A very personal Decade of Dreams tour! UPDATED 6/5 About This Page:

[Minnie Lor]

Yeah! You have started your pre-TR. I have been stalking this forum daily to see if you had started a thread. I'm so excited for both of you.

I can't wait to read all about it. My very good friend has a 15 year old daughter that adores all things Japanese. She has been trying to learn the language as well. I'm going to send her a link to your TR so that she can enjoy it too. I told her mom that your TR's are very entertaining/interesting and that she doesn't need to worry about adult content.

[chezp]

Pre-trip report – part two: introducing Japan

While we’re in Tokyo, there are a number of parts of the city that I want to see. I’ll try and explain a bit about each of our stops in this pre-trip report to give you a bit of background. I guess the first thing that you need to know about Tokyo is that it’s home to something like nine million people and that puts it up there with some of the biggest cities in the world. It’s bigger that New York City, London or Hong Kong and will be the largest city we’ve visited to date. I’m aware, from the guidebooks that I’ve read, that as a result, the city is crowded, often plagued by traffic jams and sometimes other problems, such as smog.

Having said that, it also has an amazing amount to see. It’s almost easier to divide it into areas that I want to visit, as within those areas are a fair few sights.

• Chiyoda / Nijubashi – this is home to the Imperial Palace and the surrounding parks. The Imperial Palace isn’t open to the public (except for two days of the year and those won’t be during our stay), so the closest we’ll get is a glimpse of it. This area is probably the closest to our hotel in Akasaka.
• Ginza – this neighbourhood is just to the west of Chiyoda and Nijubashi and is the shopping centre of Tokyo. It’s home to the city’s biggest department stores that are worth visiting and the Sony Centre that showcases future technology. It’s also got the city’s fish market and one of Tokyo’s best landscaped gardens.
• To the north and along the Sumida river that runs through the city is Asakusa, not to be confused with Akasuka, where our hotel is, which is home to one of the city’s most beautiful shrines.
• To the west of Asakusa, you find Ueno Park, where the main draw is the Tokyo National Museum, although the park is well worth seeing too.
• To the west of the city, you find Shibuya and Yoyogi Park, where the Olympics were held in 1964, along with another of the major shrines in Japan.
• Go a little further north of Shibuya and you come to Shinjuku, which is the seat of government and business and worth a visit for the views from the top of the government offices and to see the station there. Why? Because it’s the world’s busiest with three million people passing through it each day!
• There are a couple of other areas that come to life more during the evening and one of those is Roppongi Hills, close to Akasuka, where our hotel is. It’s home to nightclubs, restaurants and shops.
• The other area that comes to life after dark is Obaida. It’s quite a way outside of the city and is on the other side of the Sumida river to the south of the city. It’s built on reclaimed land and again is home to things like shopping malls and restaurants.

So there you have it, your simple guide to neighbourhoods in Tokyo! Now you know just about as much as I do about the city in one easy lesson.

Then it was a case of watching the exchange rates. Let’s just say that the pound, after a period of sustained success, has dived in recent months, much to my disgust. Just after Christmas, I decided to go for it and booked up a three night excursion to Kyoto and Hiroshima, which is basically train tickets for the world famous high speed Shinkansen train between the various different destinations. Having heard all about the legendary time keeping of this thing and its speed, I can’t wait to try it out for myself. Also included in the price is a two night stay at the Karasuma Kyoto Hotel, which looks to be very well located and one night at the New Hiroden Hotel in Hiroshima, again very well located, near to the station there, although a bit of a walk from the sights in Hiroshima itself, but that I can live with.

While we’re in Kyoto, I’m planning to take the train out to the city of Nara, which was Japan’s capital in 8th century and has some beautiful sights. We’ll arrive in Kyoto one afternoon, have that afternoon to explore the city, then will go to Nara the next day and perhaps have time for a bit more sightseeing in Kyoto later in the day. On the third day, we’ll then take the train at lunchtime over to Hiroshima, so again, a bit more time for sightseeing. Kyoto is well known for its history and the story goes that the city wasn’t bombed during the Second World War out of respect for the history there. As a result, they have an amazing mass of historic shrines there and it says something that the city is home to 17 World Heritage sites – not a bad score by anyone’s reckoning.

We get into Hiroshima in the mid to late afternoon (we won’t know the exact time of our trains until we get our tickets a few days before we travel) and my plan is to go over to Miyajama. It’s classed as one of the most beautiful sights in Japan and, for anyone who’s been to Epcot, it will probably be instantly recognisable by the red torii gate there that appears to float in the water. When I read that, I knew that we had to go there! Having said that, it’s known as Island of Shrines and is meant to be home to some beautiful shrines, so I’m keen to see those as well.

The next day will be spent in Hiroshima, seeing the sights of the city, which of course will include those linked to the atomic bomb dropped there in 1945. It should be quite something to see that and no doubt very sobering.

From there, we’ll return to Tokyo, just for the night and then it’s off to Tokyo Disney. I debated for a long time about where to stay at Tokyo Disney. A guidebook to this park was published in 2008, but wasn’t available in the UK for some time, so when I saw it available over here just after Christmas, I invested in a copy. Although it had some useful information, it was no PassPorter when it came to descriptions of hotels and that’s one thing that I was hoping it would have more detail on. I was debating whether we should stay at the MiraCosta hotel. It’s at the entrance to Tokyo DisneySea and is technically within the park and looks amazing. I had read nothing but good things about it, but did wonder if I should economise and go for the Ambassador Hotel instead, another Disney hotel, but nowhere near as nice or as well located. In the end, the MiraCosta won out – and so did a slightly more expensive theme park room, so I can’t wait to see that and enjoy our time there.

While we’re there, we’ll be seeing the Cirque du Soleil show there, ZED, which was no mean feat! Honestly, you’d think that they’d be receptive to English speaking visitors, as the Tokyo Disney website certainly is, but nothing like it. The website only allowed you to book in Japanese and I did give a go, but it’s written Japanese and with three different writing systems (Katakana for Japanese origin words, Hiragana for foreign words imported into the language and then Kanji, which are symbols representing whole words), reading Japanese is not an easy task – nowhere near as simple as speaking it anyway so I had to give up. Eventually, I was able to get tickets through e-mailing my request and that couldn’t have been simpler and the English replies I got from the Cirque du Soleil box office were first class.

At this point, I really have to thank Donna (HiddenMinnie68) for all her help with getting the tickets, as she made some initial enquiries on my behalf. I realised quite early on that she was listed as being in Japan, so I got in touch with her and we ended up regularly private messaging each other and she was full of useful advice as we planned our trip.

Next: who sent me this?!

[chezp]

Pre-trip report – part two: introducing Japan

While we’re in Tokyo, there are a number of parts of the city that I want to see. I’ll try and explain a bit about each of our stops in this pre-trip report to give you a bit of background. I guess the first thing that you need to know about Tokyo is that it’s home to something like nine million people and that puts it up there with some of the biggest cities in the world. It’s bigger that New York City, London or Hong Kong and will be the largest city we’ve visited to date. I’m aware, from the guidebooks that I’ve read, that as a result, the city is crowded, often plagued by traffic jams and sometimes other problems, such as smog.

Having said that, it also has an amazing amount to see. It’s almost easier to divide it into areas that I want to visit, as within those areas are a fair few sights.

• Chiyoda / Nijubashi – this is home to the Imperial Palace and the surrounding parks. The Imperial Palace isn’t open to the public (except for two days of the year and those won’t be during our stay), so the closest we’ll get is a glimpse of it. This area is probably the closest to our hotel in Akasaka.
• Ginza – this neighbourhood is just to the west of Chiyoda and Nijubashi and is the shopping centre of Tokyo. It’s home to the city’s biggest department stores that are worth visiting and the Sony Centre that showcases future technology. It’s also got the city’s fish market and one of Tokyo’s best landscaped gardens.
• To the north and along the Sumida river that runs through the city is Asakusa, not to be confused with Akasuka, where our hotel is, which is home to one of the city’s most beautiful shrines.
• To the west of Asakusa, you find Ueno Park, where the main draw is the Tokyo National Museum, although the park is well worth seeing too.
• To the west of the city, you find Shibuya and Yoyogi Park, where the Olympics were held in 1964, along with another of the major shrines in Japan.
• Go a little further north of Shibuya and you come to Shinjuku, which is the seat of government and business and worth a visit for the views from the top of the government offices and to see the station there. Why? Because it’s the world’s busiest with three million people passing through it each day!
• There are a couple of other areas that come to life more during the evening and one of those is Roppongi Hills, close to Akasuka, where our hotel is. It’s home to nightclubs, restaurants and shops.
• The other area that comes to life after dark is Obaida. It’s quite a way outside of the city and is on the other side of the Sumida river to the south of the city. It’s built on reclaimed land and again is home to things like shopping malls and restaurants.

So there you have it, your simple guide to neighbourhoods in Tokyo! Now you know just about as much as I do about the city in one easy lesson.

Then it was a case of watching the exchange rates. Let’s just say that the pound, after a period of sustained success, has dived in recent months, much to my disgust. Just after Christmas, I decided to go for it and booked up a three night excursion to Kyoto and Hiroshima, which is basically train tickets for the world famous high speed Shinkansen train between the various different destinations. Having heard all about the legendary time keeping of this thing and its speed, I can’t wait to try it out for myself. Also included in the price is a two night stay at the Karasuma Kyoto Hotel, which looks to be very well located and one night at the New Hiroden Hotel in Hiroshima, again very well located, near to the station there, although a bit of a walk from the sights in Hiroshima itself, but that I can live with.

While we’re in Kyoto, I’m planning to take the train out to the city of Nara, which was Japan’s capital in 8th century and has some beautiful sights. We’ll arrive in Kyoto one afternoon, have that afternoon to explore the city, then will go to Nara the next day and perhaps have time for a bit more sightseeing in Kyoto later in the day. On the third day, we’ll then take the train at lunchtime over to Hiroshima, so again, a bit more time for sightseeing. Kyoto is well known for its history and the story goes that the city wasn’t bombed during the Second World War out of respect for the history there. As a result, they have an amazing mass of historic shrines there and it says something that the city is home to 17 World Heritage sites – not a bad score by anyone’s reckoning.

We get into Hiroshima in the mid to late afternoon (we won’t know the exact time of our trains until we get our tickets a few days before we travel) and my plan is to go over to Miyajama. It’s classed as one of the most beautiful sights in Japan and, for anyone who’s been to Epcot, it will probably be instantly recognisable by the red torii gate there that appears to float in the water. When I read that, I knew that we had to go there! Having said that, it’s known as Island of Shrines and is meant to be home to some beautiful shrines, so I’m keen to see those as well.

The next day will be spent in Hiroshima, seeing the sights of the city, which of course will include those linked to the atomic bomb dropped there in 1945. It should be quite something to see that and no doubt very sobering.

From there, we’ll return to Tokyo, just for the night and then it’s off to Tokyo Disney. I debated for a long time about where to stay at Tokyo Disney. A guidebook to this park was published in 2008, but wasn’t available in the UK for some time, so when I saw it available over here just after Christmas, I invested in a copy. Although it had some useful information, it was no PassPorter when it came to descriptions of hotels and that’s one thing that I was hoping it would have more detail on. I was debating whether we should stay at the MiraCosta hotel. It’s at the entrance to Tokyo DisneySea and is technically within the park and looks amazing. I had read nothing but good things about it, but did wonder if I should economise and go for the Ambassador Hotel instead, another Disney hotel, but nowhere near as nice or as well located. In the end, the MiraCosta won out – and so did a slightly more expensive theme park room, so I can’t wait to see that and enjoy our time there.

While we’re there, we’ll be seeing the Cirque du Soleil show there, ZED, which was no mean feat! Honestly, you’d think that they’d be receptive to English speaking visitors, as the Tokyo Disney website certainly is, but nothing like it. The website only allowed you to book in Japanese and I did give a go, but it’s written Japanese and with three different writing systems (Katakana for Japanese origin words, Hiragana for foreign words imported into the language and then Kanji, which are symbols representing whole words), reading Japanese is not an easy task – nowhere near as simple as speaking it anyway so I had to give up. Eventually, I was able to get tickets through e-mailing my request and that couldn’t have been simpler and the English replies I got from the Cirque du Soleil box office were first class.

At this point, I really have to thank Donna (HiddenMinnie68) for all her help with getting the tickets, as she made some initial enquiries on my behalf. I realised quite early on that she was listed as being in Japan, so I got in touch with her and we ended up regularly private messaging each other and she was full of useful advice as we planned our trip.

Next: who sent me this?!

[ilovedisney247]

I am so excited to read this report! Japan is a country I would love to visit in the future and is definitely on my list as I am going to get to all of the Disney Parks! Have a great anniversary trip Cheryl!

[Wendyismyname]

I am so glad you get to fit yet another Cirque show in!!

[debsta922]

This trip sounds amazing. I can't wait to read all about it and to see all your pictures!

[MickeyMAC]

Your plans sound great, glad your getting to see another Cirque show.

[CastleWishes]

Very exciting update. It seems you will have so much to see and you always take great pictures so I'm very excited now!

[Colexis Mom]

What great plans!!

[Disney Franatic]

It sounds like you're planning a memorable trip. Can't wait to hear more.

[rlb38]

great plans ! Looking forward to the full report and photos

[PrincessSharon]

What great plans you've got. Can't wait for more!

[KMB733]

Wow, you plans sound wonderful! There is so much to see and do! Can't wait to read more!

[mcc0313]

I love the title of yout TR....what a beautiful tribute to your 10 year anniversary, and what a amazing trip you have planned to celebrate. So since you are going in March you should catch the tail end of the 25th annivesary and some Cherry Blossoms along the way as well?

You have so much planned, I am amazed at all the research and information you have gotten all together, but in the end you have a erpfectly planned trip so it is definitely worth it

Can't wait to hear more....

[Minnie Lor]

Thanks for the background. So very interesting!