Tokyo Travels - Day 8

[hornetgirl]

Day eight

And so, all too soon, our last full day in Japan rolled around. As if in sympathy the weather had changed to match our mood this morning. The sky was very grey and for the first time since we arrived it was raining. Never mind, we had waterproof jackets with us.

We ate a final breakfast in our beautiful room before heading down to the hotel lobby to check out. As tomorrow’s flight was an early one, we had decided to stay in a hotel at the airport tonight rather than trying to battle our way through the rush hour tomorrow morning. Having checked out, we asked about booking a shuttle bus back to the airport. We were directed to another desk, where the cast member showed us a sheet with the bus times on and we pointed at the one we wanted. Surprisingly we were unable to pay for this by credit card, it was strictly cash only. Fortunately we still had some yen left. Next stop was the concierge desk, where we left our luggage. This time I didn’t leave any of the necessary tickets in my suitcase!

As it was the third day of our park tickets, we now had park hopping privileges and decided to start by returning to DisneySea, so it was back onto the monorail. This time it was a Nemo themed one, celebrating the new ride.

Turning in our last pair of Happy 15 passes, this time we joined the throng heading towards Toyville. The wet weather had made the ground very slippery and there were signs everywhere asking guests not to run. I didn’t run but I still managed to slip. I had barely hit the deck before a cast member was at my side, picking me up and checking that I was ok. Other than an enormous bruise on my knee, fortunately only my pride was wounded.

There was only a tiny queue at the FP machines, so we grabbed those first, then got into the short queue for the ride.

It was very similar to those in California and Orlando, although some of the background scenery on the games had a Japanese theme, which was a nice touch.
When we came out of the ride, this was the queue for Toy Story fastpasses!

By the time we returned to use our fastpasses just after 10am, all fastpasses had gone. In between our two Toy Story rides we revisted the Tower of Terror, even though it did seem very tame.

We couldn’t resist having another ride on Sinbad either.

The queue for Journey to the Centre of the Earth wasn’t too long, about 30 minutes I think, so we decided to ride that again too.

I’m glad we did as with yesterday’s fast passes we didn’t get to see the incredibly themed queueing area. The photos really don't due it justice, it was filled with things to look at.

A short walk led us to Mermaid Lagoon, which we hadn’t really explored yesterday.

Although mainly for children, it did also have a musical show, King Triton’s Concert, based on The Little Mermaid. It was another stunner, nothing like the show in Hollywood Studios, with the cast performing above us. Whilst we were in the area, we checked the new Nemo ride again in case of a soft opening but no joy.

Instead we rode on the Electric Railway back to the New York area to get some lunch, admiring the theming from our elevated viewpoint.

This time we both had the mile high sandwich and followed it with cheesecake.

Mickey and Duffy came by in their car again. Today they were prepared for the bad weather and were sporting plastic coats.

We also took a spin round the area in a vintage vehicle.

Then entertained ourselves watching these ladies carefully arranging their bears for a photo shoot.

They were delighted when we took a photo too.

Sean now came up with a lovely suggestion. I had been looking for a Pandora charm as a souvenir of our trip but hadn’t found anything special. They did have park exclusives, but nothing different to the ones I already have. I thought perhaps there would be an exclusive Tokyo Disney one but no, or at least if there was we couldn’t find it. Sean’s idea was that as the weather was a bit rubbish we should get the train back to Ginza, where we had noticed a Pandora store the other day. So that’s exactly what we did and I’m now the lucky owner of a waving cat charm and two beautiful cherry blossom clips. The man in the shop asked whether we had our passports with us and as we did, we were able to make our purchase tax free, with some paperwork being attached into Sean’s passport.

Our unplanned shopping expedition didn’t take as long as we expected, so once we were back we decided to have a final hour or so in Disneyland before heading back to the hotel to catch the bus. Minor hitch – when we exited DisneySea we didn’t get our hands stamped. We thought we didn’t need to as we had park hopping today but it seems we were wrong. However, the cast member asked us what time we had gone into DisneySea, pretended to look something up on her iPad, then let us through the turnstile, warning us with a smile that in future we must get our hands stamped.

We didn’t do too much, just visiting Fantasyland to watch PhilharMagic and ride on a few of the more traditional rides - Peter Pan’s Flight, Snow White’s Adventures and Pinocchio’s Daring Journey.

Then after a little wander through Main Street World Bazaar we said our goodbyes and took the short walk back to the hotel.

All that was left to do was to collect our luggage and wait for the bus. There was a lovely little Alice in Wonderland garden where we had to wait.

The bus arrived dead on time. We were the first pick up point and it then spent almost an hour circling the resort to collect from all the other hotels before making the short journey round Tokyo Bay and back to Haneda Airport. We had one quick piece of business to conduct here – returning the pocket wifi device to the Klook desk. This had been very useful during the first part of our trip but we didn’t use it at all while we were at Disney. I know some other Dibbers have regarded having one as essential, but for us it was more of a nice to have.

Our last night was spent at the Royal Park Hotel, which you access from within the international terminal at Haneda. Our room was small but had everything we needed.

We soon managed to make it look a mess.

A nice touch was spray bottle of clothes freshener on the hanging rail. PJs were also provided, so no need for any last minute unpacking and repacking, although these actually turned out to be gigantic nightshirts, probably roomy enough to go camping in.

The hotel had a nice looking restaurant, so we didn’t bother to venture any further than that and both opted for the tempura set.

Sean washed his down with a couple of beers and I had a glass of pinot grigio.

Knowing we had an early start, we had a quick sort out of all our luggage, put out our travelling clothes, packed today’s clothes and had an earlyish night.

[kevin_cambs_uk]

All good things finally come to an end

I hope you give us some of your thoughts overall of Japan

Thanks again

[hornetgirl]

Originally Posted by kevin_cambs_uk

All good things finally come to an end

I hope you give us some of your thoughts overall of Japan

Thanks again

See more...

I will do. I'll do a little bit about the flight home and some final thoughts.

[Guest]

Aw we found the ground slippery too! I loved the theming in Andy's Room! The bears picture is so cute!

[Guest]

Loved your trip report would love to see Pandora charms thanks for sharing.

[hornetgirl]

Originally Posted by Tanzanite

Loved your trip report would love to see Pandora charms thanks for sharing.

See more...

Here they are:

Sorry it's not a great picture, it's hard to get my iPad in that close. The cat is much nicer than it looks, the only pink on it is the heart - the rest is a reflection from the top I'm wearing

[SuzyM]

Thanks for your trip report - I've really enjoyed it and it has got me very excited for our trip - we set off in less than 2 weeks :-).

Suzy

[hornetgirl]

Originally Posted by SuzyM

Thanks for your trip report - I've really enjoyed it and it has got me very excited for our trip - we set off in less than 2 weeks :-).

Suzy

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Lucky you, you're going to have an amazing time.

[Guest]

Originally Posted by hornetgirl

Here they are:

Sorry it's not a great picture, it's hard to get my iPad in that close. The cat is much nicer than it looks, the only pink on it is the heart - the rest is a reflection from the top I'm wearing

See more...

How beautiful so nice to get something on a trip good memories thank you so loveley. I will have to check out Pandora when i visit my son in Japan.

[smedley]

You got a lot in today too, going to have to show these to Pete