Tokyo March 2022

[AntonyJ]

Well think most of us here planned our own - so ask away.

I used Virgin airmiles to get seats on ANA to Tokyo for our 2019 trip and again for this May - though that is probably moving until next year.

Hotel - did my Disney days at the Hilton Tokyo Bay across the road from Disney, then moved into Tokyo and stayed in Shibuya - picked that hotel from location and reviews online and booked it via hotels.com / Expedia etc.

This is Tokyo now, probably very different outside the city in the country, more rural areas, but we either found someone who could speak some English, but not very many "good" English speakers. Both hotels had people that were good speakers but the Japanese people are soo kind and forgiving, want to be helpful - that the rest was smiles / pointing / holding up fingers to give numbers of - it just worked.

The Hilton tokyo Bay have an email address so asked them a load of questions before we went, they were so helpful.

Vegetarian - let me look for links I have been sending a friend for months, as I found them, about places that serve vegetarian.

Also - look for "thisNatasha" on YouTube - her BF is vegetarian or vegan and she has done several trips with him and calls out places in her trip videos (she has done quite a few!) that were suitable for him. When with him she tends to eat same, but trips with her brother she is a meat eater.

Also Cakes With Faces does not eat meat and her videos call out great places she has eaten, she has a planning book out also

[AntonyJ]

timeout/tokyo/restau...FHakQ6Mb7fz-p4

timeout/tokyo/news/t...iRkKOIegJzqYxg

soranews24/2020/07/21/we...-is-%e2%96%a1/

soranews24/2020/03/18/ve...ores-in-tokyo/

timeout/tokyo/news/m...-burger-033120

timeout/tokyo/restau...FHakQ6Mb7fz-p4



About 11:20 in, vegan ice cream shop!
Actually lots of his food tour videos call out veggie places.

timeout/tokyo/restau..._1hSfZ9U-KEs4k

timeout/tokyo/shoppi...rYMAzMdRNcyPFk

instagram/p/CGXE-VzH...d=hhxt5v7xhnyu

timeout/tokyo/restau...jNoYs5hvIJ9krA

soranews24/2021/01/14/7-...med-meat-buns/

timeout/tokyo/news/t...rX-098hTPPismE

[loves2plan]

Originally Posted by AntonyJ

Well think most of us here planned our own - so ask away.

I used Virgin airmiles to get seats on ANA to Tokyo for our 2019 trip and again for this May - though that is probably moving until next year.

Hotel - did my Disney days at the Hilton Tokyo Bay across the road from Disney, then moved into Tokyo and stayed in Shibuya - picked that hotel from location and reviews online and booked it via hotels.com / Expedia etc.

This is Tokyo now, probably very different outside the city in the country, more rural areas, but we either found someone who could speak some English, but not very many "good" English speakers. Both hotels had people that were good speakers but the Japanese people are soo kind and forgiving, want to be helpful - that the rest was smiles / pointing / holding up fingers to give numbers of - it just worked.

The Hilton tokyo Bay have an email address so asked them a load of questions before we went, they were so helpful.

Vegetarian - let me look for links I have been sending a friend for months, as I found them, about places that serve vegetarian.

Also - look for "thisNatasha" on YouTube - her BF is vegetarian or vegan and she has done several trips with him and calls out places in her trip videos (she has done quite a few!) that were suitable for him. When with him she tends to eat same, but trips with her brother she is a meat eater.

Also Cakes With Faces does not eat meat and her videos call out great places she has eaten, she has a planning book out also

See more...

Originally Posted by AntonyJ

timeout/tokyo/restau...FHakQ6Mb7fz-p4

timeout/tokyo/news/t...iRkKOIegJzqYxg

soranews24/2020/07/21/we...-is-%e2%96%a1/

soranews24/2020/03/18/ve...ores-in-tokyo/

timeout/tokyo/news/m...-burger-033120

timeout/tokyo/restau...FHakQ6Mb7fz-p4



About 11:20 in, vegan ice cream shop!
Actually lots of his food tour videos call out veggie places.

timeout/tokyo/restau..._1hSfZ9U-KEs4k

timeout/tokyo/shoppi...rYMAzMdRNcyPFk

instagram/p/CGXE-VzH...d=hhxt5v7xhnyu

timeout/tokyo/restau...jNoYs5hvIJ9krA

soranews24/2021/01/14/7-...med-meat-buns/

timeout/tokyo/news/t...rX-098hTPPismE

See more...

Thank you, that's really helpful.

We're definitely planning on doing Disney and was thinking about staying at one of the official hotels. I'd like to get an idea of prices, but they're not showing any for this year.

We want to do Universal too, so will need to move to Osaka at some point.

The Studio Ghibli museum is also high on our list, and it looks like they're also building a park, opening in autumn 2022. That would be an amazing bonus!

We want to take in some of the more traditional sights too. Would love to hear of places that people recommend visiting 😊

Miles flights would be amazing, but I doubt we'll have enough. Do you need to have enough for a full return flight or do they offer any flexibility such as using miles to pay towards flights, or booking one way with miles and one way with money?

[AntonyJ]

Thank you, that's really helpful.
Very welcome - am a Tokyo / Disney bore to friends and family so great to have an outlet

We're definitely planning on doing Disney and was thinking about staying at one of the official hotels. I'd like to get an idea of prices, but they're not showing any for this year.
My dream is to stay in Disney Sea Miracosta hotel INSIDE the park! It might happen in the next trip, watch this spot


We want to do Universal too, so will need to move to Osaka at some point.
Our next trip (not likely to be May this year but similar time next year) will have 2 days in Osaka - one for looking round the city and one for Universal - my better half agreed to that


The Studio Ghibli museum is also high on our list, and it looks like they're also building a park, opening in autumn 2022. That would be an amazing bonus!
I adore the films but am not sure the place is for me, mainly as they do not allow pics to be taken inside, am not sure what there is really. I would love to see the outside as a huge Laputa fan and want my pic taken with the giant robot on the roof, but as do not know what is really inside am not sure my better half would like it, and thus ... am not sure.

[AntonyJ]

I have spent the last 24 months watching any / all YT video about the place - I even watch Japanese ones (by lucky beggars who live close to park and go at least once a week) to see the layout, get my bearings, and see what new food and merch is appearing.

[Guest]

We visited Tokyo in 2006, booked flights and hotels and it was fine. Enough was in English even back then, without the internet or smart phones or translators.

I learned a few words, please, thank you.
I’m making a bigger effort to learn more written Japanese as what would have been more useful back then was learning the Kanji for things like “toilet”!

We watch YouTube videos now and we’re amazed by how much is in English.

We’re also hoping to return in spring 2022 and what we will be doing is getting Trailfinders to put together a package where we get flights and some hotels through them.
For years we’ve travelled independently, this time I want the security of knowing we’ve got some back up if we need it.

[loves2plan]

Just having a think about budget. Normally, for 2 weeks onsite in a moderate resort at Disney, we pay around £6000 including Disney tickets and flights (less if we can get reward flights - our £2019 trip was £5000), for 4 of us, all classed as adults. Do you think this is a doable budget for Japan?

[Gill H]

We have a trip booked with a Travel Counsellor (Helen - Cinders Mum on here) for November. Cost is just over £5k for two adults. This includes:

4 nights at the Hilton Tokyo Bay for Disney
3 nights in Kyoto
1 night in Hakone
3 nights in Tokyo

Plus flights and train pass. Not Disney tickets yet as they aren't available.

[kk20]

Doable? Yes. We went as a 4 (3a 1c as a costing) in jul 2019 for 6k. Flights were just over 2k booked as soon as they came out. We stopped at the Okura bay at disney for 4 nights, an airbnb in kyoto for 6 nights then back to tokyo at hotel grand palace (it was supposed to be an airbnb but when we arrived it was a hovel) for 6 nights. We averaged just over 100 a night. We were planning on going to universal but couldnt budget.

Transport was mainly JR pass and we kept to it as much as we could. We used a taxi once (in kyoto). I even helped the taxi driver find the destination in Japanese! It was the tea ceremony in a traditional japanese house in Nara (a little off the beaten track but not so much and an excellent place - we will go back for calligraphy when we go back to Japan)

We had zero issues with language. I learnt enough pigin japanese to even get by in some 'no english' areas by uaing lingo deer about 5 mins per day for about 6 months. I cant read or write japanese!

I did have a trippie here but i needed to remove it for reasons. However i can post excerpts if anyone needs specifics.

We did 4 days disney, lots of temples, walks, a major festival in kyoto, nara deer, tea ceremony, day dressed in traditional garb. Then back to tokyo for ninka restaurant, robot restaurant, shopping, loads of sightseeing.

Food was a mixture but mainly self service to keep the cost down. We didn't eat in restaurants. I would say we ate a lot of picnics and food courts or small 'stool vendors'. We tended to see where everyone else ate!

[loves2plan]

Originally Posted by kk20

Doable? Yes. We went as a 4 (3a 1c as a costing) in jul 2019 for 6k. Flights were just over 2k booked as soon as they came out. We stopped at the Okura bay at disney for 4 nights, an airbnb in kyoto for 6 nights then back to tokyo at hotel grand palace (it was supposed to be an airbnb but when we arrived it was a hovel) for 6 nights. We averaged just over 100 a night. We were planning on going to universal but couldnt budget.

Transport was mainly JR pass and we kept to it as much as we could. We used a taxi once (in kyoto). I even helped the taxi driver find the destination in Japanese! It was the tea ceremony in a traditional japanese house in Nara (a little off the beaten track but not so much and an excellent place - we will go back for calligraphy when we go back to Japan)

We had zero issues with language. I learnt enough pigin japanese to even get by in some 'no english' areas by uaing lingo deer about 5 mins per day for about 6 months. I cant read or write japanese!

I did have a trippie here but i needed to remove it for reasons. However i can post excerpts if anyone needs specifics.

We did 4 days disney, lots of temples, walks, a major festival in kyoto, nara deer, tea ceremony, day dressed in traditional garb. Then back to tokyo for ninka restaurant, robot restaurant, shopping, loads of sightseeing.

Food was a mixture but mainly self service to keep the cost down. We didn't eat in restaurants. I would say we ate a lot of picnics and food courts or small 'stool vendors'. We tended to see where everyone else ate!

See more...

That's good to hear, thank you. We do also want to do Universal, so are happy to increase the budget to include that too. I'm hoping we'll get good prices on flights and accommodation with it being September, so more of an off peak time.

Would you mind sharing the details of your Kyoto Airbnb please?

Did you get a 7 day or 14 day JR pass? I was thinking of 7 and using it to go from Tokyo to Osaka for a few nights, then Osaka to Kyoto for a few nights and back to Tokyo on day 7. Is it needed to get around locally too, a bit like a London tube pass, or is it better to just buy short trip tickets for any local journeys within Tokyo?

My husband has already started learning a bit of Japanese, so I'm going to join him doing that too 😊