am, we’re on the road to find the Tokyo Disney shuttle bus by the SkyTree station. Joe discovered yesterday that we can cut out 10 minutes of walking in the unbearable heat by taking the subway one stop between our Airbnb and Tokyo SkyTree, so that’s the plan. Getting from the subway to the shuttle proves to be a whole lot more complicated than it needs to be, probably because there’s a lot of construction along the side of the walkway, and the fact that the random bus driver I asked sent us the wrong way around the building…
The bus stop has a handful of other Disney travellers waiting this morning, and we have a seat to wait for the bus. The first bus left while we were running around the building (did I mention it was HOTTTT outside, even before 7am?), so we’re on the second bus of the morning. It’s nice and cool, and just ourselves and the die hard locals on the bus this morning. The girls in front of us on the bus are using their hair straighteners, applying all the right makeup, and are dressed to the nines.
We arrive at Tokyo Disney just after 8am, and the lineups are impressive. In Japan, where people are generally ultra polite and disciplined, neat lines are formed and the waiting visitors sit on down on special mats they buy for these purposes. This is the only country where I have seen Disney (or any other park) entry lines this well behaved. It is however about a million degrees, whether you speak Farenheit or Celcius, and umbrellas are up and fans are draining battery as the seconds tick by.
Arriving at Disneyland, whether it’s California (1994), Florida (1997), Paris (1998), Hong Kong (2006, 2013 and 2016) or Japan (2007 and 2025) is just as magical the 8th time as the 1st time. It brings tears to my eyes. I am not here to fight my way to the front of ride lines, nor am I on the hunt for elusive exclusive “not available anywhere else” type souvenirs. I just love the atmosphere, and for my birthday, it is JUST the place I want to be!
Because it’s such a central attraction, we decide to walk through Cinderella’s Castle. Would you look at that? They are just about to open the castle doors so we can walk through Cinderella’s story and visit the throne room! Lucky, lucky us! We’re in the very first elevator of the day going up, and we take lots of fun pictures. We also get to try on Cinderella’s glass slipper, and sit on her throne. How’s that for a regal birthday?
Next, we head for whatever has the shortest line, with the park app keeping us on track. Our first ride is It’s a Small World, and it’s the perfect intro to what Disney magic is. We marvel at all the characters we recognize, and sing along to the music. Coming back outside it is WAY too hot, so we decide it’s time for lunch. I have decided to test the rumour that the Queen of Hearts Banquet Hall will switch out the decoration on their Unbirthday Cake with an actual Happy Birthday sign. Unfortunately, this proved NOT to be true in Tokyo Disney, but I still ended up loving my Unbirthday cake just as much nonetheless. And just because I was kind of impressed, their flank steak meal was really good as well!
It’s unbearably hot in the park today. We hop in and out of air conditioned shops, and are forced to stop for a frozen treat mid afternoon. We manage to go on the Jungle Cruise (outdoor, still hot) and the Pirates of the Caribbean rides (inside, nice and cool, but way too dark and scary for those who don’t know the story). We head over to the Star Tours ride, as it has the shortest line and is indoors as well. I haven’t laughed this hard in a long time! So glad we ended up doing the rides we did!
IMPORTANT NOTICE TO ANYONE PLANNING TO SPEND THEIR BIRTHDAY AT A DISNEY PARK: As soon as you enter the park, get one of the attendants to make you a birthday sticker. This will identify you as special and magical in all the right ways, and all park employees will wish you a happy birthday upon sight! Do NOT realize this at the end of your day, and make this your last interaction with a park employee, like I did…
Because of the heat, we are exhausted and aim for the bus home. There are very few people on the bus, so it’s a cool and relaxing hour before we’re back at the SkyTree station. I’ve decided for my birthday dinner we should try a conveyor belt sushi restaurant, and there’s one right next to the station! Kura sushi seats us, serves us and bills us, all without having to actually talk to a single person. There is staff available to help out, clean up and of course in the kitchen preparing the dishes, but the conveyor belt serves us, the table provides bottomless green tea, chopsticks, cutlery, napkins, toothpicks and a tablet to order from. There are two levels of conveyor belts in what would have been the inside wall of a traditional North American restaurant booth, the bottom belt has whatever sushi they have made and send around for you to pick up if you are hungry and just need food NOW. All the lower belt sushi is ¥150 (approx $1.50) per plate, and at the end you feed your plates into a slot on the table to tally up your bill. The top belt is where they prepare your special order sushi, the more expensive items, and any non sushi items. When your order is arriving, your tablet goes DING, and when you look up, the conveyor belt draws to a halt and you pick up your order.
I don’t think conveyor belt sushi is necessarily in the running for Michelin stars, and food snobs may turn their nose up on sushi that has passed by us on that belt twice before it’s picked up somewhere, but we had a great dinner! Memorable mouthfuls were for example the superb scallop nigiri and the sukiyaki roll (sukiyaki being one of my favourite dishes from Japan last time 18 years ago), complete with a raw egg yolk (and yes, you can eat raw eggs in Japan, there’s no danger of salmonella here). Téa loved her special order ramen, Maylin kept grabbing whatever caught her interest from the lower belt, and ate it all! We quickly stop by the grocery store, and head home for the night.