Time for destination two on our Japan trip, Tokyo Disney Resort! Tokyo Disney is known by many as one of the best Disney parks in the world and after having finally been there myself, I agree! (I have been to 4 of the 6 parks around the world.) We spent 3 days (plus an evening) and 3 nights at the resort so we could pack as much in as possible. It still wasn't enough to see and do everything but we got to experience all of our must-dos. Be sure to check out my Tokyo Disney Resort trip planning guide if you haven't already!
As mentioned in my Tokyo recap, I will be going through each day of the trip sharing where we went, what we ate and where we stayed! This post will be slightly different because technically we were at Disney the whole time, ha ha. This is going to be a long post, so buckle up! Or just scroll down and look at the photos, ha ha.
Planning & Timing
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Travel is important to us so we save for a bunch of different trips at once and always have a Miscellaneous, Disney and Missouri fund (to visit Christian's family) |
Booking Flights
Itinerary Overview
- Day 1: Land in Tokyo at 3pm
- Day 2: Tokyo morning, Tokyo Disneyland afternoon
- Days 3-5: Tokyo Disneyland (my trip planning guide)
- Day 6: Tokyo morning, Mt. Fuji afternoon
- Day 7: Mt. Fuji morning, back to Tokyo afternoon
- Day 8: Tokyo morning, travel to Nagano afternoon
- Day 9: Snow Monkey Park morning, travel to Kanazawa
- Day 10: Kanazawa
- Day 11: Travel to Kyoto, visit the Nintendo Museum
- Day 12: Kyoto morning, Osaka afternoon/evening, back to Kyoto
- Day 13: Nara Deer Park morning, Kyoto afternoon, back to Tokyo early evening
- Day 14: Tokyo morning, flight home at 5pm
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My crazy itinerary spreadsheet |
Accommodations
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Left: Dome with view of Mt. Fuji; Right: Traditional Ryokan at Shibu Onsen |
- Night 1: Keio Presso Inn Tokyo Station Yaesu (5 minutes from Tokyo Station)
- Nights 5-7: Hotel Sunroute Plaza Shinjuku (5 minutes from Shinjuku Station)
- Night 13: Hotel Monte Hermana Tokyo (5 minutes from Tokyo Station)
- Night 2: Tokyo Disneyland Hotel - Beauty & the Beast Room (5 minute walk from Maihama Station, or take Monorail)
- Night 3 & 4: Tokyo DisneySea Fantasy Springs Hotel - Fantasy Chateau (Monorail to Maihama Station)
- Night 6: Retreat Camp Mahoroba Dome Tent (they offered a free shuttle to and from Kawaguchiko station)
- Night 8: Shibu Onsen Kokuya - Sakura Room with onsen (hotel offered free shuttle from Yudanaka Station and we took a cab back, but there are also buses)
- Nights 9 & 10: Kurohoro Machiya Holiday House (20 minutes from Kanazawa Station)
Train Travel
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The train was empty so we staged a silly photo |
I have a lot of posts planned to recap our two-week trip to Japan, but let’s start with an easy one—what I wore to stay warm and comfortable in the cold weather! After calculating our mileage when we got home, I realized we walked a total of 96 miles over the two weeks. By the end, our feet were definitely feeling it, but thanks to my comfortable supination insoles from PowerStep, I avoided serious pain. I've had these insoles in my boots for over a year now, and while the boots have always been comfortable, the insoles took them to the next level. To stay extra cozy, I also used a pair of Flat Socks fuzzy liner socks on top!
I tried to pack as light as possible since I knew we’d be bringing home a lot of souvenirs. The plan was for me to use my Day Owl backpack and a small carry-on, while Christian carried his brand-new Tortuga backpack (which he got specifically for this trip). We entered Japan with just these bags, determined to see how far we could get before needing extra luggage. We made it all the way back to our last night in Tokyo before buying a medium-sized suitcase from Don Quijote to check on the flight home. Before that, we had been using a giant Disney shopping bag for our purchases, which obviously wasn’t going to work for air travel. It was great for train travel because we didn't need to buy "oversized baggage" train tickets that are required if your bags do not fit in the overhead bins or by your feet.
Packing light meant re-wearing a lot of the same clothes, but honestly, it didn’t matter since I had my coat on almost the entire time. No one would have noticed if I repeated outfits every day (not that anyone would care!)
For clothing, I brought two pairs of jeans, comfortable pants that don't look like sweatpants I bought 2 days before we left (mainly for the flights, since hotels in Japan provide pajamas), and a handful of sweaters and layering shirts. For extra warmth I had a Disney hat, big Madewell scarf and gloves. I only packed one pair of boots, knowing they’d work in rain, snow, and cold. Looking back, I probably could have packed even less, but hey—a girl likes to have options! I also brought a simple sling bag that would fit my essentials on sightseeing days.
Here’s what you can look forward to in my upcoming Japan posts—assuming I can get myself in gear and actually tackle them! 😉
- Our Full Trip Itinerary
- A Deep Dive into Our Tokyo Disney Experience
- A Tokyo Disney Planning & Information Guide
- Our Stay in Shibu Onsen & Visiting the Snow Monkeys
Is there anything specific you’d like to hear more about? Let me know! In the meantime, you can check out my daily Instagram recap carousels for a peek at what we did.
On day two of our Salem trip we started bright and early again, arriving at our same parking place on Essex street at 8am. We did all the paid things on day two after deciding what we wanted to do on Saturday. We also repeated a lot of spots since I wanted some non-rainy shots too. We left to drive home a little after 1pm so it was a short day. Before we get to the schedule of the day here comes the outfit photos.

We took a stroll along the water and by the Salem Maritime National Historic Site. After about 45 minutes there we headed back to Town Hall, the Bewitched Statue and Allison's house on the way to walk some of the historic streets like Chestnut, Cambridge and Pickering. We made sure to walk by The Pickering House, one of the oldest home in Salem.
After our morning walk we headed back toward the water for our tour of The House of the Seven Gables at 10:30am. I haven’t read the book (whoops) but learning the history of the house and how it inspired Nathaniel Hawthorne was very interesting. After the tour we also walked through the house where Hawthorne was born.
Our next historical activity was walking through The Witch House, which is down the street from the Ropes Mansion. For this tour you have to buy your tickets at 8am. We were on right at 8am and ended up with tickets at 11:45. It was cutting it pretty close to our first tour of the day but we knew we'd be able to make it.
After all that history we headed to the Salem Common to have lunch at the food truck festival! We shared some birria tacos, Christian got a Mac Melt and we both had whoopie pies.
Before heading home we went back to Forest River Park so we could visit Salem in 1630: Pioneer Village. At only $5 it was a steal. It is a small village but there's a lot to explore within the houses. This is where they filmed the first scenes in Hocus Pocus where Thackery Binx lived.