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Old 2 May 20, 05:04 PM  
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Gr8WideSomewher
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When you gachapon a star: Tokyo Disney and Japan 2019 - Day 15

Hi guys, I'm back again after a short break. I hope everyone is well and not going too lockdown loco.

I only have two more days to post after this. They're both written, so I just need to sort and upload photos. Luckily, it's a bank holiday next week so there's a good chance I'll be able to do it then.

On with Day 15...

Day 15 - The Golden temple, travelling back to Tokyo Disney and Ixpiari

We got up at 7:30 on this day, so a weeny bit of a lie-in, and packed up our last few bits ready to leave Kyoto. We left our suitcases down at reception to collect later and then went to the breakfast bar to grab a coffee before heading out. The breakfast bar was in the same building as the hotel’s public bath, which we’d tried on Day 12. It was actually across the road from the rest of the hotel. Not sure how that happened.

The coffee was very welcome and we set off to Kyoto Station with a spring in our steps. We were going to Kinkaku-Ji, the Golden Temple, this morning. Not to be confused with Ginkaku-Ji, the Silver Temple, which we, unfortunately, didn’t get a chance to see. It was a very good day for it, however, as the weather was some of the best we’d had - some blue sky and a bit of a breeze - and the Golden Temple would look great in the sunshine.

It was a long bus journey from Kyoto Station to the temple, 40 minutes, but we spent our time reminiscing about how awesome our holiday had been. I was still keen to buy some souvenirs, such as presents for our fam and more pretty things for ourselves - my holiday spends were burning a hole in my pocket! - but Bex was still very hesitant. This always happens to her - she saves all her money until the last minute and then can’t find what she really wants!

It only cost 400 yen (£3) to get into the temple grounds and it was spectacular! They could definitely charge more. Obviously, it was extremely busy, but the temple is on the water and the walkway takes you around the lake, so you don’t have to jostle with people to get pictures and can see the temple from all different angles. I will now bore you with pictures of the temple.







The walkway took us round the lake, allowing us lots of different views of the temple and the lake.









It doesn’t take long to walk around the lake, even though we took our time, and we were finished by about 10:30.





We grabbed a drink from a vending machine and then headed back to some souvenir shops we’d seen on our way in. Maybe I’d finally get a chance to spend some money!

I remember these were some of the nicest shops we saw on our whole trip, with lots of genuinely beautiful bits and bobs to buy. As usual, no pictures were allowed, so I can’t show you I’m afraid.

We loved some of the things we saw in the first shop we went into and were all geared up to buy, but then I made the mistake of taking out my water bottle and taking a sip of water. The owner of the shop swooped down on me, slapped me on the arm and pretty much kicked us out of the shop! Of course, I understand she didn’t want any of her merchandise to be damaged but it was only water! I also put it away as soon as she asked me to! There was no need to chuck us out of the shop like that. And she lost herself some serious business because we went into the very next shop and probably spent 5000 yen, so f-you, lady.

The next shop was so cute! It sold adorable plushies of maiko, happy cats sitting on cushions and other little animals. There were also wall hangings, mobiles and window decorations. We basically loved everything! In the end, we came away with a plush maiko for Bex, a very smug-looking lucky cat for me and a maiko Christmas tree ornament.




We were very happy! We’d found it quite difficult to find things we really wanted to spend money on in Japan (especially in Disney, surprisingly enough) and nobody likes to come back from holiday with holiday money unspent! Apart from Bex, of course.

We caught the 101 tourist bus back to the Kyoto Station; a different bus than the one we’d taken to the temple, but it still took a while to get back. Once we got back to Kyoto Station we only had half an hour to go before our train back to Tokyo was due to leave. Although this sounds like a lot of time, what with making our way through the station, picking up some lunch from 7-Eleven to eat on the train, getting back to the hotel, picking up our bags and then heading back to the station to catch our train, we were pretty rushed!

We managed to catch the 13:00 train to Tokyo however, using our precious Japan Rail Passes for the last time, and settled in for the three hour journey. We both unpacked our lunches and ate happily, me listening to my audiobook and Bex reading on her Kindle.






Once back in Tokyo, we caught a train to Maihama and then the monorail and bus back to Tokyo Bay Maihama Hotel Club Resort (inn, lodge, boarding house etc .etc ), hotel of dreams.



I’m not sure if I remembered to tell you this, but we had been booked to stay in a capsule hotel for our last two nights, in Tokyo itself. I had wanted to try out a capsule hotel, as part of the Japanese experience, but as the holiday went on we’d found ourselves rhapsodising about Tokyo Bay more and more and had realised we really wanted to be closer to Disney. Bex had therefore booked us two nights at Tokyo Bay and cancelled the capsule hotel booking. I still need to stay in a capsule hotel one day (Bex, of course, stayed in one at the airport the night before I arrived in Japan), but I have no regrets about the fact that we got to stay in the beautiful Tokyo Bay for our last two nights in Japan. It's so perfect, you guys.

We checked in to the hotel and were able to go straight up to our room, as it was now about 16:00. The room wasn't exactly what we’d asked for - Bex had requested a parks view, as being able to photograph the parks at night from our balcony on our first visit had been soooooo awesome - but we’d ended up with a sea view.




upload img

We decided it wasn't worth fussing about, however, so we settled in. The sea view was quite nice too, and one of the cool things about the room was that it had a separate bath and shower, and the bath had a view of the sea.

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Old 2 May 20, 05:06 PM  
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Part 2

We spent the next few hours sorting out our suitcases (so we wouldn’t have to do it the following evening when we’d spent a whole day in Disney!) and relaxing. We left the hotel again at 18:00 to go to Ixpiari, the Tokyo Disney version of Disney Village/Disney Springs.




The bus and monorail both took an uncharacteristically long time, but we got there in the end. Naturally, it was raining when we got there, but most of the complex is indoors, so that was OK.





Ixpiari certainly isn’t as extensive as Disney Springs but probably a bit more so than Disney Village in DLP. It’s also not particularly Disney-focused, with most of the shops being tourist souvenir shops or high-end clothes shops.

We decided to look in the big Disney shop before going to get some tea. As had been the case throughout the holiday, however, we didn't really find anything that appealed to us.





The shop was dominated by Aladdin stuff (the live-action movie had just come out, though most of the merch celebrated the animated version) and lots and LOTS of Toy Story 4 stuff. It was all cute, but not enough to actually spend money on.






I found these Ursula bag ornaments, which I really did like because I’m a big Ursula fan, but they cost 2200 yen (£16.31), which for a tiny little thing like that did not seem worth the money. Bex didn't see anything she liked at all.



After that, we headed to Outback Steakhouse to get some food. Bex had been looking forward to this for a long time as she adores onion rings, and wanted to try their blooming onion. She’d forewarned me it was going to be expensive, but I didn’t mind, as she seemed so excited.

We waited maybe 20 minutes for a table and then were given a booth to ourselves near the back of the restaurant. We ordered the blooming onion as a starter (of course) and two focaccia steak sandwiches for our main.

We got warm bread to eat while we waited, which was a lovely touch. The starter eventually arrived at 19:30.

The blooming onion was everything Bex had hoped it would be and even I, who am not a massive fan of onion rings, loved it . The batter was light, a tiny bit spicy and very crispy and, though it looks huge in this picture, the onion wasn’t too ginormous. I’d definitely recommend this and if I ever go back to Outback Steakhouse I am definitely getting it again.



The steak sandwiches were pretty good too, though the onion was the star of the show. They were not quite as flavourful, but still really nice. For some reason I didn't get a picture, so sorry about that. Overall the meal was carbalicious as heck and really hit the spot! It cost 5700yen (£42.27) which...yikes , but we’d enjoyed ourselves and that’s the main thing.

Afterwards, we did a bit more shopping. Most of the shops were open late. We found cute little souvenir shop where we finally found a present for our mum and dad. We got them each a set of ornate, pretty chopsticks and a packet of Japanese tea. My dad collects tea, so we knew he especially would love this.

Then we walked on a bit and found a supermarket where we headed to the sweets aisle. I always buy some themed sweets for my office friends when I go on holiday and I wanted to get some flavoured mini-kit kats this time. Flavoured kit kats are very expensive, even in Japan, however, so I bought two packets of those (matcha and raspberry, they were delicious and disappeared so quickly when I got them to the office!) and some hard candy (tasted a bit weird). This was definitely cheaper than trying to buy sweets in DisneySea or at the airport.

Back at the monorail station, we spent some time admiring these beautiful Tokyo Disney murals.






There was another one halfway up the stairs too which was a map of both parks! We each took a picture pointing at our favourite areas (obviously we both went for areas in DisneySea!).



The Mysterious Island

The Mermaid Lagoon

We finally took the monorail back to the hotel at about 21:00, determined to get an early night ready for our last day. We showered and rested and headed to bed around 22:00.

It was about a 10,000 step day, so a much lighter one, thank goodness!

Tomorrow: our final day at Tokyo DisneySea! See you next time, folks!
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Old 8 May 20, 08:56 AM  
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iheartwdw
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Another fab day! I can’t wait to read your DisneySea day! 🥰 Xx
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