A very personal Decade of Dreams tour! UPDATED 6/5 - Page 26 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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.
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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!
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Finally got myself caught up. I was at "low bridge". That was great.
The gardens were absolutely stunning. I can only imagine how breathtaking it was in person. Glad to hear you won't be reusing your tea bags... Remember to restock before your Decade of Dreams trip to WDW!!
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Cheryl, I'm glad your missing bag of Tea Bags showed up for you Wow the pictures of you and Mark and the Imperial Palace are absolutely stunning. More please
No, it was definitely sweet. It tasted like fig to me - that's the closest comparison I can come up with.
Then it sounds like sweet bean paste, which would look dark purplish/dark brown. (Azuki beans cooked with sugar, then mushed into a "paste".) It's an acquired taste.
Then it sounds like sweet bean paste, which would look dark purplish/dark brown. (Azuki beans cooked with sugar, then mushed into a "paste".) It's an acquired taste.
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Wednesday 1 April – part two: why are they taking a photo of that?!
We walked slowly back to the station via the statue of Kusunoki Masashige – as to who he or she was, I have no idea, as my guidebooks don’t tell me. There, we saw a couple very oddly taking photos of the food kiosk there and then themselves in front of it. Goodness knows, I’ve taken some unusual pictures in my time, but nothing to rival that. I just couldn’t see the attraction myself, but myself I was missing something. Mark reckoned perhaps they’d just bought it… who knows?!
As we walked past where all the coaches park, we heard the sadly now familiar sound of someone spitting behind us. If that wasn’t bad enough, every time we looked to see who it was, it was invariably a woman. That was the case here – an older woman as well. I don’t know if the ones doing the spitting are Japanese or not, they could be Chinese, as that would fit in with all the spitting we saw in Hong Kong. If they were Japanese, it certainly didn’t fit in with anything I’d read before coming out here. Everything I read said that anything coming out of your body – i.e. sneezing or spitting – was an absolute no-no, yet here we had seen lots of Japanese doing exactly that and making no apology for it whatsoever.
We found what we thought was the entrance back to Tokyo station and headed inside. As usual, it was a shopping mall and there we found a McDonalds. I will say in our defence that a) we were getting hungry and b) I did have something different and therefore Japanese, well a bit anyway! I had cinnamon melts, which were essentially bits of dough soaked in cinnamon and they were lovely, although very sickly. Still that’s no bad thing. Mark went for the sausage and egg McMuffin and we both had hash browns.
My cinnamon melts!
As we sat there in the no smoking area (fast food restaurants seem to have smoking areas, even though much of Tokyo, including out on some of their streets, is no smoking). It’s an odd combination. What was just as odd was the fact that this McDonalds was packed with businessmen, generally very young, having what seemed to be long breaks. Considering that it was bout 10.30, I couldn’t quite figure that out. I guess they could’ve started work early and been having a mid morning break, but who knows? There’s certainly no way they could’ve stayed put for that long at home. They were there when we sat down and still there when we left.
We headed back out and found our way back to Tokyo station. It was quite a hike and just showed how far we had walked to get to the Imperial Palace.
Inside the Tokyo International Forum, where the McDonalds was
Our next stop was Shinjuku, to the west of the city, home to the world’s busiest station with something like three million people passing through it each day – that’s right, each day and we were going to become two of those three million. It certainly dominates the landscape there. When we got there, we took the wrong road, heading into east Shinjuku, but it gave us a chance to see one of the main shopping areas of Tokyo and this was certainly thriving. It’s amazing how in a recession none of the major shopping areas are showing any signs of being in problems. It’s also full of shops like Burberry, Tiffany and Co. and Gucci. Tokyo really is an expensive city. I’ve never seen so many designed names in one place, even in places like Beverley Hills.
Stopping at a map, I realised I couldn’t see the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Offices where we were supposed to be heading and I came to the horrible realisation that we were going the wrong way, so it was time to turn back and soon we were back at the station again. The thing has really taken over this area. Everywhere you look are railway lines. It literally divides Shinjuku in half and we had to do some looking to work out how to get across the tracks. Eventually we fathomed it, when we spotted a tunnel going underneath.
When we did, the place changed the second we were in west Shinjuku. At first, it was a little dingy, then we saw some shops, but within a few metres, it was then offices everywhere. I started to see buildings that I could recognise after a while from the guidebooks, such as the Yasuda Kasai Kaijo building. The walk over to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Office building took a lot longer than I thought it would and we ended up walking through the Keio Plaza Hotel, which was one of the other options I had looked into for our stay in Tokyo. Although it was very posh, and I mean very, it’s not in a good location, so far out here, and I’m very happy with the hotel I opted for.
We crossed the road and entered the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Office building and went down through a beautiful courtyard, although we did have to ask how to get to the main buildings, as it wasn’t clear.
In the lobby of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Office building
Cheryl, what another wonderful update. The buildings in Tokyo look heavenly. I'm glad you found the direction you were intended to head off to after your breakfast (looked yummy), even with going the wrong direction for a little bit (don't worry I've got one of the worst senses of direction). More please.
Hi Cheryl!!! All caught up now & great job on the report ! Looking forward to the next installment of course.
We loved Rolly too. I really wanted one. We visited last year and "he" was there doing his stuff. Really really . Please tell me, did you get an opportunity to visit any of the food basements (depachika) in any stores in Ginza? So amazing and .
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Enjoying Tokyo DisneySea with my Buzz & Woody...
I know'd I made a good choice! DVC - Saratoga Springs Resort
Hi Cheryl!!! All caught up now & great job on the report ! Looking forward to the next installment of course.
We loved Rolly too. I really wanted one. We visited last year and "he" was there doing his stuff. Really really . Please tell me, did you get an opportunity to visit any of the food basements (depachika) in any stores in Ginza? So amazing and .
We didn't - you know, I completely forgot all about those. Oh well, there'll be there whenever we return...
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at "low bridge". That was great.
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Pixie Dust
Wow the pictures of you and Mark and the Imperial Palace are absolutely stunning. More please
TOT hiding in Morocco
Hi Cheryl!!! All caught up now & great job on the report 
. Please tell me, did you get an opportunity to visit any of the food basements (depachika) in any stores in Ginza? So amazing and 
Oh well, there'll be there whenever we return... 
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