It has always been my dream to travel to Japan! And viola! My dream has finally come true! The Yammies are going to Tokyo in March!
We planned for a 10-days trip although we are only touring Tokyo free & easy, cuz firstly there are simply so many wonderful places to visit, with 3 days to be spent solely in Tokyo Disneyland, and most importantly we wouldn't want to rush with a toddler on hand!
Day 1: We departed early in the morning and finally reached Tokyo around 4-tish pm after 7 hours (long) flight journey! By the time we took the airport limousine bus from the Narita airport to our hotel in Shinjuku, it was already 7-tish pm and the skies were really dark now... We were so hungry and we randomly chose a decent looking Japanese restaurant to slurp up our dinner!
Day 2: Our program for the day is Sanrio Puroland!! Although it is quite a small place, it is so good to be in such a kiddy place! haha.. I admit I am a kiddish person lah..haha.. Well, its ok since I have a toddler girl with me, and she knows Hello Kitty! She calls it "I-tty". We first watched the drama show at the Fairyland Theater which happened to start screening. Although we do not understand Japanese, we still enjoyed watching the show! Then we also took the Sanrio Character Boat Ride, and watched the Hello Kitty in The Magical Land of Oz! We had a fun day at the Sanrio Puroland before heading to Shibuya area for dinner. At Shibuya we had a simple dinner, after having to give up a few choices as the restaurants are full of smokers and it was so smoky! Never knew that restaurants in Japan allow smoking. Shock! Disappointed!
Day 3: It's ASAKUSA day! For old streets and Sensoji Temple and traditional goodies! It's a nice feeling walking down the old streets feeling the cool breeze in the face, and trying the nice traditional Japanese snacks, and not forgetting buying souvenirs back home! Next stop is Ameyoko as it is pretty near Asakusa's stop. We didn't do anything there except to SHOP! haha.. Happened to see a big departmental store and then a few good hours are spent there buying my first Samantha Thavasa bag, pouch and a Agnes B bag (on behalf of my colleague) : P SHIOK! But broke : /
Day 4: Today is scenic sightseeing day cuz we are paying a visit to the infamous Mount Fuji! BUT we are not going to climb the Mount Fuji cuz it would be quite tedious for us as it would be a long long journey... So we decided to take the FREE Hakone free pass, and head to Hakone to view Mount Fuji instead.
With Hakone Freepass, one can also ride 7 types of transport in the area, such as the Hakone Tozan Line and the Hakone Ropeway, We started on the Hakone Romancecar, then hop on to Hakone Tozan train, Hakone Tozan cablecar, Hakone Ropeway, Hakone Sightseeing Cruise to cruise the Lake Ashi, then lastly we took the Hakone Tozan bus back.
The day is good and we have a very good view of Mount Fuji! But Kayla had been very tired running around with us, hoping from one transport to another. I am sure she doesn't know what is so great about Mount Fuji! Hee..
Day 5:It is Sunday and it is recommended to visit Harajuku on a Sunday as the cosplay characters would gather on a Sunday. However after walking for the whole day, we only managed to see a few at the end of the day. We seem not to have found their "gathering" place bah. Instead we went to do more shopping at the Omote Sando Hills stretch of branded shops! Haha.. He bought a Black Label Burberry black sling bag whereas I got myself a Blue Label Burberry sling bag and matching ladies wallet. *Satisfied yet feeling abit guilty for the spending* : P
After a long day spent at Harajuku, we went to Times Square - Takashimaya to buy Disneyland tickets and had dinner there to end our Day 5...
Day 6: It was snowing!! I din expect that we can actually see snow in Tokyo, and snowing means its freezing cold out there and a wet weather makes it difficult to travel with a toddler in hand! so we sort of took our time to prepare ourselves, had in-room Nespresso coffee before layering all of us in multiple layers of thick clothings before heading out to Odaiba - our destination of the day!
In Odaiba, we went to Venus Fort in Palette Town - a 3 storeyed building where there is something for everyone in the family - 1st floor: Venus Family, 2nd floor: Venus Grand, 3rd floor: Venus Outlet. The 1st floor is opened to dogs too, since Japanese are well-known to be dog lovers. We saw quite some dogs and their dog owners in Venus Fort. Quite cool since shopping malls seldom allow animals to enter.
Luckily the snow stopped when we reached Odaiba, and also we stayed mostly indoors until we moved on to look for the Rainbow Bridge, Statue of Liberty, and the Tokyo Tower. It was really freezing cold at the outdoors!!! And Kayla was throwing a lot of unhappy tantrums while we rushed from one point to another point.
Day 7: We checked out from our hotel and moved on to Hilton Tokyo Bay Hotel as we are going to the Disneyland for the next 3 days!! Our first Disney stop is Disneysea as its smaller in scale compared to Disneyland, and since its something unique in Tokyo, we have to see what's in there!
We were pretty lucky to be in time for the noon session of the Greeting session at the gates upon entering Disneysea. So we got to capture a few pictures with some key Disney characters, feel the excitement in this wonderland, before entering into the fantasy dreamland! Then we noticed that there were quite a crowd sitting around at the Mediterranean Harbour, and realised that the parade show may be starting soon!! We quickly find a good position to sit down and tried to get ourselves warm while waiting in the cold! Kayla loves the Disney parade show very much, and kept clapping hands and jumping up and down with the music and dances...
In Disneysea, we took the 20,000 leagues under the sea ride at the Mysterious Island, took the Caravan Carousel and watched the Aladdin show at The Magic Lamp Theater in the Arabian Coast, then to the Mermaid Lagoon for the Jumpin' Jellyfish ride, and watched the Mermaid Ariel show at the Mermaid Lagoon Theater. We even managed to catch the fireworks at night before leaving for the day.
Actually we have not checked in the hotel room in the afternoon before we rushed to the Disneysea, so we are really pleasant to see our Magic room at Hilton! Its a very massive room with very nicely decorated wall paintings. We simply love it! And there's a very nice sea view when we opened the blinds.
Day 8 - 9: Both days were solely for Disneyland as we knew that it will be too big for us to cover within a day. Unfortunately Kayla caught a cold the night before, and we were so worried for her. Luckily the medication helped and we let her rest more before we went to Disneyland in the afternoon. In the hotel while she was having her nap, we actually felt some earthquake tremors. Initially we were like "Oh Shit! What should we do?" As Japan is prone to earthquakes, we were quite worried whether it would escalate into something massive. Fortunately the tremors didn't continue and we departed with a lighter and happier heart! : )
Again, we managed to catch the Jubilation Live parade in time, and of cuz Kayla enjoyed it very much too! We got to see more Disney characters as compared to the Disneysea's parade.
As we reached Disneyland pretty late, we didn't manage to get fast passes for the rides. So we only watched the Parade, had our late lunch, walked around Disneyland, bought our popcorn baskets(!), and managed to enter It's a Small World as it was only a short queue. Well, not bad for the day given that we started late. At least Kayla was well enough to spend the day with us.
We managed to cover more rides and shows on Day 9! Like the Pooh's Hunny Hunt (my favourite!!), Monster's Inc. Ride & Go Seek, the Western River Railroad, watched the show at the Country Bear Theater and Oh! Minnie Minnie! show and the Electrical Parade Dreamlights at night! Not bad siah!!! And we managed to also saw the fireworks again before leaving.
Other than all the rides and shows, I should not forget to mention we shopped till crazy there!!! We bought many things for ourselves, for Kayla and for our close family and friends! Love Disney to bits!!! Would love to go to another Disney in near future!
~Shortly after we departed from Tokyo on Fri 11 Mar morning flight, a terrible earthquake and Tsunami that struck Japan in the afternoon. We were very very very fortunate and blessed to have escaped from this natural disaster/calamity by a mere difference of 3-4 hours, and returned safely to our home, and to our family. We felt very sorry for the people who were stranded there, and who lost their lives, their families in this unfortunate natural disaster...~
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