Japan Trip Update/Report

[gelatoni fan]

Sitting on the plane waiting to leave LAX and see our next flight is delayed. We’re gonna be dragging by the end of this. It might be a good thing to give us more time to get to that next flight

Flight leaving LAX is delayed or your connecting flight somewhere else is delayed? United and American are notorious for boarding passengers when they know there are maintenance problems that will cause a delay and forcing passengers to sit uncomfortably waiting for them to announce the delay and/or cancellation. Asian airlines have the decency to let people wait in the airport as they fix the plane.

 

[Haley R]

Flight leaving LAX is delayed or your connecting flight somewhere else is delayed? United and American are notorious for boarding passengers when they know there are maintenance problems that will cause a delay and forcing passengers to sit uncomfortably waiting for them to announce the delay and/or cancellation. Asian airlines have the decency to let people wait in the airport as they fix the plane.

Our next flight from Las Vegas to our home airport was delayed which was fine that way we didn’t have to worry about missing our connecting flight. We flew with southwest and they had lots of flights cancelled/delayed for weather. I’m guessing wherever the flight came from had the weather issues. We did have some turbulence but nothing too crazy.

 

[Haley R]

Trip Report-Day 19 (last day)
We woke up at 7:30 am because we wanted time to get some things done in the morning. The hotel gave us late checkout until 2 pm but our airport limo came earlier than that. We took our Mifi to the front desk and they are gonna ship that out for us. We also got our tickets for the airport limo (which we reserved ahead of time) and paid our final bill.

We then went to breakfast at The Square. This is where syth has been going to breakfast most mornings. He said they have the same food every day and he didn’t like that. If you’re a Hilton honors member you get to skip the line and the line was huge so that’s a plus. I didn’t mind the food but I only ate there one day. They have traditional breakfast items and some lunch type offerings. I think I ate the most food from the kid station lol.

The airport limo came a little late at 10:49. It was supposed to leave at 10:39 so it wasn’t that late. I made sure to reserve one that was way earlier than our flight. We got to terminal 1 at 12 pm. We got to use the business class line for checking luggage which was way shorter and had no one in line. Going through security and immigration took about 5-10 minutes total. It was a very easy process. We didn’t even have to take our shoes off for security and there was no one in line before us.

After, we went to the ANA lounge near gate 55. It was a lot smaller than the one at LAX with not as many options for food, just some bread and salad. They did end up bringing out some noodles and fried chicken which were good and we found out they had a noodle bar. Syth liked that they had self serve beer on tap lol. The lounge got REALLY busy by 1:30 pm. Every seat was basically full. Syth and I sat in the lounge watching friends on his laptop. Before heading to our gate we spent the last 1,000 yen we had left on some snacks.

We boarded the plane on time. I checked our tv and they added captain marvel to the movies so we both said we were gonna watch it. Once everyone got on the plane they said we were delayed 20 minutes due to weather. I’m guessing the planes got backed up from earlier because the weather wasn’t bad sitting on the plane. We ended up leaving an hour after we were supposed to.
I slept for about an hour after we first got in the air. I wasn’t hungry so I skipped dinner. When I woke up they were still serving and an attendant asked if I wanted anything so I got cheese and fruit. I also had a berry dessert that was really good. When they turned the lights off I ordered a bowl of ramen (because apparently I wasn’t over Japanese food yet). I tried really hard to sleep but I’m really bad about sleeping on planes. I skipped the second meal too and just had a small thing of ice cream.

We actually landed a little early. Bag claim went very smooth because ANA gave us priority by being business class. Immigration/customs was super fast because we used the mobile passport. Getting to the southwest bag check was a nightmare. We were very lucky it wasn’t raining because we had to walk a long way with four suitcases.

We have a priority pass card and there are no lounges in terminal 1 but we were able to eat at the Rock & Brews restaurant. It gives you $28 per person for food.

• Wait staff wasn’t super friendly but they were busy
• We ordered sweet and spicy wings (good), an ultimate burger (dry and too well done), giant pretzel (average), salad (average)
• We went over the $28 pp by $3 so I’m happy about the food for only paying $3

We went to our gate and sat for 2 hours waiting to leave LAX. I slept on the floor for 20 minutes after Dh was nice enough to buy me a blanket. We boarded fine and actually landed early in Las Vegas. Syth played some slots because where else can you do that in an airport and our next flight got delayed. I ate a soft pretzel and a slushee which are my two favorite things.

We’re now finally on our way home. We’ve been up for more than 24 hours so we’re super pooped. We move to Florida on Monday! It’s gonna be a crazy couple of days. Thank you so much to everyone who followed along in our journey!!! I hope we were able to help some people out.

 

[LovesTimone]

Welcome Home Haley!!! ... so glad that you were able to get out on time, and made it home...

Your trip report has been sooooo wonderful... Thanks for keeping us all included in your trip....

I know you guys went straight through on your way home... Do you wish that you would have stopped and stayed over night at a hotel near LAX to get some sleep.... before heading home? With living in Florida, its even farther to get home... So we originally our thoughts were we would go the night before and stay at an airport hotel before heading to Japan... then just power through on the way back to get home... now reading your trip report and talking to other people... then adding in all the what if's that could come up I was thinking that staying over night, getting some sleep might be totally worth another night in a hotel...

You guys are going to be Floridians soon... So when CM ask's you where are you from, you will be able to say... we're locals we live over near Melbourne.... then you get the knowing look... Cool...

Looking forward to checking out your recap, of the hotels, and the other places you guys stayed in....

 

[gelatoni fan]

Our next flight from Las Vegas to our home airport was delayed which was fine that way we didn’t have to worry about missing our connecting flight. We flew with southwest and they had lots of flights cancelled/delayed for weather. I’m guessing wherever the flight came from had the weather issues. We did have some turbulence but nothing too crazy.

Oh yeah. Southwest is really tight with their plane schedules so any small delay can send lots of delays trickling down their system. But they're generally really accommodating when that happens.

 

[MouseyMin]

Haley, thank you so much for the interesting reporting about your trip! I really enjoyed reading it. Good luck with your move!

 

[Haley R]

Welcome Home Haley!!! ... so glad that you were able to get out on time, and made it home...

Your trip report has been sooooo wonderful... Thanks for keeping us all included in your trip....

I know you guys went straight through on your way home... Do you wish that you would have stopped and stayed over night at a hotel near LAX to get some sleep.... before heading home? With living in Florida, its even farther to get home... So we originally our thoughts were we would go the night before and stay at an airport hotel before heading to Japan... then just power through on the way back to get home... now reading your trip report and talking to other people... then adding in all the what if's that could come up I was thinking that staying over night, getting some sleep might be totally worth another night in a hotel...

You guys are going to be Floridians soon... So when CM ask's you where are you from, you will be able to say... we're locals we live over near Melbourne.... then you get the knowing look... Cool...

Looking forward to checking out your recap, of the hotels, and the other places you guys stayed in....

I would say it really depends on the timing of flights. We landed in LAX at 10 am and didn’t have to fly out until 3 pm so we had plenty of time in between. The big deciding factor for us was the points amount. The flight we took was a lot less than waiting a day. Then we would’ve had to pay for another night of a hotel. I didn’t really mind getting home because then it was all over and I was in my own bed.

I’m not sure when I’ll get around to writing hotel reviews, probably not until after the move. The movers come tomorrow to pack and take everything and then we’re gonna leave Tuesday.

 

[Haley R]

Oh yeah. Southwest is really tight with their plane schedules so any small delay can send lots of delays trickling down their system. But they're generally really accommodating when that happens.

We ended up only being about 30 minutes late so not terrible. We’ve had good luck before tweeting them and getting vouchers for issues

 

[Haley R]

Haley, thank you so much for the interesting reporting about your trip! I really enjoyed reading it. Good luck with your move!

Well thank you! We had a lot of fun and the trip report will be a fun thing for Dh and I to look back at. We vlogged some while there and Dh is in charge of editing and uploading those to YouTube (he was the one that wanted to do it). It probably won’t be for awhile since we have the move and him starting a new job.

 

[Haley R]

I slept until 6 pm today

It felt good but wow I slept for 13 hours lol. I ate a huge spoonful of peanut butter since I missed that. I haven’t had any milk so might have to go buy some tonight even though it’s 9 pm. My cat missed me

 

[Haley R]

Now that I’ve been home and had time to think I wanted to give some final thoughts. I might forget things and come back later but I’ll try to include everything I can think of.

• We most likely would not go back to the Kyoto area or hakone. We did like Osaka though and only spent one day there.
• We absolutely loved Tokyo: the whole vibe of the city and the people. We loved every minute there and would definitely go back.
• Our Airbnb host was amazing. I’ll share her account name/listing when I write her review but we would definitely stay with her again
• The trains weren’t as daunting as we thought they would be. We just planned ahead our routes so we knew the general idea where to go. We exclusively used google maps and never had an issue. The trains come more frequently in Tokyo (usually every 3 min) compared to Kyoto (usually every 20 minutes or so). We stayed near inari though so that could be why.
• There was lots of English everywhere: on signs, spoken by the natives, in restaurants. We barely spoke any Japanese the entire 3 weeks.
• Having a mifi was essential. We paid for the fastest one and it still could be slow sometimes, mainly on the trains. The company we used was fantastic though: Japan WiFi buddy.
• The airport limo back to narita from Disney worked great. We booked ahead but our bus had hardly anyone on it.
• There are way more tourists in Kyoto than Tokyo. In Tokyo we mostly only saw people going to work and children going to school. We liked that because they were all very polite and we never had to dodge a tour group.
• We used a large variety of passes for traveling on trains: pasmo cards, Japan rail pass, hakone free pass, Tokyo metro pass, and Disney monorail. The rail pass and hakone pass were purchased ahead online. The others were bought in person. We found the pasmo to be the most annoying just because we constantly had to worry about refilling the balance.
• Ichiran ramen was probably one of my favorite places to eat and I think syth would agree.
• Knowing general Japanese terms/ phrases is helpful and the locals appreciate when you use them. Also, knowing general etiquette for trains and public areas is good to know. People stand on the left of escalators so that others can walk past them on the right. Things like that are good to know so you don’t look like a rude tourist.
• Shipping our luggage was very helpful and not that expensive. Taking luggage on the trains and in the stations is a huge pain. We used luggage free travel and it was all very easy.
• We managed just fine going to TDR without a package. We were able to ride every ride, some more than once. The key is getting to the park at least an hour and a half before opening. If we go back we would like to try a couple nights at the miracosta and/or the Disneyland hotel to experience the happy 15.
• If you’re going during rainy season having sandals was amazing. We never had to dry any shoes and our socks never got wet. Also, having a large umbrella for rain but also sunny days is nice.
• One big tip I can give is don’t over plan your trip. We loved everything we did but we also wished we had planned two or so days to literally explore. Japan is such a safe place that you can go almost anywhere and not worry. So take advantage of that and explore without a plan.
• Some of our favorite things we did were: borderless digital art museum, Pokémon cafe, Arashiyama, TDR, and Shibuya/Harajuku.

This is all I can think of right now. If anyone has any questions let me know.

 

[smeecanada]

Thanks for the wonderful report Haley. Are there many ATM's around the TDR area. We are most likely staying at Sheraton Grande Tokyo Bay.

 

[Haley R]

Thanks for the wonderful report Haley. Are there many ATM's around the TDR area. We are most likely staying at Sheraton Grande Tokyo Bay.

We didn’t use an ATM at Disneyland but when you walk into Disneysea and go right under the monorail station there are ATMs there. I’m sure there are some like that at Disneyland too. The Hilton has an ATM but idk about the Sheraton. My guess is they have one too but I’m sure they probably say on their website.

 

[Calfan]

I slept until 6 pm today

It felt good but wow I slept for 13 hours lol. I ate a huge spoonful of peanut butter since I missed that. I haven’t had any milk so might have to go buy some tonight even though it’s 9 pm. My cat missed me

We've got an orange tabby that could be your cat's twin!

 

[smeecanada]

We didn’t use an ATM at Disneyland but when you walk into Disneysea and go right under the monorail station there are ATMs there. I’m sure there are some like that at Disneyland too. The Hilton has an ATM but idk about the Sheraton. My guess is they have one too but I’m sure they probably say on their website.

Thanks. We live in such a plastic world now. So, want to make sure we will be able to get more Yen it needed fairly easily

 

[caylene44]

Welcome home & good luck on moving! I loved following your trip and fully expect that I'll be messaging you with questions as we start to plan ours for next year I already started taking some notes based on your TR, super helpful.

People stand on the left of escalators so that others can walk past them on the right.

I find this interesting because when I lived on the east coast, it was the opposite. You stand on the right so others can pass on the left. On the west coast where I live now, total free for all. You can't pass anyone on the escalators here because they fill all available space

 

[Haley R]

We've got an orange tabby that could be your cat's twin!

Is it really long? Our cat is ridiculously long

 

[Haley R]

Thanks. We live in such a plastic world now. So, want to make sure we will be able to get more Yen it needed fairly easily

The only place we needed yen at Disney was snack carts (excluding ice cream carts for some reason) and the penny arcade

 

[Haley R]

Welcome home & good luck on moving! I loved following your trip and fully expect that I'll be messaging you with questions as we start to plan ours for next year I already started taking some notes based on your TR, super helpful.



I find this interesting because when I lived on the east coast, it was the opposite. You stand on the right so others can pass on the left. On the west coast where I live now, total free for all. You can't pass anyone on the escalators here because they fill all available space

Feel free to message me whenever. I don’t mind answering questions.

Japan was the first place I’ve ever seen people stand to the side on an escalator. Everywhere else I’ve been it’s just a free for all because most people don’t walk up or down them.

 

[smeecanada]

The only place we needed yen at Disney was snack carts (excluding ice cream carts for some reason) and the penny arcade

So the Quick serve / Sit down restaurants / stores take credit cards with no issue?