I only wished one thing when the plane neared Japan; to land safely. It was my first time panicking on the plane, I am not really a person who gets scared due to stuff like this, but, the other passengers also started screaming and I naturally got scared too. Anyway, it was raining cats and dogs when we were on the way to our hotel. And guess what, a typhoon seemed to have occurred there before our arrival (I know right, what a perfect day to land in Japan!).
We were finally dropped to our hotel, hotel Monterey Hanzomon. After checking in and everything, we continuously peeked outside the window to see whether the rain had stopped and when it did a little, we walked to the nearest Indian restaurant we could find on google maps. My umbrella, unfortunately, was blown away by the heavy wind. The restaurant had Nepali workers and the food was good. One of the workers was kind enough to take us to the train station. I felt like a spy there as the lift accepted us in from one door and dropped us from the other into an underground passage way. It was cool.
That was it for the first day, mainly because we arrived at the hotel at 4:30 pm.
The 2nd Day
It was raining too today when I opened my eyes. After getting dressed, we went straight down to the hall for breakfast. Every single item there looked so appetizing. The Jasmine tea, however, was bitter and I unwillingly sipped every single drop of it. I don’t think I’ll try that ever again.
Anyway, our guide picked us up at 8 and we looked through the city which was very clean, and quiet. Our first stop was Sensuji temple, a buddhist temple which was skillfully hand crafted, bordered by tiny souvenir shops and street food. We did nothing more than taking some pictures.
Skytree was our second stop. It is the world’s tallest tower having a height of 634m. Afterpurchasing the tickets, we went into to the lift which took us to the floor having a height of 450m. The lifts each had a theme, projecting various sounds relating to it. The floor was filled with Disney posters and quotes. The view was breathtaking.
Unplanned road construction a big threat to Baitadi
We were then taken to Imperial Palace, a palace which had its surrounding park covered with bright green, small beautiful trees. The palace was barred and could only be viewed from the outside. Even so, it looked heavenly.
Shhibuya crossing was our fourth stop. It was amusing to see over more than a hundred people cross to the other side there and yes, we were there too. The weather was sunny wuite sunny. We strolled through the city, it was crowded, but fun at the same time. We just window-shopped and went to Shibuya Sky, a 360 degree observation deck. We got a view of the entire city from it.
After lunch, we were taken to Meiji Jingu Shrine which was located near Hachiku station. The shrine seemed like it had been used by the ancient rulers and we could only have a glance at it from the outside.
Our last stop was Omatesando, a very high-profile shopping street. I had a nice time strolling through the lively street.
The 3rd and last day
Today was the perfect day everyone was waiting for, with the sun shining bright right through our windows. We were going to Disneyland. We were picked up right at 8 am and dropped off there.
After scanning in the ticket and stuff, we headed to our first ride which was themed on Snow White. I screamed in the middle of the ride as there were really huge trees and they had weird faces screaming out loud. I regretted not looking at it later though.
Our second activity was the ride called Dumbo; the flying elephant, we waited 30 minutes for it. It basically had mini planes flying up and down for a max of 2 minutes.
Peter Pan’s flight was the next ride, I and my sister didn’t want to go actually but my dad insisted, so, we waited 45 minutes for it. We basically were flown through the story of Peter Pan, like snow whites. Everything was just so miniature and realistic.
Haunted Mansion was our fourth activity, we were taken to the mansion on foot, it had very minute yet meaningful details that made it look like I actually was at one. We were taken to a room the characters on the screen gave us instructions or something, I didn’t understand anything as it was in Japanese. There was a ride too, we were shown different rooms with either ghosts or skeletons along with giant spiders and graveyards.
We finally had lunch, but since it was Disneyland, the place was called ‘The Queen of Hearts Banquet Hall’.
There was a parade with all the Disney characters and music and stuff after lunch. Once it was over, we went to this ride called Toon Town Car ride. The interior was based on some cartoon, but I had no clue about it. It was some poison manufacturing hide-out which strictly told us to keep away, we went in for the ride though. It took us through a series of laughs and surprises.
Go coaster was one of my personal favorites; it simply was a mini roller coaster. I closed my eyes midway for a brief time, but I wished I could do it again.
My dad then ran off to save a spot at ‘The Pirates of the Caribbean” ride. We passed through the scenes of a pirate raid from the bombardment of a fortress to debauchery after the victory. I have never watched the movie, so I quite did not get the whole story being illustrated there. Even so, I liked the ride.
We were tired of those rides based on movies/cartoons, so, we went to this train ride called ‘Western River Railroad’, which took us through a tropical forest with numerous deers at different spots and ancient tribes as well as houses. The set up was based on Old Western lifestyle of the Americans. It was a relaxing ride, steaming off some heat from my burning feet.
Our last ride was ‘The Big Thunder Mountain’ ride. It was the kind of ride I had wanted to ride the entire day. It was the best and my most favorite thing that we did there. It was basically a high speed, turbulent ride happening in a gold mine.
Our trip to Disneyland ended with an electronic parade, which I liked better than the midday parade, probably because of the lights. At the end of the day, we had barely managed to finish 14 rides out of 45 but I had the best time in 3 years.
The reason behind this trip is actually silly. My sister started the whole thing by telling friends we were going to Japan. Then my mom got a call from one of her classmates' parents who said they were going, and asked if we wanted to go with them. My mom, who didn't even know where it came from, told them that we weren't going to go very far. And my parents surprised us with tickets to Japan after a few months. However, it came out to be an unexpected but unforgettable trip, thanks to my sister. I had a wonderful time exploring a completely different culture and most of all going to Disneyland, nothing in my life has ever occurred to me that one day I would actually be there. From getting lost in crowds to witnessing spectacular things, I enjoyed every minute I spent there and think it’s an amazing place to be.
