A very personal Decade of Dreams tour! UPDATED 6/5 - Page 42 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
As of January 1, 2019, we have closed our forums. This is a decision we did not come to lightly, but it is necessary. The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk. The server software itself must be updated, and it cannot be without removing the forums.
So it is with a heavy heart that we say goodbye to our long-running forums. They came online in 2000 and brought together so many wonderful Disney fans. We had friendships form, careers launch, couples marry, children born ... all because of this amazing community.
Thank you to each of you who were a part of this community. You made it possible.
And a very special thank you to our Guides (moderators), past and present, who kept our forums a happy place to be. You are the glue that held everything together, and we are forever grateful to you. Thank you aliceinwdw, Caldercup, MrsM, WillCAD, Fortissimo, GingerJ, HiddenMickey, CRCrazy, Eeyoresmom, disneyknut, disneydani, Cam22, chezp, WDWfan, Luvsun, KMB733, rescuesk, OhToodles!, Colexis Mom, lfredsbo, HiddenMickey, DrDolphin, DopeyGirl, duck addict, Disneybine, PixieMichele, Sandra Bostwick, Eeyore Tattoo, DyanKJ130, Suzy Q'Disney, LilMarcieMouse, AllisonG, Belle*, Chrissi, Brant, DawnDenise, Crystalloubear, Disneymom9092, FanOfMickey, Goofy4Goofy, GoofyMom, Home4us123, iamgrumpy, ilovedisney247, Jennifer2003, Jenny Pooh, KrisLuvsDisney, Ladyt, Laughaholic88, LauraBelle Hime, Lilianna, LizardCop, Loobyoxlip, lukeandbrooksmom, marisag, michnash, MickeyMAC, OffKilter_Lynn, PamelaK, Poor_Eeyore, ripkensnana, RobDVC, SHEANA1226, Shell of the South, snoozin, Statelady01, Tara O'Hara, tigger22, Tink and Co., Tinkerbelz, WDWJAMBA, wdwlovers, Wendyismyname, whoSEZ, WildforWD, and WvuGrrrl. You made the magic.
We want to personally thank Sara Varney, who coordinated our community for many years (among so many other things she did for us), and Cheryl Pendry, our Message Board Manager who helped train our Guides, and Ginger Jabour, who helped us with the PassPorter-specific forums and Live! Guides. Thank you for your time, energy, and enthusiasm. You made it all happen.
There are other changes as well.
Why? Well, the world has changed. And change with it, we must. The lyrics to "We Go On" for IllumiNations say it best:
We go on to the joy and through the tears
We go on to discover new frontiers
Moving on with the current of the years.
We go on
Moving forward now as one
Moving on with a spirit born to run
Ever on with each rising sun.
To a new day, we go on.
It's time to move on and move forward.
PassPorter is a small business, and for many years it supported our family. But the world changed, print books took a backseat to the Internet, and for a long time now it has been unable to make ends meet. We've had to find new ways to support our family, which means new careers and less and less time available to devote to our first baby, PassPorter.
But eventually, we must move on and move forward. It is the right thing to do.
So we are retiring this newsletter, as we simply cannot keep up with it. Many thanks to Mouse Fan Travel who supported it all these years, to All Ears and MousePlanet who helped us with news, to our many article contributors, and -- most importantly -- to Sara Varney who edited our newsletter so wonderfully for years and years.
And we are no longer charging for the Live Guides. If you have a subscription, it's yours to keep for the lifetime of the Live Guides at no additional cost. The Live Guides will stay online, barring server issues and technical problems, for all of 2019.
That said, PassPorter is not going away. Most of the resources will remain online for as long as we can support them, and after that we will find ways to make whatever we can available. PassPorter means a great deal to us, and to many of you, and we will do our best to keep it alive in whatever way we can. Our server costs are high, and they'll need to come out of our pockets, so in the future you can expect some changes so we can bring those costs down.
Thank you, thank you, thank you for your amazing support over the years. Without you, there's no way us little guys could have made something like this happen and given the "big guys" a run for their money. PassPorter was consistently the #3 guidebook after the Unofficial and Official guides, which was really unheard of for such a small company to do. We ROCKED it thanks to you and your support and love!
If you miss us, you can still find some of us online. Sara started a new blog at DisneyParkPrincess.com -- I strongly urge you to visit and get on her mailing list. She IS the Disney park princess and knows Disney backward and forward. And I am blogging as well at JenniferMaker.com, which is a little craft blog I started a couple of years ago to make ends meet. You can see and hear me in my craft show at https://www.youtube.com/c/jennifermaker . Many PassPorter readers and fans are on Facebook, in groups they formed like the PassPorter Trip Reports and PassPorter Crafting Challenge (if you join, just let them know you read about it in the newsletter). And some of our most devoted community members started a forum of their own at Pixie Dust Lane and all are invited over.
So we encourage you to stay in touch with us and your fellow community members wherever works best for you!
Welcome! We're happy you've found the PassPorter Community -- the friendliest place to plan your vacation to Walt Disney World, Disney Cruise Line, Disneyland, and the world in general! You are now viewing the PassPorter Message Board Community as a guest, which gives you limited access. As our guest, feel free to browse our messages by selecting the forum you want to visit from the list below.
To post messages and ask questions, join our FREE community today and you'll get access to tools and resources not available to guests, such as our vacation countown timers, "living" avatars, private messaging system, database searches, downloads, and a special PassPorter discount code. Registration is fast, simple, and completely free. Just click the Join Our Community link.
If you think you've already joined, log in below now. If you don't remember your member name or password, please visit our Member Name and Password Recovery page. You are also welcome to contact us.
I can't get over how clean and shiny everything is in the cities.
Great pictures as usual--I especially liked the one with all the houses on the hillside, taken while you were going around the bend. That had to have been tricky!
Eagerly awaiting your next installment....
Saturday 4 April – part one: was that an earthquake?!
Mount Fuji
Next: a very odd view at the top of a tree!
Chezp, I can't believe how much Mt. Fuji looks like Mt. Rainier. We even have the same clouds - we call them the mother ship. Maybe this picture will inspire you to come to the Pacific NW! You could always combine it with an Alaskan cruise. Mt. Rainier on Flickr - Photo Sharing!
Sure hope this link works for you, it took my ds and dh to help me through the process! And I'm really enjoying your report.
What beautiful pictures with Mt. Fuji in the background, it almost looked as it was just a shadow, or painted on to the picture...really cool. Glad you enjoyed another train ride, sorry no window seat but glad to hear on the next two trips you scored one. The hotel lobby looked really nice, can't wait to see where you feet took you both as you started out.
Saturday 4 April – part two: a very odd view at the top of a tree!
I wanted to go and see Nijo Castle, which is one of the main attractions in Kyoto and, on the map I had, it didn’t look as if it was that far away – about three or four blocks, so we set off walking. As we walked, it quickly became apparent that the map didn’t show a scale and it was a lot further than I thought. The walk took about 20 minutes, but it was quite nice, as it showed us some of the city and we took plenty of photos along the way. However, it also became clear that my plans to walk between a lot of the attractions here just wouldn’t work, as they were just too far apart.
We were fascinated by this place selling headstones
We paid for our tickets for Nijo Castle and picked up an audio tour, as we entered, as I thought it would be useful to have one. To be honest, I’m not convinced that it was a great purchase, as we later found out that it didn’t cover any of the gardens, but we weren’t to know. Most of what Mark told me from the audio guide, I also found out for myself from either the leaflet they gave us when we entered or my guidebook.
I thought that this really was about the castle, but it turned out to be so much more than that, which was a pleasant surprise. Nijo Castle was created by Shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu in the late 16th century and this was where they welcomed people to Kyoto.
You first enter through the Karamon Gate, which had gold plated fixtures.
You then make your way across the courtyard to the main part of the palace.
Here you’re required to take your shoes off and leave umbrellas. This is not uncommon in Japan, at any temple or shrine, you have to do this and it’s a weird feeling taking your shoes off, as a) I always worry that someone will steal them (I know, it’s Japan, it’s a safe country, but even so and b) I can’t help but think that someone will tread on my feet, forgetting that of course everyone else has also had to take their shoes off…!
Sadly no photos are allowed in here, so I can only describe what we saw in here. The first thing you see here are the large cats paintings, which were painted by artists who had never seen tigers, so the pictures actually depict leopards. These were beautiful, as were all the scenes we saw in here. The paintings were a lot bigger and more intricate than I had expected and I would love to have stopped and lingered more to view some of them, but there were some big tour groups and we were trying our best to keep in front of them, so that we could get good views of the rooms.
As we walked along, we became aware of what’s called the nightingale floors. These were carefully laid out, so that the nails beneath the floorboards would rub together and squeak when they were disturbed. In this way, those inside the castle would know exactly where people were and it made it almost impossible for intruders to get in, without those inside knowing. A very clever system and fascinating that it still works to this day.
We also saw some of the reception chambers, where they would welcome visitors to the castle, and these were laid out with models of how it would have looked, with women in kimonos, along with the Shoguns. It gave you a fascinating glimpse back in time. The shogun’s living chambers were towards the back of the castle and I was amazed by how bland these were, compared to the reception chambers. I was expecting them to be the most ornate, but not a bit of it.
Then it was back down the creaking corridors, seeing more beautiful paintings along the way, including some of cherry trees, which were superb. I really wish we could’ve spent more time there, but it was just too busy to do that. I guess that’s the down side of going to somewhere like that on a Saturday.
Once we came out of there, I thought this was really an end to the tour, as my guidebook only focused on the castle, with no mention of the gardens, so I wasn’t expecting much from them. How wrong you can be. The gardens sprawled over a huge area, so much so, that when we had walked through a bit of them, I thought that we were done, but in fact, we were only halfway through.
As we entered the gardens, Mark got accosted by a guy who was trying to tell him the history of the palace, but I have to honest, I wasn’t sure how genuine he was. He looked very odd. Mark finally managed to get away from him and into the gardens.
There were people everywhere and there were also gardeners at work, carefully shaping the trees in front of us, which was great to see. There was even one guy who was peeking up through the top of the tree. That made me look twice, I can tell you!
As we walked through the gardens, it began to rain. Fortunately, at this stage, it was a light rain, but it was still enough to be annoying.
Next: sampling new delicacies and trying out my Japanese
Registered Message Board Members Get Our Free Newsletter! When you register you'll have the option to sign up for our weekly PassPorter Newsletter. It's chock-full of feature articles; news; tips; contests; photos; and special offers in our online store.
Great update. I am really enjoying your report and seeing what Japan is like. I like their architecture and the mix of the old and new. I also love their landscaping!
PassPorter's Free-Book to Walt Disney World It’s hard to believe anything is free at Walt Disney World; but there are actually a number of things you can get or do for little to no cost. This e-book documents over 200 free or cheap tips to do before you go and after you arrive. You could save a considerable amount of money following these tips. Perhaps more importantly; you can discover overlooked attractions and little-known details most people whiz by on their way to spend money. Click here to see free sample pages from the e-book! Get this popular e-book free of extra charges when you join the PassPorter's Club for as little as $4.95. A club pass includes access to all our other e-books; e-worksheets; super-size photos; and more! This e-book is also available for separate purchase in the PassPorter Online Store for just $5.95.
About This Page: 
Like
Thank
Pixie Dust
PassPorter Guide Author
Disney Magic - Oct 2015
Linear Mode
