Theo: Live in Tokyo Disneyland!

June 4, 2006 / Sunday / 10:50 a.m.

First, the bad news.

Excitement and insufficient sleep are certainly a bad mix. Theo was still jumping around in bed at 1:00 a.m. when we were supposed to wake up at 6:00 a.m. for the early trip yesterday to Tokyo Disneyland. But wake up we did, groggy and all, with the aim of arriving at Disneyland as early as we can. Among the things that we brought were Theo’s stroller, Mommy D’s bag and my knapsack.

We arrived at Maihama Station (the station nearest to Disneyland) at around 9:15 a.m., but as soon as we stepped on the platform and saw the train leave, we realized that I had left my knapsack on the train. (Obviously, my fault!) I clearly remember placing it on the overhead rack because the seat was full. We were shocked for a few seconds but there was nothing else to do except proceed to the station’s Lost and Found section and file a report.

We were informed that after reaching Tokyo station, the same train would return to Maihama where it will make a brief stop at 9:42 a.m. The station attendant asked us to check on the train if the knapsack was still there. It wasn’t and no one had given it to the Lost and Found section of Tokyo station (or to any other station for that matter, as we found out later in the evening). In other words, somebody took it home and it was gone forever! Its contents: Theo’s diapers, Theo’s biscuits, and of all things, my digital camera with three lithium batteries and a 512 MB compact flash card. (No documents or valuables were present.)

I will not describe the camera here nor reveal its brand and model. Suffice it to say that I liked that camera so much because it met most of my digital photographic needs. It wasn’t very expensive but it wasn’t cheap either. I purchased it from a second-hand shop here in Tsukuba in mint condition. Auspiciously, I bought it on April Fool’s Day this year.

Losing that camera forced me to count my blessings (apart from teaching me a painful lesson!). There was a time when I did not have that camera and life was perfectly okay. (I also reconfirmed to myself that I can afford to lose any material item or even everything, EXCEPT my family.) The only irony is that while I have more than 5 cameras at home, some much more expensive than the one lost, we had none in hand, particularly on Theo’s first visit to Disneyland. Thanks to disposable cameras, we still had a way out. (All of the photos above were taken with a disposable camera. Not bad, huh?)

Now, the good news.

Our trip to Disneyland was largely shouldered by Tippi as her birthday gift for Theo. (Tippi, by the way, is 5 weeks on the family way! Yehey!) On this day, Theo was visibly pleased with everything that he saw and experienced. He enjoyed the parades and the shows in particular. We also realized that he recognizes Mickey Mouse quite well. While he would only gaze in amusement at the other characters on parade, he would smile and giggle when Mickey was there. He particularly enjoyed Toon Town and the show where Mickey and Minnie performed a very lively dance routine. By 5 p.m., he was already visibly tired, probably from stimulus overload. We were at home before 9:30 p.m.

Theo recognizes Mickey probably because he has a stuffed replica of him (courtesy of his Grandaunt Nalik), one of our towels here has Mickey’s big face on it, and one of the games we have for our Game Cube is that of Mickey on some kind of adventure (the instructions are all in Japanese…duh!).

Clearly, the misfortune early in the day did not deter us from proceeding with our plan for Theo. After all, there was no use crying over spilled milk, or should I say, over a lost camera. It’s gone now and no amount of anger, regret or fidgeting could bring it back. It’s important that we learn from the lesson (I’ll make sure that it never happens again!) and that we (or I) should be more careful, such as by making a quick mental inventory of our hand-carried stuff before leaving the train.

Theo’s first trip to Tokyo Disneyland was filled with mixed emotions -- particularly for me (Mommy D doesn’t care so much about cameras.) But for Theo, it was all fun, fun, fun!

And for me and Mommy D, it’s all about our little Theo!

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PS - We'll visit Disney Sea in autumn, probably September.