Travel Party of 5 | Points & Miles for Family Travel

Tokyo on Points & Miles with Kids - Part 1!

• Raya & Duane

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Our podcast episode we referenced: Booking a Trip to Japan on Points as a Family of 5

The Photographer we used: https://fleurandhoney.com/

You can absolutely book her direct using the link above. We booked through Flytographer, so if you want to do that instead (or look at other options), this is our Flytographer referral link: https://flytog.co/RAYASAN-AGUSTIN 

As always, we appreciate you using our links to help support the podcast! 

The ramen restaurant, Ginza Ramen Soryu: https://share.google/aUSl6tXJnb1XeZzSb

In this episode we cover:

• Alaska miles for positioning flight to SFO
• Grand Hyatt SFO convenience and club access
• JAL economy booked with AA miles, kids’ meal tip
• Haneda immigration QR flow and family line
• Private transfer vs public transit on arrival
• Hyatt Centric Ginza suite upgrade saga resolved
• 7‑Eleven, Lawson, Family Mart meal strategies
• Shinjuku family photos, fast edits, direct booking
• Conveyor belt sushi trade‑offs for kids’ fun
• TeamLab Borderless highlights and tea add‑on caution
• Ramen near Ginza worth a return trip
• Language tools: Google Translate and key phrases
• Metro basics with Google Maps and Suica cards
• Stairs, timing, and accessibility notes
• Disney parks preview and where to find links

Follow us on Instagram @travelpartyof5 to see the hotel tours and Tokyo highlights; DM us your questions for quick replies


SPEAKER_02:

We are a family of five who turned our dream trip to Japan into reality thanks to credit card points and miles. And in today's episode, we are sharing all the details of the first part of our trip to Tokyo. So listen in. Hi, I'm Rhea.

SPEAKER_00:

And I'm Dwayne.

SPEAKER_02:

And we are your hosts of the Travel Party of Five podcasts, where we share how we travel as a family of five around the world.

SPEAKER_00:

We will also share how we use points and miles to travel as affordably as possible and sometimes even completely free.

SPEAKER_02:

So if you're wanting to travel more with your family, but you're not sure how, we'd love for you to listen in.

SPEAKER_00:

So welcome to our podcast where we hope you learn a thing or two to get you closer to your next trip.

SPEAKER_02:

Hello.

SPEAKER_00:

Thanks for tuning in.

SPEAKER_02:

Hello, friends. We are back from our trip to Japan. And apologies that there was no episode last week, but that was an error in calculations on my part before we left. And if you follow us on Instagram, you know that we tried, well, we bought a microphone in Japan to try to do an episode while we were there, but I couldn't get the microphone to connect through Garage Band. GarageBand is pretty like wonky sometimes, and usually I can fix it, but I could not figure it out. I spent like, I don't know, hour and a half trying to get it to connect and Googling and Redditing and all the things and couldn't make it happen. So apologies for no episode last week, but we have some pretty good stuff, I think, coming for the next few weeks all about Japan.

SPEAKER_00:

Yes, the what next four episodes?

SPEAKER_02:

Yes. I think that in order to fully recap the trip and do it justice, it's gonna be four episodes. So it's gonna be today we will do Tokyo Part One. Then we will do I'm not sure Kyoto. Yeah, I'm not sure the specific order, but another episode will be Kyoto. Another episode will be Tokyo, Disneyland, and Disney Sea, because that deserves its own episode because there's so much to cover. And the fourth one will be Tokyo Part 2, because we were in Tokyo two different times in two different areas at two different hotels. So that's that's the plan.

SPEAKER_00:

Yep.

SPEAKER_02:

Okay, so a lot to cover. It's a lot. Um yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay, so where do we begin?

SPEAKER_02:

I think we begin with how we got there.

SPEAKER_00:

Airplane. It was indeed I already forgot the airline.

SPEAKER_02:

You did not forget. It was indeed on an airplane. Um, okay, so we flew on Japan Airlines. No.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, I I was talking about Phoenix to San Francisco.

SPEAKER_02:

Oh, okay. We yes, we did a positioning flight from Phoenix to San Francisco the day before our flight to Japan. That was on American Airlines and but booked through Alaska Airlines. And so I used Alaska Miles to book that, and it was 4.5k per person. So a whopping total of 22,500 miles to get all five of us one way from Phoenix to San Francisco. I have touted on this podcast about my using Alaska Miles to position, you know, as long as it's an airport not too far from you, because they have a distance-based award chart. And I think that that's by far the cheapest way for a family to make it happen. So I think it was maybe$90 and 22,500 Alaska points.

SPEAKER_00:

Nothing.

SPEAKER_02:

So that was good. So we flew over on a Friday, like afternoon.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. And stayed at the Grand Hyatt SFO. Yeah. San Francisco Airport. Yep. Just had to take a little tram, a couple stops.

SPEAKER_02:

It was very easy.

SPEAKER_00:

Very easy.

SPEAKER_02:

So yeah, the hotel's connected to the airport. This hotel is, I think, a category five now. And it recently went from a four to a five. And you know what? I'm sorry, it's a category six. Um, and it I think has gone up in category the last couple of years. Every March Hyatt does like a re-org or a it's really a devaluation for most properties. They tend to go up a category, which means more points required to book those properties. Occasionally hotels go down, but it's generally they go up. So, anyways, this is a category six, and there's been some um like discussion around whether or not it's worthy of a category six because it's an airport hotel.

SPEAKER_00:

I mean, it's the nicest airport hotel we've stayed at.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, it was very simple. We never had to leave the airport, and like the hotel, like the room was nice. There's a club, which we didn't even know about, so we didn't even pay anything for dinner. We just ate there. And then we had our breakfast covered in the morning um in the restaurant, which was also great. That was covered with my globalist status, and it was just a very easy and seamless experience, and I would 100% stay there again for sure.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, for sure. They even had spam fried rice, yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

The menu was like Asian inspired, and so it was like a good thing leading up because we were super excited for all the jackets.

SPEAKER_00:

Kids loved it, that's all that they did, yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

We had plans originally to go into the city to this dim sum restaurant that we really like called City View, but by the time we got there and got checked in, it was just too complicated to get there because it was rush hour.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

So it would have been like taken less like an hour to get there, no matter how we went. And we just kind of decided, you know what, it's just not worth it. We will eat here and we will just kind of hang out and get ready for tomorrow. So that's what we did.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, had dinner at the club, little finger food, some sushi. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

It was fine. There was like little sandwiches, it was fine. It was free, it was good. It was free, yeah. That was important to us. So, um, and then we woke up the next morning and we just got back on the little tram back to the airport, and yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

On our way we went.

SPEAKER_02:

Off we went. Um, so our flight left, I think, at around noon. We we went to a lounge, right? There was like a few different lounges we went to, or we could have gone to, right?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, but and it was like not great. Yeah, we didn't go to a lounge there.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, we did. It was like China Airlines or like whatever. We had to go up the stairs.

SPEAKER_00:

It was very hot, right?

SPEAKER_02:

And we had just eaten breakfast, so it was really just to occupy our time.

SPEAKER_00:

We weren't there long.

SPEAKER_02:

It was, I don't know what was going on in there, but so this was a priority pass lounge, and there was a few different options in the international terminal that we were at.

SPEAKER_00:

We were looking for the Virgin Atlantic one. Yeah, we couldn't find it.

SPEAKER_02:

We found it on our way out of the lounge back to the gate. So that was um, and by that point, we were just we needed to get back to the gate, so we didn't have time. But if you're looking, it's like these lounges were kind of up a floor, and the Virgin Atlantic one was up another floor, basically. Yeah. So um, we saw our plane. Our plane was there several hours, actually, like up, I think our plane landed the night before we flew out. So we knew it was there. So we knew we had a pretty solid chance of an on-time departure. I use the Flighty app to track that. If you guys don't have that, um, you basically put in your flight and it will tell you like the age of your plane and like where your plane is coming from, and it it can sometimes estimate delays before the airline even tells you, which is beneficial because then you get a leg up on everyone else when you're trying to rebook yourself on a different flight. So um, that is the flighty app if you are curious. It also keeps track of like how many miles you've flown that year, which is kind of like a fun, just little nugget, I think. Mine is like 36,000 miles so far, I think, this year, which is not too shabby for someone who doesn't travel for work that much. It's all personal travel.

SPEAKER_00:

It's a lot, yeah. Um and we're gonna add to it.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, yeah, yeah. There's there's more trips. Um, so, anyways, okay, let's talk about Japan Airlines. This is like, I was really excited for this flight. We flew economy before anyone gets excited. Um, so this is not a business class review. Um, it is, yes, it is possible to find business class flights on Japan Air Airlines for five people, but I think it's um I'm gonna say uncommon to find five on the same flight. Not impossible by any means, but um we number one didn't have the points for that. And number two, I mean, I checked our flight leading up to, and there was no like last-minute points availability on this particular flight.

SPEAKER_00:

So yeah, I mean the flight was it was pretty good. Um the bathroom on this plane was the biggest, yeah, it was huge.

SPEAKER_02:

It was really big, like it was like two regular plain bathrooms, which was a surprise. I was surprised when I walked in there. I went, whoa. And it had like a fancy toilet, right?

SPEAKER_00:

Not like uh it did not, it had a regular no, it had a regular plain toilet.

SPEAKER_02:

There was like buttons though, yeah, to flush.

SPEAKER_00:

There was no aspirer or anything, it was just it was just a flush button.

SPEAKER_02:

Okay, well, um, yeah, the bathroom was big. I went in there with our our daughter, and we were like, whoa, there was like plenty of room in here. And I pre-ordered kids' meals for all three of our kids for this flight. I learned my lesson on the last flight because I only did it for the younger two, and the food was terrible. So my poor 11-year-old like basically didn't eat anything on our last flight. So I got three kids' meals this time. And if you want to order kids' meals for your kids on Japan Airlines, um, you basically have to call them. It was a very easy call. Someone just answered and I said what I wanted, and they were like, okay, like it was so easy that I was like, I don't know if that is actually going to happen, but it did happen. So it was good. It was good.

SPEAKER_00:

Yep. And this is the second time this has happened to me. Well, us, but they ran out of one option of food by the time they got to us.

SPEAKER_02:

And we were in the very first like economy cabin, too. Like in the two rows in front of us was premium economy. So we were like we were as close to the fry as you could get for being in economy, basically.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, I mean, because they like started in the back.

SPEAKER_02:

So, anyways, yes, there was a a beef option and a fish option.

SPEAKER_00:

And the fish was not good at all.

SPEAKER_02:

It was not good.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. Um, you know, I mean, I typically don't mind airplane food, but this was horrible.

SPEAKER_02:

It was not good. The beef was okay, and I ate half of mine and tried to give Dwayne the other half, but he he was like, no, I don't want it, no.

SPEAKER_00:

And the service from flight attendants on this flight were really good.

SPEAKER_02:

It was good.

SPEAKER_00:

Very attentive.

SPEAKER_02:

And so this was a it's a daytime flight for us, right? Because we're leaving at noon and we are a ri on Saturday, and we are arriving in Tokyo at 3 p.m. on Sunday. So I I knew exactly what would happen, which is the kids are gonna get sleepy right at the end of the flight, like right as we are getting off. That's exactly what happened. Yeah, our daughter fell asleep maybe an hour before we landed. Maybe. Yeah, that's always frustrating.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, the first three days for us were pretty rough with jet lag. Going to bed at eight, waking up at two in the morning. It was it was rough there for the first couple days.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah. Um, so, anyways, okay, so the flight was fine, good in-flight entertainment. Um, I just watched The Summer I Turned Pretty, like the whole trip. Team Conrad, by the way.

SPEAKER_00:

I watched the whole series of Black Rabbit, which was pretty good. You know, Jason Bateman.

SPEAKER_02:

Such vastly different shows. Um, what else about the flight? Oh, I felt like the seats were pretty big for economy seats. They were comfortable, like I I felt like the flight was great. I would 100% fly Japan Airlines Economy again. Without question.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, they weren't bad.

SPEAKER_02:

And so I have an entire episode on how I booked our Japan trip. So I will link that in the show notes if you want to listen to that, because I recorded it like right after I booked everything, which was like basically a year ago. Um, and we booked this using American Airlines Miles, 35,000 miles per person one way from San Francisco to Hanaida Airport in Tokyo. And so that's how I booked it. But if you want like more details, then I would recommend listening to that other episode too.

unknown:

Yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_00:

I just saw that Hinaida was the cleanest airport.

SPEAKER_02:

Oh, really? Yeah. I mean, everything in Japan was so clean. Um, okay, so we land in Hinaida. Tokyo, yes. And we go through security or customs, whatever.

SPEAKER_00:

Immigration.

SPEAKER_02:

There is an uh a form you can fill out online before you go, just like a few days before you go. And it basically just, you know, asks for like your passport information and asks you a few questions like have you ever been, I don't know, convicted of a crime or whatever. So you answer those and then you get a QR code. And the QR code is how you can kind of, I don't want to say bypass security, but like we used it at something. Do you remember? Yeah, you had to go to that little kiosk and scanning of your I had to scan, yes, but then we still had to wait in another line to do something.

SPEAKER_00:

It gave you like group A, B, C or something. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

I don't know. There's basically two different checkpoints. There's one and then you you go through, and then they stamp your or sorry, there's uh the first checkpoint you you go through, and then I scanned the QR code, and then we had it assigned us a group, basically, and we followed that kind of group, and this was like our second checkpoint, and that's where they took our fingerprints, maybe our photo, and um stamped the passwords and then let us in.

SPEAKER_00:

You have that backwards. We we got fingerprinted, pictures taken, then we got the group number, and then we went through customs. That's when they ask you, do you have anything to declare? Remember, we were like, Oh sh shoot, we have beef jerk. Do you think? I do not have it backwards.

SPEAKER_02:

You do okay. So then what?

SPEAKER_00:

So you're just gonna delete the part that you were saying you're right, found out you were wrong, and you just deleted, went back and edited this podcast and deleted the part you were wrong.

SPEAKER_02:

Because I still don't think I'm wrong, but I'm just gonna let you have it. Millie have it. Yeah, it's fine. They did have a separate line for kids. So there was actually a very long customs line, and we got ushered into a different line because we had the kids with us that was much shorter, so that was great. I feel like that's pretty common in other countries.

SPEAKER_00:

I mean, it's happened to us in every country besides the US.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, America doesn't enjoy children, so um, okay, we're we're in Japan. We've made it. We're legally in the country, which was very exciting.

SPEAKER_00:

Yes, very exciting.

SPEAKER_02:

Um, and so I had coordinated, I knew that we would be exhausted, which we were, and so I had coordinated a private transport from the airport to our hotel. And I feel like this was maybe around$100. It was not super expensive, and it's like a 45-minute drive from the airport into the city of Tokyo, if not longer, maybe an hour. So I feel like that was money well spent. And I knew that number one, we were not gonna want to deal with figuring out the public transportation on you know, zero sleep. And number two, we also needed to get our two of our kids, the older two, uh, their own uh transportation cards because you have to do that in person because they get their their rates for kids are half off.

SPEAKER_00:

Um, however, what I was just gonna say it's called a Suika card.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, the one that there's more than one type of card, but the one that we got was the Suica cards. But I also knew that we were not gonna want to do that like with right then with all of our luggage. So we just took the um private transportation, it was a big van. I booked it through Cluke, and I originally booked a like a six-person vehicle, and it said it it would hold like six people plus four luggages. And I said, Well, hey, I emailed them and I was like, we have five luggages. Like, is that gonna be a problem? They're all carry-on size though, and they were like, Oh, you need to book the nine-person van, so it was a very large van that we had booked. Um, but there was plenty of space for all of us, so I don't know.

SPEAKER_00:

And he picked us up at the airport.

SPEAKER_02:

He had a sign there, yeah, I had a sign with with my name on it and everything, so it was great. I don't know that he spoke much English, but it didn't really matter. He knew where we had to go and he was very texted you in English.

SPEAKER_00:

I mean, um, obviously he used the translator, something, but yeah. Yep, super easy.

SPEAKER_02:

Yep, and so we stayed at the Hyatt-centric Ginza, that was our first hotel in Tokyo.

SPEAKER_00:

Really, really nice hotel. It was I mean a really, really nice part of Tokyo, which is the Ginza area.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, Ginza is like the luxury area. So think like Louis Vuitton and Tiffany's and Chanel, all those stuff. Storolex.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, all that fancy stuff.

SPEAKER_02:

And this hotel was great. Yeah, it was our favorite hotel of the trip, spoiler alert. Probably because it was the nicest. Um, so so when I booked this hotel, it was a category six, and it is now a category seven. So, again, all of this trip was pretty much booked a year ago, and several hotels changed categories that we stayed at. So I believe we paid 25,000 points per room per night, and we booked two rooms at this property. I booked a king bedroom and I booked a two-twin bedroom. And then I emailed the hotel and I asked if actually there was a whole saga about this reservation that was very frustrating. So I emailed the hotel months before we left, and I just said, hey, like we have these two reservations, there's five of us, want to confirm that you know, we all five of us will fit in the room and all that fun stuff. And they basically said no. Um it's two per two people per room, but like this suite has an occupancy of three. So then I thought, okay, perfect. I'm gonna apply one of my suite upgrade awards to the reservation. So I called and I did that over the phone. And around this time, like maybe a month or two later, I call Dwayne and I say, Hey, I don't know if I talked about this on the podcast before, but I said, hey, like I just all of a sudden have all these high-at points and I don't know where they came from. But I had like basically like an additional like 90 some thousand hiat points. And I was like, I don't know where they came from. I can't figure it out because all of our reservations are still there, right? Every reservation we had booked still exists, but now I have all these points. So I Google it, I search on Reddit, and there were a few people that were just like, oh yeah, that happened to me once. And I just thought, wow, like the points gods have smiled on me and just gifted me these like extra high-up points. Okay. Well, that's not what happened, actually. Oh, and sorry, and then I used them to book the cape in Cavo for three nights. Because I said to Duane, I need to use these points before they try to take them back, because surely someone's gonna realize this was an error. But if the points aren't in there anymore, they can't take them back. So we went to the Cape. Okay, so then maybe I don't know, six weeks or so before we're scheduled to leave, I'm I happen to be looking in my Hyatt app, and I realized that it says I owe a good amount of yen for this Hyatt-centric Ginza reservation. And then I realized that my reservation now says, instead of just like points, it now says points plus cash. So essentially, when I had called to apply the suite upgrade award, the person that I spoke with did not, in fact, apply the award, but instead changed my reservation to a points plus cash booking for the suite. And it was it will like I was gonna pay some amount of points and also like 400,000 yen, which is like$2,000. I think it's like$3,000. It's like$2,800-ish, maybe. It's a lot of money. And I was like, ah, so then I called the globalist line and I was like, I'm so sorry, but like this is the situation, and they basically they're like, okay, they transferred me a few times. Then they're like, well, we gotta call the property, but it, you know, it's like 3 a.m. in Japan at this time, so we'll have to call you back. And I'm like, okay, so a few days go by, I don't hear anything. And I I'm like secretly hoping they're gonna fix this without making me transfer any more points, right? Because the points that I use to book the reservation are we use them for the cape, basically. So, anyways, they I call again, I say, hey, like I already called on this, I haven't heard back. And they were like, Oh yeah, well, we tried to rebook you, but you don't have the points in your account, so we couldn't. And I'm like, oh, dang it. So I transfer more points, and then they they are able to rebook it. They they had to rebook it at the higher rate, right? The category um seven rate, but they gave me like the difference in points, so I still spent the same amount out of pocket, if that makes sense. And that was only on one of the rooms, thank God. So um, and then they correctly applied the sweet upgrade and basically said like they were gonna use that as a training opportunity because I'm sure they can go back and listen to the recording that says, like, where I'm saying this is what I want to do, and then that not happening. So I was I was glad that they took care of it appropriately.

SPEAKER_00:

Worth it, really nice hotel.

SPEAKER_02:

It was a fantastic hotel. So the lobby is like what floor was the lobby on?

SPEAKER_00:

Three, I think.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, so you go in, you basically have to take an elevator up to the lobby, that's where you check in, and then you take a different group of elevators to go up to whatever floor your room is on. And so, and like that's the process every time you want to go into your room. You have to go to the lobby and then walk around to the different elevators.

SPEAKER_00:

There's just one negative thing I have about this hotel, and it was just the ability to stream to the TVs.

SPEAKER_02:

Oh, yeah, we could not like Chromecast for whatever reason.

SPEAKER_00:

And so all the channels weren't Japanese, and you know, when you you're tired, you just want to watch Sometimes I Feel Pretty or whatever.

SPEAKER_02:

The summer I turned pretty.

SPEAKER_00:

Pretty every summer, so um, but yeah, that was the only negative thing I had to say about this hotel. Yeah, well, so first of all, and being that it was Japan, you would think the technology they was just automatic, but yeah, it was not.

SPEAKER_02:

So to be fair, we also did not ask anyone about this, so like maybe our room was just unplugged, it was like unplugged or something. I don't know. No, no, you don't think I mean I guess it was both our room and the kids' room programmed into the TV, so well, anyways. Um, so we had a suite here. So again, I booked a king bed and a twin bedroom, and then I applied a suite upgrade to I think the king bedroom, and it we it was massive, you guys. Like, go on Instagram, look at my Tokyo One highlight, and you will see a video of like the entire suite. But there's basically a giant living area: dining room, table, refrigerator, sofa, sofa, yeah, coffee table, coffee table.

SPEAKER_00:

It was huge. It had a like a walk-in closet where you hung up your jackets, put your shoes.

SPEAKER_02:

Yep, they had amenity kits for the kids, so little kids' robes, and then slippers, yep, and like tooth uh toothpaste, toothbrushes, little sponges, I think. It was very like the kids were really welcomed everywhere we went, and they had left like a little um like a note and like a little pound cake, kind of a Japanese like treat, also in the room for us, which was really nice.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, so I would highly recommend this hotel.

SPEAKER_02:

A thousand percent would totally go back and stay there again. Um and the location was great because you first of all, everything is walkable. Well, not sorry, not everything is walkable, but you're directly by the Ginza subway line, which goes to a lot of the places that you're gonna want to go to without having to change trains. So um, our first dinner. Do you want to tell about our first dinner?

SPEAKER_00:

First dinner was, believe it or not, 7-Eleven. Um, I have been telling the family months before the ship that we were gonna eat dinner at 7-Eleven when we got there, and sure enough, we did. And I mean, it's not like any 7-Eleven in the world. No, I mean the food there is great. There's so many options. I mean, food, drinks, desserts, breads, and like hot food options. Yes, and it's it's so great.

SPEAKER_02:

So they yeah, I feel like we could do a whole episode just about 7-Eleven. So, okay, and the other um convenience stores.

SPEAKER_00:

That's what I was gonna say, yeah. Family Mart or Family Market, as my daughter called it.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, it's called Family Mart, but she was she's been calling it Family Market. Um, yeah, so Family Mart, Lawson's, and 7-Eleven are like the three kind of main ones that we saw. Our dinner the first night was$26 for all five of us. I will say that as the kids started to get like their favorite things and then like the drinks that they liked, that that bill did creep up a little bit the longer that we were there.

SPEAKER_00:

But it didn't creep up by much.

SPEAKER_02:

No, it was still like$36, maybe.

SPEAKER_00:

And that's with everyone having a meal, a drink, and a dessert.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

So and the food was good.

SPEAKER_02:

It was good, yeah. So they like they have like cold items that you can heat up, and depending on the store, either they will heat it up for you, or there's microwaves where you can heat it up, and they will just tell you, like, oh, for this one, it's number nine. And so you put it in the microwave and you push nine, and it's automatically programmed to be the correct amount of time to heat up that specific dish. And so it's just a very easy and simple. They give you like these wet napkins that you need, they give you the um chopsticks, like whatever you may need to eat that, they give you in a little bag. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Why don't you talk about the sandwiches?

SPEAKER_02:

Oh, yeah, the sandwiches are delicious. They the egg sandwiches were my favorite with some chips.

SPEAKER_00:

Yes. Anthony Bourdain, R.I.P. called them pillows of love.

SPEAKER_02:

They were very good. And there's also other variations, like they have a one that's half tuna and half egg. There's ones with like egg and ham and like lettuce and cucumber. They're all they're all good. Like nothing was ever bad. And like there were several nights where the kids like begged us, can we please have 7-Eleven?

SPEAKER_00:

Well, the first night we had it, they were like, oh my god, we want this for dinner tomorrow.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Um, and so that was that was fun. So then we just kind of you know went to sleep. And I didn't, I hadn't really made any plans for our first full day there because you never know what's gonna happen with um delays or whatever, people are tired, yeah. So I originally had made no plans, but the first day um we ended up doing family photos because I had scheduled them for our second full day, and the photographer had said, Hey, this is actually a public holiday in Japan, and so the area where we wanted to take photos. Photos was going to be super crowded. And so she said, Would you be open to moving it? And if so, when could you move it to? And I'm like, Well, the only other day we could do would be the day before, which was our first full day there. And so that's what we ended up doing. It ended up working out really well. The photos I had booked night photos, so it wasn't super early, which was good. And we took photos in the Shinjuku area, and it was great. We met her around 3:30. They turned out great. The photos are phenomenal. We booked it through Fleitographer, but I asked her uh first of all, the photos were so good, and she had them edited and turned around to us like within the same day, like 24 hours, maybe. And then it wasn't the same day, but it was like the morning after. So it was like literally the next night or something like that. It was not long at all. And so then I messaged her and I said, Hey, like I know you know, tipping isn't always common in Japan, but we would love to give you a tip. And so she sent me her website. And then I said, Oh, if if I were going to share your information, like, can people book with you directly or do they have to go through phytographer? And she was like, Oh no, they can book me directly. And so I have her website and her Instagram, and I will link that in the show notes as well. Her name was Ayako, and her husband is an American, first of all.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

Who's stationed there?

SPEAKER_00:

Well, was he a contractor and he works on the bases there?

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, yeah. Um, and so we really enjoyed her, and so the photos were phenomenal. Um, I actually need to post some more of them on Instagram, but we were super happy with how they turned out. Um, yeah, so if you were going to Japan and want to do family photos, would highly recommend her, and I will put her info in the show notes.

unknown:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

Um, okay.

SPEAKER_00:

What's next?

SPEAKER_02:

Do we want to maybe talk about the sushi, the conveyor belt sushi?

SPEAKER_00:

Since she yes, we can talk about so Raya uh found this sushi place that would be fun for kids because the the ordering screen was like very animated, and there was like games, and you just pick what you want on the screen, touch screen, and then you know they sh shoot it to you on a conveyor belt.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

So we were telling our photographer, who was Japanese, um, about where we were going for dinner that night. She's like, Oh, yeah, that's like the Denny's of Sushi compared those sushi places, and then we were just like, Oh god. So that kind of killed the excitement. But I mean, we still went, the kids had a great time.

SPEAKER_02:

The kids really liked it. That it's like a giant TV screen that like our daughter had to stand up to touch it, like it's huge, and you choose from pictures of what you want, and you know, it gets sent right to your table. You don't have to talk to anyone, which was actually quite nice, and you can order whatever you want, and you're in these like little private booths, so yeah, and it was definitely the dennies of sushi. The sushi was not good. Oh, no, I'm sorry, I don't want to say it was not good, it was fine. It was fine, but we since had a much better sushi later on. Like after I ate this sushi, I was like, this can't be what people talk about when they talk about sushi in Japan. Like, no, but they had um fried chicken and fries, which was a staple on this trip for the kids.

SPEAKER_00:

This was the first time my kids tried melon soda. Oh, yes, and they fell in love.

SPEAKER_02:

That was a big hit. Yeah, it's like neon green, it's like very bright green. It is quite tasty, I will say. Um, yeah, so that's called sushi row. There, it's a chain, there's a bunch of locations. I mean, I do think it was it was a fun meal for the kids, and they definitely remember it. So I would still recommend it, but I would just go in like this. Is not, you know, low expectation. Yeah, this is not the buttery melt in your mouth sushi that people talk about.

SPEAKER_00:

Um so I mean, we did another one.

SPEAKER_02:

We're gonna talk about that one, or is that that was in Kyoto, so we'll talk about that in Kyoto. Yeah, that one was a little better, but it still wasn't the best. Um, the other, so let's see, that was day one. That was really all we did. Um on day one was just kind of, you know, explore around and do the photos and do the sushi.

SPEAKER_00:

And like I said, the first three days were yeah, so we were waking up.

SPEAKER_02:

Well, Duane had it the worst. Dwayne was waking up at like 1 a.m. Me and the kids were waking up at like three-ish. And then, so the cool thing about the Hyatt Centric Ginza is in the lobby, you can go down and they have like free coffee and drinks and snacks 24 hours a day. So Dwayne would go down with the kids and get us a couple of coffees and you know, get the kids some little like four in the morning. Yeah, some little Japanese snacks that they liked until you know that would kind of hold them over until breakfast. And that was just kind of a fun little tradition, like, oh, let's go with daddy. And they liked that. And there were these little, like, what what what were they eating? They were pretty good.

SPEAKER_00:

First of all, they would go down there and steal gum.

SPEAKER_02:

Oh, yeah, there's I finally had to put a kabosh on the gum.

SPEAKER_00:

Um, I forget what they are they're called, but you can get them here actually.

SPEAKER_02:

They were kind of sweet and they were good.

SPEAKER_00:

It looked like a little cracker with sesame seeds on it. Is that the one you're talking about?

SPEAKER_02:

I think so, but it was kind of sweet.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, yeah. I forget what they're called, but you can get them here.

SPEAKER_02:

They also had like these little protein milks in there that the kids really liked, like chocolate, I think, flavored, and maybe vanilla or strawberry, maybe.

SPEAKER_00:

And so you can yeah, so that was really nice.

SPEAKER_02:

And then um, the hotel did cover breakfast for all of us. I will say, when we checked in, they told us that only my room would be covered. Um, because generally we book one room in my name and one room in Dwayne's name.

SPEAKER_00:

And that has And I'm not a globalist.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, and that has worked well for us so far. Um, but when we checked in, the girl was like, it's only gonna be covered for three of you. And we were kind of like, okay, but when we went to breakfast the next morning, they were like, your status covers two adults and two kids, and then how old is how old is the youngest? And I'm like, well, she's five. So I think they just included her as free because of how young she is.

unknown:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

And their assumption that she doesn't eat a lot, which is not always true.

SPEAKER_00:

Very true, or she just eats cereal.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Um, but the buffet was pretty good.

SPEAKER_02:

It was great. It was wonderful, actually. Um, definitely the most extensive breakfast buffet of our trip for sure. And I again I have a video on Instagram on my highlight if you want to go look and see what it was like, but they had all the things that you would want.

SPEAKER_00:

Um pastries, fruit, yogurt, pink sausage.

SPEAKER_02:

Make your own pancake station.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. They also have curry, eggs, rice. Yes. Yeah. Sometimes they had tater tots, fried chicken, sometimes.

SPEAKER_02:

Yep, they had steamed dumplings, shrimp dumplings, like rice, all all the juices. There basically was like Asian breakfast options, US breakfast options, and even like European breakfast options, which I feel like is like the the cold cuts, you know, the the ham, the salami, the cheese, the salad, yep, salmon. Um, so tons and tons of options. Like, I don't think you'll be disappointed, and I think you could absolutely find, you know, something there to eat. Yogurt. Our daughter's been on a yogurt kick lately.

SPEAKER_00:

So have I actually.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, there was a couple days where Duane just had like a yogurt bowl for breakfast, which is very unlike Dwayne.

SPEAKER_00:

I just we were eating so much. I just felt, let me just eat this yogurt, and then I'll I'll splurge at lunch and dinner.

SPEAKER_02:

We ate, we did, we ate so much food.

SPEAKER_00:

I mean, I was telling someone I wasn't even hungry on this trip because the amount of food we were eating and how often we were eating.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, like there was no time to get hungry.

SPEAKER_00:

I wasn't hungry once, but I was I was full the whole time.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah. Um, the other thing we did on our stay in Genza was we visited one of the team labs. So we we did uh Team Labs Borderless, and this is the one that's supposed to be a little bit more geared towards kids. Um, there's another one called Team Labs Planets, that is the one where you walk through the water, and we did also do that one, but we did that on our second visit to Tokyo. So today we'll just talk about the borderless. What was your thoughts on that?

SPEAKER_00:

Well, and there is a new one in Kyoto that we found out about. It's called like Bio Vortex.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, it wasn't open when we were there, it just opened.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, it looks really cool actually. Um, so anyway, borderless, um, I thought was really great. It was really cool things in there. Um kids loved it. Yeah, I think it's definitely worth it. It was a little hard to find. It was like on the bottom floor of a oh yeah, like this mall.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, we took the metro, and as a side note, I want to talk about taking the metro a little bit. So can you just remind me to do that before we end this episode?

SPEAKER_00:

Um But yeah, there was, I mean, what, 20 exhibits that you can go through?

SPEAKER_02:

Um we we didn't even do them all. There was rooms that we didn't even make it to, and we were there for probably a solid three hours.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, which it was a lot.

SPEAKER_02:

So if you're not familiar with what this is, it's basically like an immersive art installation experience where you walk through these different rooms and each room has like a different theme or like experience that you go through, and some of them were really cool. I will say, I don't know if it was just from like you know, we had just been on a long haul flight and all that, and so maybe my equilibrium was a little messed up, but like I was kind of motion sick during this. I remember you saying that, and like I didn't really enjoy that, and I like I don't get motion sick like super easily generally, yeah. So it was yeah, I by the end I was kind of like I gotta get out of here. I was like, I can't, I can't do this again. Um there is a like a tea experience that you can do at the end that is not included in your ticket, so it is an extra cost. We did it. I probably wouldn't do it again with kids, would not do it again. It was very cool. Like you you get the tea and they like have these like they like illuminate it with like flowers and like lighting and um but it the tea is it's tea, like it's bitter and screen tea, yeah. Yeah, so the kids were like, this is disgusting, and the way it was pretty long because it's not very big, yes, and it was not cheap either. So I I think it was like another maybe 50 bucks for us to do this, and so I I probably I wouldn't pay for it again. If it were just me without the kids, then I I might have I might do it, but I would not spend the money to do this with your kids because our kids were like, this is disgusting.

SPEAKER_00:

So yeah, it came with tea and ice cream.

SPEAKER_02:

There was a yes, there were different packages you could buy basically, and you had to buy one per person. That was the other thing. So it's like we had to buy five of something. So I bought five regular teas and two that had like ice cream, and we shared the different ice cream flavors. The ice cream flavors were okay, like they were our kids didn't like that either, so it was mediocre. Very Japanese, yeah, it was, yes. But it was really cool though to see like the the lighting that they used and all that. So just as a heads up, I probably would skip that part of it, but the the regular like installation part was phenomenal. I mean, there were like at one point my 11-year-old looked to me and was like, This is so awesome. Thank you for bringing us here. And that's high praise. Okay, doesn't happen very often.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, the I think their favorite part was your you draw, they give you these like what was it, animals? Yeah, like it was I didn't forget already what they were. I don't know.

SPEAKER_02:

There was a butt, I had a butterfly, or no, that was I had a seahorse.

SPEAKER_00:

I don't know, there were shapes and animals and what you color and you can ride on, and then they project it in this room with everyone else's drawings.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, so you can see your drawing like moving on the wall, basically.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, which I thought was pretty cool.

SPEAKER_02:

It was cool. I did a seahorse, that was very fun, and the kids really enjoyed that and kind of like running around looking for oh, there's mine, you know.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, yeah, I did an octopus.

SPEAKER_02:

Yep, yep. So that was a good time.

SPEAKER_00:

Um but yes, I would definitely recommend Team Lab Borderless.

SPEAKER_02:

In the same building as that, there's also a coffee place called Arabica, which is Arabica for you Americans, like the coffee bean. It's a coffee shop that's got a bunch of locations in Tokyo and Kyoto. And so we had some coffee from there too. The Kyoto Latte is what we got, or what I got, and I would recommend that.

SPEAKER_00:

I got the coffee flavored ice cream. Oh, yeah, it's pretty good. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

Doing goes, what flavors of ice cream do you have? And they were like, coffee. Like, okay, give me one. Yeah, coffee it is. Um, and then spoiler alert, we had lunch from 7-Eleven right afterwards, sitting outside.

SPEAKER_00:

Yep. So and I was just telling my sister this yesterday. More people speak ja or English there now than they used to before. Because I don't know if you've listened or not, but I grew up in Japan, so I mean, and it's been 22 years since I've been back, but way more people speak English there now than they used to.

unknown:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Which is very helpful.

SPEAKER_02:

Okay, so on that note, what was it like for you to go back to Japan after 22 years and now have like a wife and kids?

SPEAKER_00:

I mean, that was my favorite part, was just being able to share it with with you guys. Um, I mean, it was it was great to be back. If it it's home for me. So, like, just imagine not going home for 22 years and then all of a sudden going back with your family. It it was one of the most favorite parts of my life so far, you know.

SPEAKER_02:

Oh, hmm. That's so kind of.

SPEAKER_00:

I mean, it was it was awesome to be back with you guys.

SPEAKER_02:

So well, it was really fun, I think, too, for for the kids, but all but especially for me to get to experience what you've been talking about for you know the last 13 years. You know, it's like I I always knew Dwayne grew up in Japan and he always talks about it. And he he's had high school friends that have come through Phoenix and and will visit with them and they reminisce about it. Like it was just the best like childhood.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, it definitely was.

SPEAKER_02:

And like that, it was just really fun for me to get to finally see all the things he's been talking about, right? The vending machines, the 7-Elevens, like all you know, all this stuff.

SPEAKER_00:

Culture, the politeness, like yeah, yeah, it was it was just I mean, it was great to be back.

SPEAKER_02:

Um, okay, I want to wrap up this episode with oh, two things. First of all, the ramen place.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

So right walkable from the Hyatt Centric Ginza.

unknown:

Yes.

SPEAKER_00:

We asked the front desk for recommendations.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, they gave us a printout.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, and there were two that the girl I talked to recommended, and we chose one. Yep. And we chose the right one, obviously.

SPEAKER_02:

It was the best ramen I've ever had in my entire life, without any exaggeration, and we are still talking about it. And we went back a second time, spoiler alert.

SPEAKER_00:

We went back a second time on our second trip to Tokyo.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, from Shibuya, which was it wasn't super close, it was like nine metro stops, but it was worth it, it was worth every drop of broth.

SPEAKER_00:

Yes, it was really good.

SPEAKER_02:

It was, yeah. So I'll and cheap. Oh, yeah, yeah, it was. We got oh, here's the other thing. Okay, so we ordered four bowls of the shoyu tonkatsu ramen and then some gyoza, and there's five of us. Like instinctively, the server knew that our little two were gonna share. We didn't say that, she didn't ask, they just brought out another bowl, and that happened multiple times on this trip, which I just thought it's logical and it makes perfect sense, but I feel like it would never happen here, it would never happen. Like, no one is like thinking it through that much here in America. And the Japanese were so they brought us a second bowl so that they could share without ever asking or anything, and I just was kind of blown away by that because I really appreciated that so much.

SPEAKER_00:

I mean, not only that, when we took the trains, like they were single file lines, no matter how busy the the train station was, no one's trying to barge and fight their way through.

SPEAKER_02:

Like, I want to do a segment, not in this episode, because we're already like running past time, but I want to do an episode called The US Could Never and just list out all the things we saw in Japan where we're like, oh, America could never. So um we will do that for sure. Um, but okay, so I will I will put the name and like the Google link to this ramen restaurant in the show notes. If you are planning a trip to Japan, it is absolutely worth the trip, especially if you're staying at the Hyatt Centric Ginza or nearby, you can walk there. Okay, last thing I wanted to talk about on this episode is I feel like there are two things that people ask the most frequently about when you talk about not just visiting uh, you know, Japan, but visiting any country that's like not America. And number one is the language and how did you handle the language barrier? And number two is how did you get around? Because I don't understand like the public transportation is overwhelming. So I thought we could briefly talk about both of those things. Um starting with the language. So you said you felt like more people spoke English than.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, for sure. Like I feel like everyone at the convenience store spoke English, everyone at the train station like that helped us spoke English.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, even if even if it was broken English, we could under we could get the point across.

SPEAKER_00:

Even even now, the ma all the machines at the train stations you can convert into English, which that was never the case back in the day.

SPEAKER_02:

So, like, first of all, Dwayne's busting out with all these Japanese words I've never heard him use ever in my life. And I'm like, wait, what does that mean? So definitely people always ask Dwayne if he speaks Japanese, and he doesn't, but he knew more words than I thought. You knew more words than I thought you knew.

SPEAKER_00:

I mean, maybe, but it's not a lot. It's just everyday conversational thank you, you're welcome. It's okay. Go ahead and how much and how many, but yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

Well, I mean, that's like seven more words in Japanese than I know.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, you're you're not supposed to know Japanese.

SPEAKER_02:

Listen, now we know arigato gozaimus. Ohio gozimus. What else? I mean Daijobu? That means is it okay? Yes. Um it's okay. It's okay. Uh Ohio gozimus is good morning, right?

SPEAKER_00:

Yep.

SPEAKER_02:

Arigato gozaimus is thank you very much.

SPEAKER_00:

Yep.

SPEAKER_02:

And yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Doitaste is you're welcome.

SPEAKER_02:

Yep. I made Dwayne do all the talking.

SPEAKER_00:

But I mean, if we couldn't hold a conversation, we just used our phone, yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

Yes, so in short, the language barrier was not a problem. They either could speak a little bit of English, Dwayne knows a few Japanese words, or we used Google Translate. We went, um, were we in Kyoto when we tried to buy the microphone? Or that was Tokyo?

SPEAKER_00:

Kyoto.

SPEAKER_02:

We tried to buy a microphone in this huge electronic store, and we had to use Google Translate back and forth to the guy, and it worked fine. It was just fine. We got what we needed, like no problems. So I think to answer, if you're wondering about the language, there is a barrier, but it's easily like remedied. You like there's no problem. Um, not one time could we not do something because we couldn't communicate correctly, you know. Um, the other thing is about the metro. So a lot of people get really overwhelmed when they think of taking public transportation. We took it every single day on this trip multiple times a day with three kids. So I was trying to understand why people find it so overwhelming. And then I just thought maybe people just don't fully understand like how a metro system works. So apologies if this is like rudimentary or very elementary like information. But number one, you're gonna use an app on your phone, either Apple Maps or Google Maps. We used Google Maps for this trip, and you're gonna put in, you know, I wanna go here. You'll type in the location you want to go to. It should already know your current location, and then you click get directions, and then you can choose from driving, walking, or public transportation. And you'll choose public transportation, and then it will literally tell you what station to get on the train at, which direction to go, how many stops, and where to get off. What platform you need to be on, yes, which exit you should take into and out of the subway station. That's sometimes hard to like to know because sometimes it's telling you like an exit that doesn't exist anymore. So that the entrance and exit isn't the most important part, but the station is. So, and the way that a subway system works is there are different lines that go to different places, and each of those lines, for the most part, goes two directions, right? It goes there and it goes back. There and back, there and back. So really all you need to know is what line do I need to get on? You go to that station. Then you need to know which direction am I going, right? So you're either going, let's just call it north or south. And the like your app will tell you you want to go towards this direction. So then when you go into the station, you find the side of the platform that tells you, okay, this is this side of the or this train is going to you know north. What would you add to that?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, I mean, it's super easy. It it might be overwhelming just because I mean some of these stations are huge, some of them have multiple lines. But I mean, other than that, it's it's pretty straightforward.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, we we did have a couple of scenarios where we took the wrong train. Um, the reason that that happened is I think that there were multiple train lines or sorry, multiple trains going to different places on the same line, and we didn't realize that. So, like, let's say we were supposed to get on an 850 a.m. train, but we got on the 848 a.m. train instead, not realizing that there were different trains. And so that's the only time that that happened, and that only happened at like it it doesn't it's not like that at every station.

SPEAKER_00:

So and let me just add, if it says the train is arriving at 847, it's arriving at 847. Yes, and if it says it's leaving at 848, it is leaving at 848. Yes. With or without you, yes, like I mean trains were they were never late and they were always on time. Even the bullet trains. Like yeah, you said the train is arriving at 847 and it is leaving at 848.

SPEAKER_02:

Like yeah, you need to.

SPEAKER_00:

So you gotta get your ass on and sit down and be ready to go.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, like one of the bullet trains, we were still standing, hadn't even put our luggage away, and the train was already moving.

SPEAKER_00:

So yeah, they they don't mess around.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, yep, yep. Um, so I I hope that's helpful. And like when you look on the app, it will show you usually a different color for a different train line, right? So it's like if you have to take two different lines to get to where you need to go, the first one will be red and the other one will be green. And that's your signal to know, okay, I have to transfer. And it'll tell you ride to you know, stop B, get off, and then get on this other train going towards D, right? So once you do it once or twice, I think you'll you'll be a lot more confident doing it.

SPEAKER_00:

Um and just know you're gonna be doing a lot of walking.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, we were between 15 and 20,000 steps every day. Um, and the kids too. We brought no strollers, no nothing.

SPEAKER_00:

That's that's with stairs too.

SPEAKER_02:

So there are a lot of stairs. I to be fair, I wasn't always looking, but I did not find Tokyo super accessible.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, that might be the case.

SPEAKER_02:

That there were a few elevators, uh escalators here and there, but it always felt like there was an escalator going the opposite direction of what we needed.

SPEAKER_00:

And it always seemed like there was only one elevator.

SPEAKER_02:

Yes, yeah. But it's like, well, we need to go up and that escalator is going down, or vice versa, every time. And it's like, oh man. So yeah, a lot of stairs.

SPEAKER_00:

There is we just didn't look for it.

SPEAKER_02:

I mean, also big. That's that's a fair point, yeah. So um, okay, I feel like that wraps up our first part of Tokyo. Um, we did also visit Disneyland and Disney C, but like during this visit, but we're gonna do a whole nother episode on that because we stayed at a different hotel and I have a lot of things to share about that. So it was quite the learning experience.

SPEAKER_00:

So hopefully this was informative in some kind of way.

SPEAKER_02:

Yes, I will link everything I promised in the show notes. Um, if you want to see the stuff that we're talking about, um I have Instagram highlights for the entire trip already. So if you follow us on Instagram, you've already seen some of it. Um, but yeah, so I would recommend going over there to check that out if you want to kind of see the rooms or whatever. And if you have questions, DMing me on Instagram is the quickest and fastest way to get to me. So thank you guys so much for listening.

SPEAKER_00:

Yes, we appreciate it. We will catch you so much on the next one. Have a good one.

SPEAKER_02:

Bye.