Japan 6.1 : Tokyo Disneyland and out to Tottori on the Sea of Japan Coast

   For the first three weeks of summer, Miles will be joining me to Japan.  I planned out this itinerary for a trip in March of 2020 that never happened.  I kept all of the paperwork, and retraced the steps, with only one modification, around Mt. Daisen, as that hotel was already fully booked.  

  I picked Miles up from school on the penultimate day of the school year, and we drove to Washington, DC.  I parked my car at the hotel for the summer, and the next morning we departed for Tokyo.  Our flight was direct.  It was just fifteen minutes late to depart, and the whole experience was a smooth one.  Our luggage arrived with us, and at 3:30 PM, we took the train from inside Haneda Station to just nearby Tokyo Station.  I built in two full days of rest from jetlag before moving onward.  That first night, all we did was check in to our hotel and then go out to eat.  I chose to bring him to Hakodate Ramen Funamizaka, which I had fallen in love with on my December trip.  

  Although my hotel did not have its own breakfast, there was a Japanese 7/11 on the first floor and a Cafe on the second floor.  Each morning I went down and had bread, bean paste, yogurt with honey, and their amazing coffee.  On the first full day, I only went out for meals.  For lunch, I did a search for curry soup and settled upon a place called Yellow Spice.  It turned out that the restaurant was down a set of stairs into the basement, and there was a short line.  I ended up having a conversation with a young Korean who was here on a short holiday.  I asked him about a word I kept hearing while watching the tv show "Itaewon Class," 그럼 (geureom), and we spoke a bit about Japan.  The food was good.

    On New Years Eve, I met up with a few Ukrainian refugees.  That night I went out for yakisoba with one of them from that night, and we caught up a bit.  

  The next day we had plans for Disneyland Tokyo.  We had visited Disneysea back in 2017, but had never made it to the main park.  It was a rainy day, so we both had umbrellas.  Main Street was completely covered, which was a surprise.  It also was shaped like a "T," branching out to the sides.  We used the app to get estimates on how long each of the ride lines were, and chose Pirates due to its proximity and shorter line.  Unfortunately, they have removed free fastpasses, and instead you now have to pay for each individual ride per person.

  Next up was Thunder Mountain Railroad.  The track was nearly identical to the one in World, with the addition of a final small drop.  Splash Mountain was a bit truncated, and with a smaller drop than World.  Some of the dialog was in Japanese, and some in English.  The Haunted Mansion was nearly identical to World as well.

Unlike World, the loading area for the ride was completely indoors.

  We stopped for lunch in an Alice and Wonderland cafeteria.  The food was actually pretty good.  I had roast chicken, potatoes, broccoli, and rice.  Well, I didn't eat the mashed potatoes part...

  We picked up some ice cream bars at a snack vendor for about $2.50 each.  Mine was tiramisu.  The Pinocchio ride was short and in the style of Winnie the Pooh.  I had been looking everywhere for coffee, and finally located a cafeteria that served it.  It was a cute Tomorrowland sci fi themed spot right across from Star Tours.  The ride was updated to include scenes from the newer movies, and Miles was chosen as the "spy" on our car, with his picture shown on screen.  

  Our final ride of the day was a Monsters Inc ride featuring spinning cars and a flashlight gadget to shine on hats around the track, which would then animate.  No score was kept.  

  I had wanted to go on their newest ride, a Beauty and the Beast themed one, but the line hovered around a two hour wait for our entire stay.  I would have still done it, but Miles was content with the day and ready to leave.  On our way out, we tried to secure him cotton candy, a favorite of his at Disney parks.  Unfortunately, even the confectionary store on Main Street did not sell it.  I googled "cotton candy Tokyo," and a store in Harajuku sold it, as well as some vending machines a few minutes from our hotel.  Unfortunately, the vending machines showed that it would only remain until January.  We decided to stop by anyway, but the entire floor was blocked off as under renovation.

  The next day we took a one hour flight to Tottori.  While in Haneda Airport, our gate was changed four times, with one time being a mistake, and it actually hadn't changed, so they sent us back.  We also notice that there were mobility wheelchairs that electronically were navigating around the airport on their own, complete with loud beeping. 

  Tottori Prefecture is where the creator of the cartoon/manga Detective Conan/Case Closed, was born.  Miles was obsessed with this show when he was eight years old.  The whole airport was themed after the show.  The jet bridge was lined with pictures, the baggage claim played the show's theme song (Miles pointed this out to me), and there were numerous other displays throughout.

  We took a taxi into town, using some of the new phrases I had memorized for this trip, to communicate with the driver.  Then, using a translation app, he tried to sell me on a sightseeing tour.  He appeared surprised when I explained that we were planning to rent a car.  We checked into the hotel and I took a three minute walk to our car rental place.  I then drove it to the hotel, where I made use of the first Japanese garage elevator system I've ever encountered.  They summon a platform and you maneuver your car along the rails.  You lock it, keep your keys, and they give you a tag number.  They apparently move the car to parking spots up and inside the building.

  That night we walked into town to visit the cat cafe Kitty Blue.  We spent an hour inside.  The cats were pretty active and mostly friendly, though it seemed like some of them were not well cared for.  One had a limp and a few had runny eyes.  I didn't mention this observation to Miles, as he was having a very good time.  For dinner, we went to an Udon restaurant, that took some time to locate.  Google Maps had brought us to it, yet we still could not find it.  It was down a tiny indoor alleyway that we would never have found without knowing that it was indeed close by.

Miles had regular udon soup with some tempura on the side.  I decided to try something new, kamaage Udon.  I even had to Google how to eat it.  Essentially, they give you noodles, in steaming water, some garnishes on the side, and a sauce similar to soy sauce, in a bowl.  You have to drag the noodles over into the dip(they are very slippery!) and then slurp them loudly.  Slurping was emphasized in the article.  It was very, very good.  Miles decided that he loved udon soup.