Disney Omiyage

When preparing for your return from Japan, you'll find stores completely devoted to "omiyage."  The term, "omiyage" refers to a gift or souvenir you give to friends, family or co-workers when returning from a trip.  It is a thoughtful way of thanking those that helped to take care of your home while you were away, or a way of sharing your adventures with someone close.

The Japanese take souvenirs one step further with their beautiful gift wrap and boxes that conceal an exquisite bite of a dessert only made in the land of the rising sun.  Disneyland also offers its exclusive omiyage.  Whether it be on Main Street or the hotel gift shop, you'll be amazed at the wonderful treats that can be brought home to share with loved ones!

Many of the Disney characters are featured on the different kinds of packaging.  

Omiyage highlighted here are all food items.

Pretty cookies and biscuits are displayed in this pretty tin can.

Super cute Disney cookies!

Disney offers a variety of rice crackers that are available in various shapes and sizes.

Some of these treats are too cute to eat!

Who knew that you could buy Disney furikake ochazuke?

Finding Nemo tea complete with fish shaped salmon skin and nori

More Nemo items highlighting the new ride at Tokyo Sea.

 Donald Duck omiyage!

Delicious Winnie-The-Pooh honey cake can be found in a very special keepsake box.

It may be hard to believe, but there were many other gift items found in each store.

The variety of Disney omiyage is truly impressive!

Disney Parades!

As the gates open to the Magical Kingdom, and we hurry towards the first ride of the day, others choose to sit and wait for the first parade of the day.  Traveling so far to Tokyo Disneyland, it seemed strange that families would open their mats they brought from home and plop themselves down for a good 2-3 hour wait.  But after a few years, it became a natural scene as many Japanese people visit Disneyland just for the parades!

As you wait for a parade at Tokyo Disneyland, you must be aware of their audience rules.  There are no markings on the parade routes or sidewalks, but it is an unspoken standard that people in the first 5 rows (give or take a few) sit down on the ground.  There was one area where workers explained that people sit in the front rows, there are benches for the next level of viewers, then people in the back can stand.  This of course was all done in Japanese, but anyone can quickly observe that this is a common understanding.

Sitting down in the third row as the parade approaches us.

It's such a simple way of thinking that completely makes sense, yet it takes the entire audience to agree to this rule to make it successful.  And yes, it alleviates the stress of having to watch a parade when you're sitting among thousands of people.

The back rows also leave a walkway for people as they decide to stroll through the park and enjoy the rides instead of viewing the parade.  It may be out of the ordinary that I would take more photos of the audience than the parade itself, but it was an amazing sight to see people be so courteous and cordial to everyone around them.  This was far from anything we had experienced at Disney World, which happened to be our previous Disney experience.  This makes it easy to show up to the parade right before it begins and still be able to view all the beautiful floats and costumes.

Most of the parades at Tokyo Disneyland are found in Disney parks in the United States.  Here is one parade that can only be found at Tokyo Disneyland!

We also enjoyed the Tokyo Disneyland Electrical Parade.  Here we are, sitting in the third row!

Tokyo Disneyland also projects a show onto the castle each night, complete with fireworks.  We weren't aware of the show and walked up to the crowd right before the show began.  Some of the families in the back row saw our kids standing with my husband and I, and waved our kids to the front to sit with their family.  The Japanese people keep surprising me with their kindness wherever we travel to in Tokyo!  It's truly amazing how there is no end to their thoughtfulness.