t68 magic of DISNEYLAND

Disneyland here we come!!

just like promised.  i am back at Disneyland.

this time it's not about me, but us. 

to be exact, it's about the kids in us.

check this video.

i remember, people young and old ran their hearts out when gates were open.  this time disney learn to notify everyone only to walk.  and so we did.

tokyo disneyland is located on the south-east of tokyo.  it can be reached by JR's Keio line and the nearest station is Maihama.  Besides disneyLAND, the area also house the DISNEYSEA, the sea version of disney theme park.  this is the only disneySEA in the world but this time we only concentrated at the disneyLAND.  friend of us reported back that disneysea is much better than the land, but we give it a pass for now.
i know someone who has started to plan the disneysea trip. wait for me, i may tag along.....

 with that sprawling acres of land to cover, we knew we could only 'see' the entire area, but impossible to enter and ride each and every single ride/show. not to mention some of us are not really roller-coaster-friendly.  me included.

 so as a start, we choose the ever lovely POOH's hut.

now you feel the ride.

lovely isn't it.  as a technologist, i couldn't help but trying to figure out how that vehicle moves without the visible wheel or track.  is it magnet??? i don't know.

 there is a designated time for the ever-popular DISNEY character parade so while waiting for the time, we were just walk about and did a little short ride. 

 almost parade time, people were asked to sit on the tarmac along the parade route.  so the video i take is from the sitting position.

 there is a toontown as well, obviously it means cartoon town where houses are skewed and having partly absurd proportion. 

this cute little town has also a seemingly mild roller coaster, just the right type for me, and the laughable ride for the rest.  wait who will be laughing..... 

here we go!!

 as we couldn't find a suitable solat area in the whole of disneyland, we decided to call it a day and head home, i mean shinjuku.
we can safely say we didn't even cover one half of the entire disneyland attractions in a day, so it probably needs two days to do just that, and with a lot of courage (to line up).

where to go in shinjuku?

they seem happy enough with the disney experience but i can't stop worrying if our first Airbnb stay experience in shinjuku will be ok.

t67 sleeper bus to tokyo

after that shocking 'closed on tuesday' restaurant, we felt betrayed by KYOTO city and decided to migrate to TOKYO.

now we ended up here, what's next?

why don't we just migrate ha?

joke aside, we planned in advanced of taking a sleeper bus from kyoto to tokyo by killing two birds with one stone.  not literally, but by taking sleeper bus, we can manage the cost for transportation and accommodation. that's the idea.

sleeper bus is a term used to describe night bus where the passengers can sleep throughout the journey.


we made the ticket booking through Willer Express webpage.  the ticket price varies based on the day and season. we got the ticket at 5645 yen per head.
looking for the right bus stop at Kyoto is not easy.  if you think you will find at least a shelter, think again.  the only landmarks i could remember is FRESCO minimarket.  somehow google maps is always helpful.  this stop is close to teramachi shopping arcade, but as most shops closed at 8:00 pm in Japan, we had nothing to shop about but looking at the nearby stream and wait for the bus.

i never thought the japanese version of a sleeper bus is one step ahead, instead of passengers can choose to sleep, they put a dark curtain covering the entire inside of the bus.  so it's not about 'can sleep' but 'must sleep'.  nobody could see what's going on outside and it was only 10 pm.  oo dear, whatever...

so, can we really sleep in the bus?  muiz and syakir couldn't sleep, me and my wife couldn't get up....hehe.

one good thing though, we woke up already in TOKYO, that is DISNEYLAND to be exact.

should i give rating to this kind of accommodation?  

welcome to Disneyland.

t66 TOEI Uzumasa Eigamura

walking 550 meter from Uzumasa-Koryuji tram station, there is a movie studio park with a traditional setting called Toei Uzumasa Eigamura.

 in the middle of the walk, you will see entrance-like structure but that is not really the entrance.  next to it is a new modern building that house the ticketing booth, the entrance, and many souvenir shops.

the main entrance

 the entrance fee is 2200 yen per person, on the expensive side of fare i guess but it still feel worth it knowing this is a still-in-use studio.  entering, you will find cute figurines.  by now, they have started to feel excited.

there are areas for exhibition and souvenir shops.  better take note where to buy those souvenir before stepping into the studio ground. 

with all these figurines, they are already semi excited.  wait till they go to the first floor, but we didn't know at first.

  

we ru ka mu (that's 'welcome')

 instead of just studio for mostly samurai films, the park offers some recreational activities such as ninja house, ghost house, and sword fight demonstration. no there is no roller coaster here, wait for tomorrow!

sakura left over

 

sword-wielding performance swamped by school children

one thing obvious that day, being a weekday there are many school children young and old on a school trip to this park.  we have to compete with them for space, but being a large park, this place can still accommodate.

horror house, said to be really scary

kimono-wearing lads

at last there is a kimono-wearing lady but wait, they are actually visitors like us wearing a rented kimono.  so i took the picture from afar.

the real excitement came in towards the end, that's the first floor of the main building where the entrance is.  we skipped it at first to focus on the ground studio, luckily we didn't completely ignore this section. as we walked in, i could here ahaaa here and there, as if they have found their idols.  look...

this one has many fans, or is it

sad figurine, locked up for misbehaved

 

cheering leader.  i think he is hungry, again...

talking about hungry, kak long (not syakir, as indicated earlier) has made a study of eating out location and she said there is a malaysian restaurant that we know very well back in malaysia that had opened a branch right here at Uzumasa.
knowing that, we disbanded everything that we did and hurriedly walked back straight to that restaurant. the restaurant name is WADI HANA. check the picture below...

that striped shirt man must be the hungriest

gatcha...........WADI HANA. we are here!!!

 

wait a minute. what day is today? what? tuesday?
why? why? why?.............
that questions lingered for days until we came home.