World Bazaar is the first themed area in Tokyo Disneyland. Resembling a small, carefree American town from the yesteryears, the Bazaar has two walkways that cross each other: Main Street and Center Street. This allows guests to travel to three themed zones of the park directly at the junction, through streets filled with several shops and restaurants.

Before we get into the park, let’s have a walk the memorable route to Tokyo Disneyland from JR Maihama Station.

This is the iconic mint-coloured pavilion on the bridge to Tokyo Disneyland.

Along the scenic walkway there are many posters and bronze statues of Disney’s classic characters on the way. You’ll also get to see the lushly designed Tokyo Disneyland Hotel, all decked out in gold and blue – like a palace.

I think these figures are similar to those at the Castle Hub at the first Disneyland in Anaheim.

There are a lot of these bronze statues by the way – just about every classic Disney character. The green patina lends a beautiful accent.

Here’s a grand shot of the Tokyo Disneyland Monorail Station, with the opulent Tokyo Disneyland Hotel behind.

Since we’re already here: Look at the amazing view of the Hotel from the station platform. First, there’s a Mickey clock:

There are some really beautiful murals that can be seen from street level. They are very easy to miss!

I only discovered these pieces on the last day – a day when I did not enter the park.

The bag check point for Tokyo Disneyland is located far from the turnstiles, unlike Tokyo DisneySea. Makes things easier later on.

I realized I have no photos of the displays after the turnstiles. When you are running in the park like the White Rabbit from Alice in Wonderland most of the time…

Tokyo Disneyland is the world’s only Magic Kingdom-style park without the traditional Main Street USA. World Bazaar takes its place. To most people, it would seem the same. The architecture looks similar, there are the iconic and common details everywhere. Pay attention to numbers on the buildings facades.

What I like about World Bazaar is that its cross-shaped layout directly links to three themed “Lands”. Adventureland on the left, Tomorrowland on the right, and Cinderella Castle Hub right in front. This makes the park very easy to navigate, especially important for this Titanic-sized park.

Under a glassy canopy, World Bazaar remains comfortable all year – cooled during Summer and warmed up during Winter. Although the glass ceiling is lower than Hollywood and New York at Universal Studios Singapore, it somehow works a lot better at Tokyo Disneyland, blending with architectural features more seamlessly.

This area is of course, packed with shops and restaurants. We dined at East Side Cafe – you can read about it later in this entry.

For The Happiness Year, colourful banners, character figures and lights fill World Bazaar.

Did anyone notice the heavy use of balloons for the Happiness Year theming? It’s not a random design choice. Due to helium shortage, Tokyo Disney Resort has suspended the sale of balloons for the past few years. Balloon props fill the gap.

There’s a store window with the Aristocats. Marie is my sister’s favorite Disney character (the amount of Marie merchandise this woman has…) and perhaps to annoy me, she always pronounce the name as MARY.

Marie is very popular at the parks – she’s affectionately known as Marie-chan (マリーちゃん). We spotted so many Marie popcorn buckets carried by guests (of both genders, I might add) at the park. Sadly they are no longer on sale.

Sister: “Awwwww it’s Marie’s birthday! Oh, no. it’s for the mom.” She’s probably going to laugh because I added this anecdote.

The Aristocats window shows the kittens setting up banners for their mother’s (Duchess) birthday. Actually I think Toulouse and Berlioz is doing the work, since Marie’s just sitting there.

Moving on – there’s this popular Mickey Waffle place which we passed – twice, because the queues were just way too long. We had Mickey waffles at the Main Street Cafe, Kong Disneyland last year and of course, were looking forward to it again at Tokyo Disneyland. Maybe next time.

On the other side of World Bazaar was this cute café that I’m sure a certain foodie friend of mine would be delighted to see. The exterior is so lavishly designed, sort of taking the texture and form of cupcakes along with its architecture.

We didn’t buy any snacks from the Sweetheart Café in the end. We stopped by the dessert place next to it that’s called Ice Cream Cones. It’s a nice place to cool down, plus the windows give a view of the Castle Hub. There wasn’t space here, so we went to the nearby cafe at Tomorrowland to enjoy our sundaes.

We bought both the Banana Brownie Sundae and Strawberry Cheesecake Sundae (¥450 each). They’re the ones in the display with upside-down cones.

During our second day here, we had lunch at East Side Café – across this suspicious “Magic Shop” (Why? There’s a secret nearby). This restaurant offers Priority Seating, but we were lucky – we walked right in with a table waiting for us.

East Side Café offers set lunches, with pasta as the main course. Like Magellan’s, basic drinks are free flow. I think for this trip I’ve gotten addicted to Kirin’s fruit soda drinks.

Portions were quite adequate for both the starters and pasta. We were also each offered a cute little bagel. The staff here were very attentive and kept offering to get new glasses of our drinks.

The ambiance of this restaurant may not be as exotic as some others, but it’s a posh place to relax for a while.

The Pasta Lunch Set (3 courses) goes for ¥1980 including drinks of your choice. If you forgo the desert course, it’s ¥1680.

Since the price is less astronomical compared to Magellan’s, we ordered a set each.

Bagna Cauda. Seems pretty scarce – you get only one of every thing.

Chicken and Mushrooms with Balsamic Sauce. Quite delicious.

Spaghettini Carbonara. A standard dish that’s hard to go wrong – the egg had the right temperature and texture!

Spaghettini with Garden Vegetables and Tomato Sauce.

Sweet endings: Vanilla Gelato, and Italian Chocolate Pudding (out of focus, background).

Lunch was pretty filling. We left the restaurant and went to the Pirates of the Caribbean, which was less than 20 seconds away. We would love to stay (and enjoy the free flow drinks) but there was a very long line of people waiting to be seated.

World Bazaar – Part two

In part two, where we visit World Bazaar at night. Read it now.

An Introduction | Getting There and Around | Pocket Wi-Fi | Tips and Tricks

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Tokyo DisneySea

Mediterranean Harbor | Mediterranean Harbor at night | Fortress Explorations
Magellan's | American Waterfront | Tower of Terror | Toy Story Mania!
Port Discovery | Indiana Jones Adventure: Temple of the Crystal Skull
Lost River Delta & Raging Spirits | Sindbad's Storybook Voyage
Arabian Coast | Arabian Coast at night | Mermaid Lagoon
Mysterious Island | Journey to the Center of the Earth
Mysterious Island at night & 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea

Tokyo Disneyland

World Bazaar | World Bazaar at night | Adventureland | Pirates of the Caribbean
Westernland & Big Thunder Mountain Railroad | Splash Mountain
Haunted Mansion | Pooh's Hunny Hunt | Fantasyland | Fantasyland at night
Cinderella's Fairy Tale Hall | Toon Town | Roger Rabbit's Car Toon Spin
Monsters, Inc. Ride & Go Seek | Star Tours: The Adventures Continue
Tomorrowland & Space Mountain | Happiness is Here Parade