The Parks for the Thirty-Fourth – Tokyo Drift concludes with my return journey from Tokyo Narita Airport to London Heathrow via Istanbul Airport with Turkish Airlines in Economy onboard a Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner and an Airbus A321neo. As well as my onboard experience for both legs and my time in Narita Airport grabbing breakfast, snacks and some last minute gifts there’s also my journey to Narita Airport onboard the Keisei Skyliner direct train service from Keisei-Ueno Station.Continue reading →
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 →
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 →
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 →
The Parks for the Thirty-Fourth – Tokyo Drift is still in Osaka Drift mode for one more day, and we’re Keeping it 100 on the Land, the Sea, the Sky with some walking around for shopping and eating in Universal CityWalk, Tempozan & central Osaka; trips on the sea at the port of Osaka with the Tempozan Ferry and the Captain Line Universal City Port Shuttle Boat and views of Osaka from the sky onboard the Tempozan Giant Ferris Wheel and atop the iconic observation tower of Tsūtenkaku.Continue reading →
It’s time for The Parks for the Thirty-Fourth – Tokyo Drift to jump onboard another Shinkansen, taking me to Nagoya to visit a home grown Japanese theme park for the first time – Nagashima Spa Land! It’s home to a roller coaster that became a bucket list item for the trip as soon as I started looking into what roller coasters Japan had to offer: Hakugei, a woodie-steel hybrid coaster from Rocky Mountain Construction. And since I was there, I got to experience other incredible coasters such as Steel Dragon 2000, flying roller coaster Acrobat & Schwarzkopf classic Looping Star and more!Continue reading →
