Chad & Ricky’s Tokyo Vacation – Day 3

Monday – November 13

Took the Disney Resort Line to the Resort Gateway Station to the JR Maihama Station. Ikspiari doesn’t open until 9:00, so we went to Starbucks to get a snack and coffee before we ventured into the Japan railway system.

We decided to go to Shibuya area to see the famous crossing. Luckily with Apple Maps it gave us directions on what trains to take. There were transfers that were a bit confusing, and trains that had local and express to certain stations. A lady helped us where we needed to transfer and what trains and stops to take to get to Shibuya. People are very courteous in Japan, when going on an escalator, people line up and stay to the left side if standing. The train stations are very clean, and the train cars are comfortable. At each stop the train has a song that plays when the doors are closing. The signs and voice notifications had English translations, which was very helpful.

We arrived at Shibuya and went directly to the crossing. It is amazing how many people was there.

We walked to the Disney Store which was pretty close. In Japan people walk on the left side, which we had to continually remind ourselves so that we don’t walk towards traffic. The Disney Store had four levels. On the top level there was a corner that was a replica of Andy’s room from Toy Story. We bought a Duffy bear for our anniversary, and found items that we would want to get at the Disney Store by our hotel.

For lunch we went to a restaurant and had some skewers, Japanese fried rice, egg omelet and homemade ginger ale.

We walked back to the crossing to find the 3D billboard. We found it on a side street, and it was a Panda. We came across a Mark City Food Show Sweets Zone on our way to the train station. It is a department store the has all desserts. I picked a melon gateau and Rick got a chocolate cake. There were no places to sit to eat our cakes, so we took the train to Shinjuko Goyen National Garden that was about 20 minutes away.

We were able to use our Suica card to get into the garden. After we had our dessert, we walked around the gardens and took some pictures.

We didn’t know that the gardens closed at 4:00, initially we were going to hang around at the gardens and then explore the gay area Shinjuko Ni-Chome, which was close to the gardens. We found out that the businesses don’t open until 6:00, so we decided to go back to the hotel.