RadioRoryI’m usually willing to pay more if it means extra legroom and that was the case for my train ride back to Tokyo. You can reserve your seat and I wanted one that would give me a second chance at seeing Mount Fuji. The upgrade isn’t cheap, but I think it’s worth it when one person is traveling. When it’s a family of four, the math may not add up.
In this case, I didn’t have to worry about reserving the perfect seat.
Turns out the car wasn’t empty but, rather, I was on the wrong train. With three-minutes to spare, an employee happened to come through and directed me to the right train on the other side of the platform. (BTW, I was really upset at myself for making the mistake). The right train car was a bit more crowded, but far from sold out.
After all this train travel, it only seemed appropriate I’d visit the Railway Museum in Saitama City, just outside Tokyo. This is a fun museum with some pretty odd details. There are full size locomotives and train cars inside the main building and all kinds of artifacts that even trace the history of the loop that hangs from handrails. Outside, you can ride on a steam locomotive (long lines for that one) and the old roundhouse makes you feel like you’ve stepped into an episode of Thomas the Tank Engine.
You will feel like a little kid again.
It’s the kind of place a train enthusiast like Walt Disney would love (see what I did there?).
Yes, I had to go see the two Disney parks that are in Japan. Tokyo Disneyland and Tokyo DisneySea. Japan’s Disneyland is far more impressive than it’s Hong Kong neighbor (for now).
The main street (it’s not Main Street but World Bazaar) is covered, which may ruin photos but is a welcome refuge from heat and rain. There’s a neat ride based on Monsters Inc. but there are familiar ones too, including Space and Splash Mountains and a throwback with Snow White’s Adventures. Their Winnie the Pooh attraction uses new ride vehicle technology that’s pretty cool too.
I was most interested in seeing Tokyo DisneySea, a one-of-a-kind park that opened in 2001. It’s the elaborate theming that makes the park different. It seems like a hybrid of the old-school park experience and the newer immersive attractions like the Harry Potter lands at Universal Studios and the upcoming Avatar world at Animal Kingdom. The 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea ride is built into a volcano that rises up from “Mysterious Island” in the middle of the park.
On the “American Waterfront,” there are restaurants and the FAN-TASTIC Teddy Roosevelt Lounge inside the SS Columbia.
Each park is definitely a day-long experience, particularly when crowded.
And even though the line wasn’t too long, I wasn’t able to ride their scream machine, the “Raging Spirits” roller coaster because of the height restriction.
Overall, I didn’t have too much to eat during my day at the parks and when you consider how much time I spent at the Teddy Roosevelt Lounge, that was a bad idea.
Still, you can’t beat some alone time on “it’s a small world,” or can you?
Who needs friends when you have drinks like this on the menu?
I was also happy to see a little bit of Epcot in DisneySea.
They have frozen beer here too!