Tokyo Disneyland

Count Kaiya the luckiest girl on Earth as she's been to Disney World, Disneyland Anaheim and Disneyland Tokyo all within a three month time span. Her luck was more out of coincidental opportunity vice overzealous parenting.

We wanted to get away, spend some quality time together as a family, as well as do something fun for Kaiya. That's how Disneyland came to mind. We were very fortunate to go on a day where it wasn't crowded and where a three year old was not in a cranky mood.

Due to low volume of people Kaiya was able to visit and take pictures with Cinderella and Prince Charming (who was rather cute and I wanted a picture with him), Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan, The Fairy Godmother, and one of Cinderella's Mouse friends. The line for Winnie-the-Pooh and Mickey Mouse was ridiculous, so we skipped seeing those characters. The Japanese love Stitch, Mickey, and Winnie-the-Pooh, so anything associated with those characters we avoided.

Disneyland Tokyo is pretty much like Disneyland Anaheim, except they do have a few less rides. Kaiya loved Toon Town a lot, and we were able to ride the roller coaster there. She also enjoyed Tom Sawyer's Adventure Island where we pretty much let her loose to run around anywhere she wanted. The great thing about Japan is that you don't have to worry about kidnappings or unscrupulous individuals. Children at the age of five will ride the trains to school by themselves. It's an amazing sight to see. Plus, Kaiya sticks out so I'm not worried about losing her.

At the Toon Town playground she made a friend and I watched amused that even though she didn't know the language she could still influence this Japanese kid to follow her around and do what she wanted. Matt and I call her the "Politician" for three reasons: 1) her ability to try to negotiate out of things Matt and I instruct her to do, 2) her creativity to "blame" her imaginary friends for things she did and 3) her influence over other children. She is something else and she knows it. During a short snack break at Tokyo's Train Station some Japanese adults were smiling at Kaiya and saying how cute she was in Japanese (I know some words and could figure out what they were saying). Without missing a beat, empty of emotion she flatly states, "Mom, they like me.". That's our Kaiya.

Needless to say, Disneyland was a great escape for all of us considering what we went through--escaping reality and delving into a world of childlike wonder is good for the soul every once in a while.