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Pre-Trip Bee's Big Birthday!

Intro

For those who don't know me, I'm Bee, an opera-singing, Epcot-loving, ex-Floridian now living in New Jersey just outside of New York City. My wife M and I both grew up going to Walt Disney World and carried our love of Disney into adulthood. We buy WDW Annual Passes every other year and take 3-4 trips during the "on" years, and we often meet up with her parents in Florida since they live a couple hours away from Disney.

I am turning 30 this year and I've been trying to figure out the best way to celebrate. 2018-2019 is an "off" year for WDW so that's not an option. My birthday is also very close to Christmas so most destinations are extra expensive and crowded when I want to travel.

Our close friend S is married to a US Naval officer, and they're currently living in Japan where he is stationed for the next few years. She is enjoying it but she's understandably lonely and wants as many American friends to come visit as possible. They also happen to have a three bedroom house for just the two of them where guests can stay for free.

Put all of this together, plus the fact that M has a decent chunk of paid vacation around Christmas, and you get:

A BIRTHDAY TRIP TO JAPAN!!!

Obviously there will be Disney park visits, but there will be much more! I'll post more specifics later, but the countdown has begun and we're already in double digits! If you have travel tips for visiting Japan in general or the Tokyo parks specifically, please post them! We have both traveled overseas but never to Asia so we'll take any advice we can get! :D
 

Tuvalu

Premium Member
Your trip report title alliteration immediately brought this book to my mind:

16004E2F-A2B3-4014-AFC2-003A1E4A8B6C.jpeg

I know it’s BEA not Bee, but I flashbacked to reading this to Em over and over and over....

Truly excited for Bee’s Big Birthday Bash!!
 

bee

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Why now?

The obvious answers: a milestone birthday, paid vacation time, having a friend who lives there and can help us navigate a totally foreign place.

A less obvious answer: it's been a tough year.

In April a horrible fire broke out at my school while I was teaching a voice lesson. Another teacher and I had to get seven students out of the building, and the only way out was to jump from a second story balcony. All of the kids were fine (THANK GOD) but both of us adults were injured. I spent two nights in the hospital and have had a long and difficult journey toward recovery. You can read more in these posts from previous TRs:
1
2

Less significant but still difficult, last fall M and I had a huge moving debacle. The story ends happily with us in a nice new apartment, but we were sort of homeless for 10 days and the journey there was not fun, to say the least. You can read more here:
1
2
3
4
5

Needless to say, we have been through a lot in the past year. I am grateful not only to be alive, but to get to share my life with my wonderful wife, to live in a place we love, and to work in the field I am most passionate about. I am choosing to allow these struggles to make me stronger, and to reaffirm what is most important to me in life. Now is the perfect time to take a once-in-a-lifetime vacation, and we'll appreciate it even more knowing everything we survived to get to this point!
 
Last edited:

bee

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
30! You whippersnapper! Have the best time, you deserve it. 💕🌈
Yep, I'm a millennial! Avocado toast, sriracha, rose gold... :) And thank you! 💜

Your trip report title alliteration immediately brought this book to my mind:

View attachment 312027
I know it’s BEA not Bee, but I flashbacked to reading this to Em over and over and over....

Truly excited for Bee’s Big Birthday Bash!!
Love it!

Ohhh! Japan will be amazing. Everyone I know who visits says it’s fantastic. So excited to hear about it!
We are SO excited!

Yay! How exciting! I can't wait to hear all about it!!
Thank you! We can't wait!
 

bee

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Can't wait to hear all about it you LIAR! I know you'll only be 22:joyfull: ps you so deserve a great trip
Thank you! And yes, thanks for the reminder, I am only turning 22 ;)

I can't wait to see your adventures! And with the year you have had you and M deserves some fun adventures!:)
Thank you!

Yah, @bee ! We want pictures NOW! (Oh wait . . . you haven't gone anywhere yet. :p ) Carry on. ;)
Thanks for a laugh this morning! :p

Hey! I will be 30 this year too, and my birthday is also very close to Christmas! :joyfull:
I guess December 1988 was a remarkable month!

Sooo excited for you Bee! :)
Thank you!

So Excited for you.
Thank you!

I’m so excited for you Bee!! You deserve this!!
Thank you!

Wow! What an amazing birthday trip! You and M deserve an adventure! I will be following!
Thank you!

Awesome and Happy Birthday!
Thank you!

We shall all be waiting anxiously for your trip report! Very exciting! Adventures with Bee in Japan!
Thank you! We are so excited!
 

bee

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
The vacation creep

We went into planning this trip knowing it may be the only time we ever get to see Japan. Obviously we want to do and see as much as possible, without rushing around so much that we can't stop and enjoy the little things.

S and J were already planning to be in Kyoto from December 21-25 and they invited us to tag along, so of course we said yes! We knew we wanted to get to Osaka (the closest airport to Kyoto) by December 20 or 21.

We also knew we wanted to spend the last bit of the trip in Tokyo, OF COURSE including at least one day each at Tokyo Disneyland and DisneySEA. There were plenty of good, DIRECT flight options from Tokyo to NYC because Tokyo is a bigger city and airport, but there were no direct flights from NYC to Osaka. So we looked at flying to either San Francisco or LA first, staying a night or two, then flying directly from that airport to Osaka.

We absolutely loved traveling to California last summer (TR) and knew we would enjoy another day or two of exploring. The best flight options were from LAX on December 19, while the best flights from here to LA were on December 17. We had to pick SOMETHING to do for a couple of days in the LA area...can you see where this is going?

We're going back to Disneyland! Yes, we are doing TWO Disneys in TWO continents in ONE trip!!

Back to the Japan part of the trip...we were originally thinking two days, one in each park, would be enough. But the more we thought about it the more we realized we wanted an extra day in DisneySEA. So, our last three days (except for the flying home day) will be spent in the parks!

An alternate title for this TR: The Double Disney Big Birthday!

More specific plans will follow in the next few posts.
 

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