Tag Archives: Tokyo

Travel : Tokyo Disney Resort

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Choosing between DisneySea or Disneyland

During my first full day in Tokyo, we visited the Tokyo Disney Resort. I have been to Disneyland several times, but Tokyo’s DisneySea was foreign to me. Although I had originally intended on buying a two day passport for ¥10,000 so we could visit both parks (Sea and Land) and save some money, I didn’t think we would have the time to visit for more than a day so I opted for the one day passports (¥5,800) instead. Unfortunately, (fortunately? haha!) we ended up coming back two days later, so I actually lost out on some pretty nice savings.

Advice: If you haven’t been to Tokyo Disney Resort, opt for the two day passport for both parks. One passport is good for Disneyland and the other for DisneySea. You may only visit one park per day, but its well worth the pricing if your considering visiting both parks at some point during your stay. I should have just went ahead and purchased the 2 day instead of hesitating on it. Even if you have visited the Magic Kingdom before, it never hurts to visit again!

If you can’t spend more than a single day there, here are my recommendations. Disney Resort caters to people of all ages, but DisneySea is much more of an adult oriented theme park than Disneyland is. If your on a honeymoon or are taking a vacation just as a couple, DisneySea is the way to go. If your going as a family with small children, Disneyland is the clear choice. We walked through Toontown and Fantasyland and I felt like a child again! Everything in those two theme lands cater to young children.

Getting There:

When you arrive at the park using Tokyo’s very efficient public transportation (JR and Metro), you’ll arrive via the JR Maihama Station (South Exit). After entering, you have the option to either take a right or a left. The left of the resort leads you to a theater and also to DisneySea. Taking a right takes you on a fairly lengthy walk to Disneyland. Keep in mind that if you decide to visit DisneySea, you’ll have to ride Disney’s private railway to get there. The railway system is not free and will set you back an additional ¥500 each for a round trip. I believe there is a one day pass as well if you decide to leave the resort and return later in the day. Here is additional information on getting to the park.

Best Time to Go:

We made sure to visit each park only during the weekday to avoid the huge crowds so that alone saved us alot of time. We didn’t have any problems with the wait, and every major attraction took less than 10 minutes to get on. If your only opportunity is during a weekend or Japanese holiday I suggest you read up on their fastpass option. I’ve heard that it does save alot of time. The only real issue we had was the weather during the month that we decided to travel. It was basically a hit or miss type of game and during our 10 day stay in Tokyo starting from the end of June into the second week of July, it was overcast and drizzled almost everyday. The absolute worst time to travel to any amusement park in Japan from what I was told is during summer break for Japan’s students which begin Mid-July, so we took our chances leaving during the peak of Japan’s rainy season, but it turned out to be a blessing in the end.

Mapping out your Routes:

I highly recommend that when you first get to the parks that you spend some time mapping out your routes with the maps they provide. At DisneySea we totally exhausted ourselves because we just jumped on the first attractions we saw and realized much later in the day that we missed some featured attractions located on the opposite end of the park. We made sure we didn’t make the same mistake on our second outing and it definitely saved us time from waiting in long lines and from wearing down our feet.

Overall I enjoyed my experience at both DisneySea and Disneyland. Both had something to offer to people of all ages, but Disneyland was definitely more “children” oriented. My only complaint was that most of the shows and commentary were in Japanese. You can’t really complain since the park was built for Japan, but if your taking young children to the park primarily for the shows, I’m not certain if they would enjoy themselves. Several of the shows had English translation devices, but it was pretty difficult to enjoy the performances when you are trying to read the translations at the same time. If your looking for the full Disney experience for your children and only speak English, I’d definitely recommend going to Disneyland in Anaheim or Disney World’s Epcot Center in Florida.

Travel : Tokyo JR Lines and Metro System

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Last summer was my first experience on any metro system. Two good friends of mine had been stationed in Alexandria Virginia at the time, and had highly encouraged my wife and I to experience the daily grind of riding the Washington D.C. metro. Although there were several bumps along the way, the convenience and reliability of the metro was a huge plus, and at the end of the day I thought it outweighed most of the negatives I had conceived about taking public transportation.

Our D.C. tour had supposedly been our last experience on a train system for the next few seasons, however that quickly changed when I booked a ten day summer trip to Tokyo, Japan. I had discovered that traveling by taxi would be extremely expensive, and renting a car while learning to drive on the opposite side of the road wasn’t an viable option either. That left the trains again. In Japan, the JR trains and metro systems are the primary mode of transportation across the entire country, and in order to travel great distances quickly and efficiently, I would eventually need to learn how to use them. It was hard enough to navigate in D.C. with English written everywhere, so you can only imagine what I thought about when I learned that I had to travel for ten full days using a system set up in a foreign language.

Hiroo Station on the Hibiya Line right off our Hotel.

Hiroo Station on the Hibiya Line right off our Hotel.

Fortunately, being one of the largest and busiest metro systems in the world today, Japan’s systems are also one of the most punctual and simplest to navigate. I recall the metro in D.C. as being quite similar, but Tokyo was far better equipped at providing information to tourists and other visitors within the area. As long you can remember your station name, number, exit, and line color, it is really quite easy to navigate using the subway maps and other information littered across the walls. For added convenience, most of the downtown hotels in Tokyo provide hand held maps (in English) of the subway and train lines, so we used those regularly to plot our routes the night before we took them.

The employees at the stations were also quite helpful. They assisted in the loading and unloading of passengers, answered any questions we had (with their limited use of English), and kept the grounds extremely clean. In most cases a simple “Sumimasen” or excuse me in Japanese caught their attention and they would stop to speak to us or lead us to someone who could. I was very pleased with just how polite everyone was, and I definitely rank Japan as one of world’s best in when it comes to services.

Our Pasmo cards purchased the evening we arrived.

Our Pasmo cards purchased the evening we arrived.

Ticket prices are pretty fair while taking the metro and JR lines, but I would highly recommend purchasing a PASMO or Suica rechargeable card if your planning any type of extended stay in the Tokyo area. These cards can be purchased at the entrance of any metro station and there is an English button at the right end of the screen to help guide you through the process. At each entrance and exit, you simply place your card on top of the reader (the reader is located on the right and lit up with the color blue) and it debits the fare without having to purchase tickets each time you hop on another train. Each card requires a ¥500 deposit, but is 100% refundable when you return your card at the end of your trip. My wife and I started by adding ¥5000 each to the card and at the end of our trip, our total travel expenditures were ¥7000 (two ¥1000 recharges), per person. Not bad for ten days when you consider how many places (I’ll be writing about this later) we visited during our stay.

On a final note, unless you want to experience the Tokyo rush hour, I suggest you avoid the metro and JR lines during the hours of 7:30 – 9:30am and again around 5:30 – 7:00pm. Tokyo Station and Shinjuku Station are probably the busiest in the entire Tokyo area at this time. I hit rush hour one evening going from Shinjuku to the Hibiya Line and it was extremely busy and hot. Not something I’d like to experience again!

OT: You know what I found quite curious about riding all those days on the Metro and JR Lines? The sleeping and cellphones! haha.. Man, there would be people sleeping for five stops then they would just snap out of it and walk off like they knew where they were going. It was pretty cool to see. It also seems that everyone is connected in Tokyo. I’ve never seen so many people with cellphones in hand at once. I wasn’t trying to be nosey, but they are all either texting, watching their navigation systems, or playing some funky game while waiting. Everyone also seems to have those “trendy” sparkles covering their phones and dangles.

Helpful Links:
Transportation in Tokyo by Japan-Guide.com
How to Metro by MustLoveJapan.com
The Tokyo Metro Official Site at tokyometro.jp
Pasmo Card Official Site at pasmo.co.jp

Travel : Planning a trip to Japan

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Summer has arrived, and this year my wife and I have decided on Japan as our travel destination. Of course I’ll have my array of posts on my experiences in Japan when I return, so be expecting some great travel reviews covering the city of Tokyo during the months of July and August. Since I was basically tasked with the entire itinerary for the trip, I actually spent time preparing for our vacation since early March.

Booking Hotels and Airline Tickets

The first thing I did was book and confirm our flights and hotels. I bought tickets from Expedia once again since they were the most convenient for me, but I found competitive rates at both Priceline and Travelocity. In my experience with booking, its best that you have all the information you need available (credit cards, passports, etc..) before getting started. It just makes things much easier this way. The prices changed so quickly that I probably could have gotten a better deal if I had been prepared a bit more.

My original plan had been to book a decent three star hotel somewhere in the Shinjuku area, but even with all the discounts Expedia offered us, we would have easily paid $120.00 USD per night for something decent. Fortunately, the couple traveling with us are in the active military so they were able to sponsor my wife and I at The New Sanno located in Minato-ku, Tokyo. Therates are amazing, and if you are in the active military or have a friend who can sponsor you, its definitely worth a look. Its located less than ten minutes from the Hiroo Subway Line and they provide all the amenities you would need for a very comfortable stay. (money exchange, bank, BX, gym, etc…)

We did run into some problems however and it was primarily because we waited so long to book. We discovered that during the July 4th weekend its extremely hard to get rooms at the Sanno, so we’ll actually be staying at Azabu Court Apartments, which is about a ten minute walk from Sanno for a couple nights and return once the weekend is over. My advice : book very early.

Transportation and Costs

The next thing I wanted to learn a bit more about was getting from place to place in Japan. I knew that renting a car was not an option at all so I tried to learn as much about Japans public transportation as I could. The first option I looked at was a taxi. I quickly crossed that out after discovering they are about as expensive as riding the taxi’s here at home. $250.00 USD to get from the airport to hotel? Forget about it!

Apparently, the best way to get around Tokyo is by train or subway. I experienced Washington DC’s Metro System last year so I was familiar with how everything worked. The fact that everything is in Japanese may pose a bit of a challenge, but because everything is color coordinated and numbered, I’m pretty sure we’ll figure things out in a day or two. If your really concerned about getting around, I suggest you visit this site here. I took down a few notes and we already know which trains/subway stations to get on and off of for the first couple days. I’m sure if I had more time, I would probably have mapped out more of the trip. You may also want to look at this well done video about how to actually use the Metro if you have never used the subway station before.

Finally, be sure to purchase either a Pasmo or Suica smart card to use on your daily travels. It basically is a chargeable card that can be swiped at all major bus and train stations to make travel alot smoother and faster. It definitely beats buying a ticket at every stop. I plan to get a couple $50.00 USD cards upon arriving at Narita Airport, and simply recharging them as needed. I believe you can also refund any remaining balances when its your time to leave Japan by returning the card to a ticket sales office.

Our Itinerary (10 Days)

This was actually the toughest part of the vacation planning for me. There is just so much to see in Tokyo and I doubt we’ll cover even a fourth of everything in the ten days we’ll be visiting. I’ll post the basics here for everyone to guide themselves with, and start my reviews on each day as soon as I return.

Day 1

Enjoy the Hotel.
Walk around the area.
Possible Evening Trip to Roppongi Hills

Day 2

Tokyo Disneyland or Disney Sea(Chiba)

Day 3

Shinjuku & Shibuya, Japan Sword Museum, Isetan
Top of the Metropolitan Gov’t Office (South Tower) (Shinjuku),
Hachiko Statue, Shinjuku Station for Lunch , Stroll Shibuya in the Evening
(Check out the LOVE HOTELS!)

Day 4

Wake up Late. Gym/Pool
Shinjuku in the evening or Tokyo Dome

Day 5

Ueno Park (Tokyo National Museum and Zoo)
Edo-Tokyo Museum

Day 6

The Tsukiji Market (5:00), Imperial Palace Gardens,
Asakusa (Asakusa Shrine and Sensoji Temple)
Ginza, Sony Building Kabuki-za Theater (1 Act)

Day 7

Wake up Late.
Harajuku – Yoyogi Park and Meiji Jingu Shrine
Akibahara at Night

Day 8

Odaiba Pallette Town and Venus Fort shopping center,
Miraikan Museum Ride the Daikanransha (FERRIS WHEEL) Joypolis by Sega

Day 9

Kamakura (We need to leave early!)(5:00)
Inquire about Enoshima Kamakura Free Pass
Kamakura , Great Buddha of Kamakura ,Kotokuin Temple ,Tsurugaoka Shrine

Day 10

Not sure what we can do. Check out at Noon. Get Limo Bus to Narita. Check in Baggage. Hang out! What a VACATION! Where are we going next? SAYONARA! UNTIL NEXT TIME!!!!

Additional Information

I found a ton of useful sites to help me with the trip. I’ll list some of the most useful ones here.

Japan-Guide
Japanese Lifestyle
Japan Travel Info
Japan Zone
Virtual Tourist Tokyo
Wiki Travel Tokyo