Dubai and Japan Summer 2018

[Rac20]

Hi All!

So this summer's holiday is going to be slightly different as we are travelling east rather than west and visiting Japan.

'WE' is made up of me (Rachael) and DH (Simon) along with our two beautiful (though not always angelic) boys who will be almost 13 and 10 when we go away. I'm hoping to get a few photos of DS 13 as he's not been up for having any photos of himself being taken in a long time!


Here is a photo taken from our last major vacation in 2016 to Orlando.

Spoiler alert - I am a massive star wars fan! The originals - not the prequals.


So how did this trip come about? Well the original intention was to fly to Brisbane and New Zealand to see my brother and his family who live in Brisbane. But the flights were more than I was prepared to pay and having travelled numerous times to Brisbane at that time of year I didn't want to spend time there again in what is their winter. So after various discussions it was settled that we would meet up in Japan. My nephew (In all of his 9 years) has always wanted to go to Japan. I have to be honest it's not a place I've ever considered but when I found out that Tokyo Disney was there I changed my mind!

When we were pricing up flights Emirates were coming up quite reasonable and as it's an airline I've flown with many times before we decided to book with them. This gave us the added benefit of having a few days in Dubai as the plane was stopping there anyway.

So the plan is to spend four days in Dubai. We are staying at Hilton The Walk on Jumeirah beach and then flying on to Tokyo where we are spending 14 days touring Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka (Hopefully we will throw in a trip to Universal)


Normally we fly from Manchester but flights were significantly dearer so we are flying from Newcastle and have booked a premier inn for £35.50 for the night before our stay. It's cost us £3600 for flights for the four of us plus our hotel stay in Dubai.

The rest of our accommodation we have booked through Airbnb and this is where I'm beginning to think our holiday is jinxed! The Japanese government have brought in new laws with regards accommodation and the letting of it which apparently wiped out 80% of Airbnb's accommodation. We still do not know if we have anywhere to stay and we leave in 22 days! Airbnb keep saying not to worry - I'm trying hard, I really am!

In addition to the Airbnb / lack of accommodation situation I was unable to book our Disney tickets using my Barclaycard who are adamant that nothing is wrong with my card. I managed in the end with a mastercard and it's something and nothing but these tiny little frustrations begin to make me think that Japan was not such a good idea. I am still recovering from the £1100 it cost me for our rail passes! £1100!

I'm really hoping that we have the best time... I'm still not feeling overly excited about it and considering how much we've paid I think I could have had two weeks in Orlando for the same amount. However, I am always open to new experiences and if I don't try it I won't know if i'll like it!

I do plan on doing a live trip report so if you are considering a trip to Japan in the near future - don't forget to follow along!

Ohh before I sign off - I need to say a very big thank you to kevin_cambs_uk who posted me some train maps. I will most certainly be using them! It was such a lovely, kind thing to do. So thank you!