2 Week Tokyo/Osaka Trip Report (w/ Disney & Universal)

[Chisoxcollector]

Day 6 - DisneySea/Disneyland (Part 1)

We had initially planned on 2 full days at each park. But we both preferred DisneySea, and we didn’t have to get to DisneySea as early for rope drop. So we decided to begin the day there, and hop over to Disneyland in the afternoon.

As we did every day at DisneySea, we began the day by getting (or at least attempting to get) a Fastpass for Journey to the Center of the Earth. Then we went straight to Indiana Jones to ride via standby. We got there early enough today that we had no wait.

When we exited the ride, I was sad because I knew I wouldn’t get to ride this again for a long time. That would be a recurring theme throughout the day.

Next, we walked through Port Discovery and American Waterfront to get a DAS return time for Tower of Terror. Then we got some Matcha White Chocolate Popcorn.

Pocky liked it quite a bit. I thought it was okay. As we ate the popcorn, we made our way back through American Waterfront to get to Port Discovery.

Once we got to Port Discovery, we noticed the line for pizza turnovers was very short. There were like 5 people in line, versus 40ish the previous day. So we got another Chicken and Mozzarella turnover.

It was just as good as the day before. Next, we rode Aquatopia for the final time.

It was time to use our FP for Journey. When we got off, we saw that the Fastpasses currently being given out for Journey were only like an hour in the future. Whereas by this time the previous day they were almost gone. So we grabbed another FP. We’d get to ride Journey one more time!

Our DAS return time was upon us, so we hustled (as much as I could hustle anyway) over to Tower of Terror.

This time, I took my jacket off prior to boarding. I still had to contort myself slightly to get buckled in, but nothing like the first time.

Next we got several more snacks. We wouldn’t be eating any proper meals today. Just snacks upon snacks. I believe all of these snacks were from the American Waterfront area.

First, Strawberry Popcorn. This was good.

Next was a Pork Rice Roll. This was okay, but it was oddly soft. The pork had no texture whatsoever.

Next was a Ruby Chocolate Raspberry drink. Pocky liked this a lot.

And our final savory snack at DisneySea was a Black Pepper Chicken Roll. This was basically just a really tender piece of seasoned boneless chicken. It was actually really good.

It was time to ride Journey for the last time. I was really bummed out by this. And to top things off, we had our worst ride. We had really loud, obnoxious people in our car. That was actually fairly common, but these were the worst. It was a bummer to end it that way.

On that note, I have to get something out of my system. The employees, pretty much without exception, were absolutely amazing. But we found the Japanese park guests to be just as rude, in general, as guests in the States. I had lots of people cut really close right in front of me while walking, stepping or tripping on my cane. Out of all the times this happened, only once did they say sorry. Most turned and glared at me. I had many people cough right in my face. I even had a guy that was wearing a face mask pull down his mask, cough in my face, and then pull his mask back up. I had tons of people practically bouncing off me while gesturing wildly or dancing (yes, really) in the queues, or hitting me with their huge backpacks. Never did those people say excuse me or apologize. And Pocky agrees with me on every point.

A hilarious thing that happened more than once was somebody would knock something off of a shelf, notice it hit the ground, and then turn and glare at me as though I had done it. So I would end up picking it up, as I didn’t want a cast member to think I’d knocked it off and left it on the floor.

I am not saying the guests there were worse than the guests in the US. I’m just saying they were no different. There were plenty of super nice people, and there were plenty of jerks.

When our trip first started, I was comically over the top about being polite and considerate, practically jumping out of the way of people, always letting people in front of me, saying “sumimasen” if I even gently brushed against somebody, etc. It only took a couple of days for me to revert back to “normal”.

And now back to our regularly scheduled trip report.

We were near Port Discovery, so we decided to do the DisneySea Electric Railway. It had no wait.

It took us right back to American Waterfront. We had planned on getting back on for the return trip, but there was a fairly sizable line.

At this point we decided to call it a day at DisneySea, and head over to Disneyland. My only regret is not riding Sindbad one more time. But it was almost 1pm, and we wanted to make sure we had enough time at Disneyland. So we headed toward the exit. But we had to stop to get one more order of these little beauties first.

Before we knew it we were at DisneySea Station for the final time.

That wraps up our time at DisneySea. The rest of our day is soon to come in part 2!

 

[Haley R]

Day 6 - DisneySea/Disneyland (Part 1)

We had initially planned on 2 full days at each park. But we both preferred DisneySea, and we didn’t have to get to DisneySea as early for rope drop. So we decided to begin the day there, and hop over to Disneyland in the afternoon.

As we did every day at DisneySea, we began the day by getting (or at least attempting to get) a Fastpass for Journey to the Center of the Earth. Then we went straight to Indiana Jones to ride via standby. We got there early enough today that we had no wait.

When we exited the ride, I was sad because I knew I wouldn’t get to ride this again for a long time. That would be a recurring theme throughout the day.

Next, we walked through Port Discovery and American Waterfront to get a DAS return time for Tower of Terror. Then we got some Matcha White Chocolate Popcorn.

Pocky liked it quite a bit. I thought it was okay. As we ate the popcorn, we made our way back through American Waterfront to get to Port Discovery.

Once we got to Port Discovery, we noticed the line for pizza turnovers was very short. There were like 5 people in line, versus 40ish the previous day. So we got another Chicken and Mozzarella turnover.

It was just as good as the day before. Next, we rode Aquatopia for the final time.

It was time to use our FP for Journey. When we got off, we saw that the Fastpasses currently being given out for Journey were only like an hour in the future. Whereas by this time the previous day they were almost gone. So we grabbed another FP. We’d get to ride Journey one more time!

Our DAS return time was upon us, so we hustled (as much as I could hustle anyway) over to Tower of Terror.

This time, I took my jacket off prior to boarding. I still had to contort myself slightly to get buckled in, but nothing like the first time.

Next we got several more snacks. We wouldn’t be eating any proper meals today. Just snacks upon snacks. I believe all of these snacks were from the American Waterfront area.

First, Strawberry Popcorn. This was good.

Next was a Pork Rice Roll. This was okay, but it was oddly soft. The pork had no texture whatsoever.

Next was a Ruby Chocolate Raspberry drink. Pocky liked this a lot.

And our final savory snack at DisneySea was a Black Pepper Chicken Roll. This was basically just a really tender piece of seasoned boneless chicken. It was actually really good.

It was time to ride Journey for the last time. I was really bummed out by this. And to top things off, we had our worst ride. We had really loud, obnoxious people in our car. That was actually fairly common, but these were the worst. It was a bummer to end it that way.

On that note, I have to get something out of my system. The employees, pretty much without exception, were absolutely amazing. But we found the Japanese park guests to be just as rude, in general, as guests in the States. I had TONS of people cut really close right in front of me while walking, stepping or tripping on my cane. Out of all the times this happened, only once did they say sorry. Most turned and glared at me. I had many people cough right in my face. I even had a guy that was wearing a face mask pull down his mask, cough in my face, and then pull his mask back up. I had tons of people practically bouncing off me while gesturing wildly or dancing (yes, really) in the queues, or hitting me with their huge backpacks. Never did those people say excuse me or apologize. And my wife agreed with me on every point.

A hilarious thing that happened more than once was somebody would knock something off of a shelf, notice it hit the ground, and then turn and glare at me as though I had done it. So I would end up picking it up, as I didn’t want a cast member to think I’d knocked it off and left it on the floor.

I am not saying the guests there were worse than the guests in the US. I’m just saying they were no different. There were plenty of super nice people, and there were plenty of jerks.

When our trip first started, I was comically over the top about being polite and considerate, practically jumping out of the way of people, always letting people in front of me, saying “sumimasen” if I even gently brushed against somebody, etc. It only took a couple of days for me to revert back to “normal”.

And now back to our regularly scheduled trip report.

We were near Port Discovery, so we decided to do the DisneySea Electric Railway. It had no wait.

It took us right back to American Waterfront. We had planned on getting back on for the return trip, but there was a fairly sizable line.

At this point we decided to call it a day at DisneySea, and head over to Disneyland. My only regret is not riding Sindbad one more time. But it was almost 1pm, and we wanted to make sure we had enough time at Disneyland. So we headed toward the exit. But we had to stop to get one more order of these little beauties first.

Before we knew it we were at DisneySea Station for the final time.

That wraps up our time at DisneySea. The rest of our day is soon to come in part 2!

I’m really surprised you had rude guests. The only encounter we had with rude guests was a group of Japanese teenagers in front of us waiting for the park to open. They were extremely obnoxious and kept backing into us. Otherwise everyone else was very pleasant and polite (as far as I remember).

Also, I loved the strawberry popcorn! It was so good.

 

[Chisoxcollector]

I’m really surprised you had rude guests. The only encounter we had with rude guests was a group of Japanese teenagers in front of us waiting for the park to open. They were extremely obnoxious and kept backing into us. Otherwise everyone else was very pleasant and polite (as far as I remember).

Also, I loved the strawberry popcorn! It was so good.

I was surprised too. Maybe our expectations were too high, as we’d heard nothing but wonderful things. And to be fair, there were some very nice people. And I’m sure at least a handful of the rude ones weren’t Japanese. But we heard some of them speaking Japanese, so at least some of them were.

I do wonder if my size had something to do with it. My size definitely led to a very strange interaction with an employee at Universal later in the trip. But I’m not going to spoil it now!

The strawberry popcorn was either my second or third favorite. It is neck and neck with the milk chocolate for second place. We didn’t try my absolute favorite until the last few hours of our final day. I’ll reveal that in the last Disney report. That’s a bummer because I would have gotten it more than once!

 

[Haley R]

I was surprised too. Maybe our expectations were too high, as we’d heard nothing but wonderful things. And to be fair, there were some very nice people. And I’m sure at least a handful of the rude ones weren’t Japanese. But we heard plenty of them speaking Japanese, so a majority were.

I do wonder if my size had something to do with it. My size definitely led to a very strange interaction with an employee at Universal later in the trip. But I’m not going to spoil it now!

The strawberry popcorn was either my second or third favorite. It is neck and neck with the milk chocolate for second place. We didn’t try my absolute favorite until the last few hours of our final day. I’ll refeal that in the last Disney report. That’s a bummer because I would have gotten it more than once!

We experienced some very rude guests at our hotel but they were all tourists. It was a big college group from France. Yeah don’t spoil it! I wanna read about it when you write that post. I hope that wasn’t why people were being rude to you. Dh is a large guy too and I don’t remember anyone being rude to him.

I had to go back to see which popcorn I liked best because I couldn’t remember. The soy sauce and butter was my favorite and the strawberry was my second favorite. I wanted to like the chocolate but I just didn’t

 

[Linkura]

"I even had a guy that was wearing a face mask pull down his mask, cough in my face, and then pull his mask back up. "

What in the world!!! I'm so sorry you were treated so poorly.

 

[LovesTimone]

On that note, I have to get something out of my system. The employees, pretty much without exception, were absolutely amazing. But we found the Japanese park guests to be just as rude, in general, as guests in the States. I had TONS of people cut really close right in front of me while walking, stepping or tripping on my cane. Out of all the times this happened, only once did they say sorry. Most turned and glared at me. I had many people cough right in my face. I even had a guy that was wearing a face mask pull down his mask, cough in my face, and then pull his mask back up. I had tons of people practically bouncing off me while gesturing wildly or dancing (yes, really) in the queues, or hitting me with their huge backpacks. Never did those people say excuse me or apologize. And my wife agreed with me on every point.

A hilarious thing that happened more than once was somebody would knock something off of a shelf, notice it hit the ground, and then turn and glare at me as though I had done it. So I would end up picking it up, as I didn’t want a cast member to think I’d knocked it off and left it on the floor.

I am not saying the guests there were worse than the guests in the US. I’m just saying they were no different. There were plenty of super nice people, and there were plenty of jerks.

When our trip first started, I was comically over the top about being polite and considerate, practically jumping out of the way of people, always letting people in front of me, saying “sumimasen” if I even gently brushed against somebody, etc. It only took a couple of days for me to revert back to “normal”.



What in the world, to cough in someone else face is just plain old rudeness... and unacceptable behavior.. no matter where you are in the world...
Sorry that happened to you...

 

[Chisoxcollector]

The coughing thing was probably the biggest shock. I probably had at least 10 different people that were within a few feet of me cough/sneeze in my direction without covering their mouth. We had two different cab drivers that were coughing without covering their mouth the entire time we were in the car.

 

[Chisoxcollector]

Day 6 - DisneySea/Disneyland (Part 2)

After an awesome/sad morning at DisneySea, we made our way to Disneyland. After getting off the monorail, we marveled at the Disneyland Hotel.

We've already decided that next time we come to Japan we will be staying at either the Disneyland Hotel or Hotel MiraCosta for 2 nights.

It was time to enter Disneyland for the final time.

We grabbed a locker to store some merch we had bought at DisneySea. They were very reasonably priced. It was $5 for a good sized locker. I believe the same sized locker at Disney World would be $10-12.

There were lots of characters out and about. Right inside the entrance we saw Suzy and Perla from Cinderella.



We bee lined it towards Monsters Inc: Ride and Seek, as they were almost out of Fastpasses. We got one for the end of the night and moved on to Pooh's Hunny Hunt to get a DAS return time.

There were quite a few people in line, but apparently the ride had just gone down. So they weren't issuing DAS at that time. So we went back to Monsters Inc and got a return time for that instead.

We were set for the night for Monsters Inc, with a FP and DAS return time. At this point we just walked around taking pictures of all of the cool Alice in Wonderland stuff around Queen of Hearts Banquet Hall and Alice's Tea Party.

Next we rode It's a Small World for the final time.

Pinocchio's Daring Journey had a short wait, so we rode that next. When we exited, we headed back over to Pooh's Hunny Hunt to see the status. The queue was empty and the ride was still down. But I noticed some activity, so we got really close to the entrance. Within 30 seconds, I saw the wait time start spinning. We headed right up to the entrance just as they reopened the queue. We were among the first in line!

Today the vehicle with a Heffalump and Woozle was working. Two days earlier it was MIA. It really added to the attraction.

Pocky was hungry, and I needed something to drink to take some meds. So we went to Plazma Ray's. Pocky got some kind of Hamburger Rice Bowl with little cheese stars on top. I got a melon soda. It was approximately my 417th melon soda of the trip so far.

It was time to for our DAS return time for Monsters Inc. So once again I folded my giant body into the teeny tiny ride vehicle.

Afterwards we headed back to Pooh. We got both a FP (for the very end of the night) and a DAS return time. Then we walked around a bit, taking some photos of the sad incomplete castle and the Partners statue.

Then we got some Corn Potage Popcorn. IT WAS SOOOO GOOD! It tasted exactly like really good corn on the cob. By far my favorite popcorn flavor.

I was ready for something with a bit more substance to eat. So we headed to Toontown, where I got the Donald Shrimp Cutlet Burger. It was very good. It came with a special sparkling tapioca drink that was okay.

Next we redeemed our Pooh DAS. I could ride this over and over and over and never get tired of it.

We saw more characters roaming around Fantasyland, including Gideon.

We worked our way over to Adventureland. Country Bears was about to start, so we headed on in.

I enjoyed this a lot. It was a mixture of Japanese and English.

Next we went to the Skipper's Galley and got a Teriyaki Chicken Leg. It wasn't much to look at, and it was very difficult to eat. But it was delicious!

As we were eating our chicken leg, somebody joined us, hoping to partake in our delicious chicken.

It was a raven! He was REALLY close to us. I don't think I had ever seen a raven before.

Next we rode Pirates of the Caribbean again. Every time I ride this in Tokyo or California I get so jealous. I will never understand why the version in Florida is so condensed.

Pocky and I aren't really show or parade people. You may have noticed we hadn't done any shows or parades up to this point. There was one parade we absolutely had to do. We always loved the Main Street Electrical Parade at Magic Kingdom, and were upset when they shipped it off to California and then retired it. So we had to see Dreamlights while in Japan. So we grabbed a bench and just chilled for a while, waiting for the parade to start. We were laughing about how diligent the cast members are when it comes to the parade route. If somebody that was sitting on the curb put their foot in the street for more than about 30 seconds, a cast member would swoop in and make them move it back up onto the curb. And this was way before the parade even started!

We loved every minute of the parade. It was so beautiful, and so cold!

The night was winding down, and we wanted to squeeze in a few more things. We booked it over to Pirates for one last ride. Sadly, it was down.

So we headed back to Fantasyland. Haunted Mansion had a very short wait, so we rode that. Then we rode Snow White's Adventures one more time.

We had two Fastpasses left, both of which were good now. We headed to Pooh for our final ride... and it was down too!!! I was really bummed we weren't going to get to ride it again.

So we headed to Monsters Inc: Ride and Seek for the final attraction of our trip to Tokyo Disney Resort. The ride grew on me with each ride, though it never came close to reaching the heights of Pooh's Hunny Hunt.

Alas, the park was about to close. We headed to the monorail station for the last time, and then back to our hotel. Our Disney trip was over!

We were able to do the following attractions on our last day:

DisneySea
Journey to the Center of the Earth x2
Tower of Terror
Indiana Jones Adventure: Temple of the Crystal Skull
Aquatopia
DisneySea Electric Railway

Disneyland
Pooh's Hunny Hunt x2
Monsters Inc: Ride and Seek x2
Pirates of the Caribbean
Haunted Mansion
It's a Small World
Pinocchio's Daring Journey
Snow White's Adventures
Country Bear Theater
Tokyo Disneyland Electrical Parade Dreamlights

We really, really loved Tokyo Disney Resort. So many good attractions, lots of interesting food, amazing cast members, beautiful scenery... it really is the best version of Disney I've been to. I greatly prefer the California parks to the Florida parks, and I think the Tokyo Parks narrowly edge out California.

Next up: Two days in Shibuya!

 

[Chisoxcollector]

Tokyo Disney Resort Attraction Rankings

I’m one of those weirdos that loves ranking things, so I figured I would rank the attractions at Tokyo Disney Resort. The rankings will be a combination of two factors. How awesome the attraction was, combined with how special it felt to ride it. What I mean is, let’s say Jungle Cruise was the most awesome attraction ever. I might not rank it #1, because it was virtually identical to the version in Florida, so it wasn’t particularly special to experience it here in Tokyo.

The number in parentheses next to the name of the attraction indicates how many times I experienced the attraction.

Now, on with the list!

#1 - Journey to the Center of the Earth (7) - Such an incredible combination of dark ride and thrill ride. This was Pocky’s favorite as well.

#2 - Pooh’s Hunny Hunt (5) - Just narrowly edged out by Journey. So much fun, and wonderfully silly.

#3 - Sindbad’s Storybook Voyage (4) - I was completely in awe of this ride. I’ve listened to the song about 50 times since leaving Japan. My second favorite dark ride ever.

#4 - Pirates of the Caribbean (3) - This is my all-time favorite dark ride. I love that it hasn’t gotten the PC changes that the US versions got. It’s only behind Sindbad because it’s so similar to the California version, whereas Sindbad was completely unique.

#5 - Aquatopia (4) - So silly, we giggled the entire time each time we rode it.

#6 - Tower of Terror (2) - Loved the unique theming, and loved that I didn’t know exactly how the drops would play out.

#7 - Indiana Jones Adventure: Temple of the Crystal Skull (3) - Lots of fun, and so much better than Dinosaur. Even though I almost died!!!

#8 - Soaring: Fantastic Flight (1) - Amazing queue and preshow, and I enjoyed the two unique scenes.

#9 - Haunted Mansion (2) - I enjoyed the changes, and how much newer and cleaner and “glowier” everything looked.

#10 - Monsters Inc: Ride and Seek (4) - Cute Ride, but disappointing relative to my expectations. I enjoyed it more when I didn’t use the flashlight at all. And the ride vehicle was quite uncomfortable.

#11 - Nemo and Friends Searider (2) - Cute Simulator with a cute premise.

#12 - Jungle Cruise (1) - We didn’t understand a word, but the skipper’s over the top enthusiasm was hilarious.

#13 - It’s a Small World (3) - I love this version with the Disney characters. Why does Florida always have the worst version of rides?

#14 - Country Bear Theater (1) - I loved the combination of English and Japanese.

#15 - Pinocchio’s Daring Journey (3) - I’m nostalgic for these old dark rides. Cute, but very short.

#16 - Star Tours (1) - I like Star Tours, but it’s literally identical to the other versions. I did enjoy the three hitchhiking droids in the queue.

#17 - Snow White’s Adventures (2) - Another cute old dark ride. I have always wished it didn’t focus so much on the Old Hag.

#18 - Enchanted Tiki Room (1) - I did enjoy the addition of Stitch (Sutitchi!).

#19 - 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1) - Definitely the biggest disappointment. It isn’t terrible, but it wasn’t good either, and it was a very uncomfortable vehicle.

#20 - DisneySea Electric Railway (1) - Just a basic train ride.

Overall a very good attraction lineup. There were quite a few we didn’t ride, but most were by choice. We would have ridden Toy Story Mania if the line wasn’t always so long.

 

[Chisoxcollector]

Day 7 - Off to Shibuya

It was a very sad morning. It wasn't easy to leave the wonderful Tokyo Bay Hilton, knowing the Disney portion of our trip was over. Alas, it was time to go! We had lots of luggage, which now included tons of Disney food and merch, so we didn't want to mess with public transportation. We decided ahead of time that our one splurge for this trip (there would end up being another splurge, but that is still to come) would be taking a taxi every time we changed hotels or went to/from the airport. In the grand scheme of things it wasn't that big of an expenditure.

So we took a taxi from the Tokyo Bay Hilton to our next hotel, the Cerulean Tower Tokyu Hotel. This is a hotel in the heart of Shibuya, catty-corner to Shibuya station.

I spent many hours researching hotels, and came to the conclusion that this was our best bet in terms of location, quality, and room size. Ultimately, it was an excellent choice. We had a nice, large, well appointed room with a king size bed. The room had a nice sitting area, very large bathroom with separate shower and tub, and microwave.

After having such a wonderful view at the Hilton Tokyo Bay, I had to see what kind of view we had here at the Cerulean. Not bad!

Once we got settled into the hotel, we set out in search of food. You are going to hear that a lot going forward. For the most part, the rest of our trip was spent walking around various parts of the city, shopping, and eating. We didn't really plan a whole lot, as we just wanted to have time to walk around and absorb our surroundings. If you don't like food, you probably won't enjoy the reports going forward.

One of the nice things about the location of this hotel is there are TONS of food options nearby. We were in the mood for sushi, so we set out for Genki Sushi.

This is one of those places where you place your orders on a touchscreen that is mounted in front of your seat. It is all counter seating, and every seat has it's own screen.

Once you place an order, you only have a very brief wait before your food comes zooming over to you via conveyor. It stops directly in front of you. You grab your plate, and then press a button on your screen verifying that you received the order.

We each placed separate orders via our individual ordering screens, but had no problem combining them into one check at the end. Here are some of the items I ordered:

For what is basically fast food sushi, it was excellent. And the prices were really cheap. Most of the nigiri on the menu cost less than $2 for two pieces. Some were slightly more expensive, but still very affordable. I had everything pictured above plus 1-2 more items, and Pocky had close to the same amount. Our bill was $32, including a melon soda.

After lunch we walked around a bit, and made our to one of Pocky's most anticipated places on the whole trip. Don Quijote! This was the Mega location in Shibuya, and it was by far our favorite Don Quijote that we visited. We bought WAY too much stuff here.

After Don Quijote we decided to retreat to the hotel to rest some. I had barely slept all trip, and it was definitely catching up to me. On the way back, we checked out the Hachiko statue.

I've only legit cried during one movie in my life, and that movie was Hachi: A Dog's Tale. I know it's a bastardized version of the real story, but it still had me ugly crying by the end of it. So seeing this statue meant a lot to me.

After our breather at the hotel, it was time for dinner. One of the other places we really wanted to try was Ichiran Ramen, and luckily there was one of those close to our hotel as well.

This location is located underground, and you have to go down a pretty narrow stairwell to get to it. We just beat the rush. When we left, there was a long line up the stairwell. It was very difficult for a big guy like me to get through.

For those of you not familiar with Ichiran and other similar Ramen restaurants, you place an order on a machine when you enter. You are given tickets for the type of ramen you ordered, as well as any extras you might have ordered. Then you are led to your own private ramen booth.

You are given your items through that opening in the back. First they gave me the soft boiled egg that I ordered, and then shortly the ramen and extra pork that I ordered.

I peeled the egg, and added it and the pork to my ramen.

This was really delicious. The broth is so fatty and rich. I'm not a big soup guy, but I could eat this ramen every day. After eating, we explored a bit more, wanting to work off the ramen we just ate. We ultimately made our way to the outskirts of Harajuku. We were planning on visiting Harajuku the following day, so we only went one place this particular evening. Kiddyland! Kiddyland is a 5 story toy store. This was another place that Pocky was very excited to visit. One display that made me happy was this table full of Totoros!

We were exhausted at this point, so we started back towards the hotel. We did make one more stop, though. A total blast from our past, Tower Records!

We did buy something, but mostly were just soaking in the nostalgia. I had no idea Tower Records still existed. Not only does it still exist, but this place was absolutely massive! I believe it was 10 floors.

After that we went back to the hotel and crashed. But not before seeing what our view looked like at night.

We definitely got spoiled by the views we had during this trip.

That does it for our first day in Shibuya. I'll be back soon with our second day.

 

[Haley R]

Day 7 - Off to Shibuya

It was a very sad morning. It wasn't easy to leave the wonderful Tokyo Bay Hilton, knowing the Disney portion of our trip was over. Alas, it was time to go! We had lots of luggage, which now included tons of Disney food and merch, so we didn't want to mess with public transportation. We decided ahead of time that our one splurge for this trip (there would end up being another splurge, but that is still to come) would be taking a taxi every time we changed hotels or went to/from the airport. In the grand scheme of things it wasn't that big of an expenditure.

So we took a taxi from the Tokyo Bay Hilton to our next hotel, the Cerulean Tower Tokyu Hotel. This is a hotel in the heart of Shibuya, catty-corner to Shibuya station.

I spent many hours researching hotels, and came to the conclusion that this was our best bet in terms of location, quality, and room size. Ultimately, it was an excellent choice. We had a nice, large, well appointed room with a king size bed. The room had a nice sitting area, very large bathroom with separate shower and tub, and microwave.

After having such a wonderful view at the Hilton Tokyo Bay, I had to see what kind of view we had here at the Cerulean. Not bad!

Once we got settled into the hotel, we set out in search of food. You are going to hear that a lot going forward. For the most part, the rest of our trip was spent walking around various parts of the city, shopping, and eating. We didn't really plan a whole lot, as we just wanted to have time to walk around and absorb our surroundings. If you don't like food, you probably won't enjoy the reports going forward.

One of the nice things about the location of this hotel is there are TONS of food options nearby. We were in the mood for sushi, so we set out for Genki Sushi.

This is one of those places where you place your orders on a touchscreen that is mounted in front of your seat. It is all counter seating, and every seat has it's own screen.

Once you place an order, you only have a very brief wait before your food comes zooming over to you via conveyor. It stops directly in front of you. You grab your plate, and then press a button on your screen verifying that you received the order.

We each placed separate orders via our individual ordering screens, but had no problem combining them into one check at the end. Here are some of the items I ordered:

For what is basically fast food sushi, it was excellent. And the prices were really cheap. Most of the nigiri on the menu cost less than $2 for two pieces. Some were slightly more expensive, but still very affordable. I had everything pictured above plus 1-2 more items, and Pocky had close to the same amount. Our bill was $32, including a melon soda.

After lunch we walked around a bit, and made our to one of Pocky's most anticipated places on the whole trip. Don Quijote! This was the Mega location in Shibuya, and it was by far our favorite Don Quijote that we visited. We bought WAY too much stuff here.

After Don Quijote we decided to retreat to the hotel to rest some. I had barely slept all trip, and it was definitely catching up to me. On the way back, we checked out the Hachiko statue.

I've only legit cried during one movie in my life, and that movie was Hachi: A Dog's Tale. I know it's a bastardized version of the real story, but it still had me ugly crying by the end of it. So seeing this statue meant a lot to me.

After our breather at the hotel, it was time for dinner. One of the other places we really wanted to try was Ichiran Ramen, and luckily there was one of those close to our hotel as well.

This location is located underground, and you have to go down a pretty narrow stairwell to get to it. We just beat the rush. When we left, there was a long line up the stairwell. It was very difficult for a big guy like me to get through.

For those of you not familiar with Ichiran and other similar Ramen restaurants, you place an order on a machine when you enter. You are given tickets for the type of ramen you ordered, as well as any extras you might have ordered. Then you are led to your own private ramen booth.

You are given your items through that opening in the back. First they gave me the soft boiled egg that I ordered, and then shortly the ramen and extra pork that I ordered.

I peeled the egg, and added it and the pork to my ramen.

This was really delicious. The broth is so fatty and rich. I'm not a big soup guy, but I could eat this ramen every day. After eating, we explored a bit more, wanting to work off the ramen we just ate. We ultimately made our way to the outskirts of Harajuku. We were planning on visiting Harajuku the following day, so we only went one place this particular evening. Kiddyland! Kiddyland is a 5 story toy store. This was another place that Pocky was very excited to visit. One display that me happy was this table full of Totoros!

We were exhausted at this point, so we started back towards the hotel. We did make one more stop, though. A total blast from our past, Tower Records!

We bought a few things, but mostly were just soaking in the nostalgia. I had no idea Tower Records still existed. Not only does it still exist, but this place was absolutely massive! I believe it was 10 floors.

After that we went back to the hotel and crashed. But not before seeing what our view looked like at night.

We definitely got spoiled by the views we had during this trip.

That does it for our first day in Shibuya. I'll be back soon with our second day.

Omg Ichiran

 

[Agent 86]

On that note, I have to get something out of my system. The employees, pretty much without exception, were absolutely amazing. But we found the Japanese park guests to be just as rude, in general, as guests in the States. I had TONS of people cut really close right in front of me while walking, stepping or tripping on my cane. Out of all the times this happened, only once did they say sorry. Most turned and glared at me. I had many people cough right in my face. I even had a guy that was wearing a face mask pull down his mask, cough in my face, and then pull his mask back up. I had tons of people practically bouncing off me while gesturing wildly or dancing (yes, really) in the queues, or hitting me with their huge backpacks. Never did those people say excuse me or apologize. And my wife agreed with me on every point.

That's very surprising! When you say "Japanese park guests" do you mean local park guests or international park guests in the Japanese park?

We've certainly encountered rudeness and poor behaviour from fellow international travellers in Tokyo Disney Resort, but never from the local guests. Of course, that's not to say that they're not complaining about us "gaijin" in Japanese, but to our "faces" they're impossibly polite and friendly.

 

[MKTokyo]

That's very surprising! When you say "Japanese park guests" do you mean local park guests or international park guests in the Japanese park?

We've certainly encountered rudeness and poor behaviour from fellow international travellers in Tokyo Disney Resort, but never from the local guests. Of course, that's not to say that they're not complaining about us "gaijin" in Japanese, but to our "faces" they're impossibly polite and friendly.

I have never heard any local complain about a foreigner just for existing.

For being rude, loud and/or frankly weird, yes.

 

[Chisoxcollector]

Day 8 - Shibuya/Harajuku

I mentioned in my previous post that we spent most of our time in Tokyo walking and eating. Nothing exemplifies that more than this post. Every picture I have from this day, with only one exception, is of food, or places that serve food. We did do a bit of shopping as well, but mostly we ate. And ate. And ate some more! I may have eaten more on this day than other day in my life. No joke!

We started our day with one my most anticipated meals of the whole trip... fluffy pancakes! There was a Shiawase No Pancake, aka A Happy Pancake within walking distance of our hotel. So we set out first thing, and arrived a couple of minutes before they opened.

It is a very cute little place. It was empty when we got there, but quickly filled up.

Once you order, it takes 20 minutes to make your pancakes.

20 minutes later, we had some delicious, impossibly fluffy pancakes. I had Tiramisu Pancakes, and Pocky ordered the Pancakes with Berry Sauce. She definitely made the wiser choice, though both were excellent.

I highly recommend having fluffy pancakes if you go to Japan. They definitely lived up to the hype!

After fluffy pancakes, we walked a bunch, heading in the general direction of Harajuku. We checked out a Uniqlo. They definitely had some weird stuff. They had a whole line of shirts for The Devil Wears Prada. So random!

Eventually we made our way to Takeshita Street in Harajuku.

We walked it's entire length in both directions, snacking and shopping the whole time. Mostly snacking. Our first snack was mozzarella cheese covered in pieces of bread, battered, and deep fried. So good!

Next we went to a place called Strawberry Fetish.

They were serving up candy coated strawberries, similar to what they used to have at the Flower and Garden Festival at Epcot. These were awesome as well.

Next we had one of the most iconic Harajuku snacks. Rainbow Cotton Candy from Totti Candy Factory.

If you like Cotton Candy, you'll love this. There are like 6 different flavors in this behemoth. There was one small problem though. Every single rainbow cotton candy we saw had the bottom purple layer fall off within seconds. Ours fell off about 30 seconds after this picture was taken.

Next was something deceptively simple and delicious. I love those Calbee potato sticks that come packaged in a cup. In Harajuku you can get the fresh version. These tasted like really good french fries, with a slightly different texture. I loved them! I can't believe a bird photo bombed my shot!

We had two more snack stops to make. It was supposed to be three, but the crepes place that has really good creme brulee crepes is no longer there. First was a place called Long, Longer, Longest. We got two things there. We'll start with the good. This is their (much better) take on Twisted Taters. We find the ones at Universal Orlando to be gross and inedible. This one was actually really good!

Now for the bad, their Rainbow Cheese Toast. Turns out the place everybody gets these at is Le Shiner. We got one here, and there was barely any cheese!

We had one last stop, and it was a good one. We went to a place called Croquant Chou Zakuzaku. They were serving up churro shaped cream puffs that were really crispy and delicious. The picture isn't the best, but the cream puffs are! If you've ever been to Beard Papa, these taste like that (but better).

After our junk food filled lunch, we walked around a bit more and then went back to the hotel for a bit. Eventually, it was time for, you guessed it, more food! Dinner, to be precise. Leading up to the trip, we had several recommendations for an unexpected type of cuisine... pizza! Specifically, Savoy Pizza. It was a bit too far away to walk, so we decided to take a train. So we punched it into Google Maps and we were on our way!

Apparently I hadn't yet learned the various symbols used in Google Maps. I thought it was weird that we weren't going to be departing from Shibuya Station, as it is right next to the hotel. But I followed the directions provided, which led us to... a bus stop. Apparently we were taking a bus there!

Luckily, we had our Welcome Suica cards, and they were accepted on the bus. I hadn't ridden a bus in over 20 years. It brought back so many (bad) memories of my youth. But we survived. And eventually, we arrived at Savoy Pizza!

They had just opened, and we were the first ones there. We sat down and ordered our pies. There are only two on the menu, though there is a apparently a third "secret" pie. We played it safe and ordered one of each of the menu pies: Margherita and Marinara.

These both tasted very good, especially the garlic heavy marinara pizza. Unfortunately, they were REALLY soggy. The outside crust was crispy, but the majority of portion covered in cheese was so soggy it was almost watery. Pocky can't stand soggy pizza, and didn't eat much. I was able to get past the kind of gross texture and enjoy the good flavors.

Pocky was still starving when we left, and I wasn't quite full. So we stopped somewhere that Pocky insisted on trying while we were in Japan. McDonalds!

I probably wouldn't have chosen to eat here, but I didn't put up a fight because I knew they had unique menu items. If it was all Big Macs and whatnot, I would have tried to talk her out of it, lol. So I ordered an Ebi Filet-O-Shrimp combo, and Pocky ordered a Gohan Teriyaki Burger combo. We both got melon sodas for the drink.

Pocky's burger had rice instead of a bun.

Both of our items were okay, but nothing special. The Filet-O-Shrimp wasn't nearly as good as Donald's Shrimp Cutlet Burger at Tokyo Disneyland.

And that does it for our second, and only full day, in Shibuya. Tomorrow we'll be heading to Shinjuku!

 

[Chisoxcollector]

That's very surprising! When you say "Japanese park guests" do you mean local park guests or international park guests in the Japanese park?

We've certainly encountered rudeness and poor behaviour from fellow international travellers in Tokyo Disney Resort, but never from the local guests. Of course, that's not to say that they're not complaining about us "gaijin" in Japanese, but to our "faces" they're impossibly polite and friendly.

I doubt every single one was Japanese, but we heard some of them speaking Japanese. So I would hazard a guess that most, but not all, were Japanese. For example, the man who pulled his mask down to cough on me was by himself, so I never heard him speak. I also couldn't see his face especially well because of the mask. He may not have been Japanese.

We also had an incident with a man and his son at a pet store in Odaiba. We were just entering the store, and saw a child absolutely pounding on an enclosure full of kittens. The kittens were absolutely terrified, running and hiding, and literally jumping in the air with fright when he pounded. It was horrifying. His dad was a few feet away, doing nothing.

My wife and I hustled over and she yelled at the kid to stop. He pounded on the enclosure again. We yelled again, and I turned and yelled at his dad. His dad put his arms in front of his kid like he was protecting his little angel from big bad monsters. He attempted to glare at me, but the second our eyes met he looked down hilariously fast. I probably looked like I was going to hit him, I was so angry.

The kid pounded one more time and we yelled again for him to stop. He finally told his kid to stop (at least that's what I assume he said), and pulled him a couple of steps away from the enclosure. I glared at the dad for a few more seconds, just wanting to make sure he didn't let his kid start again as soon as we turned away. Finally we walked away, and when we exited the store I turned around, and they hadn't moved back towards the kittens. So we left.

Funnily enough, the kid reminded me of Dudley Dursley (but younger) pounding on the snake enclosure in the first Harry Potter movie. Sadly, I was unable to do any magic to put him in his place.

Again, I want to be clear. I'm not saying everybody was a jerk. Far from it. There were some very nice people, and the handful of strangers that we stopped to ask directions were all happy to help, including the one guy that walked us all the way to the 7-11 by Ikspiari. Most of the people kept to themselves and made no impression, good or bad. But we probably had unrealistic expectations, and were disappointed to see that they were no different than American crowds. Not worse, just the same.

And even though I brought it up, it is about 37th on the list of things I'll remember about our trip to Japan. Overall we had an amazing time, and can't wait to return.

 

[Sarahboo]

OMG, Inchiran!!! That was the one we went to multiple times, and I am salivating looking at the pictures. No ramen we've had since we returned home has been even remotely decent in taste now that we've been to Japan. Japan has ruined all ramen forever because it's just so amazing there (obviously). We went out for ramen 2 weeks ago and I couldn't even finish it.

 

[wishing4PA]

"If you don't like food, you probably won't enjoy the reports going forward."
Excuse me? This is disboards. Is that even possible?

I love the looks of that gohan teriyaki burger. I immediately searched (unsuccessfully) to find out if it's gluten-free. Not because it matters to me, but DH has celiac disease, so I automatically check lots of foods for gluten.

Loving the report so far!

 

[Chisoxcollector]

Day 9 - Off to Shinjuku, and the most expensive meal I've ever had!

Today we would be departing the Cerulean Tower Tokyu Hotel in Shibuya, and checking into a hotel I've been wanting stay at for the last 15 years, but never thought I'd get the chance. But first, we had to hit a couple of favorite dining spots a second time before leaving Shibuya. So we began the day the same way we began the previous day. With fluffy pancakes! We once again made the trek to A Happy Pancake. This time I ordered the pancakes with berry sauce, and Pocky ordered hers with Milk Tea Sauce and granola. Mine were excellent. Pocky didn't like hers as much this time because they were a bit undercooked.

We went back to our hotel, checked out of the room, and left our bags with bell services. We walked around the area until it was time for lunch. Then we went back to Genki Sushi! We really enjoyed this place, and the prices were so reasonable, we figured why not go back?

Everything was delicious, except maybe the weird hamburger sushi. It was kind of mushy and weird.

We returned to the hotel, retrieved our bags, and grabbed a taxi to our next destination. A destination that I was ridiculously excited for. First, a little background.

In 2003, I started a new job where I would travel around the country (and occasionally the world) installing inspection and x-ray machines at places that manufacture circuit boards, and training engineers how to program the machines. I would literally be traveling every single week, only being home on weekends. Prior to this job, I worked at one of the manufacturing companies programming these machines. I hadn't traveled at all in my life. I had only been on one airplane in my life. It was a flight from California to Florida when my wife and I moved here in 1999. Prior to that, I was very sheltered.

So needless to say, my life changed dramatically. There are definitely perks to a job like this. You get to see the world, eat at nice restaurants and stay at nice hotels using other people's money. But it can also be a very lonely job.

Just after starting this new life, I saw a little movie called Lost in Translation. I cannot overstate how much I connected with this movie. I saw it at just the right time for it to have a major impact on me. I related to it in ways I wouldn't have understood just months earlier.

No exaggeration, I watched that movie 20 times over the next few months. And probably another 20 times in the years since. It is my all-time favorite movie, and one of only a handful that I have a deep emotional connection to.

The entirety of Lost in Translation takes place in Japan, and much of it takes place inside of a single hotel. The Park Hyatt Tokyo in Shinjuku. This is a very ritzy, very expensive hotel. I always read that many celebrities stay here when in Tokyo. I mean, that's why Sofia Coppola based Lost in Translation there.

Normally I would never dream of staying somewhere like this. But once I knew we were going to Tokyo, I started taking steps to try to make it happen. For years, I've had top status with Hilton and IHG (Holiday Inn), and a few years ago I added Marriott to the mix. Well, in 2019 I started squeezing in Hyatt stays whenever I could, while also trying to maintain my top status with the other 3 chains.

I did accumulate some points, and reached some status with Hyatt, but did not have nearly enough points for a stay at the Park Hyatt Tokyo. So we opened a credit card with a nice bonus offer to make up the difference. Finally, I was able to book a 2 night stay at the Park Hyatt Tokyo! And now, it was time to actually go there!

This is one of the tallest buildings in Tokyo, with some of the best views. I was hoping we'd get a decent room. I knew I didn't have enough status to score a ritzy suite or anything, but hoped for a decent view. And Hyatt came through, giving us a room on the very top floor of the hotel. It was on the 51st floor of a 52 floor building. The 52nd floor is home to the iconic New York Bar and Grill, which was also made famous by Lost in Translation. Our room was so high that our ears popped every time we took the elevator between the lobby and our floor.

This was the first hotel I've ever stayed in where we were escorted to our room, and given a tour of the room. It was like something out of the movies, lol. They also explained that they would be happy to help us get any reservations we might need.

Once the hotel employee left, I took pictures of the room. It was really nice. We had really gotten spoiled by the hotel rooms on this trip, and this one was no exception.

And then we checked out the view.

Hello again Mount Fuji. We missed you!

This hotel is pretty old school. The key was an actual key. I love it!

We took tons of pictures, unpacked, and then rested a bit. I think I may have actually fallen asleep. I had probably slept 20 hours total since I got to Japan, and it was really catching up to me.

Eventually it was time for dinner. We had made reservations at the New York Grill on the top floor of the hotel. We are not fine dining people. But I couldn't stay here and not eat at the exclusive fine dining restaurant on the top floor.

I will admit, I made the reservations not knowing exactly how expensive it was. Good gracious, I almost lost it when I looked at the menu online. Pocky kind of tried to talk me out of it, but I figure you only live once!

So we got ready to go to dinner. Before leaving the room, I took another picture of the view. It was breathtaking!

We followed the signs to the special elevator that went up to the top floor.

We were one of the first people to arrive for the dinner seating. The inside was nice, but nothing special.

But the view from our seats... that was spectacular!

We both ordered the five course set menu. Our first course was: "King Crab and Clams - Celery Remoulade, Wasabi Mayonnaise, Lotus Root Chips, Kristal Caviar". This was soooo delicious. Second best course of the meal.

Next up, "Crispy John Dory = Arugula Puree, Sansho Leaves, Bonito Broth Foam, Salted Plum Confit". This was amazing as well, though the previous course was somehow even better.

Now we have "Steamed Sustainable Canadian Lobster - Open Ravioli, Ponzu Consomme, Shiso Leaves, Kabosu Coulis". This was very good, but was my least favorite course.

Next we got the star of the show, "Grilled Iwate Wagyu Sirloin - Mustard Mousseline, Green Asparagus, Shallot Confit, Winter Truffle, Black Garlic, Red Wine Sauce". OMG OMG OMG. This is in contention for the best thing I've ever eaten. The steak was impossibly tender and flavorful. I don't like mustard, but I want to bathe in a vat of the mustard mousseline.

And for dessert: "Strawberry Pavlova". Pavlova is one of my favorite desserts in the world, and this did not disappoint. Truly amazing.

I am so glad we did this. It may have been the best meal I've ever eaten. 4 of the 5 courses were absolutely amazing, and the 5th was still very good.

When we were done eating, I wasn't ready to leave. So we grabbed a table in the bar. The bar is heavily featured in Lost in Translation, and I definitely had to spend some time there. We had a table along the window, and the view was just as good as the restaurant.

They have live jazz music in the bar every night starting at 8pm. The singer was very good. Her name is Laurel Tubman, and she had just started her residency at the New York Bar in Tokyo. Previously she was singing in Toronto.

We ordered drinks. I had a Manhattan, and Pocky had a Cosmopolitan. I mentioned before that she isn't much of a drinker, lol.

After a while, we ordered some Crispy Duck Fat Fries. These were really good.

As we were heading to the elevator at the end of the evening, I took a couple of pictures of the view from the elevator area.

Before heading back to the room, I checked out the indoor pool and gym. The views up there are amazing as well.

After that, we called it a night. And what an amazing night it was. One I will remember for the rest of my life.

 

[heybets30]

PHENOMENAL VIEWS!! We were looking at Park Hyatt Kyoto - we like to stay in some nice places when we travel (funny enough - all our travel locations EXCEPT Disneyland, there it's give us something close & cheap, since we'll never be in the room). I remember the Park Hyatt Toronto during a trip, I was solo, given a tour of the room, the "guide" was so helpful, I swear when I said I was tired, he was about to go in the bathroom & pour me a tub with their soaking crystals! The Park Hyatt Kyoto for the nights we'd be there, with 2 adults, 2 kids, was over $1,000 per night! A bit too much! It sounds like that stay meant a lot to you. I love when everything falls into place where people get to do something they really, really want to do. For us it was the actual cost of our trip - airfare. Somehow, someway, we didn't question too much, we got 3/4 tix with mileage through American on JAL, and had a super-awesome agent who knew to use money to buy my son's ticket, since it'd be $400 less than an adult ticket. So our biggest barrier to going - an almost $5000 travel expense, reduced to $1400 after mileage transfer fees between accounts & purchasing our son's ticket. Somehow too, all our Chase/Citi/Discover rewards points covered all but $39 in 10 nights of hotel stays. That's over $2000 of the trip reduced to $39. That's our kismet - close to $6000 covered from a few years of HOARDING, and I mean HOARDING credit card points! All worth it for 10 days in Japan

Love hearing great stories like yours!!!

 

[Chisoxcollector]

Day 10 - Asakusa/Akihabara/New York Bar

We had two objectives today. Asakusa and Akihabara. More walking, shopping, and eating! We really like to mix things up lol.

First, Asakusa. Today was a holiday, and it was crazy busy everywhere. We took a train/subway to get there, and arrived at around 10:15am. It was wall to wall people. But we persevered.

We had skipped breakfast, and one of the first places we came across was a donut shop, so we grabbed a couple of mochi donuts (and a cruller). The mochi donuts weren’t as good as we thought they’d be. If I didn’t already know they had mochi in them, I wouldn’t have been able to tell.

We made our way towards Sensoji Temple. We hadn’t really planned on any temples for this trip, as they were scheduled for the Kyoto leg, which we ultimately canceled. Our next trip will feature many more temples, but this will be it for this trip.

After spending some time at the temple, we walked up and down every nearby street, including Nakamise. And of course, we did a bit of shopping, and a lot of eating.

First, we had some dango. One was loaded with red bean paste, and I don’t remember what was on the other. I’m not into dango, but Pocky liked them both, especially the red bean.

We were hungry, and not gonna let this guy stop us from getting our next snack, no matter how hard he tried.

I think this was a strawberry daifuku, though we’d have a better version a bit later.

Next we got this melon pan and chocolate sandwich. When we ordered, I was disappointed to see the lady squirting regular old Hershey syrup inside the melon pan. But when we ate it, it didn’t taste like Hershey syrup. It tasted much more like Nutella. DOES HERSHEY SYRUP TASTE LIKE NUTELLA IN JAPAN?

Next Pocky just had to have this Hello Kitty taiyaki. I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned this, but there are two staples of Japanese snacks that I’ve never grown a taste for: Red Bean and Matcha. As such I’ve never cared for Taiyaki. But Pocky liked it.

Next we got some melon pan to take back to the room.

As if we hadn’t had enough sweets already, we got more strawberry daifuku. But this place offered a version with custard instead of red bean. It was insanely good.

We had walked by several places selling candied sweet potatoes. We finally gave in and got some. I’m not a huge sweet potato guy, but these were pretty good.

At this point I was going to die if I had to eat another sweet. We finally came across 3 food stalls in a row that were selling fried savory foods. However, these had crazy lines. We joined the shortest of these lines and got one of these. I liked it, but Pocky loved it. It was crispy and filled with pork I believe. She regretted not getting two, but didn't want to stand in line again for a second one.

The line for the place place selling fried chicken was getting so out of hand that a cop was standing at the end of the line, barring anybody from joining the line. It was rather ridiculous though, as tons of people were congregating next to the line, hoping to be allowed in at some point. Without warning, she would let a couple of people in the line, and then suddenly stop letting people in again. Eventually I thought I noticed a pattern, and sure enough I timed it perfectly to be the next person allowed to join the line. About 15 minutes later, I had these two beauties.

The one on the right was the spicy variation. Both were good, but probably not worth the craziness. And with that, we couldn't eat another bite. We took some pictures of the Tokyo Skytree and the Asahi Golden Poo, and then made our way to Akihabara.

We loved Akihabara. We both love anime, and there were so many stores selling SO MUCH ANIME STUFF! We spent hours going through the different stores, deciding what we needed to bring home with us. Our favorite store was called Akiba Culture Zone. It was amazing. It was like geek paradise.

We also spent time at Bic Camera. I had always heard about this store, but didn't realize just how much they sold besides electronics. I actually bought a cool Lotso figure here, and we got some Olympics merch.

I only had one food destination in mind for Akihabara. Gyukatsu Ichi Ni San, which is a beef cutlet restaurant. You are served what I believe is flash fried beef cutlet. They fry the outside, but the inside is still pretty much raw. Then you cook it at your seat to your desired temperature. It was really delicious, and fun too. We did have to stand in line for about 20 minutes to get a seat.

We ordered the small cutlet sets, as we wanted to make sure we still had room for whatever else we might find. That was probably a mistake, as there isn't much in the way of "street" food in Akihabara. We did end up grabbing a couple more snacks. First, some Takoyaki. Pocky is a takoyaki fiend, as you'll see when we get to Osaka.

This was probably the best takoyaki I've ever had. But, the thing that made me like it so much also made it unauthentic. It was really crispy. I've never loved takoyaki because of the mushy texture. I think it's okay, but the texture keeps me from loving it.

Lastly, I got a wagyu beef skewer. This skewer was like a roller coaster ride of emotions for me, lol. When I received it, I was convinced I got ripped off, as it was not cheap. Then I ate the first piece, and it was absolutely delicious. Tender, juicy, and flavorful. Then each piece was considerably worse than the one before it. By the time I got to the last piece, it was so tough and gross that I spit it out.

We took a few more pictures of the area, and then made our way back to the hotel.

Pocky decided to call it a night, but I was still hungry. So I got back on my favorite elevator and went up to the New York Bar for something to eat and a nightcap.

This time I sat at the iconic bar with all of the lamps. Those lamps have been stuck in my head ever since I watched Lost in Translation for the first time.

I ordered myself an Old Fashioned.

It was filled with fruit which was kind of odd. It was still pretty good. I also ordered a Wagyu Burger with taleggio cheese and bacon.

The burger was really strange. The "bacon" turned out to be very thick pieces of ham. It wasn't bad, but wasn't nearly as good as I had hoped for a $46 (LOL) burger. But the live music, ambience, and sheer fact that I was sitting where Bill Murray once sat in my favorite film made it totally worth it.

I stayed for a while, enjoying the live music, and chatting with my Japanese waitress that had a distinct Australian accent. I took some more pictures, as discreetly as possible. They frown on over the top picture taking here.

And after that, I called it a night.