A Trip to Japan - Kyoto Day Two

The toilets are everything you could imagine and more. I even like the toilet paper holder. Powder coated steel with a shelf for your phone on top. I think the toilet in our room in Kyoto has most of the major features. The seat is heated, a fan goes on as soon as you sit down and there are multiple spray settings. You can adjust the pressure and the water is heated as soon as it comes out. This one also a speaker where you can play pleasing water sounds with volume control. We were a little confused by the sink in the top but that's where the bowl is refilled so you can wash your hands with the water before it enters. The best part is Kerry giggles every time she uses it. 

We got up early today to walk to Ninenzaka which is about an hour away. We figured if we were going to do any walking, early morning was better. Our route took us through an area that was at the very least a club and bar district but included maid cafes so perhaps it was a bit of a red light district as well. This was the only place we saw garbage in the streets and it only included a few drink containers and cigarette butts. There was also a nice tourist throwing up in the edge of the sidewalk. Some of the clubs appeared to still be open. Having said all that Kyoto's sketchiest area was still cleaner than most streets I've been to in North America.

I'm not sure how old the Ninenzaka area is but it's located at the base of an area with many ancient temples and includes a mix of traditional homes and shops. The streets are paved with granite stones and although it is hilly it is still easy to walk up with well place steps and curbs. We got there quite early so we could get pictures before things got busy but as the day progressed things got busier as all the shops started to open. There was even a tiny Starbucks that didn't have it's traditional big green sign. We wouldn't even have noticed except that there was an early morning line up that seemed out of place. 

Once we made it to the top of the street we got to an area that had a number of large temples. We've definitely maxed out our culture budget on this trip. Each area we've gone to charges a few dollars per person and there is at least one tourist trap expense inside that you can choose to do. This one had a number of 'lucky' trinkets as well as wooden boards that you could purchase, sign and leave. I'm assuming they sand them down and re use them. We didn't do any of that but we did remove our shoes and tour a shrine. The wood planks on the floor were very old and very well finished either with some sort of oil or just years of use.

I was about done with spending money on culture but the family wanted to check out the giant Buddha statue so I waited in the parking lot while they did a quick tour. I was then tricked into going inside with the promise of a bamboo garden which happened to be for the area next to this one. This Buddha statue was probably the most economical. No second level tourist trap and you got an incense stick plus it was also their tomb of the unknown soldier from the Pacific war. All for only $3.00 per person.

We finished this area with one more entry fee that got us into a park that wasn't quite as well maintained as it was not a temple and was previously owned by someone as a residence. They were in the process of restoring things though which makes the entry fee a bit easier to pay. It included some traditional homes as well as a walk through the bamboo forest we could see from the other area. I did take a picture that included what appears to be a Geisha which you aren't supposed to take pictures of without their permission, however this one was just a tourist. There are several places where you can rent the clothing for the day to get that true Japanese experience. Some people were even wearing the wooden platform shoes which are very loud. After the forest we did a quick walk to the Imperial Palace which was more of a public park and you couldn't actually enter it so we didn't get any good pictures. There was a nice air conditioned rest area which gave us a chance to cool down.

At this point we were about done with walking and caught the city bus to Kinkakuji Golden Pavilion which is covered in gold leaf. It's surrounded by a pond and bonsai styled trees and was one of the busiest areas we have been to. We didn't stay too long but we did go to an indoor area where they gave us a very nice biscuit and some green tea. This tea was a bit different because it was foamy which Carter and Callie seemed to think was because they powder up the green tea leaves and mix it rather than just steeping the tea in the leaves. It was very good and you had to sit on the floor which allowed me to figure out I've got to do some more stretching with my left hip.

After the Golden Pavilion we took a bus back towards our hotel. I was about done for the day but the trip dropped us off at the Nijo Castle which was the one that was closed the day before so we went on one last culture tour to bring our step count up to 30,000 steps. For some reason this was the most expensive location at $8 Canadian which in the grand scheme of things really isn't very bad. We're usually paying twice that per experience in American. It was mostly a walk through around old buildings and did include an elevated area where you could see Kyoto in all directions. 

We had a quick break at our hotel before heading out to dinner. Our plan was to try one of the local restaurants. There are several that seat no more than a couple dozen people right near our hotel. We picked one that had a variety of food and they took us up a winding staircase. The food was excellent and the portions were perfect. I had fish and chips which was technically an appetizer. The food came quickly and the experience was nice because everyone is so quiet. This is a common theme where ever  we go, from buses, trains, temples to the streets. Very different from every North American city I've been to. 

A Trip to Japan - Kyoto Day One

Today was a transition day where we were moving from our Disney Hotel to our hotel in Kyoto. We had booked our bullet train for after lunch which meant we had plenty of time to get ready and get some breakfast. There wasn't much open so we stopped at McDonalds. It has most of what you would expect but adds several Japanese inspired options as well. We spent a bit of time wandering the mall and I took some photos of the outside of the restaurants. Most of them have these food displays where they have crafted models of what's on the menu. They seem to be really good at the Japanese foods but some of the western style meals don't quite look right.

Our experience with the bullet train was a bit hectic. The gate to check out of the regular train and into the bullet train is the same, so you have to have both your wallet and QR code available. Plus there is a separate line for physical tickets and about 500 people all trying to figure it out. Luckily there was someone there to help us through. The train itself was incredibly smooth and you only realize how fast you are going when you pass another train. You can't even count the cars as it passes. We had reserved seats and they didn't even check our tickets. I guess they figure if we had to check in the gate with a ticket and there are no arguments on seats, everything must be good.

There were trains leaving the station every couple of minutes and everything was precisely on time. You only had a couple of minutes to get on and off the train. With so many trains running, ruthless efficiency was a must. I can't imagine how much chaos there must be when a delay happens. We arrived right on time in Kyoto and checked into our hotel. The entrance is in a back ally but the hotel was very nice. I'm amazed at the craftsmanship of the room itself. Cabinets are installed square, wood details are perfect, and everything is built with materials that will last. Our layout is great for our family with four separate beds. 

Once we had checked in and dropped off our things, we attempted to go to one of the local temples. Kyoto is known specifically for it's temples and shrines and there was a nice one near our hotel however the gates closed at 4:00p even though the area itself was open to 5:00p. Kyoto is a very different city than Tokyo. There are a lot more personal vehicles on the road and there are a lot more cyclists. There are designated bike lanes but the line between sidewalk and bike lane is a bit fuzzy so you have to watch where you're going. The other big difference is the buildings are a lot shorter, typically less than 10 stories in our area. 

It was time for dinner so we headed to the Nishiki market. We focused on the main roadway which was mostly food. The whole thing is covered and there are open food stalls gong for several blocks. It's sort of like Granville Island. There were also non food stalls that branched off from the main area but we didn't have a lot of time so we never got a chance to check those out. We did buy a few food items including some Wagyu beef cooked with a blow torch which was excellent but admittedly we ended our evening at KFC. It was open later and was on our list to do just for fun anyways. It was effectively the same though I feel they were a bit heavier with the 11 herbs and spices.

We also grabbed a few drinks on our way back to the hotel. Although I was expecting more 'fancy' vending machines with things like cupcakes and food items, the reality is there are drink vending machines on every block and often more. You can find them on the main streets as well as the ally's. The drinks are also very cheap ranging from $1.50 to $2.00 Canadian for everything from water to sugar free ice teas, coffee drinks and Coke. On a hot day it's nice to be able to grab a drink wherever you are. Tomorrow we will explore more Kyoto.

 

A Trip to Japan - Disney Park Hopping

We started our day with our morning dose of electrolytes. I don't usually pay much attention to such things but when you are drinking 4 to 5 liters of water a day to stay hydrated, washing too many electrolytes out seems like a real risk.  Plus Kerry's "Let's Go Mum" Facebook group recommended them and they seem to know what they are talking about. As you can see they come in many flavors to choose from.  I think Kerry has been mixing them quite strong because they taste vile but it's a good way to walk up in the morning before we head to the park.

This was a special day. 40 hours of Callie's birthday.16 hours of Japan birthday plus the 24 hours of her Canada birthday. This is the third time that Callie has been able to celebrate her birthday at one of the parks. It helps that her birthday is during the summer. Poor Carter will probably never get to have his birthday in a park. September is not a convenient travel month. Callie even got a birthday call. It was in English but I think it would have been more fun to hear Mickey sing Happy Birthday or some equivalent in Japanese. 

Our first ride of the day was "Soaring: Fantastic Flight". It's effectively the same as the one in California but I liked the outside of this one a lot better. I think it's themed around a Leonardo DaVinci view of flight. Everything is stone and the planes look like something he would have designed. The ride itself had many of the same scenes but included a different ending where they fly over Tokyo Disneyland. They didn't have Patrick Warburton giving instructions but I feel if they had asked he would have learned Japanese. This ride had enough English to understand but other rides we've had an attendant bring an iPad to us English speakers to make sure we understand.

Next up was "Journey to the Center of the Earth". You start at the base of the volcano and this was our longest line up at the parks. At 60 minutes the estimate was almost perfect with us getting on the car at 59 minutes. The ride itself is a roller coaster but you're in a Jules Vern style train car that includes full sides and a roof. I really don't like the down bits of roller coasters so I did a bit of research in advance and the description I liked was "not as intense as Splash Mountain". The ride is mostly slow until the end where they send you down a hill. Callie realized there is an elevator at the start that must take you up and not down because we never actually had to go up when we were on the ride.

On our way to the Tinkerbell ride we passed through the "American Seaside Town". It seems that every time you turn a corner in this park you find something new. I didn't even know this was here and it is definitely the idealistic view of an American sea side town. I was a bit disappointed as once again Disneyland has chosen not to have "Fish-n-Chips" in the most obvious of locations. My other example is the San Francisco area of California Adventure where they used to have a dedicated truck. The fun part about this town was the flood barrier in the distance that was appearing to leak water. I think the ocean is just outside but I'm not sure how high the water actually comes to. 

After our afternoon nap, we headed back to the park for Callie's Birthday dinner. We stopped on Main Street to get souvenirs and there were some plates that were in the style of what I was looking for but I decided that if I was going to bring anything back from Japan I'd rather it wasn't Disney themed Japanese. We only have so much space in our bags. Dinner itself was at the Rain Forrest cafe. We reminisced about all the past visits to this restaurant where it seemed like one kid or the other was always in a bad mood. We managed to make it out unscathed and they even took a birthday picture of the family and printed it for us.

We did Beauty and the Beast and Pirates again  and then I headed out of the park while the rest of the family did Big Thunder Mountain one last time. I managed to catch a portion of Tokyo's version of the electrical parade. 

Disneyland Paris was a good mix of the same but different. My only observation was that they seemed to make a conscious decision to have the paths easy to clean vs a more natural mix of surfaces. I prefer the way the other parks do it. Disney Seas was probably one of my favorite parks. The only drawback was that it is so big. I would recommend both. 

A Trip to Japan - DisneySea Day One

We stopped for breakfast this morning at the Tick Tock Cafe which is either in our hotel or in the mall hallway near our hotel. Either way, it is very close. The temperature was another scorcher at 32 degrees when we were walking to the park at 8:00a. Thankfully it doesn't increase substantially from there peaking out at around 36 degrees for the day. The park today was the DisneySea which we have heard is very different then any of the other Disney parks. It's only about a 10 minute walk from our hotel and there is also a shuttle available that leaves every 10 minutes. Today we chose to walk.

The lineup for this park was much nicer that the expanse of concrete at Disneyland. There was plenty of shade between the buildings and trees. Once again we were able to get to the front of the line and only had about 30 people ahead of us. Walking in, there isn't much of a main street and there is no castle but it is still an amazing sight. You walk through an Italian style court yard and are presented a view of a volcano with a lake in front of it. Off to the left is the smoke stacks of a ship and the Tower of Terror which has the same shape as the ones in Anaheim and Orlando. 

The biggest layout difference for DisneySea is that it's not shaped like a circle like most of the other parks. Our first ride destination was Frozen at the far end of the park. This meant we started our day with a very long walk. Every time you turned a corner you were in a different region, from a volcano to the middle east to Norway to under the sea. We were drenched in sweat by the time we got to the ride. The ride itself was much nicer than Frozen at  Epcot. It took you through the story on a boat that would sometimes go backwards and sometimes just sit you in a room where the scene played out in front of you. 

Our intention at this point was to go on the Rapunzel ride which was one of Kerry's must do's, however it was broken so we stopped for a snack at the popcorn stand. Popcorn seems to be one of the formal exceptions to the no eating and walking rule which is nice. They've also done something a little extra at these parks. All of the stands we've found so far have been flavored popcorn. So far we've found Black Pepper, White Chocolate, Honey, Milk Chocolate, Curry, Soy Sauce, Garlic Shrimp, Roast Beef, Caramel and Chinese Chili. We haven't tried the last three yet and my favorite is the White Chocolate. 

We had a time booked on Indiana Jones which was very similar to the one in Anaheim except that it was themed on the Kingdom of the Chrystal Skull. you are still in a jeep and there is still a boulder. We stopped for lunch at the Snuggly Duckling. Many of the restaurants require you to mobile order though there is an emergency line if you have phone or credit card issues. As a group we had a burger with a summer sausage patty on top, fries, milk tea as well as a desert in a frying pan. It was very nice to be able to sit down in an air conditioned space with the heat and humidity. 

It was time for my afternoon nap so I went back to the hotel with Callie. We waited for the shuttle back to our hotel and I realized after we left that I was likely going to have trouble getting back into the park. Since they don't take your picture of finger print you have to check in and out of the park each time and I realized that when I scanned my ticket I thought I heard a beep but it was probably the person beside me. I decided to figure that out later and we went back to the hotel. For dinner we went to the local TGI Friday's. When it was time to head back the family took the monorail for $3 a person. This monorail is more like a full Skytrain. 

As expected, my ticket wouldn't let me back in because it thought I was still in the park. Our ticket taker seemed very sad for us and spoke no English but they have a translator app on their phones and he contacted his supervisor who said we just had to prove we had been in the park as a group. We hadn't taken many selfies this trip but we had one with all four of us so all was good. We were all quite tired and only ended up doing one more ride which was Rapunzel which meant we were at least done with that part of the park. We headed back to our hotel where our clothes were soaking in the tub. We're running out and they have no laundry so we now have things drying all over the room. 

A Trip to Japan - Disneyland Day One

There are three Starbucks on our way to the park so that makes it a quick and easy start to the day. The park opens at 9:00 but as Disney Hotel guests we get to access the park 15 minutes early. You'd think that wasn't very much but you get to be in the first 10% of the park entrants which allowed us to get our first ride done before 9:00a as well as get a fast pass to another ride in the early morning. The line up experience was much more orderly then the US. They had attendants getting people into lines and people were sitting on the ground waiting patiently to get in. The only real issue was the heat. There weren't many trees and it's been the hottest days on record in Japan for the past few days.

Main Street was a slightly different experience as the entire area is covered with a skylight. Tokyo weather is much like Vancouver with everything from rain to snow so having the cover for such a large area gives people a place to hide if things get wet. We've been 'lucky' so far when it comes to rain but I wouldn't say the weather has been great. We've started our days at 30 degrees with 70% humidity. I don't really mind the heat as long as I can be out of the sun, however with the humidity you start sweating within seconds and just walking between rides you end up soaked in sweat. I think I may need to throw out some of my clothes. 

This particular park is very similar to Disneyland and Magic Kingdom and many of the rides are almost exact copies including Big Thunder, Splash, Pirates and Jungle Cruise. Things are of course a bit different in Jungle Cruise since all the jokes are in Japanese. We have no idea what he was saying but people seemed to laugh the most when he struck what appeared to be a boy band dance pose. Pooh bear was a bit of an oddity with all of the signs in full English including the pages of the books. They even had English for much of the sound track. The ride itself was much better as the cars moved freely rather than on rails and there was more animation.

I headed back to the hotel soon after lunch as per usual and it's standard to check out the confectionary on the way out. I wasn't expecting to see the usual American treats and I was even okay with everything being a bit lower in sugar however what I did find was very disappointing. Rather than fresh food behind glass to choose from the entire place was just stacks of boxes of prepackaged treats. The boxes were also very light for the size, meaning there was just a few small packaged items in each box. A confectionary almost by definition should be freshly baked. Luckily I was able to hit the Godiva chocolate store in the mall. 

We headed back to the park for 5:30p as we had a pass for Monsters Inc. Toon Town is much like it was when it was first added to California with the Gadget Coaster and Roger Rabbit. I've never really understood the appeal of Roger Rabbit. I honestly think he was only big because of that sexy red headed character. You don't hear about him at all outside of the parks. Or maybe there is a whole fan base out there that I don't even know about. After Toon Town we went into Small World. The entrance was very different but the inside was the same. I feel they must have recently refurbished because I couldn't see a single speck of dust.

I finished up the evening with Haunted Mansion and Peter Pan before heading back to the hotel. Haunted Mansion had a whole additional component in the graveyard that was very well done. When I got back to the hotel I decided to ask the front desk about where I could get a power converter to work between my computer and the local plugs. Without it I can't charge my laptop to do blogs which isn't the end of the world but is something I enjoy doing. After some hand waving and international sign language for power converter they figured out what I wanted and delivered it to my room successfully. 

Monsters inc, Gadget Coaster, Rogers

Smallworld, Haunted, peter pan

Hotel for charger and learning arigato

A Trip to Japan - Tokyo Day Two

We all got up somewhere between 3:00a and 4:30a. Since the time difference is effecitvely8 hours, this was like trying to sleep in until noon. We headed out to find some sort of breakfast which was difficult since it was about 7:00a and many places weren't open yet. We walked towards one of the train stations near our hotel and came across a bike parking lot. Nothing to lock to but you could lock your bike to itself since there was an attendant there full time. I had thought Japan had problems finding workers but there were people directing you everywhere, even at the bottom of a bike bridge over a road

We eventually decided that our destination was going to be the local 7-11. One of our goals for our trip was to visit one anyways since we had heard they are very different from Canada with fresh food and drinks. I wouldn't say it was drastically different but there was definitely lots of food options. I got a yogurt parfait and others had everything from tea to fruit sandwiches. It was a good way to start the day. At this point we had confirmed what people have said about the cleanliness of Japan. Our trip took us under the transit line through some bike paths and we didn't see any garbage. After having been here a few days now, simple things like people not eating while walking and no garbage cans so you have a social expectation of carrying your garbage with you seem to make a big difference. I find the first rule a bit irritating because I find it saves time to eat on the go but it definitely makes it easier to keep things clean with no one dropping ice cream and cigarette butts on the sidewalk. 

Once we were done breakfast we hopped on the train near our hotel which was very easy. The local transit pass can quickly be added to your Apple Wallet on your phone and you can add money direct from your phone. After that it's a simple tap to get on. Our destination for the rest of the day was the Shibuya area which includes the Shibuya Scramble. It's a cross walk that builds up a lot of pedestrians and then switches the lights to all stop at once so everyone can cross in all directions. It was relatively early in the day so it wasn't quite as scrambly as I was expecting but it was still fun. I made sure to go across on the diagonal.

The day was filled with shopping in the Shibuya area which included stopping in at an all vending machine store. I've seen smaller versions of these in Canada but this one had three floors of vending machines. It was more gimmicky than anything. It was mostly just over priced toys in plastic eggs. It was the equivalent of $4.00 Canadian for a Disney figurine. I would have been happier if they had more of the claw machines. They were only a dollar and at least you felt you were getting a bit of entertainment out of the activity. Of course I didn't manage to win anything in the claw machines so I guess a guaranteed win was nice too. 

Our first booked destination of the day was the Shibuya Sky Tower. Tokyo is quite flat in all directions so they've got several buildings that you can pay to go to the top of. This particular tower is 47 floors. Not too tall but enough for Callie to want to hold onto a column while she was taking selfies. There is a huge helicopter landing spot on top and you can see in every direction through glass walls. I didn't consciously think about it while I was there but I now realize that it was city for as far as the eye could see in every direction. I don't even recall seeing a clear view of the ocean on the edge of the city. 

From the tallest peak our next stop was the first floor and then the basement. My brother-in-law had mentioned that if you want to find a good place to eat, head to the basements. On the first floor, we found a number of touristy places where you could get packaged treats like custardy pastries but if you took the escalator down another floor you were in a whole new world. We've tested this out in a few spots now and it definitely is a thing. There were kiosks of all kinds of foods including sushi, fried meet on sticks, breads and deserts. Everything was fresh and I can only imagine the place gets very busy at lunch with the huge office tower above. Callie ordered Macha and it was prepared with a traditional bamboo whisk right in front of her.  Everything was very clean and I you could eat for a year and never have the same thing. (Assuming you liked all food which is not exactly me. Good for everyone else though.)

Next up was the Pokémon store. One of several that we found in the area. At first I was a little confused because I don't recall Carter ever wanting to spend much time with Pokémon but soon discovered that his plan was to take an older unopened deck of cards and do an opening with his friends. You're either going to end up with a worthless deck of cards worth pennies or an incredibly expensive card worth thousands. Let's call this an underaged way of playing the lottery. 

Carter had done more research for our trip than I was aware of and he took us to a Mega store. Maybe it has another name but it was 7 floors of chaos. Packed to the brim with everything from alcohol to luggage, it was admittedly a great place to get souvenirs for the trip home. I had heard Japan has an obsession with KitKats and this store played that out completely. There were dozens of different flavors to choose from. It's also open 24 hours so if you lived nearby you could probably never need to shop anywhere else. 

While we were in the tower we saw a nearby park that looked like it would be a good place to take a break. This may have been a mistake. It was some unnecessary steps on our 32,000 step day and it was not as cool and inviting as we had hoped. The main area was under construction which is where the ponds and fountains will eventually be refurbished. The most notable thing about the area was the incredibly large ravens. They swoop down on you and are much bigger than crows. We've seen very few birds on our trip through Tokyo so these were a notable exception. 

Callie had done done some research as well and wanted to check out the statue of the dog that was made famous in the 1920's. He always waited for his owner to come back from the train station and when the owner passed away while at work, the dog still insisted on waiting. He was a fixture of the station for 10 years before he died. A local took care of his needs but he never game up on his owner.  The statue is so famous we couldn't even get a picture beside it because the lineup was so long. 

Our final destination was a few stations away and was another tower. This one looks like the Eiffel tower and Callie and Carter wanted to hit it at sunset. We miscalculated our booking a bit and arrived shortly after but it was still a great view. We saw the orange skies and were there when it went dark and we could see Tokyo lights in all directions. It's a very different life stye in Tokyo since I don't think we saw any individual houses so you're likely living in an apartment but it's clean and for our whole trip I've only seen one homeless person. It's possible he wasn't even homeless and was just taking a nap. 

A Trip to Japan - Tokyo Day One

Our flight left at 12:50p which is different snice we  usually are up at 3:00a for a 6:00a flight. We checked one bag and other than picking the worst line for getting on the flight where we ended up being the last to board, our boarding was uneventful. The flight itself was a bit more exciting. About halfway through they announced they were looking for a doctor on board. They paged a generic message and then for a specific passenger. For a moment we thought it was a heart attack but after they moved them to the front of the plane we figure it was likely a diabetic issue as the patient was walking around and we didn't have to divert or wait for ambulances when we landed.

We had a small hiccup at customs. Kerry knew that we had to download an app and get a QR code but she missed where it said you need a QR code for every passenger. Usually it's just one per family. We were stuck at the front of the line looking embarrassed as Carter saved the day. He reacted quickly, redid the questionnaire and we got our QR codes. It took a bit to get through the passport check as they do a very deliberate check of your documents, capture finger prints and facial recognition. After that we had to do a check in after our bags and we got pulled out of line for looking slow. Customs agent was very helpful though. 

Japan has special plugs. People said that you could use your North American plugs which is true for iPhone chargers but if you have three prongs you need an adaptor. I'm a bit slow getting to blogging as I had no way to charge my laptop and it only holds a couple hour charge. Problem solved by a nice Japanese hotel concierge where I got to use Aragato one-on-one for the first time. Still trying to sort out the second part of that phrase to make it a formal "Thank You very Much". Our rooms are normal size so lots of room to get around. Beds are a bit firm and the family is starting to try out the fancy toilet. 

We arrived at our hotel around 4:00p so we had time to check out the mall that is attached to our hotel. The weather is some of the hottest on record right now and it's very high humidity so it's nice to be able to walk through conditioned spaces. We weren't feeling very adventurous for our first night so we stopped in at the Outback Steakhouse. Prices are cheap after the conversion and they don't like tipping  which makes it even better. We got four full meals for $90 Canadian. Tomorrow we tour downtown Tokyo before we do a three day sting at Disneyland and Disney Seas.