Japan Trip Report-May 2024

[Haley R]

I’m gonna try typing out some of our days and might come back later to add things. Right now we’re still in survival mode with sleep and keeping ds from melting down but I want to type things up before I forget things. I’m planning to link each post with the first post by day so it’s easier to find

 

[Haley R]

Arrival Day
We flew from SFO to Haneda and flew with JAL in business class. Our flights were booked through AA with points. The boarding process went smoothly and was quick. When we got on the plane we realized they gave us a different plane so the seats we booked were in different places. Instead of us being in a row it placed dh up in front of us. If it had been just dh and I it wouldn’t have been a big deal but having a 4 yo made the change difficult. Luckily they were able to get us in 3 seats right next to each other but we did have to give up our window seat.

For the majority of the flight ds did pretty well. He slept about 3 1/2-4 hours after we gave him melatonin and I was able to sleep about 2 1/2 hours. I ordered the western meal and dh got the Japanese meal. He said he regretted it because everything was pickled. He did the same thing last time we flew to Japan with ANA For my main meal it was a beef option with potato gratin on the side. The beef was pretty dry and not great but the potatoes were delicious. Later I ordered the pork and rice bowl which was really good. They brought ds child meals (we had to call before the flight to get this ordered). The meals were very cute and had lots of options but he was so sleep deprived and out of sorts that he really didn’t eat much of anything the entire flight.

The flight attendants were fantastic and even let ds pick a toy out at the end. He chose a JAL plane which is a fun souvenir. The end of the flight was a disaster. Ds had ear troubles which he’s never had before on a plane. He kept unbuckling his seatbelt and trying to stand up during the descent. The seating in business class is difficult with a preschooler. Dh had to reach around the middle divider and physically hold ds’s seatbelt on and he was screaming the entire time that he wanted his seatbelt off and wanted off the plane. I felt really bad for everyone around us. He’s never done this on a plane before. I think he was so overtired and didn’t understand how to handle the ear pain. When we landed I was so focused on getting him off that I left my carry on bag on the plane. Luckily they were amazing and met us at baggage claim with it. It had all of our essentials so we would’ve struggled without it.

Instead of pulling up to a gate, they connected us to a staircase and drove us to the airport on a bus. I’ve never had that happen before so it was a little different. Everything after that went really smoothly. We got our bag quickly, went through the priority line with our QR code and didn’t have to wait behind anyone, customs was fast, got our Welcome PASMO cards, money out of the ATM, and booked airport limousine tickets to Shinjuku Station. All of that was done in under an hour.

Overall, it wasn’t a horrible travel day but it was LONG with a preschooler. We took ds to Germany last August but this was so much harder. I think the huge time change from the east coast of the US and the longer flight made him so overtired.

 

[Haley R]

Yoyogi Park and Meiji Jingu
Ds woke up around 2:30 am and we couldn’t get him back to sleep so we ate some food, laid in bed until about 4 am, and then got ready for the day. It was pretty chilly out but it felt so good coming from 97 degrees back home. We all had shorts and a jacket on. We walked to a small playground nearby and ds played a bit before we walked over to Yoyogi Park.

Lots of people were out running since it was early in the morning. Ds wanted to run through the park and people kept saying Ohayo and good morning to him which was fun. We bought him his own little digital camera and he loved taking pictures of the garden in the park. He could’ve sat there all day taking pictures of flowers but we had to stop him so he didn’t fill the whole camera up with pictures of the same thing lol. We had planned to rent bikes and do the pony park but ds was so tired we skipped them both. We went through most of the park to get to Meiji Jingu.

We aren’t big shrine people so we didn’t spend much time there but I wanted ds to see something like that at least once. He really liked doing the purification before entering and we talked about what people were doing up by the shrine. We ended up carrying him most of the time because it was a lot of walking and he decided this trip he doesn’t want to sit in the stroller anymore.

After the shrine we went to a grocery store nearby to get things for meals and snacks. Our plan for the trip is to mostly eat out for lunches and make dinner at the hotel. I brought reusable grocery bags and those worked well.

We took a pretty long nap from about 10:30-2:30 and it was really hard to get ourselves up because it felt like night to us. The rest of the day we mostly hung out at our hotel and took ds to a playground. We found a really big one that he’s been loving. There aren’t a lot of really nice playgrounds near us but there’s a huge one in Shinjuku that’s nice.

 

[mmmears]

Following along and enjoying it so far. I hope all of you adjust to the time change soon.

 

[Crazed4DisneyinSC]

Don't forget to eat your weight's worth of conbini snacks for me! The egg salad sando's and the fruit sandwiches were my fave *drool*

 

[soniam]

Sorry I haven’t posted much. Ds has been waking at 2 am every morning so our plans have really been thrown out the window. Nothing opens until 10 am and by then he’s ready for a nap so we’ve been having to think of things on the fly and been ready out the door by 5:30 am

Hope he adjusts. I don’t know what we did, but when our son was 3, we went to London and France. He didn't sleep on the plane at all and ended up sleeping on the double decker tour bus while we waited for our room to be available. He ended up doing really well on sleep though. He just adjusted. I guess we got paid back though, because he wouldn't eat hardly anything, even stuff he normally ate at home.

 

[Haley R]

Hope he adjusts. I don’t know what we did, but when our son was 3, we went to London and France. He didn't sleep on the plane at all and ended up sleeping on the double decker tour bus while we waited for our room to be available. He ended up doing really well on sleep though. He just adjusted. I guess we got paid back though, because he wouldn't eat hardly anything, even stuff he normally ate at home.

He slept until 7 this morning! I was up at 4 and dh at 5. I was so happy he slept later. He’s been eating really well and even trying new things thankfully

 

[Flossbolna]

Happy to hear that your son seems to be getting over jet lag!

I think it’s so fun that you get to enjoy Japanese playgrounds. An aspect of a foreign country that most travelers would never get to experience.

 

[Haley R]

Happy to hear that your son seems to be getting over jet lag!

I think it’s so fun that you get to enjoy Japanese playgrounds. An aspect of a foreign country that most travelers would never get to experience.

We seek out a playground every day! We did that in Germany too and ds still talks about some of the playgrounds we visited there last year. Tokyo definitely is lacking in the playground department lol. I love watching DS try to interact with the kids though. Yesterday he found two twin boys that were maybe 8 years old and had English accents. He had a lot of fun chasing them around

 

[Haley R]

Shibuya & Harajuku
Ds woke up at 2 am again this day so we were up and out of the hotel by around 5 am. The original plan was to do Harajuku first but nothing there opened until 10-10:30 am so instead we headed to the Hachiko statue and Shibuya Scramble. The scramble was pretty much nonexistent at 6 am but still fun for ds to see how everyone crosses at the same time. He had fun crossing diagonally. We also visited the Mega Don Quijote right there since it was the only store open that early. It was a little overwhelming for all of us so we only bought a few things. Ds just liked going up and down the escalators

After all of that it was still only 8 am so we went back to the hotel to hang out until 10 then headed to Harajuku. Our first stop was to try the rainbow cheese bread which was a total fail. The inside was just green and it didn’t have any pull to it when we pulled it apart. It also was super weird tasting. After we did that we went to Totti Candy Factory for a giant cotton candy. We all loved this and shared it. It had 6 layers/flavors. From there we headed to Kiddyland which was my favorite store last time we were here. We’re a big Totoro family and they have such cute stuff. Ds also got a JR train to play with. He has vehicles from when we traveled to Germany so I guess that’s become his thing now is to collect vehicles from different places. We try to pick ones we’ve actually seen out and about.

We finished the morning by eating lunch at Ichiran Ramen which was delicious. This is one of the only restaurants we wanted to eat at. We ate there last time and loved it. We got there around 11:30 am and by the time we left at 12:30 the line was down the stairs. We waited maybe 25 minutes for our seats.

The rest of the day was spent napping, hanging out at our hotel, playing at the playground, and making dinner.

 

[babyready]

Love hearing about your trip! Good job adapting plans to fit what you all need! I saw that they were soft opening fantasy springs this week and immediately thought of you guys. Hope things continue to go well for you all!

 

[soniam]

We seek out a playground every day! We did that in Germany too and ds still talks about some of the playgrounds we visited there last year. Tokyo definitely is lacking in the playground department lol. I love watching DS try to interact with the kids though. Yesterday he found two twin boys that were maybe 8 years old and had English accents. He had a lot of fun chasing them around

I remember looking for playgrounds in France, Germany, and London when our son was little. It is fun to see the kids interact. I think my most special traveling with a kid moment was when our son insisted on eating at Subway in Barcelona. He had been going to a Spanish school for a while. He was 13 at the time. We made him order his food by himself. He had very blonde hair. He went to order, speaking amazing Spanish. Everyone in the shop just stared and smiled and commented on how good his Spanish was. I hope you get to keep making more little kid memories. Sounds like you are having an amazing trip!

 

[Haley R]

Ds woke at 4:30 am today so now we’re trying to figure out our day trip days. Tomorrow is supposed to be Enoshima. I think we’re gonna catch the earliest train and try to stay for a few hours before coming back for a nap.

Hakone I’m not sure what to do. We have a hotel booked that night for one night but we can’t check in until 4 pm and ds will be so done by that point. We’re trying to decide if we should just come back to Tokyo instead of staying.

 

[Haley R]

Pokemon Cafe
Ds finally slept in until 7 am this day which was glorious. I was still up at 4 am and dh was up at 5 am but having those couple hours to ourselves was really nice. Once he was awake we had breakfast and got ready to leave for the Pokémon Cafe. It took us about 45 minutes to get there and we had to take 3 different trains. Our reservation was for 10:40 am which is the earliest time they offer. I was able to get it the night before by stalking the website for a cancellation. We previously had a different day booked for 4 pm and I wasn’t sure that would work with how ds was sleeping.

We got to the area 30 minutes early so we walked around and ate a snack while we waited for it to open. It was a really nice area and it seemed like there was a large business park there. They opened the doors at 10:30 and we took an elevator up to the 5th floor. We were able to go straight in and they took us to our table.

You order everything on a tablet. Ds got their kids meal, dh had the curry, and I got the grilled chicken with shrimp rice. We also got Gengar smoothies and a pancake plate to share. The food was pretty decent. It was better than I remember it tasting last time. My chicken was too chewy for my liking but the shrimp rice was good and I had a salad with it that I liked too. The pancake with the whipped cream and fruit was delicious. We all shared that one. Ds ate a lot of food which surprised us and even tried some new things.

While we were eating, Pikachu came out and walked around and did a little dance. Ds absolutely loved it and that’s really what we came for. He’s not even a big pokemon fan but he knows who Pikachu is and kept saying how cute she was. When we were all finished eating we bought a few things in the store then headed back to the hotel.

Ds took a later nap so when he woke up we walked to the grocery store and made dinner. He had a really hard time in the grocery store so we didn’t get to look as much as we would’ve liked but we were able to get a few things. We’ve been going almost daily to get things for breakfast and dinner.

Overall, if you’re into Pokemon I highly recommend going to the cafe. The food is expensive and not amazing but still decent enough. Everything is very cute and well themed.

 

[TwingleMum]

Enjoying your trip report thanks for sharing