On today's agenda was a bus trip to the mountains to visit the Jigokudani monkey park. With Isabelle starting to come down with a horrible cough, and Veronica not feeling the best either, we decided to keep today simpler. So over a Toyoko Inn breakfast we devised a plan to head back on the Shinkansen towards Tokyo for a 25 minute journey, which would bring us to an area called Karuizawa, which is a picturesque area in the Nagano prefecture where a lot of cashed-...

After the magnificent crapulence of the Kawasaki Toyoko Inn breakfast yesterday, Charlotte and I didn't even bother going down this morning. Instead Veronica came to our room and did the majority of packing, and then took Angela and Isabelle down, while Charlotte and I stayed upstairs to pack the remainder of the electronics, and carry the bags downstairs. When we left, I skillfully managed to lock the key in the room, which made it a fun conversation at the fro...

In the original itinerary Hakone was penciled in for today. Having skipped Ueno Zoo earlier in our time at Tokyo, we decided that since we've been to Hakone on both previous trips, that we'd substitute a day at Ueno Zoo instead, since it was closer, easier and much, much cheaper. Breakfast time, and we filed into the tiny little Toyoko Inn elevators to the lobby for the standard Toyoko Inn breakfast experience. Scores of businessmen looking at their newspapers ...

A deliberately empty day in the itinerary today. With the non-stop madness of Disneyland and Disney Sea behind us, we needed a day of doing not much at all, to allow ourselves to recover. For the last time we went down and had a fantastic breakfast at the Palm and Fountain Terrace hotel. I think I'll miss the breakfasts at this hotel. Quick, easy and very, very good. Being a Disney partner hotel, guessed are blessed with the presence of a Disney merchandise s...

After Tokyo Disneyland yesterday, with it's short hours, massive crowds, long wait times, and general lack of characters, I expected Tokyo Disneysea to be much of the same today. I am glad to report that I was very, very mistaken. Today was, without a doubt, the best theme park day I've ever had. The day started out with disappointingly perfect weather, which immediately bought back the dread of massive crowds and stupid wait times. I was secretly hoping for a...