What to Eat in Disneysea (or What WE Eat in Disneysea)

Just so you know that last month I have this amazing chance to go to Disneysea again!! It’s not a big surprise really, as maybe this was already my 5^th or 6^th trip there however this is kinda more special as it was the first time I went there with my brother! It was quite an achievement at least for me, as this year, I managed to bring one family member to my most favorite place on earth (currently) and hopefully I can bring my mom and dad too. Hopefully next year?

However! This time I would like to focus on what kind of stuffs we ate there. Disneysea is quite famous for their food, either heavy foods or finger foods, and bringing my brother definitely gave me chances to try them all especially some of the famous one, as we can share some of the foods together (and a growing lil boy’s stomach is bigger means more variety of food that we can try).

So here we go!

The 1^st food that we tried is this 3 Little Green Men Mochi from Toy Story.

Price: 380 yen
Location: not fixed, around Toy Story area until Barnacle Bill’s (still inside American Waterfront Area)

*At the same time, introducing my lil bro, which will be the model for some of the photos.

You know that usually cute stuff didn’t follow with good taste; however this is the best dessert mocha that I have ever had in Japan! 3 pieces of soft and cute green mochi with generous vanilla, strawberry and chocolate filling. The trickiest part of this cute mocha is that the wagon location is somewhat keep changing. I usually found it in front of Toy Story area (around  2 times), and most of the times I didn’t find it at all (maybe sold out), but this time we found it in the front of Barnacle Bill’s wagon, it was right before the big bridge to Port Discovery area. We were lucky enough to notice a long queue in front of a wagon and bam! We saw that the green men was being sold was and directly queuing for it. Yumyum.

Finished with The Green Man, we went for a wagon called Seaside Snack to hunt for our 2^nd food called Ukiwah Bun.

Price: 500 yen

Location: Seaside Snack Wagon in Port Discovery

This is a swim-ring shaped shrimp filling bun that wrapped in a cute swimming Donald wrapper. The filling is quite a lot, and the bun is very soft. I read good reviews about this, and we can't deny it. It was pleasant and fulfilling. However me and my bro agreed that this was not the best food that we had here. There are some seats available around the wagon, allowing you to enjoy the bun and the pleasant view from this area.

After this, we didn’t find so much good stuffs around Lost River Delta, so we just continued our way for lunch in Arabian Coast, as we were quite starving at that time.

Our 3^rd food is our lunch, which is Curry Sets. If I remember correctly, it was available in Chicken, Fish, Beef and Combination of those 3.

Price: varies from 600-800 yen.

Location: Casbah Food Court in Arabian Coast

We ordered 2 Chicken Curry Sets (780 yen each), Salad (350 yen) and Original Lassi (350 yen), totaling 2,260 yen. We notice that the chicken cut was quite big, and the curry was delicious. What we curious about is the double carbs in one set as it have both rice and roti prata altogether (What’s wrong with Japanese and double carb, they eat ramen with rice too...).  Apologize for not taking proper photos, as we were both ravenous at that time we just remembered to take photos when our food was already damaged haha.

That lunch last for a good 2 hours more or less, and we continued to our 4^th food, which is Potato Churros, since my bro asked for one.

Price: 380 yen

Location: Churros Wagon in Mysterious Island

The least food that we liked here. As it was potato churros, the taste resembles French fries however this is like the big version of it, and the texture is softer than regular churros. However since it was quite a unique kind of churros, this is worth to try too. Maybe some of you will like it?

Since my and my bro were not satisfied enough with this churros, we went straight for our 5^th food, which is Cotton Candy Churros.

*Last photo so blur, forgive me

Price: 380 yen

Location: Open Sesame Wagon, in front of Sindbad’s Storybook Voyage attraction.

This churros is better than the potato version, and it was saluted with purplish sugar which taste like cotton candy (they said). This version of Churros is limited as it was part of the 35^th year celebration of Disneysea at that time. I assume that the wagon will be selling original churros when there’s no event of it. This was nice and we liked it!

Nearby the wagon is the Sultan Oasis area, which is like a small cafeteria that sells some snack. That’s where we buy our 6^th and 7^th food at the same time:

Easter 2018 version of Chandu’s Tail

Price: 500 yen

Location: Sultan Oasis Cafeteria

Chandu’s tail is one of the infamous foods in Disneysea, and this time they serve it Easter Special with pink ribbons (I can’t figure out what’s the form actually, rabbit?) and curry fillings. The normal version one has chicken cream fillings and orange in color with black stripes, but I liked the curry version as well. Should be considered one of the best food in Disneysea.

Vanilla Smoothie and Coffee Jelly Drink

Price: 500 yen

Location: Sultan Oasis Cafeteria

The vanilla smoothie taste like regular milk shake with coffee jelly toppings and choco powder. What I like is that it was not as sweet as I expected, and it balances well with the Chandu’s Tail. Perfect for hot summer weather. Oh, and this is the specials for 35^th Celebration Food too!

Not stopping there, before we went for our final show in Mediterranian Harbor, we went for snacks that will accompany us to watch the show:

8^th food: Garlic Shrimp Popcorn

Oh helloooo, Nemo!

Price: 350 yen

Location: Mermaid Lagoon

We are tempted to buy this because of the MSG aroma that lingers around Mermaid Lagoon, which area we have to pass in order to go to the Mediterranian Harbor. Couldn’t complain anything about the taste as it was good! Just FYI, the Curry Popcorn in Arabian Coast is much more famous compared to this one, however this time I’d prefer this one to try.

9^th Food: Gyoza Dog

Price: 500 yen

Location: Nautillus Galley

This one, I think, was the best bun that Disneysea’s have. It was a looong bun with lotsa gyoza filling, and most of the people hunted this bun a lot that they decided to move the selling place to a bigger area which is the Nautillus Galley. Since it IS big, I think this should be enough for dinner for most of the people.They have a lot of signage of this Gyoza Dog around Mysterious Island so I think it will be hardly missed. Nautillus Galley itself are quite hidden, as you need to go downstairs to get to the café.

Aaaaand that Gyoza Dog became our closing food that we ate in Disneysea. Since we are NOT like most people, in the end we went to convenience store around our hotel too to grab a very proper late dinner which was around 23.30.

Like I said before, I never had the chance to eat THIS MUCH before as usually I went there with my girl friends, which usually were not a good foodies. However, with my brother and his deep stomach pit, it was glorious! We got the chance to eat most of it and realize we spent 6,130 yen or around IDR 800.000 for all of this. Expensive, indeed, but all in all it was worth the experience! And taste, of course.

I can proudly say that most of the stuff that we ate here are some of the top items that people usually hunting for, so feel free to note them, hunt them on your next trip to Disneysea and share your thoughts!

Tips: don’t forget to take Entertainment & Information called “Today” Brochure when you take the Guide Map in front of the gate, as it has all of the information especially limited edition goods, foods, and special parade according to the event during your visit.

See you on the next post!

Sailor Moon Exhibition in Roppongi - Tokyo 2016

On this June 17^th I had the chance to go back in time and had a severe nostalgia time in the Sailor Moon Exhibition located in Roppongi Hills, Tokyo. This event was only celebrated for such a short time (for only 2 months I guess) so the hype was quite big.

To be honest I was ONCE a big fan of Sailor Moon however I grow up and blah blah so many things happened and suddenly it disappeared from my childhood without me knowing it. But then I went here.... The moment I saw all of the things shown on the exhibition there, it literally KICK MY HEAD OFF back to my childhood memories, damn, damn, hard.

“DAMN Yolanda, such a stupid of you for growing up...”

Said me to myself for the whole 3 hours there...

It was located on the 52^th floor of Mori Tower where they usually have art exhibition there. The entrance fee itself was not that cheap, 1800 yen for one adult.

I remember there are several sections for the exhibition:

• The main hall where they show the main artwork created by Naoko Takeuchi, the mangaka (“comic artist”) for the exhibition included several displayed knick-knacks from the past, and photo spot on the center for those who interested.
• The area that shows chronological story of Sailor Moon from the first publicity, short movie area.
• The display area for several manga sketches, toys and merchandise from the past and present, such as dolls, wands, action figures.
• Main Photo Spot.
• Artwork display plus a monitor that plays Sailor Moon songs from the past anime again and again (and I stunned there for more than 15 minutes just to hear the song and chill as in having goosebumps all over again)
• Another artwork display area that shows mostly the real artwork for this exhibition which is AWESOME.
• Shop area.

Unfortunately most of the area here were “no-photos area”, except the main hall and the photo spot area. Well, privilege for those who paid to get in!

However will keep to try my best to show you all what I see and what I managed to take.

The first thing were the main hall. The main hall was huge and the first thing I saw was all of the artwork hanged with Tokyo View seen from 52th floor as the background.

Even Usagi was like summoning the Tokyo Tower here.

Right in the middle of the main hall was the first photo spot,

and next to it was this SUUUPER BIG and PRETTY main artwork for this exhibition.

OMG. I want to take it home. Kill me.

Circling the main figures of the room were these glass-sealed knicks-knacks, several old comic books and everything else here.  

Really want the Luna and Artemis cushion so bad..

And what made me go super ga-ga was these several display of Sailor Moon merchandise scattered around the room such as this Cosmic Heart Brooch,

And this Spiral Heart Rod,

And this bad-ass Rainbow Moon Chalice.

And guess what??? I have those at my home back there in Jakarta!!! Directly contact my mom to not throw all my toys away back home as maybe someday I can auction it big on Yahoo and make a fortune out of it hehehe.

Continued from the main hall were the "no-photo" spots that I have mentioned above. It was amazing to see all the incredible sketches and artworks shown; how can one person can make such  pretty artwork by herself. Admire Naoko Takeuchi to the top. The only photo that I can take was this:

With Takeuchi's real autograph there. 

Besides the sketches and artwork (that I can never make even if I practice til I die) section, what excites me the most was the display of several toys and collectibles from the past. The funny thing is that on each every section of the exhibition I always found my toys here and there, literally everywhere! I’m going crazy as like “OMG I have this before wtf!” or “Oh gosh where did I put this card?!?! I used to have it I’m sure” or “OMG OMG I die I die I have this one played like crazy before” and so on and so on..

Such a tiring but exciting but sad but satisfying whole 3 hours of my life.

And the most satisfying photo spot was this 2 real-size figure of Usagi and Mamoru or known too as Princess Serenity and Prince Endymion here (full geek mode completely on here).

Gotta take selfies.

Scream. 

Too bad that my selfie was the last photo that I can post here as I don’t have any more photos to be posted related to the exhibition contents. Yes, the exhibition was quite strict about photo taking as they place several officers here and there to guard the visitor from recording or taking photos. 

Since I went there 2 days before the last day of the exhibition, most of the limited items that can be brought from the shop were completely sold out, I managed to buy only several post cards with the exhibition original artwork for quite a price. Japanese really know how to make me go bankrupt.

They have the Chibiusa Café too with super cute menus displayed however since the queue was very long, I didn’t went there. It was quite tempting you know. Who's not tempted with pink burgers wtf. Can see it slightly here.

Well, overall, it was such an enjoyable and memorable visit for me as all of the images and things displayed there still sit firmly on my head even until now.

I’m glad I went there as actually on the day before this visit, had quite a lot of overtime and kind of have to push myself to go here that day, but I’m so happy I can drag my ass off here and have a fantastic nostalgia time for a moment; reminding me of how blessed and happy I am as a kid years ago (and glad too that my mom bought me so much toys at that time.. seriously.)

Sailor Moon, thank you for making my childhood awesome and I promise I will make my adulthood even better. It’s time to take those moon power back to reality, and continuing my present life, more hopeful and powerful than before.

See you on my next post!

Hitachi Seaside Park: Spring's Nemophila and Tulips!

Yesterday I went to Hitachi Seaside Park, a national park in Ibaraki area which is averagely 2-3 hours away from Tokyo depends on which transport being used. It was outstandingly pretty I have to share it as soon as possible once I reached home!

Here's an opening photo for you guys, marked this post with this calendar.

Real time calendar is important for seasonal garden visit as we have to find the right time to see the fully bloomed flowers!

Special thanks to one friend who visited Japan last year and informed me about this park presence too; without him I can’t be seeing all of this magic right now. Since then I’ve been eye-ing this park and have been targeted to step my foot here in spring, where all the tulips and nemophila will be the star of the season. And I made it!

The trip from Tokyo itself was quite long and tiring; I used the train with the total of 5 hours round trip up and back. However, with only 410 yen for 1 adult entrance fee to the park, and all of the flowers that I saw (plus another wishlist crossed), it was very, very, worth it.  

The park itself was so big it kinda took all of my energy away. The full park size was around 2 km square; compared to Disneyland Tokyo which only around 0,45 km square; sure this one is gigantic. It took around 15 minutes itself from me to walk from the tulip spot to the nemophila hills spot. That’s why I spent the whole day with the limitation of only visiting all the famous spots too. I recommend people who wanted to explore every single spot of this park, better rent a cycling bike for 400 yen/3 hours, additional 50yen/30min, or using the park train trail which stops at several area throughout the garden. Didn't saw the cost though, will just leave all the details to their website here. It's in english, please kindly check as they have flower calendar too there!

I took my first step to this park via West Gate and directly greeted with a massive middle stage and a very big lake in the middle of the entrance gate.

Looked at how massive this was I instantly have a rough calculation of how tired I will be later and how far I have to walked away from one place to one place today.

Didn’t want to waste my time here on crazy thoughts, I walked directly to the Tamago no Mori (translated as “The Forest of the Egg”) area on the right side beside the west gate to see the first star of the season, tulips. Yaaay.

Greeted by them, all of my worry turned to smile and ready-to-take-photos stance in one second. Carpets of tulips, everywhere.

The white one were my favorite! Too bad it was located in the middle of the spot.

The flowers were so beautifully arranged creating one whole balanced contrast; not to mention that they put every name of the tulips type near the arrangement too. I never knew that there were so many kind of tulips before!

Reached the main spot of the tulips, the windmill!

Can see the contrast from the nearby hill too.

What mind-blown me was how can so many people were there with zero trash to be seen. So clean yet so unbelievable. Try this in Indonesia huh we’ll see.

Anyway, have cleared half of my phone battery and satisfied with all the photos of the tulips, say and see no more, took fast steps to the main star of the season to see the nemophila located on the spot called as Miharashi no Oka (Viewing Hill), 15 minutes walk away from the tulip spot. 

Once I reached there, my thoughts once again were stunned by the view. The 4,5 million of nemophila (baby blue eyes flower) had painted the hill blue all over. Well, at least until mid May. From here, taking pictures seems like the best thing to do. 

Painstakingly pretty and keep mumbling why they didn't have this in Tokyo..

Somewhat the hills become one with the sky. Thanks for the clear weather too today everything combined so perfectly.

Several last photos of the nemophila hill seen from several angles:

Aaand, done. I hope pictures speaks more than words as I didn't know how can I describe its charm anymore via sentences.

Finished with the nemophila, I visited several spots too that either once had became the main spot of the season in March or not yet bloomed such as herb garden on the other side of the park. This one below is located in the Suisen Garden, consist of narcissus flowers and several other specimen combined. Although some of them are starting to wither, the beauty still shows.

Didn't took a lot of photos anymore after the narcissus spot as the other spots of the garden rarely has any full-bloom flowers this season. And maybe I can say roughly that the narcissus marked the end of my photo session and spot hunting for the day. Spend the rest of my time just to wander around the rest of the park area which is indeed quite dull if it were not on the right season.

Out of topic but bought this pretty ice cream during the walk. It was as good as it looks!

I have to say even until the end, I’m impressed most by the nemophila hill so far; a view that can’t be seen anywhere in Japan except here. And I make a stupid conclusion (but I think its quite true) that any flowers that were beautifully arranged, bloom at the same time at a massive amount of numbers were not good for the faint hearted people, hahaha. 

On the other hand, for additional info too, the hill spot always offer the best seasonal flowers and plants the whole year. For example starting mid June there will be all the 30.000 Kochias (summer cypress) which will fill the hill with refreshing green color and it will turn all red when autumn come. Too bad I won’t be here anymore next autumn; have to try my luck some other time but definitely not this year.

The key point for a garden visit is the best timing, and this year, all of my work schedule, weather condition and the timing were all perfect; thanks for not betraying me, world.

And then, one last mandatory photos so that all of you believe that I didn't took all this photos just from the internet (LOL)

And that's it.

Sorry for the long post, thank you for reading it until the end, and see you again on the next one!!