Tokyo Disney!!!!

I feel like we have to seize the day living here.  I can't say: "we'll do that later" because there's ALWAYS something to do or somewhere to go and not enough laters!  so last week we took the kids out of school and went to disneyland!

I was so excited for "it's a small world".  I wanted to see the Japan part while actually being IN japan.  It did not disappoint!!  so exciting :)

tokyo disneyland is almost always INSANELY busy.  Japan in general is busy. and very crowded.  but we picked a pretty good day!  it was chilly- but not freezing,  and the crowds were pretty normal. the popular rides had longer waits- but we got fast passes for stuff like Buzz Lightyear and thunder moutnain railroad- and most of the smaller rides were no longer than 15-20 minutes!  splash mt was closed :( but the kids LOVED star tours!!

metta hated the snow white ride. I forgot how scary it is!!

the COOLEST thing about tokyo disney is the popcorn.  It's AMAZING.  you buy these popcorn buckets and then can fill them at popcorn stations all around the park!  and they have a gazillion CRAZY popcorn flavors!!  we actually borrowed buckets from friends so we just had to pay for cheap refills!  we ate popcorn ALL DAY LONG!

they have soy sauce, curry, strawberry, chocolate, caramel, orange marmalade, salty, and more!  the only flavor we didn't love was chocolate!  orange marmalade was my favorite!!  

they had regular food like turkey legs and churros as well- so our kiddos were more than happy!

taking four kiddos to a place as crazy as Tokyo Disneyland was no easy feat! we had our double stroller and that was LIFESAVING! Kent has the three oldest kids here watching a parade!  Have I mentioned that four kids is a lot!?

It was so fun to watch the parades and see Japanese people in all of the roles!  the dancing japanese chimney sweepers were my favorite for some reason!  I loved it!

they had family/baby bathrooms that were AMAZING! entire rooms full of changing tables! perfectly heated water for bottles.  it was crazy. and really helpful :)

disneyland with kids is an entirely different experience than disney without :) The kids loved stuff like 'minnie's house'

we stopped to rest and warm up by watching shows.  they were all really good!  Kent and I never stopped for parades and shows without kids!  I'd have to say- I still prefer disney without kids better- but it was a lot of fun!  we didn't get nearly as many pics as I wanted because my hands were almost always full!  but metta LOVED the frozen parade!  they made it snow all around the floats!

the Japanese take disneyland VERY seriously.  I really really wish we'd gotten some pictures with some of them- but groups of friends come ALL dressed up identically with crazy matching hair and disney outfits!  it's unreal!!!   at least 50% of the girls/women have their hair all done up like minnie mouse (little buns to look like ears) with giant bows!

Ike and I did the teacups and went CRAZY!  he is so much like me when it comes to rides.  we spun so so so so fast!

this and thunder mt railroad were his favorite!! same as me. I'm a proud mom.

this is a pic I attempted to take mid spin!

the view from the swiss family robinson treehouse!

here we are about to get on the jungle boat cruise ride.  It's not nearly as entertaining in Japanese :)  we didn't get any of the jokes. or even understand them for that matter!

they had an AMAZING show ON the castle.  they showed all of the princesses and transformed the castle into their specific castle!!

and the electric light parade is the very same!  it made me a little homesick with the music.  I'm pretty sure growing up we had the RECORD with the electric light parade music!

by closing time- it got pretty cold and we were EXHAUSTED!  alongside disneyLAND- they have disneySEA.  we were going to hit Disneysea the next day- but there was freezing rain in the forecast and we were pooped! so we'll have to go again soon!  we drove into downtown tokyo to our hotel that night  and crashed!  we ended up spending the next time having some fun in tokyo.  like I said- there is SO MUCH TO DO!!!