Trip planning for Feb 2017 Anniversary

[Looptyloo]

Well, after about a month of looking at dates and flights, we jumped and bought tickets to Tokyo for our 10 year anniversary next February! We'll be arriving Feb 24 and leaving March 2. We booked through Japan Airlines from Honolulu. I also made hotel reservations at the Sheraton Grande Tokyo Bay, but there is no cancellation fee/penalty until about 2 days before our trip so I will be keeping an eye out for hotel deals to re-book if we can find a great deal.

Right now, the plan is to have 3 (maybe 4?) days in the parks at Tokyo Disneyland/sea and the rest of our time exploring. I also have been in contact with a couple of friends who were exchange students that stayed with us long ago, and I would love to visit them during our trip!

This is all I know for now but I wanted to start a thread to add to as I get more planning done. Any tips are appreciated as well

 

[allthenamesaretaken]

I was at Tokyo Disneyland/sea in April. We were there for 3 days and did everything but Toontown and the daytime parades (literally every activity and shop except the Toontown section).
I'd say you'd be fine with 3 days if those days include weekdays. We were there Wed, Thurs and Fri, and Friday was much much busier than the other days. If you're going to be there for Fri, Sat, and Sun then I'd suggest you need the 4th day.

 

[Looptyloo]

I was at Tokyo Disneyland/sea in April. We were there for 3 days and did everything but Toontown and the daytime parades (literally every activity and shop except the Toontown section).
I'd say you'd be fine with 3 days if those days include weekdays. We were there Wed, Thurs and Fri, and Friday was much much busier than the other days. If you're going to be there for Fri, Sat, and Sun then I'd suggest you need the 4th day.

Thanks so much for the input! I think we will do Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. I definitely don't want to do the weekend there, we will use the weekend for some sight seeing around Tokyo

Any input on how much of a pain it would be to just stay at the Sheraton by Disney and take the train out for the days that we are wanting to look around? It looks like we can get to a lot within an hour train ride...

 

[allthenamesaretaken]

Hmm stayed at the Beauty and the Beast character room in Disneyland Hotel (which was absolutely amazing) and then we switched to a hostel in an area probably known as Taito.

Considering Disneyland is only a 15minute train away from Tokyo Station, I'd say you'd be fine staying at Sheraton the whole time. I think you have to travel at least 30mins from anywhere for majority of stuff in Tokyo (we certainly had to trek it for some things). Tokyo Station would probably help with the train lines too as we had to keep swapping lines so hopefully you could get on one there and just stay on it.

On a side note, Ghibli Museum was pretty snazzy if you're a fan

 

[aussie shaz]

I had booked at Sheraton, but found a good deal at Hilton closer to our visit, so swapped. They are both right next to each other and really close to the monorail station.
I think 3 days will be enough. We did 2 1/2 days and saw lots, even with breaks back at the hotel. It did rain on our Disney Sea day though, so there weren't many people there.
You won't have much time to see other parts of Tokyo though. There are so many different areas to see.

 

[retwinked]

I'd love to help you out but it would be much easier if you narrowed down what kind of advice you are looking for. Trip planning is quite broad and it also depends on your expectations and goals. What are you looking for - food? transportation? cultural differences?

 

[Aubin4]

We're also on Oahu and we're going to Japan in April 2017!

 

[Looptyloo]

I'd love to help you out but it would be much easier if you narrowed down what kind of advice you are looking for. Trip planning is quite broad and it also depends on your expectations and goals. What are you looking for - food? transportation? cultural differences?

At this point, I don't really have any specific questions, although I would love any "I wish I had known" type of tips. I guess I have been thinking a little bit about how the Suica card works for the trains and if there are any great resources to help figure out train transport or if it will be easy/difficult to understand while we are there haha.

We're also on Oahu and we're going to Japan in April 2017!

Oh, how exciting! What part of Oahu? We are a military family Hope you're not getting too much rain, wherever you are

 

[Looptyloo]

We're also on Oahu and we're going to Japan in April 2017!

Blair, I just noticed you have a daughter named Charlotte, I do too! My girls are 7 and 8 (almost 9)

 

[Aubin4]

We're in Hawaii Kai! We're also a military family! Are you going to just be in Tokyo Disney? There is an incredibly affordable military hotel in Tokyo that we're staying at. We're also going to do one night at the Tokyo Disneyland Hotel

 

[Aubin4]

Blair, I just noticed you have a daughter named Charlotte, I do too! My girls are 7 and 8 (almost 9)

How cute! My Charlotte is going to be 8 in October. My other daughter Emerson is going to be 11 in February

 

[wanderlust7]

At this point, I don't really have any specific questions, although I would love any "I wish I had known" type of tips. I guess I have been thinking a little bit about how the Suica card works for the trains and if there are any great resources to help figure out train transport or if it will be easy/difficult to understand while we are there haha.

Here's good info on the Suica:
http://www.jreast.co.jp/e/pass/suica.html

You can only buy a Suica and add fare in cash. Just touch the reader (picture in the link), it will show you the amount you have left, and go. Most fare gates are open and will only close if there's a problem. Don't try to stick it in the slot of the fare gate, that's for other types of tickets. You can also use it at vending machines and convenience stores. We used up our balance on 2 of our cards at a store in Haneda airport. They were willing to do the 2 Suica plus cash (they had to do the calculation by hand), but some stores you have to pay the full amount on one Suica. You can get a refund but an employee would need to process it (can't be done at a machine). 220 yen fee will be deducted from the balance, so best to get the balance to zero, then get the refund for the 500 yen deposit. Or just keep the card if you think you'll be back, it's valid for 10 years after last use.

Hyperdia is good for mapping our your train route. The app is free only for 30 days I think, so don't download it too early like I did. I ended up just using the website on my phone, which works fine too. I also had the Navitime app, which is free, and worked well too. I found it helpful to look at the different routing options beforehand and see what looked easier. The signage at the train station is very good, but some stations are very big and may require a long walk or lots of stairs.

 

[hasabigrock]

We spent 3 days in Tokyo near the Tokyo station and then 6 days at Disney Tokyo.

We found navigating around Tokyo to be a breeze with Google maps and an all day rail pass that you can buy at the train-station. Google maps will tell you what line (color coded) and once you're in the station it is very easy to just keep following your color. We didn't know how to buy the tickets, but the attendants were super helpful and friendly (as is everyone we met). Train stations will be about 1/4 to a 1/2 mile from whatever it is you want to see.

Going from Tokyo station to Disneyland is easy via a JR train. My wife wasn't feeling great that day so we took a cab and it cost the 4 of us $65, which was alot less than I would have expected.

Language wasn't as much of a challenge as we thought it would be.

Food was a much bigger challenge than we thought. Most food seemed to be either 'fine dining' or junk food without too much in between. We started adventurous, but walking 10 miles a day burns alot of calories. In Tokyo we ate out the 7-11 (better than the states). At Disney we eventually found Sailing Day Buffet was reasonable.

 

[Looptyloo]

Well, guess I should update this since my trip is coming up fast! Several changes and then changes again to our plans, but it's mostly set now...

We are ending up doing a lot more moving around than I originally intended... My original plan was to mostly stay in Tokyo, maybe a day trip out toward Mt Fuji or something. Buuuuut, DH kept mentioning how the thing he would most like to do while in Japan is visit Hiroshima. We went back and forth on it a lot because it's like a 6 hour train ride. In the end, we decided to spend part of our time in Hiroshima since we don't know when/if we will be able to visit again. We currently live in Hawaii and have been to the memorials at Pearl Harbor, so it kind of seems fitting to see some of the war from the other side. It will be very moving I'm sure...

After that, we will spend a short amount of time just in Tokyo, just one night in a hotel there and planning to visit with 2 old friends/former exchange students during this time.

Finally, we will spend the last few days of our trip at TDR. Can't wait for this part!

Here's the current schedule, as it stands:

Feb 24-arrive in Tokyo. Hop on the train to Hiroshima (we bought a 7 day train pass for our time there)

25- visit Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park and/or Museum, Atomic Bomb Dome, etc. If it gets too heavy, might try to head to Miyajima for the afternoon/evening
-try okonomiyaki

26- head back to Tokyo early. Meet with one of my friends, maybe for dinner. Do a bit of exploring around Tokyo

27- Meet with my other friend for the morning, might try to go to Hanegi Park to see some of the plum blossoms, as well as Meiji Jingu
- in the afternoon, we will make our way toward TDR, check into our hotel and spend some leisurely time in the park

28- Tokyo Disney Sea!

March 1- Park hop

March 2- just half day in the parks, maybe revisit favorites before an evening flight out.


So, it will be a total whirlwind trip

We are staying in a total of 3 different places, and so we plan to pack light.

Can't wait to have my first trip out of the country with DH

 

[Looptyloo]

Also, bought our park tickets today. I was able to order them online no problem once I called my card company to authorize it. It did get blocked as a suspicious charge the first time.

 

[Kangarucci]

Looptyloo, I don't think that you will have enough time to visit Miyajima in the afternoon to do it justice. We travelled from Osaka to Hiroshima and spent the day visiting the memorials/museum and did not have time to visit Miyajima, we then travelled back to Osaka. We caught a Hop On Hop Off bus at Hiroshima train station that had two different routes that took us to the memorials/museum. Very convenient. I have a feeling that it may have been included in our rail passes.

 

[Looptyloo]

Looptyloo, I don't think that you will have enough time to visit Miyajima in the afternoon to do it justice. We travelled from Osaka to Hiroshima and spent the day visiting the memorials/museum and did not have time to visit Miyajima, we then travelled back to Osaka. We caught a Hop On Hop Off bus at Hiroshima train station that had two different routes that took us to the memorials/museum. Very convenient. I have a feeling that it may have been included in our rail passes.

Thanks! Honestly, I don't expect to have time to visit Miyajima... Kind of keeping it on my list as wishful thinking, but Hiroshima will keep us plenty busy I'm sure.
That's great to know about the hop on/off bus! We are actually staying just a couple of minutes walk away from the train station, so that may be very convenient.

My biggest problem planning this trip has been a lack of time I really wish we had more because there's so much we want to see! But this will be our first trip leaving our kids home (with my parents) so a week will be quite a bit for us to be away from them.

 

[Looptyloo]

Well, our trip is getting close! In 10 days we'll be flying to Tokyo!
Yesterday my husband and I pulled out our winter clothes and picked a few things to pack. (Remember, traveling from Hawaii, so we will freeze haha) Got out my coat that will need dry cleaning so I will take it in today.
Got out our suitcases and started to add things that we won't use between now and then. Probably will buy a few things, like gloves.

 

[Looptyloo]

So, today I called to make reservations at Magellan's. I wanted to use this as our actual anniversary dinner, on February 28th, but I put off making the reservation because I was feeling unsure about how to make the reservation. Anyhow, I wanted to add this information here for anyone else looking at making dining reservations. Some websites recommend making your priority seating reservations the day of, in person. If you are staying in one of the Disney resorts, apparently you can book them online in English, too? Anyhow, I didn't want to leave it to the day of. So today, I called. I used the phone number listed here: http://www.tokyodisneyresort.jp/en/info/ for reservations. I added some credit to my Skype account a while back in anticipation of any phone calls I would need to make in relation to our trip, and then I used the Skype app to call from my phone. I was easily able to select the English speaking option on the phone menu. The woman who answered told me in clear enough English that she did not speak English and would get an interpreter if I would hold. Very quickly I had an interpreter on the phone, as well as the first lady. I was able to request the dates and times that I wanted, but it ended up there were no spaces left on the day that I wanted, so I selected the next day instead, and there were some available then. I got my reservation and confirmation number and it was very easy! The entire phone call took about 17 minutes (and cost less than $.50 on Skype) and both people made it quite easy. I'm happy that I called, but maybe I'll still check for space in person on my preferred day, just in case Happy Valentine's Day everyone

 

[Agent 86]

Thanks! Honestly, I don't expect to have time to visit Miyajima... Kind of keeping it on my list as wishful thinking, but Hiroshima will keep us plenty busy I'm sure.

We had time for both. We were at Hiroshima early in the morning (i.e. before the museum opened) to view the Peace Park, then headed into the museum when it opened and then made our way to the island in the early afternoon. We didn't have much time on the island, just enough for a bit of a wander, stroll out to the gate (as the tide was out), etc. But, it was sufficient unless you want to do one of the hiking trails.