When you gachapon a star: Tokyo Disney and Japan 2019 - Day 17

[Gr8WideSomewher]

Told you it would be soon!

Day 17: Travelling back to the UK, boo!

I woke before our 6 AM alarm on our last day - or at least I thought I did! I didn’t realise Bex had actually turned the alarm off, so I lay there for a while thinking I had a while before I had to get up.

Me: God, I’m so tired still. Thank goodness I woke up early and don’t have to rush to get ready. Why is Bex running around like a mad thing? It’s only…

Bex: You know the transfer is coming in 15 minutes right?

Me: Shiiiiiii…

I got up, showered, threw things in my suitcase and got dressed in 15 minutes! I just made it. Of course, my suitcase was overweight (when is it ever not?) but there was nothing I could do about it now. I just had to hope they wouldn’t notice. Bex’s was fine because she’d been throwing things out on the road, both in China and Japan. I had lots of room in my hand luggage, which I planned to use to put things in if my suitcase was over, however, Bex found that her suitcase wouldn't close with her new cushion in it (the only big thing we’d bought) so I had to carry that for her, which took up some of that space.

Not the most zen start to a journey ever, but oh well!

We went downstairs to try and grab something for breakfast to take away with us (breakfast for free had been included for some reason with this booking), but of course, weird Japanese rules struck again - you weren’t allowed to take food away. So we went hungry - and I really was quite hungry. For a change.

We dragged our suitcases out to the taxi rank outside the hotel and our transfer shuttle turned up almost immediately. It was quite a sizeable minibus and was supposed to be a shared transfer, but no one else showed up so, in the end, we had it to ourselves. This made for a nice, peaceful journey to the airport. The journey took about an hour, which I spent catching up on my notes, while Bex listened to something on her phone.



We arrived at the airport at 7.30 and went immediately to drop our suitcases. Bex’s suitcase was weighed and was way under - all good so far - but when I put mine on the scales it was, unsurprisingly, way overweight. The check-in lady wanted me to take some stuff out, so I removed the suitcase and Bex moved to take her suitcase too, so we could redistribute things throughout both the suitcases. Clearly, the check-in lady couldn’t be ≈≈≈≈≈ with all that, however. Seeing Bex go to take her suitcase, she changed her mind and just let me put mine through. Result!

Next, we went to find a branch of the electronics store that Bex had hired the wi-fi dongle from, so we could drop it off. This took about 3 seconds. The wi-fi had also been really reliable throughout the holiday and we really really couldn’t have managed without it. Overall, it was a great service and we’d definitely do it that way again.

We went straight through security and immigration in about 20 minutes total and emerged into the departures lounge with ages to go before our flight. Bex now set herself the challenge of using up as much of our remaining money as possible. We didn’t have enough to make it worth changing yen back into pounds, so she wanted to use as much of it as possible. We had 700 yen in cash and 550 yen on our travel money card (WeSwap - would recommend!) which comes to about £9, so not a terrible amount of money to end up with, but Bex was determined to do better.

To start with we found a cafe and bought an iced coffee and a mocha, which left us with 30 yen in cash. Bex was pleased with herself, but as we walked toward the gate saw an opportunity to use up even more of the money! She bought two croissants and a bottle of water with the last 550 yen on the card. In the end, we had 51 yen (38p) total on the card and in cash. I was seriously impressed with Bex’s clever spending, and a guy behind us in the queue even chipped in to congratulate us.

I will just interrupt myself here to note that Japan is, in general, a very cash-based society. Here in the UK, we’re used to paying with everything by card, and in China (which Bex had obviously just come from), it’s not actually possible to pay for most things by cash. But in Japan having cash of lots of different denominations was absolutely necessary, which actually made Bex’s strategic travel money-spending even more impressive. Anyway, that’s just a tip for anybody who is reading this planning a trip to Japan - I know there are a few of you.

Back to the trippie - but not for long. I’m afraid I entirely stopped taking notes at this point. I know our flight was a bit delayed till 10:15 so we had a while to wait at the gate, but I didn’t write anything else down! I think that’s because everything was pretty much smooth sailing after that. There was loads of empty seats on the flight and so loads of room.


This was my meal - it was not good.

We made up time on the first flight, so didn’t arrive late. We flew back via Amsterdam rather than Charles de Gaulle (thank God! From my least favourite airport in the world to my fave) and then from there to Birmingham.

We arrived back in Birmingham at a very decent time - round about 17:00 - and, as usual, everything was very smooth there. Birmingham really is a great airport. The only thing we had to worry about was finding our parents, who had come to pick us up, in the short-stay car park. As you may know, the short stay is very short in Birmingham - literally like 10 minutes - so we had to be fast. We found them eventually, however, and were extremely grateful for the ride back home.

We arrived back home at about 18:30, ate a light tea and went to bed very early. We would spend the next few weeks reminiscing and talking about nothing but our holiday, but that evening was about nothing other than sleep!


I was happy to see this one though!

And that concludes my Japan trip report. Despite the fact that I’ve gone on about it for probably about 20,000 words at this point, I can’t convey to you how fantastic this holiday was. Japan was somewhere I never thought I’d go, but now that I’ve been I know I will go back. Japanese culture is fascinating and extremely different from our own, and on this trip, I think we found the perfect balance between experiencing the brand new and indulging our already existing passions.

I want to thank you guys for reading along and especially to those who commented and said you were enjoying it - I love writing these trippies and it’s so nice to hear that y’all like reading them too. I obviously want to thank Japan for giving me so many new things to try and to love and giving me so many experiences I will never forget; to thank Disney for being so completely awesome and, most of all, to thank Bex - making memories with you is my favourite thing in the whole world; let’s never stop, OK?

Live Disney, love Disney
Loads of love,
Rosie XXX

P.S. Here are some key costs. Maybe if you're planning a trip to Japan any time soon, these will be a bit helpful.

Flight to Japan (Birmingham to Tokyo): £596.88 (Bex was coming from Shanghai, obvs so her flight was cheaper-We split the cost of both flights)
Japan Rail Passes: £207pp
Disney costs: 4-day ticket £153 and 1-day ticket £51pp
Universal costs: 1.5-day £91pp
Internet dongle: £90 for 16 days

Hotels:
Tokyo Bay Maihama Resort £310 for 4 nights
Abest Ginzakyobashi Hotel, Tokyo £379 for 4 nights
Hotel Universal Port (Minions Hotel), £162 for 2 nights
Hotel Sakura Gallery, Kyoto £366 for 4 nights
(Note: we were expecting to have to pay room tax (100-300 yen pp/n) for all these hotels, but actually we were only asked to pay it once in Kyoto. It wouldn’t have been much, but it was nice not to have to.)

Studio Ghibli Museum: £25pp
SUICA card (underground): £16.15 with 2000 yen credit then topped up throughout.

P.P.S Bex says she is going to get going writing up her Shanghai Disney day report, so hopefully I will be able to post that here sometime soon!

[AntonyJ]

Thank you for all your efforts writing all this up!

[Rabel]

Your trip report has made me add Japan onto my "must visit" list. Thank you for writing it all up

[Rae21]

Thanks loads for this, it’s given me even more ideas for my trip (and confirmed a lot of my choices). Can start planning (again - 3rd time lucky) to hopefully get my trip next year 😄

[AntonyJ]

I have only made one trip to Tokyo Disney / Tokyo itself and a day trip to Kyoto on a bullet train - but would love to answer any questions anyone has, as found the country amazing and Tokyo Disney my fav Disney resort.

I was really concerned about food (am fussy to the point I should be slapped!), language etc - but it was soooooo good.

[Mamie Baldwin]

Just wonderful, thank you so much for such a detailed report.

[iheartwdw]

Aww, I’m sad it’s over, I have really enjoyed reading along!

Laura Xx

[Nesbits]

It’s been fabulous to share your holiday.

The costs are helpful too. 😮 to internet dongle hire 😀

[CrazyBaby]

Brilliant trip report, I've just spent the last two days reading. It has really helped me to plan our trip to Tokyo for my 40th

[Unexpectedpenny]

Thank you for sharing your trip with us. I’ve really enjoyed reading it