2018 trip to Tokyo/Osaka/Kyoto. Ask any questions you may have.

[ionz13]

We just got back from a two week stay in Japan. We did a variety of hotels, but the two that we used for Disneyland were the Hilton Tokyo bay and The Urayasu Brighton hotel.

Hilton Tokyo Bay
Pros:

• Close to Disneyland, take a less than five min walk to the Monorail and ride it for your destination. Disneysea is the next stop.
• Disney partner hotel: so you can purchase tickets to the park here and have no problem getting in if the park is crowded (see Brighton hotel later)
• Shuttle from Narita airport to the hotel, although you are dropped off last of all the hotels that you have to pass first.
• Gym
• Mini Fridge for the Celebrio room we were in
• Bus to Ikspiari

Cons:

• No food other than the hotel food and the convenience store in the lobby (not too great of a selection when compared to 7-11 and Lawson).
• The hotel felt like your disney value hotels at disneyworld. Just a room with a shower.
• Not convenient to get to anything other than disneyland. To get to tokyo you'd have to use the Monorail to Maiahama station, then Keiyo line to Tokyo.

Urayasu Brighton Hotel
Pros:

• Lawson on the 2nd level outside, great for getting snacks and breakfast food.
• Nicer hotel rooms. We were on the 21st fl which had snacks, water, soda, and beer/sake/wine coolers for free!
• Also a disney "partner" hotel (it's named something else that I cannot recall). You can purchase tickets in the lobby, but if the parks are at capacity the tickets cannot be used. We had no problem b/c we arrived 30-60 min before opening with no problems.
• There is a shuttle bus that will take you to the front of Disneyland (takes ~20 min)
• easier to get to Tokyo than Hilton bay, Just catch the Keiyo line. Urayasu station is right out of the hotel.
• More food around this hotel

Cons:

• Further from Disney and not a guaranteed entry
• Not really themed for Disney.
• One stop away from Maihama station.

My wife and I thought the Urayasu Hotel was a nicer choice if you are willing to stay "offsite". The Hilton tokyo bay hotel was considered on site to Disney, but it was sooo far off that it was not convenient to do anything but what the hotel offered food wise and if you were to go to Disneyland/Disneysea.

Disneyland:

• We arrived early, about 40 min prior to opening at 9. We were able to get fast passes for Monsters inc twice and Pooh once. Then that was it. Our strategy was to go straight to Monsters inc, FP it, and then ride it. Definitely cut through world bazaar and go left to hit monsters inc quickly. We thought this ride was the most fun, but it needs a score like buzz lightyear or Toy story
• When we got to Pooh the line was already 45 min and growing. There was also a HUGE line for the FP for Pooh and could not get another one till 10:30 (it was like 9:30 at this time) . So we went to Toontown and killed some time till our next FP.
• Roger rabbit is the same as Disneyland.
• We finally were able to get a 7:40p FP for pooh at 11 ish.
• Queen of hearts banquet hall was nice for decor, but food was Ok. We had the chicken and steak. Chicken was dry, steak was good. FYI, you cannot just sit down and relax here, CMs will shoo you away until you have food.
• We had Hungry bear cafe for dinner and it was pretty good. Curry restaurant. We shared a large curry pork katsu.
• Its a small world was a bit crowded. Not like America where you can just walk through the queue and get on. We waited about 15 min. The lands are not organized like DL or MK, seems to be a mish mash of whatever with Disney characters throughout.
• It rained on us so we spent a lot of time at the world bazaar and indoor rides like Country bears and Haunted mansion.

We purchased a suica card the station to use and kept loading it with money so we would not have to deal with too much change. Extremely convenient for the trains and at convenience stores. It can only be loaded with cash at train stations, but there are plenty of machines and they have English. Also a plus is they will take most change, I think down to 10yen. So this is an easy way to get rid of some loose change. When we finished our trip, we only had about 600 yen leftover in coins. Only problem is that we forgot to exchange the Suica card to get back our 500 Yen.

We used Japan wireless for the pocket Wifi and it was GREAT! Just landed at Narita airport, found the PO box at the 4th floor. The wifi lasted about 8-10 hrs, so not a whole day of exploring, but they provided a small external battery with it so it could last the day. Easy to return too, just package it up with the stuff they provide and toss it in the mail (we used the 4th floor again at the airport). Plus it was cheap, about $100 for the two weeks. No signs of slowing or throttling and we used it ALL the time. We streamed Netflix in our hotel (instead of TV in Japanese).

 

[indoshakespeare]

How long do you suggest first-timers spend in each city?

 

[Leilanie94]

Glad you had a magical time in Tokyo. Thank you for you trip report and suggestions!
What did you see and do in Osaka and Kyoto?

 

[ionz13]

How long do you suggest first-timers spend in each city?

We are from CA and had to deal with a 16 hr time change with an 11 ish hour flight. So we lost a day just to get to Japan. We left Sat at 12pm and arrived Sunday at 330pm. We spent two days in the disneyland area initially, but came back for an additional two more days. Granted those four days, we did not spend all the time for Disney. One day was for Odaiba (very close about 20-35 min train ride) and the other was for Tsukiji and Akihabara.

We also went to Osaka/Kyoto. We stayed in Osaka and took the train into Kyoto twice. Slightly bad idea b/c a train ride was about 1 hr from our hotel to Kyoto; and there's lots to see there. We spent 5 days here. I felt that this was more than enough time to complete the major things we wanted to see.

Lastly we spent about two days in the tokyo area, Shibuya. Not nearly enough time here. We got rained on and had some stomach problems so one day was a complete loss for us. We missed out on a lot here.

Glad you had a magical time in Tokyo. Thank you for you trip report and suggestions!
What did you see and do in Osaka and Kyoto?

In Osaka, we went to the aquarium, which was nice to see and not too far/difficult to get to. I'd suggest skipping the Cup noodle museum here, it was not that great for us b/c the tasting room was closed, everything was in Japanese and we were unable to download the audio file for the app.
Dotonbori st, Osaka castle

For Kyoto: Shrines, Fushimi Inari and the Golden shrine. Walked the Philosopher's path which was nice.

Sounds like we didnt do much in kyoto, mainly b/c there's so much walking and transferring of buses. We got worn out. One day we walked 10 miles.

 

[Leilanie94]

We are from CA and had to deal with a 16 hr time change with an 11 ish hour flight. So we lost a day just to get to Japan. We left Sat at 12pm and arrived Sunday at 330pm. We spent two days in the disneyland area initially, but came back for an additional two more days. Granted those four days, we did not spend all the time for Disney. One day was for Odaiba (very close about 20-35 min train ride) and the other was for Tsukiji and Akihabara.

We also went to Osaka/Kyoto. We stayed in Osaka and took the train into Kyoto twice. Slightly bad idea b/c a train ride was about 1 hr from our hotel to Kyoto; and there's lots to see there. We spent 5 days here. I felt that this was more than enough time to complete the major things we wanted to see.

Lastly we spent about two days in the tokyo area, Shibuya. Not nearly enough time here. We got rained on and had some stomach problems so one day was a complete loss for us. We missed out on a lot here.



In Osaka, we went to the aquarium, which was nice to see and not too far/difficult to get to. I'd suggest skipping the Cup noodle museum here, it was not that great for us b/c the tasting room was closed, everything was in Japanese and we were unable to download the audio file for the app.
Dotonbori st, Osaka castle

For Kyoto: Shrines, Fushimi Inari and the Golden shrine. Walked the Philosopher's path which was nice.

Sounds like we didnt do much in kyoto, mainly b/c there's so much walking and transferring of buses. We got worn out. One day we walked 10 miles.

ionz13:
Thank you again for your thoughts!

We went to Tokyo in July 2019. There is so much to see and do in Japan!!!!

Osaka: we went to Dontonbori and Shishaibashi area. We enjoyed those octopus balls and ramen.

Kyoto: We went to Zen temples, Fushimi Inari, the Golden Shrine, and Monkey Park.

 

[mousefan73]

Hi There!
Thanks for your report and offering to answer questions. My mom and I are tossing the idea of a Japan Disney trip.
I have some general questions that concern traveling with elderly. My mother is 68 and is mobile. But very slow and cannot stand for a very long time. In WDW she does rides like HM, Soarin etc.. but I have to help her stead herself getting from the moving walkway to the ride vechile.. She walks with no aids. but is the granny type that looks for benches and is happy sitting and observing for a while. So here are our questions.

1. Public transport Japan.. is it really that bad where 1000s are squashed in a train and standing room only?
2. How is public tranpost to and around disney?
3. Getting around japan how was that?
4. Public restrooms... clean, easy to get too, plenty about?


Also how would you consider the crowds vs WDW?

thanks

 

[ionz13]

1. Public transport Japan.. is it really that bad where 1000s are squashed in a train and standing room only?
It's very good in Japan. We used it for all of our travels while we were there. We did have to use some buses from the airport, but other than that the trains are great. As far as shoving thousands of people into a train, they really do not do that anymore. Most people are courteous about personal space. It's crowded at times of the day (usu 8-10ish and 3-7ish). We sort of planned our day to try and avoid travel during these times and it sort of worked out. We did have to travel with our two luggages and backpacks once during the prime times, but it was ok. There are "dedicated" seats for the elderly, pregnant, handicapped, and one more that I cannot recall. Sometimes its too crowded for people to even move to offer the seats, but I did see it happen when less crowded. Generally we stood on the trains, but people are constantly getting on/off and a seat was generally found during these times.

2. How is public transport to and around disney?
transport to Disney from anywhere requires you go to the Keiyo line and get off at Maihama station. From here you can walk to Ikspiari, like downtown disney or Disney springs, and a little further is Disneyland. I think you can also catch the monorail here, but we never needed to. You would have to use the monorail for Disneysea I think.

3. Getting around japan how was that?
It was not difficult. We had a pocket Wifi and it worked in the subways. trains were on time and were in English for the most part. The trains would make announcements for the stops in Japanese and English. There were signs that changed from English to Japanese for the stops. Lots of STAIRS. Elevators and escalators are around, but require a bit "out of the way" walking, i.e. not the quickest way out of the station.

4. Public restrooms... clean, easy to get too, plenty about?
There are public restrooms at the convenience stores; Lawson, Family Mart, 7-11; generally clean. No toilet seat covers. The ones at restaurants are very clean we found. Nothing was seen like a chinese restaurant bathroom in Japan. They all have Bidets which may be a little odd, but you get used to it.


Also how would you consider the crowds vs WDW?
The crowds are very different. Americans are leisurely when compared to the Japanese at Disney. The FP for the popular rides run out quickly. the good thing is that if you have a game plan, like we wanted to mainly hit the rides/attractions that are for sure different than any other Disney park, it all works out ok. For Disneyland, we did not go on a LOT of the rides; we skipped space mountain, thunder mountain was closed, snow white, peter pan, splash mountain, Buzz, Stitch, Jungle cruise.. A lot. But we did go for Pooh's hunny hunt, Monsters inc ride and go seek, its a small world, and some restaurants; queen of hearts banquet and hungry bears.

let me know if there's anything else I can answer.