Tokyo Disney -- what to bring?

hasabigrock

Mouseketeer
Joined
Mar 20, 2012
My family just finished a trip to downtown Tokyo followed by 6 days at Disenyland Tokyo and DisneySea staying at the MiraCosta Harbour View. Below is a list of what to bring and not to bring based on our experience and watching what the locals did. We have two daughters (ages 15 & 12) and we are from central Texas.

1. Backpack - Every group has a backpack. Most will be dangling little Disney characters that you can buy in the gift shops.

2. Water Bottles - For whatever reason bottled water is not common in Tokyo, and is not sold in the Tokyo Disney parks (neither is any diet soda). Grab a bottle of water for each person in your party. There are several places around the park where you can refill. Be warned: if you do find a bottle with clear liquid for sale it is not water unless it says "Natural Water" on the label.

3. Umbrellas - these are used for rain and shine. When we visited in June and July 2016 we had rain and sun and the umbrellas really helped with both. You will appreciate them if you find yourself sitting for a long time in the sun holding a spot for a parade or waiting for the park to open.

4. Rain Ponchos - If you are visiting in the rainy season rain ponchos are very handy to have and are sold in the gift shops as well. Ride attendants will have you remove them as you enter rides.

5. Tarps - It took us a while to realize what these were in the gift shops, but they are Disney themed tarps. Every group has one and these are used to define your territory when waiting in line for the park to open, or when waiting for a parade or show to start. Great part is that during the shows and parades everyone is very well mannered and sit on their tarps. We found the ground to be clean enough to eat off of so we just used our park maps to defend our turf.

6. Camera - Of course bring a camera and extra batteries. Ride attendants will be sure to tell you not to use them on rides. I also brought a GoPro with a clip that I could clip onto my camera strap and I filmed pretty much our entire trip. When they made me put my big camera away I just clipped the GoPro to the collar of my t-shirt.

7. Credit Card - Before you leave home call your credit card company and tell them you'll be travelling so they don't deactivate your card. Also, we chose to add the service where we weren't charged per international transaction. This made it so we didn't need to carry around alot of Yen. In fact, nearly everywhere we went (including popcorn stands) we were able to use our Visa card without any problems.

8. Cash/Coins - Especially in Disney Sea make sure you have some 100 Yen coins for the remote control ships.

9. Plastic Bag - This goes along with the tarps. Bring a plastic bag for your camera and other toys in case it starts to rain. If you like everyone in your group to dress in a theme then you are going to fit right in at Disney Tokyo. This do this to extreme.

10. Light Clothes - In June/July we found Japan to be pretty muggy and more humid that we were used to. We dressed light. I wore cargo shorts that were designed like swim trunk to dry out quickly, but they looked the same. These with a light t-shirt and baseball cap made for good touring.

11. Good sneakers - Break in a good pair of sneakers before going to Japan. Between downtown Tokyo and Disney we walked about 64 miles in a week. Even though you'll see the natives wearing wooden sandals be smart and bring good walking/standing shoes. Socks too. We bought sneakers that were old that we didn’t feel bad about leaving behind in favor of space souvenirs.

12. Practical First Aid Kit - We kept a little sandwich bag of Advil/Tylenol, Band-Aids and moleskins with us to ward off common problems.

13. All your magic pieces of paper.

- You will need to have on you your monorail passes. The treat the monorail like an actual train system. Child passes give a little chips when you run them through the turnstiles, but no one cares if the adult and child tickets get mixed up. Monorail train driver is in the last car and the front car is open to guests.

- You will need your park passes, which are printed on card stock and have a QC scanable system used by the parks turnstiles and fastpass machines. I took pictures of these with my cell phone just in case they became lost, damaged or water logged.

- You will need your early entry papers if you are a hotel guest (1 per person per day). You get these on check-in. At the parks attendants will take these slips of paper allowing you to get to the turnstiles at each park that open 15 minutes early. Once they have taken your paper if you need to leave to buy ponchos or use the restroom they will give you a return pass to get back in the early entry waiting area.

- Park map and show schedule in English. These are not everywhere like they are in the states. Make sure you get these from the hotel before you leave so you don't have to search for them.

- Room keys for obvious reasons.

14. Popcorn bucket - There is a pretty serious popcorn cult in Tokyo Disney and it is fun to try all the flavors. Its a good deal to buy one of the cool popcorn buckets then pay for refills. Note that each popcorn stand sells a different themed popcorn bucket.

15. Toys. The Japanese love their toys and you'll see grown people without kids carrying their Duffy bears around. You'll see lots of little Disney toys dangling from backpacks. I brought along a toy Godzilla and would pull him out from time to time (Dinner, character meet and greets, and so on). It wasn't weird at all. We also brought a deck of cards to play while we waited for the parks to open or parades to start. The Japanese are early risers and it wasn’t uncommon to find a good sized line an hour before the park opened.

16. Fitbit. Wear a Fitbit or some other sort of pedometer. You'll be amazed at how many steps you take in a day. With that in mind its a good idea to get your family up to walking a couple miles without complaining while breaking in those new sneakers.

17. Sunglasses & Hat.

18. Expendable team member. An expendable family member is always handy. Someone that can sit and hold a choice parade spot, or a table in Tomorrowland Terrace, or run fastpasses. Sometimes this will be a pregnant family member, or someone that doesn't care for lines or fast/spinny rides. In Tokyo people camp out for hours for even minor parades and shows during the day. Also people will camp out anywhere that has AC and chairs for hours through the hot part of the day. So much so that all-you-can-eat buffets will tell you up front that you have a maximum of an hour and a half to occupy the table.

19. Cell Phone with an international data plan. This is more for touring downtown Tokyo than anything else. Google maps will tell you where to walk to get to the station, what train to get on and combined with an all-day rail pass you will own downtown Tokyo. You can also easily take the train from downtown Tokyo right to Disneyland Tokyo there is even a welcome center that will help you with your bags and get you checked in right next door. We opted to take a cab from downtown Tokyo to Disney and it ran us about $65.


Don't Bring

1. Pin Lanyard - You will work really hard to find pins, they just aren't in to them. When you do find pins they will be rather generic and you probably won't find any that say Disney Tokyo. Disney Tokyo cast members do not wear pins for trade.

2. Sun Block - We are from Texas and we are big on sunblock in our family. We found that putting on sunblock in the room before leaving was just find for the rest of the day. The sun just didn't seem that intense to us. We went late June, early July 2016.

3. Before heading out to the parks at night you might want to think about bug spray. 2 people in our family must've had sweet blood because the mosquitos ate them alive. The other 2 of us were left untouched.

4. Passports - Leave these in the safe of your room.

5. Sweatshirts/jackets. In June/July we never needed these.

6. Japanese dictionary - Most all the cast members speak some English and all are extremely friendly and helpful (much more so than in the US). We were able to successfully navigate restaurants and shows by pointing and using fingers to indicate how many. If you learn the words for "Thank-you very much", "Welcome", and "Good Morning" you will understand 75% of what is being said to you.

7. Tip Money - There is no tipping in Japan.

8. Car – From the monorail look at the parking lots. You’ll notice there are virtually no cars in the parking lots at Tokyo Disney, just acres of empty parking spots. Creepy for those used to the massive parking lots at Disney World.
 
Thanks so much for this list! I'm going this Saturday and am not sure what to expect. Lifesaver!!!
 
If you are substantially larger than the average Japanese person, bring your own poncho! My husband is 6' 6" and the largest poncho we could find in the parks provided him with very little coverage!

ALWAYS bring and wear sunscreen!!! It doesn't matter how intense the sun feels - skin cancer doesn't discriminate!

We recommend NOT bringing a collapsible, travel umbrella (to Japan in general). The traditional style that doesn't collapse will save you a lot of trouble. We pick out umbrellas we like on our first day in Japan and consider them very practical souvenirs.

We didn't have any trouble finding bottled water at any of the snack kiosks. Maybe that's changed in the past year?
 


Bring sunblock/suncreen.

The sun in Asia is a lot stronger than North America because of where the countries align on the equator. Japan, especially, is almost in the center and it can really burn. I'm not fair-skinned but because of how strong it is, I have gotten a slight burn and this was even with sunscreen on.

I second bringing a water bottle because water goes for double the price at the parks (that's a 120% markup!!). There are water fountains at most restaurants where you can easily refill it and a few dotted along the paths.

I also recommend bringing a seat cushion or something similar that cushions your bottom especially if you are planning to see shows/parades. If you want a good seat, you will have to acquire the spot early and will be waiting for a least an hour. It is not fun to sit with nothing but a sweater or the park brochure separating you from the concrete.

One last thing:
NO SELFIE STICKS! And tripods are generally unseen at the parks. They don't allow it during shows or parades. If you have a small one or a gorilla one, that's ok to bring and use outside of shows.

Everything else on the list is spot on.
 
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I agree with most of this list, and also agree with bringing sunblock/sunscreen. You should always bring it and always reapply. I also agree with not bringing a umbrella. Buy one when you get to Japan, they are extremely good quality and sturdy. I brought my own to Japan and it fell apart during a downpour at DisneySea, so that wasn't fun.

No selfie sticks is correct. The rule is similar to other Disney parks in that extendable selfie sticks aren't allowed. However, I had a handgrip for my GoPro and that was fine.

I would say leave the Japanese dictionary at home but keep a translator app on your phone. I found Google Translate to work awesomely as it can take pictures and translate characters from pictures if you need to be able to read something (for Japan in general). I also did have an incident where I couldn't effectively communicate to a CM with English so I used Google Translate and she understood way better. It falls apart if you are trying to translate long and complicated sentences into Japanese, but for words and short simple sentences it was awesome.
 
TO WOMEN: I also want to add that if you are looking to purchase sunscreen in Japan, a lot of the ones aimed for women come with whitening agents as milky white skin is the definition of Asian beauty. If you want to avoid that, best to bring your own sunscreen.
 


Actually pins are not available there because they were too popular. Apparently people were having too many fights over them so they decided to eliminate trading. I was really disappointed too.
 
Actually pins are not available there because they were too popular. Apparently people were having too many fights over them so they decided to eliminate trading. I was really disappointed too.

They still sell pins at the parks. You are just not allowed to do pin trading.
 
Thank you for this helpful list!! Can you explain the tarps more? Do people put them down to claim their show spot then leave? What would you use them for while waiting for the park to open?
 
Thank you for this helpful list!! Can you explain the tarps more? Do people put them down to claim their show spot then leave? What would you use them for while waiting for the park to open?

Not only are tarps good for keeping your bottoms clean from the pavement (even though TDR is already incredibly clean) they are very useful to define a visible spot for you and your party to sit down. So once your tarp has been laid down, you have already "claimed" and this is the unspoken rule. All Japanese people recognize this and respect this. And yes, this means that you are able to leave your spot as long as you have a party member staying behind. If you are a solo traveler, you can probably ask a cast member to watch your spot for you.

They only allow tarps to be laid down and spread out an hour prior to the shows/parade. You don't really see them used while waiting for the park to open as most people are standing in lines at the gates. They are used only for occasions where you can sit down, ie. shows, parades. Not so much for lining up for park opening or attractions.
 
Just wanted to echo (and enthusiastically support) the love for the popcorn buckets. I kinda put them off when I first saw them as a weird fad...but honestly after 2 days of being there I really really wanted them and couldn't believe the amazing selection of buckets plus amazing flavors of popcorn.
 
TO WOMEN: I also want to add that if you are looking to purchase sunscreen in Japan, a lot of the ones aimed for women come with whitening agents as milky white skin is the definition of Asian beauty. If you want to avoid that, best to bring your own sunscreen.

Hey! So no offense but I did want to clarify this for anyone who isn't familiar with asian beauty products. You can learn lots from www.reddit.com/r/asianbeauty and also from this website (not my website) http://www.ratzillacosme.com/category/sun/

Most of the "whitening" agents are not harmful and aren't meant to actually whiten skin. They tend to target sun spots or acne scars and most products which are easily found contain comon ingredients like arbutin, forms of vitamin C or niacinimide (Vitamin B). These ingredients are also common in "Western" sunscreens (Neutrogena, Paula's Choice, etc).

Just wanted to clarify for anyone who isn't familiar with these products. I personally love Japanese sunscreen since they don't leave an oily residue and sink in evenly.
 
Since you're from TX (I am as well) can I ask how you found the weather? We're looking to be at Tokyo DisneySeas about the same thing you were there & I keep finding information that its really hot & be prepared because its so hot & so on & so forth. I'm wondering how you found the temps while you were there, given that in TX we see temps above 100 yearly. Thanks.
 
Since you're from TX (I am as well) can I ask how you found the weather? We're looking to be at Tokyo DisneySeas about the same thing you were there & I keep finding information that its really hot & be prepared because its so hot & so on & so forth. I'm wondering how you found the temps while you were there, given that in TX we see temps above 100 yearly. Thanks.

We were in Tokyo end of June and beginning of July and it wasn't too bad. Warm days temps got into the low 90's with a bit more humidity than we were used to in Austin, Texas. I went with Duluth Armadillo underwear (TMI) and they worked really well. I also bought these cargo shorts that were designed more like a swimsuit. Both were lighter and breathed well, also lighter in the luggage. I also went with lighter colored cotton t-shirts, but this is just normal play-in-the-heat stuff.

We made sure to drink lots of water by filling up our water bottles everytime we passed a water fountain and we did really well.

We really did fine with one coat of sunblock in the morning and did not carry it with us into the parks. Now on the way home we stopped in Hawaii where we played in the mountains quite a bit and at the higher altitudes we used a ton of sunblock.
 
Most of the "whitening" agents are not harmful and aren't meant to actually whiten skin. They tend to target sun spots or acne scars and most products which are easily found contain comon ingredients like arbutin, forms of vitamin C or niacinimide (Vitamin B). These ingredients are also common in "Western" sunscreens (Neutrogena, Paula's Choice, etc).

You are correct in a partial sense that there are some sunscreens that aim to target sun spots. These are specifically labelled with "シミ". Although the packaging seems to lean more on the idea that it has a preventative effect rather than a lightening effect.

The common ingredient of whitening sunscreens is a vitamin C derivative which essentially prevents production of melanin (melanin is key to dispersing UV rays by being an effective light absorber). More melanin = absorb light = darker skin. Basically what whitening sunscreen does is it keeps the skin from further absorbing light so that leads to less darkening of skin. It is not actually bleaching skin but reducing light absorption.

This site does a good job of explaining Japanese sunscreen:http://www.survivingnjapan.com/2011/06/guide-to-sunscreen-in-japan.html
 

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