MEETING HELLO KITTY AT SANRIO PUROLAND

We were gradeschoolers when Sanrio Puroland opened in 1990 (don't you dare compute for our age!!!), and we've always wanted to go there since then to see Hello Kitty.  Unfortunately, our parents think the idea of taking us cute little girls to Japan just to see Hello Kitty is absurd.

We never got over the fact that we weren't able to meet the REAL Hello Kitty when we were kids, so when we went to Tokyo, going to Sanrio Puroland topped our list.

We left Shinjuku looking all grown-up and ladylike.  No one can probably tell that our agenda that day is to see Hello Kitty. HAHAHA.

We were with our friend Cara and her boyfriend, and we know he's not happy with the plan. HAHA.  We told him we're sorry and how important this is for us... that this is our dream-come-true... and he understood.

Sanrio Puroland is in Tama Center, 40 minutes away from Tokyo Center via the Keio Line.  Make sure you have the map showing the complete Keio Line as most of the Tokyo subway maps cut off this area.  Also be careful because the Keio Line splits into two when it reaches the Choufu station (marked with a star).  We made the mistake of riding the other train that goes to the other direction hahaha.  

Sanrio Puroland from the Tama station isn't really what we'd call a short walk.  Or maybe we're just too excited to get there.

Tama town itself is cuuute.  Their town maps are Sanrio!  You'd see the Sanrio Characters all over!

Finally, we can see Puroland!

It was still freezing when we went.  There are still some leftover snow on the sidewalk.

Moving on... we weren't even inside the theme park but you can already see the excitement on our faces!

Together with the other little kids, we lined up for our tickets.  We think it is safe to say we're more thrilled than those toddlers. HAHA.

Tickets are 3000 yen for an adult.  

The theme park closes early so it's always better to plan your trip in the morning so you can maximize your Hello Kitty day.

Once we got inside... it's heaven.  It's Sanrio all over!  Seriously, we think Disneyland isn't the happiest place on earth... it's Puroland, no doubt.  If we were 8 year-olds, we're probably being bratty, crying by now because we want to buy everything inside HAHA.

They have all sorts of cute Sanrio stuff that you can have personalized.

Karol got this charm with her name on it and used it on her bag.

And the food... ohmygoodd even their food are Sanrio!  We chose to eat lunch at the Hello Kitty Yum-Yum Corner (nice name, yummeeeh in our tummeeh!!).  

Food isn't really cheap, but c'mon, it's Sanrio.  Karol's meal is 1100 yen while Macy's order of Takoyaki Balls is 400 yen.  Her drink? 270 freakin-yen.

Kids are difficult to feed, but if you take them to Puroland, we're sure they'd be the ones begging you to buy food for them.

We didn't try any of the rides though.  This boat ride is really tempting but we think we're too old for it.  The fact that we're oldies in Puroland giggling with delight the whole time is embarrassing enough hahaha thankyouverymuch.

We really suggest you take a kid with you when you go to Puroland.  That way, you'd have an excuse why you have to take the rides.  You can go "Awww look little baby, it's sooo cute!" but deep inside you're the one who's dying of cuteness overload.


They also have this huge projector screen where you'll be magically turned into a Sanrio character!  We spent a LOT of time standing in front of it, we didn't give the kids a chance to enjoy it for 10 minutes haha!

Just like Karol's camel ride at the Dubai Desert Safari Camp, a man popped out of nowhere and joined us.

The theme park has scheduled shows throughout the day for the visitors to enjoy.

And now the moment we've been waiting for... seeing Hello Kitty in real life!!!  For us, she's the real superstar.  We want to cry!

There are tons of games and vending machines all over the theme park.  We had to stop Macy from dropping all her coins into the machine slots.

We also saw Hello Kitty's house!  We wanted to go inside but we didn't want to stand out in the queue area... we'd probably be the only 5-footers among a bunch of 3-footers.

Parked beside Hello Kitty's house is her car.  Karol almost wrestled with the kids just to get her turn.

Also beside the house is a souvenir shop.  Everything.Hello.Kitty.

We saw some Sanrio characters roaming around such as Kitty's boyfriend, Dear Daniel, and Milk (one of Cinnamoroll's friends).  Milk is so tiny, that we wondered if it's a child inside the mascot.  OMG child labor.

To end this post, here's Karol channeling Purin.

And Macy channeling Badtz-Maru.

  
And that's the story of our second childhood.  Bow.