Tokyo Part 2 - The Light Parade at Disneyland

We haven't really been big parade watchers, but I wanted to see the fireworks, so we watched the light parade. It was interesting.

 At night.

These were knights behind whoever was the leader of the parade. I didn't recognize who it was.

The Cheshire Cat.

Pete's Dragon. I don't think the Japanese even know who he is. Many American's don't. But it was cool.

Peter Pan

The Genie had about 15 different patterns and looks. It was pretty cool.

 It was pretty cool.

Winnie the Pooh.

 

 Toy Story.

 Mike and Sully.

Not a great picture, but it was Boo.

It was a fun parade. The fireworks were okay. Nothing spectacular, but fun all the same.

Next: The Cinderella Castle.

Tokyo - Disneyland Part 1

One week after we got back from Beijing, we had one week and then we took of for Tokyo. Our Anniversary was Tuesday, April 3. Daniel had the 4th off for Qingming Jie - Tomb sweeping day.

Daniel promised that if I said yes to moving to China, we could go to Tokyo for the cherry blossoms. It's something I never thought would happen. We were there for three days.

Don't judge me. We spent two days in Disneyland and one day seeing the blossoms. We didn't see much else. But that's all we went for. And I loved it. 

Pictures from Disneyland.

It's a pretty big park, but not as full of things to do there. We still didn't get it all done because the lines were so. dang. long. Like 2 1/2 hours each. Ick. And the fastpass tickets were all claimed by 12 or so everyday. It's going to make Anaheim seem empty next time I go.

There was a little family there trying to have their kids turn around. When the 3 year old girl turned around she smiled and did the peace sign. They are trained from an early age. Silly.

We asked about the peace sign once and we were told that they do it because they don't know what else to do with their hands. How about hold them at your side?

Instead of Main Street U.S.A., they have the World Bazaar. It's covered. 

 I didn't recognize what they were playing.

 The castle. It was amazing. Better than any other I've seen.

Flowers everywhere.

 Easter decoration. The eggs were so cute.

 Castle tower.

 Mosaics inside the castle - when you walk under it.

 King Louie from Jungle Book.

 More flowers.

 The back side of the castle.

Tulips. The reason we got married in April. I had to have tulips in my wedding pictures. And I did.

 

Both of us. 

 

The castle was huge and had so many details. A special post is coming up about that. 

 Some of the detail.

Easter decor. It was interesting to see Easter there. Especially since it is a Christian holiday, and Japan is not Christian. But then, it was all the secular parts of it.

 Belle. She was walking and I'm pretty sure she was not allowed to stop. And no, the princess and "real" people were not Asian. They were "imported" westerners.

 Everything was so green and luscious.

 Everyone else was crouching down too.

 We share a birthday, Disneyland Tokyo and I. It was opened in 1983. You could not pay me to be there next year when they celebrate 30 years.

It was soooooooooooooooooo crowded. The parade route was already claimed and people sitting there up to 3 hours before each parade. blerg.

But I loved it. We had a good time.

Next I'll post about the weirdos we saw. Wow.

Beijing Part 7 - The Forbidden City

This is best done with a .... slideshow. Enjoy.

Beijing Part 6 - Tian An Men Square

*So I wrote a great post about this last week, scheduled it to publish and then blogger had a brain fart. It was supposed to publish four posts I had written over the last week. Today when I went to force publish this one, the whole thing had disappeared. Blogger - don't fail me now. I don't want to have to leave you.

Have any of you ever seen the Simpsons episode where they go to China with Selma to get a baby and they go to Tian An Men Square? 

It was totally like that. Here is what really happened.

 This is their National Museum. You have to have your passport to get in. Odd.

 That is a government building.

So Mao Zedong rose to power on the ideas of equality. He joined the war efforts in 1911 that ended Empirical China. Then he joined the beginnings of the Communist Party in 1921, during the rule of the Kuomintang. Then he lead the Communists to power in the 1940s, succeeding in establishing the the Communist Rule in 1949. Then the Cultural Revolution that was the end of so much of China's heritage. So then, when Mao dies, after he's cut down the emperors, warlords and destroyed treasures, he gets memorialized in this giant mausoleum. Hypocrite.

 Some sort of patriotic mumbo jumbo about establishing the communists as rulers.

 The square.

 It was warm and sunny, but in a polluted air sort of way.

The infamous watcher of all the goes on.

Next post: The Forbidden City.

Beijing Part 5 - Duck

That's right. Duck. Worth it's own post. We had Peking Duck in the oldest restaurant in Beijing for lunch after we left the Temple of Heaven. I want to say it was amazing, but I just didn't love the taste.

This is the street the restaurant is on.

 An old building.

 The sign at the restaurant. They are doing a lot of reconstruction outside the entrance.

Cutting our duck.

 The hungry crew.

 You get pancakes that you put the duck with sauce and garlic inside. One of the "best" parts is the deep fried skin with sugar on it. It was okay, but pretty fatty. I can say now that Peking duck is not my favorite food.

Interesting fact: The Chinese now call it Beijing Duck. The capital used to be called Peking, thus Peking Duck. But now that the capital is called Beijing, they changed the name to Beijing Duck. If you ask them about Peking Duck, they ask you what you are talking about.

Next up: Tian An Men Square. Where nothing happened.
No really. That's what the Simpsons told me.