A Tokyo Disney, HKDL & Shanghai DL PTR-UPDATED 11/23-JUST BACK!

[katt789]

Day6- October 9/2016- Toyko- Day trip outside the city

Today will be a SUPER early morning for Kara & I as we head to either the train or bus station (haven’t figured out which is cheaper yet!) as we’re off on a Day trip out to Kawaguchi-ko otherwise known as Mount Fuji!! Yay!!


Mount Fuji by Terence Lee, on Flickr


We’ll spend the day exploring what the area has to offer, and of course taking a million photos! There’s a “retro bus” hop on/hop off service that follows the North Shore of the lake to see all the tourist attractions! This takes up pretty much our whole day, and whenever we’re ready to leave, it’ll be back to Tokyo for potentially an early night?


Day 7- October 10/2016-Tokyo

Today we start off at the Tokyo National Museum


Picture 152 by Michae1, on Flickr


The guide books say if you’re only going to visit one museum, to make it this one! They’ve got some of the largest collections of specific artifacts, and it’ll be nice to learn more about the history and culture of Japan!


Continuing past the museum, is Ueno Park which includes a shrine and even a zoo!!


Sakura en Ueno by Japón Entre Amigos, on Flickr


It’s another popular park for people to just hang out and relax, and looks stunning during cherry blossom season, which I am sad we’re missing, but all in all I think crowds will be better this time of year, plus we get the autumn foliage season instead!


Ueno Park by Wynn Chew, on Flickr


We might do the zoo, depends on budget and how much time we have, since today we’ll be checking out of our first hostel, and checking in to:


Family Resort Fifty’s for Maihama


http://www.booking.com/hotel/jp/family-resort-fiftys-for-maihama.en-gb.html?aid=311088;label=family-resort-fiftys-for-maihama-fZmlFhCr6J4aT6w5Ii9isAS95690451844%3Apl%3Ata%3Ap1%3Ap2%3Aac%3Aap1t1%3Aneg%3Afi%3Atikwd-18106112417%3Alp9001554%3Ali%3Adec%3Adm;sid=238ac1d6ddbaaf61b08a085578c7a3a0;dcid=12;dest_id=-246227;dest_type=city;dist=0;room1=A%2CA;sb_price_type=total;srfid=4cc269cc98cc2b909a83c015fa862dba8fd84131X1;type=total;ucfs=1&


Which we booked through booking.com it totaled out around $649 CAD. Now, you may be asking, why change hotels? Why not a Disney hotel? Or a Disney partner hotel?


Well, we changed to a closer one, one that was actually on the line that would get us to Disney. That train line is much less crowded than the city center one is during rush hour, and it’s much closer. We also really didn’t want to deal with Tokyo train rush hour! The Disney hotels are GORGEOUS, but are also SO FREAKING EXPENSIVE!! Even all the ones a DLR local would call “good neighbor hotels” are RIDICULOUS, but that’s what you get for wanting to try and stay as close as possible!


Depending on the time of day and how tired we are, this will be our first glimpse into the Tokyo Disney bubble as we head into Ikspiari! Which is their Downtown Disney area!


25th Anniversary, Ikspiari by Keiichi Inoue, on Flickr


IKSPIARI by Taro Yamamoto, on Flickr


We’re gonna have to withhold from buying LEGITIMATELY EVERYTHING because merch in Tokyo is JUST TOO CUTE AND WONDERFUL. But since this is Disney park #1 of the trip, and we’re not even IN the parks yet, we have to make smart choices! Lol.

 

[MomoMama]

Ooooooooooooo! Your Japan part of the trip sounds so exciting!

You have so many places to visit, so much to do!! I think it's a great idea for leaving the 5th day open to anything.

I visited some of the places you are planning to visit, like Tsukiji market, Asakusa, and Tokyo station. But did not get to visit those beautiful Japanese gardens, panda bears at Ueno zoo, man-made forest at Meiji jingu, or Mt. Fuji! I especially envy you will get to see Mt. Fuji!

Are you planning to see the actual fish auctioning at the fish market? I heard you have to line up at 2 am to get the pass! We were not that crazy about the fish, and just checked out the shops for the general public.

Early October may be too early for the fall foliage in Japan... But the weather is generally great, so I hope you will get to go everywhere you want to go!

 

[missangelalexis]

Your Tokyo days sound awesome, you are going to see so much cool stuff!

I'm sure getting to the Disney portion of the trip will be so excited! I'm sure it will take a lot of restraint to not buy all of the things! haha I can imagine all of the great merchandise you are going to encounter!!

 

[Feistygirl916]

Bahahhaa yes...yes it is a lot of money...I won't lie..it's caused a bunch of stress with us! Bahah. I'll go through some budget stuff later one!~



HOW AWESOME!! Where are you headed first in November?!

We are doing Shanghai, then HK, then Tokyo

 

[missjackiemcg]

Everything looks SO amazing!!! Tokyo is just beautiful. I'm glad you're taking the time to see all the "must dos" and not just skipping straight to Disney. What an awesome adventure!

 

[disney144]

Did you end up keeping the Bali leg or getting rid of it? We are planning a Bali and Lombok honeymoon in spring 2017 and are trying to add on a few days at Shanghai disneyland

 

[katt789]

Ooooooooooooo! Your Japan part of the trip sounds so exciting!

You have so many places to visit, so much to do!! I think it's a great idea for leaving the 5th day open to anything.

I visited some of the places you are planning to visit, like Tsukiji market, Asakusa, and Tokyo station. But did not get to visit those beautiful Japanese gardens, panda bears at Ueno zoo, man-made forest at Meiji jingu, or Mt. Fuji! I especially envy you will get to see Mt. Fuji!

Are you planning to see the actual fish auctioning at the fish market? I heard you have to line up at 2 am to get the pass! We were not that crazy about the fish, and just checked out the shops for the general public.

Early October may be too early for the fall foliage in Japan... But the weather is generally great, so I hope you will get to go everywhere you want to go!

I'm super excited!!! I'm glad we ended up adding another day because there's just so much to do!!! Ah thats awesome!! I'm excited about Mt Fuji, but also super bummed we can't climb it due to the time of year!

We're definitely not, that's way too early, and I don't care for that part of the experience, we'll probably just go explore!!

awe man! Well, we'll be there all month, so hopefully we'll catch some of it!

Your Tokyo days sound awesome, you are going to see so much cool stuff!
I'm sure getting to the Disney portion of the trip will be so excited! I'm sure it will take a lot of restraint to not buy all of the things! haha I can imagine all of the great merchandise you are going to encounter!!

I'm super excited, the country looks amazing, I'm already in love with it and we've still got 3 months to go!!
UGH, YES. Seriously, all the merch over there is INSANELY AWESOME. I KNOW some of the stuff already I'm putting money aside for, it's a struggle though!

 

[katt789]

We are doing Shanghai, then HK, then Tokyo

Who knows, we might cross paths in Hong Kong!!

Everything looks SO amazing!!! Tokyo is just beautiful. I'm glad you're taking the time to see all the "must dos" and not just skipping straight to Disney. What an awesome adventure!

It's STUNNING, and heck yes! at first we were debating how to do the trip, China's still more based off disney, but we're visiting some of the other stuff too! To go all the way to Asia and JUST go to Disney parks would be a bit extreme imo!

Did you end up keeping the Bali leg or getting rid of it? We are planning a Bali and Lombok honeymoon in spring 2017 and are trying to add on a few days at Shanghai disneyland

We ended up scratching it! It was around $900 for a contiki tour, and that just added so much more money onto the trip, this way we have that little bit more to stay in some disney hotels and such!

 

[katt789]

Day 8-October 11/2016- Tokyo Disneyland

EEEEEKKK

ARE YOU EXCITED BECAUSE WE ARE GOING TO BE DYING.

Also because it’s going to be BUTT EARLY in the morning. Tokyo is probably the BUSIEST of the parks, so we know we want to be there an hour to an hour and a half before the park opens to get in line. Tickets will be bought online in advance to help save time!


Tokyo Disneyland 012 by Mohd Hafiz Mohammad Saleh, on Flickr


Because you can’t park hop the first 2 days, I’m pretty sure we’ve chosen Disneyland as our first day, with DisneySea as our second day, and then you can hop after that!


Tokyo Disneyland Castle by Thessa Conanan, on Flickr


SO PRETTY!! There are some unique attractions to TDL, and some of them are the most popular in the parks, so we’ll be shot cutting down the right hand side of World Bazaar to grab fast passes for Monster’s Inc


Tokyo Disneyland by Jeff from Houston, on Flickr


And then it’s OFF to ride Pooh’s Hunny Hunt


Tokyo May 2014 - Pooh's Hunny Hunt by PeterPanFan, on Flickr


Both sound like things one wouldn’t be rope dropping to, but in Tokyo the rides are different from what we’re used to, and things one wouldn’t want to miss!


From what I’ve been able to read, Space Mtn is a thing we want to fp, or ride in the morning, same goes for Haunted Mansion. Splash would be a priority after our intial race into the park, where as Star Tours is pretty much a clone attraction.


Our big things for today will probably end up being a lot of photography, a lot of feels, and hoping to catch as many characters that we might not see at home!


Tokyo May 2014 - Wandering through Fantasyland by PeterPanFan, on Flickr


TDR Oct 2012 - Flynn and Rapunzel having fun by PeterPanFan, on Flickr


Their characters do a lot more roaming, and I don’t believe there’s many that have set up indoor greets like in WDW. It’s said to be a bit intimidating because of all the Tokyo “photographers”/”social media” people who will crowd to take pictures of the characters, even though they’re not taking pictures WITH them. It might be a bit awkward to know when to jump in, but we have the added bonus of knowing a few special people out there who might be able to help us out


Another priority of TDL will obviously be the parades and shows!


Happiness Is Here!


Happiness is Here by Brooke Pearce, on Flickr


THE #Dinsey moment / Happiness Is Here the day parade / #Tokyo #Disneyland #TDL / Tokyo Disney Resort #TDR by Erika, on Flickr


Their evening parade, Dream Lights, similar to WDW’s DEP, but with AWESOME FLOATS.


Dreamlights Cheshire 1 by Justin Cheung, on Flickr


Dreamlights by looseey, on Flickr


Heck, even if it’s raining, THEY HAVE A BACK UP PARADE FOR THE NIGHTTIME called “Nightfall Glow”


IMG_0797 Nightfall Glow by Chao-Wei Juan, on Flickr


Fireworks are something that people usually say aren’t horribly worth it, they’re more a thing people watch on their way out of the park at the end of the night after the parade. But we’ll be our own judges for that


Tokyo Disneyland Fireworks by Tom Bricker, on Flickr


Day 9-October 12/2016-DISNEYSEA


I have to admit, I am BEYOND excited for this! It’s said to be one of the most unique Disney parks around the world, and every time I see pictures of it, it just BLOWS me away!


Tokyo DisneySea, Japan 2016 by Richard Chen, on Flickr


Since we’ve found out Journey to the Center of the Earth will be CLOSED when we’re there, we’ve been told to head straight to ToT first off. What are ya’ll’s thoughts on that?? It’s a little bit different, and we don’t have our hearts set on riding TSMM since it’s the exact same as at home!


Tower of Terror @ DisneySea by David Morton, on Flickr


At the moment, I can’t really think of anything specific we’ll be running to afterwards, I know there’s lots to do, and we want to do all of it, especially all of the unique things! We’re super excited to explore the Arabian Coast


Arabian Coast by Brooke Pearce, on Flickr


And all of the Atlantica area! I know there’s a cute show down there, and we’ll probably pop in to say Hi to Ariel!


Tokyo DisneySea by Robert M, on Flickr


Mermaid Lagoon by Brooke Pearce, on Flickr


There will be TONS to do, that’s for sure!!


IMG_0237 by Duy Phan, on Flickr


And we’ll HAVE to end off with watching Fantasmic obviously! I’ve watched it on youtube a few years back and I remember it BLOWING MY MIND, so we’ll see how much it impresses us in REAL LIFE!


Fantasmic! | Tokyo DisneySea by nagi usano, on Flickr


Fantasmic! | Tokyo DisneySea by nagi usano, on Flickr


I mean, it looks PRETTY SPECTACULAR!


Day 10 & 11- October 13 & 14th


These days will be similar to the previous days, with filling in the things we didn’t do, and the people we didn’t see yet! We’ll obviously have some repeats in there as well! As you can tell, the trip is pretty well planned out, until it comes to the actual Disney days! It seems so easy to plan a WDW or DLR trip, there’s so much information out there, but overseas it gets tricky. This is especially a problem with Shanghai since it just opened and we’re really unsure where to start.


SO, if you’ve been, let us know your best tips for touring the parks!!! I’m going to spend some more time looking into that over the next few weeks!


Also as I get those Disney days more nailed down I’ll post a link on the home page to more details on how those days will go!!

 

[missangelalexis]

That's interesting that you can't park hop the first 2 days of your tickets.

The first day sounds like it will be awesome! I didn't realize there was a Monsters Inc ride there.

DisneySea looks beautiful. Another fun day you guys will have!

And it's great that you guys have 2 other days to get to the things you missed on the first 2!

 

[mindeola]

Interesting bit about the park hopping!

I am not sure if you follow Tom Bricker over at www.disneytouristblog.com. If you don't , be sure and check him out! He has great posts on the Asian parks- even went to opening day of Shanghai.

( Now that I look closely I see you have some of his photos!)

 

[katt789]

October 15th

Today we get up as early as we can and its time to check out of Tokyo, while we head to the train station to journey off to Matsumoto. It’s considered one of Japan’s finest cities!


We booked through booking.com again and chose the Ace Inn Matsumoto where we paid $119 CAD total for the night! It’s a private double room with breakfast including (and as I’m looking at the sheet now it’s apparently also a smoking room, so that sucks since we are NON smokers, but yolo, right?)


After checking in our plans are to check out the Matsumoto-jo castle! They say it’s a MUST SEE, and Japan’s oldest wooden castle, where you can hike to the top to see some impressive views!


matsumoto-jo 松本城 by 愚夫.chan, on Flickr


Matsumoto-jo by Dani Gurgel, on Flickr


It looks gorgeous & I’m SUPER excited, I won’t lie! A few blocks from the castle is Nawate-dori, a nice riverside walk with street vendors, street food and such!


Nawate-dori by Okami-mynx, on Flickr


I’m assuming that’s the frog statue that marks the start of the promenade.


松本 女鳥羽川沿いの商店街 by 三日画師, on Flickr


Nawate Dori by iris, on Flickr


Kara and I spend the night and then pack up to head off to our next city in the morning!


October 16th

We start today off by checking out of Matsumoto and hopping on a train to Kanazawa where we’re off to check in at the Guest House Pongyi where it cost us $157 CAD total for 2 nights! We’re in a all female dorm for this stay!


Pongyi Guest House by Alexander Takeshi, on Flickr


Kanazawa has some awesome geisha & samari districts, a bunch of temples and museums, and is a big draw because of the variety of cultural attractions it holds! After dropping our luggage and getting settled, Kara & I are off to something she’s super excited about, GEISHA STUFF! There are two museums to choose between, Shima or Kaikaro so we’ll have to check out some reviews and pick one from those!


Standing in front of famous Kaikaro, geisha house, she is a happy bride to be! by Nana Trongratanawong, on Flickr


We also have it sketched out to head to the Omi-cho Market where they have some of the freshest sashimi and produce, so we can pick up some dinner and some snacks for the next couple days!


Omi-cho Market by Ali M, on Flickr


~ omi-cho market ~ by Andre Santoso, on Flickr


A pretty easy day since we do have to travel that morning and didn’t want to try and cram too much in if our train got in later on in the day!


October 17th

Our day today starts out bright and early as th best time to see the Kenroku-en gardens is super early, right at the 8:00am open time!


Kenroku - en by Елена Глубоковских, on Flickr


Kenroku - en by Елена Глубоковских, on Flickr


It’s said to be one of the top 3 gardens in Japan, it has all the apparent “six attributes for perfection” abundant water, spaciousness, seclusion, artificiality, broad eiws and antiquity, so it should be great!! However they do recommend getting there at opening to arrive before the crowds, especially for great photo opportunities!!


Kanazawa castle park is our second stop of the day, which technically houses the entrance to the previous park, but we’ll be able to check them all out together!


金澤城-石川門 Kanazawa Castle Park by 歲月之歌, on Flickr


金澤城 Kanazawa Castle Park by 歲月之歌, on Flickr


When our castle and garden tranquility comes to an end, I’m sure we’ll grab some lunch somewhere quick and cheap, it’s all about authenticity and experiencing the culture for us! Then we’re potentially off to the D.T. Suzuki Museum!


D.T. Suzuki Museum, Kanazawa by TokyoViews, on Flickr


It’s a very spiritual stop, a tribute to one of the “foremost Buddhist philosophers of our time”.


It’ll be an easy evening, probably just dinner back near or at the hotel as we pack up and get ready to continue on our adventure the next day!!

 

[katt789]

PSA: I'm gonna do my best to keep this PTR up to date, and hopefully will work on more of it today since I'm home sick from work, but am HOPEFULLY starting a second job soon, and still need time for fitness lol, so I MAY fall behind a bit, esp since this update is the last I have pre-typed as of right now....eta...the update wasn't completed, so my goal is to finish up Kyoto by the end of the day, I mean, disboarding is what sick days are for, right?!

Thank you to everyone who's commenting, and thank you to everyone who's reading! Come out of lurkdom & say Hi! We love new friends!!

For trip related real life updates: ALL OUR FLIGHTS TO ASIA ARE BOOOOKED!! AHHH!!! We were getting super stressed about them jumping, so Kara jumped on it and booked our roundtrip to Tokyo, and Abby booked hers into Beijing and out of Hong Kong. Now we just need to take care of all our internal flights and trains. And figure out if we're going to want a JR pass in Japan or not.

For those who have travelled Japan, did it seem more worth it to get a JR pass, or just get a suica card? We're a bit lost on trying to figure that one out!

*********

 

[MomoMama]

I think JR pass is not worth it unless you are traveling across Japan. Trains/bus you can ride is limited too. Since you have ideas on where to visit, try to compare the cost of all the fares to the cost of JR pass.

I was traveling from Kanto (Tokyo area) to Kansai (Osaka area) back and forth, and still decided not to get the JR pass. Because the discount airline fare was really cheap if booked more than 60 days in advance. Also the flight time was about 1 hour, less than the time a train would take. But in the future I hope to visit other areas of Japan, north to south, and I think JR pass will be a great deal for trip like that.

Suica pass is convenient and must get though!

 

[missangelalexis]

More great plans! And that's so exciting that your airfare is booked!

 

[Grumpy's Wife]

This is going to be one awesome trip. I can't wait to hear all about it. I'm so excited for you.

 

[Terapin]

I went to Tokyo, TDL, and surrounding areas last May. It was awesome! Such a great place to visit.

While I thought it was a strange thing to be so popular, indeed Pooh's Honey Pot was AMAZING and had the longest lines in the park. It's just so well done! Rope-drop is a very popular event and the parks were busy early, but less busy in the early evening. DisneySea is wonderful. I was pregnant when we went and so I am really looking forward to returning and riding what I couldn't ride before.

I'm sure you will have a grand time! We are heading to HKDL in Septmeber. Can't wait! Perhaps Shanghai next year.

 

[katt789]

I think JR pass is not worth it unless you are traveling across Japan. Trains/bus you can ride is limited too. Since you have ideas on where to visit, try to compare the cost of all the fares to the cost of JR pass.

I was traveling from Kanto (Tokyo area) to Kansai (Osaka area) back and forth, and still decided not to get the JR pass. Because the discount airline fare was really cheap if booked more than 60 days in advance. Also the flight time was about 1 hour, less than the time a train would take. But in the future I hope to visit other areas of Japan, north to south, and I think JR pass will be a great deal for trip like that.

Suica pass is convenient and must get though!

Thanks so much for the info! I do think we've kinda decided agianst it. The length we'd need one would be would like $400 and that seems a little extreme for the amount of transport we're doing within Tokyo that might not count as JR, we'll have to check again. We just thought we might want it with the training from Tokyo to Kyoto with stops in the middle!!

More great plans! And that's so exciting that your airfare is booked!

Yay! It's super exciting!!

This is going to be one awesome trip. I can't wait to hear all about it. I'm so excited for you.

IT'S GOING TO BE SO GREAT!! I'm seriously so excited! I have days where it doesn't mean much, and days where I'm super stressed about stuff, money/plans, but right now I'm in the super excited phase lol. I've actually come to terms with the fact that I won't make it back to WDW til marthon weekend next year because of this trip and I'm now finally okay with that because of the excitement for Tokyo Disney

I went to Tokyo, TDL, and surrounding areas last May. It was awesome! Such a great place to visit.
While I thought it was a strange thing to be so popular, indeed Pooh's Honey Pot was AMAZING and had the longest lines in the park. It's just so well done! Rope-drop is a very popular event and the parks were busy early, but less busy in the early evening. DisneySea is wonderful. I was pregnant when we went and so I am really looking forward to returning and riding what I couldn't ride before.
I'm sure you will have a grand time! We are heading to HKDL in Septmeber. Can't wait! Perhaps Shanghai next year.

Yay!!! Glad you had an awesome time, I cnanot wait!! I'm super excited for the rides that are different over there!! I am a little nervous about the crowds but I THINK we'll be okay since we're there during the week!! UGH DISNEYSEA! I CANNOT WAIT! I think it's what I'm most excited about at this point!! Ah! That's awesome!!

 

[MomoMama]

Thanks so much for the info! I do think we've kinda decided agianst it. The length we'd need one would be would like $400 and that seems a little extreme for the amount of transport we're doing within Tokyo that might not count as JR, we'll have to check again. We just thought we might want it with the training from Tokyo to Kyoto with stops in the middle!!

If you are going to Kyoto and then going back to Tokyo, 7 day (about $260) pass may be worth it... Shinkansen ticket (Tokyo to Kyoto without stops) should be about 13000yen each way. I think you can select the activation date, so if you don't need it for the first few days, activate it for the later days. You should double-check it though, that was the info I got when I was checking.

Planning phase can get you stressed out, but hope you can stay excited! After all, you are going to Tokyo Disney!

 

[Feistygirl916]

We are getting a Suica card for our days in the city of Tokyo. The JR pass was so expensive compared to the Suica!