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Old 30 Sep 18, 11:44 AM  
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fifi500
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Two week trip to Tokyo and Tokyo Disney - day 1

Wednesday 29th August

Day 1 – First day in Ikebukero and a trip to Ikspiari.

Temperature about 32°C

The morning started very early, about 3.30am and we were wide awake. We had something to eat (probably melon bread) and a drink and then just generally lazed about in bed, reading and using our tablets. At about 6am we felt a little tired so decided to doze with the plan being to start getting ready about 8am and leave about 9am. We obviously did more than doze because we woke up later looked at the clock and it was 1.15pm! We dressed rather quickly as not to waste more of the day.
Although we were up extremely late we decided to stick with our plan and set out to Sunshine City, a large shopping mall in Ikebukero, a 7-minute walk from our hotel. On the way we stopped at 7-Eleven to try out the cash machine and check our Starling cards worked. The ATM machine was easy to use with English language from the front screen, but you can only withdraw cash in multiples of 10,000¥ (around £70). For the minimum withdrawal (10,000¥) it offers 2 options either 10 x 1000¥, or 1 x 10000¥. It seems a lot, but it’s well accepted that you can pay for small grocery items with a large note.



Once in Sunshine city we stopped at McDonald's for food, a set meal of fries, chicken burger and a grape Fanta plus an extra fries and extra grape Fanta for vegetarian DD. We then had a look in the Disney store and purchased DD some Winnie the Pooh cutlery.
This Disney Store has a special desk next to the register that sold tickets for Disney but because DD was buying an annual pass and they are only available at the resort, we left our ticket buying until later as originally planned.

We also visited the Studio Ghibli shop, but made no purchases in here just enjoyed the cuteness. Sunshine City also has a Sanrio store, Kiddyland, Ani Cute, a Rilakkuma store, a huge Pokémon centre, a 100¥ store and a supermarket and many, many others.





Another attraction within the centre is the fabulous fountain show or at weekends the fountain area is used for events – during our time we saw j-pop groups, football and rugby events. The photo was the j-pop boy band. Each band member is represented by a different colour glow stick which the fans wave around.




We took the underground tunnel from Sunshine City to the main street of Ikebukero which has Sega, Uniglo, Closet Child (Lolita dress store), BIC camera (gadgets and appliances) Gift Gate a Sanrio store. Gift Gate was our mission today and DD purchased a huge My Melody cushion.









With this huge cushion in tow it was now time to wander back to the hotel and get ourselves ready for our first trip to the Tokyo Disneyland resort. Our plan was not to go to either park but to visit the Downtown Disney area called Ikspiari and buy our tickets and browse the stores.

From our hotel it was a 15-minute walk to Higashi-Ikebukuro station on the Yurakucho line, the next stop from Ikebukuro Station – which is the third busiest train station in the world, so we did try to avoid it when we could.
Higashi station, this would take us to Shin-Kiba where we changed trains to the Keiyo line to Maihama Station at Disneyland. The Keiyo line is the only train line that goes through Maihama, and there are various connections to that would lead to Shin-Kiba. Each of these trains ran every 3 to 10 minutes depending on the time of day. Much like London, the trains and trams are the most used way of getting around and whilst they are busy, and the bigger stations are daunting, English is well used on signs.



But don't worry, it isn't like this.



It was about an hour’s journey from the hotel to arrival at Disney and cost us just under 900¥ return each. This was the first time we had used our pre-charged Pasmo and Suica cards and they worked perfectly. Each time you pass through a ticket gate the small screen on the gate gives you a balance for your card. We used this route several times during my stay and DD continues to use it. It can sometimes be quiet, and you get a seat from the start and sometimes super busy and you are lucky to find something to hang onto never mind a seat. We never found a pattern, but weekday rush hours seem to continue until 11 pm. Due to a train issue at the end of my trip DD now only travels to Disney in the day to ensure that she can get back to her accommodation. (Spoiler alert – Tokyo trains are not as reliable as their reputation suggests).
Arriving at Disney was exciting, you start to get views on the train and we saw the Castle and Space mountain. It very quickly got dark after our arrival. Our first stop was to find the Ticket office (floor 1F The Courtyard). We arrived about 7pm and went in the huge Disney store first.




There were 2 separate desks and as the office was so quiet and the staff so attentive DD and I ended up buying our tickets separately. Obviously, she was fine buying her annual pass in Japanese and the form and photo process was easy, DD used her residence card as id to purchase this and we never did work out if they can be purchased by non-residents. DD paid 89000¥ or £600 in cash. For the staff member and I it was trickier, but with the use of a calendar and her basic English I did manage to purchase a 3-day pass. In Tokyo with the 3-day pass you can visit 1 park on each of the first 2 days (which you need to specify on purchase) and on day 3 you may park hop. This 3-day pass cost me 17,800¥ or £126, which I paid for using my Starling card. I was using DD Tsum Tsum handbag on this trip (I took so little luggage to make room for DD, so I borrowed a lot of bags and clothes from her) and the bag was noticed by the cast member serving me and she drew me a cute Snow White Tsum Tsum. I am not sure how long the process took but we do know that DD sent a WhatsApp picture of her annual pass to her Dad at 8pm





With tickets in hand we then had a wander, we did not find Ikspiari the easiest place to navigate it is full of little court yards and mini streets. DD stills says she feels as if she stumbles across things rather than finds them. We visited a large book store and an excellent international supermarket, Seijo Ishii on the ground floor. This was the first place in Tokyo that we found fruit, it also stocks the best Melon bread we have found.



The fruit is the best still that DD has found and on a Monday after her Disney visits she makes a point of visiting this supermarket and buying grapes and melon. Generally, she has found fruit and vegetables difficult to find in Tokyo and even now that she has found a large supermarket near to her accommodation it is very expensive and of poor quality compared to the UK. All DD wants for Christmas is a stocking full of fruit.
Generally, Ikspiari did not feel very Disney to us, lots of designer shops and others like The Body Shop. It is not an area we warmed to but certainly has some useful stores. The one thing that really reminded us of Disney strangely was the toilet area – proper Disney style bins and the whole area felt familiar apart from the added touch of waterfall and bird noises as you entered the cubicle.
On the subject of toilets – those in the Disney resort are all fancy electronic Japanese toilets but in reality, you do not need to touch any of the buttons and they automatically flush as you step away from them just like in WDW, not as scary as they initially look. In my entire two weeks every toilet, not just within Disney we used were this style, and all the bathrooms had hand soap and hand dryers, however now DD has started University and gone to a less touristy area she has to carry a hand towel with her because bathrooms rarely have any means of drying your hands.
As an aside, my first try of a fancy Japanese toilet was in the Japanese embassy in London. I came out of the cubicle and whispered to DD that I had all these buttons to push but could not read Japanese to see which was the flush and I did not want to cause a flood, she just pointed to the regular flush on the top of the cistern – just like at home, well who would think to look there!
There were also 7-Eleven ATM's in the area just before the toilets in the one nearest the supermarket.
Some bathrooms in Disney hand this super cute soap dispenser at the children’s hand basins.



Then we revisited Disney Store for a good wander around, DD purchased a Dumbo back pack key chain, very cute.



We had a wander around the area outside Ikspiari and watched the monorail passing and the fantastic Disney buses. We also spied a large building on the way to Disneyland park and went to investigate.



This turned out to be a park merchandise store with lots of ears, t-shirts, headbands all clearly designed for wearing in the parks along with plushes and edible gifts in nice tins. This store was equivalent to World of Disney in Disney Springs so obviously we had a good wander in here, it was very busy but a large place, so we did get chance to browse. DD purchased a Thumper plush pass-holder. The World of Disney style store is the only store outside of the parks that sells current park merchandise, but nothing Duffy related. However, the stores inside focus on park related good including large sections of gifts to share, which is a Japanese tradition. The Disney shops elsewhere only sell non-park goods.




We then set off back to the hotel, travelling at night was not an issue at all and even though by the time we did the 15-minute walk back to the hotel it was gone 10.30 pm, still around 28°C. It was busy, and I have noted in a text to DH that we passed a teenager out walking his dog, a lady with 2 dogs in a pushchair and a lady with a dog in her bike basket, also that sport was still being played on the school playing field – baseball which is very common. The train was also very busy, and we did not get seats for either train, again, a regular occurrence.

We settled at the hotel, not sure what or when we ate, apart from the Melon bread, we probably just had Dairylea and bread at the hotel – sorry we are not the most sophisticated of diners. There was a small area near the supermarket with tables and chairs to eat purchases from the supermarket, we used it several times and it never seemed very busy.

I am not sure what time we settled to sleep that night, but I do know that we struggled to adjust to the time zone for the first few nights, and a couple of times after tossing and turning we gave up and read for an hour or so – the joys of jet lag.

Coming next – A day 2, at DisneySea
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Old 30 Sep 18, 02:45 PM  
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Pumpkin Pie
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What a busy first day. Looking forward to your DisneySea report as that is the only park we plan to visit on our trip (at the moment).
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Old 1 Oct 18, 05:43 AM  
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AntonyJ
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Love this thank you - so full of useful and interesting things!

Melon bread - daft question but is it just normal bread, melon flavour, with a cracked melon crust?

Eating food in public / snacks in the park - is the Japanese dislike of seeing people eat food in public, the main reason that in Disney there are no "eat now" sweets etc in the parks (unlike Florida) with the exception of popcorn and turkey legs? And also the tradition of giving food as a gift when you have been on a trip?

Also, does your daughter have the Suica app on her phone?
I do but it is 100% Japanese and not a scooby what you can do, but I have a Suica card on my iPhone and I can check balance, add money to the card, see past trips etc. - so trying to work out what benefits you get with the app.

Edited at 11:30 AM.
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Old 2 Oct 18, 07:31 PM  
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fifi500
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Getting Excited
 
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Hi,

I am glad you are finding the details interesting, I am trying to remember all of the small details that we had questions about before we left.

Melon bread is a sweetbread and the top is a thin layer of cookie dough, I would most liken it to an iced bun in the UK. The Green one from the supermarket in Disney is melon flavour, but on my trip I also had plain ones and chocolate chip.

They also sell some good Melon. bread in the Japan Centre in London if you fancy trying one in advance and happen to be in the Leicester square area.

We found in Disney particularly that the no eating in public was more of actually no eating and walking , but there were a lot more benches in the parks or people laid out mats before the parade and had food on them. So even things like popcorn, churros, ice lollies and icecream, everyone sat down to eat. We generally didn't have a problem finding a seat, but they were always busy with people eating.

Again on the streets people stood around the food or drink stand and not walk around with it. You seemed to be able to hand rubbish then back to where you made your purchase. Bins are incredibly difficult to find outside of Disney , DD carries a plastic bag everyday so that she always has a place to put any rubbish.

The gift giving tradition seemed huge in Disney, at the end of the day the shops wre full of people with piles of biscuit tins etc.

DD just has a physical Suica card, so not sure about the app. She can see her balance every time she passes a barrier and reloads it at machines in the station but I do think she has used it for anything else.
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Old 3 Oct 18, 05:36 AM  
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AntonyJ
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Thank you!
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