Tokyo Twilight

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.