Tokyo

Sleepy eyed, I stared out into the blackness. It was 5:30am, a time I rarely saw. Rain streamed down the train window as we rocked back and forth through the darkness. K and I were heading to Tokyo.

I quickly gulped down a 3rd coffee at the the airport as a soft pink glow began to spread across the horizon. The airport was quiet. Businessmen dragged around small suitcases on wheels. The sounds of shop doors opening echoed through the corridors. We approached an ATM of sorts, waved our tickets across and a scanner and were issued with boarding passes.

A security checkpoint guarded the inner sanctuary. Watching K. carefully, I followed through. My heart jumped as I heard a soft buzz behind the counter. I checked myself for metal and walked again through the gateway. BUZZ. A uniform walked across and padded me down with a scanner.
"Please be removing shoes."
Third time lucky, I moved on.

The short trip to Tokyo was gone in a blink. An hour ago, I was in Osaka. Now, I was walking through the terminal to the bus stop outside. I tried to visual the distance travelled, remember how the plane view had reminded me of the virtual trip I had taken with Google Earth. Buses filled and disappeared every 5 minutes. We found our platform, boarded and left. 35 minutes later, we stood at the entrance, we were at Disneyland. It was 9:30am.

Entrance

Through the gates, stood World Bazaar. Hundreds of shops branded with Disney trademarks; pens and paper, candy and cookies, T-shirts and ties. Only a week before X-mas, a large tree loomed in the centre, reflecting flashes as the crowds posed before it. Beyond the stores, Cinderella Castle.

We wandered across quickly through Adventure Land to Western Land and grabbed a Fast Pass; an ingenious ticket system. Sure, we could wait in the line for Thunder Mountain, a large board suggested it would only take 30minutes. Instead we inserted our Entrance ticket and were issued a pass for 11:30-12:45. We headed to the Nightmare Before X-mas ride ...

and took a spin in Alice's Teacups.

After a quick drink, we wandered back to Thunder Mountain and surrender our Fast Past. Laughing at the guesstimated 45min, we headed up the express lane and were flung around in the western roaster coaster ride within 5 mins.

Next up It's a Small World; a seemingly endless boat past animated dolls from across the globe, a cacophony of accents segueing between the name sake song and a Christmas medley. I stared down at the dark water from within the boat and thought of Duff World and Lisa psychedelic decent.

We grabbed a Fast Pass for Pooh's Honey Hunt and headed to Toon Town and catching up with Mickey Mouse who was "taking breaks between his busy filming schedule."

Off to Tomorrow Land, we took a spin on the Star Jets and took a trip a Star Tour to the moon with the help of some familiar Star Wars characters. After entering Buzz Lightyear Astro Blaster, we shot at hundreds of targets with guns attached to the front our spaceship; a large digital display diligent kept score of our evil-fighting efforts.

It was time for a quick Mickey Burger before heading off to the "One Man's Dream II" show. Despite the performance and songs being in Japanese, the title song would remain in my head for days to come, the same 3 lines endless looping.

Back to Adventure Land, we took a boat journey with the Pirates of the Caribbean, followed by a Jungle Cruise and a ride on an old Western Railway.

We hovered beneath a bridge during a short shower and bit at large legs of turkey. We continued to bounce between the lands and rides, and as night descended across the park, the attractions took on a new life.

We returned to the main plaza to wait for the Tokyo Disneyland Electrical Parade Dreamlights; a procession of large floats illuminated with hundreds of thousands of lights.

At it's conclusion, Mickey had his special Christmas Specatular show; more songs, more lights to spread the seasons spirit.

And finally, after nearly 12 hours, we watched the fireworks above the castle and bought some present for friends and family before returning to our hotel to rest.