Tokyo Disneyland Opens! - April 15, 1983

In honor of Tokyo Disneyland's 29th birthday today, I'm posting an article that appeared in The Los Angeles Times six days before the park officially opened on April 15, 1983. I'm also including a few photos of some of the attractions mentioned in the article. These are all photos that were taken during my very first visit to Tokyo Disneyland.



This first part of the article mentions Tokyo Disneyland's castle being the same one that "adorns the California park," but in reality it is the same as the castle at Walt Disney World in Florida.



The Starjets can be seen below. These also resemble Walt Disney World's original Starjets attraction more closely than Disneyland's Rocket Jets. Fortunately, Tokyo's Starjets have not undergone a hideous remodel job like the Disneyland and Walt Disney World counterparts have.





This photo shows a far more crowded "World Bazaar" in comparison to the photo above, which was taken during one of the park's preview days.



The 18 minute presentation of "movies and three-dimensional visuals outlining Japan's 3,000 years of history" mentioned below, was Tokyo Disneyland's Meet The World attaction, which was unique to Tokyo Disneyland, but has since been torn down. :-(



Another attraction that was unique to Tokyo Disneyland at the time it opened was Pinocchio's Daring Journey. As the article mentions, it was only unique to the park until the New Fantasyland opened at Disneyland the following month.




Happy 29th Birthday, Tokyo Disneyland!