Be Magical!

Ok, the title of this blog post is kind of a spoiler. This week was magical…that’s really the only way to sum it up. We left for Tokyo on Wednesday morning, went through a great endowment session at the Tokyo temple on Wednesday afternoon, and went to Tokyo Disney Sea on Thursday. Pictures are probably the best way to share the magic of our adventure, so I will let them do most of the talking this week.

This year marks the 10th anniversary of Tokyo Disney Sea. The theme: Be Magical. This is the entrance to the park.

Wait, I have to rewind a little bit. The magic actually started on the train on our way to the park. We hopped on the train and found three or four moms who were taking their kids to Tokyo Disneyland. All the kids were dressed up and ready to go trick-or-treating in the park. They were so cute that I had to get a picture with them.

The train even had magical Mickey Mouse hand holds. Totally  made up for the germs and disease I'm sure we collected from hanging on to them.

Here are a few shots of the park and some rides. Disney Sea is build so that the ocean is visible from the park and each land in the park represents a coastal region of the world. James and I agreed that our favorite thing about the park was just enjoying the magic Disney created in so many different themes and lands.

Italy - my personal favorite. There were Venetian gondolas, gelato, and great look-out points.

Aquatopia

The Great American Waterfront

The Tower of Terror

Part of the Lost River Delta

Arabia

Mermaid Lagoon - this attraction was all indoors and it felt like we had just walked into a mermaid disco.

Here are some of the magical foods we ate throughout the day. One thing we didn't get to try was the popcorn. Every popcorn cart sold a different type of popcorn: caramel, chocolate, strawberry, milk tea, black pepper, and curry were some of the flavors we saw. There were so many restaurants in the park that we had a hard time deciding which ones to go to.

This was James' favorite meal. A chicken sandwich on ciabatta bread with pesto mayonnaise. The paper is a drawing of some of our friends from Hawaii that we took to Disney Sea with us.

A sausage roll

Minnie Mouse apple popsicle 

And a few more fun things:

Yes, this is me kissing a camel on the streets of Agraba.

Listen carefully to this video and you can hear Mickey and Minnie shouting, "Konnichiwa!"

Us enjoying the riverboat tour together.

We had a great time at Disney Sea, and feel very blessed that we have this time and the means to have fun adventures like this together.

This weekend, the General Conference of our church was broadcast in Japan. We were uplifted and edified by living prophets and apostles as they testified of Jesus Christ and his love for us. It is hard to choose a favorite message from the Conference, but if we could share two talks with all of you, it would probably be "You Matter to Him," by President Dieter F. Uchtdorf, and "It's Better to Look Up," by Elder Carl B. Cook. Both videos are less than 20 minutes long. If you haven't seen them (or even if you have), click on the links and watch the videos and be reminded about how much Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father care for us and want us to succeed. 

We love you, family and friends. Thanks for all your love and support. Until next week...Be Magical!