A big Thank You to the Tokyo Bitches!

I apologise for calling you "Tokyo Bitches" - it seems highly inappropriate from someone who was not part of the group, but it was the only way I could think to get all of your attention. [:I]

Just wanted to say THANK YOU [y] for the detailed TRs from your trip to Tokyo. MrStars and I are off to Japan in 2 weeks time and reading your reports definitely helped us during trip planning. I am particularly thrilled to have read about the Molecular Tapas. I am certain I would not have known about it if it wasn't for V-Flyer, and your group in particular. I am absolutely ecstatic that we will be able to try this unique dining experience. An extra thank you to Wolves27 for your detailed report with pictures. Now that I know we are going, I have read it again and am even more excited!

Still wavering on whether or not to go to Disney Sea. I've been to all the US Disneys, some more than once. Any thoughts?

Are we flying Virgin? Surely you don't have to ask?! [}:)] We will be staying at the Mandarin for the first 4 nights of our trip, and the Park Hyatt for the last night (we go to Hakone & Kyoto in between).

Thanks again! I will be sure to report back after our trip.

[mitchja]

You have to go to Disney Sea - it's amazing and very well put together too. It's by far the best Disney Park I've been too [y]

Enjoy the MO and the Mol Tapas experience too

Regards

[Decker]

Concur with James! The Ice Bar is skippable but the day out to Fuji has to be done even if it is only so you can experience so many modes of transport!

Don't forget to take a trip to Hiroshima, well worth the added train journey and Kobe for fantastic steaks.

[fozzyo]

Concur with Decker! Disney Sea is a highly recommended stop - Magic Kingdom, much the same as the others. Sea is a very different park - fantastic place. Oh and you have got to do Tower of Terror to see if you can work out how they do it in the pre-show, not going to tell you what. You'll just have to go to find out. ;o)

The MO is quite simply amazing, something I will do next time we go is count just how many hot towels we get!! Can recommend the Spa as well, lovely time to relax and chill out.

Don't apologise stars, "Tokyo Bitches" is our name

Glad you've booked the trip, and I'm sure you're as excited as we were beforehand. Good choice on everything, hopefully you might actually get to *see* Mount Fuji.
Remember, even in the time we were there was SO much more we could have done, just in Tokyo itself (top of my list next time is to try the legendary $100 mangoes) so I'm sure you'll find new and completely different experiences to us, let us know....

I would aggree about the others with Disney Sea, if you like Disney parks and have got the time, go definitley. Disney Sea is very well designed and you might aswell do both if you can, if only to tick them off the list.

All in all, have a great trip, and I'm looking forward to seeing how much the molecular tapas menu has changed from when we were there.

cheers!

Dean

Ok, ok, I am convinced - we will go to Disney Sea! We have been to the Absolut Ice Bar in London, so will skip the Tokyo one - how different can it be?

I hope we get to see Mt. Fuji. We will be staying overnight in Hakone, so I think we will have two opportunities to see Mt. Fuji. We are staying at a ryokan, which is certain to be an experience in and of itself. I will certainly have to post a review of that!

AlanA, one of our day trips from Kyoto is to Hiroshima. Not sure on Kobe - I don't eat beef, but my husband does, so he may want to go.

Dean I plan on taking pictures of the Molecular Tapas meal & will share. Also, I showed my husband the photo of you imitating Bill Murray in the Lost in Translation poster. He loved it and wants to try to replicate that poster now, too!

Thanks again everyone!

J

[RichardMannion]

Sorry for the late reply.

Absolute yes for DisneySea, it's the most expensive Disney park in the world in terms of construction costs, but the cheapest (along with Disneyland Tokyo) in the world for entrance. We went on a weekday (Monday) to avoid the weekend as it can get busy at weekends. We were able to do both parks in one day in relative ease. Eating at the park is obscenely cheap too, you will get a meal for about £2.50. They don't seem to do a park hopper option, so we had to buy two separate tickets for entrance, but even so, it still only worked out at £20 per park for entrance.

If you speak to the concierge at the MO, they will go out and buy your Disney tickets for you so you can have them in hand and therefore avoid the queue to buy tickets at the park. Dean will have more info as he was our concierge 'go-between'. It's really easy to get from the MO to Disney, and if I recall it was less than £2 each to get there. There is a dedicated Disney train station.

Thanks,
Richard

Hi Richard,

Just a question, i will be in tokyo for 4 nights over xmas this year. 23rd(early morning) arrival until 27th afternoon departure. SHould i go to both disney parks or should i only concentrate on one, i.e. disneysea? I will be there in winter so should i be affected?

I will be staying at the Intercontinental ANA.

Cheers,
K.

Originally posted by RichardMannion
Sorry for the late reply.

Absolute yes for DisneySea, it's the msot expensive Disney park in the world in terms of construction costs, but the cheapest (along with Disneyland Tokyo) in the world for entrance. We went on a weekday (Monday) to avoid the weekend as it can get busy at weekends. We were able to do both parks in one day in relative ease. Eating at the park is obscenely cheap too, you will get a meal for about £2.50. They don't seem to do a park hopper option, so we had to buy two separate tickets for entrance, but even so, it still only worked out at £20 per park for entrance.

If you speak to the concierge at the MO, they will go out and buy your Disney tickets for you so you can have them in hand and therefore avoid the queue to buy tickets at the park. Dean will have more info as he was our concierge 'go-between'. It's really easy to get from the MO to Disney, and if I recall it was less than £2 each to get there. There is a dedicated Disney train station.

Thanks,
Richard

[RichardMannion]

Originally posted by k3nnis
Hi Richard,

Just a question, i will be in tokyo for 4 nights over xmas this year. 23rd(early morning) arrival until 27th afternoon departure. SHould i go to both disney parks or should i only concentrate on one, i.e. disneysea? I will be there in winter so should i be affected?

I will be staying at the Intercontinental ANA.

Cheers,
K.

Originally posted by RichardMannion
Sorry for the late reply.

Absolute yes for DisneySea, it's the msot expensive Disney park in the world in terms of construction costs, but the cheapest (along with Disneyland Tokyo) in the world for entrance. We went on a weekday (Monday) to avoid the weekend as it can get busy at weekends. We were able to do both parks in one day in relative ease. Eating at the park is obscenely cheap too, you will get a meal for about £2.50. They don't seem to do a park hopper option, so we had to buy two separate tickets for entrance, but even so, it still only worked out at £20 per park for entrance.

If you speak to the concierge at the MO, they will go out and buy your Disney tickets for you so you can have them in hand and therefore avoid the queue to buy tickets at the park. Dean will have more info as he was our concierge 'go-between'. It's really easy to get from the MO to Disney, and if I recall it was less than £2 each to get there. There is a dedicated Disney train station.

Thanks,
Richard

Honestly, I would say none. At Xmas, they will be absolutely rammed.

Oh really! I thought i may as well go to one as i don't think i will be in Tokyo in a while after this trip....

Originally posted by RichardMannion

Originally posted by k3nnis
Hi Richard,

Just a question, i will be in tokyo for 4 nights over xmas this year. 23rd(early morning) arrival until 27th afternoon departure. SHould i go to both disney parks or should i only concentrate on one, i.e. disneysea? I will be there in winter so should i be affected?

I will be staying at the Intercontinental ANA.

Cheers,
K.

Originally posted by RichardMannion
Sorry for the late reply.

Absolute yes for DisneySea, it's the msot expensive Disney park in the world in terms of construction costs, but the cheapest (along with Disneyland Tokyo) in the world for entrance. We went on a weekday (Monday) to avoid the weekend as it can get busy at weekends. We were able to do both parks in one day in relative ease. Eating at the park is obscenely cheap too, you will get a meal for about £2.50. They don't seem to do a park hopper option, so we had to buy two separate tickets for entrance, but even so, it still only worked out at £20 per park for entrance.

If you speak to the concierge at the MO, they will go out and buy your Disney tickets for you so you can have them in hand and therefore avoid the queue to buy tickets at the park. Dean will have more info as he was our concierge 'go-between'. It's really easy to get from the MO to Disney, and if I recall it was less than £2 each to get there. There is a dedicated Disney train station.

Thanks,
Richard

Honestly, I would say none. At Xmas, they will be absolutely rammed.

Thank you for the info Richard.

Originally posted by RichardMannion


If you speak to the concierge at the MO, they will go out and buy your Disney tickets for you so you can have them in hand and therefore avoid the queue to buy tickets at the park.

That is an excellent tip. We arrive at the Mandarin on a Friday and plan to go to Disney on Monday. We will have a chat with the concierge about tickets when we arrive.

One more question - did anyone in your group hire mobile phones? We've been told a UK Blackberry will not work in Japan.

Thanks,
J

[HighFlyer]

None of us hired phones, though i think one V-Flyer used the trip as an excuse to get a new mobile

GSM isnt supported in Japan, which is what the majority of our phones utilise. If you have a 3G phone you should be okay as it probably utilises UMTS which uses W-CDMA, one of the three main mobile phone technologies supported in Japan (PDC, CDMA & W-CDMA). Apologies if that all sounds like gobbledegook, it sounds more confusing that it is.

What Blackberry do you have? The 8700 series have UMTS but i dont think its predecessors do.

Thanks,
Sarah

stars - The Concierge at the MO were fantastic, sorting out the tickets for us for when we arrived as I emailed them beforehand. It was typical MO service.

If you wish to email them, pm me and I'll let you know their email.

cheers!

Dean

Originally posted by HighFlyer

GSM isnt supported in Japan, which is what the majority of our phones utilise. If you have a 3G phone you should be okay as it probably utilises UMTS which uses W-CDMA, one of the three main mobile phone technologies supported in Japan (PDC, CDMA & W-CDMA). Apologies if that all sounds like gobbledegook, it sounds more confusing that it is.

Thank you Sarah. I think that made some sense to me!

Originally posted by HighFlyer

What Blackberry do you have? The 8700 series have UMTS but i dont think its predecessors do.

I have an 8300, and MrStars has an 8800. I will look into which technologies they support. We also have a 3G Samsung phone that was unlocked for us when I upgraded to my BB so maybe we will be able to bring that. Having Blackberry access isn't that important to either of us (in fact, there is some level of upside!) but MrStars should aim to be reachable by phone just in case, from a work standpoint.

Thank you again for the information.

J

[HighFlyer]

I dont think you'll have much joy with your Blackberries but the Samsung might be feasible if you can check the model number. If it makes more sense, check this Wiki for Blackberry and see the 'network' column near the bottom where it lists all the available models. You'll see some models only support GSM/GPRS/EDGE, which wont work in Japan, but others also support 2100 MHz UMTS/W-CDMA. These handsets will work in Japan.

If your Samsung will not work, i am sure that the MO Concierge will assist you with renting a cell phone for the duration of your stay.

Thanks,
Sarah

Thank you for the link Sarah - it saved me having to figure out where to get that info from. Neither Blackberry will work. I did google the Samsung (Z500) and from what I can tell, it does operate on UTMS so sounds like it will work.

Thanks again,
J

This is another voice offering thanks to the TBs for their detailed discussion of their trip. The Other Mr Morgan and I are doing a BIG Japan trip next spring, and as well as the answers generously provided in response to my question in the travel forum, those accounts are required reading. The only thing I know we won't be doing is Molecular Tapas, as TOMM thinks it all sounds far too weird for his tastes. I'm also checking the MO site daily in hopes that a room will come free while we're there.

[Decker]

You HAVE to do the Molecular Tapas - ask HighFlyer

[HighFlyer]

Originally posted by Decker
You HAVE to do the Molecular Tapas - ask HighFlyer

Oh yes, you simply HAVE to do Molecular Tapas

Trust me, i am quite fussy when it comes to food, there are a lot of things i wont eat and i wasnt very sure about this meal when it was booked (i dont really want to go to the Fat Duck either) but i loved this experience, and that's what it is at the end of the day, an experience. Its far more than just having a meal and i am so glad i went.

I didnt eat every course, so dont feel that you *have* to eat the Sea Urchin (sorry Dean!) or whatever dish you get if you dont like it. On the other hand, i also got to try some new foods that i probably wouldnt have tried otherwise, and there were some that i really, really liked.

On the plus side, at least you'll know what you are eating as the Chef will tell you whats in the dish. With some of the more local restaurants, especially those at the train station, you might have to hazard a guess

Have a fantastic time in Tokyo, all of you who are off there soon. The Bitches are all dying to go back. [:(]

Thanks,
Sarah

[fozzyo]

Molecular Tapas is a must, the food is quite fantastic - where else can you eat frozen air? Or have a miso soup that is like an egg yolk that explodes in your mouth, its like ... actually best not say what its like.

Even if you can't get to stay at the MO its worth a visit for some hot towels and drinkies in the bar.

God I really want to go back!!