Holidays and the Year of Wishes…food allergy princess goes back to Tokyo Disney! –November 2016 TR

Departure Day

We were flying out of Narita that morning. I made the reservation online for limo bus departing from Hilton hotel, and got the tickets from the bell desk at the hotel. We had to be on the 1st bus of the day at about 7 am or we would miss the flight. The bus was running late and arrived at the hotel about 10 min late. Then it had to stop by all the hotels in the TDR area. The bus was full… full with luggage. The driver actually had to pull a box from the luggage room and leave it on the walkway on the bus, because there was not enough room. And I think all those luggage was the reason the bus was running late.

When we go to TDL/Maihama station area, we could see there were so many people outside TDL entrance. It was Saturday, and sure it was going to be a busy day there. I told DD we would never go there on weekends, and she agreed. ::yes::

Since the bus was running late, I got a little nervous. But the driver must have driven faster than usual, I saw we were passing other cars and another limo bus on the freeway. We ended up getting to the airport just about 5 minutes later than scheduled. And since the check-in or security did not have long lines, we did not have any problems.

At Narita I bought 1 last onigiri for DD from Lawson. Also let DD play those toy vending machine with the coins I had left.

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DD's prizes!

There are many shops, so we had no problems spending our time at Narita. After a quick breakfast in a lounge, it was soon time to board.

About 11 hours later, we were back in Texas. I don’t mind connecting flights to break up the long flight when going to Japan, but direct flight back to Texas was so much easier for us. DH was waiting for us at the airport. He took us home, and DD and I took a looooong nap!
 
Osaka


We did not get to go around much during this trip besides Disney. But before going to Tokyo, we did spend one night in EXPOCITY (I wrote about it a little in the previous TR) in Osaka, and visited a park, waterfall, and a temple from there.

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We did not try because of DD's allergies, but there is KFC buffet!

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Counting Darumas...

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Love the photos of the scenery and temple! Are the Darumas left there for good luck?

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I heard the little Darumas you see everywhere are actually the containers for Daruma Omikuji (fortune-telling). I guess after getting their fortune, many people leave those containers at the temple. I did not try Omikuji, as I am too afraid that I would pick a bad fortune...:o

Other Darumas are the ones I think people brought back to the temple. The Daruma eyes are blank when you buy them. You color in one of the eyes for the wish or goal you want to achieve. When it comes true, you can color the other eye. We bought little ones, and hopefully our wish will come true and can bring back the darumas to the temple...but we have not made any wishes yet. :)

The temple is called Katuo-ji if you are interested. But I must warn that this temple is very commercialized. The have a great history, but now the temple has a gift shop and a even a small restaurant. I even saw a fog machine in the pond. :laughing: I picked this temple to visit because it is famous for the fall foliage, and I thought DD would enjoy seeing all those Darumas. I was right, she had great time searching for Darumas everywhere! :goodvibes
 


I heard the little Darumas you see everywhere are actually the containers for Daruma Omikuji (fortune-telling). I guess after getting their fortune, many people leave those containers at the temple. I did not try Omikuji, as I am too afraid that I would pick a bad fortune...:o

The temple is called Katuo-ji if you are interested. But I must warn that this temple is very commercialized. The have a great history, but now the temple has a gift shop and a even a small restaurant. I even saw a fog machine in the pond. :laughing: I picked this temple to visit because it is famous for the fall foliage, and I thought DD would enjoy seeing all those Darumas. I was right, she had great time searching for Darumas everywhere! :goodvibes

That does sound fun for kids! I wonder if the Daruma Omikuji are only for bad fortunes, like how bad fortunes are tied on trees at the temples.

Fog machine! :rotfl:
 
That does sound fun for kids! I wonder if the Daruma Omikuji are only for bad fortunes, like how bad fortunes are tied on trees at the temples.

Fog machine! :rotfl:

Haha, I think you still need to tie the paper fortune if you want to turn around your fortune! :laughing: I would probably want to keep the container as souvenir, but seeing all those Darumas, it would also be tempting to see where I could place it in the temple property. :scratchin
 
Afterthoughts

It sure was great to be able to go to Tokyo Disney twice in the same year. The parks were beautiful with special decors each time, and the CMs were always so nice and helpful. I do think we managed our time better and enjoyed more in June, because of the smaller crowds and warmer weather. I would not say we would never go back there in winter, obviously we would go whenever we get a chance. And we did have great time despite the cold weather, actually more than I thought we would. ::yes::

With limited vacation time and so many places I want to visit in Japan, it is unlikely that we would plan a longer TDR vacation, but we will definitely go back! Even just for a day or so! I like how it is easy to transfer between Disney and those Tokyo airports. The airport limo bus runs between TDR and the airports, making the access very easy unless you are taking really early or late flight. So if we are flying into/out of Tokyo area airport (which is very likely since airfare deals to Japan are usually in/out of Tokyo), I will consider squeezing in a visit to TDR again.

This trip I failed to manage DD’s jet-lag well. I let her sleep during the 14 hours flight and 3 hours train ride that followed, so naturally she had a hard time sleeping on the first day at night time. She struggled to get used to the time differences, and one day she felt so miserable and cried in the early evening because she was so sleepy. And then after the trip, I failed again… I arranged to come back on Saturday morning so that we would have the weekend to get back to our normal schedule. But the day we came back, we both went to sleep and did not wake up till evening. Going back to school made DD adjust to the normal routine, but I sure failed to do that during the weekend.:o
She did not struggle with jet-lag this much when she was 3 and went to Japan, because she was taking daily naps. Also it was easier for her during the June trip, because even though she was 6 and no longer taking naps, I made her take naps on those TDR days, and those TDR days were beginning of our trip. So I will probably try to take naps next time we travel again, and maybe avoid 3 hours train ride following 14 hours flight too...

Visiting Tokyo Disney was highilight of our trips in 2016. Can we do it again in 2017? I sure hope so, and so does DD!:goodvibes
Thank you DIS for letting me have this space to write about our experiences. :thanks:
As much as I loved our trip, I love re-living it too!
For those of you who are planning trip to Tokyo Disney, I hope you will have magical time too! pixiedust:
 


Fantastic trip report! It seems to be hard to find detailed information about Tokyo Disney, and this was very helpful. We are going this November and it looks like the same time you went last year. We normally travel over Thanksgiving break because we can take a 10 day vacation but only take our (10yo) daughter out of school for 3 days. Plus the crowds are usually lower (depending on where you travel).

This year we are heading to Japan and the end of our trip allows us one day to visit DisneySea. In fact, it will be the Friday after Thanksgiving, just like your trip last year. How were the temperatures? You wrote that it was rare for snow, but how cold did it get?

Do you recommend any websites or books for planning a Tokyo DisneySea trip?

Do you have any recommendations for must-do things in Tokyo? Or Kyoto? I am so excited about the fall foliage and your pictures are so beautiful!

Thanks again for the report!
 
Fantastic trip report! It seems to be hard to find detailed information about Tokyo Disney, and this was very helpful. We are going this November and it looks like the same time you went last year. We normally travel over Thanksgiving break because we can take a 10 day vacation but only take our (10yo) daughter out of school for 3 days. Plus the crowds are usually lower (depending on where you travel).

This year we are heading to Japan and the end of our trip allows us one day to visit DisneySea. In fact, it will be the Friday after Thanksgiving, just like your trip last year. How were the temperatures? You wrote that it was rare for snow, but how cold did it get?

Do you recommend any websites or books for planning a Tokyo DisneySea trip?

Do you have any recommendations for must-do things in Tokyo? Or Kyoto? I am so excited about the fall foliage and your pictures are so beautiful!

Thanks again for the report!

Thank you! And sorry for getting back a bit late. I was away and I don't get online as much while I'm on vacation. :)

We cancelled Japan trip this summer...was hoping to check out the new Nemo ride at DisneySea. Maybe you can get on it and report back! For the first timer, I think this site is a must-read: http://tdrexplorer.com/
It has tons of great info! But for all the questions I have/had, I always check the official website.

When we were there we noticed it was warmer in West (Osaka/Kyoto area) than in East (Tokyo area). I could not remember the exact temperature the day it snowed, so I just checked online...it was low 33°F to high 37°F that day. The next day when the sun came up, it wet up as high as 52°F. On the same day in Osaka, it did not snow and it went up as high as 58°F. Even if it does not rain, it could get cold and windy in the morning and evening at Tokyo Disney because it is located by the ocean. So be prepared!


When we visited the waterfall, we were told the following week would have been the peak for the fall foliage. In Kyoto, they say late November to early December is the usual peak time. Hope you will get lucky! Also, fall foliage season is the busiest time in Kyoto, so prepared for the crowd and traffic! I can't give you good recommendation as I have visited Kyoto looong time ago as a kid. I am yet to visit there with my kid, so hoping for the next trip! In Tokyo, I visited most popular places for tourists like Asakusa or Tsukiji, and wrote a bit about them in my June report last year. If you have any specific questions, feel free to ask!

Sounds like this will be your first time in Japan? Hope you will have great time! :)
 

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