We went to Japan again in October; this time to Tokyo and Yokohama. The main reason for the trip was actually hubby's international conference, which he won a travel award AND a mentorship award for! So, Jude and I just tagged along. And since the awards covered his flight and accommodation, we saved a lot by just getting tickets for me and Jude and 2 days accommodation in Tokyo.
We flew with Japan Airlines this time. As we were supposed to arrive in Narita anyway, we decided to spend 2 extra days in Tokyo before heading to Yokohama. And since we have been to Tokyo before during our medical student attachment back in 2009, we decided to make Tokyo Disneyland the highlight of our Tokyo trip!
We arrived in Tokyo about 8 am in the morning. As Tokyo Disneyland (TDL for short) was our main attraction, we booked a hotel in the vicinity of TDL. Of course, the ultimate and ideal dream was to stay in a Disneyland official hotel resort, which is the closest you can get to TDL and Tokyo Disneysea (TDS). But it's just toooo expensive for us, so we booked for a hotel which was way more affordable and still relatively close.
The hotel we booked was Mystays Maihama. The hotel itself is closer to TDS compared to TDL. Even so, the hotel do provide FREE shuttle bus to TDL and TDS, so that's another great feature of the hotel! We arrived about 12pm, and the check in time was 3pm. so we had few hours to kill. We placed our luggage in storage in the hotel lobby and walked to the nearest mall, Ikspiari.
Ikspiari is a shopping mall located near the TDL and the Maihama JR station. It was quite a big mall with different shops and attractions, and the perfect place to kill time! Jude slept the whole time in his stroller as he didn't sleep well on the flight. *On that note, we are SO GLAD we brought along our stroller! We initially thought it would be bulky and troublesome, but turned out to be the wisest decision we made. And almost everywhere in Japan is disabled-friendly, meaning it's also stroller-friendly- there are even lifts for pedestrian bridges! For lunch, we went to the food court, Ikspiari Kitchen.
We checked into the hotel at exactly 3pm. The hotel was a typical Japanese business hotel, so it was quite small. The room we had has 2 single beds; although I must say the beds were quite large, and both Jude and I could comfortably share one. Had basic shower and bath tub, with a small TV. They even have a foot massager in the room, which we adore!! Using the massager after a long day of walking was heavenly :)
At night, we walked to the JR station and took a train to a nearby attraction- Odaiba. Had dinner and a short walk there. We did go to Odaiba back in 2009 before, so there was nothing much new to explore
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Before coming to TDL, I did quite extensive research on it. Like which rides to go, where to eat at, even what snacks to eat and which stalls to get them from, what strategies to use to get FastPasses, where to stand during the parades and shows and so on and so forth. So naturally I was super duper excited to go TDL because... well, it's Disneyland!! and I have always been a Disney kinda person- dreamy and believes in happily ever after, that sort of thing.
BUT............................ it just had to RAIN. IT. JUST. HAD. TO.
And never mind if it rained heavily but for a short while (like typical Malaysian rain), BUT it rained the whole day! It wasn't heavy, just drizzling. BUT it lasted the WHOLE. DAMNED. DAY.
Which was enough to dampen even the most enthusiastic Disney spirit in me :( Our shoes and feet were soggy the whole day that I got blisters all over. Worst part was definitely the ALL THE MAIN PARADES were cancelled!! and the PARADES were something I really looked forward to!!:( They did have back up parade plan, which was 4-6 floats, minus the dancers and the theatrics; but it was definitely not as great as the real parade should be. :( :( :(
And because of the rain, hubby couldn't take out his DSLR from the bag so we didn't have a lot of great shots. Even though we were so enthusiastically dressed up in matching Mickey shirts!
Oh well...... BREATHE...............
After all the whining and complaining, probably the only good thing to come out of the rain was the relatively short queue at the famous attractions. Monsters Inc Hide and Go Seek usually have a minimum 1-2 hours wait, and one of my initial strategy was to get a Fastpass for it the moment we arrived. Because of the rain, the crowds didn't start coming until much later, so the Monsters Inc attraction only had a 25 minutes wait, which was super short! We went that first and then headed to Plasma Ray Diner for breakfast.
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Because of the rain (again), we had to resort to have an early lunch to take cover from the rain. We went to Queen of Hearts Banquet Hall, which is one of the popular eateries in TDL. Great ambience with delicious food.
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After lunch, we basically were just walking around under the rain, our feet soaking wet, spirits dampened. We did our best to try most of the indoor rides though. Jude's favourite ride was Mickey's Philarmagic- thankfully that was indoors, so we rode that twice
The night concluded with the usual light show and fireworks display. Thank God these were not affected by the rain! (it was still drizzling then :( )
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At the end of the day, we were quite tired- physically drained and frustrated by the rain. I guess in the end, it wasn't a complete disaster (trying to be optimistic here), but we did have a bit of fun. Here's to hoping our next Disney experience will be a much much better one than this.
The following day, we left Tokyo for Yokohama. There was a bus stop near our hotel, which have a direct bus service all the way to Yokohama. The journey took about an hour.
We stayed at Breezebay Hotel, which was all paid for. Hubby's conference schedule was quite packed, so have already anticipated that I will be traveling and sightseeing alone with little Jude.
And mind you, solo parent traveling with a toddler is not easy indeed! A lot of preparation needed to be made beforehand. For a start, the sightseeing places that we planned to go to had to be child-friendly, including the journey to those places.
My main game plan as a solo parent traveler was go to only ONE sightseeing place per day. So every morning, we would wake up, go for a good breakfast and then we started our journey. I brought him around in our trusted Britax stroller, so it was quite easy to get around. Considering Japan is quite disabled-friendly/stroller-friendly, so my goal when traveling on train or subway was to find the elevator! Regardless of where the station is, every train station will have one elevator (as opposed to London subway where only certain stations have them).
Unfortunately, the rain did follow us from Tokyo too, so it made the traveling part a little bit more difficult than it should be.
The places we went to were:
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We had lunch at the top most floor of the museum where there was a food court, showcasing different noodles from all over the world- World Noodle Bazaar. Very interesting indeed. The set up was a typical Asian nightmarket aka pasar malam but it's indoor, air-conditioned and everything is so clean!
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Ramen are usually served in relatively large portion but here, they're served in smaller portions. Which is good, so that we can try the different types. Even though smaller, we could only manage to try 2- the pork broth and one tuna-type broth.
Another must-see, child-friendly place in Yokohama is Hakkeijima Sea Paradise. Being obsessed with animals, Jude of course thoroughly enjoyed himself there. There was one episode of major tantrum though (likely cos he was hungry) so we had to leave the sea show before it finished. Huhu. Another thing to travel with a toddler- keep them well fed at all times and always have a Plan B! The weather was still gloomy and cloudy, but at least it had stop raining!
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Ended the final day with a walk along the port
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Finally we were finished with our Tokyo/Yokohama trip. And that time I thought the rain was the worst thing that could happen, but I was wrong! I had my fair share of bad travel experiences (missing luggage, got on the wrong flight once, got on the wrong train once, being air sick) but this is definitely the worst!
As hubby was continuing on his hospital attachment at Utsunomiya, Jude and I returned home first. All was well until 2 hours left for the flight the captain suddenly announced that we had to turn back to Japan due to some technical problems!! We had to detour and land in Osaka. And as we were sitting right at the back, we had to stay in the plane for 2 hours plus before we could leave it! Thankfully Jude was ok through it all.
The airline arranged accommodation for us and also some money for meal, but by the time we got on the bus to go to the arranged hotel, it was already so late and no time for dinner :( And the accommodation that they arranged for us was 1 hour away from Kansai airport!! By the time we arrived at the hotel, it was almost 11pm and we had to sleep early because we have to wake up by 6am the next day to catch the reschedule flight! The next morning, we headed to the airport and since everyone on the flight was checking in at the same time, so the queue was super long! By the time I managed to check in, it was almost boarding time. The check in counter lady had to help me push the stroller (where Jude was still sleeping soundly) and we ran right through the gate. And I could finally eat something substantial only on the flight.
For that, I'm kind of traumatized of Japan (Holiday PTSD, if that's a thing). Not a very pleasant experience at all :(
**** Note: it actually took me a year to actually have time to write this post- half of it few months after the trip, and the remaining half, now that I'm free-er on my maternity leave :p I guess no matter what, I will always want to write about our travels, so that we won't forget the details in the future :) )
We flew with Japan Airlines this time. As we were supposed to arrive in Narita anyway, we decided to spend 2 extra days in Tokyo before heading to Yokohama. And since we have been to Tokyo before during our medical student attachment back in 2009, we decided to make Tokyo Disneyland the highlight of our Tokyo trip!
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| Flying with Japan Airlines |
Tokyo
We arrived in Tokyo about 8 am in the morning. As Tokyo Disneyland (TDL for short) was our main attraction, we booked a hotel in the vicinity of TDL. Of course, the ultimate and ideal dream was to stay in a Disneyland official hotel resort, which is the closest you can get to TDL and Tokyo Disneysea (TDS). But it's just toooo expensive for us, so we booked for a hotel which was way more affordable and still relatively close.
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| Hotel Mystays Maihama |
The hotel we booked was Mystays Maihama. The hotel itself is closer to TDS compared to TDL. Even so, the hotel do provide FREE shuttle bus to TDL and TDS, so that's another great feature of the hotel! We arrived about 12pm, and the check in time was 3pm. so we had few hours to kill. We placed our luggage in storage in the hotel lobby and walked to the nearest mall, Ikspiari.
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| Disney Store at Ikspiari |
Ikspiari is a shopping mall located near the TDL and the Maihama JR station. It was quite a big mall with different shops and attractions, and the perfect place to kill time! Jude slept the whole time in his stroller as he didn't sleep well on the flight. *On that note, we are SO GLAD we brought along our stroller! We initially thought it would be bulky and troublesome, but turned out to be the wisest decision we made. And almost everywhere in Japan is disabled-friendly, meaning it's also stroller-friendly- there are even lifts for pedestrian bridges! For lunch, we went to the food court, Ikspiari Kitchen.
We checked into the hotel at exactly 3pm. The hotel was a typical Japanese business hotel, so it was quite small. The room we had has 2 single beds; although I must say the beds were quite large, and both Jude and I could comfortably share one. Had basic shower and bath tub, with a small TV. They even have a foot massager in the room, which we adore!! Using the massager after a long day of walking was heavenly :)
At night, we walked to the JR station and took a train to a nearby attraction- Odaiba. Had dinner and a short walk there. We did go to Odaiba back in 2009 before, so there was nothing much new to explore
Tokyo Disneyland
where dreams (are supposed to) come true
Before coming to TDL, I did quite extensive research on it. Like which rides to go, where to eat at, even what snacks to eat and which stalls to get them from, what strategies to use to get FastPasses, where to stand during the parades and shows and so on and so forth. So naturally I was super duper excited to go TDL because... well, it's Disneyland!! and I have always been a Disney kinda person- dreamy and believes in happily ever after, that sort of thing.
BUT............................ it just had to RAIN. IT. JUST. HAD. TO.
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| Gloomy day |
And never mind if it rained heavily but for a short while (like typical Malaysian rain), BUT it rained the whole day! It wasn't heavy, just drizzling. BUT it lasted the WHOLE. DAMNED. DAY.
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| Japanese parents are well equipped for the rain with stroller rain covers. Ours is obviously the one without |
Which was enough to dampen even the most enthusiastic Disney spirit in me :( Our shoes and feet were soggy the whole day that I got blisters all over. Worst part was definitely the ALL THE MAIN PARADES were cancelled!! and the PARADES were something I really looked forward to!!:( They did have back up parade plan, which was 4-6 floats, minus the dancers and the theatrics; but it was definitely not as great as the real parade should be. :( :( :(
And because of the rain, hubby couldn't take out his DSLR from the bag so we didn't have a lot of great shots. Even though we were so enthusiastically dressed up in matching Mickey shirts!
Oh well...... BREATHE...............
After all the whining and complaining, probably the only good thing to come out of the rain was the relatively short queue at the famous attractions. Monsters Inc Hide and Go Seek usually have a minimum 1-2 hours wait, and one of my initial strategy was to get a Fastpass for it the moment we arrived. Because of the rain, the crowds didn't start coming until much later, so the Monsters Inc attraction only had a 25 minutes wait, which was super short! We went that first and then headed to Plasma Ray Diner for breakfast.
Because of the rain (again), we had to resort to have an early lunch to take cover from the rain. We went to Queen of Hearts Banquet Hall, which is one of the popular eateries in TDL. Great ambience with delicious food.
After lunch, we basically were just walking around under the rain, our feet soaking wet, spirits dampened. We did our best to try most of the indoor rides though. Jude's favourite ride was Mickey's Philarmagic- thankfully that was indoors, so we rode that twice
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| Gloomy Cinderella castle |
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| Umbrellas everywhere |
The night concluded with the usual light show and fireworks display. Thank God these were not affected by the rain! (it was still drizzling then :( )
At the end of the day, we were quite tired- physically drained and frustrated by the rain. I guess in the end, it wasn't a complete disaster (trying to be optimistic here), but we did have a bit of fun. Here's to hoping our next Disney experience will be a much much better one than this.
Yokohama
My experience as a solo parent traveler
We stayed at Breezebay Hotel, which was all paid for. Hubby's conference schedule was quite packed, so have already anticipated that I will be traveling and sightseeing alone with little Jude.
And mind you, solo parent traveling with a toddler is not easy indeed! A lot of preparation needed to be made beforehand. For a start, the sightseeing places that we planned to go to had to be child-friendly, including the journey to those places.
My main game plan as a solo parent traveler was go to only ONE sightseeing place per day. So every morning, we would wake up, go for a good breakfast and then we started our journey. I brought him around in our trusted Britax stroller, so it was quite easy to get around. Considering Japan is quite disabled-friendly/stroller-friendly, so my goal when traveling on train or subway was to find the elevator! Regardless of where the station is, every train station will have one elevator (as opposed to London subway where only certain stations have them).
Unfortunately, the rain did follow us from Tokyo too, so it made the traveling part a little bit more difficult than it should be.
The places we went to were:
Anpanman Children's Museum
Of course this was a priority on my list. Nothing says child-friendly more than a children's museum right. It's a simple museum with exhibits from the famous Japanese comic/cartoon Anpanman.
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| Another solo parent travel tip: must be "thick face" and always ask the help of others to take a photo together |
Cupnoodles Museum
Another museum we went to was Cupnoodles Museum. This time, the timing coincided with daddy's lunch time in the conference so we were able to do that together. A new, modern museum telling the history of the famous Cupnoodle brand. The fees also includes making your very own cup noodle!
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| Made our own cup noodle- we could draw whatever we wanted, and then choose which type of noodle, seasoning and condiments in it. Then it's all vacuum sealed and packed in an inflated bag for easy carrying! |
We had lunch at the top most floor of the museum where there was a food court, showcasing different noodles from all over the world- World Noodle Bazaar. Very interesting indeed. The set up was a typical Asian nightmarket aka pasar malam but it's indoor, air-conditioned and everything is so clean!
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| The cleanest pasar malam we have been to, for sure! |
Yokohama Ramen Museum
We went to Yokohama Ramen Museum for dinner. Although a "museum" but it's mainly more of a food court with many different shops serving different kinds of ramen. The set up of the place itself was something like Tokyo in the 1950s.
Ramen are usually served in relatively large portion but here, they're served in smaller portions. Which is good, so that we can try the different types. Even though smaller, we could only manage to try 2- the pork broth and one tuna-type broth.
Hakkeijima Sea Paradise
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Another must-see, child-friendly place in Yokohama is Hakkeijima Sea Paradise. Being obsessed with animals, Jude of course thoroughly enjoyed himself there. There was one episode of major tantrum though (likely cos he was hungry) so we had to leave the sea show before it finished. Huhu. Another thing to travel with a toddler- keep them well fed at all times and always have a Plan B! The weather was still gloomy and cloudy, but at least it had stop raining!
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| Dolphin Lagoon |
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| They also had a touch pool with sea cucumbers, star fish and small fish |
Nogeyama Zoo
On our final day in Yokohama, the sun FINALLY showed up! And we made the most if it with a visit to Nogeyama Zoo. A small zoo and despite being free, it's really well maintained and well-kept. The main attraction there was the Red Panda. They also have a really lovely petting zoo where our little brave Jude played with mice and guinea pigs. |
| Bright and sunny at last! |
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| Playing with small white mouse |
Ended the final day with a walk along the port
WORST Flight Experience EVER
Finally we were finished with our Tokyo/Yokohama trip. And that time I thought the rain was the worst thing that could happen, but I was wrong! I had my fair share of bad travel experiences (missing luggage, got on the wrong flight once, got on the wrong train once, being air sick) but this is definitely the worst!
As hubby was continuing on his hospital attachment at Utsunomiya, Jude and I returned home first. All was well until 2 hours left for the flight the captain suddenly announced that we had to turn back to Japan due to some technical problems!! We had to detour and land in Osaka. And as we were sitting right at the back, we had to stay in the plane for 2 hours plus before we could leave it! Thankfully Jude was ok through it all.
The airline arranged accommodation for us and also some money for meal, but by the time we got on the bus to go to the arranged hotel, it was already so late and no time for dinner :( And the accommodation that they arranged for us was 1 hour away from Kansai airport!! By the time we arrived at the hotel, it was almost 11pm and we had to sleep early because we have to wake up by 6am the next day to catch the reschedule flight! The next morning, we headed to the airport and since everyone on the flight was checking in at the same time, so the queue was super long! By the time I managed to check in, it was almost boarding time. The check in counter lady had to help me push the stroller (where Jude was still sleeping soundly) and we ran right through the gate. And I could finally eat something substantial only on the flight.
For that, I'm kind of traumatized of Japan (Holiday PTSD, if that's a thing). Not a very pleasant experience at all :(
**** Note: it actually took me a year to actually have time to write this post- half of it few months after the trip, and the remaining half, now that I'm free-er on my maternity leave :p I guess no matter what, I will always want to write about our travels, so that we won't forget the details in the future :) )
