When Kid 1.0 turned 10 a few years ago, we surprised him with a trip to Disneyland in California. Late last year, we knew we would have to do a surprise trip for Kid 2.0’s 10th birthday as well. Mrs. T and I racked our brains for potential destinations. After many discussions, checking Kid 2.0’s wish list, and research, we decided to surprise her with a trip to Japan.
We went to Japan in 2019, but since both kids were quite young, they didn’t have too many memories of that trip. With the Japanese Yen being so cheap, we thought a trip to Japan would be relatively economical.
We booked the airfare in June 2025 and planned the entire trip in complete secrecy. We didn’t tell anyone, not even our parents, about where we were going.
Originally, Mrs. T and I were planning to tell Kid 2.0 where we were going at the airport on the day of departure. But since Japan is a long way to go and we needed to pack for almost three weeks, we decided to tell the kids two days before departure via a coded message. Kid 2.0 decoded the message to learn that we were going to Japan to visit Disneyland, see Mt. Fuji and the snow monkeys. We purposely didn’t disclose all the plans to keep some things as a surprise.
Here’s our 19-day Japan itinerary and experience. For those wondering, we visited Japan in March.
Please note that there are a lot of pictures in this post… but how can you do a trip report without posting lots of pictures?
Due to the length and details of the post, I have decided to break it into three parts.
Things to consider for Japan
Although both Mrs. T and I have been to Japan many times, we knew there were a few things we needed to consider when visiting Japan (and remind the kids).
1. Cash still matters
Over the last few years, more and more stores in Japan have accepted credit cards. However, cash is still widely used in Japan. On our trip, many of the smaller local restaurants only accepted cash. When it comes to loading Suica or Pasmo IC cards, only cash is accepted (if you have an iPhone, you can use the Suica app and link it with your credit card; since we have Android phones, that’s not available to us).
We brought some cash with us to Japan but we ended up withdrawing from 7-Eleven ATMs a couple of times during the trip to get more cash.
2. Driving on the left side
Because we went to the Fuji Lakes area and Nagano, we decided to rent a car for greater freedom rather than relying on public transportation. Like Australia and the UK, Japan drives on the left side of the road. I had never driven on the left side of the road before this trip, so I was a little worried initially, especially due the fact that we had to drive in and out of Tokyo.
Fortunately, I got used to driving on the left side pretty quickly. The biggest thing was that the windshield wiper and turn signal stalks were reversed (windshield stalk on the left, turn signal stalk on the right), so I kept hitting the windshield wiper the first few days.
It was quite easy driving on the highway or when there were other cars on the road. But when there were no cars on the road or when backing out of a parking spot onto a road, I had to really think about which way I should drive.
3. Japanese etiquette
There are many rules of etiquette in Japan you must watch out for:
- No tipping. If you try to tip, it can actually offend Japanese people
- Keep your voice low on trains
- Don’t eat while walking
- Take shoes off when entering homes and many restaurants (so don’t wear holey socks!)
- Public onsens (hot springs) are separated by gender. You need to thoroughly wash yourself before getting into the water. Also, you enter the onsen in your birthday suit. If you have tattoos, you need to cover them up.
- Don’t stick chopsticks upright in rice, as it mimics funeral incense offerings (this is the same in most Asian countries)
- Slurping noodles in ramen shops is totally encouraged; it means you really enjoy the food
- In fancier sushi restaurants, don’t dip sushi in soy sauce or use wasabi
- Carry your trash and dispose of it in the hotel room. You won’t find garbage bins on the streets or in parks in Japan.
- When paying, put the cash or credit card in the tray. Don’t hand cash or a credit card to the cashier’s hand.
4. Smoking is quite common in certain restaurants
While many restaurants don’t allow smoking anymore, smoking is still common in certain restaurants like yakitori (grilled chicken skewers), izakayas (Japanese taverns), yakiniku (BBQ), and traditional bars. Best to double check before you enter the restaurant.
Day 1 – Landing in Tokyo
Tokyo has two international airports – Narita and Haneda. Most international flights land in Narita but this airport is about 1.5 hours away from Tokyo by train. Haneda, on the other hand, is closer to central Tokyo.
We purposely booked our flights with ANA rather than Air Canada because we wanted to arrive and depart from Haneda (airfare with ANA was also cheaper than Air Canada for our trip).
We took an afternoon flight from Vancouver and landed in Tokyo Haneda Airport around 7 PM. Because we were landing late and needed to catch an 8:30 PM bus from Haneda to go directly to our Tokyo Disneyland hotel, we decided to grab a quick dinner in the airport.
Unfortunately, when we went to the bus stop outside the terminal and tried to buy tickets, we were told that everything was sold out (it was the last bus of the day). Frustrated and jetlagged, we decided to take Japan Rail (JR) trains to go to our hotel instead. But this meant a bit longer travel time.
We arrived at our hotel around 10 PM, exhausted and ready for bed.
Day 2 – Exploring Ginza & Tokyo Station area
Before the trip, we learned that my wife’s stepsister, a flight attendant with SAS Airlines, was going to be in Tokyo for a couple of days. So we planned to meet up for dinner.
After waking up late, lazing around, and having an amazing breakfast at the Sheraton Grande Tokyo Bay lounge (with a great view of DisneySea), we went to Maihama Station and explored the shops by the station. We expected the area to be similar to Downtown Disney in California but it didn’t have the same vibe at all. There were a few Disney-themed shops, but most of them were just regular Japanese stores. After walking around for half an hour, we decided to take the JR train to Ginza.
Many years ago, my co-workers and I would always stay in Ginza for business trips, so I knew the area quite well. When we got off the train at Yurakucho Station, we walked eastward toward Ginza, with the intention of going to Itoya, a 12-floor store filled with stationery, art supplies, specialized paper, notebooks, pens, etc. Along the way, we checked out anything that looked interesting.
We probably spent about 2 hours in Itoya before we all felt hungry and started looking for a place for lunch. Looking around on Google Maps, I decided on a tempura restaurant nearby.
The tempura restaurant, Tempura Abe Honten, was located in the basement of a small building in Ginza with only one table and counter seats. Although we arrived around 1 PM, it was full of people, so we waited for about 25 minutes. The wait was worth it though. We enjoyed delicious tempura lunch sets and were pleased to learn that the restaurant held the Michelin Bib Gourmand designation a few years ago. Thanks to the cheap Yen, lunch for four with extra desserts cost $63.67 CAD. Very reasonable!
After lunch, we continued exploring Ginza and the surrounding area.
Ginza, being one of the most expensive areas in Tokyo, can surprise a lot of people when it comes to price. Both kids were fascinated to see melons, strawberries, mangos, apples, and grapes that were priced at over $100 CAD in department stores. Similarly, Mrs. T and I were shocked when we went to Geshary Coffee near Hibiya Park only to find out that a cup of latte cost 1,200 Yen ($10 CAD). Needless to say, we went to a different cafe for a more affordable coffee (we later found out Gesha coffee is considered the champagne of coffee and is famously expensive).
At dinner time, we met up with my wife’s stepsister in front of Tokyo Station and went for sushi. We stuffed ourselves with delicious sushi and sashimi and ended up with a $160 cheque. Again, the price was very reasonable (the same dinner in Vancouver would have probably cost $250 plus tips and taxes). After dinner, we explored the gigantic shopping area underneath Tokyo Station.
Knowing that we had to get up super early for DisneySea, we took the train back to our hotel and went to bed early.
Day 3 – DisneySea
Day 3 was all about DisneySea. Before the trip, we knew we had to get up early and line up for rope drop. DisneySea opened at 9 AM so we thought getting in line by 8 AM would be more than sufficient (this is what we did for Disneyland, arriving about an hour before opening and we were always at the front of the line).
Unfortunately, when we arrived at DisneySea, we saw a gigantic line!
Unlike Disneyland, Lightning Lane Multi Pass (formerly Genie+) is not available at DisneySea. In DisneySea, Priority Pass is a free digital pass that allows guests to skip long lines for select attractions. Only a limited number of passes are available each day. Premier Access, on the other hand, is available for between 1,500 and 2,000 Yen for select attractions like Journey to the Center of the Earth, Toy Story Mania, and the new Anna and Elsa’s Frozen Journey.
We thought by entering the park “early” we could get to the extremely popular rides like Anna and Elsa’s Frozen Journey and Rapunzel’s Lantern Festival before the line got too long. But these two rides are at the far back of DisneySea, so by the time we entered the park at around 10 AM, the wait time was already 40 minutes and it continued to grow as we walked towards these rides.
We ended up going to 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea first because of the less than five-minute wait. By the time we got out of this ride, the wait times for Frozen and Rapunzel were over 90 minutes! And when I tried to get free Priority Passes for us, none were available.
We had to quickly change our “game” plan to maximize the number of rides we could do in DisneySea. So we checked out the following before lunch:
- Jasmine’s Flying Carpets – Kid 2.0 enjoyed it
- Sinbad’s Story Voyage – a cute ride
- Flounder’s Flying Fish Coaster
- Scuttle’s Scooters
- Caravan Carousel
One pleasant surprise was that food items were very reasonably priced in DisneySea. Ice cream bars were around $4 CAD, while curry lunch sets were less than $10 CAD.
We walked around the new Fantasy Springs after lunch and were surprised that people were standing around in lines when the wait times for Frozen and Rapunzel were around three hours!
Didn’t want to waste our time in line for hours, we walked around the park and checked out the following attractions:
- DisneySea Transit Steamer Line
- Venetian Gondolas
- Fortress Explorations
- The Leonardo Challenge
- Aquatopia
- Fairy Tinker Bell’s Busy Buggies
Fortunately, the lines for these attractions were relatively short (under 20 minutes), so we were able to try a few of these rides multiple times.
Throughout the day, I kept checking the wait time for Frozen and Rapunzel, but both were consistently over two hours and Premier Access passes were sold out for both rides. Furthermore, we really wanted to check out Journey to the Center of the Earth, but the wait time was consistently over 90 minutes. We didn’t want to wait so we purchased Premier Access for Journey to the Center of the Earth and we were able to ride it without any wait. I really enjoyed it, although Kid 2.0 got a bit scared at the end (the coaster sped up very quickly with a big drop at the end). It was worth the 1,500 yen per person cost.
After a relaxing dinner, we walked around the park to enjoy the nice nighttime scenery. Although the Frozen wait time was still over two hours, the wait time for Rapunzel dropped to about 30 minutes, so we decided to wait and check out this popular ride. Overall, the Rapunzel ride was quite neat with great visuals and songs, it was not worth the more than 2 hours wait (the whole ride was about five minutes).
Tired and still a bit jetlagged, we left DisneySea at closing time and got back to our hotel around 10 PM.
Since this post is already getting long, I’ll wrap Part 1 of our trip report here. Stay tuned next week for Part 2 of our Japan trip report, where I will cover our rental car driving adventure and what we did in the Fuji Lakes area.
