God's Faithfulness in Tokyo

I've written in an earlier post how God made it possible for us to go for a holiday in Tokyo. This account is on His faithfulness prior and during the trip.

My younger girl came down with fever and cough just a few days before we were due to fly off. God healed her fever and miraculously none of us caught her germs, especially my older girl. Her cough was also better and by the middle of the trip, she stopped coughing.

Because we took the promotion deal by Cathay Pacific, the flight timing wasn't great. We had to stop over in Hong Kong so the whole journey took about 3 hours longer than if we were to fly direct. Charis doesn't take well to plane rides. She feels like vomiting once she enters the plane. Thank God she slept through most of the journey.

Our flight was to arrive at 9.25pm and the last bus to Shinjuku station was 10.40pm. We were concerned about delays in flight and immigration, and having to spend a bomb on taxi fare if we were to miss the bus. We spent quite a bit of time going through all kinds of alternatives - spending one night in Narita, booking a meet-and-greet i.e. a driver to send us to Shinjuku which cost about 10k yen more than taking the bus. We decided to trust God. Our plane landed early and we even caught the earlier bus at 10pm :)

Another concern was the choice of hotel. We decided on Shinjuku because we were to meet up with my husband's family on the 4th day of our holiday and take the train to Hakone. The train station was at Shinjuku so it's easier to stay around there. After consulting friends and reading reviews on Trip Advisor, we booked Keio Plaza. It seemed like a good choice because it's near the train station, the airport bus goes there and the hotel has free shuttle bus to and fro Disneyland. The only drawback was that it's pricey, about $800 plus for 3 nights. Even though we've booked, we researched more. We found Sunroute Plaza Shinjuku, a 3 year old hotel, with very good reviews on cleanliness and location. Cleanliness is very important as Daren and the girls are allergy prone. When I researched more about Keio and found that it was built in 1979, we decided to switch. We cancelled our booking with Zuji and booked with Hotels.com who was having a joint promotion with Visa. We were supposed to incur a $50 cancellation fee but Daren managed to get Zuji to waive it off due to misrepresetation on their part. Nowhere in their booking process did they mention that there's a cancellation fee. In fact, they kept stressing that there's no cancellation charges. We found out later that the $50 is an administration fee and it's stated only in their FAQ. The day after we confirmed our Sunroute booking, Hotels.com sent Daren an e-coupon that gives further discount on the hotel rate. We quickly called to see if we could use it immediately. We could so we ended up paying $649 for 3 nights.

God is good. Sunroute was excellent. We took a twin room that came with 2 double beds. We joined them together and could sleep four of us. They didn't charge us extra for the kids. The hotel was within short walking distance from the train station, had good amenities like 24 hr convenience stores, ramen shops, bakeries, free internet access at the guest lounge, and a latest addition - coin operated laundry at the basement car park. I was researching for laundry around the hotel but there wasn't any nearby. The latest reviews on the hotel didn't mention about the laundry facility. So it was a pleasant surprise. It was needed as the weather was rather cold and I didn't bring enough thick clothing for the girls, so what they wore needed to be washed and dried before they could wear again.

God is amazing. I was monitoring the weather. The week before we were due to go, it was raining with thunderstorm! The forecast showed sunny days for the week that we would be there and it was. We had clear skies everyday and even got a tan! The day that we left, it rained. It's really amazing how the dark clouds just disappeared for that week and then came back just when we were to leave.

God provides. Our trip was made up of 3 parts - Tokyo, Hakone, Tokyo. During our last leg of the trip, my sis-in-law booked us in Hotel Nikko in Odaiba. It was a beautiful hotel. However, the one thing that we needed which they didn't have was free internet access to do our online check-in. Our flight was 9.45am. The earliest airport limousine bus that would pick us from the hotel was 7.05am. It takes about 75 mins to travel to the airport. With morning traffic, possible immigration queue, we really needed to check-in in advance to buy more time. More time for what? More time to buy snacks and chocolates from the airport. There's nothing much to buy in Japan. What's good is really the food and we were told the airport has a wide variety and it's cheaper. Well, God provided in several ways. Our dear friend, Kang, did the check-in for us back in S'pore, which was really a life-saver. When we arrived at the airport, the queue for the normal check-in was super long. Ours was much shorter and those in front were all lone travellers so they cleared very fast. There was barely any morning traffic and no queue at the immigration. All these gave us about 45 mins, enough time to take a shuttle train to the biggest Royce store where we bought almost $150 worth of chocolates, buy snacks for the girls who had not eaten breakfast and other food stuff.

We may not have experienced God through natural wonders of creation in this trip (unlike my friend who went to Nikoi Island and marveled at God's creation of the sea, or another who went on an Alaska cruise and saw glaciers, whales and bears) but He guided our planning and provided all that were beyond our control. For this, I give thanks and declare He is a faithful God.

Tokyo Disneysea

The moment I stepped into Tokyo Disneysea, I felt I was in Europe. The architecture surrounding the Mediterranean Harbour was very impresessive. The American Waterfront was also very well-built, especially the Tower of Terror. Gazing at it sent shivers down my spine.

Attractions

All thanks to my brother-in-law who ran round to get fastpasses, we managed to sit 2 of the most popular rides - Indiana Jones and StormRider. They were really good. It was a pity Journey to the Center of the Earth was closed for the day.

We spent most of our time in Mermaid Lagoon. The kids sat all the rides and we watched the Ariel musical. Although the cast spoke in Japanese, all the songs were in English. We had to keep our heads up most of the time as the cast were suspended in mid-air.

Our final 2 rides were in the Arabian Coast - Sindbad's Voyage and the Caravan Carousel. Nothing fantastic.

The final show at night was BraviSEAmo! We could not understand all the dialogue but the fire and water display over the waters at the Mediterranean Harbour was quite spectacular.

Food

Did not have much time to explore the food options. We tried the famous gyoza sausage buns from Mysterious Island. It's just a steam bun in the shape of a gyoza. The filling was not great. The sausage rolls at Expedition Eats (Lost River Delta) was normal.

What was yummy was the ukiwah buns at Seaside Snacks (Port Discovery). We bought it by mistake thinking it was the famous gyoza buns. It's also a steam bun but the filling is some prawn paste which was really good. It comes in a shape of a life buoy. Very cute.

At both Disneyland and Sea, you can order pop-corn in a cardbox or pay more to get it in a variety of buckets.

I fell in love with a Duffy bear basket and went all the way to Cape Cod and queued for it. The pop-corn flavour that came with it was milk tea. It's sweet and that's the kind of pop-corn I like. Only after I bought the basket that I did my conversion calculations. I've just spent about $30 (2,100 yen) on a plastic basket!!! Daren says I'm his crazy wife. The basket is now sitting in my room. I think when we move to our new place, I'll fill it with artificial flowers and display it. My father-in-law said it's an egg basket. Don't think I want to dirty it with eggs. Besides milk tea pop-corn, Daren bought the curry one. It tasted like twisties. Nothing special.

Ice-cream was pretty interesting in Disneysea. The full variety can be found at Mermaid Lagoon. There's the sea salt ice-cream that sits beautifully in a seashell container with a picture of Ariel on the lid, a pack of 4 choco-banana ice-cream balls, the usual mickey-shaped popsticle and tiramisu ice-cream sandwiched between 2 mickey-shaped biscuits. If you are not an Ariel fan, you can get the sea salt ice-cream in a heart-shaped container with a picture of Minnie Mouse on the lid from the other ports.

We had dinner at one of the restaurants along the Mediterranean Harbour - Cafe Portofino. Their set meals consisting a main, soup, salad and drink were very filling. The pasta and salad were pretty good.

Tokyo Disneyland

Our original plan was to go Disneyland for 1 full day. We ended up going 3 times. 1st was from 4-10pm then the next day from 11am-6pm. Our last time was on our last day from 6-10pm. We covered almost all the attractions except for the Mark Twain riverboat, Beavers paddle canoe, Splash Mountain which we didn't want to sit, Swiss Family tree house and Mickey's and Minnie's house.

Attractions

Top of the list are Big Thunder Mountain, Winnie the Pooh, Haunted House and Peter Pan. Bottom of the list are Snow White and Pinnochio. The rest like Pirates, Space Mountain, Monsters Inc, Buzzlightyear, Star Tour, Daytona and Gadgets Coaster are ok.

To beat the long queues, either go early and get as many fastpasses as possible or go after 6pm. Average queue time in the day was 90 mins. After 8pm, it ranged from 5-15 mins.

Food

We tried quite a lot of stuff mainly from food wagons because it was cheaper. Almost everything was oiishi. The smoked turkey legs from Chuck Wagon (Westernland) was a winner. My girls loved it so much that we ate it twice.

Another good eat for lunch was the fried chicken from Lucky Nugget Cafe (Westernland). The set consisting 2 chicken pieces, potato wedges and coleslaw was very satisfying.

These 2 were our main meals, the rest of the time we just snacked. The Mickey-shaped steam pork bun from the Boiler Room Wagon (Adventureland) was ok but the miso pork tortilla sandwich was wicked. The meat was very tasty and they sprinkled noodle bits that tasted like Mamee all over the sandwich. We also tried the hot-dog from World Bazaar. Besides being huge, it was pretty normal.

Ice-cream was everywhere. We had the Mickey-shaped popsticle, ice-cream sandwiched between 2 Mickey-shaped biscuits and ice-cream cone from Soft Landing (Tomorrowland). The favourite was the mango and milk twirl from Soft Landing. The green tea flavour is supposedly good but it was not available.

There was a wide variety of pop-corn flavours. We only tried shoyu which Daren and the girls loved. I prefer sweet pop-corn. Our final snack was this fried pastry filled with sweet potato paste that was excellent. We were the last customers at this Village Pastry wagon (Fantasyland).

Shopping

Compared with Hong Kong Disneyland, Tokyo has more of everything (food, stationery, toys) except apparel. The choice of T-shirts especially for kids was very limited. For momento, the kids got a pen, notebook and a torchlight from Monsters Inc.

Tokyo - Food

Everyone says that eating in Japan is expensive. I guess it's true if you eat in the restaurants. We explored the restaurant levels at Isetan and Takashimaya in Shinjuku and they were expensive, which explains why there wasn't anybody around. The buzz was at the basement food halls where rows and rows of different food stalls offering all kinds of Jap food can be found. Here's a list of places where we settled our meals:

Breakfast
There are bakeries everywhere offering all kinds of bread and sandwiches. Even the 24 hr convenience stores carry a wide variety of bread that are rather tasty. My favourite is Hokuo found at the South Exit of Shinjuku Station. You can get their pre-packed bundle of 3 different kinds of bread for only 300 yen. Their drinks section also carries Meiji fresh milk which my girls love.

Ramen
We had ramen for lunch in an eatery in the middle of the streets of Asakusa, ramen for supper in one of the back alleys of Shinjuku and ramen in a ramen specialised food court in Aqua City, Odaiba. Daren's favourite was the one in Shinjuku called Santouka, which I think is the same one in Singapore at Central. Ramen just tasted better in Japan. Daren thinks it's the water they use and the pork. I liked the one in Asakusa. It was the least salty of the lot. We didn't manage to try a popular one that has wooden plaques, engraved with the noodle name and the price, hanging on its doors. We saw it in Asakusa and another in Shinjuku. Both have super long queues. Moreover, everything was written in Jap and there wasn't any pictures so we weren't sure how to order.

Santouka at Shinjuku

Aqua City, Odaiba

Food Halls
Our first food hall encounter was at Isetan. It was mind boggling. We were there near closing time, which is 8pm, and people were grabbing all the food to take away. Stalls were giving discounts and we were at a lost what to get. We finally settled for some futomaki, a fried pork bento set, a set of 3 triangular sushi and 8-10 yakitori. The yakitori was sticks of meat pieces, meat balls. We couldn't figure out whether it's chicken or pork. One was supposedly beef but turned out to be some beef innards which Daren found yummy. I forced myself to swallow it. One of the triangular sushi had a whole larva egg inside. It was the best I have eaten. The yolk literally burst out and the sauce used to marinate the egg was very good.

Our second food hall experience was at Takashimaya. We were there in the late morning and had plenty of time to explore and savour the many samplings offered. Besides the usual cooked food, there was cold cuts, desserts like fruit puddings, and an array of Jap tidbits like rice crackers and muah chee. We chanced upon Fuchon, the famous bakery that uses French butter. We tried their famous crossiant and it really melts in your mouth. We also bought a packet of baguette pieces smeared with raspberry jam. They were fantastic. They have a stall that sells the famous Castella cake that I used to eat when I was young. We saw it earlier at Isetan but didn't buy cos it expires in a few days. While I took Chassa to the toilet, Daren secretly bought a box to surprise me. We polished off the cake within the next few days. It's a very sweet and dense cake. My mum used to make English truffle with it as the base. We decided to take away lunch from the food court. We bought 3 bento sets that cost only 500 yen each. One was fried chicken, another was some meat balls covered with sauce and the third was a meat patty. The portions were huge.

Tokyo - Accommodation 2

Hotel Nikko Tokyo
Situated in Odaiba (similar to our Marina area), the hotel may be the oldest there but it's still very posh.


Transport

• the Airport Limousine Bus drop off & pick up at the hotel
• a min walk to the Daiba Station along the private monorail line which we didn't use.
• free shuttle bus to and from Tokyo Teleport Station along the Rinkai line which links to Shinjuku Station and also Shinkiba Station. At Shinkiba, just change to JR Keiyo to Maihaima Station which is Disneyland.
• free shuttle bus to and from Tokyo Disneyland and Disneysea.

Facilities

• the hotel room is huge. It could easily fit 3 double beds. Ours came with 2 so we joined them together. The toilet and shower is separate. There's a bathtub and a shower area with overhead and rain shower. The shower area has foldable windows that open up into the bedroom.
• we took the sea view room so at the balcony we could see Tokyo Bay, Rainbow Bridge and the Statue of Liberty.
• the hotel gave bath salts so Daren and the girls had a good time soaking in the bathtub.
• the buffet breakfast cost around S$45/adult. It had a wonderful spread of Western/Japanese food - wide variety of bread, eggs done in different styles, assortment of cereals, lovely miso soup, fresh fruits with yogurt, etc.

Amenities

• crossing over the Daiba Station is a 24 hr convenience store. It has danish pastries but only available after 7.30am. It also carries disney stationery.
• the hotel is linked by a walkway to Aqua City mall which is linked to another mall Tokyo Decks. Aqua City has a basement foodcourt that serves decent Jap food plus Macs and Hobson's ice-cream. On the 5th level, there's a Ramen place that serves Ramen from 6 different stores. The concept is similar to the one at Safra Jurong. The mall also has Toys 'R' Us, Daiso, GAP and 2 gift shops selling all the Jap tidbits like Tokyo Banana, Odaiba Cheese Cake etc.

Tokyo - Accommodation 1

Sunroute Plaza Shinjuku
Our original choice was Keio Plaza but after reading not so good reviews about it, we switched to Sunroute. We were very happy with the hotel:

Transport

• it was within sight of Shinjuku Station West Exit where the Airport Limousine Bus (ours was a late flight so we missed the bus that could take us directly to the hotel) dropped us. Just a straight walk down, cross a major road junction and cross another small road. We managed to do it within 10 mins with Daren pulling 2 luggage bags and myself holding on to the girls. The West Exit is also where the Odakyu train lines that go to Hakone are.
• just across the road from the hotel, up a flight of stairs and along a walkway that has Starbucks and Krispy Kreme will be the Southern Terrace Entrance/Exit to the JR lines of the Shinjuku Station.
• right beside the hotel is an elevator (Exit A1) that leads directly down to the subway lines of the Shinjuku Station.
• the ticket office to buy the Suica Card (card with prepaid value that can be used for all JR and subway lines) is at the South Exit of Shinjuku Station. Cross the major road junction and a short walk to the right.

Facilities

• the hotel is only 3 years old so everything is still pretty new.
• there's a guest lounge with 4 computer terminals having free internet access.
• there's a coin operated laundry room (3 washers and 3 dryers) at the basement of the hotel. 300 yen for a 4.5kg wash and 100 yen for dryer. The washer self dispenses washing powder.
• the twin bedroom comes with 2 double beds. When joined together could sleep 4 of us quite comfortably. It's not a big room but sufficient. The toilet even has a bathtub.
• the lobby has leaflets with information on nearby eating places, amenities and sightseeing suggestions.

Surroundings

• there are 2 24 hr convenience stores - am/pm and Lawsons within 5 mins walk. I got my drinking water from there. Lawsons cheaper.
• across the road, up a flight of stairs and across a bridge is Takashimaya/Times Square.