Japan - Day 6: Onsens & Banquets

I woke up around 5:30, trending in the right direction! It was kind of neat to see the empty park before anyone arrived (at least I thought so, the rest of the family was not so impressed). 

This was 5 min after park opening -- already impressive crowds! It was kind of funny watching people run from the entrance...and then lose steam after a while and resort to walking. 😆 

It was another lazy morning for us today -- so lazy we actually took our first taxi ride of the trip. Farewell Disney...on to Hakone!

We stored our luggage at the Shinjuku train station -- no thank you for the 1500 yen per item per day fee at the Odakyu office -- coin lockers are 900 each and we fit four bags in just one! 

Hands mostly free, we headed out in search of lunch. And pastries. And boba. The pastries (loved the matcha croissant) and boba didn't make the camera roll...but here's the sushi lunch!

There was an accident on the Romancecar line unfortunately so we had to take the local train out to Hakone. It was a SLOW two hours on the subway. Luckily so slow I managed a cat nap or two on the way. Once we got to Hakone we switched over to the train -- the mountain was so steep that the train actually had to stop and change directions at three switchbacks, very interesting! Every time it stopped, the conductor and rear attendant had to get off and switch cars...seemed just a LITTLE inefficient...can't they both be trained to handle both jobs?

Once we finally got to our ryokan - Madoka No Mori, we were welcomed by such a sense of quiet serenity. 

We quickly got into the mood. I even managed to convince the twins to join me for a soak in the indoor/outdoor natural hot spring onsen!(R: "we did not have a choice").They were a little freaked out by the communal au naturale bathing experience at first, but luckily it was practically deserted, so we basically had a private spa day.  Freshly showered and moisturized, we changed into our yukatas to wait for our dinner. The room was very nice -- had a great view of the mountains. 

The ryokan's nightly price included full kaiseki dinners (ie, super elaborate 8-9 course meals) and Japanese breakfasts, the kids got child sets instead but those were equally impressive!

The sashimi course was a highlight. 

Every course was served with its own special plates and decorations -- they are definitely high up on aesthetics in their meals. 

It was really nice that dinner was served in our room -- made for a much easier stagger over to the couches with our full bellies. 

We called it a night around 9:30 today -- we've basically acclimated fully to Japan time now. Tomorrow, it's time to go in search of those sulfur-cooked black eggs to ensure our longevity!

Japan - Day 5: DisneySea

I only made it until 4am today -- two steps forward, one step back? It was a pretty comfy sleep though. I should have taken a photo of us all in our matching Miracosta Mickey pajamas. Good thing we have one more night!

Today we head to DisneySea -- generally known as the more unique/special of the two Tokyo Disneyland parks. I think I read somewhere that DisneySea was originally intended as the second park for California's Disneyland, but kept running into issues with the local permits, so they decided to ship the park from Los Angeles over to Tokyo instead. 

One of the perks of staying in Miracosta is the ability to enter the parks during "Happy Entry" -- but honestly the bigger benefit is being able to use the Happy Entry line itself. All the reports online will tell you if you don't have Happy Entry, you have to get here at ungodly hours (like 6am!). So instead, here we are nearly at the very front of the line at the much more reasonable 8am. Yes, some of us are still a bit half asleep. 

Because we were willing to skip some of the US-duplicate rides (like Soaring) and pay to skip the line on others (like Frozen), we got to be first in line waiting for Tower of Terror to open! Excited family selfie. 

Can you find us in the photo? High marks from everyone. The ride felt shorter than California's version, but just as thrilling!

We followed this up with Indiana Jones. Not sure why L looked more terrified on this one...

Disneysea food was much more impressive to me -- that ice cream churro sundae thing had mango pudding, rice crispies, fresh mango chunks, and jellies. Every bite was a new surprise!

These meat naans were also quite tasty. And only $3 each!

L and R hamming it up at the entrance to the new Fantasy Springs land. 

I don't think I caught photos of the actual frozen ride, but it was very impressive! Really long too, I kept thinking they would skip ahead in the story, but then another room would open. 

After Frozen, L and Baba were fading a bit so we decided to split up. They headed back for a quick nap while R and I stayed in the park longer -- we met back together in time for the Big Band Jamboree. Surprisingly, the show was entirely in English! It was fine dancing and costumes, but I don't understand why the Japanese visitors would like that show -- none of the singing is even live? But it was a refreshing bit of rest for us after not understanding much of any other show.

After the show and a couple little rides, L and Baba went back for more napping/rest time while R and I braved on. 

Side note on the Japanese Disney fans. They took it to another level. You think this is a keychain or plushie vendor? Nope, just a dressed up Disney fan!

The Rapunzel line was definitely the longest wait of the day -- I think it was a good 100 minutes. R really enjoyed the sets and scenery though! I've always loved the lantern scene. Might be one of my favorites from all the Disney movies. 

We skipped most of Mermaid Lagoon because it was mostly kiddie rides, but it was very impressive to look at. 

Around dinner, Baba and L rejoined us. We think K might have started coming down with a little bug unfortunately. But hopefully the nap helped! We paid for another skip-the-line pass for Journey to the Center of the Earth - the drop at the end was a fun surprise. After that, it was time to stake out a spot for the nighttime waterfront show. I'd say Believe was nice...but not as amazing as Fantasmic. That could easily have been due to our lack of Japanese comprehension though. 

Last ride of the night -- Raging Rapids roller coaster! L thought it was scary, R thought it was great. Do we have a thrill seeker of the family?

Ok I lied, as we were walking back, we passed RIGHT by Sinbad, so I made everyone ride it with me again. This is like the Small World of DisneySea. I'd never heard of Sinbad as part of the Disney lore before, but it must be? Like Frozen, the scenes just went ON and ON, Baba was not so impressed. 

And with that, our Tokyo Disney adventure was complete. Here's the shot I missed of us in our matching PJs! Yes, L got another Stitch. Early birthday present. 

I'm very glad we were able to snag the Miracosta rooms -- I think L would have been pretty miserable without the two naps today. And it would have been impossible to do that staying anywhere else. Though...probably not something I would repeat -- stay at the cheaper hotel and save the $ for more skip-the-line passes next time!

Tomorrow, we head to Hakone for relaxation time!

Japan - Day 4: Ninjas & Disneyland!

Today was a bit of a sleep-in day for us -- I made it all the way to 5am! We've got breakfast down pat now -- here's the spread for the four of us! Baba with his pork buns, twins with their berry smoothies and donuts. I figured I'd make up for my fried chicken with a green smoothie 😆. 

We packed up our stuff (kind of hard thanks to our various shopping trips...definitely need to get a suitcase if we want to buy anything else), and then headed down to our lunch adventure: Ninja Tokyo. I won't add all the photos and videos here of the magic and illusions and such, but suffice it to say that I thought the whole thing was really well done. Yes, maybe a little overpriced, but the food was quite good (I think it was 5-6 courses in all), the magic was legitimately impressive, and the overall experience was a hit for the whole family. 

The twins thought it was funny how we were taken to a jail cell basically for the meal. 

This was R's favorite magic trick -- the "invisible" appetizer cracker: 

I think this was the second course -- even the ninja star was edible!

This was Baba's cheesecake (frog) and sorbet (rock) dessert course. 

100% gimmicky. But what can I say, we are all suckers for this sort of thing. 

After lunch, it was time to check-out and head to Disneyland!

We didn't enter the park until 2:30, but today was the Tokyo Disneyland day (as opposed to tomorrow, the DisneySea day), and we had heard that most of Disneyland was actually pretty identical to Disneyland California, Magic Kingdom, and Shanghai...so we figured a half day would be enough for us.  

One of my biggest takeaways is how much better "maintained" the park is. Like even on things like Jungle Cruise or Pirates, where all of the figurines are identical to their US park counterparts, the Tokyo versions just look more pristine, all parts working perfectly, etc. Twins enjoying the humor from our Jungle Cruise Skipper...apparently certain humor transcends language barriers.

Obligatory family shot with the castle. 

Twins' favorite ride of the day: Pooh's Hunny Hunt. 

Lao Lao will be happy to know we caught the Tokyo version of Its a Small World -- here they did a version adding in Groot and friends from Guardians from the Galaxy. Maybe they do this in the other versions now too, but I don't remember seeing so many Disney characters interspersed amongst the dolls before. Even Stitch made it in!

Sadly we didn't get to try the Monsters ride. It broke down RIGHT when we got there. Sigh. Note for future: ride your must-dos early!

I think that disappointment also sapped us all of our momentum/staying power...or maybe it was getting cold? Regardless, against my somewhat weak protests, we decided to head to the hotel after that -- didn't even make it to the parade or nighttime show. I know - Jiu Jiu and Lao Ye would be aghast! Parting shot appropriately captures the mood:

I suppose it was only the third full day and we were able to catch the fireworks show from the Miracosta hotel room. 

Showers and all in bed by 9 again. Early entry tomorrow to DisneySea!

Japan - Day 3: Takao, Ghibli & Capybaras

I did slightly better. 3am this time. Let's hope it helps me stay more alert throughout the day!

Today is yet another day of adventure - I'm getting a little lazy though, so we are going to go backwards for the recap (because the pictures auto-loaded from most current to earliest). 

We were all in bed by 10pm - yet another 7-11 dinner (Ian protested at first but I still haven't fully adjusted and the idea of sitting down for food at 7pm felt more nauseating than enjoyable for me...he was appeased by the quality of the beef udon he picked up though. Convenience store meals are LEGIT here). 

 This was our last adventure of the day - capybara cafe! Notice that even with a capybara distracting him, Baba continued to play in his weekly poker game! 😆 He reported that it felt kind of like a hedgehog.

There was only one capybara, but dozens of cats, who were very very interested in the fish paste treats they gave out. It is astonishing the cats aren't all ginormous. 

During the walk to the capybara/cat cafe, we got a little tired, so...crepe and mochi treat breaks seemed appropriate. (It's so much easier to agree to buy treats when they are only $1-2). 

I have to say, Japan does slightly sweet but not over sweet desserts REALLY well. 

Where did we walk from you might wonder? We spent a little over an hour that afternoon at the famous Ghibli museum! 

Getting these tickets was QUITE the process. A month in advance, at a specific time, we had to do an electronic queue for hours to grab a slot. Ian's take afterwards: don't understand what all the fuss is about. Kid's take: enjoyable! But they wish they could have watched more movies. Mama's take: nice...but don't think we would come back unless we happened to need to pass by Mitaka to something else. The exhibits were pretty cool (especially this one with strobe lighting that showed how clay figurines could be made to look animated), but so limited in number that it was questionably worth the reservation fuss. Maybe that's kind of the whole feel of a Ghibli studio movie though? But it was super cheap...and there's a certain coolness in "got to see something because it's rare and everyone wants to see it" value. So all in all glad we got the tickets! (Plus it was so conveniently located by the capybara cafe -- the ones in Tokyo would have been way harder to get reservations for). 

The walk from the subway to the Ghibli museum was a long this river walkway with was lined with some very pretty cherry blossoms trees. This might be our best shot of the trip so far!

Before the Ghibli museum, we had lunch all the way out in Mt. Takao. A friend had recommended this place - Ukai Toriyama. It was very very unique, definitely an experience to remember. Each dining party sat in a private little room set within their gardens, with some amazing views. 

The restaurant even had a wedding going on! So we manage to catch the drums and join in celebrating the bridal procession. Pretty cool to experience! 

This was our little dining room behind the twins, if it had been another week or so these cherry blossoms probably would have been in bloom -- alas, but the water wheel was still cool to watch during the meal!

The meal actually had a number of things we weren't so keen on. But I definitely had some highlights too: exhibit A - amazing sashimi with this miso paste. 

Exhibit B: really good beef skewers that they grilled for us at the table. 

Even with some misses (I didn't care for the "deep friend young river fish" or the "onion salad" for example), looking at the amount of food they gave...you can see no one left the meal hungry. 

Interior shot of the private room. 

And the whole thing was only $250. Quite the deal from Bay Area pricing standards!

To work up our appetite for the meal, we actually started the day with a quick trip up Mt. Takao. My legs were oddly SUPER tired though, so I suggested the cable way up and back instead of walking, which, surprise surprise, no one protested. 

View of Tokyo in the far distance. 

The cableway is what Baba would say was actually a funicular. Pretty amazing how steep the path was. 

And to circle back to the morning before all of this adventure...of course it was another convenience store visit for breakfast. We tried out the automatic smoothie maker this time. Very tasty! Twins also showing off their new fashion outfits - very on-trend, no?

And there, in reverse, was our day 3! So sad with each day that goes by that means there is one day less to go.  Tomorrow we move on Disneyland!