Never Gonna Be A Mouseketeer

Before we moved, there was a commercial on TV that these kids were tucked in their beds and whispering about going to Disneyland when they were supposed to be sleeping. When the mom tells them to go to sleep, the little boy says, “But we’re too excited to sleep!” Only to find out the dad couldn’t sleep for his own share of the excitement either.

I spent all of Saturday night trying hard not to think about Disneyland and just make myself go to sleep… listening for that TV mom to come in to my room and tell me to do so. I woke about every hour and looked at the clock like I was five-years-old again.

I couldn’t pretend anymore so I finally got up out of bed, much earlier than anyone would ever expect for me to, and trudged immediately to the computer. I went directly onto the Tokyo Disneyland website just to make sure all was a go for the day and then bounded down the stairs to get dressed and ready as quickly as possible. We were out the door in no time.

We drove which we normally don’t do but since we were leaving so early, we decided it might be easier than the train. An hour in and we were only 8 km. away. Then something very bad happened. Traffic. Two hours of it to be precise. Guess where it was going? One guess.

We knew that Monday was a Japanese holiday which is precisely why we decided to go on Sunday. We also knew it would still be extra busy but it was a beautiful day and perfect weather for a day at an amusement park.

The traffic jams made us slightly crabby (read: pissed off with one another for the other not suggesting more firmly that we take the train) but we finally arrived. We went through the gate and were pleasantly surprised when they wouldn’t collect our money for parking. Of course she couldn’t speak English and made us read this board about not selling any more tickets for the day but since we had our tickets, it didn’t affect us.

More waiting in traffic lines and we finally get to park and start the long walk to the entrance. The tensions of earlier erased and nothing but excitement for the day ahead of us!

At the gate, we come upon a mob scene. People seem to be shoving themselves in past the first entrance gate to get to the actual main gate and others seem to be standing aimlessly in the way. We politely pushed and shoved and made our way to the gate where the lady looks at our tickets, says something in Japanese and looks at us pointedly. Huh? She says it again… in Japanese… as if I will get it the second time. Nope. She walks us over to a board which says something about not selling any more tickets until maybe 1700 hours. That’s okay we say as we shove our tickets back into her face. Looking helplessly around her for someone’s assistance but no one apparently spoke English working at that gate. A Japanese man who is also trying to enter the park notices the circumstance we seem to have found ourselves in and comes over to help. He says we can’t buy tickets and we again say, practically shouting “yes-but-we-have-tickets-!-SEEEE” Those tickets don’t work he tells us because they don’t have today’s date on it. Now, this is where I get really frustrated with living in a foreign country. Nothing said you had to have tickets with today’s date on it… just tickets already purchased like we did as you couldn’t buy them that day. I’m sure on the Japanese portion of the website, it was clear. But on the English… Lost in Translation. We checked remember! And then drove! And then walked! To a galaxy far, far away!

It became quickly apparent that we weren’t getting in. Dejectedly, we started back to the car. Both back to our earlier miserable angry states and both blaming the other for not doing this or that or whatever the hell would have made everything okay. As we open the doors, I can hear the shouts of joy on the other side of the wall and can just feel the tears welling up so I quickly get in and close the door. Tight. We drive back out of the parking lot and the monorail passes us and I really start to cry. Big, fat, hot, juicy tears streaming down my cheeks and Kimono Hubby getting more uptight with me. I sputter something out about never going to Disneyland and I obviously never will. It’s like whales… it just doesn’t exist… I cry! I’ve been on many whale watching tours and never seen a stupid whale and now I’ve been to Disneyland and never seen Disneyland so therefore it just doesn’t exist... you know?

He promised to try and prove that Disneyland exists in two weeks. We’ll see about that.

This is a picture of how close Kimono Hubby got to proving its existence to me.

Then we drove hours back home. We didn’t even try to recover the day. I just took a nap instead.

Damn Disneyland. And damn the whales too.