RejWanders: Tokyo, Japan Part One

Konnichiwa! Last summer I was able to visit the Land of the Rising Sun - Japan! together with my aunt and uncle who actually just tagged me along on this trip. If it weren't to them no Japan trip for me. To be honest, they were supposed to bring my little brother on this trip but they didn't get my dad's permission because it's not fair to my little sister who also wants to go so they gave me the ticket instead. Just my luck!

Our whole trip was courtesy of Emperador Distillers, Inc. for all their wholesale customers so everything was arranged by their agency and all we have to do is just submit all the documents needed. We have a total of  5 days and 4 nights (5D4N) in Japan and everything is set with a tour itinerary.  We do have a very strict tour rules since we were a big group tour, so I wasn't able to really explore the city aside from the places in the given itinerary but never the less it was a good tour for the first timer in Japan.

We stayed in Shinjuku Washington Hotel. The place is located in the centre of Shinjuku and it is a 5 to 10 minutes walk from the fashionable shopping, dining district and entertainment venues of the city. Our hotel room with 3 beds is quite small than the usual room we're used too, the reason behind it according to our tour guide is because of how expensive land space in Japan, so getting a space or lot in the city would probably cost double the price. So for businesses like hotels they make sure to maximize their spaces. If you think about it, smaller rooms can free up more space on which they can build few more rooms, allowing more guest to stay in the hotel, thereby getting more money.

Well, their rooms might be smaller but they surely serve you the best room equipment and amenities. I was amazed on the amenities they offer in the room. Their shampoo, conditioner, soap and lotions are all Shiseido brand and the good thing about it everything is in a regular bottle size and smells heaven! They also offer disposable underwear in your bathroom, shower cap, laundry bag and slippers to use that they change and refill everything every single day! And the best part of that everything is their toilet, oh boy, I generalize that toilets in Japan are the best! Who wouldn't love the automatic bidet-type toilet that offers hot and cold water for your butt and they even provide a paper cover to sit on for girls like me?! Well, if not just our hotel, I guess every single hotel in their country offers the best amenities, so hand down to Japan for being so modern and techie! I love it!

FIRST DAY: SHINJUKU

We arrived in Haneda Airport around late afternoon so we just spend our first day in Shinjuku area where our hotel is located. Our tour guide brought the group for dinner in a shabu-shabu eat-all-you-can buffet restaurant located somewhere besides the gigantic dinosaur building until we settled for the night. 

SECOND DAY: TOKYO DISNEYSEA

The second day in our itinerary is spending our whole day in Tokyo DisneySea. I'm glad they put this on the first official tour day of the group because this is one of the places I've been so excited to visit. Either Disneyland or DisneySea this is one place you shouldn't miss when you visit Tokyo! I highly recommend picking this park if you need to pick one, because it's one and only in the world! But if you could dedicate time to visit both, go for it, it will be worth it! Promise! 

Tokyo DisneySea is designed to be an adult/mature theme park because this park focuses on attractions and ambience where adults and grandparents could really enjoy but if you're with kids don't worry there is still plenty of things they could do, but they're more likely prefer Tokyo Disneyland. Well, this is probably the reason why our tour guide chooses this park over the other because most of the people I'm with are adults who's having a break from their businesses. Hahaha!

Anyway, I actually didn't try any rides in the park because most of it are extreme which is a big no-no for me. So instead of riding those scary rides, I focus on lining up in some shows, ride some train and boats and taking photos of all the beautiful attractions this park could offer. One of my favourites is the Mermaid Lagoon because it's just so pretty and colourful. If you notice, I didn't get lots of photos of the attractions because I mostly lined for the shows that I waited for about an hour to get in. A day in DisneySea is not really enough to see everything and to take photos because every angle in this park is worth that perfect shots. 

By the way, don't you dare miss their water show in Mediterranean Harbor! It's the last show before the park closes when we visited that day. The weather that day is really bipolar so they keep on postponing the show so I'm not really sure the exact time it will start so do check their theme park guidelines. To be honest, if I didn't notice the people gathering around the harbour I could have missed this amazing show. Anyway, a day in here is not enough for me so "I'm not yet done with you DisneySea, wait for me because I'm definitely coming back to sea you!" This is definitely one for the books, I guess every Disney theme park is! Do you agree?!

If you want to see more photos of DisneySea I found this site where it did great justice to show the best attractions in the theme park.

And as much as I want to tell you everything about this whole Japan trip in one entry I just have to make you wait for a little bit more as I put the rest of my stay in another blog post. For now, I'll leave you with my first two days in Japan. So do enjoy!