A Kid-Centric Trip to Japan and TDR - Trip Report (Completed - copied to blog)

wanderlust7

DIS Veteran
Joined
Mar 10, 2015
Since none of the photo links work anymore due to Photobucket policy changes :badpc:, I've copied the trip report to a blog here:

travelswith2kids.wordpress.com




My family (me, DH, DS age 7, DD age 4) went to Japan for 12 great days at the end of May/beginning of June. This will be my longest trip report yet, so I hope I finish it! I hope to share with you all traveling to Japan with little kids, costs, and food. I LOVE Japanese food, so there will be lots of food pictures. Except when both DH and I got too hungry or too tired…. DH usually remembered, I forgot a lot because I just want to dig in! :)

A little background – DH and I went to Japan 8 years ago before we had kids. We went to Tokyo, Hakone, Hiroshima (very briefly), Miyajima (love), and Kyoto. This time we decided to do a more kid-centric trip. This was the itinerary:

Day 1: Arrival at Narita from SFO, check into Gate Hotel Asakusa
Part 1 - Arrival and logistics
Part 2 - Gate Hotel Asakusa
Part 3 - Sushi Zanmai

Day 2: Wandering around Asakusa
Asakusa

Day 3: Odaiba – Legoland Center, Tokyo MegaWeb
Part 1 - Himiko water bus
Part 2 - Takoyaki Museum
Part 3 - Legoland Discovery Center
Part 4 - Toyota Mega Web
Part 5 - KAIO sushi train and giant Gundam

Day 4: Yokohama – Cup of Noodles Museum, Cosmo World
Part 1 - CupNoodles Museum
Part 2 - Cosmo World

Day 5: Train to Nikko, Tobu World Square, check into Tsurukame Daikichi (a ryokan)
Part 1 - Tobu World Square
Part 2 - Tsurukame Daikichi

Day 6: Edo Wonderland
Edo Wonderland

Day 7: Toshogu Shrine, train to TDR, check into Sheraton Tokyo Bay
Part 1 - Shinko Bridge and Toshogu Shrine
Part 2 - Sheraton Grande Tokyo Bay

Day 8: Tokyo Disneyland
Part 1 - Daytime parades, Cinderella's Fairy Tale Hall, Grandma Sara's Kitchen
Part 2 - Westernland, Adventureland, Hungry Bear Restaurant, Electrical Parade Dreamlights

Day 9: DisneySea
Part 1 - Logistics and the Crystal Compass
Part 2 - Fortress Explorations
Part 3 - Vulcania, Mysterious Island, Mermaid Lagoon, Arabian Coast, Casbah Food Court

Day 10: Tokyo Disneyland, check into Tokyo Disneyland Hotel
Part 1 - Toontown
Part 2 - Tomorrowland and Pan Galactic Pizza Port
Part 3 - Queen of Hearts Banquet Hall and Fantasyland
Part 4 - Tokyo Disneyland Hotel

Day 11: DisneySea, check into Hotel MiraCosta
Part 1 - Walking to Hotel MiraCosta
Part 2 - Ristorante Di Canaletto
Part 3 - American Waterfront and Cape Cod Cook-off
Part 4 - Port Discovery and Lost River Delta
Part 5 - Oceano
Part 6 - Nighttime photos
Part 7 - Hotel MiraCosta

Day 12: Departure :sad:
Departure and last photos of MiraCosta
 
Last edited:
Day 1, Part 1 – We made it to the hotel!

The first order of business after we arrived was exchanging money. Our bank charges a foreign ATM fee and I wasn’t sure if they charge a currency exchange fee as well, so I just decided to bring cash (in USD). Japan is the only country I can think of that I feel pretty comfortable doing this. The day before we left, I had checked xe.com and the rate was 110 JPY to 1 USD. I had read online that the exchange rate at the airport wasn’t bad, so I was a little disappointed to see around 106.8. I walked around a bit more (DH and the kids sat) and the third exchange counter I saw was 107.13. The difference worked out to <$2, but it was the psychology, LOL - like why stores use $9.99 instead of $10. I decided not to exchange all my USD like I had planned – a decision that would come back to haunt me….

Since I’m on the topic of exchange rates – I just want to mention that the rate at Sheraton Tokyo Bay is truly awful – 98 JPY to 1 USD (when it should have been around 105-106), a real rip off. The rate at TDR was actually very good. I exchanged money at guest services in DisneySea and checked the rate on my phone while I was in line. Their rate was only about 0.5 JPY less than the xe.com rate. It could be the timing of when they set their rates, but I was impressed.

I didn’t have any problems using my Barclay’s MasterCard (no foreign transaction fee) anywhere that accepted credit cards. Some places would take a little longer to go through, but everywhere in TDR was super-fast. TDR seems to process their transactions in bulk though because everything in the parks didn’t hit my credit card until about 3 weeks later - all the transactions over 4 days at the same time. The hotel transactions (hotel rooms, dinner at Oceano) all hit a few days after that. Unfortunately, it didn’t work to my favor exchange rate wise. :(

The second order of business at the airport was recharging our Suica cards (amazingly I could still find them after 8 years!) and getting DS his (DD was free on the trains since she’s under 5). I couldn’t just get DS’s Suica at a machine since he qualified for the half off kids’ rate and I needed to show his passport. We saw the JR office and got in the long line – I assume with all the people who need to exchange their JR pass vouchers. An employee was going down the line answering questions and we waited a bit until she got to us. We then found out that we could go to another ticket window where the line was shorter. It was in the same area, but at the other end, red sign, near some fare gates.

We took the Keisei Narita Sky Access Express train and I made sure to check that the final destination was Haneda Airport since I knew that train would get us straight to Asakusa with no transfers. There’s no reserved seating, so it was easy to just use our Suica cards and get on. It’s a commuter train and definitely not as nice as the Narita Express (N’Ex) we took to Shinjuku last trip. But it was cheaper and we managed to find seats, so can’t complain. :)

Asakusa Station is an older station and the elevators aren’t that convenient. When we got off the train, there was an elevator, but it only went one level up. From there we saw a sign pointing to an elevator at exit A2b in one direction and another sign pointing to the Kaminarimon exit in the opposite direction. From my research, I knew that exit A2b was the only one that had an elevator to ground level and that it would be a longer walk to the hotel. But I didn’t know exactly how much longer or how hard it would be to find our way. We decided to follow the signs for Kaminarimon. It’s a good thing we travel light – one 25 inch checked luggage, one 21 inch carry-on, plus backpacks. The luggage wasn’t full either. I could have fit everything in the checked luggage, but bought the carry-on just for stuff we would buy. We went up a flight of stairs broken up by a landing in the middle, a short escalator, a long escalator, and then a long flight of stairs.

When we finally got out of the station, we found a tourist map nearby with a “You Are Here” dot. DH compared it to the Google map I had printed out and figured out the general direction we should go (because I can’t find my way out of a paper bag, LOL). He wasn’t positive he was right though, so I was very happy when I saw the huge Sushi Zanmai sign. I had done Google Street View beforehand and knew that restaurant was directly opposite the Gate Hotel Asakusa. Thank goodness for technology!
 
Looking forward to reading more. We were there in late March, early April with our boys age 12 and 15.
 
Day 1, Part 2 - Gate Hotel Asakusa

I booked the Gate Hotel Asakusa Kaminarimon by Hulic (official name) through Travelocity with a 17% off coupon, plus there was 6% cashback through one of those cashback sites. I was charged in USD and the total came to $495 for 4 nights (including taxes and fees), which comes out to $124/night. I thought it was a great deal for Tokyo! We had the Style E Essential Twin room. The term “twin” room in Japan means 2 single beds, “triple” means 3 single beds, and “double” means 1 double bed. I was a little confused at first! Every hotel in Japan has different policies concerning kids, it can be a little challenging figuring out what the policy is. The most common I saw were children count as adults (this was usually the case in hotel rooms that were very small) and one child under 6 sleep free in existing bedding (i.e. bed share). Gate Hotel’s policy was children under 12 sleeps free in existing bedding. Sheraton Tokyo Bay’s policy was children under 17. The TDR hotels were under 11, though it’s probably less of an issue there since many rooms have 3 or even 4 beds.

The lobby of the Gate Hotel is at the top floor with a nice view of the Tokyo Skytree. A very nice lady who speaks excellent English checked us in. She would help us with a couple of other things during our stay. I asked her about the b-mobile SIM cards I had ordered online and sent to the hotel and she found them quickly. I learned about these SIM cards from TDR Explorer and thought they were a great deal. 14 days of unlimited data (throttled if more than 1 GB over any 3 days period) for 2380 JPY (including tax). It was inexpensive enough that we got two, one for my phone and one for DH’s, which proved invaluable when we split up at TDR. We’re pretty light users – web pages, IM, a few uploads to FB (no streaming or Facetime, etc.) and it worked great for us.

Okay, enough logistics and on to pictures!

Lobby:


View of Tokyo Skytree from the lobby:


The room was clean, modern, and comfortable. My first thought when I walked in was - gosh, it looks smaller than the pictures. But I think I had just forgotten how small Tokyo hotel rooms are in general and it's actually more spacious than our Shinjuku room the first trip. There is not a lot of storage - only 2 small drawers and a tall cabinet. I was able to fit the 2 empty suitcases in the cabinet. I'm glad I use packing cubes because a couple of those had to go in the top (and only) shelf of the cabinet.






The 2 drawers on the left of the picture. The tall cabinet is to the left of that (not in the picture). The cabinets in the picture have the small refrigerator, safe, and coffee/tea accoutrements in them, so can't fit anything else.









V
iew of the street below from our room at night. Notice the Sushi Zanmai sign (the one above the orange taxi). :)
 
Last edited:


Day 1, Part 3 – First meal in Japan

After I unpacked, we decided to head out to dinner before anybody conked out. We went across the street to – you guessed it, Sushi Zanmai. It’s a chain restaurant and open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Hmm…sushi at 3 AM, anyone?

The middle tuna was especially good – melt in your mouth. We should have asked for a separate order of that. The unagi (eel) was very good too. It seemed to be eel season and there was a separate menu of eel specials. We also ordered an eel roll, but it came later and I think we forgot to take a picture.



The tamago (egg) is for DD, that’s the most reliable thing she’ll eat at sushi restaurants. The cucumber hand rolls are for DS, he likes the rolls better but surprisingly they didn’t have them.



We also had some chawan mushi (steamed egg in a cup) and miso soup with clams (DS loves clams). All for 5600 JPY (credit cards accepted). I love that there’s no tipping in Japan! We were given moist towels, but no napkins. The waiter spoke decent English, so we asked for them and were told that they don’t have napkins. This seemed to be pretty common in Japan (not an issue at TDR though). He did bring us an entire tissue box, LOL, must be what the employees use. I learned to just bring my own tissues.

After dinner, DH went back to the hotel with the kids and I went to the small supermarket near door and quickly bought some water, drinks, and yogurt. The supermarket was so convenient and I missed it when we moved on to the other hotels. The kids were conked out by 8 PM.
 
Last edited:
Great start, looking forward to reading more! :)

I considered staying at that hotel for 1 day Tokyo exploration, for the location and that great view! I ended up staying somewhere else, but looks like it would have been great if I had chosen that hotel. It's always good to have a good sushi restaurant nearby. :teeth:

Did you think it's easy to find things to do in kids in Japan? I thought so! There are so many things to do for kids, it's easy to please the kids. And happy kids makes the trip easier. ;) Oh, but how do you travel so light with 2 kids???
 


Great start, looking forward to reading more! :)

I considered staying at that hotel for 1 day Tokyo exploration, for the location and that great view! I ended up staying somewhere else, but looks like it would have been great if I had chosen that hotel. It's always good to have a good sushi restaurant nearby. :teeth:

Did you think it's easy to find things to do in kids in Japan? I thought so! There are so many things to do for kids, it's easy to please the kids. And happy kids makes the trip easier. ;) Oh, but how do you travel so light with 2 kids???

Thanks for reading! I'm enjoying your TR as well. :)

It's easy to find fun places for kids - it's figuring out the easiest logistics that's hard! Packing light...I did do laundry around the middle of the trip at the Sheraton Tokyo Bay. Also, I use packing cubes, everyone gets a medium one and all the clothes fit in there. The kids just wear t-shirts and pants/shorts. Usually DS's pants can be worn a couple days. DD, she usually gets it dirty, but her pants are smaller so I bring more pairs. I brought the kids' Crocs just in case, but they didn't end up wearing them. No extra shoes for me or DH...which was kind of a risk, but luckily it didn't rain too hard and our shoes didn't get wet. All the toiletries are in small containers. I let the kids pack their own backpacks (DD's is really small), but then I go and take out stuff - I tell them you don't need this, or this, or this. :)
 
You must be really better at selecting what to pack! I can pack everything without wasting spaces, but I tend to bring more. And on the way back our luggage were so heavy... since DH joined us in the later half of the trip and could help carry the luggage, I did some shopping. DH said this trip was quite a workout for him. :laughing:
 
Day 2 – Wandering around Asakusa

The kids both woke up around 3 AM. URGHHHH. I guess I can’t blame them since that would be 11 AM PST. I managed to get them to go back to sleep, eventually…. DD went back to sleep later, so woke up later and we got a pretty late start. I figured we would be recovering from jet lag though, so the only plan was to wander around Asakusa.

Lunch was at Yoroiya Ramen. The owner was friendly and spoke good English. We chatted a little and turns out he visited the U.S. for 2 months when he was young. They had soy sauce ramen with either yuzu or dried plum. It was good having the sour taste break up the salty. I still prefer tonkotsu style (pork bone broth) though. We also had some gyoza, which were delicious. I don't remember how much it cost because it was cash only, but it was inexpensive.

This was the dried plum one:



After lunch, we wandered around the little shops in Asakusa and took some pictures. Kaminarimon (Thunder Gate) was under renovation and completely covered so no pictures of that. The kids got some little toys. DD got a Hello Kitty little purse and money set, yen of course, so I guess it’s a good souvenir…? DS got a model kit of the cat from the Yo-Kai Watch cartoon series.





We then went to Matsuya department store in Asakusa Station and saw where the entrance was for the train to Nikko that we would take in a few days. We wandered into the supermarket in the basement and saw some seriously expensive fruit! One mango for 4320 yen, a small watermelon for 5400 yen!



We were all shopped out by this point and jet lag catching up with us, so we went back for a nap.

Dinner was at Doma-Doma, which is in a building right next to the hotel with a bunch of other restaurants. It had started drizzling when we went out and we didn’t feel like getting the rain coats, so this was a random pick. All the restaurants had pictures on the ground floor and I saw a picture of okonomiyaki (savory Japanese pancake). That was why I picked it, but the okonomiyaki turned out not good – way too salty. :( The restaurant was kind of a fusion izakaya (Japanese beer house – though we didn’t have any alcohol).

Takoyaki the size of a baseball with a sparkler on top! A lot of wow factor looking at it, but way too salty again.



This karaage (fried chicken) was yummy. The potato salad came in a separate bowl and the waitress told us to mix it in. I’d never had this combination before, but it totally makes sense.



Pizza I got for the kids (they also had some other Italian dishes, which is why it seemed fusion). It was meh to me, but the kids ate it.



Clams for clam-loving DS:



We also got edamame and the meat skewers sampler (very good), all for 3800 yen (credit cards accepted). Most of the items were only 490 yen. Way cheaper than back home!
 
Last edited:
Day 1, Part 2 - Gate Hotel Asakusa

I booked the Gate Hotel Asakusa Kaminarimon by Hulic (official name) through Travelocity with a 17% off coupon, plus there was 6% cashback through one of those cashback sites. I was charged in USD and the total came to $495 for 4 nights (including taxes and fees), which comes out to $124/night. I thought it was a great deal for Tokyo! We had the Style E Essential Twin room. The term “twin” room in Japan means 2 single beds, “triple” means 3 single beds, and “double” means 1 double bed. I was a little confused at first! Every hotel in Japan has different policies concerning kids, it can be a little challenging figuring out what the policy is. The most common I saw were children count as adults (this was usually the case in hotel rooms that were very small) and one child under 6 sleep free in existing bedding (i.e. bed share). Gate Hotel’s policy was children under 12 sleeps free in existing bedding. Sheraton Tokyo Bay’s policy was children under 17. The TDR hotels were under 11, though it’s probably less of an issue there since many rooms have 3 or even 4 beds.

This is SUPER helpful! I was in tears just last night at just how expensive and illogical Tokyo was going to be because Booking.com wants us to get 2xTwin rooms! I don't want the kids in their own room, or have to split up and go 1 adult 1 child to a room! This info has given me some hope! Maybe we will stay where you have!
 
This is SUPER helpful! I was in tears just last night at just how expensive and illogical Tokyo was going to be because Booking.com wants us to get 2xTwin rooms! I don't want the kids in their own room, or have to split up and go 1 adult 1 child to a room! This info has given me some hope! Maybe we will stay where you have!

The hotel booking sites don't always have the correct information. When I reserved through Travelocity, it correctly let me add the kids. Now I just checked and it's telling me exceed max occupancy - for the same style room. The information in the hotel policies section is still correct though. Even on Gate Hotel Asakusa's own website, there is no where to indicate kids (only number of "persons"). Originally, I was going to book direct (before the Travelocity coupon came up), so I e-mailed them to ask. They responded the next day and told me to just put 2 persons if both kids are going to bed share. Sheraton Tokyo Bay is similar - you can enter the number of children, but then it thinks you want separate beds for them and will only show the quad rooms which are very expensive.

It is very confusing! If you decide on another hotel and aren't sure of the policy, probably best to e-mail the hotel directly to ask. Most likely, they will respond quickly.
 
Day 3 – An exhausting day in Odaiba!
Part 1 – Himiko water bus

Today we took the futuristic looking Himiko ferry (or water bus as the official website calls it) to Odaiba. The Tokyo Cruise terminal wasn’t far from the hotel, less than 10 minutes walk. Adult tickets were 1560 yen, DS was 930 yen (< age 12), and DD was 300 yen (< age 6).



Here’s a picture from outside the terminal, with view of Tokyo Skytree and Asahi Beer Hall (the black building with the “golden turd” on top). Before I looked it up, I was calling it the golden yam. I guess I was being too nice. :laughing: According to Wikipedia, it’s supposed to represent the “burning heart of Asahi beer” and a frothy head.



It was rather stuffy in the ferry with all the glass. I don’t know if it’s always that way, or maybe the air conditioner wasn’t on high enough that day. Some pictures of the inside:





Another view of the “golden turd” from the ferry:





View of Odaiba:



At Odaiba pier, the boat in the background with people standing on top is the Hotaluna. It left 10 minutes before us and arrived after us because it makes one stop. I thought the only difference between it and the Himiko was that it wasn’t direct. When I saw the people on top I thought darn, we should have taken that one instead!

 
Day 3, Part 2 – Takoyaki Museum

The pier is right next to Decks, which is where the Legoland Discovery Center and Takoyaki Museum are. Since we wouldn’t be able to reenter Legoland Center if we left, we decided to get an early lunch before going in. The Takoyaki Museum is not really a museum, but a row of retro shops and a food court at the end with stands selling only takoyaki (ball shaped snacks made with batter and has octopus (tako) inside). Near the entrance are some old arcade machines and we let the kids play with a couple.

There was a store selling very cute little glass figurines.





We then wandered into a store selling “lucky boxes” (i.e. mystery boxes). I had heard about these in a TDR Explorer podcast. It’s a Japanese New Year’s custom for stores to sell these, so I was pleasantly surprised to find a store specializing in them. The ones with regular color wrapping paper (blue, red, green) were 300 yen, the gold colored ones were 1000 yen, and then there were a few bigger boxes that were 5000(!) yen. DD picked a 300 yen one (with the promise that she could get another small thing later) and got a well-made anime figurine of a girl (who or which anime I have no idea!). DS picked a 1000 yen one and got a model car. Some of the bigger prizes (it would be a ticket in the box not the actual thing) were a vacuum, a toaster, a Nintendo machine – this was what DS was hoping for. I was glad we didn’t get a vacuum or toaster! How would that fit in the luggage?? :laughing:



The food court had 6 takoyaki stands in kind of a “C” shape. I looked at all of them but couldn’t really figure out what the differences were, so just randomly picked two. In front of each stand, there is a ticket machine - put money in, press the button for the one you want, out pops a ticket to take to the cook at the stand. It’s all in Japanese, but somehow I was able to figure out which button was for the sampler plate. I can read Chinese (which is similar to kanji), so I think that helped. I recall the bigger buttons were for the sampler plate and sets.

We tried the third one, counting from the bottom of the “C”, which is where you enter the food court. All the takoyaki were the same, the only difference being the topping and sauce. They had the crispy rice coating the outside, making it crunchier and were quite good.



We also tried the fifth stall:



Here's the sampler plate. The ones on the lower right corner are made entirely of egg. It tasted like steamed egg, creamy inside with a delicate shell. They were very unique and yummy, though not technically TAKOyaki….

 
Last edited:
Nice photos! Looks like there are no one else around in the stores??

We went to the Decks in Odaiba too. I liked that retro-style shopping mall. Yeah, saw those cute glass figurines, and had to tell DD to keep her hands in the back! :laughing:

We did not get to try Takoyaki there. I was thinking they would be not be good, maybe fast-food quality, but reading your report and looking at the photos, they look very good!
 
Nice photos! Looks like there are no one else around in the stores??

We went to the Decks in Odaiba too. I liked that retro-style shopping mall. Yeah, saw those cute glass figurines, and had to tell DD to keep her hands in the back! :laughing:

We did not get to try Takoyaki there. I was thinking they would be not be good, maybe fast-food quality, but reading your report and looking at the photos, they look very good!

It was Tuesday around 11 AM, hardly any people at all. There was one guy in the lucky box store shaking all the boxes. :laughing:

I was super nervous about DD in the glass store! That was part of the reason I didn't buy anything...that and I didn't know where I would put it at home.
 
Last edited:
Day 3, Part 3 – Legoland Discovery Center

I got the tickets through JTB (japanican.com). It was a little cheaper than the advance tickets directly through Legoland Discovery. They were 1400 yen/person (adults and children are the same price, only age 2 and under are free). We had to pick a date and it was nonrefundable and not changeable, so I decided to play it by ear and buy it once we were in Japan. The fine print says that the confirmation needed to be printed out, so I went to the front desk of the hotel to ask if they could do that for me. The first person I talked to, his English wasn’t so great and he thought I wanted to make photocopies and showed me a price sheet. When it became clear we weren’t communicating, he told me to wait for the same nice lady who had checked us in (wish I had caught her name). She told me I could e-mail it to the hotel and come pick it up later. When I went to pick it up, she immediately saw me and came out from behind the counter with the print out, no charge. :)

The kids have been to Legoland California (the full size theme park) several times since we go to Southern California at least once a year to visit their grandma. They LOVE it. Our last trip, we spent 3 days there and by the end DH and I were a little sick of it, but the kids STILL asked to go back as we were leaving the last day. :rolleyes: So – I thought, well, there are some different things, we’re going to Odaiba anyways…I guess we’ll go. I would regret that decision – just tried to do too much! But more on that later….

There is an area with Lego models of a lot of the sights around Tokyo. Here’s Decks (the building we’re in), with the Fuji TV Building behind it.



Godzilla pops out and roars. It’s so cute and I love his shadow.



Tokyo Skytree...



...and the golden turd. :laughing:



There is a dark ride called Kingdom Quest where you shoot at targets, some of the targets are physical things (like a treasure chest), but a lot of it is on screens. It was a Tuesday and not that crowded, we went on twice with no wait. The other ride is Merlin’s Apprentice Ride. The seats are attached to hydraulic arms that go in a circle and you have to pedal to go higher. The first time we went, there was a line and we had to wait for the next, next cycle. But then we went again later in the afternoon with no line, we even stayed on a second time. There were 2 different 4D movies. We only saw the Lego Movie one since we’d seen the Chima one before. DS spent a little time building a car to send down a ramp while DD played with the big foam Legos. Near the exit is a big train table with Lego buildings and a Duplo Shinkansen to push around.

There is also a play structure:



And a snack bar, where I got a cup of very expensive coffee (a small cup for 400 yen!). The cup was cute though with Lego mini figure pictures on it....

 
Last edited:
Day 3, Part 4 – Toyota Mega Web

Next stop was Toyota Mega Web, which is in Palette Town. It was a bit of a trek from Decks. I had totally underestimated the distance between buildings in Odaiba, which was why it was such an exhausting day!

We had to go across this pedestrian bridge and then through a parking lot.



When I first started researching, I read about the little cars that the kids could drive. But then I looked on the official website and it said that the ride experiences were only for those who could understand Japanese. When we got there and I saw an information desk, I decided to double check – NO Japanese was required (except for the one where the kids assemble a car). Yay! I checked the website again and now it says Japanese, English, Chinese, or Korean, so I think they probably hired some more bilingual employees.

The Ride Studio is across a walkway from the Showcase. DD did the Petit Ride One for 3-5 year olds. There was no line and it was free (yay!). I see on the website that it’s a promotion though, usualy its 200 yen. She had some trouble steering and DH had to follow her around. :laughing:

DS drove the Pius, which is for 6-9 year olds. I had to sign him up for a slot first. Not an issue that day, but I can see it being one on weekends. Then I had to pay at a ticket machine. He did a training session, which I didn’t see because at this point DD was crying because she couldn’t drive the same car as her brother. :sad: Then there was a test, where DS had to go and stop on command (hand signals from the instructor) and go around cones in a figure 8. He did great, passed, and was on to the track. There is a camera in the car and I could see a close up of his face on the wall-mounted TV – very serious. :laughing: At the end, he got a driver’s license complete with his name, birth date, and picture printed on it. Great deal for 500 yen!





We saw some people drive around in the Camette, which is slightly bigger and can fit 2 people. Unfortunately, DS didn’t meet the height criteria (at least 4’ 5’’).

We then went back to the Showcase side and DH and DS spent A LOT of time looking at cars. :faint:



Concept cars:





This one reminds me of Tron:



Then we moved on to the lower level where I think it’s all current models.



I was SO, SO tired, I sat around most of the time. I started to wonder if I was getting sick, but thankfully, no, probably just jet lag. Before we left, we stopped in a store briefly and saw this cute suitcase:

 
Last edited:
Day 3, Part 5 – Dinner and the forgotten giant Gundam

I was so exhausted, I just wanted to grab a quick dinner any place nearby and then head back to the hotel. Unfortunately, I had shown DS video on YouTube of a kaitenzushi (conveyor belt sushi) place in Odaiba with iPad ordering and delivery by a little shinkansen train. The iPad ordering was no longer a novelty since one had opened near us that had that, but he still REALLY wanted to go. SIGH. It was in yet another building – Diver City. DH led the way and somehow we got there, passing through Venus Fort (which is part of Palette Town). I guess it was nice seeing a little bit of it since I had seen pictures, reminded me of The Venetian in Las Vegas. We finally made it to KAIO restaurant:



It is a testament to how tired we were because we had ZERO food pictures from this meal! It was pretty good for conveyor belt sushi and only cost 4000 yen (credit cards accepted).

Oh the way out, we got some very cute Hello Kitty pancakes to go. It's part of a store selling only Hello Kitty products.



There was also a store selling only shinkansen products (toys, socks, cups, plates, etc.). I wish we had had more time (and energy) to shop. If I had known the kids could do the Toyota Mega Web driving experiences, I probably would have skipped Legoland Discovery. Oh well – next time (I don’t know when), but I will do more shopping! :laughing:

As we were wearily trudging to the train station, I suddenly remembered that we hadn’t seen the giant Gundam yet! It was at Diver City, but a different side of the building than where we entered. The kids and I seriously just wanted to leave, but DH made us go back because when are we going to come back again? I’m glad he did because it was very impressive in person. We happened upon the tail end of the show (I think it was 9 PM), there’s music, lights, and the Gundam’s head moves. DH happened to get a picture of the schedule (at least I think that’s what this is):







DD was especially impressed with the giant Gundam. I think she equates big with old (because her brother is older and bigger). She said to me, he (the Gundam) is so big he must be like 80 years old. Ha ha, I don’t think it works like that. Here she is waving bye.



Finally we could go back to the hotel! I’m not sure which station we ended up going to (there’s several in Odaiba), DH used Google maps and found one he thought was closer (it was still a trek!). We must have taken the Yurikamome, which is supposed to be cool because it’s totally automated and has a nice view at the very front. But it was too crowded and we were too tired to care anyways. There were still a lot of commuters (it was probably 10 PM by this time) and we didn’t have seats. DD started to fall asleep standing up, so DH carried her. There was 1 transfer at Shimbashi. When we arrived at Asakusa, we could not wake DD up, so DH carried her up all those stairs and all the way back to the hotel.

The end of an exhausting day! :faint:
 
Those are really good shots of the Gundam! Outside of Tokyo Disneyland, that's my number one pop culture "must-see" when I finally go!

Commenting to follow along on the rest of your trip!
 

GET A DISNEY VACATION QUOTE

Dreams Unlimited Travel is committed to providing you with the very best vacation planning experience possible. Our Vacation Planners are experts and will share their honest advice to help you have a magical vacation.

Let us help you with your next Disney Vacation!





Top