A very personal Decade of Dreams tour! UPDATED 6/5 About This Page:

[chezp]

A very personal Decade of Dreams tour!

Pre-trip report – part one:

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!

It’s ironic really that Jennifer and Dave came up with their Decade of Dreams tour plans for 2009, as it was something I ended up being able to borrow for the title of this trip report! Their title summed up perfectly the plans for our trip to Japan. 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. In October 2007, I took up studying Japanese at a night class, figuring that I would need to know enough of the language to at least get by. I can’t bear the thought of travelling somewhere that I can’t at least try to make myself understood.

A year in and, although I had learnt a lot, I decided it was too based around business trips. I mean, I’m sorry, but there’s a limit to how many times you’re going to want to give someone your business card on a vacation. We hadn’t really covered the basics, which to me, are things like directions, buying postcards and stamps and ordering food or buying tickets for tourist attractions. That’s what I wanted to learn, so I switched to another course in summer 2008 that I studied at my own pace and found myself much happier with that and taking much more in.

It was late in the summer of 2008 that the trip finally became a reality. Originally, my plan was to go to Japan in late May / early June of 2009, as I knew that it would be difficult for Mark to get time off any earlier than that. Secretly, I would have preferred to have gone earlier, so that we could enjoy the 25th anniversary celebrations at Tokyo Disney, which ended in mid April and, of course, cherry blossom season was a huge draw as well. From what I’d read, cherry blossom season in Japan is a major national event, with items on the news about the blossom at the appropriate time of the year. It’s usually towards the end of March or in very early April, depending on the weather that year.

I guess it’s serendipity therefore that Virgin Atlantic, with whom we usually fly, came out with a sale at around the end of August 2008. Never before have I seen flights on sale to Tokyo, so I just assumed that it never happened. Imagine my surprise when I logged on and saw that flights to Tokyo were indeed included. I played around with a few dates and discovered that, if we went out in late March, as the deals were only good until the first couple of days in April, then I could save a total of £900 on the fares I’d been expecting to pay.

You’d have to mad not to go for it and that’s what Mark quickly agreed, saying for that sort of saving, he could argue it out at work. We booked off the two weeks running up to Easter, with our outbound flight booked for a Sunday, as the Saturday would’ve cost us another £200 and I couldn’t justify that. We would then fly back on Easter Saturday. I figured, taking into account the day that we would lose flying out there, that should be enough time to see everything we wanted.

Over the next few months, I spent many happy hours (and I mean many!) working out to spend our days, as I wanted to come up with an itinerary before I went ahead and booked anything. I knew that I wanted to go and see Kyoto, obviously spend a few days at Tokyo Disney and we were both quite keen to visit Hiroshima. Bearing all that in mind, I managed to find a tour that would give us two days in Kyoto and a day in Hiroshima, so I decided to go for that.

Three days seemed like a reasonably amount of time for Tokyo Disney, especially as their passes make you pick which park to visit on the first two days of any visit, no matter what ticket type you go for, with you only allowed to hop between the parks from day three of your visit onwards. That left us with four full days for Tokyo, plus the day we landed, although I knew we would probably be jetlagged from the flight out and I wasn’t sure how much we’d be able to do that day. Out of that time, I knew I wanted to visit Mount Fuji, as it’s an icon of Japan, and I was very keen to visit Nikko, a World Heritage Site, but I had no idea if we’d be able to fit it in.

From there, I came up with some plans and managed to get a great deal on the Tokyo hotel. I opted for the Grand Prince Hotel in Akasaka, which was pretty close to the centre of Tokyo and near a subway station. It seemed to have some good ratings on Trip Advisor and looked like a nice place and, at the price I got it for, 25% off, I couldn’t say no.

Next: introducing Japan

[CastleWishes]

Cheryl, I'm very excited to read about this trip. I applaud you for taking such a proactive approach to learning the language/culture in an effort to get along easier. I would imagine the language would be quite a challenge to learn... did you feel it was very challenging? In any event, I am looking forward to your TR.
You'll be off very soon! I wish you safe travel.

[lauriep]

This trip sounds amazing, Cheryl. I have a close friend who, like you, has always been fascinated with the culture and art of Japan and now goes almost yearly. Your photos will be so exciting to see!

[Colexis Mom]

Great start Cheryl! I can't wait for more!!

[PrincessSharon]

Great start, Chez! I've been looking forward to this. Can't wait for more!

[KMB733]

Great Start Cheryl! This is going to be the trip of a lifetime! Can't wait for more!

[pamcarey]

Yay! I've been looking forward to this TR! Of all the Disney parks in the world, the one I would most like to visit is Tokyo DisneySea, as it just sounds so unique and different and like it has some amazing attractions that aren't available anywhere else. I can't wait to hear your take on that park and to see your fabulous pictures from the whole trip!!

[OhToodles!]

How exciting for the 2 of you! Can't wait to hear all about it.

[janicelovesmickey]

wow! have a wonderful time and safe travels.

[MickeyWatch]

Have a wonderful anniversary trip! Can't wait to hear more of your report.

[MickeyMAC]

I've been looking forward to reading about your trip and seeing all the pictures you'll take. Great start.

[Grammy Grumpy]

I have so been waiting for this PreTR! As usual you have done all the right things to make your trip exceptional great! Tell us more!

[chezp]

Originally Posted by CastleWishes

Cheryl, I'm very excited to read about this trip. I applaud you for taking such a proactive approach to learning the language/culture in an effort to get along easier. I would imagine the language would be quite a challenge to learn... did you feel it was very challenging? In any event, I am looking forward to your TR.
You'll be off very soon! I wish you safe travel.

Is it challenging? Hmmm... yes and no. Yes, in terms of the three different systems of writing they use - I've only just mastered two and even then, I can't claim that I can instantly recognise those symbols. As to the third, I don't think I'll ever master that. :

With the spoken language though, it is very simple - only two forms of verbs, past and present tense and what you see written is pronounced in that way exactly. I can't think of any variations in the Japanese language on that, whereas there are loads in English.

So, there's your definitive answer!

[Peanut_mommy]

I'm totally jealous! I love Japan and would die to visit it. That's far in the future, if ever, though. I'll have to live vicariously through you.

Subscribing!

[Wendyismyname]

Well it's about time you started this!! I am truly happy for you and Mark. Looking forward to more pre-trip and especially when you get back!!