Tokyo Disney on 2 Weeks Notice: Hightower Halloween Costume!
- Thread starter lurkyloo
- Start date
Gymfan15
Suffering acute Disneyland withdrawls
- Joined
- Mar 20, 2008
I am SO happy you're going to be posting your TR's to a blog, Carrie! I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE reading Disney TR's, but email subscription is such a crummy way to keep up. I wish there was a way for Dis to give TR's RSS capabilities, but I don't know how possible that is. 
Anyway, really happy about the blog.
Question, will subscribing to your main RSS feed give me updates to all your categories, or do I need to subscribe to those seperately, or are they not currently RSS-able at all?
Anyway, really happy about the blog.
Question, will subscribing to your main RSS feed give me updates to all your categories, or do I need to subscribe to those seperately, or are they not currently RSS-able at all?
lurkyloo
The Attic was just perfect!
- Joined
- Aug 24, 2006
Practically! No, we brought along a big dufflebag and one of those ginormous nylon shopping totes that fold down into a little square, plus we bought Uncle Matt a duffle and used that to contain all his loot.
oooohhh
aaaahhhhh
hmnmnmnmn
next week?!
KIM
Yes! Soon! Monday...ish?
I have no idea what a Sock It To Me cake is. Fail
Yay for a new website/blog! I'll be following!
Yay!
Sock-it-to-Me Cake is sorta like coffee cake and sometimes bundt-shaped but waaaaaaaaaaaaaay more moist because it is covered (and sometimes drenched) in sugary glaze. Do you have Entenmann's baked goods where you live? I'm kind of a cake snob, but I think their version, Louisiana Crunch Cake, is sooo good!I am SO happy you're going to be posting your TR's to a blog, Carrie! I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE reading Disney TR's, but email subscription is such a crummy way to keep up. I wish there was a way for Dis to give TR's RSS capabilities, but I don't know how possible that is.
Anyway, really happy about the blog.
I *think* it will let you know every time I update the main page, no matter what categories are selected. My skills aren't advanced enough yet to know how to do category-specific RSS feeds!
aharbin88
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- May 30, 2008
Yay!
Hmmm..... We don't have an Entenmann's bakery store, but I've seen that brand of packaged pastries before. I'll have to keep an eye out for them! Thanks for the recommendation!
I just discovered this TR on Saturday and spent, literally, three hours each day this weekend reading it. It is just SO HELPFUL!
We are all (me, DH, DS5 and DD8) going to Japan this June for three weeks -- two in Kobe and one in Tokyo. Just EVERYTHING about this report has been so, so helpful -- thank you so much! The travel tips are amazing!
I have two questions, if you don't mind offering advice.
(1) We are taking our first trip to the World soon (as you can see on my ticker). Given that it will be our first Disney experience coming up -- when we are there in June, we will have one day to spend at either Tokyo Disneyland or DisneySea -- which would you recommend?
Our kids are young, which makes me lean toward Tokyo DL, but it seems like there would be a lot at DisneySea that they would love, too, and it would seem less repetitive given that we'll be in DW this December.
(2) Would you recommend an excursion to Kyoto (we would be going from Kobe at that point)?? I don't think we would do a tour, but your recap of Kyoto made me wonder if it was worth going at all -- esp. with kids. What do you think?
Anyway, any advice you can offer would be appreciated! Can't wait for the rest of the TR!
We are all (me, DH, DS5 and DD8) going to Japan this June for three weeks -- two in Kobe and one in Tokyo. Just EVERYTHING about this report has been so, so helpful -- thank you so much! The travel tips are amazing!
I have two questions, if you don't mind offering advice.
(1) We are taking our first trip to the World soon (as you can see on my ticker). Given that it will be our first Disney experience coming up -- when we are there in June, we will have one day to spend at either Tokyo Disneyland or DisneySea -- which would you recommend?
Our kids are young, which makes me lean toward Tokyo DL, but it seems like there would be a lot at DisneySea that they would love, too, and it would seem less repetitive given that we'll be in DW this December.
(2) Would you recommend an excursion to Kyoto (we would be going from Kobe at that point)?? I don't think we would do a tour, but your recap of Kyoto made me wonder if it was worth going at all -- esp. with kids. What do you think?
Anyway, any advice you can offer would be appreciated! Can't wait for the rest of the TR!
ChrisFL
Disney/Universal Fan and MALE
- Joined
- Aug 8, 2000
I'm not Lurkyloo, but after being to both parks, I'd definitely say DisneySea. Tokyo Disneyland DOES have some unique rides and experiences for sure, however I think overall the uniqueness of DisneySea is something that has to be seen.
There's a good amount of things that smaller children can enjoy:
The Entire little mermaid land has kids attractions and things to explore
Sindbad's Storybook ride is very cute
Turtle Talk with Crush is now open
The entire Fortress Explorations area is cool and there is a section just for
kids IIRC to explore and do some kind of treasure hunt.
Aquatopia is another cool ride for nearly all ages.
nytimez
Nihilist
- Joined
- Apr 15, 2008
I'm not OP either, but I did live in Japan for many years and still go back regularly.
I agree with this completely, although overall TDL is more little-kid friendly than DisneySea (but I'd still pick DisneySea).
To answer your second question, yes -- by all means, go to Kyoto, especially if you're in Kobe for two weeks anyway.
Vallie
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Oct 22, 2006
Your blog is amazing!
This trip report has become invaluable to me, as I'm planning my Disney Tokyo vacation and a Disneyland trip as well! So thank you for all the great info!
If you wanted to check out my PTR its at http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?p=38356921#post38356921
This trip report has become invaluable to me, as I'm planning my Disney Tokyo vacation and a Disneyland trip as well! So thank you for all the great info!
If you wanted to check out my PTR its at http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?p=38356921#post38356921
DizneyDogs
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Apr 6, 2000
Just returned from a 2 week stay in Japan. I would recommend DisneySea over Disneyland. We also went to Kyoto but I would recommend going to Nara instead.
taylor3297
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Mar 31, 2009
I would definitely try to fit Himeji castle in the schedule.
lurkyloo
The Attic was just perfect!
- Joined
- Aug 24, 2006
Thanks for pitching in with the touring advice, everyone!
I'm so glad you're finding this report helpful! Definitely DisneySea. There is nothing else like it in the world! I think children of all ages will be able to appreciate it. As others have said, there are entire kid-friendly lands, like Mermaid Lagoon and the Duffy area, and even the things that aren't overtly aimed at kids will still hold their interest, I think. It's not like Epcot (and I think even Epcot gets a bad rap for not being kid-friendly)... and considering that a child will happily chase a pigeon around for half an hour, I think that you don't necessarily have to have a lot of Fantasyland-type stuff around to entertain them.
It sounds like Nara is the better bet, based on what others have said. If your kids were older they might find interest in Kyoto, but speaking as someone who is still very childlike (childish?) when it comes to cultural attractions, I think I can say they might not dig it. I think if there had been more places we could go inside of, and more, I dunno, historical reproductions of furniture and the way people lived, I might have been more interested.
Thanks for the link! I'm happy to hear you're finding all this helpful!
I'm so glad you're finding this report helpful! Definitely DisneySea. There is nothing else like it in the world! I think children of all ages will be able to appreciate it. As others have said, there are entire kid-friendly lands, like Mermaid Lagoon and the Duffy area, and even the things that aren't overtly aimed at kids will still hold their interest, I think. It's not like Epcot (and I think even Epcot gets a bad rap for not being kid-friendly)... and considering that a child will happily chase a pigeon around for half an hour, I think that you don't necessarily have to have a lot of Fantasyland-type stuff around to entertain them.
It sounds like Nara is the better bet, based on what others have said. If your kids were older they might find interest in Kyoto, but speaking as someone who is still very childlike (childish?) when it comes to cultural attractions, I think I can say they might not dig it. I think if there had been more places we could go inside of, and more, I dunno, historical reproductions of furniture and the way people lived, I might have been more interested.
Your blog is amazing!
This trip report has become invaluable to me, as I'm planning my Disney Tokyo vacation and a Disneyland trip as well! So thank you for all the great info!
If you wanted to check out my PTR its at http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?p=38356921#post38356921
Thanks for the link! I'm happy to hear you're finding all this helpful!
lurkyloo
The Attic was just perfect!
- Joined
- Aug 24, 2006
When we last left our intrepid heroes, they were at odds over whether to spend their last full day in Tokyo seeing the sights of the city or riding the rides at Tokyo Disney. And now, the thrilling conclusion of Tokyo Disney on 2 Weeks' Notice!!!
We had a CRAZY last full day in Tokyo, and when you get finally get to the last paragraph of this installment 6 weeks from now, you won't believe it all happened on the same day!
The only thing officially on the schedule for today was a tour of Tokyo's Imperial Palace, and this had been on it since the moment I got to the page in The Rough Guide to Tokyo that said it was not open to the public and could only be toured by appointment made online up to two months in advance. We got lucky (sorta) because the day we wanted to go had been excluded from the online calendar by mistake and no one had been able to book it yet. Since this was the only place in Tokyo I'd called that had no English speakers on staff, we got a friend who speaks Japanese to contact the Imperial Household Agency, explain about the calendar problem, and get them to open it up so we could book. One $24 phone call later, we had our reservation
If you're interested in booking a tour, you can click here: http://sankan.kunaicho.go.jp/order/index_EN.html
In the morning we grabbed breakfast at the convenience store and walked from our hotel over to the Imperial Palace.
There was a large group gathered outside the gate, but it turned out we got to go to a much shorter line because they were part of a tour like the one we'd been on in Kyoto. In fact, we were completing a grand tour of Japanese palaces with this visitfirst the seat of the Shogunate in Kyoto (that was the one with the nightingale floors), then the modern Imperial Palace in Kyoto (that was the one we took all the boring pictures of), and now the former site of the shogunate's castle in Tokyo, which became the site of the Imperial castle when power was restored to the emperor in the 1860s and the capital was moved from Kyoto to Tokyo.
We stood in line and self-consciously ate our breakfast standing up. Really, where DO these people eat all this takeout food? Finally, we were once again lined up and marched through the gate by a group of officials.
They deposited us in a charmless concrete box of a building to await the hilariously stiff and formal pre-tour video. There were lockers for our stuff (¥300 with free ins and outs!), bathrooms and a tiny gift shop. Patrick and I picked up our English-language listening devices, which start working with the video and last for the whole tour.
LOVE the ancient computersfeels like we're in a California public school!
If you go, pay attention during the video, cuz it's the only time you'll get to see inside any of the palace buildings. When they flashed some faded still photos of the inside of the main building, I realized that Epcot's Mitsukoshi department store interior is modeled on THOSE, not on any of the Mitsukoshi branches.
So the tour itself mostly consists of being herded around the grounds in a huge pack by a guide who's more like a bored security guard with a bullhorn than, say, an historian.
At each stop, he'd use the bullhorn to call out the number on the listening device and then stand there examining his fingernails while we dutifully listened to each clip. We shuffled here and there observing the low-slung 60s box that is the palace (including a subterranean parking lot that can hold up to 150 carsyes, you read that right, 150 cars!) plus some older buildings that are only watch towers. So much of it was destroyed during the war that there's not a lot of old stuff to see. But rest assured, what there was to see was exhaustively documented by us!
I love the fact that this "graffiti"family symbols carved by the shogun thousands of years agois still here today. I guess I don't get out of my 234-year-old country much!
We had a CRAZY last full day in Tokyo, and when you get finally get to the last paragraph of this installment 6 weeks from now, you won't believe it all happened on the same day!
The only thing officially on the schedule for today was a tour of Tokyo's Imperial Palace, and this had been on it since the moment I got to the page in The Rough Guide to Tokyo that said it was not open to the public and could only be toured by appointment made online up to two months in advance. We got lucky (sorta) because the day we wanted to go had been excluded from the online calendar by mistake and no one had been able to book it yet. Since this was the only place in Tokyo I'd called that had no English speakers on staff, we got a friend who speaks Japanese to contact the Imperial Household Agency, explain about the calendar problem, and get them to open it up so we could book. One $24 phone call later, we had our reservation
If you're interested in booking a tour, you can click here: http://sankan.kunaicho.go.jp/order/index_EN.html
In the morning we grabbed breakfast at the convenience store and walked from our hotel over to the Imperial Palace.
There was a large group gathered outside the gate, but it turned out we got to go to a much shorter line because they were part of a tour like the one we'd been on in Kyoto. In fact, we were completing a grand tour of Japanese palaces with this visitfirst the seat of the Shogunate in Kyoto (that was the one with the nightingale floors), then the modern Imperial Palace in Kyoto (that was the one we took all the boring pictures of), and now the former site of the shogunate's castle in Tokyo, which became the site of the Imperial castle when power was restored to the emperor in the 1860s and the capital was moved from Kyoto to Tokyo.
We stood in line and self-consciously ate our breakfast standing up. Really, where DO these people eat all this takeout food? Finally, we were once again lined up and marched through the gate by a group of officials.
They deposited us in a charmless concrete box of a building to await the hilariously stiff and formal pre-tour video. There were lockers for our stuff (¥300 with free ins and outs!), bathrooms and a tiny gift shop. Patrick and I picked up our English-language listening devices, which start working with the video and last for the whole tour.
LOVE the ancient computersfeels like we're in a California public school!
If you go, pay attention during the video, cuz it's the only time you'll get to see inside any of the palace buildings. When they flashed some faded still photos of the inside of the main building, I realized that Epcot's Mitsukoshi department store interior is modeled on THOSE, not on any of the Mitsukoshi branches.
So the tour itself mostly consists of being herded around the grounds in a huge pack by a guide who's more like a bored security guard with a bullhorn than, say, an historian.
At each stop, he'd use the bullhorn to call out the number on the listening device and then stand there examining his fingernails while we dutifully listened to each clip. We shuffled here and there observing the low-slung 60s box that is the palace (including a subterranean parking lot that can hold up to 150 carsyes, you read that right, 150 cars!) plus some older buildings that are only watch towers. So much of it was destroyed during the war that there's not a lot of old stuff to see. But rest assured, what there was to see was exhaustively documented by us!
I love the fact that this "graffiti"family symbols carved by the shogun thousands of years agois still here today. I guess I don't get out of my 234-year-old country much!
lurkyloo
The Attic was just perfect!
- Joined
- Aug 24, 2006
More shuffling
Bad show!
This is a watchtower I think maybe original, maybe built in the 50s. I didn't retain muchsorry!
Some context for you
This is the uh sorry guys, I don't remember and may not ever have known
Then the most exciting thing that happened on the whole tour happenedoff in the distance we saw a carriage carrying an important person to visit the Imperial family!
Back to this place
Shuffle, shuffle
So this is the main part of the palace where the Imperial family holds events and meets with visitors, and this plaza is called Kokyo Gaien.
lurkyloo
The Attic was just perfect!
- Joined
- Aug 24, 2006
Trés Fifties!
Oh there must've been something significant about this wish I could remember what
This photo will give you an idea how the tour was conducted
Beneath this plaza lies parking for up to 150 cars!!!
This is the balcony from which the Emperor and his family wave to well-wishers on the two days per year that the palace is open to the public: January 2, and December 23his "official" birthday, whatever that means. Maybe I can start having an official birthday too... I choose "today" to always be my Official Birthday!
"Hmmm every day my Official Birthday "
Beyond Kokyo Gaien is Nijubashi, which is the entrance to the inner grounds of the palace that is opened to all those well-wishers twice a year.
Hey, they're stealing our shot!
Let's play "Where's Lurkyloo?"
Oh my goodness, this is going to be a long installment
Oh there must've been something significant about this wish I could remember what
This photo will give you an idea how the tour was conducted
Beneath this plaza lies parking for up to 150 cars!!!
This is the balcony from which the Emperor and his family wave to well-wishers on the two days per year that the palace is open to the public: January 2, and December 23his "official" birthday, whatever that means. Maybe I can start having an official birthday too... I choose "today" to always be my Official Birthday!
"Hmmm every day my Official Birthday "
Beyond Kokyo Gaien is Nijubashi, which is the entrance to the inner grounds of the palace that is opened to all those well-wishers twice a year.
Hey, they're stealing our shot!
Let's play "Where's Lurkyloo?"
Oh my goodness, this is going to be a long installment
lurkyloo
The Attic was just perfect!
- Joined
- Aug 24, 2006
Uh-ohwhen that guy parks, there will only be room left for 149 cars!
One factoid I do remember from the tour is that the Emperor still raises silkworms like they did years ago, and he tends to them every day that he is in the palace. At least, I think it's the Emperormaybe it's the Empress . And were they silkworms or were they sea monkeys ? Hmmmm
At the end of the tour they told us we could go back out the way we came or we could follow a guide over to the East Garden (Higashi Gyoen), which is open to the public. We figured we'd better see it all as long as we were there, so
lurkyloo
The Attic was just perfect!
- Joined
- Aug 24, 2006
The East Garden was very pretty, but I wasn't havin' it. If you have ever parented a teenager, you will know Patrick's exasperation as I trudged along with my lower lip stuck out, pining for one last trip to Disney. Finally, because he is a terrible parent, he gave in and said we could go back to Tokyo Disney. Hooray!!! I perked up instantly, and about 30 seconds later we were sprinting out this gate…
"This way to Tokyo Disney! No, *this* way… I know I don't have an arm—can't you read my arrow?"
We high-tailed to Tokyo Station, which was still under wraps…
…we practically glided down The Staircase of Despair between the subway and the Keiyo Line…
… But as we sprinted through the Tunnel of Doom, we heard an announcement over the loudspeakers that Tokyo Disneyland had closed its gates to new visitors due to high crowds!
We kept running down the corridor as we tried to decide what to do. We didn't hear anything specifically about Tokyo DisneySea, so we decided to keep going and just hope we could get in.
DID we make it to Tokyo DisneySea?! WAS the park still open?!! And WILL we ever know what a Cheesecake Chimichanga is?!!! Stay tuned….
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