HALLOWEEN AT TOKYO DISNEYLAND: PART ONE

Do you like Disneyland? Do you like Halloween? Well imagine Disneyland with giant Mickey Mouse shaped jack-o-lanterns, dancing skeletons, mummies and witches, haunted houses and bats! Welcome to Spookyville people! That’s what you get when you go to Disneyland in October! (If you’re one of those hard crusty people who hate Disneyland and anything magical or wonderful, I’m sorry, maybe you should skip this post) We realized that Ellie was probably a little too young to enjoy the full effects of Disneyland. But when we are staying less than an hour away, how could we not go for one day to find out for ourselves! And with it being Halloween, we were going to take Ellie dressed in her costume as Little Red Riding Hood.

Tokyo Disneyland is very similar to the Magic Kingdom in Orlando, Florida. Other than the language, some of the food options, and the signage, it looks exactly the same. There is Tomorrowland with the Michael Jackson movie, Fantasyland with the ‘It’s a Small World ride, The Pirates of the Caribbean in Adventureland, and the Country Bear Jambouree in Westernland. They are Japanese speaking pirates and Bears, but they are the same. But the thing I think that makes Tokyo Disneyland way different than the one in Florida are the people who go there.

My first time to Tokyo Disneyland was seven years ago, and it was for Halloween too. I remember being very surprised at seeing the people. It seemed like most people who attend Disneyland in Japan dress better than most people who attend church back home. I saw women with dress skirts, blouses, and high heels. Guys with sport coats, fancy pants, and dress shoes. And the people who weren’t dressed up, looked like they were heading out for a shwanky night on the town. Guys with designer jeans, pointy toed Italian shoes, trendy leather jackets and their Dragon Ball Z haircuts. And the women with their designer purses, skirts, dresses, and fancy designer shoes. Where were the people with their bright white sneakers, shorts, sunglasses, and Mickey Mouse t-shirts!? (Oh, and nobody wears sunglasses in Japan. Only foreigners, and DBs do.) And although everyone was dressed to impress, it seemed everyone had on Mickey or Minnie ears of some sort. Nobody had on a Disney t-shirt, but everybody had on mouse ears, or a Donald Duck hat, or something.

The people who weren’t dressed up, were dressed in costume. I was shocked my first time when I saw groups of adults entering the park in full costume. I even had my picture taken with a whole group of people dressed as all the main characters from Alice in Wonderland that first trip. The Japanese girl not only had a blond wig, but also blue contacts. Whoa! I thought that maybe this was because it was close to Halloween, but Aya assured me this is what people do here. It seemed it was mainly girls and kids that were mostly dressed up. Half of the girls there, I mean women, were dressed as Minnie mouse, with the red and white polka dot dress, high heels, and mouse ears.

So with all these people wearing costumes and such, we decided to dress Ellie up in her costume. My mom made Ellie a Little Red Riding Hood costume at Aya’s request. I wanted her to be a robot, but I was vetoed. I did choose the Werebaby costume from last year though. But can you imagine Ellie in a homemade robot costume with little lights on it? And then it’d have a button that played Styx’Mr. Roboto when you pressed it! Domo Arigato, Mr. Roboto. Oh well, maybe next year.

Watch out Mickey, Little Red Riding Hood is on her way!