Maybe Someday…

We rose early in order to get to the parks ahead of the crowds.

Did not work out so well.

We were warned that the parks would be at full capacity today. No worries, we had a mission to execute. Besides, it was just a beauty of a day!

Heading in with the crowds.

The decor began to switch from the 35th anniversary to Pixar Playtime. They never stop celebrating here!

Doesn’t look so busy from here.

We made our way over to the New York area to snag a fastpass for Tower of Terror.

A better look at the rail cars.

There it is in the far distance!

Guys, this is the line just for fastpass. To be fair, it moved right along.

See you in eight hours!

Fastpasses in hand, we took a nice stroll away from the crowds. As you can see, even at full capacity one can really enjoy the beauty of this park.

A walk trough the Mediterranean.

Hellooooo!!!!!

I’ve mentioned the American waterfront a couple times, but really gives me a laugh is that a significant section is dedicated to CAPE COD!

Yes, we traveled halfway around the freaknin’ world for salt box houses and an old Congregational Church.

New England kitchen garden. Looks familiar.

Understandably, we didn’t spend much time in Cape Cod. We booted over to Mysterious Island to grab more fastpasses, this time for some special guests.

Something exploded.

We couldn’t resist.

An interior shot.

It was time to hop on the monorail. We were meeting up with the kids for lunch at the “Downtown Disney” area.

Just like that, everything is Pixar.

Ikspiari Shopping and Dining

There were a few familiar sights.

I spy, with my little eye….

We met up with the young ones and looked for a good place for a beer and a bite.

A display of plastic food. Remarkable how real it all looks.

I didn’t nerd out with the camera around the kids. We had some beers and a comically bad communication gap with our server. We had two rounds of Non alcoholic beer served to us before we got it sorted.  We wandered around the shopping areas for a bit.

Grocery convenience store.

All of the ready made food here is just amazing.

Japan is kind of known for crazy flavored Kit Kats. Because of the season, we grabbed a Sakura flavored bag of minis.

I still have two left that  I can’t bear to open.

Meghan was craving more sweets.

Matcha tea ice cream. I got a lick.

We parted ways with the children. Jeff and I had that Tower fastpass to use.

Gorgeous details.

We got the low down on the story line in this room. Basically it’s the “ole’ stolen cursed Idol” scenario.

Some of the treasures absconded by our host.

Pilferers get all the ladies.

This show building and attraction queue is the best of all the Towers I’ve experienced. The ride itself was just okay. I’m going to hazard a guess that the ride drops were shortened due to the overwhelming capacity. Orlando is still my fave.

Venice looking splendid as we exited.

We scooted back to our room for a bit of a rest before meeting back up with the kids.

Well, what’s this?

It’s a cake and an apology for losing our luggage on day one. Nice touch, Hilton.

This view!!!!

Again, I didn’t take a ton of pictures with the kids. Everyone was in good spirits, but I knew, and had warned them that due to the crowds, they would not be going on too many attractions. I had procured one set of Fastpasses for them and that was it. We had a fantastic Moroccan dinner Al Fresco and took in one more ride, but that was it. I hoped they enjoyed the beauty of the place, but I knew that breaking away from their “real Japan” trip was a sacrifice and an extra expense. Tomorrow we’ll be meeting up again and going “off campus” to take in a one of a kind museum.

Good night, Mount Prometheus.

The next morning we met up with the kiddos and grabbed an Uber over to Odaiba. This is an area that I may not have visited if it weren’t for this outing. It’s very modern with shopping malls and techno-nerd type museums. It was a simply gorgeous morning!

Hey guys, wait up!

The Digital Art Museum is why were here.

We walked through some sort of an expo space on the way.

Not sure what goes on here, but it looks like fun.

Keen eyes may have seen this Ferris wheel from our room!

We didn’t ride it.

The youths.

Truth be told, I wasn’t really jazzed about the idea of this museum. Everybody else was pretty psyched. We got our tickets weeks ahead because Meghan said they sell out on the day. I just wanted to spend time with these guys. Online, it looked to me that it was just a series of rooms with digital projections on the walls. Not that exciting to me. The first room we walked into kind of validated that.

Cool projections on the walls.

Find the Jeff!

Find anything!

Honestly, my mind was quickly changed as we made our way through the exhibits. They were so much more than projections. It was a totally immersive experience, visually and audibly. Below was my favorite exhibit.

You start off dwarfed by these “lily pads” that are dancing with projections.

As you move through this forest, you feel as if you’re getting taller and or the plants are shrinking.

The floor was pitched as if you were climbing a steep hill.

Suddenly you stand tall over the digital forest.

All the while there is powerful music accompanying the changing lights.

There were at least a dozen of these exhibits. Each were unique, some more impressive than others. Just like when I checked out the website, I realize it’s really hard to get a sense of how immersive this is. The photos below are of a “rain room” with mirrors above and below with pulsing lights. It’s so disorienting that I dare say you may want to skip this if you’re prone to seizures.

This last exhibit was stunning. There are just a couple dozen of these lanterns hanging in the room, but they look infinite in the mirrors. The best part was that they only let a few people in the room at a time so that the reflections were unadulterated.

We were all done playing at the museum. We had intentions of meeting the kids for lunch but we ended up going in opposite directions, and they were heading out on the train for Kyoto.  Before lunch, we stopped at one of the many vending machines for a drink. This one only had cold beverages, but some have hot cans of coffee or tea.

Your guess is as good as mine.

I got an obvious coffee type drink.

I made Jeff get this for research. I think it was peach?

This outdoor spaces were lovely.

I can imagine how beautiful this is in summer.

This guy tried to keep us from our lunch.

He was no match for Captain Hungry.

Little Guy VS. Bumble Bee

This is the Fuji TV building. A pretty famous piece of architecture. We” get a closer look later.

There were panoramic views of the Tokyo Skyline.

A little peek at some cherry blossoms.

All you need is Love…and ramen! Let’s eat!

More plastic food. We didn’t eat here. It was mostly Katsu or fried pork. We were after ramen.

Getting closer.

Here it is!

Something that takes a bit getting used to is that most Ramen places have an ordering kiosk. You choose your food and beverage from a ATM type machine and pay with cash outside the restaurant. Then you hand your ticket to a server and find a seat. This sounds easy if everything is in English. It is not. We fiddled around and hoped we hadn’t ordered forty bowls of ramen by mistake.

We managed to get some beers!

This is the face of a man who has no idea he’ll be having horrible heartburn in a couple of hours.

We ordered two types of Tsukemen ramen. This is where cold noodles are served separately from the hot broth. This is so you can eat the noodles more slowly, whereas regular ramen requires that you eat quickly so that the noodles don’t turn to mush. We’re learning so much!

Jeff’s Tsukemen had a spicy broth. Hence the future heartburn.

Mind was milder and was a bit fishy.

The depth of flavor of these broths was intense. It was oily and rich a so full of flavor!

Arigato!

We took in some more views before heading out.

What a skyline!

We waited for our taxi right under the Death Star portion of the Fuji TV Building.

We taxied back to the Hilton for a bit of rest. I don’t know what to say about these sunsets anymore.

At this point in the evening, Jeff was feeling pretty miserable. He was a real sport and came back out with me to Disneysea. We had no agenda other than walking about and taking in the sights.

Venice

Mount Prometheus from the Canals.

A bit of New York

We wandered over to the Trolley Park area. This is simply ablaze with lights! This is where you’ll find Toy Story Midway Mania. We skipped it because it’s the same as the US parks… and the lines were insane.

Stunning!

Do you think people might walk by and not see Woody?

Some carnival games.

So pretty.

Jeff was starting to feel good enough to try and have a cocktail. We meandered over to  Mediterranean harbor to seek out Magellan’s, another signature lounge in the park. Like the Roosevelt Lounge, we had to put our name in and wait.

We got in!

This globe is massive!

I got a split bottle of Italian wine for my self. Jeff had gin and soda for his tummy.

This place was simply marvelous. Wood carving and iron work everywhere.

This sconce shows the level of detail.

A look at the constellation ceiling.

Was it in the stars that we would have one more fantastic day at Tokyo Disney? Signs point to yes!

More than ten years ago I stumbled upon a blog from a Disney adjacent writer. She chronicled her whirlwind, two week trip to Tokyo Disneyland and DisneySea. I was vaguely aware that there was a Disney park in the far east, but I had no idea of the beauty and scope of this place, especially DisneySea. I hunkered down and read all seventeen installments in one weekend. Ever since then, Tokyo has been a far off distant dream that I hoped would come true, but reality prevailed…until last summer.

My son Matt also longed to visit Japan, but for completely different reasons. He loves Japanese culture and had been keeping an eye out for extremely low airfares. Then, it happened. Round trip tickets for less than $800.00 popped up. Matt, his best friend Bryan, my daughter Meghan and her boyfriend Evan were all going. It took about a half a minute to decide we wanted in! We booked our flights in July of 2018 for a March 2019 trip. So exciting!!!

Now it was all about planning, itineraries and fretting about all the details coming together. Added into the mix were a new job, a move just weeks after we would be coming home, and to top it off, we adopted a dog too. Yeah, it was crazy.

Jeff and I decided to break up the legs of the trip and do an overnight is Los Angeles before the thirteen hour flight to Tokyo. This was a good move. We arrived quite late in LA but we were sure we’d be able to get food and drink. Not so much. The only place open and serving food was a seedy casino.

This will do.

It looks nice in pictures.

We got a nice, cheap and cheerful room at the La Quinta

A beautiful day in sunny California.

We grabbed a Lyft and headed back to the airport. We got there about a million hours early because this lady was a bit uptight about being on time. No worries, there was plenty of food and drink to be had while we wait.

The Border Grill

The food was fantastic and reasonably priced for an airport.

These chips smelled so good frying up, we had to try them. Had to.

It was finally time to board our flight on Singapore Airlines.

Why, thank you.

This is an extremely long flight, and not very comfortable if you’re flying coach as we were. The good people of Singapore Airlines are well aware of this, so they keep you distracted by constantly feeding you, giving you free drinks and lots of hot towels. It helped.

White wine was a-flowin’

Not the best food we had on the trip.

A more familiar snack.

Oh, look! More food.

We made it! FYI: They don’t like it when you take pictures in customs.

We arrived just after 8:00 pm which means everything is closed up tight at the airport. No shuttles would be running to get to Disneyland Hilton where we where staying so we (I) decided that we would stay at an airport hotel rather than try and figure out trains after our brains were scrambled with fatigue. This was a good call.

Ahhhh….

Look at these cute tea cups! I didn’t take them.

The hotel provides a freakin’ IPhone for your use!

Nice clean facilities.

Then, there’s the toilets. My friends, the Japanese toilets are A-mazing! This will not be my last ode to the bidet.

The Japanese know what they’re doing.

This baby had a heated seat, warm water for the forward and the aft.

I forgot to grab any of these.

We found the pub.

A little hint of the “Sakura” or Cherry Blossom fever ahead.

This was our first experience with the diminutive drinks of Japan. This Manhattan had less in the glass than what usually gets spilled on the tray at home. It was cheap though.

Can you see that the cherry takes up half the glass?

We had a good night’s sleep and gathered our things to check out.

Yup, we’re in Tokyo.

A Zen garden in the lobby.

They had a New York themed coffee shop down stairs. Just the ticket.

Coffee!!!

Cute.

There’s always a warm towel for your hands before eating.

Two perfect cups of Joe.

This was even better than it looks, and it looks scrummy.

Back to the airport to take the bus to the Disneyland Resort! First, a pit stop.

Adverts for the super-toilets!

The public toilets are even more elaborate than the hotel.

The button on the far right is for rushing water sounds so that no one hears your business. Too much bathroom talk?

On the bus!!! Are you tired of all the traveling? Me too.

Tadahhh!!! The Disneyland Hotel. We’re not staying here.

We’re in!

They were celebrating 35 years. We’ll be seeing a lot of this.

The monorail here is sooooo cute!!!

Look!!! Mickey shaped everything!

Entering their “Main Street”, called World Bizarre.

This area is all under glass. A stark difference.

Lots of charming facades line the street.

More 35th Celebrations. There was a mini-show of lights and music everything twenty minutes or so.

We decided to just take a walk around a soak things in first.

The castle is similar to Orlando, but much more detailed.

Beautiful!

Gorgeous tile work throughout.

Snow White’s Grotto, just like California.

Spring has sprung! They were a good month ahead of the states.

I had a very long list of foods to try. Disneyland has mostly american foods with a japanese twist. This sandwich is a perfect example:

It’s Mickey Shaped, but it was a juicy chicken thigh instead of a dried out breast patty. Fries were just as expected.

These Little Green Alien Mochi are decidedly Japanese!

Tomorrowland looks quite different.

We finished our lunch and set about trying a few attractions. It was a real trip going on rides you’re familiar with that are completely in Japanese!

A little Star Tours in Japanese.

The Country Bears were strangely about half Japanese and half English.

No videos allowed. Boo!

I’m not much for character greetings in the states. There are long lines in fixed locations, mostly revolving around princesses. Here, there are a plethora of rare random characters just bopping around! If there is a line it is a queue organized by the guests and not ropes.

Geppetto out of the workshop. Note the outfits on the girls. More on that later.

Gideon or Foul Fellow. I’m not sure.

I’ll be making some cultural observations here and there that will be mostly anecdotal and probably ignorant.  Japanese people don’t mind queuing up or waiting, no matter how long it takes. They are also polite, conscientious and considerate. No one was pushing or vying for a spot for parades. They bring their mats, set themselves down and wait….quietly.

A sea of patience.

No way I’m doing that!

I said it was a sea of people, right?

We were ready for a nap back at the hotel. We made our way back to the front of the parks, not before running into a few more character friends.

Keen eyes will notice a lot of twinning on the outfits.

The 35th celebration popping off again. You’ll see it all lit up later tonight.

Eeyore was sad to see us go.

I can’t.

If you cant say anything nice, call me!

Time for a nap!

We got checked in to the Tokyo Bay Hilton. Let’s take a tour around the room whilst they look for our lost luggage, shall we?

A king bed.

Lots of sleek storage.

Clean bathroom.

Fancy, magic defogging mirror.

Tea and water. No coffee.

A gift for being Hilton rewards members. I just filled out a form.

This view was fantastic! Ill have better pictures later.

You made it through the most boring bit of the traveling! Well done. Next we’ll be exploring Magic Kingdom lit up in it’s glory.

Today was about a lot of missed connections. We headed towards the garden district to take a closer look at the antique homes and mansions along Saint Charles on the way visit the famous Lafayette Cemetery. I took what I thought was  a whole slew of pictures, as I’m want to do, before I realized that the my iPhone camera wasn’t working. Boo! I figured out the problem and got some good shots at the cemetery, which was fascinating.

Greenery finding it’s way.

Some plots were centuries old, as expected.

Others had DOD dates from this year. That surprised me.

The perimeter of the cemetery held these small boxes. The poorest of citizens were interned here.

Members of police and fire are guaranteed a proper burial.

Next, we headed over to the Commander’s Palace. This brightly hued restaurant is nestled right in the historic neighborhood. I had wanted to at least have a drink there, but as we approached the door, we noticed a plaque listing the dress code, with which we were not in line.

No shorts allowed.

Oh well, we decided to switch gears and get a Lyft over to the Audubon Zoo. This is reputed to be one of the best in the country! As we waited for our ride, we noticed a shorts clad couple waltzing right into Commander’s. We suddenly realized the the sign was also an antique and didn’t apply anymore. D’oh!

CLOSED!

No worries, we had other plans now. Oh, but guess what? The zoo is closed on Mondays. Oof Magoof. Okay, we still had our ride so we asked him to take us to Magazine street. A friend’s daughter has a French restaurant there we wanted to try anyway…

…that’s also closed on Mondays.

My word, I’m usually good at this planning thing, guys. I believe we walked a bit then took the trolley to the French Quarter. Now we really needed lunch and a drink. I made double sure this place was open.

An oasis.

This place was came highly recommended. It’s a dive bar to beat all dive bars. It was dark, dirty with a no-nonsense bartender at the helm.

Straight talking bartender.

No drafts, just bottles.

No worries.

The barkeep gave us the run down on specials. We pretty much just ordered what she told us to.

Jambalaya. Always on the menu. It was gorgeous.

I got the Barbecue Shrimp and an enormous loaf of French Bread.

Jeff got the Soft Shell Crab over Angel Hair.

All the food here was beyond amazing. Some of the best we had all trip. The place itself was held together with dirt and love. The kitchen was a lean-to against the building. Goes to show that passion for feeding people fresh, well crafted food is all you need.

We set about looking for more music and a souvenir to mark the trip.

Interesting.

Woo hoo!

I like it, but a bit too much.

Getting closer.

We ducked into a bar for a beer and some Americana music.

Some patrons. They have no idea how famous they’re going to be.

A very young street performer.

During the run up to this trip someone told me (I don’t recall who. Maybe a bartender?) that we must go to Preservation Hall for Jazz. I remember him saying, quite deadpan, that it was life changing. Can’t argue with that. The shows here run about every hour or so. We queued up.

Innocuous facade.

Looks like the room may have been some sort of stables or workshop?

The space is teeny tiny with only bench seating and a few cushions on the floor. There is no food or drink served and no photography allowed.

They let us snap a few before the band came in.

This was indeed life changing. Hearing jazz performed by life-long New Orleans musicians was just we reason made this trek. Thank you, anonymous person whom I don’t recall!

Plus, I found my souvenir. It came right off the wall. I bought it, not stole it BTW.

Many hours had passed, so we started back towards our B&B. On the way we passed such a beautiful spot, we couldn’t help but stop in.

This courtyard! So pretty, but too hot to stay out there.

We bellied up. The Brennan name is all over NOLA.

Cheers to the Luxardo cherry. Jeers to the skimpy pour.

We got a couple appetizers. This gumbo was presented table side.

Look at the color of this sauce. So much depth of flavor!

Lightly fried sweet breads. Yummy!

This was a nice stop. Pricey but really elegant. Now, back to walking towards the B&B.  Earlier, one of our drivers recommended the Avenue Pub, which was also quite near our room.

I <3 twenty-four hour bars.

Emulate myself? I’m not sure how to do this. And who are you calling muffin?

They were having a buy one get one deal on beer at this time as well as food. We grabbed a a couple local beers upstairs. We would have stayed for an extra round and a bite, but there was a woman at the bar that was so loud and obnoxious, she made made my ears buzz. We couldn’t take it, even at these bargain prices.

Lady with the ponytail, you’re TOO LOUD!!!

We choose leave.

We still hadn’t really eaten in a while. I mean really eaten. Where else to go than the pizza joint right under our room?

One pizza with all the meat!

So this was a day that was rife with unexpected turns. Heck, as I typed up this blog, I lost half of the content that didn’t save properly. I guess it really was cursed. Let’s count our blessings though. There was plenty of food and music which was the whole goal of the trip, right?

Just a post script…

We had just enough time the next day for a nice lunch before our flight back home. We made it back to La Petit Grocery after all. Our friend is so proud of his daughter’s place and right he should be. It was exquisite!

Gas lighting outside.

Rosemary conifer.

Some sweet artwork in the powder room.

Velvet curtains separating the dining area from the bar.

We were treated with an amuse bouche. A boudin ball if I recall.

This was billed as a must get. Blue Crab Beignets with Malt Vinegar Aioli.

I expected a doughnut with crab throughout, but it was more like crab rangoon in a beignet. So creamy and delicious.

Another gift from the chef. Burrata cheese with tomato and greens.

We shared the Gulf Shrimp & Grits roasted shiitake mushrooms, smoked bacon & thyme. Sublime!

I ordered the Butterscotch Pudding for dessert. I have fond memories of this as a kid. It was delightful!

Then the chef sent out two more desserts… I wish he knew that I’d rather have more crab beignets!

LEMON CREAM TART 
Toffee, Orange Blossom Almonds & Vanilla Ice Cream

CHOCOLATE PEANUT BAR Caramel & Smoked Mascarpone Ice Cream

A bit of cappuccino to get through the air travel.