Our Japanese adventure *LIVE* Trip Report - updated 8/26 Disney Sea

[pandv_2000]

I never finish trip reports because I can never remember what I did so I thought I would do a live report this time.

We are a family of 4, me, DH, DS1,11 and DS2, 4 and we are currently in Japan.

Travel day

I would like to be able to say that this was fairly uneventful but unfortunately it wasn't. We were supposed to land around 8:55am and have the whole day pretty much to spend in Kyoto but that isn't quite what happened. The first leg of the journey went well we left Manchester in the UK on time and the flight to Helsinki arrived ahead of schedule. The only downside being that they gave us a reindeer sandwich to eat on the plane which was disgusting. So far so good . We had a two hour layover in Helsinki and as we went to the gate to board the flight to Kansai airport we were told that the flight was delayed due to Typhoon Halong. The typhoon was currently battering the Kansai area and they wanted to make sure it was going to be safe to land.

We were given some vouchers for food but we'd just eaten so we decided to hang around for a bit. Our flight was now scheduled to take off at 10:30pm and land at around 2pm into Kansai. DS2 was really tired and we fought to keep him awake thinking at least if he slept on the plane we might get his body clock onto the right time zone quickly. We took off at 10:30 as planned and we all managed to get at least some sleep. DS2 managed about 7.5 hours of the 9.5 hour flight time. Our bags were ready when we went through to baggage claim and immigration and customs were straight forward.

We had previously purchased a 4 day JR Kansai Wide area pass and went to exchange the voucher for that. At this point we were told the limited express to Kyoto was not running due to the typhoon and would not be running for another 2 hours. We decided to take the local train which would take a lot longer but at least we would be moving in the right direction. We boarded a train and went one stop. We then sat in the next station for 45 minutes. There were quite a few announcements in Japanese but no one moved from the train so we kept assuming we would move soon. Eventually an Italian lady and DH went to speak to the driver to find out what was happening. They were told the trains were not running on that line. There was another line that seemed to have trains running so we decided to try our luck with that train. We were told we needed to get to another station then change to the Osaka loop and then to Kyoto. When we got on the other train the ticket inspector came to check tickets. Anyway long story short we ended up travelling to Kyoto with the Italian couple we met but it took over 3 hours. We eventually checked into our hotel, the Granvia, which I was so pleased was directly above the station, around 6:30 . We have a good view of the bullet trains from the room and it's really quiet especially considering we are on the lowest floor with rooms. We ate in the Cube above the station for our first night and it was really tasty and convenient.

As a side note thankfully the typhoon seems to have passed over and without causing too much damage in this area at least.

Up next - will we be able to get up in time for our tour with our private guide?

 

[amyren]

Glad that you arrived safely! I hope you aren't too exhausted for your tour. Kyoto has so many amazing things to see.

 

[pandv_2000]

We had a private tour booked today thanks to Amy for her recommendation. We had received a confirmation e-mail the previous evening to confirm that Taka would be waiting to collect us in the hotel driveway at 7:30. We were up and ready in time (yay!). Taka started by asking what we would like to do. We said that as it was our first day we hadn’t done anything so far but it would be good to go to places where he might know some information we might not get by visiting ourselves. He suggested we start with Kiyomizudera temple and the Fushimi Inari shrine and then we would decide from there if we had time to visit anywhere else.

We drove to the Budhist Kiyomizudera temple first. It was a lovely walk up to the temple from the car park as it was nice and early and there weren’t many of us tourists around! When we got to the temple Taka explained to that at each temple or shrine you will see two guards at the gate two scare away evil spirits. The communicate in battle in thought so one will have his mouth open to say aahh and one will be closed to say mmmm – it is called aahh-mmm breath.





At the top he explained that it used to be popular for people to take the plunge from the Kiyomizudera stage. Around 200 people jumped from the stage to show faith that their wishes would come true. Around half survived – personally I don’t think I’d ever want anything that badly!

We visited the Shinto love shrine which was close by. Apparently if you can walk from one love stone to the other with your eyes closed you will find true love. DS1 managed to walk in a perfectly straight line so I’m sure he will find a nice girl someday!

Next we visited Fushimi Inari shrine.

Taka explained that this shrine was used to pray for prosperity – in the past this meant for crops but now it was a popular shrine for businesses. He taught us how to purify ourselves before visiting a shrine

and how to pray at a shrine. We saw a Shinto priest here. I loved walking through the hundreds of Tori gates.

Taka read some of the inscriptions for us.
After this Taka said we had time to visit one more place. We decided to extend our tour as we were having such a good time and we were learning a lot from Taka. He suggested we go to the Golden Pavilion via Gion and then we would see if we had time for anything else. Taka had told us earlier that Nintendo were a Kyoto based business and when we told him we liked Nintendo from being young. I had a SNES (or a Famicom as they were called in Japan) when I was younger so I hold a soft spot for Nintendo. As a little side trip he took us past their original HQ.

We also saw a real Geisha – it was still quite early in the morning so she wasn’t in her full make up but it was still quite exciting.
We then walked down Shinbashi street in Gion where we saw a bride and groom in full Japanese dress.

DH wanted to take a picture but didn’t want to be rude so we moved on.

At the end Taka pointed out some Tori gates pinned to the bottom of the wall of a café. He asked what we thought they might be for – we suggested to ward off evil spirits – he told us that it was to stop drunk people from peeing against their walls which I thought was a great idea.

It took a lot longer to get across town than we thought so we ended up stopping for lunch on the way to the Golden Pavilion. DS1 had a craving for ramen so we went to a ramen restaurant that Taka recommended. We were amazed at the speed aka could eat – ramen is meant to be eaten quickly otherwise the texture of the noodles changes but they were too hot to slurp at any sort of pace for us. We left very satisfied – the portions were huge and it was really tasty.

Next we went to the golden pavilion. Again, Taka gave us lots of information we wouldn’t have gained if we’d been unaccompanied.





After this it was getting late and Taka offered to drop us off somewhere else or back at the hotel. We opted for the hotel as we were all quite tired. We managed a quick afternoon nap before heading out again to explore around the station. We ended up somewhere under the station this time for our evening meal and headed back to our room. The hotel is so conveniently located with so many restaurants and shops in the station you could never leave if you wanted to! We were exhausted all in bed by 9:30

 

[FencerGirl]

Following along!

I hope to go to Japan one day and trip reports like this are great for ideas.
Thanks for sharing it with us!

 

[nrsldy]

Kyoto is one of my favorite places to visit in Japan. Your pictures bring back fond memories.

 

[pampat]

How fascinating to read your trippie. Never wanted to go to Japan, but you make it sound so wonderful.

Pam

 

[amyren]

I'm so glad you were able to tour with Taka! His tour was definitely one of the highlights of our trip. He was so polite, friendly, informative... and patient. Very patient with our kids and our endless questions

Kiyomizudera looks beautiful. When we were there in June it was totally covered in scaffolding and we weren't able to visit.

Enjoy the rest of your stay in trip! Can't wait to see more pictures.

 

[pandv_2000]

Following along!

I hope to go to Japan one day and trip reports like this are great for ideas.
Thanks for sharing it with us!

Thanks for following

Kyoto is one of my favorite places to visit in Japan. Your pictures bring back fond memories.

Thank you - I almost wish we had more time here because there is so much to do in and around Kyoto. No matter how long we spend in Japan I fear it would never be enough.

How fascinating to read your trippie. Never wanted to go to Japan, but you make it sound so wonderful.

Pam

Thank you - if you ever get the chance it's a beautiful country to visit. We are fascinated by the culture here and you would think it would be really expensive from the UK but we priced up Florida for this year and Japan and Japan actually worked out cheaper for us!

I'm so glad you were able to tour with Taka! His tour was definitely one of the highlights of our trip. He was so polite, friendly, informative... and patient. Very patient with our kids and our endless questions

Kiyomizudera looks beautiful. When we were there in June it was totally covered in scaffolding and we weren't able to visit.

Enjoy the rest of your stay in trip! Can't wait to see more pictures.

Thanks again for the recommendation. Taka was really insightful. It sounds like we were lucky that Kiyomizudera had re-opened for us. Taka told us that the huge stage was built with no nails - just tongue and groove. It means it can move in an earthquake and hopefully not collapse.

 

[pandv_2000]

Yesterday we were up early again and set off for Himeji. We discovered the JR passes we had aren't valid on the shinkansen from Kyoto, only Shin-Osaka so we had to take a local train and change there. I would bear that in mind next time as the nationwide JR pass is valid on the shinkansen from here but for the journeys we were doing it wasn't worth us getting that. We also weren't able to use it on the trains we got from the airport but that was due to the typhoon. I think we would have been better off just paying for journeys as we went.

Himeji castle is currently undergoing some restoration works which aren't due to finish until March next year and I have been watching the progress with interest for a couple of months as I didn't want to see the castle covered in scaffolding. I was pleased to see the scaffolding had come down so when we came out of the station we were greeted by this sight.

You may notice the kawaii roadwork signs in the bottom of the picture. Here are a couple more we saw near the station.

I mean - there's bad traffic, it's due to roadworks, you're in a bad mood - oh cute road sign - how can I stay mad?

Anyway we really enjoyed the visit to Himeji. The main keep is still out of bounds due to the restoration but it was a beautiful castle and I loved that we had to take our shoes off to enter the buildings.





The detail on the roof tiles




After the castle we went into Koko-en gardens. The gardens were beautiful and peaceful (except for my two monsters).



There was a tea house in the garden where we had matcha and a sweet for 500Yen. DS2 didn't participate in the ceremony as I knew he wouldn't drink the matcha but the hostess brought out a couple of small biscuits for him and an apple juice. Today he asked if he could go back to where they gave him "cat biscuits" so that obviously went done well.


It was about lunch time so we decided that we would catch a train to Kobe for lunch because, well you have to have beef in Kobe if you are passing through right?

We didn't want anywhere too upscale with the little man as he was starting to get tired. A quick look on Tripadvisor and we decided on Steak land because it did a lunch set and it wasn't too expensive. We went for 2 beef sets and a special beef set to see the difference in the grades of meat. I wish we'd gone for all special sets as the meat was so creamy and melted in your mouth. DS2 fell asleep at the table but the rest of us enjoyed our steak and can now say we had Kobe beef in Kobe!


After lunch we wandered around near the station going into various shops and a Namco arcade for the kids. We were all pretty tired by this point so we went back to Kyoto and had a small nap again. We just headed downstairs again within the station complex for something fairly light for dinner. DH and I were still stuffed from lunch but the boys can always manage more food so we thought we best feed them

We managed to stay up a bit later last night. Next up Nara (I might try to get this done tonight so I'm all caught up!)

One thing worth mentioning at this point - before we left the UK we hired a mobile Wi-fi device from Global Advanced Communications. It cost about £60 and has been sooo worth it. The hotel has free Wi-Fi but it's pretty pants tbh and it's been invaluable when walking around to check where we are and if there's anything worth seeing nearby. We could have picked it up at the airport but we chose to have it delivered to the hotel and it was waiting for us when we arrived. We've used it with 2-3 devices connected to it almost permanently and haven't had any issues so far. We have a portable battery that we use to keep our phones and the Wi-Fi device charged .

 

[pandv_2000]

Today was the last day of our JR pass so we decided to visit Nara. We had a discussion last night about whether we should skip it or not as there is so much to do in Kyoto and we've not had a chance to do much yet. I really wanted to see Nara so we got up nice and early again and caught the local line. We grabbed a quick breakfast from Mister Donut in the station to eat on the train. About 2 stops fro Nara DS2 threw up his breakfast. Thankfully we got some warning so he was mainly sick into the bag from breakfast but the first thing we had to do was get him to a toilet and clean him up. Good start! Thankfully I think it was just a bit of travel sickness as he soon perked up and he's eaten pretty much non-stop since then.



It was still early so most shops were still closed on the walk from the station. It's lovely and peaceful being up and about and hitting the main tourist spots early. I didn't realize how long a walk it was to Todaiji temple but there were plenty of things to see on the way. We stopped to feed the deer near this pagoda.





The deer were really greedy as soon as you got ay crackers. The first batch we bought a deer took the whole stack still wrapped from DS1. The second time I unwrapped them as I could hold them higher and they kept trying to eat my skirt! The deer were much nicer to just pet and stroke than to feed. Once they realized you had no food they were happy to just let you stroke them.

We saw an ice cream stand near the Nara museum and I tried a green tea ice cream. I thought it might be a bit weird and it was but in a good way. I managed to polish it all off anyway.

As we were going past the museum we decided to go in. There is a special exhibition on at the minute and it's full of national treasures. It was an amazing exhibition. The kids were a bit bored but DH and I really appreciated it. We weren't allowed to take pictures. It was a bit strange because no one spoke at all in the exhibition except for DS2. All of the artifacts are from one temple, Daigoji in Kyoto and the Japanese appeared to be reflective during the tour. We were all really grateful for the air conditioning!

After the museum we made our way to Todaiji temple. There were lots of food stalls on the walkway to the entrance so we decided to snack for lunch. DH tried some octopus and I was quite surprised to find that DS2 enjoyed it - spurning his pineapple on a stick for it! The wooden building and great Buddha are truly impressive and I'm sorry to say our pictures just don't do it any justice at all.





After the temple we were boiling so the boys got some Kakigori.



We were jealous so got some for ourselves. It was so refreshing in the heat. We were sat on some steps and a deer came over scrounging for food. It stole the paper cup out of the lady next to us' hand and then proceeded to eat it. We all took a step back and ate our Kakigori in peace.

It was getting pretty late by now so we decided to walk back to the station and come back to Kyoto. We went back to the room to freshen up and managed to stay awake - no mean feat in this heat. We walked quite a bit from Kyoto station so have a good idea of what we want to do tomorrow and we grabbed some ramen which DS1 declared was the best ramen he has ever had.

Tomorrow we will finally explore Kyoto properly. I need to find a good spot to watch the fires on the mountains on Saturday

 

[westgrove]

I love your report so far - DH and I have literally just started to plan for next year and I'm definitely book marking this!

What an awful journey you had on the way out there, but glad you're there and having such a fab time!

I've looked up various prices and it is slightly cheaper for us to go to Japan than it was when we've been to America. The Disney official hotels in Tokyo seem a lot more that Florida but other than that it all seems quite reasonable.

Can't wait to read more - please take lots of souvenir pics in TDL (I'm sure you will anyway! -I've seen so much stuff I'd want to buy )

Laura

 

[pampat]

Loving all you do. The beef sounds delish!

Pam

 

[Corbisblue]

Kyoto and that area in general is incredibly beautiful! I am happy you are having such a wonderful time! Hope the heat isn't too bad. I will be following along.

 

[pandv_2000]

There are 4 of us here for nearly 3 weeks. This is our last night in the Granvia before we move to the ryokan in Gion for 1 night. We are then on our way to Tokyo. I need to do some laundry but at hotel prices it will break the bank. Does anyone know where I can do some laundry because we can't re-wear anything as it's so hot here!

 

[Corbisblue]

There are 4 of us here for nearly 3 weeks. This is our last night in the Granvia before we move to the ryokan in Gion for 1 night. We are then on our way to Tokyo. I need to do some laundry but at hotel prices it will break the bank. Does anyone know where I can do some laundry because we can't re-wear anything as it's so hot here!

You can find laundry mats almost anywhere. Ask the reception if they know of any nearby. But being able to use them might be a challenge if you cannot read Japanese. Unless you can get someone to help you while you are at a laundry mat.

 

[pandv_2000]

Thanks the nearest one to here is about 15 mins walk apparently. Do you know if there are any in the tokyo Bay Area or am I better off waiting until we get to shinjuku?

 

[pandv_2000]

I love your report so far - DH and I have literally just started to plan for next year and I'm definitely book marking this!

What an awful journey you had on the way out there, but glad you're there and having such a fab time!

I've looked up various prices and it is slightly cheaper for us to go to Japan than it was when we've been to America. The Disney official hotels in Tokyo seem a lot more that Florida but other than that it all seems quite reasonable.

Can't wait to read more - please take lots of souvenir pics in TDL (I'm sure you will anyway! -I've seen so much stuff I'd want to buy )

Laura

Thank you. I know the journey was awful but I do try to look on the positive side and I think it would have been harder to sleep on the flight if we'd taken off on time so it may have taken longer to adjust. Even though we get the DDP in Florida as we stay onsite and we have to pay OOP for our food here (obviously) it has still (so far) worked out cheaper for us. Of course the spending money goes further when we don't take into account going to various outlet malls to stock up on clothes....

I'll try to take souvenir pics as much as we can. I bought a birthday ticket for Tokyo Disney so I'm excited to see what kind of special birthday gift I get with the ticket.

Loving all you do. The beef sounds delish!

Pam

It was. Thank you

Kyoto and that area in general is incredibly beautiful! I am happy you are having such a wonderful time! Hope the heat isn't too bad. I will be following along.

The heat is awful - I didn't update yesterday as we collapsed into bed around 9pm and it's having an effect on the clothing situation too lol. Still - I'm in Japan so I'm not complaining!

 

[pandv_2000]

I had intended that since I caught up and was onto the current day that I would continue to update on a daily basis like a good little girl! That went out of the window when we walked so much yesterday I think we all about collapsed into bed ridiculously early last night. Oh well, early nights mean early mornings and it's not so hot then!

Yesterday we decided to explore on foot a bit. It was cloudy but soooo hot. I had read in the guide books that Nishiki market is Kyoto's kitchen so we thought it would be a good idea to go there for opening and snack our way through the market for breakfast. A little word of advice - it's nice and peaceful in the market at 9am but everyone is still setting up. We went back through this afternoon and it was a completely different atmosphere. We did manage to snack for breakfast but it was a little harder than we thought.

We decided to head towards Gion. DH had seen a programme on TV featuring Yasaka Jinja shrine so we went to see it. If I remember correctly this is where the huge Gion Matsuri festival starts in July - it was a little smaller than I thought but still good experience. We started to go through the park and went left to Chion-in temple. The main temple is closed to the public as it is currently under renovation but the grounds were still beautiful and there were many other places to worship around the main temple.



















What I forgot to mention is that this temple complex is in the mountains and there are a looooot of stairs and did I mention it was hot? When we had finished exploring we sat down to have a drink at the gift shop. We got speaking to a Japanese man who asked where we were from. He made the boys some beautiful origami and showed DS1 how to make a penguin.

After Chion-in we decided more kakigori would be good. I've developed a taste for this now.

DH said he thought whilst we were in the area we should visit Kodaiji temple. I told him we are going to be spending the night in Gion in a ryokan in a couple of days and maybe we should wait until then - too much walking yada yada yada. Anyway we went with DH's plan and there were more stairs.....



And a zen garden


And bamboo - sorry Arashiyama after the stairs today I don't think I can face climbing a mountain to see a monkey park and now I've seen bamboo.... I know there is probably a lot more to Arashiyama than this but the main thing I thought the kids would enjoy would be the monkeys.



By this point we were shattered but DH had seen a sign for the Kyoto national museum so we walked some more. When we got there I realized it was closed. At this point we couldn't take any more walking without AC so we jumped on a bus back to the station. We had a shower and got changed before dinner as we felt disgusting in the heat. We didn't go far again to eat and we had some good sushi in the station. We had promised DS2 a bullet train so we popped to Toys R Us to pick one up and then we literally collapsed in the room. I think we were all asleep by 9.

Thankfully DH's phone was on silent as his brother thought it would be a good time to FaceTime him at 4:30am! When DH called him back this morning (I told him he should wait until 4:30 in the UK) he said oh I didn't realize the time over there - surely you check....

Anyway I'm sure it seems like I complain a lot about the heat in this post. It was hot, yes and we just shouldn't have walked as much as we did in the heat.

Today we went to Nijo castle and the manga museum.

 

[disneyholic family]

thanks for taking the time to share your trip with us!!

i'm really enjoying your report and the pictures!!

i adore japan and hope to be able to get back there one day!!

 

[tinibee]

Lovely pictures! Looks like a great trip.

Are you going to try to go to an obon dance/matsuri while you are there? If so, make sure to hit all the matsuri food booths - Japanese street food is the best!!!