Owls, Prison, and Magic...

"You can design and create, and build the most wonderful place in the world.  But it takes people to make the dream a reality."

- Walt Disney

This past week I was able to go to Tokyo with Beth, one of my coworkers. Our trip started  at 5:00 AM last Thursday which got us to Tokyo around 11:30.  We started off the trip with a bang by visiting an owl cafe. It was so cool! The cafe, which did not serve any food or drinks, was very calming.  It was dimly lit and very quiet.  If any of the owls were sleeping then signs were stuck to the wall not to touch them.  In the hour we were there, we were allowed to hold two of them.   

My favorite were the tiny owls because they look so incredibly angry.

The black and white one on the left is the second owl I held.  He was much calmer than the first but also refused to look at me.  He would look everywhere except at me.  

This one looks like he is saying "What did you say?!"

 He looks like a cartoon who gets so angry their eyes start twitching.

The picture on the right was the first one I took.  That was as close as I wanted to get to this guy especially with him looking right at me.  

 This was the first owl I held.  He was soooooooo pretty! Until he decided I tasted good and started eating my arm.

Beth's owl kept trying to fly away from her.

I even got up the courage to touch the huge one by the end.

This is me calmly trying to get the owl's beak off of my arm without having him become interested in my fingers.

 After the owls, we found our apartment we were staying in and then went to check out Alcatraz ER for dinner.  

Its the weirdest thing I have ever gone to.

 Everything came to the table in beakers and medical containers.  Beth ordered blue curry and I got fried rice that were in the shape of boobs.  Do not ask me why.

Friday we again got up bright and early to go to Disneyland!  I went to Disneyland in Florida when I was 10 but let me tell you this time around was so much better.  While Disney is never as magical as the commercials make it seem, the magic in going back as an adult is seeing the looks of awe and wonder on the little kids faces.  I might have teared up a couple of times.  

Look at the princesses! and the little Woody and his baby brother dressed as Sully!

Of course as it is winter the whole park was decked out in Frozen paraphernalia.  I could have bought a $25 Olaf container to hold popcorn, but I didn't.

Tokyo Disney is an exact replica of Magic Kingdom in Florida complete with the traditional rides like Pirates of the Caribbean, Its a Small World, Space Mountain, and the spinning tea cups.

Right after we arrived their was a Frozen parade.  It was so cool to watch how enamored the kids were.  One little girl in front of us had a dancing seagull right in front of her face trying to get her attention but she could not take her eyes off Elsa.

The Let It Go performance was so magical, this might have been the part where I got teary.  Before the parade started they taught the kids the dance to do but I think the parents were even more into it than the kids.  And before you ask the princesses and princes were not Japanese they were all imported from the US.  

You can't really see in the picture but this was two full grown adult women dressed as Anna and Elsa from Frozen.  I told Beth we should have dressed up.

 We might have been the only adults on the Dumbo ride.

But before we actually went on the ride I saw Peter Pan and Wendy walking through the crowd!  So of course I shoved my way out of line (maybe pushed a couple of kids out of the way) to follow them to see if we could get pictures.  When we got to where they were going to take photos, we were told the line for photos was already closed.  We never figured out how to know when characters were going to take pictures to get in the lines, but oh well.

 This little girl was first in line to get her photos taken and was dressed as Tinker Bell.  She was putting fairy dust on them with her wand!  AWWWWW!

You cannot tell but this is us on the Dumbo ride.

I got really excited for the Peter Pan ride and we waited 30 minutes in line to go on on it.  Then the ride lasted 30 seconds.  It was as if they though the line was too long and so they sped up the ride as fast as it would go. This photo is blurry, just as my vision was for the entire ride.

There was another parade but we were more excited about short wait times than seeing the parade, but here's one shot i got of the princesses.

While riding the carousel we saw this guy walking around, so of course we had to get a picture.  However he did not let us just take a picture, no we had to walk around the carousel holding his arm.  He talked about blueberry scones with me.  Apparently he talked about the fairies with Beth, she also had no idea who this was.  

Beth found the whole experience super awkward.

When we went to Disney when I was 10 the tea cups were under renovation.  So to make up for it we went on this ride twice!

I think this might have been the most fun I have ever had on a ride!

See that snazzy gold star pinned to my jacket on the photo above?  Yeah I won that at the shooting range. We each got 10 shots I managed to hit 7 out of the 10 shots.  I was quite proud of the scorecard and then the lady manning the range came over and got really excited and threw a badge at me.  It was even more exciting when the cashier at the restaurant at lunch knew what the badge was from.  Beth's scorecards are the two on the left.  

Since it is winter (a cold 50 degrees) Disney was selling all kinds of amazing hats:

These snazzy glasses were necessary for the Star Wars ride.

There is an awesome Monster's Inc. ride where you catch monsters with a flashlight.  We only wish it kept points because Beth is sure that she beat me.

The evening show was so cool.  They projected Disney movies onto the castle and went through all the stories.  It was one of the coolest things I have ever seen.

The videos are from my phone so not the greatest quality.

We missed the fireworks because I suggested we go on Pirates of the Caribbean one more time, and by the time we got out the fireworks were over (sorry Beth).  It was an amazing and tiring day.  The next morning we slept in until 11:00 and were awoken by an earthquake.  I continue the rest of our trip in a second post.