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Tuesday 7 April – part six: nightmare and magic on our first night at Tokyo Disney!

We made it to Tokyo about four hours after we left and that’s where the nightmare started. I know from what I’d seen before that it wouldn’t be easy getting from the Shinkansen to the Keiyo line, which is the one that takes you to the Tokyo Disney Resort, but even I didn’t realise how fair it would be, including some steps. Mark was almost dead by the time we finally made it to the tracks.

To be honest, what didn’t help here were the Japanese themselves. For the first time I would say, that we witnessed rude Japanese. I appreciate that they were racing to get trains, but they practically knocked us over a couple of times in the process.

Finally, we got to the tracks. We weren’t sure if the train there was going to Maihama, the stop for Tokyo Disney, and eventually I found someone to ask and he confirmed that it was, so we hopped aboard. The train did get fairly full, but fortunately, we got on at the terminal, so at least we were able to get seats, which we desperately needed.

Fortunately, I was able to follow the announcements in Japanese as we travelled and I also knew Maihama station was either the third or the sixth stop on the train, thanks to my Tokyo Disney guidebook.

We got off and made our way out, showing our tickets on the way out. We hadn’t been able to find any ticket machines at Tokyo station, but they were fine about it and the charge was only 130¥ each, very reasonable. The thing I still can’t get my head around here is that you’re never fare dodging without a ticket on the railways here, as they will let you pay when you get off. Not an option we’ve got at home.

When we stepped outside, we knew we were in Disney. It’s amazing how it immediately changed from an ordinary railway station into something much more special and soon we saw the monorail go post. We took it all in for a few moments and grabbed some photos.



Then we headed down to find a taxi to take us to the Sheraton hotel.


One picture grabbed on the way – how cool is this?!

We were quickly there and we had staff buzzing all around us to take our luggage and check us in. We were told that we had been upgraded to the 11th floor with a theme park view. What a magical start to our time here.



The poor guy taking us up to our room was trying to tell us all about the hotel, but all I wanted to do was take photos as we went and it was no better when we got to the room. Mark said he was full of information, but I had no idea, as I was out on the balcony, getting all the photos I could. It was a lovely view.



When Mark joined me, he admitted that this idea of no tipping is really hard when you’ve got staff who go so far out of their way for you and I would agree with that. It’s something that takes some getting used to.

We took in the view for a while and then explored the room. Wow, what a great room. As I said to Mark, I doubt that our room at the Hotel MiraCosta will be this big or grand, but heck, it will be Disney, so I’m sure it will still be magical. The Sheraton is certainly a great non-Disney choice and I can thoroughly recommend it. It’s got a great location and some wonderful staff, all of whom speak great English.



We found the TV channel about the Tokyo Disney resort and, even though it was in Japanese (it did claim to be English, but obviously wasn’t), it was still a useful introduction to the parks and helped to get us into the Disney mood, something that had been seriously lacking when we were at Tokyo station earlier.

Today we walked 3.18 miles
The weather today was hot and sunny with temperatures in the high 60s.
The best thing today was Miyajima Island.
The worst thing today was the hike from the Shinkansen to the Keiyo line at Tokyo station.
Today we tried visiting the Peace Memorial Park at Hiroshima
And the result was it wasn’t as sombre as we had expected, but rather hopeful.
The most magical moment today was seeing the Torii gate and seeing the view from our balcony in the evening.

Next: the best monorail station in the world