Day 62 (30th March) - Falling Stars? Meteor Shower?

Location: Tagara, Tokyo
Weather: 10 deg
Author: Chrissie

Yesterday, we saw the most amazing sight! We were on our way home after a day of shopping in Harajuku and were waiting at the traffic lights. As usual, I was looking up and saw a yellow streak in the sky that was otherwise clear. At first I thought it was just a play of sunlight on some clouds as it was already dusk but then I realised it was moving and secondly, there weren't any clouds! Excitedly, I tapped Amy to confirm that I wasn't seeing things and then she got excited too! Here's what we caught on my camera!




Here's a series of shots of it 'falling' across the sky.






At first we thought it was a comet, but then we happened to spot yet another different streak of light that was moving very quickly across the sky. Rather than falling almost vertically like the first one, this one was falling almost horizontally.





We think now that they may have been fragments from an asteroid or meteor 'raining' down, but we're not sure. In any case, it made our day as we both love seeing things like this! Until next time!

Day 30 (Feb 26th) - TOKYO DISNEYLAND!! Part3

Continued from Part 2!

TOMORROWLAND!

Tomorrowland is a futuristic themed area of the park and includes one of the most popular rides in Disneyland - Space Mountain!! We didn't end up going there though, firstly because Amy doesn't like going on rollercoasters and secondly the queuing time was an insane 120 minutes!!

Tomorrowland - Space Mountain in the background

BUZZ LIGHTYEAR''S ASTRO BLASTERS

Instead, we headed off to the Buzz Lightyear's Astro Blasters ride to release our violent side! You basically ride around with laser guns shooting at different targets and accumulate points based on the different types of targets you hit! Amy scored more points than I did, I personally think she must have had more stress to release than me! Compared to Space Mountain, waiting time was only a mere 80 minutes!

Entrance to Buzz Lightyear's Astro Blasters ride - we're almost there!

Buzz Lightyear himself greeting us inside!

STAR TOURS

The other ride we went to in Tomorrowland was Star Tours, which is a simulation ride where our space shuttle gets caught up in a Star Wars battle. I think George Lucas & Steven Spielberg helped to create this ride. Of course, the interior of the building was decorated with Star Wars artifacts! Today, I also realised just HOW much Amy really loves Star Wars!

Amy grinning like the Cheschire Cat when she saw C3PO!

R2D2 hard at work!

Amy posing with an animated alien robot

One of the many rooms designed to look like you're inside a space station

FANTASYLAND

Before heading to one of my favourite rides in Tokyo Disneyland, we decided to grab some lunch at Tomorrowland. The pizzas at the 'Pan Galactic Pizza Port' smelt just too good to pass up! We decided to be smart and took away our food so we could eat while lining up!

My very cheesy and yummy chicken and vegetable pizza. Sorry it's half eaten! I couldn't wait!

Amy's salami and mushroom pizza! She's obviously less than a pig than I!

There were different flavoured popcorns in the different Lands. We sampled caramel and honey, but they also had shoyu and butter flavour. Caramel was hands down the yummiest!

And my favourite ride is Pooh's Huney Hunt, situated in Fantasyland. Fantasyland basically contains rides and attractions associated with well-known Disney stories such as Cinderella, Snow White, Winnie the Pooh, Peter Pan, Pinocchio and so on.

We both loved the ride so much we ended up going on it twice! It's very cleverly designed in which you follow a story of Pooh's hunt for his treasured honey through different rooms. One room actually had you bouncing to Tigger for example. There's also something whimsical about Winnie the Pooh characters that I like.

Us just outside the Winnie the Pooh ride. The entrance is very cleverly disguised as a gigantic storybook!!

One of the few pics I took inside the ride. Winnie the Pooh flying off on his balloon!

After our ride we headed to Cinderella's Castle! On the way, we came across this really beautiful flower display and couldn't resist taking some photos!

Cinderella's castle!

Us in front of Cinderella's castle!

There are no rides in Cinderella castle. Just a large shop selling and showcasing all kinds of glass figurines.

A beautiful mosaic wall at Cinderella's castle.

A glass/crystal display of Cinderella's Castle.

A really beautiful glass and crystal figurine of Cinderella's pumpkin coach!

Sweethearts forever. Mickey and Minnie Mouse crystal figurine costing 12600 yen!

A colourful Mickey Mouse figurine.

It was starting to get dark and very, very cold by then. We decided to sit on one last ride which so happened to be Snow White. As we were lining up, an usher for the ride was warning everyone queuing up that this ride was a horror ride! They even had a display (see below) warning that the ride could be scary for young children, which I thought was pretty amusing!

After having experienced the ride, I think I would have to agree, if I was a child I would be pretty scared. The central character of this ride was the wicked witch rather than Snow White, and the theme of the ride was very, very dark, which is surprising it being Disney and all!!

A brightly lit carousel in Fantasyland

Us posing with the lovebirds at the Mickey Mouse Revue which was a film show and performance of the history of Mickey Mouse!

NIGHT-TIME ELECTRICAL PARADE - DREAMLIGHTS!

The Electrical Parade has to be one of the most beautiful parades I've seen so far. The floats and costumed paraders are lit up with a thousand different coloured lights, some of them changing and flashing colours. It's simply beautiful to see. I'll let the pictures do the talking!

Monsters Inc. float

Beautiful Winnie the Pooh float

Buzz Lightyear's float - a rocket with him standing on top

Flounder from the Little Mermaid

Very intricate and beautiful sea-themed float for the Little Mermaid

The cast from Beauty and the Beast

Beauty and the Beast dancing atop their coloured float.

Pete's Dragon float! Very large and tall float!

Here we can actually see Pete sitting atop his Dragon!

Cinderella's float! Here you can see Cinderella's dress is also made of lights and she transforms from servant girl to....

A beautiful princess! The lights display were amazing!

A mother swan with her 3 cygnets!

Donald and Daisy's float with the 3 little pigs hitching a ride!

Chip N' Dale on their colourful balloon float!

Here we have Mary Poppins and the cast from Pinocchio!

The last float - Proudly brought to you by Unisys!!

DISNEYLAND AT NIGHT

Disneyland at night is also quite magical looking with many of the buildings brightly lit up. Every night there is a fireworks display at Cinderella's Castle, however Amy and I decided not to watch it as we had already seen it previously and again, we were getting hungry!! Amy wanted to go eat at this restaurant situated close to Disneyland which according to her served one of the best Japanese curry she had ever tasted, so we wanted to leave a little earlier to have dinner there before the restaurant closed!

Cinderella's castle at night

Another viewpoint of Cinderella's Castle - over the moat

Front view of the castle - specially decorated in lights for the 25th Anniversary

The world bazaar lit up at night!!

Last photo of the night. The Disney cast in the background and a Mickey Mouse flower garden with '25' in the foreground! nice!

That's our Disneyland adventures compressed into 3 parts! I really tried to restrain myself from posting up more pictures! I had a great time that day, although the first time is always the best!

Our next plan is to visit Tokyo Disneysea, which is just next door to Disneyland!! I hear it is apparently much more fun as it has more rollercoaster rides!! We are planning to go sometime in summer and I will be sure to post up that experience!! Until next time, mata ne!!