3 teens in Tokyo! - we survived!! - Trip Report!!! Now with Photos!!!

[olydizknee]

Great start to your report, Battymum! I can't wait to read more & see more pictures.

 

[areweindisneyyet]

Loving it. I'll keep reading along. I would love to d a trip like this one day.

 

[PrincessInOz]

Great pics, Battymum. Keep them coming.

 

[Mickey Fliers]

We stayed at the Sheraton in April (right before you I believe). We were on the 8th floor and had a weird Penguin motif going on. Your decor is much nicer.

 

[australiankaren]

awesome photos...

 

[Aussie Wendy]

All caught up-missed your first post yesterday as tied up with parent duties! I got into Ghibli at the same time as we went to Japan and of course hadn't booked tix so not able to go to Ghibli-wish we had now. I did buy myself a Totoro though. My neighbour Totoro is a good intro to Ghibli as its not quite as weird as some of the others! (eg Spirited Away). The robot is from Castle in the Sky (Laputa I think its called)- not one I've seen. I would like to play on the cat bus that's in the studio but I think its for kids only. We never saw Sensoji due to all the hanami crowds. Great pics so far. Did the kids end up enjoying the trip?

 

[eagertofly]

Great TR !

Our trip in on June. We have 2 hotel reservation, and 1 of them is Sheraton. Haven't decided yet which hotel to cancel
My boy has multiple food allergy and we're afraid access to the variety of foods is limited if we stay at the Sheraton.

But your room looks nice
So I'm still thinking...

 

[5ofus]

I'm reading along too.

Bringing back lots of memories for me and makes me want to go back for me

Can't wait to read your thoughts on DisneySea

 

[aussietravellers]

Reading along too.

Fabulous photos! Love the view of Tokyo Bay from your room (loved all the photos actually).

Looking forward to the next installment.

 

[battymum]

Great pics Now that you seen the Ghibli museum, you should watch the movies! Several of them do a nice job showing life in Japan (minus the mystical magic and spirits). Your hotel room is big. My husband once stayed in a Japanese hotel where he could stand up and touch opposite walls, the room was so small

We loved the Ghibli museum, yes I should do that. The room was really spacious, although felt a bit like a school camp with all of us.

I'm reading along, Battymum! Love the photos and reading about a part of the world I'm totally unfamiliar with looking forward to the rest

Sent from my iPad using DISBoards

It certainly was different?

Great start to your report, Battymum! I can't wait to read more & see more pictures.

I'll do my best.

Loving it. I'll keep reading along. I would love to d a trip like this one day.

Do it!!

Great pics, Battymum. Keep them coming.

Oh how I wish I had a wide angle lens!

We stayed at the Sheraton in April (right before you I believe). We were on the 8th floor and had a weird Penguin motif going on. Your decor is much nicer.

It really was very nice, that poor photo does not show it well at all. The bathroom was just beautiful.

awesome photos...

Oh yeah, I'm awesome

All caught up-missed your first post yesterday as tied up with parent duties! I got into Ghibli at the same time as we went to Japan and of course hadn't booked tix so not able to go to Ghibli-wish we had now. I did buy myself a Totoro though. My neighbour Totoro is a good intro to Ghibli as its not quite as weird as some of the others! (eg Spirited Away). The robot is from Castle in the Sky (Laputa I think its called)- not one I've seen. I would like to play on the cat bus that's in the studio but I think its for kids only. We never saw Sensoji due to all the hanami crowds. Great pics so far. Did the kids end up enjoying the trip?

My kids were disappointed they couldn't play on the cat bus. I just realised I didn't post photos of sensoji.

Great TR !

Our trip in on June. We have 2 hotel reservation, and 1 of them is Sheraton. Haven't decided yet which hotel to cancel
My boy has multiple food allergy and we're afraid access to the variety of foods is limited if we stay at the Sheraton.

But your room looks nice
So I'm still thinking...

Where is your other reservation? We didn't eat at all at the sheraton, we bought some breakfast cereal and milk and had that in the room. There is a wide range of food options in the Ikspieri shopping centre, that is only a monorail ride away.

I'm reading along too.

Bringing back lots of memories for me and makes me want to go back for me

Can't wait to read your thoughts on DisneySea

Love, love, love Disneysea!!
It's an amazing place, I think I could live in Tokyo (for a bit..)

Reading along too.

Fabulous photos! Love the view of Tokyo Bay from your room (loved all the photos actually).

Looking forward to the next installment.

Again, photos do not do it justice - when you were on the bed you could only see water, felt like a cruise ship.

 

[battymum]

Day 3 - Sarurday 13th April.

After our big day yesterday I was happy to let everyone sleep in for a bit. DH not so. He is a very early riser and once awake cannot lay around. So he was up with the sun and first thing he does is peek out the curtains, casting a shaft of light across the room waking us all up. Grrrrr.
He was getting anxious and wanting everyone to get up and going, I knew that we couldn't push the family like we had yesterday for the whole trip so was happy to take it easy.

Anyway, today we were off to Shibuya, we got going around 9:00 and as it was Saturday, the train wasn't nearly as crowded so it was an easy trip. It's only a 15/20 minute train from Maihama to Tokyo, so it wasn't too bad staying in the Disney area, although we did feel a bit isolated in the evenings.

When we got to Tokyo, I wanted to check which line we needed, so was consulting a map, a lovely girl came up and asked where we were going and the proceeded to walk with us about 500metres out of her way to show us to the correct platform.

We found Shibuya and took the obligatory photos of the crossing, although I suspect it wasn't at its busiest on a Saturday morning. Again we walked and walked, we found Shibuya 109 and proceeded to drag the boys through 9floors of teenage fashion, they were thrilled. The kids bought two pairs of shoes each, converse and Nike, while not at US pricing were still cheaper than Australia! I had been trying to travel light and fit our families belongings into two suitcases - 6 extra pairs of shoes was not part of my plans....

 

[PrincessInOz]

6 extra pairs of shoes?


So....if you had to do it again, would you stay in the Disney area and do Disney and then transfer to stay in Tokyo?

 

[battymum]

The sheraton was a good fit for our family, finding rooms that will take even three is difficult. I was happy to stay there, we were so exhausted each night that we were happy to go to bed early.

But if we were just a couple I may have considered a split stay. We certainly appreciated being in our beds literally 10minutes after walking out the park gates. It would probably take 45minutes to get to Shinjuku which is an area a lot of people stay.

Tokyo is such a huge city, that you are always going to have to travel to get anywhere.

 

[HelloMimi]

Count me in! I'm hoping to take one of my little sisters to Japan in a couple of years (we're both BIG fans of Japanese pop culture and fashion) when she graduates from high school, so it'll be interesting to see how your teens liked it!

Your hotel view is gorgeous! It must have been so nice to wake up to that each morning! Definitely a great way to relax before braving the subway...

How lucky that you got to visit the Ghibli museum! Miyazaki's films are wonderful, and if your family hasn't watched any yet, be sure to give at least one a try. Castle in the Sky is my absolute favorite, but My Neighbor Totoro, Kiki's Delivery Service, and Howl's Moving Castle are well-loved by my whole family.

Shibuya 109 is a VERY big (and expensive!) mall, so I'd say 6 pairs of shoes isn't too bad! The damage probably could have been much, much worse!

Thanks so much for sharing! I'll keep following along!

 

[battymum]

I didn't finish my last update,

After wandering Shibuya I knew we should start thinking about lunch - I certainly wished we had an ADR somewhere, there is no shortage of food of all varieties, but we couldn't agree on anything, i was determined to avoid western chains .
We quarreled a bit, because dinner didnt really happen the previous night, DH thought we were going to starve, he likes to stick to scheduled meals. In the end we found a pizza place - they all ate, was very disappointing but filled our bellies.

So we felt like we had seen enough of Shibuya and discussed where to next, we decided to get on the train and go to Shinjuku.
To be honest, this was a lot more of the same, lots of shops and narrow alleys. We had really had enough, no one was complaining but I could sense they didnt want to be there, so I made a big call and suggested we head back to the room and take a break before heading out t eat at Ikspieri later. There was a silent cheer from the crowd!!

We made the mistake of resting too long and headed to Ikspieri around 6:30pm - being Saturday it was extremely crowded, everywhere we tried couldn't seat us for at least an hour and a half. We tried to the food court and it was crazy - more quarrelling, because at this point, food is not that important to me, i will eat cup noodles, but no, we need to sit down and have a proper meal. Again, I wish we had an ADR! In the end I walked away and told DH he could work it out.

It was decided that we would make our meal times earlier, lunch at eleven and dinner at five -

 

[PrincessInOz]

I didn't finish my last update,

After wandering Shibuya I knew we should start thinking about lunch - I certainly wished we had an ADR somewhere, there is no shortage of food of all varieties, but we couldn't agree on anything, i was determined to avoid western chains .
We quarreled a bit, because dinner didnt really happen the previous night, DH thought we were going to starve, he likes to stick to scheduled meals. In the end we found a pizza place - they all ate, was very disappointing but filled our bellies.

So we felt like we had seen enough of Shibuya and discussed where to next, we decided to get on the train and go to Shinjuku.
To be honest, this was a lot more of the same, lots of shops and narrow alleys. We had really had enough, no one was complaining but I could sense they didnt want to be there, so I made a big call and suggested we head back to the room and take a break before heading out t eat at Ikspieri later. There was a silent cheer from the crowd!!

We made the mistake of resting too long and headed to Ikspieri around 6:30pm - being Saturday it was extremely crowded, everywhere we tried couldn't seat us for at least an hour and a half. We tried to the food court and it was crazy - more quarrelling, because at this point, food is not that important to me, i will eat cup noodles, but no, we need to sit down and have a proper meal. Again, I wish we had an ADR! In the end I walked away and told DH he could work it out.

It was decided that we would make our meal times earlier, lunch at eleven and dinner at five -

So sorry about the family squabble. But I do know what it feels like. DH knows better than to mess with me and food/dinner time. He recognises the signs now and grabs something before I hit that point of no return. Sadly, DS shows every sign of being like me. So, having borne the brunt of DS' hunger games a few times now, I so sympathise with you (and DH now).

Dinner time at 5 pm works for me too.


So, if you could book, where would you pick as the first dinner spot in the Ikspiari?

 

[DreamSweetsLove]

We made the mistake of resting too long and headed to Ikspiari around 6:30pm - being Saturday it was extremely crowded, everywhere we tried couldn't seat us for at least an hour and a half.

Did you look at the restaurants on the upper levels? Even on a Saturday and hour and a half wait at every restaurant sounds like a misunderstanding.

 

[battymum]

So sorry about the family squabble. But I do know what it feels like. DH knows better than to mess with me and food/dinner time. He recognises the signs now and grabs something before I hit that point of no return. Sadly, DS shows every sign of being like me. So, having borne the brunt of DS' hunger games a few times now, I so sympathise with you (and DH now).

Dinner time at 5 pm works for me too.

So, if you could book, where would you pick as the first dinner spot in the Ikspiari?

You definitely need to have something planned before you get hungry, our family doesn't really cope free stylin it!

Did you look at the restaurants on the upper levels? Even on a Saturday and hour and a half wait at every restaurant sounds like a misunderstanding.

No we may not have tried everywhere, but we did try a few places, after i left DH and the boys ended back at the food court, they said the food was good but they had to circle for ages carrying their trays waiting for someone to leave. DD had followed me, and in the end talked me into getting something at beckers,

But gee that place is deceptive, even after 6days we were finding new areas.

 

[Aussie Wendy]

Day 3 - Sarurday 13th April.

After our big day yesterday I was happy to let everyone sleep in for a bit. DH not so. He is a very early riser and once awake cannot lay around. So he was up with the sun and first thing he does is peek out the curtains, casting a shaft of light across the room waking us all up. Grrrrr.

Your DH needs to go on hols with my DH!! That is so the story of our lives and yeah, we have had our biggest family rows over finding somewhere to eat - better now than we used to be though. A couple of nights in Rome several years ago comes to mind - (you had to be there! and DD NEVER lets us forget it!)

 

[battymum]

Your DH needs to go on hols with my DH!! That is so the story of our lives and yeah, we have had our biggest family rows over finding somewhere to eat - better now than we used to be though. A couple of nights in Rome several years ago comes to mind - (you had to be there! and DD NEVER lets us forget it!)

Next time we will get two rooms, and he will be in one on his own!