Tips for visiting Disneyland and Disneysea Tokyo

Located in Maihama, Disneyland and Disneysea is a must visit themepark around Tokyo. Most people recommended 2 days for each park, but a day trip.

Tickets available, there is day-pass available via purchase online or via Klook platform. 

Some useful blogs:

• Visit tips and tricks 
• Blog from TDR Explorer 
• Crowd calendar to pick the right dates. In general, weekday is recommended with Tuesday to Thursday if possible as least crowded. Also it's good to watch out for Japanese holiday, for example summer holiday starts late July.
• Travel intern guide.
  

Disneyland is oriented towards classic Disney and younger crowd. Disneysea on the other hand is oriented towards teens and older with more thrilling rides.

Disneysea

Top rides to aim for:

• Toy Story Mania (American waterfront)
• Soaring: Fantastic flight (Mediterranean)
• Journey to the Center of the Earth (Mysterious Island)
  
• Indiana Jones Adventure: Temple of the Crystal Skull (Lost River Delta) 

 

Top shows:

• Jamboree Mickey! Let’s Dance! — A dance-along program for kids with Mickey Mouse and friends. 15mins, 11:05 a.m. / 12:20 p.m. / 1:35 p.m. / 3:25 p.m. / 4:40 p.m.

• Big Band Beat: A Special Treat — Broadway performance with a live jazz band and Mickey on the drums. 25mins, 11:30 a.m. / 12:55 p.m. / 2:20 p.m. / 4:20 p.m. / 5:45 p.m.

• Believe! Sea of Dream (30 mins) on 7:40pm

Tips:

• Escape the afternoon heat and head to Triton’s Kingdom at the Mermaid Lagoon (DisneySea)
• Midday seasonable greeings - save a seat on the Mediterranean Harbor near the railings at least half an hour before the show to secure a good spot for the seasonal greeting. Let's Celebrate with Colors 12pm / 4pm
• Catch the stunning firework display at DisneySea which happens daily at 8:30PM. We suggest saving a spot at the Mediterranean Waterfront in advance. Sky full of colors Fireworks around 8:40pm (5 mins)
• Submit lottery for shows
• Bring food / bento
• Visit Magellan’s for a midday drink (DisneySea)

 

Disneyland

Top rides to aim for:

• Enchanted tale of Beauty and the Beast
• Haunted Mansion

 

Shows and Parades:

• Mickey’s Magical Music World — Catch Mickey Mouse and your favourite characters in a live stage performance in the majestic Fantasyland Forest Theatre.
• Club Mouse Beat — A dynamic live song and dance show by Mickey Mouse and his Friends.

From April 15, 2023 through March 31, 2024, a part of the show will be presented in a special version commemorating the Tokyo Disney Resort 40th anniversary. (25 mins)

• Harmony in Color parade, 45 mins around 3:45pm
• Mickey Magical musical world (5 shows a day) 10:50 a.m. / 12:15 p.m. / 1:40 p.m. / 3:45 p.m. / 5:10 p.m.

 

Tips:

• Tokyo Disneyland, the Electrical Parade Dreamlights is a night parade you wouldn’t want to miss. With lit-up floats and classic Disney music, the atmosphere is pretty magical. 730pm (grab seat 45 mins before)
• Sky full of colors Fireworks around 8:40pm (5 mins)
• Bring food / bento
• Apply lottery for shows

 

Credit to <https://thetravelintern.com/ultimate-tokyo-disneyland-and-disneysea-guide/>

Planning trip to Okinawa and Tokyo, July 2023

I discovered that I had enough points to book 5 nights at Hilton hotel. After a quirky destination choices, I finally settled on Okinawa. This was back in December, hehe.

Planning activities without a car, here is a couple of sites that I am finding useful:

• Soranews24: always full of ideas, especially good restaurant for seafood and local choices.
• Visit Okinawa site has interesting 2-day full itinerary on bus.
• This page by ms travel solo also has well-written blog about visiting Okinawa in 1 to 5 days.

Okinawa is the southern most prefecture of Japan. The main island is where its capital city, Naha is. The prefecture spread across 1,000 kilometres and finding where to spend time amongst the choices can be confusing.

I am going to be traveling with my elderly parents and our favorite activities are food, sightseeing, and onsen. Okinawa is said to have one of the highest life-expectation in Japan and in the world. So we will be keeping an eye on the culture and how people life in this paradise.

Food

This site proclaims that "In Okinawa, food is life." :) Delicious cuisine being the hallmark of Okinawa, it is famous for bone-soup, ice-cream (I heard it from an ex-colleague who grew up in Okinawa).

Okinawa has a special Japanese word, nuchi-gusui, which roughly made up of characters for mind and body. Food as medicine? Exploring nuchi-gusui. That means food is not just the source of energy and taste, but also well being. Approaching the right habit of mealtime is also observed. Okinawa has a habit of eating until 80% full, which is practiced in my family. They called this hara-hachi-bu.

It seems that typical Okinawan cuisine has a lot of Chinese influence, due to prevalence of trade for centuries, and its proximity. Such as pork belly braised (rafute), champuru (stir-fry veggie with bitter gourd), and Okinawa soba (with wheat noodles rather than made of buckwheat). It even extends to the drinks such as Okinawan sanpin-cha or Jasmine tea.

Unique Okinawan dish is goat-meat (Yagi) sashimi and mozuku tempura. Mozuku is a slimy brown seafood, unique to Okinawa that is superfood. Unique liquor is Awamori made from long-grain Thai rice with black koji unique in Okinawa.

Getting around

It seems that car is the most popular way to get around. However, if you avoid driving, bus is a convenient and plentiful with clear maps. There is a monorail line that goes around Naha. As well as you can take ferry or fast boat from Tomari port. There is many sites in Japanese, here's a few useful information.

Fast boat for Naha to Motobu, 75 mins. Takuma 3 is operated by this company, website --> here. 

From my research, there is plenty to see and do at Okinawa. Normally people would start by the following order:

1. Naha, the city centre itself. On the main island, Honto, it's the center of the economy and activities, and where the ancient capital of Ryukyu kingdom, as well as plentyful castle ruins, museum and shopping. 2 sites that are popular in addition to the Shuri castle and city centre are Urasoe (around the north), and Tsuboya (ceramic centre). It seems also easy to get around with monorail, or buses.
   
2. Motobu are towards the northern part of the main island. This is where Ocean Expo park and the site for Aquarium, the largest tank aquarium in the world. Some people combine the trip to Nago (where there is pineapple park) and nearby beaches at Kouri and Navi (Nene). The area is around 2-3hours out via car, but there is fast boat or ferry option available. There is also a lot of tour bus available including those that organises day-trip, including airport bus that goes straight from Naha airport to the area in the morning.
   
3. Mihama and Chatan area which is near the American bases. There is a lots of good cafe and American cuisine restaurants available. Seems like a very chillout place. 
4. After that mainly is the visit to the islands, for example Ishigaki (also famous for its beef) for snorkelling, diving, mangrove, and other beach activities. Kerama island seems closer to Naha than Ishigaki which is around the Yaeyama grouping.
   

 

For foodie, a special mention is the Ojima island towards the south, 40 mins drive from Naha airport. This article describes the beauty :) of the Okinawan tempura due to its influence from China and Southeast Asia.

 

Hectic week

Had a hectic week after Sapphire and QBR. Getting tipsy for first time in a long while, seeing things for the way it is (Vipassana?), and finally texting my dear friend and hearing the worst been my experience this week.

First some photos:

JB trip May 2023

Peak hour- long line to catch buses from Kranji MRT both 170x and CW1. Arrived 830am, 945am finally catching the bus.

Smooth clearance at Singapore exit, as usual. Enormous line at Malaysian immigration entry, unfortunately more than usual at 10am+ on Saturday morning. Lines on all counters hitting the back wall. Time to try MACS.

Finally cleared immigration at 12:30pm. Catching grab to the mall southkey arriving 1pm.

Total cost of all Grabs today: S$25.

Sushi King, conveyor belt sushi: $29. Old town coffee plus ice cream at Chateraise $9.

Foot massage RM60 + 10 for tip for 60 mins Family Thai spa. #20 Thai lady senior, and #25 from Serawak young guy who likes to learn new languages.

Coconut and mango smoothie $7

Shopping: Papa’s cereal RM12.50 each, Watson, Alpro pharmacy, Lotus supermarket. $20

Fish porridge and shrimp wonton noodles at D’Shanghai $10.

Chateraise ice cream shopping Panjaporn recommendations: monaka Vanilla and Coffee, Belgium chocolate, and Pistachio bar $12

Then another line at Malaysian exit for an hour and a traffic jam at crossway on the bus. Finally cleared both immigration close to 22:30 and bus ride to Queen street terminal, arriving home past 23:20.