Beard Family Trips & Vacations

Tokyo, Japan

March 15 - 24, 2008

The trip was for the family to visit Tokyo over Spring Break based on the kids desires to see the city.  Courtney is looking to work on a master's program following her graduation in 2009 from the University of Houston.

This link is for the information used to plan the trip.

March 15 (Saturday) - Houston, TX and Chicago, IL

• left the house by 5:15 AM and arrived at the Parking Spot #2 around 6:15 AM.
• Was dropped off at IAH by 6:30 AM
• Flew from Houston, TX to Chicago, IL on United 7508, which departed IAH at 8:55 AM and arrived in ORD at 11:26 AM (925 miles - 2 hours, 31 minutes - Embraer 170).
• Arrived in Terminal One, Concourse B, and had to go to Concourse C through an underground corridor for the international flight.
• Flew from Chicago, IL to Tokyo, Japan on United 0883, which departed ORD at 1:52 PM and arrived the next day at NRT at 5:05 PM (6,274 miles - 13 hours, 13 minutes - Boeing 777).

The check-in area was a little chaotic with people trying to get onto flights that were already overbooked due to the spring break happening.  One guy worked for United (had his family with him) and was on vacation from Canada and could not get back home.  He was told that it would be several days before they could get him and his family back to Canada; even with his boss saying that they should get them on a plane. 

We got checked in and the baggage was sent on its way.  We walked over to the security area and Conner’s backpack was picked to be searched due to all the DVDs he had in it.  They searched it and found nothing that interested them, so sent him on his way (with Wanda and I watching closely beside him the whole time).   It bothered him that he was selected, but we calmed him down about it.

Conner and I grabbed some breakfast at McDonalds while waiting for the flight to Chicago.

The flight up to Chicago was uneventful.  We arrived and walked to the other terminal to find our departure gate to Tokyo.  The area was not designed to hold the passengers of one international flight, much less two that took off less than an hour of each other with a domestic flight leaving from the same general area.  Chicago needs to work on their accommodations for customers.  We grabbed lunch after standing in long lines for the McDonalds there.  I had tried some other places, but all their lines were longer.  We had to eat the food in the waiting area.

The status displays for each gate area is an excellent idea.  They provide a rotating display of information on the upcoming flight, the aircraft involved, and other items important to the traveler.  This method of communication is needed in all airports.

March 16 (Sunday) - Tokyo, Japan

• Arrived at NRT at 5:05 PM  (United Airlines uses Terminal 1, South Wing)

• Narita International Airport Guide   (PDF)

A 13 ½ hour flight is long.  I ended up falling asleep for only about 30 minutes.  I had seen several of the available movies before (Alvin and the Chipmunks, Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium), but ended up watching all of the other five other movies that were shown:

Becoming Jane

Elizabeth: The Golden Age

Lions for Lambs

No Country for Old Men

Why Did I Get Married?

 The only one that I thought was at least entertaining was Why Did I Get Married? and Wanda thought the same thing.  It was a long flight.

We arrived at Narita International Airport (NRT) in Tokyo basically on time.  We had been given immigration and customs forms to fill out on board; which we did.  There was about a five minute walk to the immigration area, and once we reached it, found a long line for the foreign passport queues.  I don’t know if they did not anticipate the people on vacation or if it was a normal occurrence, but they were overwhelmed.  Most of the queues were open; however, it took almost an hour to get through the line.  There were two other area queues: Japanese passports and returning permits.  Every once in a while, when those lines ran out of people, they would funnel people into those lines also.

Once you get to the booth, the time there didn’t seem to take very long; just had to get your two index fingers scanned and picture taken.  They then updated the passports with their permits and sent you past them to baggage claim.  We went to baggage and found it already waiting for us.  We went to the same customs officer and I handed him one form for the family, which turned out to be the right thing to do, he asked why we were there and where we were from, and sent us on our way without looking at any of our bags.  There was no wait for this queue.

Next stop was to exchange money.  I wasn’t really happy with the exchange rates, but did not feel like shopping around and took the going rate of the first place we came to.  It was about 10 yen less per dollar than I had planned for our budget, so we’ll have to see how we do during our trip.  The young lady doing the exchange spoke perfect English when I talked to her, as did the Immigration and Customs officers.

We then went to the JR East office and got the NEX and Suica deal that was offered for 3500 Yen per person.  This is a deal that allows tourists with foreign passports to buy a Narita Express reserved seat ticket into Tokyo and receive a Suica card to use on subways, trains, etc. with 1500 yen on it along with a 500 Yen deposit that can be returned when the card is turned in upon leaving.  This turned out to be a good deal and we were glad to have this mode of transportation as we traveled 80 minutes to the Shibuya station to transfer to the Hanzomon line.  There had been a young lady out front helping people with the automated machines and answering questions that looked at our plans and interacted with us in English.  The lady behind the counter also spoke English as she helped us.

Transfer	Required	Station name & Route and Train name	Fare	Charge
		NARITA INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT 1
	6min	Walk
		NARITA AIRPORT
	80min	LTD.EXP NARITA EXPRESS	¥1450	Reserved seat ¥1660
12min		SHIBUYA
	9min	Tokyo Subway Hanzomon Line	¥160
		HANZOMON

You use the NEX card for the reserved seats on the Narita Express.  Once you walk out of the JR area at Shibuya, and into the subway line area, you had to use the Suica card.

• Suica & NEX User's Guide   (PDF)

It was rough taking the luggage through the Shibuya station for the transfer from the JR Train to the Hanzomon Subway Line.  There were escalators for some of the steps going up, but many of those where we had to go down had only the steps in that direction.  I ended up carrying both Wanda’s and my luggage down the steps (about 100 pounds).  The first couple wasn’t bad, but by the time we made the Hanzomon line, I was tired.  There were probably elevators, but we did not see them at the time.  Also, Wanda did not require that I carry her luggage down the stairs, but I felt that I needed to.

The subway was easy to get from Shibuya to Hanzomon stations.  Both (as well as the station at NRT) had plenty of signs in English and maps around with labels in English and Japanese that made it easy to find where to go.  Once you get used to it, you know just what to look for and it is no problem using their subways.

The entrance to the hotel was almost directly across from one of the exits of the Hanzomon station.  The clerk that checked us in communicated in English for the most part, though we had a few challenging moments as he understood we had two reserved rooms under different names (mine and Courtney’s).  We got to the rooms around 9 PM (7 AM Houston time); this was 24+ hours after leaving the house.

• Pictures of the Hotel Monterey Hanzomon

The rooms are smaller than we are used to in the USA, but sufficient for our purposes here.   I had rented a couple of Japanese cell phones to use in Tokyo just in case they were needed when we were separated from Courtney and Conner.  They were supposed to be delivered to the hotel, but I had forgotten to ask for them when we checked in.  One of the desk clerks ran them up to us soon after we checked in.

Wanda, Conner, and I went out late (around 10 PM) to find a McDonald’s that was near the other end of the station.  After walking the wrong way a couple of times, and realizing we should have just went down the street (or through the station), we found the place and went in to order.

This was my first challenge in making myself understood by someone else.  The young lady did not understand any English.  She tried talking to Wanda in Japanese then and realized that Wanda didn’t speak any either.  I started giving the order, but she finally pointed to a picture menu they had on the counter and we were able to go through the order okay (or so I thought).  It ended up that she didn’t think we wanted fries, so didn’t charge us for them, and we didn’t realize it until we were back in the rooms and started eating.

We made plans with Courtney and Conner for them to come by the room at 10 AM the next morning to decide what to do and then went to bed.

March 17  (Monday) - Tokyo, Japan

 I woke up at 4:30 AM (only about 5 hours of sleep) and couldn’t go back to sleep, so started up the laptop and followed the play-by-play of the Houston Rockets and Los Angeles Lakers’ game being played Sunday afternoon back home.  I think Wanda woke up once to ask what I was doing, but went back to sleep after I told her.  This was the Rockets' last win of their streak.

On this day, and throughout the trip, we saw various kinds of drink vending machines almost everywhere you went.  There were no snack machines to be seen, but plenty of the drink versions.  They usually contained water, soda, tea, and coffee drinks.

• Pictures of the various drinks and some vending machines

The subway and rail systems were really easy to use once we got used to them and found out what to look for.

• Pictures of subway signs and other items

We decided to go eat lunch in Ginza and see the Sony Building today.  This day was used to adjust to the new time and most of the tourist attractions are closed on each Monday.  We took the Hanzomon line from the Hanzomon station to the Otemachi station and swapped to the Marunouchi line to proceed on to the Ginza station.

Transfer	Required	Station name & Route and Train name	Fare	Charge
		HANZOMON
	6min	Tokyo Subway Hanzomon Line
8min		OTEMACHI(TOKYO)	¥160
	4min	Tokyo Subway Marunouchi Line
		GINZA

• Pictures of the Sony Building

• Pictures of the surrounding buildings in Ginza

After we left the Sony Building, we walked around Ginza for a little bit looking at the various shops.  Then we decided to go over to the Imperial Place Gardens thinking to walk through the East Gardens on this day.    To do this, we took the Marunouchi subway line from the Ginza station to the Otemachi station.

Transfer	Required	Station name & Route and Train name	Fare	Charge
		GINZA
	3min	Tokyo Subway Marunouchi Line	¥160
		OTEMACHI(TOKYO)

We walked from the Otemachi station toward the East Gardens; a short distance away.

• Pictures of the Imperial Palace's East Garden area

During the trip around the Imperial Palace moat, we happened upon some of the cherry blossoms already blooming in several locations:

As you can see, there was dark pink and light pink versions along this route.  They seemed in areas that were more protected from weather than the rest of the trees.  On the local news programs during the week, a lot of time was spent on how the trees were blooming early and when the experts expected all of them to be blooming (predicted to have been March 26th).  We would see more of the trees throughout the week we were there.

We ended up walking back to the hotel and rested for the remainder of the day.  All four of us went back to the McDonalds close to the hotel to eat supper that evening.  We ended up eating several meals here due to Conner not liking exotic food.  We stopped by the AM-PM convenience store close to the hotel to get some drinks and breakfast items for the next morning.

March 18 (Tuesday) - Tokyo, Japan

In the morning, we had ate our breakfast items and left the hotel by 9 AM to go to Ueno Park.  We took the Hanzomon line from Hanzomon Station to the Miksukoshimae Station and transferred to the Ginza line for the rest of the trip to the Ueno Station.

Transfer	Required	Station name & Route and Train name	Fare	Charge
		HANZOMON (Z05)
	9min	Tokyo Subway Hanzomon Line
5min		MITSUKOSHIMAE (Z09) (G12)	¥190
	6min	Tokyo Subway Ginza Line
		UENO (G16)

We walked through Ueno Park since the Tokyo National Museum was at the other end of it.  After visiting that complex, and eating lunch at the Restaurant L'accord there, we then walked over to the National Museum of Western Art where they had some significant items of famous painters and sculptors.

• Pictures from Ueno Park

  • Pictures from the Tokyo National Museum complex

  • Pictures from the National Museum of Western Art

Following the visit to the museums, we then walked back through the park to Ueno Station.  We traveled back from Ueno Station on the Ginza line to Mitsukoshimae Station and transferred to the Hanzomon line to return to Hanzomon Station.

Transfer	Required	Station name & Route and Train name	Fare	Charge
		UENO (G16)
	6min	Tokyo Subway Ginza Line
7min		MITSUKOSHIMAE (G12) (Z09)	¥190
	9min	Tokyo Subway Hanzomon Line
		HANZOMON (Z05)

Following a couple of hours rest, we then decided to go eat supper at a place called Vimon Steak in Tokyo Station.  This required traveling from Hanzomon Station on the Hanzomon line to Otemachi Station and swap to the Marunouchi line to get to Tokyo Station.

Transfer	Required	Station name & Route and Train name	Fare	Charge
		HANZOMON
	7min	Tokyo Subway Hanzomon Line
7min		OTEMACHI(TOKYO)	¥160
	1min	Tokyo Subway Marunouchi Line
		TOKYO

We found Vimon Steak in a group of restaurants adjacent to the station.   They had advertised on the internet that they had English speaking wait-staff and our waiter could speak English to some degree.  This is where we really found out about the small portions of food sold per meal.  60 grams of steak is not very big as Courtney found out.  Conner and I had 180 grams of hamburger steak, which was more reasonable.  The sweet potato fries were good though.  Wanda had a steak and rice set that she enjoyed.

After eating, we returned to the hotel by going back to Otemachi Station and then on to Hanzomon Station.

Transfer	Required	Station name & Route and Train name	Fare	Charge
		TOKYO
	1min	Tokyo Subway Marunouchi Line
7min		OTEMACHI(TOKYO)	¥160
	7min	Tokyo Subway Hanzomon Line
		HANZOMON

We made plans to be up and ready to leave the hotel at 9 AM again the next morning.

March 19  (Wednesday) - Tokyo, Japan

On this day, we planned to go to three different locations.  The first being the Meiji Jingu Shrine, which is a Shinto Shrine dedicated to the spirits of Emperor Meiji and his wife, Empress Shoken.  This is a large area of over 175 acres in the middle of Tokyo.  Once in the middle of the shrine, it is hard to believe that you are in the middle of a city; that is if you can ignore the rows of tourists buses parked at the tourism center.  The acreage is covered in a large forest that surrounds the actual shrine complex.  We entered from the south coming from the Meijingumae Station and left heading north going to the Yoyogi Station.

A note about the automated subway station gates: the software does not like you to go into and come back out the same station.  We had entered the Hanzomon Station and go onto the line to go to Omotesando Station when I discovered that I had a problem with my camera battery that I had just inserted into the camera.  It should have had a full charge, but would not turn the camera on.  At the next stop, I got off and got on the next train back to the Hanzomon Station planning to meet up with the other three at Omotesando Station after getting the other battery that I had charging all night.  When I tried to go through the gate after arriving back at Hanzomon Station, the gate would not let me through.  I went to the ticket office and the attendant did not speak English, but after trying to explain it to him with gestures, he checked the card and indicated what was wrong.  He corrected the card and let me through the gate with no charge.

It worked okay when I returned back from the hotel after inserting and checking the other battery.  I met back up with the family and we continued on with our plans.  Just another experience that adds to the memories of a trip.

Transfer	Required	Station name & Route and Train name	Fare	Charge
		HANZOMON (Z05)
	6min	Tokyo Subway Hanzomon Line
5min		OMOTESANDO (Z02) (C04)	¥160
	1min	Tokyo Subway Chiyoda Line
		MEIJIJINGUMAE (C03)
	2min	Walk
		HARAJUKU

• Pictures from the Meiji Jingu Shrine

A long walk was taken over to the Yoyogi Station.  We should have went back to Meijingumae or Harajuku Station, but we didn't.  Instead, we took the Toei Oedo line to Shinjuku Station, transferred to the Keio New line and went to the Hatsudai station.  This station is located at the Tokyo Opera City Tower.

Transfer	Required	Station name & Route and Train name	Fare	Charge
		YOYOGI
	2min	Toei Oedo Line
2min		SHINJUKU(TOEI)	¥280
	1min	Keio New Line
		HATSUDAI

The second location we were looking for was the Japanese Sword Museum.  We tried to follow the map to the location showed on it, but the streets did not match since there had been new building construction and some of the smaller streets had been cut off.  After taking a circular route, we did finally find it.

• Japanese Sword Museum

After leaving the museum, we were looking at the map for an easier way of getting back to the station when a local gentleman stopped and asked where we wanted to go.  He told us that all we had to do was climb some steps at the end of the street, turn right onto a bike path, and we would end up on the street not far from the Tokyo Opera City Tower.  This was a lot shorter route than we had taken to get there.

It was time for lunch, so we decided to look at the restaurants in the basement area (which was partially an open courtyard, so probably not considered a basement) to determine if there was a place for us to eat.  After looking at them all, we decided on an English Pub called The Hub.  Conner and I got Chicken and Chips, while Wanda and Courtney ordered a couple of Japanese dishes.  Good food for a pub.  It turned out that Conner was not supposed to have went in, but they didn't ask his age and he does look older than he is (age 16).  Drinking is allowed in Japan at age 20.

It was at this point that I came up with an observation about the Japanese culture.  Sitting in the pub, I noticed that many of the people were sitting alone either reading a book/anima, performing texting or other functions on their phones, or playing games on a handheld game console (i.e., PSP).  I had noticed this every time we were on the subways or trains and then whenever we went out to eat.  The Japanese are becoming isolationist individuals in their society.  There are times when they come together as small groups, but this is mainly seen with the teenagers or pre-teens, though there was one night we saw some younger women as a group in a restaurant along with another older group of women.  However, for the most part, the Japanese seem to not interact very frequently with each other.  There is hardly any talking on subways (no cell phone talking allowed) and the same can be said for restaurants for the most part.

The part of no cell phone talking is an advantage of their culture that I wish Americans would adopt.  I personally do not want to hear the conversations of others.  We knew we were back in the USA when we landed on the flight from Chicago in Houston and about a third of the people around us immediately pulled out their phones on the plane and began talking.  I really don't want to  know that a woman had bought pull-ups that were too large for her daughter or that her customer was having troubles with the 750K bill that they had received.  I don't want to know about the plans to meet that night for supper to go over a presentation for the next day.  People should respect others and wait until they are not in a crowded situation to talk on their phones.  Of course, I probably do this sometimes to, but I tend to not want to talk in front of complete strangers since it usually is none of their business what I have to say.

Okay, enough of the observation.  After leaving The Hub, we made our way back to the Hatsudai Station and went to our third location.  To do this, we had to take the Keio New line to Shinjuku Station and then the Toei Shinjuku line to the Kudanshita Station.

Transfer	Required	Station name & Route and Train name	Fare	Charge
		HATSUDAI
	2min	Keio New Line	¥120
13min		SHINJUKU(TOEI)
	8min	Toei Shinjuku Line	¥210
		KUDANSHITA

This brought us to our third location, which we had not originally planned on going to.  However, Courtney wanted to see it and it turned out to have probably the best museum that I enjoyed during the whole trip.  This was the Yasukuni Shrine.  This is another Shinto Shrine during the Meiji era and dedicated to the military and warriors of Japan.  Currently, there are over 2,466,000 men enshrined (cremated remains) at the shrine.  This is also the location of the Yushukan, a museum dedicated to portray the Japanese military history.

• Pictures from the Yasukuni Shrine

After looking at this shrine, we decided to return to the hotel and rest some before supper. 

Transfer	Required	Station name & Route and Train name	Fare	Charge
		KUDANSHITA
	3min	Tokyo Subway Hanzomon Line	¥160
		HANZOMON

By the time Wanda and I were ready to eat, it turned out that Courtney and Conner had already went over to the McDonalds and grabbed some food.  We decided to do so also, since it was convenient and quick.

March 20  (Thursday) - Tokyo, Japan

Today turned out to be very wet.  We had initially planned for Wanda and I to go to the Disney parks on Thursday and Friday, but decided to push it off to Friday and Saturday.  We thought that we would try to see the Yushukan Museum (at the Yasukuni Shrine we visited yesterday), the Bandai Museum (4 floor museum of the toys and other items, such as Gundams, that Bandai produces), and the Edo-Tokyo Museum. 

We took the Hanzomon line back to the Kudanshita Station, which was only one station down the line.

Transfer	Required	Station name & Route and Train name	Fare	Charge
		HANZOMON
	3min	Tokyo Subway Hanzomon Line	¥160
		KUDANSHITA

Walked back through the Yasukuni Shrine to the Yushukan and spent about three hours going through that museum.

• Pictures of the Yushukan Museum

After leaving the Yushukan, we walked back to the Kudanshita Station.  We took the Hanzomon line over to Otemachi Station and transferred to the Chiyoda line.  This we took to Kitasenju Station and transferred to the JR Joban line to go on to Matsudo Station where the Bandai Museum was located.  We thought that we would try eating at the Gundam Restaurant when we reached the museum.  Note that the JR lines are regular rail lines, not subways.

Transfer	Required	Station name & Route and Train name	Fare	Charge
		KUDANSHITA
	4min	Tokyo Subway Hanzomon Line
3min		OTEMACHI(TOKYO)	¥190
	16min	Tokyo Subway Chiyoda Line
		KITASENJU
	3min	JR Joban Line
		AYASE	¥210
	9min	JR Joban Line
		MATSUDO

After arriving at the Matsudo Station, the directions were really simple.  Go out one of the exits and you can see a giant sign for the museum hanging on a building to the right of the station.  Unfortunately, we did not see this sign when we exited the station.  Thinking that there may have been some remodeling or new building that obstructed the view, we walked around in the rain for a little while searching for the museum.  We even went back to the station and out the other side to see if we had gotten the directions wrong.  Still no sign could be found.

We finally went back to the station and Courtney asked one of the people working there about it.  Turns out the museum was closed in August 2006 and the website was never updated or removed.

We had seen a KFC near the other side of the station, so we decided to eat lunch there.  There was also a 7-Eleven next door to it.  The fourth picture is Wanda in front of the Matsudo Station.

After eating, we decided to go ahead and travel over to the Edo-Tokyo Museum.  This involved taking the JR Joban line over to Ueno Station and transferring to the JR Keihin-Tohoku Negishi line to Akihabara Station.  Then we took the JR Sobu Chou line to Ryogoku Station, where the museum is located next to.  Note that the Akihabara Station is the station to go to for the Akihabara Electric Town, which is known for its electronic signs of all the stores sealing discounted electronics and other items.  Wanda and I didn't make it there, but the kids did while we were at the Disney parks.

Transfer	Required	Station name & Route and Train name	Fare	Charge
		MATSUDO
	20min	JR Joban Line
4min		UENO
	3min	JR Keihin-Tohoku Negishi Line	¥380
9min		AKIHABARA
	4min	JR Sobu Chuo Line
		RYOGOKU

The Edo-Tokyo Museum was one of the museums that we really wanted to see and I knew it would take about two hours to go through.  The Frommer's Tokyo guide book had stated that it would be open until 8 PM on Thursday and Friday (page 159).  However, when we got there at 4:30 PM, the signs stated that they closed at 5:30 PM.  After confirming this with the ticket counter person, we decided to wait to do the museum until Sunday.  It was still raining as it had been all day.

Back to the hotel we went.  Took the Toei Oedo line from Ryogoku Station to the Kiyosumishirakawa Station and transferred to the Hanzomon line to get to Hanzomon Station.

Transfer	Required	Station name & Route and Train name	Fare	Charge
		RYOGOKU
	2min	Toei Oedo Line
5min		KIYOSUMISHIRAKAWA	¥260
	14min	Tokyo Subway Hanzomon Line
		HANZOMON

Supper was items bought at the AM-PM convenience store.

March 21  (Friday) - Tokyo, Japan

It looked a little wet outside, but the forecast said that the weather would clear up by mid-morning, so Wanda and I went ahead and left for Disneyland around 7 AM since it was to open at 8 AM.  For the Disneyland park, we had to take the Hanzomon line to Nagatacho Station, swap over to the Yurakucho line to the Shinkiba Station, and then take the JR Keiyo line to Maihama Station.  From there, it is a short walk from the train station to the entrance to Disneyland.  There is no reason to take the Disney Resort Line for this park.

Transfer	Required	Station name & Route and Train name	Fare	Charge
		HANZOMON
	2min	Tokyo Subway Hanzomon Line
5min		NAGATACHO	¥190
	16min	Tokyo Subway Yurakucho Line
5min		SHINKIBA
	10min	JR Keiyo Line	¥150
		MAIHAMA
	2min	Walk

When we reached the Shinkiba Station, we encountered our first problems with the public transportation system.  Two trains had arrived at the platform above and everyone going up the escalator encountered them at the top.  A police officer was trying to get people to move around so that no one would get hurt, but this involved a lot of pushing to get around in the direction he wanted us to and for us to get to the platform we needed to reach.

When we reached Maihama Station, we came down the escalator and ran into a big crowd trying to get through the station's automated pay gates.  Wanda actually had a problem with her card here due to a young girl who went in front of her.  We ended up having to go to the station's ticket office on our return back to the station that evening to get the card corrected.

• Tokyo Disney Resort Guide  (PDF)

We then noticed a large crowd on the walk over to the entrance to Disneyland and those waiting to enter.  We had to go through a security check of our bag, which contained our umbrellas and jackets in case we needed them, with only a quick check.  After purchasing the passports (tickets), we were in the park and ready to go.  The young lady who sold us the tickets did speak English, but repeated our requests to us to make sure she understood just what we wanted.  Obviously, the Disney parks would want people selling the tickets to get the orders right, so they would ensure that the ticket personnel were able to understand English.

• Tokyo Disneyland Pictures

• Ikspiari Pictures

Back to the hotel after eating at Ikspiari.  It was a late night, arriving back around 10:30 PM, and plans to be out again by 7:30 AM the next morning.

Transfer	Required	Station name & Route and Train name	Fare	Charge
		RESORT GATE WAY
	2min	Walk
4min		MAIHAMA
	7min	JR Keiyo Line	¥150
9min		SHINKIBA
	15min	Tokyo Subway Yurakucho Line
3min		NAGATACHO	¥190
	2min	Tokyo Subway Hanzomon Line
		HANZOMON

March 22  (Saturday) - Tokyo, Japan

On Saturday, Wanda and I went back to the Tokyo Disney Resort via the same path with the intent to go to Disney Sea.  To get there, from the Maihama Station, you must walk to the Disney Resort Monorail Station, which is next to Ikspiari on the opposite side of the Maihama Station from Tokyo Disneyland (i.e., to the left of the station instead of to the right).  You have to buy a separate ticket here with cash or credit card since it will not take the Suica card.  The ticket is needed, similar to the regular subway and train lines, to both enter the gate at the start of the trip and to leave the gate at the destination.  You must pay 250 Yen for a trip going to Disney Sea and another 250 Yen to return from it, unless you buy a day pass for 550 Yen, which entitles the user to ride as much as they want during the same day.

• Pictures of the Disney Resort Monorail

Transfer	Required	Station name & Route and Train name	Fare	Charge
		HANZOMON
	2min	Tokyo Subway Hanzomon Line
2min		NAGATACHO	¥190
	16min	Tokyo Subway Yurakucho Line
5min		SHINKIBA
	6min	JR Keiyo Line	¥150
		MAIHAMA
	2min	Walk
2min		RESORT GATE WAY
	9min	Disney Resort Line	¥250
		TOKYO DISNEY SEA

The DisneySea park is a unique park only found in Tokyo.  Just like the original Disneyland Resort has California Adventure and the DisneyWorld Resort has Epcot and the Animal Kingdom, the Tokyo Disney Resort is the only one to have the DisneySea park.  It does have some similar rides to other parks around the world, but the layout is unique to this location.

• Tokyo DisneySea pictures

After a long day at the park, and wore out from all the walking, we went back to the monorail line and returned to the hotel.

Transfer	Required	Station name & Route and Train name	Fare	Charge
		TOKYO DISNEY SEA
	4min	Disney Resort Line	¥250
		RESORT GATE WAY
	2min	Walk
8min		MAIHAMA
	7min	JR Keiyo Line	¥150
9min		SHINKIBA
	16min	Tokyo Subway Yurakucho Line
6min		NAGATACHO	¥190
	2min	Tokyo Subway Hanzomon Line
		HANZOMON

When we arrived at the hotel, we talked to the kids and arranged to eat at the buffet in the morning at 9 AM there at the hotel.

March 23  (Sunday) - Tokyo, Japan

Wanda and I were both very sore this morning after having spent the last few days walking in the Disney parks.  We did want to go to the Edo Tokyo Museum, so all four of us went and ate the breakfast buffet at the hotel and then left to go back to Ryogoku Station to visit the museum.

Transfer	Required	Station name & Route and Train name	Fare	Charge
		HANZOMON
	15min	Tokyo Subway Hanzomon Line
5min		KIYOSUMISHIRAKAWA	¥260
	3min	Toei Oedo Line
		RYOGOKU

• Picture from Edo Tokyo Musuem

Back to the hotel for rest.

Transfer	Required	Station name & Route and Train name	Fare	Charge
		RYOGOKU
	3min	Toei Oedo Line
3min		KIYOSUMISHIRAKAWA	¥260
	15min	Tokyo Subway Hanzomon Line
		HANZOMON

Other than eating at one of the local restaurants near the hotel, we did not do anything else for the day.

March 24 (Monday) - Tokyo, Japan / Chicago, IL / Houston, TX

We checked out of the hotel by 8:30 AM and I asked the clerk to put the package with the cell phones, which was part of the process.  This was simple to do and worth the cost, even though we didn't use them very much.

Based on how tired and sore we (Wanda and I) were, and how much trouble it was to just transfer through the one station when we came, we decided not to take the local lines (with the couple of transfers) back to the airport.  Instead we went back the way we originally came and bought a full fare reserved seat on the Narita Express train.  To catch the last one that morning from Shibuya Station, we had to be there with the tickets bought by 9:45 AM, otherwise would have to make our way to the Tokyo station to catch another express.

Transfer	Required	Station name & Route and Train name	Fare	Charge
		HANZOMON
	9min	Tokyo Subway Hanzomon Line	¥160
12min		SHIBUYA
	80min	LTD.EXP NARITA EXPRESS	¥1450	Reserved seat ¥1660
		NARITA AIRPORT
	6min	Walk
		NARITA INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT 1

The transfer through Shibuya Station was difficult with having to carry the luggage up the stairs.  It turned out that there are elevators, but they are in the shopping area which was not open that early.  We bought the express tickets and then had to find the way to the right platform of the train station.  We ended up making it with 15 minutes to spare.  Since we had waited until the last minute to get the reserved tickets, we were seated in separate rows, but in the same car.  We arrived at NRT's Terminal 1 at 10:57 AM.

We turned in the Suica cards and got our deposits and some refund of the money left on the cards.  There is a fee of 210Y for refunds of money on the card (not the deposits), so if it was less than that amount, we didn't get anything.  Two of the cards had only 160 Yen left on them while the other two had 320 Yen left.

Next was to the bank to exchange part of the money back into US dollars.  We left about 80 dollars in Yen so that we could get lunch.  We then headed to the United check-in counter to discover it didn't  open until 11:45 AM, so we had to wait a while.  When it opened, they had us use automated machines to check in, but the printer on ours didn't work, so the counter person ended up doing it anyway.  Having checked in the luggage, we went off to a food court area where Wanda, Courtney, and I grabbed some lunch.  Conner wasn't hungry yet, so we decided that it was time to go through the security point and immigration.   Both went without any problems and we were officially out of Japan at that point.  Courtney then stopped by a duty-free store to buy a bottle of Sake to take back home with us.  The airline would allow it to be carried back on the plane to Chicago with us, but we had to make sure we put it in the luggage at the Chicago airport before going through security there. 

We bought Conner a couple of hamburgers at the McDonalds in that part of the terminal and then waited for the flight to take us back to the USA.  Wanda then exchanged the rest of our Yen bills back into US dollars.

• flew from Tokyo, Japan to Chicago, IL on United 0884, which departed NRT at 3:10 PM and arrived in ORD at 12:44 PM (6,274 miles - 11 hours, 34 minutes - Boeing 777).

I ended up watching only three movies on the return flight:

Dan in Real Life

August Rush

June

All three of the movies were good and I enjoyed watching them.  Maybe it was because it had been over a week since I saw a movie in English?

We arrived in Chicago a few minutes early and had about 2 hours and 15 minutes to get through customs and to our next flight.  The line through immigration took only about 20 minutes, but it was another 40 minutes before we had our luggage so that we could go through customs.  We put the bottle of Sake in one of the pieces of luggage and headed to the customs agent.  I had checked the form that we had food products (due to the Sake and some candy that I was bringing back to the people I work with), so the customs agents questioned me about that.  When I explained about the items, they told us to go through without even looking in our luggage.  We then took them back to the United personnel to get them on our next flight.

We had to then ride the airport rail line from Terminal 5 to Terminal 1 for our domestic flight.  It let us out at concourse B and we had to go through security before we could go to the gate area in concourse C.  We made it to the gate area right before they started boarding our flight.  The flight back from Chicago to Houston was quick since I dozed several times.  We got in a few minutes early on this one also.

• flew from Chicago, IL to Houston, TX on United 0531, which departed ORD at 2:44 PM and arrived at IAH at 5:39 PM (925 miles - 2 hours, 55 minutes - Boeing 737-300)

It took a little while for the luggage to get out and then for the van to come by for the right Parking Spot.  We were the first dropped off and made it back home by 7:30 PM.

This site was last updated 04/02/08