Family trip to Japan - Tokyo and ski adventure

[elanshin]

Suica (or any other IC card) works for all train companies in all the major cities. (Not for long distance trains like Shinkansen though)
Not to mention shops and restaurants, lockers, vending machines.... no need to bother with tickets!

My Suica eats all my spare cash at the end of every trip. saves me the hassle of recharging when I land at the airport usually.

 

[rbjhan]

My Suica eats all my spare cash at the end of every trip. saves me the hassle of recharging when I land at the airport usually.

Yes! No need to have all the coins with an IC card.

But I find the machines in 711 better as they take 1 Yen coins too

 

[QF WP]

So it was time to head to our evening destination, but first we found what looked like Smokey the Bear nearby:



A nice light show as a precursor for tonight:



So now back to Tokyo Station for the train ride to Shibuya for the night time lights:



Arrived to a crush of people and work going on around the station, so had to find the best exit.



First stop when we got there was the SkyDeck, to see if we could get up there. Unfortunately, no:





We made sure we crossed over at the busy crossing and then to take photos of the buildings:









Loved the 109 building. Went up all the levels to look at all the female fashion (for my wife and daughter) .



A bit busy tonight on the road:

 

[QF WP]

It was definitely time for dinner. We walked the back alleys to try and find a place that we could find food that we all ate. Went into a couple and checked the ordering machines at the front, but ended up at this restaurant



Ordering was via an iPad and had English subtitles. Thoroughly loved this place and would recommend it. Hope to go back but probably not on this trip.

Fried chicken with rice and a side of fried chicken (my sons favorites);



Udon Noodles with chicken


Curry with rice:



Tempura (seafood and vegetables):



Udon with fried chicken pieces



Then it was time to head back to Shibuya station to connect through Tokyo Station and back to Maihama and connect finally with the Sheraton Shuttle.

At Tokyo Station, follow the JE road:

 

[Captain Halliday]

If you’re still around Shibuya, or returning later, the third floor of Starbucks is a good free alternative to the sky deck for watching the scramble crossing.

 

[markis10]

The tempura vegetables has a tail!

 

[Captain Halliday]

You may have your Tokyo plans locked in @QF WP but my TR from a few years back might give you some ideas.

Thread 'A milestone birthday OW award'

Sep 10, 2018

As some of you may know, Mrs H is celebrating a milestone birthday this year. She’s just turned 21 (+228 months).

But not satisfied to celebrate on the day, Mrs H likes to spread the festivities out over an entire month. This year the celebration will last around seven weeks.

Among her requests to mark the occasion: trips to Japan, Hawaii and for me to do my first TR. Okay, one of those is a fib, but a milestone should be recorded right?

So, following are some mostly true tales about our trip as we celebrate the Festival of Mrs H!

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[QF WP]

Final item in my list for the night was changing some AUD for JPY, as we had a day of travelling ahead tomorrow and needed cash.

The Sheraton has a Foreign Exchange ATM. Perfect







Well that was a busy day walking:

 

[trendwhore]

Trip looks great. You may not care but that exchange rate is pretty bad and you can get cash out from regular ATMs for cheaper. I use bankwest card specifically for doing that as it cancels the exchange rate fee.

Also @rbjhan (or anyone else that may benefit from the info) it is possible to use Suica on some of the shinkansen via smart-EX app, which you can use in english. Then you don't have to deal with losing tickets or whatever (this sucks).

 

[QF WP]

@trendwhore, wasn’t worried about the exchange rate as we needed to have cash for the next day.

 

[QF WP]

Nothing like waking up at 5:30pm for an early departure. Try waking up 15 and 17 year olds who are used to sleeping in on school holidays. Thankfully we had packed the night before and had bought some bakery items so we ate something for the initial energy we needed. We were out of the room by 6am, I went first as so needed to pay the hotel bill.

Then to implement the plan we had formulated with the Concierge in order to get the 8:07am Shinkansen. Firstly, to be at the Bayside monorail station when it opens at 6:30am - almost directly across the road from the hotel.



We were there when it opened and well, it seems that 200+ Japanese thought the same - except they were there to be first at DisneySea or Disneyland. They were either lined up at the Gate or at the ticket machine. Thankfully it didn’t take long to get our tickets, but our plan of getting on the first train to Resort Gateway Station was thwarted as they all squeezed on and we were left standing there (with our luggage). Luckily the next monorail was in 5 minutes and the display showed where it was.



We were first on the next monorail and it was pretty empty.



Got off at Resort Gateway and then the walk to Maihama train station. My daughter and I walked ahead to buy the tickets. By the time my wife and son caught us up, we had them in hand and went up to the platform:


The dry run yesterday made everything go smoothly, except when we put our tickets in the Shinkansen Gate, they didn’t work. We asked at the office but we spoke little Japanese and the officer spoke little English. Finally, we understood he was looking for the ticket from the Maihama to Tokyo train as well (as we were still considered in transit). Sure enough, we put all 3 tickets in and it captured our local train ticket and gave us back our two Shinkansen tickets. Off to the platform to meet some of our tour group:



Pity I forgot to come back to get a photo of the Shinkansen as it came in



We met a couple from Canberra from our ski tour who had booked in the same car (8), so we introduced ourselves and chatted as we waited for the train to arrive. We’d set up a chat facility so we knew each others names and what we looked like.



With Japanese efficiency, in it pulled about 5 mins before departure time. We watched as the seats electronically rotated to the correct positions.



Getting on and stowing our bags was easy (either at the end of each carriage or above your seat in the rack). We were ready. Row 14 for them, row 15 for me.



So was David, with his wife Katherine beside him up in row 6.



Setback not unlike an airplane - loved the cup holder and jacket hanger

 

[Sprucegoose]

It is Express Pass for Universal Studios Osaka, or Disney Premier Access for DisneySea Tokyo. I bought both for my family in our trip over Christmas New Year.

Yep, that's it - well worth it IMHO

 

[Sprucegoose]

Great TR LW.

Why couldn't you buy a knife and bring it back in checked luggage? Japanese knives are of excellent quality. I am looking for a new set of Shuns.

I need to do that VA CNS-HND flight one more time.

 

[Quickstatus]

recall at some Japanese theme parks; we paid a fee to jump the queue - was such a service offered here?

It is Express Pass for Universal Studios Osaka, or Disney Premier Access for DisneySea Tokyo.

[SORRY TR HIJACK]

Worldwide, Disney has various iterations of queue jumping. Some free some paid and of the paid sone are very expensive. But they have different names at each resort.

There are 2 in Japan.
The free option is the Priority Pass - free with entrance ticket. This is a "book next available ride time". You can only book one ride at a time - before you can book another ride time you need to complete the ride first.or you can book again 2hrs after your previous booking but have not completed the ride. And you can only book the next available time - you can't choose a ridetime. The PP is FcFs - there are only a limited number each ride. You know when it about to run out when the PP is indicating ride times close to resort closing,

The Paid option is the Premier Access which is available for the most popular rides. Slightly different to PP in that while it's still a Book, ride, book, you can only book additional rides one hr later.

These are available through the Disney App but you need phone internet access. Scan the PP or PA QR code at ride entrance to enter PP or PA lane.

Essentially PP or PA allows you to enter the general queue further along than the non priorities, though not necessarily direct to front of queue. Of course, the paid ones enter the queue further along again

Don't forget the Rope drop option. This is the first ride of the day. While people think the rope drop occurs at the gate entrance at opening time, the rope drop actually occurs at the first ride AT opening time - the cast members carry the rope and you follow along until the rope drops at the first ride. This often means you can get several rides in without queuing before the general Public arrives. The real benefit of RD is the prevent a stampede and resultant injuries when the gates open

[/SORRY TR HIJACK]