First time Japan, 18 Days on 800k Points – JAL J + Hyatt Park Suites

8 comments

1. Amazing score on the Park Hyatt Tokyo. I can never find point openings.

2. Just letting you know, Gyukatsu Motomura uses meat with injected fat in it. The “wagyu” is manufactured from lean beef. I learned this recently and I won’t be eating there.

3. Well done. Love that cheeky 19 cpp from the free move haha.

   How did you snag suites at PH Kyoto? And how did it only run you 30-40k per night? It’s 40-45k for a base room next year. I feel like I had been tracking availability for weeks before we booked and I never saw a standard suite award.

4. Enjoy PH Tokyo! I stayed in the same room they shot the window scene from Lost in Translation and it was MAGICAL. Just a tip for Fushimi Inari, someone told us not to go all the way up as it wasn’t worth it and we brushed them off and went up anyway. I have to say, they were right 🙂

5. You’ll need two separate entry tickets to Disney land and sea in order to complete the 2 parks in one day.

6. Don’t do Disneyland/Sea on a single day. Just pick which one you’d prefer and do that. There’s far more than enough to do in each park to fill the day, and the time saved in transition is better spent in the chosen park.

   Personally I would just recommend DisneySea, since it’s a much more unique park.

7. Hi!

   So while I agree with all the people ooohing and aaahing over your accommodations, I’m going to poke some holes in your itinerary.

   Tokyo Disney doesn’t offer park hopper tickets. It also opens at 8:30 am and even if you plan to buy premier passes for everything to skip the line, if you get there at 9, you won’t be getting in until closer to 9:30 and a lot of times will be gone. VIP tour offerings are much harder to book at TDR than in the US Parks, and even during “off-season” the parks can be crowded because they are super popular with the Japanese.

   If you go to one park during the day and hop to the other night, you miss one of the park’s night time shows. Believe! Sea of Dreams is really well done.

   The Pokemon Cafe is a good 15 minutes away from Asakusa, Akihabara, and Skytree, because it’s over in Nihombashi at the Takashiyama (Unless by Pikachu Cafe you mean something else? There was a limited time Pikachu Tea, but I’m pretty sure it ended in August and it was even further away in Harajuku,) You also need reservations for the Pokemon Cafe. You can ask your hotel concierge to try to help you get them, when I asked my hotel concierge they failed at it and I had to try a different day myself. The Pokemon Cafe takes around 90 minutes, whether you are ready to go earlier or not. You’re sort of trapped there.

   You are also presumably getting from the Park Hyatt to the the Fuji Speedway Hotel the same day as the Pokemon Cafe. The Fuji Speedway is not terribly close to any public transit, so make sure you know how you are getting there. There is a shuttle bus: [https://www.hyatt.com/en-US/hotel/japan/fuji-speedway-hotel/fswub/maps-parking-transportation](https://www.hyatt.com/en-US/hotel/japan/fuji-speedway-hotel/fswub/maps-parking-transportation)

   But it must be pre-reserved and you have to get to Gotemba by 17:45, you need to leave Shinjuku by 15:01

   I don’t know a lot about the Gotemba area outside the outlets, but I would make sure you know how you are getting around. You’re going to have a far trip to Owakudani unless you are doing some sort of tour by car. If you do it on your own, you need to get to Gotemba, then take a bus to the Hakone area and then I believe another bus.

   Getting from the Fuji Speedway to Kyoto is going to be a long trip. You need to get from Gotemba to somewhere on the shninkansen line. Expect it to take like 4 hours, possibly more.

   The rest of your trip is less planned so it is harder to critique. I guess I would contact the concierge at the Park Hyatt Kyoto about express passes for USJ?

   Good luck!

8. Klook is the best source for Disney and USJ passes.