[chezp]

This trip report is designed to follow straight on from our Japan trip report, which can be found here: A personal Decade of Dreams tour

Some of you may well be joining me from that trip report, but for those who aren't, just to give you an idea of what you've already missed - and I can understand that there will be some of you who just want to learn about Tokyo Disney, rather than Japan as a whole - here are the edited highlights:

Dates: Sunday 29 March – Saturday 10 April
Adventurers: Me, Cheryl (36) and DH Mark (43)
Resort: Grand Prince Hotel, Akasaka, Tokyo, followed by Karasuma Kyoto Hotel, Kyoto, New Hiroden Hotel, Hiroshima and the Sheraton and MiraCosta, Tokyo Disney
Celebration: It’s our 10th wedding anniversary and I’m visiting the country I’ve always wanted to go to!

So why Japan? Well, it's a country I’ve always wanted to visit for as long as I can remember. Don’t ask me why – I don’t think I could tell you. Perhaps it’s the mixture of eastern and western cultures that fascinates me, but whatever it is, I’ve wanted to visit this mystical land for many years now.

I kept jokingly saying for a long time – probably for most of the time that we’ve been married – that we’ll go there on our tenth wedding anniversary and, the closer it got, the more determined I became to do just that, so it became our own Decade of Dreams tour.

OK, so on our two week tour, the Tokyo Disney was the last part. To give you an idea of what we'd already done during our stay, here are our plans:

Saturday 28 March:
Drive up to London Heathrow in the afternoon and spend the night at an airport hotel.

Sunday 29 March:
Fly out from London Heathrow

Monday 30 March:
We arrive the next morning, so the jetlag will be a killer. Take the airport bus to our hotel, perhaps explore a little, but no big plans – our biggest challenge will be getting through the day! If we feel up to it, we might go out and see the Imperial Palace and its gardens, but we’ll see how we’re doing.

Tuesday 31 March:
Spend the day visiting Asakusa (remember - home to one of the city’s most beautiful shrines) and Ginza, the main shopping district.

Wednesday 1 April:
Visit Ueno and see the park and Tokyo National Museum, before heading off to Shibuya to visit Yoyogi Park and then Shinjuku to see the station and the government offices. Take the evening tour out to Roppongi and Obaida.

Thursday 2 April:
Take a day trip out to Nikko, which should be an adventure, as this will be on our own and will involve negotiating the Japanese railway system!

Friday 3 April:
Take a day trip to Hakone and Mount Fuji.

Saturday 4 April:
Leave early on the Shinkansen for Kyoto. When we get there, find our hotel and check into it, then spend the afternoon exploring Kyoto.

Sunday 5 April:
Take the train over to Nara for the day and any spare time we’ve got, see a bit more of Kyoto.

Monday 6 April:
Spend the morning exploring Kyoto, before catching the Shinkansen over to Hiroshima. Find our hotel and then head off to visit Miyajima Island.

Tuesday 7 April:
Spend the morning exploring Hiroshima, before taking the Shinkansen mid afternoon back to Tokyo.

This is pretty much where you join us - on board the Shinkansen on our four hour trip back to Tokyo from Hiroshima.

OK, so these were our plans and this is where our trip report will pick up:

Tuesday 7 April (cont.)
From there, take the subway out to Tokyo Disney and spend the night at the Sheraton there.

Wednesday 8 April:
Check into the MiraCosta and head into the Disneyland Park for the day with Donna (HiddenMinnie68, who lives in Japan) and her family.

Thursday 9 April:
Spend the day exploring Tokyo DisneySea with Donna and her family. In the evening, see Cirque du Soleil’s ZED.

Friday 10 April:
Spend the day exploring what we haven’t already seen of the two Disney parks. I suspect we’ll probably spend much of the day in Tokyo DisneySea again.

Saturday 11 April:
Head back to the airport for our morning flight back to the UK. We’ll actually arrive early in the afternoon after our flight and then it’s home and sadly it will all be over.

There's a brief introduction for those who haven't enjoyed the ride so far. Now without further ado, on to the trip report itself for possibly the best Disney theme park in the world... but I'm getting ahead of myself... that will come in due course.