When should we go to Tokyo Disney?

We have all of the katakana and hiragana characters learned. We are working on sentence structure and kanji since there are 1,000-2,000 of those. It’s a struggle but it’s also kind of fun to point things out in the house that we know. I’m adopted too! We actually are looking into getting a Hilton card but we won’t decide for a little bit about that. I’m not sure I understand your last sentence.

I'm sure Japanese, or any foreign language for that matter, is tough for an adult. Korean seems Korean to me as the saying goes... it's weird knowing that I used to speak it, after hearing the language again. Good luck to you, and hope you have success with it.

Sorry on the confusion - I think I saw an article explain that if you buy your tickets in person at either the more expensive on site resorts (3), you can get the 1st and 2nd days to be park hopper instead of 1 park/day. But that probably doesn't apply for the partner resorts like the Hilton anyhow. I was just wondering why you opted to wait until you got there to buy tickets vs. a very slight discount through Klook or having them onhand if you can buy them online and avoid paying cash.
 
I'm sure Japanese, or any foreign language for that matter, is tough for an adult. Korean seems Korean to me as the saying goes... it's weird knowing that I used to speak it, after hearing the language again. Good luck to you, and hope you have success with it.

Sorry on the confusion - I think I saw an article explain that if you buy your tickets in person at either the more expensive on site resorts (3), you can get the 1st and 2nd days to be park hopper instead of 1 park/day. But that probably doesn't apply for the partner resorts like the Hilton anyhow. I was just wondering why you opted to wait until you got there to buy tickets vs. a very slight discount through Klook or having them onhand if you can buy them online and avoid paying cash.
I grew up learning Spanish which came pretty easily to me. It's definitely different trying to learn a new language as an adult.

I guess I read a lot of complaints about trying to buy tickets ahead of time directly from the park's website. I read a lot of people's reviews saying to just get them after you get there. Since we will have 4 whole days at the parks I'm not too worried about doing 1 park per day for the first two days. I think each park really could take up a full day anyway. Then our 3rd and 4th days we will worry about park hopping.
 
I agree, on being to nervous to wait to last min for flights... even the WDW one 2 weeks ago we couldn’t wait past May with rising fuel costs. Typically book by Memorial Day for an aug/sept WDW trip... usually sales.

The Shanghai disney in April, I booked about 5-6 weeks out, but only because I truly wasn’t planning on going at all, and had a fam crises in Korea. Think it was a Priceline deal, China eastern. The taxes accounted for most of the $700, it was odd. I got several large meals, inc beer/wine, snacks, movies. And would have been cheaper without Seoul as a 3rd destination.

Have fun at the game! That’s exciting. Every time I watch a comerica game I see those fireworks lighting up the familiar bldgs behind the outfield, and wish we could be back. We went to Lakeland game and a TB game when we lived in Tampa 15/16’ but haven’t made it to a tigers game in Chicago yet. Does take a true fan to watch them this yr. was sorta hoping they got someone for the expiring contracts Liriano and iggy at waiver deadline. They’re in the 6th pick if the season ended today but can move to 3rd. Wife’s a sparty... I’m still stinging from UM game!

It is weird to think about booking international flights on the same timeframe as domestic, but it seems like that's the consensus I'm hearing. I'm watching prices for next May obsessively in hopes of seeing where the sweet spot is so I know what to expect when I'm actually looking to book for 2020.

We're a divided family - DH is a big U of M fan, one DD is considering Notre Dame and the other wants to go to State. So two of three of the people watching the UM game were happy at the end... :rotfl:

Dh wants to go for 3 weeks but I told him it’ll have to be 2 or 2 1/2. I can’t be gone for 3 weeks. He mainly feels that way because we are learning Japanese and doing a lot of lessons to learn how to read/speak Japanese. We will be doing 4 days at tdr, 4-5 in Tokyo, and 4-5 in the Kyoto area. It should be a lot of fun!

Are you using a particular software program or books to learn? I'm trying to pick up at least some of the language as well. I took a year of it in college and can still remember some very basics, along with most of the hiragana and katakana, but I have no kanji and less conversational ability than I'd like. DD is a little better - she's had two years of high school Japanese, 4 weeks of formal language instruction in Tokyo, and 8 weeks of living there to practice - but she'd like to learn more as well.
 
It is weird to think about booking international flights on the same timeframe as domestic, but it seems like that's the consensus I'm hearing. I'm watching prices for next May obsessively in hopes of seeing where the sweet spot is so I know what to expect when I'm actually looking to book for 2020.

We're a divided family - DH is a big U of M fan, one DD is considering Notre Dame and the other wants to go to State. So two of three of the people watching the UM game were happy at the end... :rotfl:



Are you using a particular software program or books to learn? I'm trying to pick up at least some of the language as well. I took a year of it in college and can still remember some very basics, along with most of the hiragana and katakana, but I have no kanji and less conversational ability than I'd like. DD is a little better - she's had two years of high school Japanese, 4 weeks of formal language instruction in Tokyo, and 8 weeks of living there to practice - but she'd like to learn more as well.
We use a couple different things. I use an app called drops on my phone for vocabulary. You can select what vocab you want to learn and it’s all games so I like it a lot. You only can do it every 9 hours for the free version. I’ve done animals, colors, essentials, numbers, more numbers, food. All kinds of things.

For our lessons we use Japanese pod 101 innovative. You can get a free trial to download everything and then can listen to podcasts. Dh likes to listen to them but I actually just like reading the lessons on paper myself. I do better teaching myself and it’s more of a challenge. We had absolutely NO Japanese before starting so we’ve come along way in about a month.
 


It is weird to think about booking international flights on the same timeframe as domestic, but it seems like that's the consensus I'm hearing. I'm watching prices for next May obsessively in hopes of seeing where the sweet spot is so I know what to expect when I'm actually looking to book for 2020.

We're a divided family - DH is a big U of M fan, one DD is considering Notre Dame and the other wants to go to State. So two of three of the people watching the UM game were happy at the end... :rotfl:



Are you using a particular software program or books to learn? I'm trying to pick up at least some of the language as well. I took a year of it in college and can still remember some very basics, along with most of the hiragana and katakana, but I have no kanji and less conversational ability than I'd like. DD is a little better - she's had two years of high school Japanese, 4 weeks of formal language instruction in Tokyo, and 8 weeks of living there to practice - but she'd like to learn more as well.

With the Olympics in 2020, maybe the seasonal trends won't apply as much and the sooner the better since the flights are going to be in ultra high demand? I thought about 2020, not for the games, but for Beauty and the Beast. It would be really cool, but if I can help it, I'd try to experience less crowds.

I'm a bigger UM fan, but MSU fan 2nd (different than most)... I was accepted at both schools. Neither team looked very good. My older bro went to ND.
 
We use a couple different things. I use an app called drops on my phone for vocabulary. You can select what vocab you want to learn and it’s all games so I like it a lot. You only can do it every 9 hours for the free version. I’ve done animals, colors, essentials, numbers, more numbers, food. All kinds of things.

For our lessons we use Japanese pod 101 innovative. You can get a free trial to download everything and then can listen to podcasts. Dh likes to listen to them but I actually just like reading the lessons on paper myself. I do better teaching myself and it’s more of a challenge. We had absolutely NO Japanese before starting so we’ve come along way in about a month.

Probably not for everyone but what about taking in a Japanese foreign exchange student for a year? Personal teacher, and if you stay in touch, you have someone to practice your Japanese over time.

My parents took in both a German and Dutch student. As a college student, I took an internship in the Netherlands for 4-5 months and visited/toured with the Dutch family friend from the late 80s.

I will check out the Hilton later. Are you using their buses or is it close enough to walk? Or maybe you have to buy a monorail pass ea. day. Are you thinking you'll take a taxi or trains to and from airport... I'm assuming the hotels don't cart you.

I think an article stated there were only 2 Visa atms on property... doesn't seem right. But even with most places taking cards, are you planning on exchanging funds for yen here and taking x amount?
 
Probably not for everyone but what about taking in a Japanese foreign exchange student for a year? Personal teacher, and if you stay in touch, you have someone to practice your Japanese over time.

My parents took in both a German and Dutch student. As a college student, I took an internship in the Netherlands for 4-5 months and visited/toured with the Dutch family friend from the late 80s.

I will check out the Hilton later. Are you using their buses or is it close enough to walk? Or maybe you have to buy a monorail pass ea. day. Are you thinking you'll take a taxi or trains to and from airport... I'm assuming the hotels don't cart you.

I think an article stated there were only 2 Visa atms on property... doesn't seem right. But even with most places taking cards, are you planning on exchanging funds for yen here and taking x amount?
We are waaay too busy to take in a foreign exchange student and honestly probably a little young to do that. We just have a lot going on right now so it would be hard to add something else to the mix.

I think we are going to buy monorail passes to get from the Hilton to the parks. We may walk depending on weather and how we feel. We most likely will take trains from the airport. Google maps makes it pretty easy to do that.

I’m not what we will do at Disney but for the rest of our trip I was going to get a PASMO card and load it with money.
 


We are waaay too busy to take in a foreign exchange student and honestly probably a little young to do that. We just have a lot going on right now so it would be hard to add something else to the mix.

I think we are going to buy monorail passes to get from the Hilton to the parks. We may walk depending on weather and how we feel. We most likely will take trains from the airport. Google maps makes it pretty easy to do that.

I’m not what we will do at Disney but for the rest of our trip I was going to get a PASMO card and load it with money.

It would be nice to pick a hotel that's within a reasonable walking distance. But if it's over a 1/2 mile or so, I'm not sure we'd be thrilled to walk at the end of a long day. I noticed my permanent, hardened blisters from the recent WDW trip. Even with concerns of water rides like Kali and Splash, we had to go with shoes instead of sandals. We'll naturally be taking it at a snail's pace because my mother would be w/us. My tendency is to mirror the enthusiasm of a teenager, 1st visiting WDW... rushing off everywhere. But I survived Disneyland with friends and their baby, and a group of super leisurely paced in laws at WDW. So another good practice in patience for me, I suppose. Wife will probably be happy to have a slow walker with us...after getting upset with me numerous times for being the "fastest walker in the world."
 
It would be nice to pick a hotel that's within a reasonable walking distance. But if it's over a 1/2 mile or so, I'm not sure we'd be thrilled to walk at the end of a long day. I noticed my permanent, hardened blisters from the recent WDW trip. Even with concerns of water rides like Kali and Splash, we had to go with shoes instead of sandals. We'll naturally be taking it at a snail's pace because my mother would be w/us. My tendency is to mirror the enthusiasm of a teenager, 1st visiting WDW... rushing off everywhere. But I survived Disneyland with friends and their baby, and a group of super leisurely paced in laws at WDW. So another good practice in patience for me, I suppose. Wife will probably be happy to have a slow walker with us...after getting upset with me numerous times for being the "fastest walker in the world."
Haha you sound like me. I speed walk everywhere at Disney, especially in the mornings because that’s the best time to get things done but you have to be ahead of the crowd. We took our niece and her mom in February and that was completely different. The niece and I jogged/fast walked ahead but we ended up having to wait for her mom to catch up.
 
We use a couple different things. I use an app called drops on my phone for vocabulary. You can select what vocab you want to learn and it’s all games so I like it a lot. You only can do it every 9 hours for the free version. I’ve done animals, colors, essentials, numbers, more numbers, food. All kinds of things.

For our lessons we use Japanese pod 101 innovative. You can get a free trial to download everything and then can listen to podcasts. Dh likes to listen to them but I actually just like reading the lessons on paper myself. I do better teaching myself and it’s more of a challenge. We had absolutely NO Japanese before starting so we’ve come along way in about a month.

I'll have to check those out. I've been playing with Mango through our library's website and that one is okay, but for someone like me who learns better by reading it isn't the best format. My middle schooler is starting Memrise at school this year, since they've moved from "everyone takes Spanish" to allowing the kids to select their own languages with a facilitator who monitors their progress and practice time, and she's taking Japanese as well (she likes the idea of it being a "secret girls language" that just me, her and DD17 can use to exclude DH & DS :rotfl:) so I've been thinking I'll try that one along with her as well.

My older daughter is using the Genki program developed by Japan Times, and that's a good one. It was what my college courses used and it is a good mix of theoretical and conversational. But she keeps the textbooks at school and I'm too cheap to buy a second set, so I haven't done much with it since my class ended.

With the Olympics in 2020, maybe the seasonal trends won't apply as much and the sooner the better since the flights are going to be in ultra high demand? I thought about 2020, not for the games, but for Beauty and the Beast. It would be really cool, but if I can help it, I'd try to experience less crowds.

I'm a bigger UM fan, but MSU fan 2nd (different than most)... I was accepted at both schools. Neither team looked very good. My older bro went to ND.

I think we'll be there and gone before the Olympics rush. Our tentative dates are mid-May to mid-June and the Olympics opening ceremony isn't until July 24; we'll set specific dates as soon as the college acceptances start, but the plan is to leave as soon as her school year is over and most wrap up sometime in early May. So hopefully the Olympics won't be too much of a factor in either crowds or pricing.

DD talked for a minute about going during the Olympics, because some of the kids who were on the exchange with her are planning to go then, but she decided it would be nicer to tour the country when it isn't so hot (she was there for the record-setting heat wave this summer and isn't keen on a repeat!).
 
I'll have to check those out. I've been playing with Mango through our library's website and that one is okay, but for someone like me who learns better by reading it isn't the best format. My middle schooler is starting Memrise at school this year, since they've moved from "everyone takes Spanish" to allowing the kids to select their own languages with a facilitator who monitors their progress and practice time, and she's taking Japanese as well (she likes the idea of it being a "secret girls language" that just me, her and DD17 can use to exclude DH & DS :rotfl:) so I've been thinking I'll try that one along with her as well.

My older daughter is using the Genki program developed by Japan Times, and that's a good one. It was what my college courses used and it is a good mix of theoretical and conversational. But she keeps the textbooks at school and I'm too cheap to buy a second set, so I haven't done much with it since my class ended.



I think we'll be there and gone before the Olympics rush. Our tentative dates are mid-May to mid-June and the Olympics opening ceremony isn't until July 24; we'll set specific dates as soon as the college acceptances start, but the plan is to leave as soon as her school year is over and most wrap up sometime in early May. So hopefully the Olympics won't be too much of a factor in either crowds or pricing.

DD talked for a minute about going during the Olympics, because some of the kids who were on the exchange with her are planning to go then, but she decided it would be nicer to tour the country when it isn't so hot (she was there for the record-setting heat wave this summer and isn't keen on a repeat!).

Hopefully they don’t start to raise airfare that far ahead of the games. Wouldn’t think so. Super hot temps would not be ideal when outside walking/standing all day, but us personally are more concerned with kids being out of school and more crowds in July over temperature concerns. We just got back from FL and I think it was 92, felt like low 100s Ea day w/ humidity? But I don’t think I ever felt that it was too hot to be at WDW or I just didn’t seem to notice with all of the park planning:).
 
Hopefully they don’t start to raise airfare that far ahead of the games. Wouldn’t think so. Super hot temps would not be ideal when outside walking/standing all day, but us personally are more concerned with kids being out of school and more crowds in July over temperature concerns. We just got back from FL and I think it was 92, felt like low 100s Ea day w/ humidity? But I don’t think I ever felt that it was too hot to be at WDW or I just didn’t seem to notice with all of the park planning:).

I don't love the heat, but it doesn't slow me down much at WDW either. But that trip isn't as active as what we're planning for this one. My daughter has hiking, kayaking and mountain climbing on the agenda (another perk of the earlier dates - it gets me out of climbing Fuji-san with her! She wanted to make the climb if we were there in season). Since we're heading as far south as Yakushima and spending most of the trip in the southwest part of Honshu, going a bit earlier in the year should give us milder weather for being active outdoors. I'm tentatively planning 3 days at Tokyo Disney, 4 to explore Tokyo proper, and the rest of the time in the southern part of the country. Ideally we'll be there about 3-3.5 weeks altogether.
 
I'll have to check those out. I've been playing with Mango through our library's website and that one is okay, but for someone like me who learns better by reading it isn't the best format. My middle schooler is starting Memrise at school this year, since they've moved from "everyone takes Spanish" to allowing the kids to select their own languages with a facilitator who monitors their progress and practice time, and she's taking Japanese as well (she likes the idea of it being a "secret girls language" that just me, her and DD17 can use to exclude DH & DS :rotfl:) so I've been thinking I'll try that one along with her as well.

My older daughter is using the Genki program developed by Japan Times, and that's a good one. It was what my college courses used and it is a good mix of theoretical and conversational. But she keeps the textbooks at school and I'm too cheap to buy a second set, so I haven't done much with it since my class ended.



I think we'll be there and gone before the Olympics rush. Our tentative dates are mid-May to mid-June and the Olympics opening ceremony isn't until July 24; we'll set specific dates as soon as the college acceptances start, but the plan is to leave as soon as her school year is over and most wrap up sometime in early May. So hopefully the Olympics won't be too much of a factor in either crowds or pricing.

DD talked for a minute about going during the Olympics, because some of the kids who were on the exchange with her are planning to go then, but she decided it would be nicer to tour the country when it isn't so hot (she was there for the record-setting heat wave this summer and isn't keen on a repeat!).
That’s awesome! I wish we would’ve had the choice although I don’t think I would’ve picked Japanese back then lol. School is so different now and I’m not even that old. Is the one your other daughter doing expensive?
 
That’s awesome! I wish we would’ve had the choice although I don’t think I would’ve picked Japanese back then lol. School is so different now and I’m not even that old. Is the one your other daughter doing expensive?

I probably would have, so I'm totally jealous! My high school was ahead of the times in imposing a foreign language requirement to graduate, and our choices were French or Spanish. I think I remember about enough to order a glass of wine in Mexico. :rotfl: But back in the dark ages, we'd have needed a teacher that actually spoke the languages to have more choices, not just a web-enabled device, an app, and a teacher to make sure the kids are working rather than goofing off. My older daughter's high school Japanese was totally online, and so is the middle school choose-your-language program. The middle school program is especially cool because it is presented as world languages, and the kids will give presentations over the course of the year to share what they're learning about the culture, language, food, etc. of a country where the language they chose is spoken.

The Genki books aren't expensive by textbook standards, but not so cheap that I am of a "just get another one" mindset about them. I think each volume (there are two, one for each semester when presented as a college class) cost about $50 for the textbook and $25 for the accompanying workbook.
 
I probably would have, so I'm totally jealous! My high school was ahead of the times in imposing a foreign language requirement to graduate, and our choices were French or Spanish. I think I remember about enough to order a glass of wine in Mexico. :rotfl: But back in the dark ages, we'd have needed a teacher that actually spoke the languages to have more choices, not just a web-enabled device, an app, and a teacher to make sure the kids are working rather than goofing off. My older daughter's high school Japanese was totally online, and so is the middle school choose-your-language program. The middle school program is especially cool because it is presented as world languages, and the kids will give presentations over the course of the year to share what they're learning about the culture, language, food, etc. of a country where the language they chose is spoken.

The Genki books aren't expensive by textbook standards, but not so cheap that I am of a "just get another one" mindset about them. I think each volume (there are two, one for each semester when presented as a college class) cost about $50 for the textbook and $25 for the accompanying workbook.
We had the choice of Spanish or French, but my school eventually got rid of French for budgeting so you got Spanish or Spanish lol. I actually grew up in Georgia and we started learning Spanish there in Kindergarten so I was WAY ahead of the other kids when my family moved to the Midwest. The kids here didn't start until 8th grade. I'm not sure what they do now, but I hope they are offering more than Spanish. I remember a little bit from Spanish, but I probably couldn't keep up a conversation with someone.

I was wondering about the price in case I wanted to get them, but I don't want to pay that much. That's reasonable for a textbook, but still more than I'd like to pay. We probably don't need a lot of Japanese because I read that they speak a lot of English there and a lot of the signs are in English. It's still nice to know the basic vocab, though.
 
Good luck with your lessons! that's very ambitious. I should get off my butt and start trying to learn some Korean - I lost it after the 1st grade (adopted). I'll check out the Hilton, I doubt we'll want to try to book 2 rooms at something like $450/night on property. I think there is a promo on something like 100k Hilton pts on a new credit card bonus. That's weird on having to pay cash for tickets on site. I'm guessing that you must be avoiding to pay online in advance to try to get PH on day1-2 by buying at hotel.

One of the goals of our trip to Asia next spring is to visit my daughter's birthmother and sister in Seoul (1st time). I'd love to hear some tips if you are willing to share privately (making waves travel at g mail dot com). We are excited to be ending in Tokyo - with a visit to DisneySea!
 
One of the goals of our trip to Asia next spring is to visit my daughter's birthmother and sister in Seoul (1st time). I'd love to hear some tips if you are willing to share privately (making waves travel at g mail dot com). We are excited to be ending in Tokyo - with a visit to DisneySea!

Hi Sip,
I will send you a message (here if it works, otherwise gmail). I also don't mind talking about it here. April 2018 was my 1st time returning to Seoul to see my birthmom. I had scheduled Shanghai Disney partially because the connection made it much much cheaper ($700 vs. something close to $2000 booked too close to date in March), and because I knew there be drama and wanted something to look forward to. When are you going to Tokyo? I didn't even know there was a DisneySea over there. We'd like to go on a cruise someday but always seem to prefer to choose WDW trips (about 100). I think it's mainly the costs and preferring to be on land. But after we get through the global parks, we might be tempted to do a Caribbean Disney Cruise. I'm talking to mother tonight to discuss a sketch of dates. I wanted to see about exclusively going to Japan, but it sounds like she wants us going to Seoul too - with only about a week or so of vacation.
 
I was wondering about the price in case I wanted to get them, but I don't want to pay that much. That's reasonable for a textbook, but still more than I'd like to pay. We probably don't need a lot of Japanese because I read that they speak a lot of English there and a lot of the signs are in English. It's still nice to know the basic vocab, though.

Yeah, my daughter assures me that I already have enough Japanese to get by. I can ask if someone speaks English, tell them that I'm from America, and ask/understand basic directions, along with conversational pleasantries like please/thank you/excuse me. Even in the more rural areas where she spent half her trip, most people spoke at least some English and understood a bit more. Her advice was that if you need help or to ask directions, look for younger adults to ask because their years of English classes and Labo clubs are fresher in their minds. Most of the people she encountered who didn't have any English were older.
 
Yeah, my daughter assures me that I already have enough Japanese to get by. I can ask if someone speaks English, tell them that I'm from America, and ask/understand basic directions, along with conversational pleasantries like please/thank you/excuse me. Even in the more rural areas where she spent half her trip, most people spoke at least some English and understood a bit more. Her advice was that if you need help or to ask directions, look for younger adults to ask because their years of English classes and Labo clubs are fresher in their minds. Most of the people she encountered who didn't have any English were older.
Well that’s good to know. If all else fails I can use google translate
 

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