Tokyo Disney Resorts

Sergio
2021.12.01
908 views

I have to admit, I’m not the biggest Disney fan. I’ve never been into Disney characters, even as a child, and I would say Disney in general is much less popular in Europe than it is here in Japan. After all, there are two extremely successful Disney theme parks in Japan alone, whereas Disneyland Paris serves all of Europe and loses money year after year.

With this is mind, it will come as no surprise that I wasn’t exactly thrilled to spend not one, but two whole days at Tokyo Disneyland and DisneySea. It was a special occasion and I wasn’t particularly against it, but also not particularly excited.

We spent the first day, a Sunday, at Tokyo DisneySea, and the second at Disneyland. The first thing that I noticed is that the park demographics are very particular. My image of your typical Disney resort guest group is that of a family with several small young children. These are usually the people that go to Disneyland in Europe. There are families with kids here too for sure, but they don’t seem to make the majority at all.

I would say that the park guests consist of 70% women, and of those, 70% between the ages of 14 and 30. There are many couples and groups of women, but not so many groups of men. Also, for some reason, many of the girls are wearing school uniforms, even though it’s Sunday, and even though some of them are well past high school age. I’m told that this is normal fashion at Disney resorts in Japan. Why someone would choose to wear a school uniform is beyond me, but I guess I’m not a young Japanese girl. There’s also a considerable amount of lolly girls with teddy bears, as well as groups of people wearing the exact same clothes. Apparently this is called “pair look” in Japan and it’s also common.

I guess I should talk about the parks themselves at some point. Well, I will say that they are at least spacious, which is a rarity in Tokyo. There are lakes, trees, and plenty of wide outside spaces with restaurants, cafes and terraces. The architecture is very reminiscent of Europe too. Italian and French towns, German castles, and so on. I guess that it helps that the number of tickets is limited during the pandemic, because it’s nice that the place isn’t uncomfortably crowded. So at least in that sense, I see how the park can provide some escapism for Tokyoites.

The highlight of these parks for most people is, of course, the rides, so I will talk about those next time. Stay tunned.

Hi, I’m Sergio.
I’m from Spain, lived in the UK for seven years and came to Japan in 2012.
I majored in journalism in London and have been teaching English in Tokyo.
I like traveling, cycling, photography, movies, and spending time with friends.
I wrote articles about life in Japan as a foreigner and anything that I might find interesting.
My email is ” sergio.dom.jpn@gmail.com “, by all means contact me about anything!