TR--Girls' Trip to Asia---Next Stop: Japan!--updated 10/16--Day 15 --TR Finished

[battymum]

Ooh I would live to check out the wedding stuff, although 22 years too late for me, I would love dd to have a destination wedding, and Japan is a lot closer than Florida!
Pity I don't think a wedding is even in her far, far, far away plans!

 

[belle2211]

The bridal chapels and stuff look really nice. It must be a hobby of yours to go check these places out...not sure that I would have allocated time in my vacay for it.

I got married at the Wedding Pavillion at Disney World so I love to see the other locations!

Ooh I would live to check out the wedding stuff, although 22 years too late for me, I would love dd to have a destination wedding, and Japan is a lot closer than Florida!
Pity I don't think a wedding is even in her far, far, far away plans!

Lol...maybe one day!

 

[belle2211]

After I visited the wedding chapels, I texted Cori and she said they were on Pirates and would meet me at Tokyo Sea. I stopped at our hotel to drop off the brochures, since the hotel was right across the street from the station. When I went to get back on the monorail, the girls were on that one. Perfect timing! We went in to the park and met up with one of Cori's old students, Schayenne, and her mom. Her mom is from Tokyo and they spend every summer there. She's in fourth grade now, but in kindergarten, she was already fluent in English, Spanish (her dad is Hispanic) and Japanese! Such a smart kid! Anyways, you could tell that she was so excited to see Cori. We went to take pictures of all of us in front of the globe.

Schayenne had never been to these Disney parks before so we asked what she wanted to do. We headed to Stormrider first. We asked them to translate what happened at the end, and she said that it wasn't specifically said but that we were right and it was insinuated that you died! Then we got some more strawberry popcorn and headed to the Mermaid Lagoon since they hadn't been there. We rode the Blowfish Balloon Race and saw the Little Mermaid Show again.

While we were waiting in line and chatting, Schayenne's mom told us that there had been an earthquake around noon that day! None of us felt it! Boo! But apparently it was bad enough that Disney paused all of the attractions to test for safety. That made 3 natural disasters! Flew out of Florida in one tropical storm, flew out of Hong Kong in the tropical cyclone, and now the earthquake.

We found out that they cancelled Fantasmic because of the weather which stunk because we never got to see it. I was sad about that. So we said goodbye to Schayenne and her mom and headed back to the mall. The girls wanted to buy the shoes I had bought earlier in the day and I got another pair in a different color. Then we went to Rainforest Cafe for dinner. Cori and I split the Caesar Salad and Seasoned Fries. There was an American magician doing magic for us but he was really cheesy.

Then we headed home for the night.

Oh, and just in case anyone is interested, here is a picture of the Japanese currency.

Up next, Kyoto!

 

[battymum]

Oh can't wait to hear about Kyoto- everyone seems to give up on their tr's by the time they get to that point.
( I'm looking at you BecBennet! )

 

[PrincessInOz]

Nice update and how great to have the little mascot along....

I too am looking forward to Kyoto...although there seems to be movement on the other TR towards the same place right now.....(Battymum - ye of little faith!)

 

[belle2211]

Oh can't wait to hear about Kyoto- everyone seems to give up on their tr's by the time they get to that point.
( I'm looking at you BecBennet! )

I'll update tonight and tomorrow night and then I'm out of town for a couple of days. But have no fear...I will finish the TR!

Nice update and how great to have the little mascot along....

I too am looking forward to Kyoto...although there seems to be movement on the other TR towards the same place right now.....(Battymum - ye of little faith!)

Thanks!

 

[belle2211]

We got up this morning to check out of the hotel at Disney. I grabbed a chocolate croissant from Toastina, a cafe in the hotel.

We got a van to take us to Dai-Ichi, our next hotel when we got back in Tokyo so we could store our big pieces of luggage there and not drag them to Kyoto. Then the van dropped us off at Tokyo Station.

We exchanged the JR Rail Pass vouchers that we had bought online a month beforehand. This made travelling sooo much cheaper. You can only buy them from out of the country (and we found out you can't extend it once you're in the country. We had exactly enough days on them after Disney until our flight home. One of the girls didn't go to Disney with us and used it on that day. When we used it the second to last day of the trip on the long train ride, she didn't have any days left and they wouldn't let her extend it so she had to pay a lot of money for the ticket). Then we got on the train to Kyoto. It wasn't the fast bullet train but it was still pretty fast. The trip took about 2 hours and 40 minutes.

On the train, I tried snacks called Toppo and Meiji Cacao Chips. Both were pretty good.

When we got off the train, we walked to our Ryokan (kind of like a Japanese bed & breakfast). It was called Sakura Kaede.

While we were checking in, they served us some green tea. Not my fav. It needed sugar!

Meredith, Rebecca, and Vuong were staying in a traditional Japanese room which has little mats on the floor and then there are small cushions to lay on top to sleep.

A view of their garden

They only had one of those types of rooms available so Cori and I stayed in a normal (to us) room.

Here they ask you to take off your shoes each time you walk into the room. And darn if I didn't keep forgetting. And then I'd feel bad!

Then we had lunch at this little hole in the wall, a local ramen place. It was good! I got the "Chinese Noodle with Soy Sauce." It was interesting because you ordered by putting money into a machine like a vending machine, pressed the button for what you wanted, and then a ticket popped out for you to give to the guy.

There are also drink vending machines all over the place. Which I loved since I have a slight Coke addiction.

Up next...the Kiyomizu-Dera Temple.

 

[battymum]

Thank-you Belle,

I am really enjoying your TR -,

I am currently planning our trip in April 2013 and I really appreciate personal accounts, its so much more honest than reading tourist brochures or guide books. When I was planning our WDW trip there was no end of dis'ers retelling their vacation, it made it so much easier to plan our trip. (actually you might think this is weird, but I had never even heard of Walt Disney World until I discovered the DIS!! - we are a long way away down here)

How great to have such a wonderful group of girlfriends - (and while I dont want to sound like some 1950s housewife, how generous of your partners to encourage such an adventure! ....What did they get up to while the cats were away? )

 

[PrincessInOz]

Love the look of the ryokan with both the traditional and normal rooms. I think I would love to try out the traditional.

Thanks for sharing.

 

[minnie mum]

I'd love to hear how your friends found the experience of sleeping on futons in the tatami room. Our upcoming tour has us staying at 2 different ryokan onsens, and I wonder how our backs will handle sleeping on the floor. There are also western-style rooms as well, and I don't know yet which type of room we'll have.

 

[belle2211]

Thank-you Belle,

I am really enjoying your TR -,

I am currently planning our trip in April 2013 and I really appreciate personal accounts, its so much more honest than reading tourist brochures or guide books. When I was planning our WDW trip there was no end of dis'ers retelling their vacation, it made it so much easier to plan our trip. (actually you might think this is weird, but I had never even heard of Walt Disney World until I discovered the DIS!! - we are a long way away down here)

How great to have such a wonderful group of girlfriends - (and while I dont want to sound like some 1950s housewife, how generous of your partners to encourage such an adventure! ....What did they get up to while the cats were away? )

Thank you! I think the TRs really help. I wish I had known about these boards before my other disney trips! As for the hubbys, only 2 out of 5 of us are married. I'm very independent (I guess its since I got married a little older than most people I know) and I've done a bunch of trips since we've been dating so my hubby was fine. The other hubby was fine too but I think it was a little harder for them to be apart. My hubby spent his time working (haha!), playing on the computer, and keeping our puppy busy!

Love the look of the ryokan with both the traditional and normal rooms. I think I would love to try out the traditional.

Thanks for sharing.

I think it'd be neat to try out the traditional at some point too!

I'd love to hear how your friends found the experience of sleeping on futons in the tatami room. Our upcoming tour has us staying at 2 different ryokan onsens, and I wonder how our backs will handle sleeping on the floor. There are also western-style rooms as well, and I don't know yet which type of room we'll have.

They said they're backs didn't hurt at all, but we only stayed for one night, so I'm not sure if that would change if we had stayed longer. The cushions on the floor did look thicker than I thought they would.

 

[belle2211]

We headed back to the Ryokan to grab a taxi to go to the Kiyomizu-Dera Temple. It was pretty and looked like Epcot.

There were a bunch of school kids that kept wanting to talk to us. We think they had an assignment to practice their English. The highlight of our day was when these 3 girls came over and introduced themselves and asked us our names and where we were from. We took a bunch of pictures of each other. They were so cute!

And one of them gave me an origami swan!

They even had a book about how to talk to foreigners!

Everywhere we went, we saw whoever was having their pictures taken flash peace signs. We have no idea why they did this, but we got in the spirit too.

Some more pictures around the temple.

RIght below the temple, there were TONS of touristy shops. I got a keychain, a little owl, and a hair clip. I got Dad a sake set and Mom a little decorative fan (kind of like those decorative plates but in a fan shape). I also tried mochi. Its doughy with a filling. Not my fav.

Then we got ice cream. We tried the "Rare Chocolate and Cookie" flavor.

Up next...geisha district

 

[MrsDuck]

Andrea-- it has been so fun to read your TR!! I love love love the girls who kept chatting with you. Too cute!

Looks like you had a blast- can't wait to read more! Especially about the geisha district!

 

[belle2211]

Andrea-- it has been so fun to read your TR!! I love love love the girls who kept chatting with you. Too cute!

Looks like you had a blast- can't wait to read more! Especially about the geisha district!

Faith!! Hi! Thanks for reading!

 

[belle2211]

We set off walking to the Geisha district. Along the way we saw the Kodai-ji Temple and the Kenninji Temple and the Ryosen-an Temple.

We had to stop and get drinks along the way of course

We also stopped at a kimono store and Vuong got one. I was debating about getting one.

Looking down one of the streets (I think this was in the Geisha distric but I can't be positive).

We got to the Gion district, which is the Geisha district. We decided to see a show at the Gion corner.

It had Chado (Tea Ceremony)

Koto (Japanese Harp)

Kado (Flower Arrangement)

Gagaku (court music)

Kyogen (Ancient Comic Play)

Kyomai (Kyoto Style Dance)

Bunraku (Puppet Play)

We paid about $40 USD to get in and while the other girls liked it, I thought it was boring. But I was glad we did it so we could get a taste of everything.

We found this sign on a trashcan which we thought was interesting. We got a kick out of the English part "Pet". It turns out that means the plastic bottles, but the whole time we would ask each other if we were going to recycle our pets.

Up next...night time in the Geisha district.

 

[PrincessInOz]

Just loving your pictures from Kyoto.....the scenery is so.....Japanese!

Those school girls are incredibly brave to have walked up to you. It would have taken them quite a bit of time to get their nerve up. So glad that you have pictures with them!

Thanks for sharing.

 

[belle2211]

Just loving your pictures from Kyoto.....the scenery is so.....Japanese!

Those school girls are incredibly brave to have walked up to you. It would have taken them quite a bit of time to get their nerve up. So glad that you have pictures with them!

Thanks for sharing.

Thanks! We adored those girls and all agreed that it was one of the highlights of our trip!

 

[belle2211]

After the show, we continued walking down the street. We were hoping to see a geisha, but no luck. I found some popcorn, and since I hadn't had any since the day before, I had to get it

We looked for a place to eat dinner. We ran into an American girl who lived there. She took us to a "sweets shop." We thought it would be like a bakery but it was interesting Japanese food. So we walked some more. It was hard to find a spot to eat since Cori and Rebecca are so picky. So we finally split up. Meredith, Vuong and I went to a place to have Shabu-Shabu. Basically, they put a mini burner on your table and put a pot with water on it. Then raw beef, cabbage, mushrooms and some gross gummy things come out in a bowl. You put those in the pot to cook and eat it. It was pretty good, but not worth the $40 USD it cost per person. Oh yeah, and the girls got sashimi--raw sushi and I tried some. It was tuna and some clear fish. I liked it.

Rebecca and Cori went to a restuarant and got teriyaki chicken and tempura chicken. They got to eat sitting on the floor, which I thought was pretty neat.

Then we needed our ice cream fix for the day so we went to Baskin Robbins. They had some interesting flavors. I got a scoop of my new favorite ever flavor "Choco Mint Cookie Chum". It was basically mint chocolate chip cookie dough. I so need to see if they carry it here in the US too.

Then we hopped in a cab and headed back to the ryokan to sleep.

Up next, another day in Kyoto

 

[PrincessInOz]

$40 for a Shabu Shabu?


That's what we pay over in Oz. Absolute daylight robbery!!


Still....thanks for paying that amount so that we can enjoy the food porn. It looks great!

 

[belle2211]

$40 for a Shabu Shabu?


That's what we pay over in Oz. Absolute daylight robbery!!


Still....thanks for paying that amount so that we can enjoy the food porn. It looks great!

Anything I can do to help!