Japan - Day 4: Ninjas & Disneyland!

Today was a bit of a sleep-in day for us -- I made it all the way to 5am! We've got breakfast down pat now -- here's the spread for the four of us! Baba with his pork buns, twins with their berry smoothies and donuts. I figured I'd make up for my fried chicken with a green smoothie 😆. 

We packed up our stuff (kind of hard thanks to our various shopping trips...definitely need to get a suitcase if we want to buy anything else), and then headed down to our lunch adventure: Ninja Tokyo. I won't add all the photos and videos here of the magic and illusions and such, but suffice it to say that I thought the whole thing was really well done. Yes, maybe a little overpriced, but the food was quite good (I think it was 5-6 courses in all), the magic was legitimately impressive, and the overall experience was a hit for the whole family. 

The twins thought it was funny how we were taken to a jail cell basically for the meal. 

This was R's favorite magic trick -- the "invisible" appetizer cracker: 

I think this was the second course -- even the ninja star was edible!

This was Baba's cheesecake (frog) and sorbet (rock) dessert course. 

100% gimmicky. But what can I say, we are all suckers for this sort of thing. 

After lunch, it was time to check-out and head to Disneyland!

We didn't enter the park until 2:30, but today was the Tokyo Disneyland day (as opposed to tomorrow, the DisneySea day), and we had heard that most of Disneyland was actually pretty identical to Disneyland California, Magic Kingdom, and Shanghai...so we figured a half day would be enough for us.  

One of my biggest takeaways is how much better "maintained" the park is. Like even on things like Jungle Cruise or Pirates, where all of the figurines are identical to their US park counterparts, the Tokyo versions just look more pristine, all parts working perfectly, etc. Twins enjoying the humor from our Jungle Cruise Skipper...apparently certain humor transcends language barriers.

Obligatory family shot with the castle. 

Twins' favorite ride of the day: Pooh's Hunny Hunt. 

Lao Lao will be happy to know we caught the Tokyo version of Its a Small World -- here they did a version adding in Groot and friends from Guardians from the Galaxy. Maybe they do this in the other versions now too, but I don't remember seeing so many Disney characters interspersed amongst the dolls before. Even Stitch made it in!

Sadly we didn't get to try the Monsters ride. It broke down RIGHT when we got there. Sigh. Note for future: ride your must-dos early!

I think that disappointment also sapped us all of our momentum/staying power...or maybe it was getting cold? Regardless, against my somewhat weak protests, we decided to head to the hotel after that -- didn't even make it to the parade or nighttime show. I know - Jiu Jiu and Lao Ye would be aghast! Parting shot appropriately captures the mood:

I suppose it was only the third full day and we were able to catch the fireworks show from the Miracosta hotel room. 

Showers and all in bed by 9 again. Early entry tomorrow to DisneySea!