I haven't heard anything about them dropping Takayama and Shirakawa-go. What have you heard? Crossing the mountains getting there was not that bad, and leaving they have changed to taking the Shinkansen train to Tokyo.We did some the Disney stops on our own trip. We enjoyed Takayama. Sad that they may be dropping it. But, there's is only one way there in the sense given that crossing the mountains to West-East and perhaps even going north is challenging.
Perhaps I was 100% wrong there. I just saw the comment: "Day 8 was completely dropped. It was a drive from Takayama to Tokyo" and assumed Takayama was out. To catch the bullet train we had to backtrack back to Nagoya.I haven't heard anything about them dropping Takayama and Shirakawa-go. What have you heard? Crossing the mountains getting there was not that bad, and leaving they have changed to taking the Shinkansen train to Tokyo.
Sayhello
No, it's the *drive* from Takayama to Tokyo (and the stops along the way) that's out. They're taking the Shinkansen train now rather than driving between the two. The drive, with a stop overnight, and several activities and stops along the way took a day and a half. The Shinkansen train takes half a day, so that extra travel day (and all it's fun activities) was just dropped. I'm not sure what route they are taking for the Shinkansen train to Tokyo...Perhaps I was 100% wrong there. I just saw the comment: "Day 8 was completely dropped. It was a drive from Takayama to Tokyo" and assumed Takayama was out.
Studio Ghibli is also about an hour or more outside of Tokyo, so it would take a bit of time to get there and back. As @sayhello notes, it is a timed ticket to get in.If they were going to add anything, isn't the Studio Ghibli museum really popular? I don't think that would be such a controversial decision when Disney World's Epcot happily includes anime-related goods
We did the Ghibli on one of our free Tokyo afternoons, skipping out on the river cruise to do so. Getting the tickets was an adventure in itself - I practiced ordered for three months to get used to the website, so I'd be ready when they opened up for month we were there. That helped, as I had no problem getting our tickets as I was online right when they were released.The kids are huge Ghibli fans. When we asked about the museum and park, we were told that currently it's nearly impossible for foreigners to get tickets, but hopefully by December it will be doable. We're building in a day to try for the park and if it doesn't work, will do something else in the area.