Postby DisneyKaren » Tue Nov 07, 2017 7:39 am
Days 3-7
After a relaxing trip on the Shinkansen, we arrived at our station and a fantastically painted train pulled up to take us to Universal City. Minions, Snoopy, Sesame St, Hello Kitty - in that order - are very popular. From the painted trains to all the costumes park goers wore, it was a great introduction to the park. The Japanese really embrace their favourite characters with head bands, hats, glasses, plushies and dressing either in an actual costume or using street clothes to make it close. Our hotel was right on City Walk and we had a view of the park from our room (just). That also meant we could hear the screams from the roller coaster as we went to sleep and a couple of mornings when we woke up! By the end I wasn't sure if I was just imagining the screams in my head.
Heading off to Tennoji to see the Sumiyoshi Taisha Shrine, we both loved seeing how many locals come to the shrine and it's not just some attraction built for the sole purpose of attracting tourists. We learnt how to approach/worship to the Shinto Gods for prayer (2 bows, 2 claps, 1 slow bow). People were using water from wooden cups prior to going in and later in Kyoto we learnt about how to cleanse ourselves prior to entering a shrine.
The next day we headed into Universal Studios – wow! The Japanese know how to dress for a theme park, I just love their enthusiasm. Thankfully it was a quiet day so we didn’t need timed entry into Harry Potter World so we headed there first just in case that changed through the day. Although the area was as lovely as the LA & Orlando Hogsmeade villages, the merchandise was a little different with more charms and tins available to suit the market. I also didn’t remember the chocolate frogs and Bertie’s Beans having their own merchandise lines.
Wandering around the park we enjoyed all the different areas they have set up from Amity (with that famous shark), through Jurassic Park, San Francisco, Minions, New York and the cute children’s area where Sesame St, Snoopy & Hello Kitty ruled. The Minions and Sesame St some were in Japanese but loads of fun – if they’re playing the music to Hey Hey We’re the Monkeys, it’s easy to sing along in your head in English, no translations required. Can I just say Ernie (of Bert & Ernie fame) is one heck of a rapper! I was impressed considering the costume how well they all moved but he took the prize for the best dancer out of the three characters. We met Snoopy, Charlie Brown and Lucy of course my eyes are shut in the photo. Their parade was fun with the floats stopping part way through, the park-goers flood the streets and dance with the performers. Naturally the characters are safely up on floats. At the end they do the same and we both felt this was a great idea as some people move away while other dance until the parade moves on, thus dispersing the crowd gradually at the end.
In Harry Potter area we learnt Wand Studies and saw Expecto Patronus in the evening. We both had a Butterbeer throughout the day and enjoyed dinner at the Three Broomsticks. As we were leaving we saw a ‘zombie free route’ but decided to walk through Jurassic Park for the music – all we got was the sounds of chainsaws and axes then suddenly screaming and running. We decided it was safer to walk the zombie free route than be knocked over by tourists running in all directions in the dark! After the shops down the main street it was time to head back.
Our next day was a big one starting early to head to Kyoto and meeting a tour for Nijo-Jo Castle, Golden Pavilion, Imperial Palace, a Handicraft Centre, Sanjusangen-do (with 1001 Buddha statues) and Kiyomizu-dera. We had two tour guides as the tour was technically two half day tours put together. They were both fantastic with a great sense of humour. Our first guide kept pointing out the taxi ranks on arrival in case we missed the bus back – most people laughed, I didn’t in concern it was me who would be missing the bus!! Thankfully I made the bus each time and the last stop we even had time for a Sake Ice-cream on our way back to the bus, after watching the sun set over Kyoto from our prime position high above the city at Kiyomizu-dera. Kyoto was a wonderful place to visit and learn about the deep cultures embedded in Japanese history from the Shinto Gods to the Buddhists and the Samurai’s. I loved some of their customs. If you receive a bad fortune at a Shinto Shrine, you simply tie it to a ‘tree’ (large dead sticks tied together) and let the Shinto Gods take care of your bad fortune for you. The first castle we visited was built so the floor squeaked when walked on as a security measure – it sounded like a singing squeaky floor with all of us walking along the hallways. A couple of times we had to take our shoes off and I realised this was the day I should have worn my non-Disney socks.
Nara Park was a lovely way to finish our stay in Osaka. Now we understood more about the shines and temples and the customs on arriving, it made it easier to walk around on our own. We also went into another Japanese Garden, with more autumn colours making the garden event brighter. There were deer everywhere walking amongst the visitors being feed the deer crackers available for sale everywhere through the park. They were very friendly and would come over to us until they realised we had no food, then wandered away to find a new friend.
Finally our last trip on the Shinkansen and we are at Disney! The Beauty and the Beast room is really lovely and spacious. I admit we’ve taken some of the nicer toiletries already and I’m using the slippers. Our first evening was spent in Ikspiari before returning to the room to use our cute little tea cups and relax.
I’ll write about our first day in Disneyland later, today is DisneySea for my sister’s birthday.
1996: Disneyland & Epcot | 2001: EuroDisney | 2014: DLR & DLRP | 2015: WDW | 2017: DLR, Aulani, TDR | 2018: DLR | 2020: SDR & HKDL | 2023: WDW