Tell me about your trip to Japan...

Where did you go? How did you find restaurants? Did you bring cash with you, use ATMs, or survive on credit/debit? What was your daily budget?

What would you do differently if you could do it over? What advice would you give a first timer? How many days did you need for the parks? Did you stay on property or elsewhere? How far is Disney from Tokyo? How easy is it to reach from the city? (I went to Paris this year and it was super easy to reach Disney from the city center as a day trip. Wondering if I can do the same in Tokyo.)

My main focus would be elsewhere- I love art, history and nature. But naturally I'd have to start my trip with Disney :jumping1:

We did nearly a month in Japan!
-Tokyo City
-Day in Kawaguchi-ko (for MT Fuji...would not recommend, would recommend Hakone from what I've seen friends post)
-Tokyo Disney Resort (4 days)
-Matsumoto
-Kanazawa
-Kyoto
-Day trip to Nara
-Hiroshima
-Miyajiyama

If you have the time/money, I'd say it's DEFINITELY worth it to spend a 3-4 days in Tokyo city (we did that & when we planned out a 2nd trip we did the same and managed to NOT overlap anything). Kyoto has some AMAZING places like the Arashiyama Bamboo Grove & Fushimi Inari Shrine with all the tori gates! Nara is about 1hr trip outside kyoto by train, and has the park with all the "tame" deer that you can feed & they'll bow to you and it's super cool.


Restaurants were super easy to find! They were usually always in basements of malls & train stations, or even just on the streets. Lots of English, or at least pictures, or people that could understand ENOUGH to make it by, especially in tourist areas! We usually ate breakfast at our BnB OR stopped at 7-11!! The 7-11's there are a WHOLE other level of awesome and amazing, and super cheap! Hamazushi is a chain conveyer belt sushi place that we LOVED, cheap, fun, and delicious!!

Definitely bring cash & use ATM's, the ONLY time I used credit was at the Disney Store & at Tokyo Disneyland, cards are NOT widely used across Asia (even at Disney, the carts only take cash)

Daily budget is tough, at Disney, prices are about the same as other Disney parks, but I spent a lot more on merchandise & snacks that were almost too adorable to eat. In the city, things were a bit cheaper, many places we went had $1 beers, free rice, that kinda stuff. If you eat breakfast at your hotel, I'd say about $30/day for food? There's places in Tokyo Disney that you can get special meal "sets" that are about $15 and come with SO MUCH, the halloween set at Gramma Sarah's included a meal with chicken, 2 sides, soup, dessert & a drink! Way more than you'd get for that cost at WDW!

I'd spend 5 days in Disney! Specifically more time in DisneySea, and spend more time trying to figure out that map! Lol. I wouldn't lose my memory cards...that's for sure, ahaha!!
-Potentially train down to Osaka to see Universal/see Osaka! We didn't realize how close it was to Kyoto, and we ended up kinda derping around not knowing what to do in our last day!

-4 Days in Disney is good, 5 would be best (imo) MAKE SURE TO GO ON THE WEEKDAYS!! Crowds are CRAZY on weekends. Also, i know you want to start with Disney, but consider even just doing a DAY in the city first. We had HUGE struggles buying tickets online with out of country credit cards, so we bought them at the Shibuya Disney Store instead. OR at least have a day/evening that the ticket booths are still open before your first park day, since you want to be in line for the park at LEAST an hour before opening!

-Learn about the attractions, which ones are unique to TDR (Hunny hunt, Monster's Inc, Journey, Nemo, etc) and figure out what your priority is, figure out which ones have fb's, and how you can utilize that system to make sure you get on what you want!

-In DL: I'd go straight to Hunny Hunt, grab a fp, then ride it standby, then head back to Monster's Inc to either ride or grab another fp when you can. Check the lottery for One Man's Dream, then go from there
-In DS: Go straight to Journey, check Nemo after that since it's the newest it'll have big crowds, then check out from there.

-We stayed at an AirBnB that was a 10 min walk to Kasai station! There's a 15-20 minute bus straight to Disney from Kasai, so if you stay anywhere around there you're super close & it's WAY cheaper than on site! We were originally booked in at a cheap hotel, and when we swapped to BnB, we saved MORE THAN HALF of what we were originally paying!! WORTH IT!!

-Disney is VERY easy to reach, as said, it's about 15-20 minute from Kasai station on the bus!

Feel free to check out my TR in my signature for more info!! Let me know if you have any other questions!!
 

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