Did someone say bathrooms?

We have reached the end of our short journey and it's now time to recap some of our experiences!

Bathrooms. Yes, bathrooms. Who knew bathrooms could be so exciting? It is when you have heated seats and a bidet everywhere you go! 

Japanese Toilet

No, these are not traditional Japanese toilets - those are different. These toilets may offend some people's western sensibilities, though let's be realistic. Pooping is much easier in a squatting position. Just ask the makers of Squatty Potty.

Jokes aside, we encountered many different kinds of toilets in our short period of traveling. It varied from traditional toilets, regular toilets and all the way to the fancy toilets with heated seats, bidet, and controllable water pressure. I have never been so excited to go into a bathroom cubicle as I have been in this trip.

Besides the toilet, the bathrooms in general were fascinating. Do not expect soap dispensers next to the sink. A good 75% of the establishments we visited had no soap in their bathrooms. It might leave you feeling a bit germ-y like me, so I just carried some hand soap wherever we went. Thank you hotel amenities <3!

We also noticed the lack of paper towels in bathrooms! They do have hand dryers like the Dyson ones where you stick your hands through. It doesn't do a good job drying so you're still better off bringing a hand towel of handkerchief with you. 

The Compact Magical Kingdom

There was absolutely no way we were going to pass up the chance to experience Disneyland for the first time all over again. We love Disneyland in all it's overpriced consumer glory. It's a regular thing for us to head on down to Anaheim about once a year do our usual rounds at Disneyland and California Adventure.

So what's different? Besides the food and some of the street shows, not much! Tokyo Disneyland shares many of the same rides as its Anaheim sister park as well as some of their shows (some localization included). For example they have restaurants with the same names, but each has a very different menu. Like at home, restaurants tend to stick to one general type of food. Our all time favorite place in Anaheim was Cafe Orleans, which in this park serves crepes instead of sandwiches (oh how we missed their Monte Cristo). 

Despite being 115 acres (Anaheim is only 85 acres), the park felt very small. Not a lot of rides, mostly shops, and huge walkways. If you haven't' figured it out yet, the Japanese love to shop. A lot. And so do we! In typical Disney fashion, the souvenir shops all carried the same inventory of goods so not much shopping happened there.

The biggest difference had to be the overall feel. The park is laid out in a large circle, similar to Anaheim, however there are no real transition points. Everything flows together and doesn't quite have that same immersive feeling. But really how can they expect to handle such massive crowds without the wide walkways? 

Food!

Food is our biggest motivator, so food we did have! Based on our research, popcorn is a big thing to try here. They have seasonal popcorn flavors and common ones like salt, honey, and caramel to name a few. We first tried their soy sauce and butter popcorn. Odd combination, or so we thought. It was savory, not too salty with just a hint of butter. The next popcorn flavor we tried was their milk chocolate. At this point you'd be imagining chocolate covered popcorn right? Well, not quite! The good thing about this popcorn was the lack of sweetness. Just enough of a chocolate taste, not an overbearingly sweet bite that make you feel like your teeth will melt. We wanted to try this strawberry one too, but they only had it in Tokyo DisneySea. Nope, Tokyo Disneyland does not offer park hopper tickets.

Next stop in our food driven experience was the Hungry Bear Restaurant. This restaurant primarily serves curry. No, not the spicy kind. Japanese curry tends to lean more on the sweeter side. It can be a bit spicy, but not the kind we are used to. Before this point, neither of us has tried Japanese curry. We do have a box sitting at home waiting to be freed and consumed...

It. was. so. good.

There was no way we could eat in every restaurant in the park, so we opted for more of the odd dish types. Usagi found a place that sold tortilla wrapped hotdogs with cheese. That is precisely what it tasted like. No umami flavor added. :( 

We also tried their mango tapioca drink. Mango is the best fruit ever, so why not? The drink is mango juice mixed with a little milk with regular size tapioca balls. 

Shows, Rides, etc.

To kill time and allow our stomachs to recover (read: make room), we checked out a few shows.

The first show we saw was Philharmagic. It's a 3D show with extra bells and whistles to immerse the viewer in the experience. They truthfully market it as 4D. I call it 3D with water spitting and special effects.

Second show was the Tiki Room. This has a bit of a twist; a Hawaiian theme. That's right, Lilo and Stitch! Stitch is apparently the "Big Kahuna" for this one. However the lack of Dole whip made us homesick. What's the Tiki Room without Dole whip?!

We only did one ride because lines were long and fast passes went out quickly (they were gone by around 4:30pm). The Priates of the Carribean was pretty short, so we checked it out. Interestingly enough, the ride starts in Japanese, but the rest was in English. We wondered if other rides were like that. We may never know.

Overall the park was alright. Not as many rides as Anaheim, more shops, and definitely wider walkways to accommodate their large crowds. Next stop: Kyoto!