Our last day at Tokyo Disneyland

Well, I’m finally at the end of my Tokyo recap! It only took…two whole months to catch up? Hah.

Originally, we’d planned to use our last day to see some of the Tokyo sights we’d missed over our first 9 days in Japan — the Imperial Palace, Government Building, Meiji Shrine, etc. But on the morning of our final full day in Tokyo, we woke up to pouring rain. And, honestly, nothing sounded like a better rainy day activity than one last day at Tokyo Disneyland. I mean, are you surprised? Disney in the rain just happens to be one of my favorite things in the world!

So, we bought a couple of Tokyo Disneyland one-day tickets online, printed them out at the Mandarin Oriental concierge desk, and then Google Map’d the metro route from our hotel to the Tokyo Disney Station. I grabbed a $4 clear umbrella at the metro station, a $15 Minnie Mouse poncho at the park entrance, and just like that — we were good to go for one final day at Tokyo Disneyland!

It looked deceptively crowded as we made our way down the covered World Bazaar (aka, Main Street), but that’s just because it was the usual morning rush for Fastpasses. It ended up being the least crowded of all our days at Tokyo Disney, and I’m sure we have the pouring rain to thank for that!

(So much love for that clear umbrella! I ended up shoving it into my carryon and bringing it back home to Los Angeles with me.)

The skies really let loose for our first couple hours in the park, so we ducked in and out of stores to stay dry.

This one was filled with the prettiest of sparkly things.

Breakfast was a smattering of danishes and baked goods at the Sweetheart Cafe. We finally tried the Mike Wazowski melon pastry (so cute, but a bit trippy to eat cantaloupe flavored bread), as well as some muffins and ridiculously delicious, buttery meat filled danishes.

And then, just a couple hours later — lunch! We hadn’t yet been in Tokyo Disney’s Toontown, so we gave it a nice wander and found Huey, Dewey, & Louie’s Good Time Cafe.

Look at all those kawaii eats! We had a field day.

Pizza for Mark, and a chicken sandwich for me. All Mickey shaped, of course! Plus lots of fries and a sour tapioca drink on the side.

And this adorable strawberry chocolate chip cupcake for dessert.

After lunch we rode Roger Rabbit’s Car Toon Spin.

And then we caught the rained out version of the Happiness is Here parade. Technically, the parade was cancelled due to “inclement weather.” But in keeping with the trend at Tokyo Disney, they had a sort of conciliatory parade lap with all the floats and characters going by in their rain gear.

Very, very cute.

After catching a bit of the band on Main Street, I did something I’d been wanting to do since our first day: wrote a letter at the AMAZING House of Greetings shop, and mailed it from inside the park!

The shop is a pen pal’ers D R E A M. Wall to wall stationary options, and even a couple desks set up for guests to sit at and write their letters.

We hadn’t spent too much time in Adventureland during our first couple days at Tokyo Disneyland, so we made a point to check it out in more depth this time.

We rode the railroad, which goes on a short loop around the Rivers of America. It’s a nice ride, with scenic views of Thunder Mountain, Splash Mountain, and the Mark Twain.

We also rode Jungle Cruise. The Japanese skippers were incredibly enthusiastic, so we had a blast even though we couldn’t understand a thing.

Then it was time for a lap around the Rivers of American on the Mark Twain, a gorgeous replication of what we have back home in Anaheim.

(I could not get enough of Mark’s aDORKable Winnie the Pooh hat! I’ll have to do a Tokyo Disney merch haul at some point and share all of the hilariously absurd goodies we took home with us.)

As the sun was setting, we ducked into Mickey’s Philharmagic in Fantasyland. We’ve never taken the time to watch the one in WDW, so this was our first experience and – whoa, it was the cutest thing!

When we came out, the rain had started up again, which made for some gorgeous puddle pictures.

By about 8pm or so, we braced ourselves to say a final goodbyes to the Tokyo Disney Resort. We still had to take the metro back to the Mandarin, and go about turning our suitcases into a game of Tetris. (So many souvenirs, so little space!)

Despite missing out on some of the city’s cultural attractions, I am SO glad we spent our very last day at Tokyo Disneyland. I’m an obsessive Disney fan by trade, and I can’t imagine a better way to finish up our Japanese adventure than playing in the rain with Mickey and friends.

And, honestly, we experienced some of the most authentic Japanese culture of the entire trip while at the Tokyo Disney Parks. Asakusa, the Tokyo Skytree, Harajuku…each place was a cultural marvel, but at the same time they felt a little tourist trap-y. Lots of other vacationers, lots of souvenir shops, etc.

At Tokyo Disney, on the other hand, we were two of the only non-Japanese people around. It gave us an opportunity to experience a place created for, and catered to, the locals. And it allowed us to do as the locals did. And what did the Tokyo locals do very, very well? Adore Disney, of course! It’s something Mark and I had no problems embracing. I only hope we get a chance to do it again in the future!

xo,

K