Around The World – Beijing can be found here.
We have now completed 26 flight segments on our Around The World trip. The flights are definitely starting to blur together but the good news is that we’ve covered so many miles we now get Star Alliance lounge access. A fantastic perk we are making the most of.
Tokyo is an immaculately clean city and the Japanese transportation network is incredible. We are heading to Kyoto via shinkansen and the boarding time provided is 3 minutes. My wife is already stressing about how we’re going to manage to get all our luggage (we are currently at 3 large suitcases and 2 small carry-on suitcases) onto the train in that amount of time much less have other passengers get on and off.
The first challenge however is buying subway tickets because you use machines and they are all in Japanese. After queuing at one and rapidly reaching the front we weren’t any wiser about how to change the language to English despite our guidebook explaining every other step on how to purchase tickets. Thankfully another Westerner saw our confusion and dashed over to explain which button to push to give you the language options. Phew! And we’ll be on the lookout for other confused-looking tourists to pass on the favour.
After arriving at the train station, the process of buying tickets to the bullet train was almost trivial – “Ni shinkansen Kyoto” which translates to “two bullet train Kyoto”. Not exactly the height of eloquence, but I got my point across.
In case you were wondering if the bullet trains (aka the shinkansen) deserve their name why yes, yes they do. I have never before felt even slightly motion sick on a train but it’s so incredibly fast I find I have to look out at the horizon and not at immediate objects to reorient myself.
Kyoto has some fantastic public green spaces and hiking areas and we thoroughly enojoyed a break from the hectic cities we’ve been visiting.
Probably the part of Kyoto that we enjoyed the most was a special night-time ceremony at one of the nearby monasteries. Our ryokan happened to have extra tickets and really encouraged us to go although we had no idea what it was about. Ultimately it was a beautiful ceremony with the monks chanting and drumming by lantern light. We seemed to be the only foreigners there so we tried to follow along with the crowd.
After just a few nights in Kyoto we got back on the shinkansen and headed off to Tokyo Disney.
Apparently people don’t often honeymoon at Tokyo Disney (or they were mostly empty) because we were promptly upgraded at check-in from a standard room to a suite on the concierge floor. The view of Tokyo Bay is spectacular and the free glass of champagne was a lovely touch as well.
Next morning we were up early to get ready for the magic. Tokyo Disney is split into 2 parts – Disneyland and DisneySea but thankfully you’re able to buy a parkhopper pass and save some money (and time) if you plan to do both.
We started off at Disneyland and we went on Star Tours, Space Mountain, Thunder Mountain, Splash Mountain, Pirates of the Caribbean, Haunted Mansion and Monsters Inc. Space Mountain was very different from the Florida park – you ride in doubles instead of singles and the track is different. Splash Mountain and Thunder Mountain were similar but not exact duplicates. Pirates of the Caribbean now has Jack Sparrow and Capt Barbossa in it and is more similar to the one in California than Florida.
Haunted Mansion was completely different. Same concept and it may just be for this time of year, but it’s done up as the Nightmare before Christmas so there are the characters and tons of Xmas decorations. Even the ghosts dancing and just floating around are wearing Santa hats. And the cemetery band is playing Xmas carols and the head in the crystal ball is chanting 12 days of Christmas (hint: it starts with the 12 signs of the zodiac).
Monsters Inc. is also a new ride where you are in a cart going through the monsters Inc operations centre playing flashlight tag. Each cart seats 2 people and has 2 flashlights. When you shine you light on the M on the monsters hats they do crazy things- move around, fall out if windows, pop out of boxes, etc. It was surprisingly fun and I expect it will be added to the Florida park.
The we went off to DisneySea where we found the rides quite different from their counterparts in Florida and California. We went on Tower of Terror which has a completely different storyline. Something about a cursed idol statue of a mean looking monkey. I guess Twilight Zone wouldn’t resonate here?
Then we did Storm Rider which is a simulator where you journey into the eye of a cyclone. I grabbed fast passes for the Raging Spirits rollercoaster while my wife stood in line for Storm Rider. It was pretty cool since your vehicles “observation deck” is hit by debris and is damaged and thereafter you get soaked by the rain. Definitely unexpected as we thought it would be like Star Tours. Then we fastpassed the Indy Ride and went on Raging Spirits which was too short but did involve a 360 loop. Then off to Sinbads Greatest adventure which was adorable and similar in style to Pirates.
We then did 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea which is nothing like the old one at Magic Kingdom Florida. It’s all made up sea creatures and you’re not actually underwater although they do a fabulous job of making you think that you are. You also have control of a flashlight for your side of the vessel (each has 3 sides for a total of 6 people) so you see different creatures and scenery.
Then we went on Journey to the Center of the Earth which is absolutely amazing! Neither of us had any idea what to expect but the lineup was fabulously entertaining with a dusty science lab and explanations of drill bits and stuff like that. Then you take an elevator down and see some crazy power generating equipment. The smells they’ve added in are really cool (hot metal, sulphur, hot air). And then you get on a vehicle I think to tour the current dig area and see some pretty crystal formations and glowing animals and stuff and then as you see some molten lava and suddenly a lava dragon appears and breathes fire at you and then you vehicle goes racing away with crazy twists and drops. Lots of fun.
Our last ride was Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull which is similar to the California ride but with updates to include the crystal skull. The best part of that one was hearing Harrison Ford speak Japanese! It was definitely something different hearing all the ride instructions in Japanese – and apparently it’s very formal Japanese so they’ll be very long and then an attendant will point to us and say “stay in car” and off we go.
It’s been a very busy week and we’re hoping for a more relaxed pace for our final stop on this journey – 3 weeks in New Zealand.
Continue reading Around The World – New Zealand Part 1.