Konnichiwa! It's been just over a month since my husband and I returned from our wonderful 10 day trip to Japan. This was definitely the trip of a lifetime for both of us that took us on a journey to Mount Fuji, Kyoto, Osaka, Tokyo, and of course, the Tokyo Disney Resort. It was an adventure full of ups and more ups. I hope that each one of you enjoys this journey with me because I plan on detailing it all for you. I hope this trip will inspire all of you to broaden your Disney horizons and head over to the Land of the Rising Sun.
First though, if you are interested in how I did my planning (and yes, I did all of it on my own), check out my pre-trip report that is located here: http://forums.wdwmagic.com/threads/konnichiwa-yall-were-going-to-japan.884605/
The cast of characters for this trip was pretty simple. It was me (Rachel) and my husband (Jordan). I've gotten the question of what made me want to go to Japan quite a lot since we've gotten back. The truth is that my husband wanted to go. I always thought Japan would be neat to visit...eventually. There were a lot of other places on my bucket list to visit first, but last summer my husband convinced me to head over to Japan. He loves the culture and video games. So, while he chose the location, I made all the plans. By making the plans I became more and more excited about what waited for us across the Pacific. Plus, I kind of got to choose what we were going to do, which just so happened to be visit Tokyo Disney for two days.
Now I am very much a 'can't see the forest for the trees' type of person, and my husband doesn't even know a forest has trees half of the time. It works very well for us when we recognize each other's strengths and weaknesses. This trip turned out to be an excellent balance for us. When we left for Japan I had 8 typed pages of things to do in each city (that did not include my list of attractions at Tokyo Disney Resort), including train stops, addresses, cost, and descriptions of each site. While I am so glad that I had this list it actually caused me some anxiety. 'What if we don't do everything on the list? Which is the most important to me? To him? Why is nothing at the same train stop? Why does this book list this site in Central Tokyo but this book has it in Western Tokyo? Which ones are we going to on what days?' As much of a planner as I try to be, I just couldn't bring myself to piecing it all together on a map and detailing day by day what we were going to do. We were leaving with at least ideas of places to go, so I thought that surely that was good enough for now.
Monday, May 26
The night before we left I barely slept at all. I was so nervous and excited at the same time, which really just resulted in feeling restless, uneasiness, and just wanting to get on with it. I would almost liken it to the night before I got married, but I slept like a baby that night. My alarm went off at the horrible time of 4:30 AM. It really is a time that shouldn't exist, but fortunately adrenaline and excitement quickly kicked in for both of us. We were out the door by 5:30 AM for a 7:00 AM departure from Chattanooga. We only had an hour to get through security and our bags checked in Chattanooga, but I wasn't expecting any issues. In the scanner sometime suspicious showed up on my rear. I wanted to tell the TSA agent that it was just a wedgie, but she patted me down anyways. We flew from Chattanooga to Atlanta. We had a straight shot from Atlanta to Narita airport in Tokyo. However, once we arrived in Atlanta we had a five hour layover. We could have driven to Atlanta and back and half way there again during our layover time, but it was $50 more to fly out of Chattanooga and my parents were able to pick up my car. So off to the international terminal we sat and ate and lounged and paced and sat and ate until it was time to leave.
Our plane to Narita was definitely the largest plane either of us had ever been on, which is to be expected. However, I couldn't believe how crowded it was. When I chose our seats I googled the plane layout to see which seats were the best. The plane had a 3-4-3 layout of the seats, except in the back. As the plane narrowed in the back the seats changed to a 2-4-2 layout. I chose the first row of 2-4-2 seats. I'm so glad that I did! That meant that it was only Jordan and I together. Plus, we had about 2.5 feet between us and the window. It was just empty space. I was able to eventually put our stuff there instead of under the seats in front of us. Plus, it became my standing space when my legs couldn't take sitting anymore. I was just tall enough to fit right under the overhead compartment standing there. The only down side is that I didn't have a window to put my pillow against to sleep.
Here's us at takeoff. Sayonara, America!
Here's our extra space:
The takeoff was a bit of a bumpy ride. There was a lot of movement in the back of the plane, and it felt like it took awhile until the plane finally stopped fishtailing. Not long after we took off drink service started. Complimentary drinks, including alcohol, were offered for the flight. I asked for a glass of wine in hopes of getting to nap away that 4:30 wake up time. They were not stingy with the box wine on the plane. It didn't help though, so I went for the free entertainment. There was an impressive movie selection that would have definitely kept me occupied for the entire flight there and back. I opted for Monument's Men. It was okay. For such a wonderfully funny cast the humor felt forced and the timing was awful. Plus, it really shouldn't have been a comedy. The story is incredibly though.
Midway through the movie our first meal was served. I opted for beef stroganoff that was served with a salad, shrimp cocktail, a roll, and a brownie. I think the other option was chicken stir fry. The stroganoff wasn't took bad. It was heavy on the pepper but that didn't bother me. The brownie and roll however were not good.
Jordan asked for some sake with his meal. I wasn't sure what I was expecting, but I was surprised by the size of the bottle.
I really didn't get much sleep on the 13 hour flight. I spent the rest of it by playing mahjong tiles, trying to sleep, listening to music, and watching Star Trek Into Darkness for the 2nd time (I just really liked it, and I think Jordan looks like Bones). About 5 hours after the first meal our snack was served, which was a small turkey and cheese sandwich, a banana, and milano cookies. About an hour before we landed we were given breakfast. I had eggs, which were just not good. I didn't even make any notes on the breakfast. I drank orange juice. That's about all I remember.
Finally, we spotted land.
First though, if you are interested in how I did my planning (and yes, I did all of it on my own), check out my pre-trip report that is located here: http://forums.wdwmagic.com/threads/konnichiwa-yall-were-going-to-japan.884605/
The cast of characters for this trip was pretty simple. It was me (Rachel) and my husband (Jordan). I've gotten the question of what made me want to go to Japan quite a lot since we've gotten back. The truth is that my husband wanted to go. I always thought Japan would be neat to visit...eventually. There were a lot of other places on my bucket list to visit first, but last summer my husband convinced me to head over to Japan. He loves the culture and video games. So, while he chose the location, I made all the plans. By making the plans I became more and more excited about what waited for us across the Pacific. Plus, I kind of got to choose what we were going to do, which just so happened to be visit Tokyo Disney for two days.
Now I am very much a 'can't see the forest for the trees' type of person, and my husband doesn't even know a forest has trees half of the time. It works very well for us when we recognize each other's strengths and weaknesses. This trip turned out to be an excellent balance for us. When we left for Japan I had 8 typed pages of things to do in each city (that did not include my list of attractions at Tokyo Disney Resort), including train stops, addresses, cost, and descriptions of each site. While I am so glad that I had this list it actually caused me some anxiety. 'What if we don't do everything on the list? Which is the most important to me? To him? Why is nothing at the same train stop? Why does this book list this site in Central Tokyo but this book has it in Western Tokyo? Which ones are we going to on what days?' As much of a planner as I try to be, I just couldn't bring myself to piecing it all together on a map and detailing day by day what we were going to do. We were leaving with at least ideas of places to go, so I thought that surely that was good enough for now.
Monday, May 26
The night before we left I barely slept at all. I was so nervous and excited at the same time, which really just resulted in feeling restless, uneasiness, and just wanting to get on with it. I would almost liken it to the night before I got married, but I slept like a baby that night. My alarm went off at the horrible time of 4:30 AM. It really is a time that shouldn't exist, but fortunately adrenaline and excitement quickly kicked in for both of us. We were out the door by 5:30 AM for a 7:00 AM departure from Chattanooga. We only had an hour to get through security and our bags checked in Chattanooga, but I wasn't expecting any issues. In the scanner sometime suspicious showed up on my rear. I wanted to tell the TSA agent that it was just a wedgie, but she patted me down anyways. We flew from Chattanooga to Atlanta. We had a straight shot from Atlanta to Narita airport in Tokyo. However, once we arrived in Atlanta we had a five hour layover. We could have driven to Atlanta and back and half way there again during our layover time, but it was $50 more to fly out of Chattanooga and my parents were able to pick up my car. So off to the international terminal we sat and ate and lounged and paced and sat and ate until it was time to leave.
Our plane to Narita was definitely the largest plane either of us had ever been on, which is to be expected. However, I couldn't believe how crowded it was. When I chose our seats I googled the plane layout to see which seats were the best. The plane had a 3-4-3 layout of the seats, except in the back. As the plane narrowed in the back the seats changed to a 2-4-2 layout. I chose the first row of 2-4-2 seats. I'm so glad that I did! That meant that it was only Jordan and I together. Plus, we had about 2.5 feet between us and the window. It was just empty space. I was able to eventually put our stuff there instead of under the seats in front of us. Plus, it became my standing space when my legs couldn't take sitting anymore. I was just tall enough to fit right under the overhead compartment standing there. The only down side is that I didn't have a window to put my pillow against to sleep.
Here's us at takeoff. Sayonara, America!
Here's our extra space:
The takeoff was a bit of a bumpy ride. There was a lot of movement in the back of the plane, and it felt like it took awhile until the plane finally stopped fishtailing. Not long after we took off drink service started. Complimentary drinks, including alcohol, were offered for the flight. I asked for a glass of wine in hopes of getting to nap away that 4:30 wake up time. They were not stingy with the box wine on the plane. It didn't help though, so I went for the free entertainment. There was an impressive movie selection that would have definitely kept me occupied for the entire flight there and back. I opted for Monument's Men. It was okay. For such a wonderfully funny cast the humor felt forced and the timing was awful. Plus, it really shouldn't have been a comedy. The story is incredibly though.
Midway through the movie our first meal was served. I opted for beef stroganoff that was served with a salad, shrimp cocktail, a roll, and a brownie. I think the other option was chicken stir fry. The stroganoff wasn't took bad. It was heavy on the pepper but that didn't bother me. The brownie and roll however were not good.
Jordan asked for some sake with his meal. I wasn't sure what I was expecting, but I was surprised by the size of the bottle.
I really didn't get much sleep on the 13 hour flight. I spent the rest of it by playing mahjong tiles, trying to sleep, listening to music, and watching Star Trek Into Darkness for the 2nd time (I just really liked it, and I think Jordan looks like Bones). About 5 hours after the first meal our snack was served, which was a small turkey and cheese sandwich, a banana, and milano cookies. About an hour before we landed we were given breakfast. I had eggs, which were just not good. I didn't even make any notes on the breakfast. I drank orange juice. That's about all I remember.
Finally, we spotted land.
We took a school field trip in 1979 off base to a small ceramic maker, and a seaside aquarium. The ceramic maker had a weird, old, and nasty style bathroom. Still gives me the creeps thinking about it.
