katiebelle21
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Feb 11, 2009
Following along! I can't wait to see what Tokyo Disney is like--especially with your narrative! 
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Tokyo Disney on 2 Weeks Notice: Hightower Halloween Costume!
- Thread starter lurkyloo
- Start date
lurkyloo
The Attic was just perfect!
- Joined
- Aug 24, 2006
The first day is never that exciting, yet somehow we managed to take 40 pictures of it!
SFO
We flew out of San Francisco because Swazzle had been up in the Bay Area for 2 weeks shooting another project during the day and building puppets for the Tokyo job at night. The previous day Patrick had stayed up all night finishing those puppets so they could be shipped ahead for their flight to Tokyo from LA, and then he went off to finish shooting his scenes on the other projectwhich meant he stayed awake for about 42 hours straight. Needless to say, he had no trouble sleeping on the plane!
Because all the travel arrangements were being made by the ad firms travel agent, we didnt find out when we were leaving, what airline we were flying or where we were staying until about a week before we left. The answers turned out to be: Tuesday at 1:25pm, JAL, and the Akasaka Excel Tokyu Hotel.
The puppeteers all got to fly in swanky Business Class with lay-flat pod beds and free slippers, but Patrick gave up his seat to fly with me in EconomyI knew Id married the right guy! Besides, as it turned out, all the Japanese hotels ended up giving us enough free slippers to choke a horse. (Although, really, just one free slipper would prolly be enough to choke a horse )
Now I dont know how JAL rates among frequent fliers to Asia, but as someone whos been subjected to United Airlines service from LA to Orlando a few too many times, I found it pretty dang good.
Japan Airlines: Were pretty dang good!
The plane seemed fairly new, with on-demand TV at every seat and cool drop-down overhead bins for every three seats, so you never had to fight with anyone to fit all your junk in. The seat pitch was respectable not great when the person in front of you leaned his seat back, but it felt an inch or two deeper than on domestic US flights. It was also very exciting to become instantly immersed in Japanese the announcements were made in Japanese first, then sometimes Chinese, and then English. It helped us get used to smiling and nodding and pretending we knew what was going on.
Oh my gosh oh my gosh! Were really going to Japan!
The 11-hour flight was uneventful except for being seated behind one of only two kids on the entire plane, who had struck up a friendship in the boarding area and spent most of the trip together, screaming. Then, when they were separated, they would scream some more until they were reunited.
The flight started with dinner, which was some kind of chicken on noodles:
Voila!
Then they dimmed the lights so we could pretend it was night. I hadnt had any time to read guidebooks before we left, so I crammed for most of the flight, did a Japanese lesson on my iPod, and still had time to glaze over during Whip It on my seatback TV.
At one point, Patrick discovered that it wasnt really night when he opened our snoozing seatmates window shade and saw this
Holy crap, its Alaska!
I can see Russia from here!
I only dozed for about 30 minutes after dinner/lunch/whatever, but I ended up feeling OK. About two hours before we landed they turned the lights up and fed us salmon on noodles, which I think was sposed to be breakfast.
After we landed, we went through Passport/Immigration control with no trouble, got our bags easily, and then skipped through customs.
Narita Airport Terminal 2
I asked Patrick to take lots of pix of everything for PassPorters forthcoming guide to Tokyo Disney .
I think this was Customs
This is the counter for the Airport Limousine, which is not a limousine at allits a bus! Its prolly the way we would have gotten into Tokyo from Narita if we hadnt been met by a rep from the ad firm. For reference, its ¥30/person one-way and they only take cash.
And heres where you can buy train tickets
Thank goodness we didnt have to figure THIS thing out!
Wed been told to look for a guy with a sign that said Rock n Roll Tokyo how awesome is that? Sure enough, a rep from the production company, Hiro, was there to meet us and get us to the hotel. The trip took about 45 minutes, and Hiro mustve thought we were delirious as we oooohed and aaaahhhhed over every bunker-like building and road sign and vehicle we saw on the way into town. Of course the biggest oooooh! came when we whizzed by Space Mountain. Then Patrick asked, Whats that building all outlined in white lights? and I said, I dunno I think it might be a Ramada or something ? It later turned out to be the Tokyo Disneyland Hotel whoops!
SFO
We flew out of San Francisco because Swazzle had been up in the Bay Area for 2 weeks shooting another project during the day and building puppets for the Tokyo job at night. The previous day Patrick had stayed up all night finishing those puppets so they could be shipped ahead for their flight to Tokyo from LA, and then he went off to finish shooting his scenes on the other projectwhich meant he stayed awake for about 42 hours straight. Needless to say, he had no trouble sleeping on the plane!
Because all the travel arrangements were being made by the ad firms travel agent, we didnt find out when we were leaving, what airline we were flying or where we were staying until about a week before we left. The answers turned out to be: Tuesday at 1:25pm, JAL, and the Akasaka Excel Tokyu Hotel.
The puppeteers all got to fly in swanky Business Class with lay-flat pod beds and free slippers, but Patrick gave up his seat to fly with me in EconomyI knew Id married the right guy! Besides, as it turned out, all the Japanese hotels ended up giving us enough free slippers to choke a horse. (Although, really, just one free slipper would prolly be enough to choke a horse )
Now I dont know how JAL rates among frequent fliers to Asia, but as someone whos been subjected to United Airlines service from LA to Orlando a few too many times, I found it pretty dang good.
Japan Airlines: Were pretty dang good!
The plane seemed fairly new, with on-demand TV at every seat and cool drop-down overhead bins for every three seats, so you never had to fight with anyone to fit all your junk in. The seat pitch was respectable not great when the person in front of you leaned his seat back, but it felt an inch or two deeper than on domestic US flights. It was also very exciting to become instantly immersed in Japanese the announcements were made in Japanese first, then sometimes Chinese, and then English. It helped us get used to smiling and nodding and pretending we knew what was going on.
Oh my gosh oh my gosh! Were really going to Japan!
The 11-hour flight was uneventful except for being seated behind one of only two kids on the entire plane, who had struck up a friendship in the boarding area and spent most of the trip together, screaming. Then, when they were separated, they would scream some more until they were reunited.
The flight started with dinner, which was some kind of chicken on noodles:
Voila!
Then they dimmed the lights so we could pretend it was night. I hadnt had any time to read guidebooks before we left, so I crammed for most of the flight, did a Japanese lesson on my iPod, and still had time to glaze over during Whip It on my seatback TV.
At one point, Patrick discovered that it wasnt really night when he opened our snoozing seatmates window shade and saw this
Holy crap, its Alaska!
I can see Russia from here!
I only dozed for about 30 minutes after dinner/lunch/whatever, but I ended up feeling OK. About two hours before we landed they turned the lights up and fed us salmon on noodles, which I think was sposed to be breakfast.
After we landed, we went through Passport/Immigration control with no trouble, got our bags easily, and then skipped through customs.
Narita Airport Terminal 2
I asked Patrick to take lots of pix of everything for PassPorters forthcoming guide to Tokyo Disney .
I think this was Customs
This is the counter for the Airport Limousine, which is not a limousine at allits a bus! Its prolly the way we would have gotten into Tokyo from Narita if we hadnt been met by a rep from the ad firm. For reference, its ¥30/person one-way and they only take cash.
And heres where you can buy train tickets
Thank goodness we didnt have to figure THIS thing out!
Wed been told to look for a guy with a sign that said Rock n Roll Tokyo how awesome is that? Sure enough, a rep from the production company, Hiro, was there to meet us and get us to the hotel. The trip took about 45 minutes, and Hiro mustve thought we were delirious as we oooohed and aaaahhhhed over every bunker-like building and road sign and vehicle we saw on the way into town. Of course the biggest oooooh! came when we whizzed by Space Mountain. Then Patrick asked, Whats that building all outlined in white lights? and I said, I dunno I think it might be a Ramada or something ? It later turned out to be the Tokyo Disneyland Hotel whoops!
lurkyloo
The Attic was just perfect!
- Joined
- Aug 24, 2006
When we got to the Akasaka Excel Tokyu Hotel, which turned out to be right across the street from a subway station, Hiro helped us check ina godsend when youre tired and disoriented and have spent most of your two weeks of Japanese language study learning how to ask for two beers
The lobbys on the third floor
Pay attention to this sign. I didnt, and it later turned out to be a huge, wonderful surprise
Our hotel room was much nicer than I expected it had been recently redecorated and didnt have the IKEA feel I saw in older pictures on TripAdvisor. It was also a decent sizenot huge, but you could actually walk around the bed. It turned out to be the biggest non-Disney room we had.
My favorite part was the corner window into the bathroom cuz it made the place feel bigger. Although it was a trick figuring out which way to dial the blinds so your spouse couldnt see in!
The view wasnt half bad either.
Patrick loved the soaking tub and shower
But most of all, he loved the complicated toilet!
This thing had enough buttons to launch a missle attack on your bottom! Theres a button for a spray of water, and one for a stream, one to make the seat hot enough to fry an egg and then an automatic function that runs the water to cover up embarrassing noises. On that first night we had each other in stitches as we tried out all the various functions and shrieked in surprise at what we got.
Other cool features of this hotel: It has a 7-Eleven on the first floor, which means an ATM that accepts US ATM cards and a cheap meal are always close by; it is adjacent to a small shopping complex with restaurants and stores and even a post office; the subway station across the street connects you to the central Marunouchi and Ginza lines; and there is a street running behind the subway station that is jam-packed with restaurants and clubs.
I never thought Id be so glad to see a 7 Eleven!
McDonalds not so much .
After wed dropped our stuff in the room, we wandered down this veritable restaurant row trying to decide where to eat.
We almost randomly picked a traditional sushi place and got what we think we wanted through a combination of my pigeon Japanese and lots of hand gestures. Oh, and the picture menu, kindly handed to us by a German couple. We felt very cosmopolitan sitting there eating sushi for dinner in Tokyo after starting the day with breakfast in San Leandro, CA. Never mind that it was the next day!
Dinner was good! The only drawback was the haze of cigarette smoke filling the place. After dinner, Patrick had a 9pm costume fitting for the ad (!), but before he left we had time to pick up our first weird Japanese dessert at 7 Eleven.
It was blue flavor!
He was out til about 11pm, so I stayed in and web surfed with our free Internet access, trying to get my head around the fact that we were ACTUALLY IN JAPAN!
Up next: My first solo day in Tokyo!
The lobbys on the third floor
Pay attention to this sign. I didnt, and it later turned out to be a huge, wonderful surprise
Our hotel room was much nicer than I expected it had been recently redecorated and didnt have the IKEA feel I saw in older pictures on TripAdvisor. It was also a decent sizenot huge, but you could actually walk around the bed. It turned out to be the biggest non-Disney room we had.
My favorite part was the corner window into the bathroom cuz it made the place feel bigger. Although it was a trick figuring out which way to dial the blinds so your spouse couldnt see in!
The view wasnt half bad either.
Patrick loved the soaking tub and shower
But most of all, he loved the complicated toilet!
This thing had enough buttons to launch a missle attack on your bottom! Theres a button for a spray of water, and one for a stream, one to make the seat hot enough to fry an egg and then an automatic function that runs the water to cover up embarrassing noises. On that first night we had each other in stitches as we tried out all the various functions and shrieked in surprise at what we got.
Other cool features of this hotel: It has a 7-Eleven on the first floor, which means an ATM that accepts US ATM cards and a cheap meal are always close by; it is adjacent to a small shopping complex with restaurants and stores and even a post office; the subway station across the street connects you to the central Marunouchi and Ginza lines; and there is a street running behind the subway station that is jam-packed with restaurants and clubs.
I never thought Id be so glad to see a 7 Eleven!
McDonalds not so much .
After wed dropped our stuff in the room, we wandered down this veritable restaurant row trying to decide where to eat.
We almost randomly picked a traditional sushi place and got what we think we wanted through a combination of my pigeon Japanese and lots of hand gestures. Oh, and the picture menu, kindly handed to us by a German couple. We felt very cosmopolitan sitting there eating sushi for dinner in Tokyo after starting the day with breakfast in San Leandro, CA. Never mind that it was the next day!
Dinner was good! The only drawback was the haze of cigarette smoke filling the place. After dinner, Patrick had a 9pm costume fitting for the ad (!), but before he left we had time to pick up our first weird Japanese dessert at 7 Eleven.
It was blue flavor!
He was out til about 11pm, so I stayed in and web surfed with our free Internet access, trying to get my head around the fact that we were ACTUALLY IN JAPAN!
Up next: My first solo day in Tokyo!
lurkyloo
The Attic was just perfect!
- Joined
- Aug 24, 2006
Me either! Oh wait - I gotta write the dang thing first...
mte!!
OMG, I just learned a new Internet slang! LOL!
I really hope you can make it out there!
Yes! They just need to move it a little closer to the US!
Thanks!
Glad to have you along!
I'll try! Although I think I exhausted all my useful info in the second post, so all you'll miss is my rambling and 85 bazillion shots of cherry blossoms...
Oh cool! I hope it helps!
Great to have you onboard!
Thanks for reading along!
Thanks!
Oh good - I hope it's helpful to you!
Hi there!
Oh boy, it sounds like you're having fun. We had many opportunities to take pix with characters, but we aren't very big character fans, so we only have a few shots. But I think you'll do fine!
Thanks!
Oh, I do hope you get to go!
Yeah, I'm starting to think I'm the only one who doesn't think it's weird - even Patrick was like ... "That was kinda weird!" after we went!
Thanks for following along!
to you too!Exactly! I mean, I guess it's good b/c it limits the number of people there every day, but, frankly, it's not a low enough limit. The crowd in the Ghibli gift shop turned out to be the worst one of our entire trip. Pushing, shoving, grabbing any piece of merchandise you could get your hands on cuz you couldn't see the displays for the people... it was crazy-go-nuts!
Glad you liked it! I'll bet you like learning Japanese too. I never thought I'd be able to pick up a non-Romance language, so I felt sooooo cool being able to make such urbane statements as "The car is green"!
Thanks for joining in!
Oh wow - what an interesting upbringing that must've been! I did read a little bit in the English-language paper about the difficulties of being a non-Japanese child growing up in Japan, so I'm glad to hear you had a good experience. I hope you get to see Tokyo DisneySea!
I was really looking forward to this TR starting. It's already off to an interesting start. If I was going to Tokoyo disney I would not know where to start, so I am hanging on every word (in case I ever get a chance to go - LOL!)
Even better - I will have this TR to read before I get ready to leave for Disney in a few weeks. It will definately keep me occupied!
Ooh! Congrats on the upcoming trip! I will attempt to keep you fully occupied between now and then...
Thanks so much!
Hey, thanks for following on Twitter!
Ooh! I hope you get to go! I'll try to include lots of details (OK, well, even more than usual...)
Well thank you! It does take me a long time, but I think it's cuz I have zero ability to edit the pictures down to a reasonable number....
Getting on board! I can't wait to hear all about it!
In other news. . . I finally got a chance to open up my Spring 2010 issue of D23 (A little late, I know! But that's what happens when you have an adorable 6 month old boy giggling at home!) and who did I spy? Lurkyloo! I am sure you mentioned it somewhere- but I was so excited to see you in the pic from the D23 expo!
That's so funny! I never read my D23 magazines - I only read that one b/c someone told me I was in it!Welcome out of lurkdom!
YAY! So looking forward to this! My hubby would love to go to Japan some day..but the only way it would happen would be if we went to Tokyo disneyland and Disneysea!!!AND if i could be knocked out for the flight!
Great start ...and I love the puppets Patrick's company makes!! YAY for the Pee-Wee Herman show gig..that is great
Thanks! Now I don't know much about it, but I hear the secret to getting people like you on a flight is BOOZE, and plenty of it!
Totally cool! I just wish someone else would write the other one...
Thanks for joining in!
I hope you are able to! I wish everyone could see it!
Chilly
RIP Tag Fairy
- Joined
- Apr 25, 2006
Ack! It's late, I'm tired, and I'm paranoid that y'all will miss my update b/c it's on the previous page!...
So... back to page 3!
The plane sounds lovely, what a sweetie Patrick is giving us his posh seat. The hotel room looks really nice but I find the bathroom window into the bedroom a bit odd!
Aburns8
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Sep 24, 2008
So far everything is amazing! The plane ride didn't look too bad. Although I would need some sort of drug to knock me out for at least 6 hours of it or I would have gone nuts! The toilet is interesting! My husband is an engineer and I am sure we would have spent on hour playing with it. Then he would probably want one for the house. Not much of a Sushi fan. I have a problem with texture. But it looked yummy!
2xcited2sleep
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jan 5, 2008
Great update! How long was the flight? Looks like you both handled it well. I'm not so sure about salmon noodles for breakfast though. 
Your hotel looks gorgeous!! I am over the missle launching toilet!
Can't wait for more!
Your hotel looks gorgeous!! I am
over the missle launching toilet!Can't wait for more!
ChrisFL
Disney/Universal Fan and MALE
- Joined
- Aug 8, 2000
Yes JAL is a NICE airline, especially compared back to back with American Airlines, where the flight attendants were yelling at people
I was afraid to play "missile command" on the toilet when I was in japan, lol
Sushi looks awesome...and how was that Hershey bar? good?
Great TR so far!
I was afraid to play "missile command" on the toilet when I was in japan, lol
Sushi looks awesome...and how was that Hershey bar? good?
Great TR so far!
Yay an update! Plane sounds nice. Hotel looked good. My friend is a plumber and he was handed one of those fancy toilets at the end of an expo. It was hilarious trying to figure it out after he hooked it up in his house.
7-11 Japanese slurpees?
Can't wait for more.
LittleStinkerbelle
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Mar 30, 2008
I'm in!
lurkyloo
The Attic was just perfect!
- Joined
- Aug 24, 2006
The plane sounds lovely, what a sweetie Patrick is giving us his posh seat. The hotel room looks really nice but I find the bathroom window into the bedroom a bit odd!
Yeah, the blinds needed to be a little less see-through.
However, when you're doing non-naked things in the bathroom, it's nice to have the "borrowed" view out the windows in the main room!I could see that! In fact, I think most of my food aversions have more to do with texture than taste. Oh, and I'll bet your husband *would* end up wanting a bidet toilet for the house - Patrick sure does!
Oh yeah! I forgot to put that in - it was 11ish hours going out and 9ish hours coming back.
Yes JAL is a NICE airline, especially compared back to back with American Airlines, where the flight attendants were yelling at people
I was afraid to play "missile command" on the toilet when I was in japan, lol
Sushi looks awesome...and how was that Hershey bar? good?
Kinda... dusty and bland. The cookies sorta dissolved into dust in your mouth - maybe this is considered a delicacy in Japan!
Plane sounds nice. Hotel looked good. My friend is a plumber and he was handed one of those fancy toilets at the end of an expo. It was hilarious trying to figure it out after he hooked it up in his house.
7-11 Japanese slurpees?
Can't wait for more.
I love that the plumbing expo was passing out free toilets like candy!
I'm in!
Hiya!
daisygirl902
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Feb 5, 2009
Subscribing! You've helped me so much in planning my wedding (I not only incessantly stalk you on the wedding boards, but bought the book too!)- now you can help me plan my future trip to Tokyo (FYI - this is in fact an imaginary trip that at this point only exists in the far reaches of my brain).
Can't wait to read about your experiences - love the pics and the amazing level of detail you put into your TRs!
Can't wait to read about your experiences - love the pics and the amazing level of detail you put into your TRs!
PrincessShea
Always planning...
- Joined
- Jun 29, 2005
Yea, can't wait to read along 
Thank you so much for the detailed travel information. Hopefully I'll be able to use it next year And I am soooo happy PassPorter is coming out with a Tokyo guide because lord knows the Internet is pretty dry when it comes to TDL info!
Thank you so much for the detailed travel information. Hopefully I'll be able to use it next year
And I am soooo happy PassPorter is coming out with a Tokyo guide because lord knows the Internet is pretty dry when it comes to TDL info!
Happydog
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Mar 10, 2007
Great post!! It is so fun to get the sense of a place through the writing and photos of other people! That airport looks huge! The hotel nice! Sushi, great! The blue swirly icecream... well....not so much. 
Looking forward to more about Japan!
Thanks for sharing!!!
Looking forward to more about Japan!Thanks for sharing!!!
lovegrumpy
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Mar 6, 2007
Thats so cool that they have a 7-eleven in the hotel. When the boss went undercover for the company he said they had some oversees but I never really thought they did.
Wazzo
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Nov 5, 2005
Becx N Gav
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Nov 21, 2007
The plane sounds lovely, what a sweetie Patrick is giving us his posh seat. The hotel room looks really nice but I find the bathroom window into the bedroom a bit odd!
When Pete from the Podcast went to Oz he had the same thing in one hotel - bit strange but I guess you get more light into an inside room
So Carrie, did you feel really tall there? I always imagine that Japanese people are quite short in general. Did you find them very polite too? I know you can't generalise whole population but you can get a feel for trends
Loving the report, I would so love to go but do you think I would be limited to what I could eat as I don't eat fish or seafood? I would hate to get there and have to eat McDonalds 3 times a day
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