Trip Report *COMPLETED* I've climbed the mountain, I've crossed the river, and I'm almost there!

Introduction

We've only been back from Japan since Saturday night but I am just itching to get started on this report! We had an absolutely AMAZING trip and I'm not ready to let it go, and writing my TR is one way for me to delay the inevitable return back to "the real world." This was the longest vacation I've ever taken, and like any long trip-or any new experience, for that matter-there were ups and downs, good moments and not-so-good moments. There were mistakes, mishaps, mountains, and monkeys. Yes, monkeys! There were surprises and there was DRAMMA!* There were things we will do differently next time we visit Japan, and believe me, we knew less than halfway through the trip that there WILL be a next time someday!

In case you missed the PTR, here it is: Bee's Big Birthday! There you can read about the cast, the general plans, and the reasons for planning this particular trip.

Now about the title: It's a reference to this song from The Princess and the Frog:

​

I have been kind of obsessed with this song lately and I found myself singing it in my head repeatedly during the trip. You'll see why soon!

So, if you're ready for a journey halfway around the world, thousands of photos, and Double Disney bookends, keep reading!

EDIT: The Tokyo Disney stuff starts here.

*I've mentioned it in previous TRs, but I like to spell "dramma" the Italian way because I'm an opera singer and what's more DRAMMAtic than Italian opera?? So please don't think I'm an idiot (for that reason anyway )!

 

[bee]

You would think it's obvious right? I work in an airport and have to tell passengers every single day not to leave devices or bags unattended, some even question why or become aggressive about it It blows my mind!

Baffling!

How many times did you need to remove the kitty from your suitcases as you were trying to repack?

Haha! She never actually tried to get in them; she was more about lying on top of our freshly washed laundry!

 

[bee]

Day 15: Monday, December 31

We woke up around 4 or 4:30 to finish last minute packing and leave for the bus station. J was kind enough to get up early and drive us there. Once we arrived at the station we purchased our bus tickets to Fukuoka Airport and drank our coffee in the waiting area.

Upside down for some reason? lol

The bus arrived right on time. We showed the driver our tickets, loaded our luggage, and boarded the bus.

We departed soon; the ride was about an hour and a half with a few stops along the way to pick up more passengers.

Once at the airport we checked in at the JAL counter to receive our boarding passes and check our bags.

The checkin agent was extremely nice and courteous and had us on our way soon.

S had briefed us on Japanese airport security. She told us it was waaaaay less intense than American or international travel security but we were skeptical. We didn't have to take off our shoes or rearrange anything in our carryons. I realized too late that my water bottle was full of water but the agent just pointed to it and asked me about it. I said, "Water! Mizu!" and he said it was fine! Can you imagine this happening with TSA?? Overall security took less than five minutes and we were in the gate area.

Time for more caffeine!

Another fancy toilet

We waited patiently at the gate. Every few minutes a gate would begin boarding, and the JAL employees would come to the podium and introduce themselves and do a synchronized bow to the passengers. It was so cute!

Up next: On the plane!

 

[bee]

Day 15, cont.

We boarded to find out that we were on a HUGE plane with 10 seats across, arranged in groups of 3-4-3. The three of us were seated in three of the middle four of a row near the back.

The plane was far from full. We're guessing they just needed to move this plane to Tokyo for a longer flight and we happened to end up on it.

There's my eye...

We took off on time (no surprise).

Green tea

I think M and I watched Modern Family. S watched Birdbox, which had just come out at the time.

It was a short flight (especially compared with our flight to Japan!) and soon we were seeing Tokyo out the window!

My brother had asked me about the toilets so I took lots of pictures for him haha.

We gathered our bags pretty quickly and set out to find lunch in the airport.

Up next: Lunch and another bus!

 

[bee]

Day 15, cont.

After we gathered our luggage we started looking for lunch. We found a directory showing the HUGE selection of restaurants available. We ended up just picking the closest one, a ramen place.

When we ordered, S ordered first, then M, and then I tried to indicate that I wanted the exact same thing as M. However, our server understood this as I would be sharing with M. A lot of servers would ask how many of something we wanted for the table, instead of asking each person what they wanted. Lesson learned: if you want the same thing as someone else, just say you want two of the thing!

Friend tofu appetizer

Miso ramen with veggies and an egg

The ramen and tofu were great! This ended up being my favorite noodle meal of the trip.

As we ate, we talked about the best way to get to our hotel. Originally I had booked us two rooms at a Comfort Inn in the city (the hotel didn't allow three people to stay in any one room so we needed two rooms). S was on the waiting list for a couple of different military hotels but hadn't gotten a room yet. A couple of days before we left J called them to double check if they had any availability, and one of them did! He double checked that she could check in as a military dependent without him, and they said she could. Hooray! So I cancelled the Comfort Inn reservation.

Tokyo has a great system called Airport Limousine where you can take a nice motorcoach from the airport to your hotel and vice versa. I had already reserved our ride from Disney to Narita Airport, and we realized that we could take a bus from this airport to a hotel that was near our hotel, then walk about ten minutes to get there. This was a much more convenient option than dragging our suitcases onto multiple subways to get there!

We found the area of the airport where we could buy tickets and catch the bus. There were several machines for ticket purchases.

Once we got the tickets we only had about five minutes to find the correct departure lane. Luckily it was nearby and soon we were handing off our luggage and boarding!

Tokyo Tower!

Up next: Off the bus and to our hotel!

 

[bee]

Day 15, cont.

Our stop was the Grand Hyatt, but we certainly weren't staying there! The bus pulled into a garage and bell services staff were standing by to assist guests with luggage. One of them asked us if we were checking in, and we sheepishly said no. Hey, there are no rules against using the bus just because you're not staying at that exact hotel!

We also had to walk through the fancy lobby to get outside.

Once outside, we used a combination of Google Maps and S's geographic memory to find our hotel (she and J had stayed there before).

Check in time wasn't until 4:00 and we arrived well before then. S had called the previous day to confirm that we could drop our bags when we arrived and come back when our room was ready. As we approached the property, a security guard came to meet us to check our IDs. S showed her military dependent ID and M and I showed our passports. Since the property is owned by the US Army they obviously have very strict security protocol. We all had to sign in and get visitor passes. M and I had to leave our drivers' licenses with the security guard while we were inside the building, and when we left the property we had to turn in our visitor cards to get our DLs back. Once we got past security we went inside to check in at the office, which was on the fifth floor.

S had warned us that this place was far from fancy. It's a converted army barracks and hasn't been renovated in a long time. On the plus side each room is a suite with two large sleeping spaces and a jack-and-jill bathroom in the middle, because each room used to be two full sized barrack bedrooms.

We checked in upstairs. S asked if we could leave our luggage, but the person at the desk said to wait a few minutes because our room might be ready. He checked with housekeeping, and it was indeed ready!

We braced ourselves for the worst!

Up next: Will our room be horrible???

 

[bee]

Day 15, cont.

The moment of truth!

We entered the main door into the living area, which had a pull-out couch.

We crossed through the bathroom to the bedroom, where M and I would be staying.

Looking back to the living room:

So, it was obviously very dated and not at all stylish, but everything was clean and functional. AND, we only paid $60 per night for this enormous room (my pictures don't show how big it is).

And look, an American outlet:

While we were in the room I checked the forums on my phone and got this very fitting ad:

After a few minutes in the room we set out to see Shibuya crossing, which is the largest pedestrian crossing in the world.

This required more caffeine!

We walked to the nearby subway station...

Up next: a big crosswalk and a big shrine

 

[MinnieM123]

We waited patiently at the gate. Every few minutes a gate would begin boarding, and the JAL employees would come to the podium and introduce themselves and do a synchronized bow to the passengers. It was so cute!

Never had anyone bow to me before, and I assume it's the same for you. This must have been a nice treat!

We boarded to find out that we were on a HUGE plane with 10 seats across, arranged in groups of 3-4-3. The three of us were seated in three of the middle four of a row near the back.

I was on a huge plane like that some years ago -- Aer Lingus, on a trip to Dublin. It was so big, it was like flying in a building, for heaven's sake! And unlike your experience, every seat was filled! (I would have preferred the space you had!)

 

[bee]

Never had anyone bow to me before, and I assume it's the same for you. This must have been a nice treat!

Yes, it was really nice to see the respect with which the Japanese treat each other and foreigners!

I was on a huge plane like that some years ago -- Aer Lingus, on a trip to Dublin. It was so big, it was like flying in a building, for heaven's sake! And unlike your experience, every seat was filled! (I would have preferred the space you had!)

It was the biggest plane I've been on! I've been on large planes that were 2-4-2 and 3-3-3 but never 3-4-3!

 

[bee]

Day 15, cont.

We exited the subway and soon found Shibuya crossing, which is the largest pedestrian crossing in the world.

We walked across the street and back. It was...fine.... At least we can say we did it.

Next we took a 30-ish minute subway ride to get to a shrine we wanted to visit.

We stopped at a 7-Eleven for some snacks.

SNACK

(I didn't get these. I don't know what they are.)

Yum?

We got some sour cream and onion-type chips.

We followed the signs until we got to the entrance.

We followed the long pathway to the shrine. Remember how there were hardly any people at the temples and shrines in Kyoto? Tokyo proved to be VERY different.

Up next: Sake time?!

 

[bee]

Day 15, cont.

We continued toward the shrine...

These are wine barrels! Like, grape wine!

As we continued we saw what looked like beautiful lantern art...

Turns out these are actually sake barrels!

There were toooooons of tourists here (it was a holiday, after all) so we didn't linger in the area and instead continued toward the actual shrine.

Up next: More shrine!

 

[bee]

Day 15, cont.

2019 is the year of the boar so that's why there have been so many boar pictures!

Up next: Back into the city, and temple time!

 

[bee]

Day 15, cont.

We left the shrine and soon found ourselves back in the busy city.

We headed down to the subway.

We had a snack on the train...

We got off the train...

Miami Garden lol

We walked through a long outdoor corridor of shops to get to Asakusa Temple.

Up next: We finally reach the temple!

 

[bee]

Day 15, cont.

This temple's claim to fame is its large, beautiful pagoda.

THERE SHE IS!

Up next: More temple!

 

[Wngo905]

ELSA!?!?! LOL

 

[MinnieM123]

We left the shrine and soon found ourselves back in the busy city.

Gotta say, you two are truly amazing by how you managed to navigate a foreign country as well as you did, without even knowing the language. From what you've shown, there are some bi-linguals who speak English. Still there was quite a lot of figuring things out, that you must have done. Impressive!

 

[LadyBelle]

The temple is gorgeous at night.

 

[amjt660]

Shibuya looks cool at night
I have heard it compared to Times Square ( I have not made it to nyc to compare)
At day time it is just another crazy busy street corner in Japan

Max

 

[bee]

ELSA!?!?! LOL

LOL! I didn't notice that until you pointed it out!

Gotta say, you two are truly amazing by how you managed to navigate a foreign country as well as you did, without even knowing the language. From what you've shown, there are some bi-linguals who speak English. Still there was quite a lot of figuring things out, that you must have done. Impressive!

Thank you, @MinnieM123! We were definitely nervous going into the trip but we did better than we thought we would!

The temple is gorgeous at night.

It is!! It was so cool to see everything lit up!

Shibuya looks cool at night
I have heard it compared to Times Square ( I have not made it to nyc to compare)
At day time it is just another crazy busy street corner in Japan

Max

I wish we'd seen it at night, then! Next time!

 

[bee]

Let's get a move on, shall we? I've got TOKYO DISNEYLAND to report!!

Day 15, cont.

We wrapped things up at the temple...

(I just couldn't stop taking photos of the pagoda!!)

We exited and went through the shopping area again.

M and I had been envious of S's coin purse ever since our first full day in Japan (since the Japanese use sooooo many coins) and we had been on the lookout for cute coin purses to buy as souvenirs. S wanted to buy them for us as Christmas gifts and we finally found some we liked here. I know I took photos later so I'll find them and post them when I do!

We were hungry and tired so we took the train back to our neighborhood in hopes of finding food nearby. I found an all-day breakfast restaurant that sounded good so we headed there.

Sadly, the restaurant had closed early for NYE, so we had to find something else.

Up next: Will we find dinner?? Getting lost!! Will we stay up until midnight???

 

[bee]

Day, 15, cont.

I found a Thai place on the map nearby and we headed in that direction, hoping it would be open despite the holiday.

We made it inside!

The owner seated us and we learned that he spoke perfect English. We placed our orders and were served quickly.

The feast:

Veggies

Tofu

I think this was a lemon cocktail?

Throughout our meal the owner came by several times to make sure we were happy and to ask us questions about ourselves (since we were obviously foreigners). He asked where we're from and M and I said New York. We got asked this question a lot and it seemed that every person we talked to had a cousin/nephew/sister/other relative who lives or lived in New York.

The food was excellent and made up for the fact that everything else had been closed!

We made our way back to the hotel, but we needed to stop at 7-Eleven first for a NYE dessert and something to toast with!

Veggies in 7-Eleven

Tokyo Tower!

Our New Year's dessert:

Try to imagine tiramisu from a convenience store in the US. Now get that image out of your head and imagine fresh bakery tiramisu, and that's what we had! We couldn't believe how good it was!!

I guess I didn't take any photos of our drinks, but I think we bought some bourbon and lemon soda and just had that over ice. We were soooooo tired from our long day of travel that we barely made it to midnight. We showered and got ready for bed, then made the drinks around 11:45, then toasted at midnight.

Day 15 Stats
Distance: 8 miles
Steps: 18832
Flights: 16

Up next: New Year's Day in Tokyo!