For the last full day of The Parks for the Thirty-Fourth – Tokyo Drift, I decided to spend the day perusing a selection of Tokyo’s famous secondhand goods stores like Book Off, Hard Off & Hobby Off, Nakano Broadway or the well known Super Potato store in Akihabara looking for all sorts of Japanese domestic treasures – from old games consoles like GameBoys and Famicoms to vintage electronics like classic and quirky cameras and even collectibles like model cars. I also stopped by a Pokémon Centre, had breakfast at the popular chain Cafe Gusto – featuring the quirky robot waiters, ate a sizzling lunch at the appropriately named Pepper Lunch and capped the trip off with one last Katsu Curry at my beloved CoCo Ichibanya.Continue reading →
As The Parks for the Thirty-Fourth – Tokyo Drift draws towards an end, I spend the first of two days enjoying the sights and sounds of Tokyo. First I headed back up the Diamond & Flowers Ferris Wheel for daytime views of Tokyo Disney Resort. Then after grabbing some ramen from Ichiran, I went up Tokyo Skytree for even broader views and to check out the Toy Story collab. Then it was back down to earth to visit Chris “Abroad in Japan” Broad & Sharla “Sharmeleon” Hinskens’s LOST Bar for an hour in the VIP room with a Too Much Volcano cocktail and spend the rest of the day exploring Tokyo’s vibrant shopping from KitKats at Don Quijote to the iconic Tower Records to take a look at some domestic Taylor Swift releases, with a stop along the way for dinner at Kura Sushi.Continue reading →
The Parks for the Thirty-Fourth – Tokyo Drift makes it to the fifth and final theme park of the trip as I drift over from Tokyo to Mount Fuji for a visit to Fuji-Q Highland, home to Eejanaika, the most extreme fourth dimension roller coaster in the world, alongside the iconic Fujiyama Hypercoaster and a whole host of other extreme roller coasters and a great collection of rides themed to iconic Japanese franchises. All that, plus an extensive themed land dedicated to the really useful engine we adore, Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends, where I was able to grab some fun themed treats to enjoy yet another round of kawaii Japanese theme park food!Continue reading →
Come along with me for One More Disney Day at Tokyo Disney Resort as I spend the morning looping the Monorail system to check out the various Disney Hotels in the Resort as well as the most popular Official Partner Hotels and spend some more time exploring dining & shopping in the Resort’s multilevel indoor/outdoor shopping mall Ikspiari! After that, I head over to my last hotel of the trip – the Under Railway Hotel in Akihabara, a unique experience where (you guessed it) the rooms are located under the railway lines in and out of Akihabara station. From there I spend the evening doing a bit of exploring of the sights and sounds of the world famous Electric Town district.Continue reading →
Join me for my second day at Tokyo DisneySea where I was able to take advantage of much lower crowd levels to maximise my day by not only managing to ride big hitters I missed the first time around like Soaring: Fantastic Flight, Toy Story Mania & Tower of Terror but also score some E-Ticket re-rides including in the still very new Fantasy Springs land! And hat’s not all, because I also continued to indulge in Tokyo Disney Resort snacking culture by trying out more popcorn (and getting another popcorn bucket) as well as some Tokyo Disney Exclusive meal and desert options. And a Disney staple, the beloved & iconic Turkey leg!Continue reading →
LEGOLAND Windsor turned 30 Years Old in 2026 and to celebrate their 30th Birthday, they re-issued the original Park Map from opening day way back in 1996 for the week of the anniversary. So of course I made the trip across to grab one for myself and check out some of the other 30th Anniversary offerings like Birthday Cake Guy, the giant birthday cake in The Beginning, Confetti Popcorn and the Birthday Milkshake. And of course, I also went racing on Minifigure Speedway, the fantastic duelling roller coaster.Continue reading →
It’s time for my second visit to Tokyo Disneyland! After returning to Tokyo from Osaka, I got another chance to take The Parks for the Thirty-Fourth – Tokyo Drift to the third ever Disney Castle Park and this time I took advantage of smaller crowds to not only knock out a few ore heavy hitters like Monsters, Inc. Ride & Go Seek but also to indulge in that most Tokyo Disney of pass times: snacking! So many Mickey shaped goodies and of course it wouldn’t be a Disney trip to Japan without some popcorn complete with fancy bucket! Mickey was definitely the them of the day, as I also took in the Club Mouse Beat stgae show at Showbase in Tomorrowland and of course dropped by Mickey’s House in Toontown to visit the big cheese himself, where I found him in his iconic Steamboat Willie outfit!Continue reading →
I was going to do a little Vlog about this trip, but it wound up being impractical to do much vlogging while walking around the SEA LIFE London Aquarium, so I just focused on doing what I was really here to do: testing out my new Sony α7C II. So this is just a simple little test video, demonstrating the quality of footage I was able to capture of all the cool fish and other aquatic critters to be found at the Wonder Under London. I also took this as an opportunity to experiment with migrating my finishing workflow to Final Cut Pro from LumaFusion and see how the grading of the footage and any additional stabilisation it could add in post would come out and with moving to a 60fps master from 30fps. So this one is primarily of interest to me, but it’s here for anyone to take a look and see what these tools are capable of even while still getting up to speed.Continue reading →
The Parks for the Thirty-Fourth – Tokyo Drift hits the rails one more time as I make my way back to Tokyo from Osaka on the Shinkansen, with another obligatory Ekiben on the way! Once back in Tokyo, I checked in to my third hotel of the trip and by far the fanciest – much fancier than I had realised it was when I booked it: The Tokyo East Side Hotel Kaie. For not much more per night than I had spent on the other hotels, this one really blew me away with the size and quality of the rooms and how plush and well appointed eve the common areas such as the lobby are. I managed to drag myself away for a brief trip to Kasai Rinkai Park and up yet another observation Ferris Wheel, the Diamond and Flower Ferris Wheel, before retiring to my spacious and stylish hotel room for a dinner of Konbini snacks and treats from Family Mart – including my first ever Curry Pan!Continue reading →
Time for a bit more UK Theme Park Christmas action with my visit to Chessington World of Adventures’ Winter’s Tail event, part of my efforts to get up to speed with my new Sony Alpha 7C Mark II. This trip included riding Mandrill Mayhem once again, seasonal dining with the Turkey Christmas Dinner Loaded Fries & Christmas Tree Ice Cream, a trip to see animals including the beloved penguins as well as A OWL & a visit to the Sea Life Aquarium, music from the JIngle Voices carol singing show and entertainment on stage with the Chessington World of Adventures panto Jack & the Beanstalk.Continue reading →
