Japan - Disney, Tokyo & JaPOW

Well, fortunately we didn’t have to have a clean up in aisle 5, and we made it in the park and to the restroom just in time. I know all of you were chewing your fingernails waiting to see what happened. And some of you (ahem, Bobby) were probably really hoping for security to be called! Well, I made it 😝.

Now that the drama is over with, on to the day. Once inside, again, in the pouring rain, we started to soak in this park. Just wow. It’s kind of a combination of Universal Islands of Adventure theming wise, looped in with Animal Kingdom, just on a grander scale. The Mediterranean lagoon, made you feel like you were right there somewhere on the coast of Italy.

The fun part was that we had reservations for Anna and Elsa ride for 9:30 am - If you recall, we were still waiting in line a little before 9 am and it took us an hour to get through… yeah, so the race was on. We hurried through Mysterious Island and Mermaid Lagoon trying to get to Fantasy Springs which, not shocking, was at the very very back of the park. Well, we got there but not before we were informed Anna And Elsa ride was going to be down for the day. This wasn’t too surprising as the ride had been down for the previous week plus. While this was a bummer, getting to see the theming of Arendelle and the fact they let us walk through the queue at the ride was still pretty cool. The attention to detail is a little overwhelming.

Denise had reserved us ride times on the three biggest attractions (the day before they had 2 to 4 hour lines!!!) for 9:30 am, 10 am at Peter Pan and 10:30 am at Rapunzel. The good news is that since Anna and Elsa were down, we got to use that ticket at another ride as long as we were within our 30 minute window - which we made with about 30 seconds to spare. So we hoofed it over to Peter Pan taking a chance that we’d like to do that one twice vs Rapunzel - and yes, that was one of the few times where I chose a line and it worked in our favor! Both rides were neat, but waiting 2+ hours for Rapunzel would have been a bit of let down - think the Frozen ride in Norway at Epcot, but on a bigger slower boat. The theming was incredible as you can see in the pictures, but a 2 hour wait… ugh.

After hitting our three rides, we were about at time to hit lunch at 11:30, so we started making our way back to Mysterious Island, hoping to catch Raging Spirits roller coaster - which had finally shut down as the rain was now a very hard rain (apparently they do have their limits). So, we got some popcorn and headed off to lunch! Overall, minus the rain, it was a great morning.

NOTE: An Umbrella, Poncho and rain jackets and pants along with water proof shoes - well that worked out quite nicely!Meer informatie

Well, getting down to our last couple of days. I figure if I can get a few more thoughts in, this may be the first time I actually finish the blog during a trip!!! I will say, while this trip has been busy and full of a lot of things to do, I’ve enjoyed it as there has also been downtime, allowing me to get my thoughts down, opportunities to re-energize, and just chances to enjoy the things around me!

Tuesday started off early, and with the daily mantra of coffee, potty and food, we headed to the train station early! I’ve learned that the train stations usually give me a head start to keep the little lady happy, and today, we finally broke down and went in for some McD’s breakfast. For those of you who know Denise, she is a big egg McMuffin girl and I’ve always heard about how great McD’s is in Japan, clean and friendly service. Well, it’s no longer rumor for me, it’s exactly as claimed! Still batting 1.000 on food over here!

After our daily early morning routine (☕️🚽🍱), we headed upstairs to catch our last Shinkansen! A two hour journey back to Tokyo, where I paid extra for seats on the side to view Mt Fuji! And yes, as expected, it was raining and cloudy and no Mt Fuji for me! So B, you still have one up on old Dad, but maybe I’ll get another chance some day. Or I can just go get your phone and hope you got off Pokémon long enough to grab some pictures while you were there!

Needless to say, we spent the time doing what we do - me typing and catching up, Denise reading, me bothering Denise, Denise trying to read, me bothering her some more, Denise giving me the “knock it off” look, and back to typing while Denise kept reading. All in all, it was another smooth, quiet journey! Just no Mt Fuji 😭.

Once back in Tokyo - Tokyo station to be exact - the first order of business was to find our way through that labyrinth to get to the train we needed back to Darren’s apartment. They aren’t kidding on Instagram when they say some of these stations were built to see how many foreigners the Japanese could trap. It’s like the old beetle traps dad would set out when I was kid! Fortunately, we did find our way through, but I’ll admit, it took me longer than I would have liked.

After a quick 10 minute walk through the rain, we were back at home base! Thanks again Darren and Wendy! Now came the fun part, at least for Denise. She may not have taken part in laying down her thoughts for the blog, but she absolutely makes up for it when it comes to packing! For the 5 days of skiing and Kyoto, she got us through on a single carryon and two backpacks! Now of course, she needed to get us and all our trinkets packed and ready for a flight!

Of course, after a few looks at what needed to go where, Denise just smiled and said, not done yet, let’s go out for some air - code for we need to buy more stuff! So off we trekked back out into the rain, but with umbrellas this time! Thanks again Darren and Wendy! She had a couple targets in mind - treats from Muji which Darren had turned us onto, a Hard Rock Cafe pin, a pair of Tigers! And finally, a new family friend - aka 🧳!

I laid out a route for us and off we went. I think the best part of the journey, was when we got to the Muji store to buy our treats, I got a bag of the chocolate infused apples - Denise’s target - and turned to her and said “do you want one or two?” Denise just smiled and grabbed a basket and started shoving snacks into it! 🙄. Of course, once spades had been played, I figured I better hop aboard! So we took our haul, and I mean haul (we had a new suitcase to fill after all) and headed for the NCR register! The lady checking us out asked if we wanted tax free, to which we replied - why yes! What we didn’t realize was that if you buy the snacks tax free, you can’t open them and eat them until after you’ve left Japan - hahahahah talk about one unhappy wife! The good news was that it allowed me to suggest stopping by a 7-11 to grab another egg sandwich! Those things really are yummy.

The second fun part was getting the suitcase. Since we needed to get an extra one, we were trying to figure out where to buy it. The location around Darren is pretty nice and I figured we weren’t going to get a “deal” there. So what to do? In the “old” days, I would tell mom to GTS it (IYKYK). Nowadays though, I just hit up my buddy Gemini and wait for the results. In this case, it suggested Ginza Karen. Apparently it’s a small suitcase store that sells suitcases at a flat rate - 7000 yen for a medium and 7700 for a medium large. That’s about $50!!! I was in! Of course, it included a 20 minute train ride - EACH WAY! In the end though, Denise found her soul mate and now we are ready to pack!!!Meer informatie