Heading for Japan... this is the trip we never got to take. Looks like everything has changed. HELP, Please, Updated 2/10

[MimitoAlex]

A bit of background, We had planned this trip. Air, Hotel, car service all booked... then the shut down... We did re-booked once, and that did not happen. Honestly, I really did not think that Japan was ever going to happen for us. We watched and waited. So now here we are.. I did keep our plans, and after going over them and starting to look around a lot has changed. I'm really excited and over whelmed.

I ended up scrapping the plan from the original trip and decided to start over. This is what I am thinking now..

We will be going in May around the second week so we will miss Golden Week. Celebrating our 20th wedding anniversary.

The flights we are looking at land from late morning to early afternoon.

Then we plan to go straight to TDR, staying at the Hilton Tokyo Bay.
1.) take train?
2.) Private car?

We will not go into the parks until the next day. We plan to rest up, eat and sleep... We are thinking 3 full days 1 full day in each park and splitting up the last day, to hit what we missed and revisit fav's and shop. I thinking about jet lag, so that if we need to take a break we can... if we go with just 1 day in each park can we do and see everything we want to?

Thoughts?

As well from what I understand there is no lottery or fast pass... what type of ticket do I purchase?

Then moving the next day to the Hilton Tokyo - by private car service or taxi.

Suggestions on private car service?

Moving hotels does take time, but I really don't want to have to deal with long train rides. So leaning in this direction. I rather do it all at one time.

We are planning on getting a JR pass, should we go this route... We would like to go to Kyoto and it is possible to do in one day, as well most likely planning on guide if we go all in on this.

As well we are leaning to some private tour guides options in Tokyo. Back streets kinda tour..
Suggestions on tour companies?

So my friend has used a woman that would meet them at the airport, help with getting their JR tickets, wifi and phone, and at the currency exchange desk. I contacted her and she unfortunately does not offer this service any more, she had to move in with her Daughter and family during the shut down.
Does anyone know of where I should look for this... or is it necessary ?

This most likely this will be are only trip to Japan. So I want to have a strong plan going in.

Thanks so much in advance, suggestion or idea, and your thoughts are appreciated..

 

[Goofy4]

A bit of background, We had planned this trip. Air, Hotel, car service all booked... then the shut down... We did re-booked once, and that did not happen. Honestly, I really did not think that Japan was ever going to happen for us. We watched and waited. So now here we are.. I did keep our plans, and after going over them and starting to look around a lot has changed. I'm really excited and over whelmed.

I ended up scrapping the plan from the original trip and decided to start over. This is what I am thinking now..

We will be going in May around the second week so we will miss Golden Week. Celebrating our 20th wedding anniversary.

The flights we are looking at land from late morning to early afternoon.

Then we plan to go straight to TDR, staying at the Hilton Tokyo Bay.
1.) take train?
2.) Private car?

We will not go into the parks until the next day. We plan to rest up, eat and sleep... We are thinking 3 full days 1 full day in each park and splitting up the last day, to hit what we missed and revisit fav's and shop. I thinking about jet lag, so that if we need to take a break we can... if we go with just 1 day in each park can we do and see everything we want to?

Thoughts?

As well from what I understand there is no lottery or fast pass... what type of ticket do I purchase?

Then moving the next day to the Hilton Tokyo - by private car service or taxi.

Suggestions on private car service?

Moving hotels does take time, but I really don't want to have to deal with long train rides. So leaning in this direction. I rather do it all at one time.

We are planning on getting a JR pass, should we go this route... We would like to go to Kyoto and it is possible to do in one day, as well most likely planning on guide if we go all in on this.

As well we are leaning to some private tour guides options in Tokyo. Back streets kinda tour..
Suggestions on tour companies?

So my friend has used a woman that would meet them at the airport, help with getting their JR tickets, wifi and phone, and at the currency exchange desk. I contacted her and she unfortunately does not offer this service any more, she had to move in with her Daughter and family during the shut down.
Does anyone know of where I should look for this... or is it necessary ?

This most likely this will be are only trip to Japan. So I want to have a strong plan going in.

Thanks so much in advance, suggestion or idea, and your thoughts are appreciated..

I'll give this a shot. We were there 4 years ago.

The train will get you there and you will feel safe. Assuming you have a pass, make sure that the pass you have will work on the lines you need to use. In all likelihood the JR pass will work, as it did for us, but there are 2 services. The station is very close to TDR. Is the Hilton the one right next to TDR? Taxi service is superb throughout Japan.

We spent the better part of 2 days in Kyoto. I don't think you would regret doing so. We did Tours by Locals in 3 locations, and we are very happy we did.

You can order your JR pass online. You can do the same with WiFi and pick the device up at the airport.

They did have the old-style fast-pass when we were there.

Things will be cheaper (perhaps much so) after Golden Week. That is when we were there. We had no choice, and we paid a huge premium during Golden Week. TDR will also be much less busy after Golden Week. That park can be very busy (and hot), but should be reasonable just after Golden Week. If the crowds are reasonable, you can get a lot done with 1 day in each park.

Our daughter lived there for 4 years. I can bring her in to help with further questions.

 

[Goofy4]

And... Welcome to the board!

 

[wanderlust7]

A bit of background, We had planned this trip. Air, Hotel, car service all booked... then the shut down... We did re-booked once, and that did not happen. Honestly, I really did not think that Japan was ever going to happen for us. We watched and waited. So now here we are.. I did keep our plans, and after going over them and starting to look around a lot has changed. I'm really excited and over whelmed.

I ended up scrapping the plan from the original trip and decided to start over. This is what I am thinking now..

We will be going in May around the second week so we will miss Golden Week. Celebrating our 20th wedding anniversary.

The flights we are looking at land from late morning to early afternoon.

Then we plan to go straight to TDR, staying at the Hilton Tokyo Bay.
1.) take train?
2.) Private car?

We will not go into the parks until the next day. We plan to rest up, eat and sleep... We are thinking 3 full days 1 full day in each park and splitting up the last day, to hit what we missed and revisit fav's and shop. I thinking about jet lag, so that if we need to take a break we can... if we go with just 1 day in each park can we do and see everything we want to?

Thoughts?

As well from what I understand there is no lottery or fast pass... what type of ticket do I purchase?

Then moving the next day to the Hilton Tokyo - by private car service or taxi.

Suggestions on private car service?

Moving hotels does take time, but I really don't want to have to deal with long train rides. So leaning in this direction. I rather do it all at one time.

We are planning on getting a JR pass, should we go this route... We would like to go to Kyoto and it is possible to do in one day, as well most likely planning on guide if we go all in on this.

As well we are leaning to some private tour guides options in Tokyo. Back streets kinda tour..
Suggestions on tour companies?

So my friend has used a woman that would meet them at the airport, help with getting their JR tickets, wifi and phone, and at the currency exchange desk. I contacted her and she unfortunately does not offer this service any more, she had to move in with her Daughter and family during the shut down.
Does anyone know of where I should look for this... or is it necessary ?

This most likely this will be are only trip to Japan. So I want to have a strong plan going in.

Thanks so much in advance, suggestion or idea, and your thoughts are appreciated..

The limousine bus is the most convenient to TDR since it's direct. There are more departures from HND. NRT currently stops running at 4 pm.

There is no Fastpass, but there is the paid Premium Pass, similar to the paid Individual Lightening Lane at the US parks. But you have to enter the park before you can buy it. There is still lottery for the shows, but it's called Entry Request on the app. Currently, you can only buy 1 day tickets. So if you wanted to park hop on the 3rd day, you'd have to buy 2 tickets on that day.

You may want to consider flying into Tokyo and out of Osaka. That would save you a shinkansen ride back to Tokyo and you likely wouldn't need the JR pass.

Have fun planning!

 

[gelatoni fan]

Given your arrival time, the limousine bus should be running which can get you directly to the hotel. If you happen to arrive too late for the bus, then you could consider a taxi or the train. The train is cheaper but you may not want to do that as a first time visitor. Haneda to the Hilton will involve 4 trains and 3 transfers all of which involve exiting a station and walking to a different station. Narita to the Hilton can be done in many different routes all of which involve transfers and will likely be confusing for a first time visitor.

For that last day, are you planning to buy 2 tickets per person? There's no multi-day tickets with park hopping right now. One day in each park is enough to see most of the highlights but not enough to experience many things, especially if you lose entry request lotteries for shows and aren't paying to skip lines.

When leaving to go to the Hilton in Tokyo, just grab a taxi from the front of the hotel. I think it's too much hassle to bother with a private car service.

I agree with the previous poster about flying out of Osaka instead so you don't have to buy a JR pass, just a one way shinkansen ticket. I think one day in Kyoto is probably enough to see some highlights but could also spend more time there. There's also stuff to do in Osaka, Nara, Kobe, etc which means you may want to stay multiple days in that region.

I personally think it's pretty straightforward to pick up wifi and get yen, especially at Haneda but I've also traveled enough to not be worried about going abroad.

 

[MimitoAlex]

OP here...

Just bought the plane tickets...
Haneda arrival 1:45pm...

We are going to either go with private car service or taxi... Is Uber in Japan? a friend said that they have started up there. anyone have any idea?

So I did not realize that there is no park hopper... so we are going to most likely just do one day in each park unless something changes between now and then.. I saw over on TDR explorer than you can buy ticket now in English, plus I need to download the app, I take it.... its in English ? right?

As well is there like a Downtown Disney area with restaurants and shopping, so that if we are up to it, we can check it out on arrival day ?


Next step booking hotels... I have a pretty good idea of where we will be staying... still shopping around for the best deal.
I did notice that adding breakfast on is really not unreasonable priced... so looking at that as well...

We keep going back and forth on going to Koyto... With what it would cost we could do a few more private tour... yet If we only do one day in each park, Koyto is looking much more manageable.
There are so many things that we want to do... It's a long long list... so I'm going to have to cut it down.. We just decided on this trip, so we are not visiting for as many days as the first trip we planed was 2 weeks ... 8 nights for this trip. We have a couple of other vacation planned so we are spreading out DH's vacation time.

So give me your best suggestion for what we should see, and do... your absolute favorite thing you did...
As well one night we would love to have a really nice Anniversary meal suggestions...

As always Thanks so much...

 

[Goofy4]

OP here...

Just bought the plane tickets...
Haneda arrival 1:45pm...

We are going to either go with private car service or taxi... Is Uber in Japan? a friend said that they have started up there. anyone have any idea?

So I did not realize that there is no park hopper... so we are going to most likely just do one day in each park unless something changes between now and then.. I saw over on TDR explorer than you can buy ticket now in English, plus I need to download the app, I take it.... its in English ? right?

As well is there like a Downtown Disney area with restaurants and shopping, so that if we are up to it, we can check it out on arrival day ?


Next step booking hotels... I have a pretty good idea of where we will be staying... still shopping around for the best deal.
I did notice that adding breakfast on is really not unreasonable priced... so looking at that as well...

We keep going back and forth on going to Koyto... With what it would cost we could do a few more private tour... yet If we only do one day in each park, Koyto is looking much more manageable.
There are so many things that we want to do... It's a long long list... so I'm going to have to cut it down.. We just decided on this trip, so we are not visiting for as many days as the first trip we planed was 2 weeks ... 8 nights for this trip. We have a couple of other vacation planned so we are spreading out DH's vacation time.

So give me your best suggestion for what we should see, and do... your absolute favorite thing you did...
As well one night we would love to have a really nice Anniversary meal suggestions...

As always Thanks so much...

There is a shopping area but nothing like Springs.

It is remarkable how much English you will hear and see at TDR. With some patience and planning you should do fine throughout your trip.

I would consider Magellan's at Disney-Sea a very nice anniversary dinner.

Consider 1 day at each park and more of Kyoto. We made a day trip to Hiroshima/Miyajina from Kyoto. Look it up and see if anything there interests you. Also look up Takayama. We did private tours at each. https://www.toursbylocals.com/Japan-Tours

Consider a half day walking tour at these location. Much less expensive than a car tour.

You can review what Disney does and see if anything looks especially interesting: https://www.adventuresbydisney.com/asia-pacific/japan-vacations/

If you want to experience more authentic/traditional Japan, you will get a nice breakfast at most Ryokan/Onsen resorts.

 

[gelatoni fan]

Uber exists in big cities in Japan but I do not recommend using it. Uber drivers may try to call you which can cause problems since you likely aren't getting a Japanese phone number and Japanese Uber account. Most likely, the places you go, it'll be easy to flag down a taxi.

The app is in English although some features require using a Japanese version of the app. You can fully enjoy your day without using the Japanese only features.

Ikspiari is the shopping mall when you enter the Disney Resort area. There's not much to do there although you could stop by the Disney store or eat dinner (food is a bit overpriced and just OK). I would recommend taking the train from Maihama station somewhere (2 stops on the monorail from the Hilton). You could head over to Tokyo station to eat and walk around or if you don't want to go that far, one stop from Maihama is Kasai Rinkai Park. You probably won't have time for the aquarium but can ride the ferris wheel.

Adding breakfast is a good idea for the Hilton Tokyo Bay as it is supposedly quite good and there's not that much else to have in the morning near the parks. But if you're not quick, you may end up behind the mob trying to get into the park because I think it doesn't start till either 6:30 or 7.
As for the Hilton Tokyo, you're right next to Shinjuku so I'm not sure paying for breakfast would be necessary unless it's super cheap. You'll likely find something you like nearby and can get more variety by trying different places.

If you're really never going to Japan again, then I would definitely consider spending more time in Kyoto and just one day in each park. But if it's possible to go to Osaka/Kyoto in the future, you may want to prioritize things in Tokyo and not deal with taking the train all the way over.

 

[MimitoAlex]

How can I book dinning reservations?

 

[Goofy4]

How can I book dinning reservations?

Disney, or hotel? Disney is here: https://www.tokyodisneyresort.jp/en/tdl/guide/priorityseating.html

I see they updated their site. That is a very good thing. It used to be maddening. Perhaps it still is, but it used to timeout or otherwise make you do things 2 or 3 times. During busy times it would just say "we're busy" so I would time it for their middle of the night.

 

[Goofy4]

Just noticed:

Advance bookings can be made online from 10:00 a.m. (JST) one month before to 8:59 p.m. (JST) the day before you wish to dine.
・Online bookings on day of visit accepted starting from 9:00 a.m. (JST) .
Priority Seating bookings for the day of visit are accepted at the restaurant from 10:00 a.m. as long as seats are available.

 

[MimitoAlex]

Thanks so much for this tip...

Just noticed:

Advance bookings can be made online from 10:00 a.m. (JST) one month before to 8:59 p.m. (JST) the day before you wish to dine.
・Online bookings on day of visit accepted starting from 9:00 a.m. (JST) .
Priority Seating bookings for the day of visit are accepted at the restaurant from 10:00 a.m. as long as seats are available

 

[MimitoAlex]

OP here... Update 2/10

Hi everyone I think I'm going to keep this going like a rolling pre pre trip report.. Then once closer I will start a actual trip report in the weeks leading up to going.

So I went an bought a book, "Eyewitness Tokyo"... I have found it quite helpful. I like the lay out, and the info. As well DH will be stopping at AAA to pick up the travel book from there.

Downloaded the TDR app on my phone

As well as Google maps, which I thought I had, but must have deleted at some time - suggestions for other maps, as well the translate app that you can hold your phone over.

We decided to treat ourselves to nice seats on the plane, we are flying "Delta Premium Select", flying Delta one gave me sticker shock... The delta rep said that Premium select is equal to business class....with that the perks are Sky priority, our own overhead storage, as well as 2 checked bags per person at no charge...
So my plan is... for the trip over normally we would go with 1 checked bag, 1 roll on and personal item. In thinking about a few things. DH and I have back issues, and normally bring a extra pillow each with us, we could put them in what would be the 3rd check bag, along with our small soft sided travel cooler, and any over flow items. Then discard the pillows for the return flight and use the 3rd checked bag for our loot. The pillows are not our everyday pillows they are one that I kept when I upgraded our everyday pillows. Plus I could use the pillow cases for dirty clothes on the way back.. or - We could request extra pillow and just buy another bag for the return trip, will be able to find a inexpensive bag for the flight home?
Thoughts?

I have almost nailed down where to stay in Tokyo, We are staying at the Hilton Tokyo Bay for sure, and have been looking at private tours, and found quite a few that interest me. Next week I'm going to start contacting some of the tour guides.

I really would like to have a nice set of knives. Is this something that we would be able to bring back without any problem? I know that it would they would have to go in the checked bag. Has anyone brought them back? Suggestions?

One more thing... Since we landed at 1:45... I was thinking that we should arrive at Hilton Tokyo Bay around 4:00 to 5:00 ish is that a realistic time frame? In doing alot of reading, and talking to DH... and If we actually can sleep on the plane over. Should we think about getting the evening pass and going into Disney Sea's. We can buy it once we arrive? and anyone have any idea what the cost would be?

I think that it for right now.. As always I appreciate and value everyone suggestions and thoughts.

 

[Goofy4]

If accurate, you should get a pillow: https://www.delta.com/us/en/travel-planning-center/know-before-you-go/food-services-amenities#:~:text=Because cleanliness is a top,while maintaining comforts you enjoy.&text=Pillows and blankets will continue,on long-haul international flights. Oh, I see, you may want them for more than the flight.

I would see how you feel and then decide about Disney. A big part of your decision there is to line yourself up reasonably well for the next day. We did some things to stay awake, but the sun does rise early in Japan, so getting an early start works well.

With Premium Select, don't hesitate to ask for things that will make the flight easier.

 

[MimitoAlex]

If accurate, you should get a pillow: https://www.delta.com/us/en/travel-planning-center/know-before-you-go/food-services-amenities#:~:text=Because cleanliness is a top,while maintaining comforts you enjoy.&text=Pillows and blankets will continue,on long-haul international flights. Oh, I see, you may want them for more than the flight.

I would see how you feel and then decide about Disney. A big part of your decision there is to line yourself up reasonably well for the next day. We did some things to stay awake, but the sun does rise early in Japan, so getting an early start works well.

With Premium Select, don't hesitate to ask for things that will make the flight easier.

Yes, we want them for sleeping at night. DH and I are both side sleepers, and we both normally sleep with a long body pillow.
On Saturday we had an unexpected trip just one night, so we wanted to see if we could go with just a standard pillow which was a disaster. We both basically did not get any sleep,. I have our old king pillows that we have taken with us when we road trip, so I think that we will be most likely taking those with us. I think that they have one more trip in them. We talked about it, and neither of us want to take a chance on not being able to get extra pillows. We have run into this on international trips several times and even here in the US. This way we know we have what we need, and I'm a person who has to sleep well on vacation, we plan on discarding them and using the 3rd checked bag to haul our loot home.

 

[ZSNO]

I really would like to have a nice set of knives. Is this something that we would be able to bring back without any problem? I know that it would they would have to go in the checked bag. Has anyone brought them back? Suggestions?

I brought back my kitchen knife in my checked bag recently with zero problems.

Also would recommend shopping for the knife at Kappabashi Street. Price range can be from cheap to thousands per knife, since professional chefs go there to get their life-long set.

 

[AndyR]

We get ours from https://kikuichi.net/, and come with free sharpening. Not the cheapest option though.

 

[MimitoAlex]

I brought back my kitchen knife in my checked bag recently with zero problems.

Also would recommend shopping for the knife at Kappabashi Street. Price range can be from cheap to thousands per knife, since professional chefs go there to get their life-long set.

Thanks for this tip. Jotting this down on my list.

I want a Chefs knife, Santoku and Nakiri Bocho knife, Utility knife, small Cleaver, and maybe even a paring knife. Since I don't speak any Japanese, will we be able to find what we want? I was thinking about taking some pictures to show to maybe help things along.

 

[ZSNO]

I think you should be fine, some shops have English fluent staff but if you have example pictures the staff can help. Also figure out if you want carbon steel or stainless steel.