Topic: The Crawler Family Goes To Japan

[BigMike]

It's official! I am finally taking Marlin and Christine (Mrs Crawler) to Japan!!

This will be their first time to the Land of the Rising Sun and the first time meeting my in-laws!

Our trip will cover twelve days while utilizing the Thanksgiving holiday to only miss four days of work

Starting tomorrow, our たびのしおりor itinerary will try to be as follows:
Wed->Thurs: 12 hr flight + 17 hr time change
Arrive in Tokyo 4:30p Thurs Japan time and meet up with my wife at the airport. Shell-shock Marlin & Christine!

Friday 11/21
Tokyo Disney Sea, all day
Yes we enjoy Disney and this will be a unique experience as none of Disney Sea exists stateside.

Saturday 11/22
My wife will leave to southern Honshu for a friends wedding and I'll be showing my parents as much of Tokyo as they can manage in a one day crash course. Depending on their jet lag, I'm planning to take them to Asakusa, Ueno, Akihabara, Harujuku, Shibuya, Roppongi, and then back to Asakusa where we'll be staying for two nights.

There are plenty other points of interest, even major destinations not on my list such as Shinjuku, but it's a lot to do in one day and I can't expect them to be as energetic as me (even my first visit took multiple days to take it all in!). I've been to all these places a few times before but it has been a while and never as a tour guide. It's gonna be fun! We'll probably only visit half of em and just enjoy the experience (rather than go-go-go).

Sunday 11/23
I'll be taking them to the Old-timer event in Odaiba!! Check it out: http://www.oldtimer.jp/tengoku/ I've never been to this event and we're very fortunate to be there at just the right time!

Afterwards I'll take them to the nearby Toyota MegaWeb http://www.megaweb.gr.jp/area/csc/ and History Garage http://www.megaweb.gr.jp/area/historic/

Probably visit the Tokyo SkyTree http://www.tokyo-skytree.jp/en/ for dinner with a view of the city from above.

Monday 11/24
I'll take my parents on a 新幹線 Shinkansen which will by their first time on a Bullet Train. If you know Marlin then you know he loves trains, well, rather, Steam Locomotives. But I have no doubt he'll love this. Where are we going at 200 MPH you ask? Ooooooonly to Nagoya and onwards to TOYOTA CITY. That's right, we are going to TOYOTA HEADQUARTERS!! We'll meet  back up with my wife in Nagoya and then spend the rest of the day exploring all things Toyota in both the Toyota Commemorative Museum of Industry and Technology http://www.tcmit.org/english/ and the original Toyota Automobile Museum http://www.toyota.co.jp/Museum/english/

Tuesday 11/25
My wife got us into an actual assembly line tour. There are a few different plants and we won't know which one we'll be exploring till we get there. Might be an EXCITING Prius factory!!! Or a dumb, boring Turbo Diesel Land Cruiser factory.

We'll then fly off to the souther island of Kyuushu to my wife's home city of Kumamoto. Kumamoto is slightly smaller than San Jose. We will arrive in the evening and head to my wife's home in the very small village of 西原村 Nishiharamura where our parents will finally meet for the first time.

Wednesday 11/26
We will spend quality family time and explore my father-in-laws many farms and greenhouses. If we're lucky we'll get to participate in some community cleaning service as I've done in the past. We'll probably also visit the second largest active volcano caldera in the world, Mt Aso.

Thursday 11/27
We will take a ferry across the gulf to Nagasaki where we'll show the Atomic Bomb Museum to my folks. We'll stay in the Nagasaki area for most of the day and get dinner overlooking what some polls rank as the most beautiful nighttime city of Japan. 

We'll then travel to beautiful hot spring city of ..... Obama! Haha it's true, but don't let grandeurs of King Obama ruin the day because this is a really nice area and relaxing in the natural hot springs before bedtime will be very welcoming and long overdue.

Friday & Saturday
We will return by the same ferry and take my parents to a pretty cool dolphin ocean boat ride where いるか iruka or dolphins will literally be jumping and pacing our boat.

We'll then do more exploring in the Kumamoto area, visit the famous 熊本城 Kumamoto Castle.

Spend the remainder of our time with family.

Sunday 11/30
Land in Los Angeles at 10:15am.
And then leave Kumamoto for Tokyo at 11:30am.
And then leave Tokyo for Los Angeles at 5:20pm.
Wait, what?

In closing, enjoy what I love about Japan summed up in one awesome two hour long video. Scrubbing encouraged

[BigMike [OP]]

Wed->Thurs is here!

We stayed at a family members place in Palmdale, CA and heeding multiple friends advice we drove to Van Nuys to use the FlyAway bus service to LAX. LAX is under a ton of construction and some terminals don't even allow unloading at the moment. So on to a bus we go!

[chim]

I'm in for the pics! Have fun, looks like it will be an awesome trip!!

[BigMike [OP]]

Despite a huge accident on the 405 our fearless bus driver made a reroute and got us safely to Terminal 5. Inside there was a pretty long line to check in luggage but outside was a counter with idler workers. It was the quickest check-in I've done.

Then we went straight through what is the most laid back security I've ever seen since 9/11. The line Marlin and Christine were in didn't require them to remove their shoes or their watches, and the line I was in did not use the see-you-naked body scanner nor did I get the usual full body pat-down.

We skated straight through security and are sitting at Gate 58 two hours early




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[BigMike [OP]]

I'm in for the pics! Have fun, looks like it will be an awesome trip!!

I'll try to focus on using my cell phone camera so I can post pictures direct (and not become discouraged to update the thread).


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[OVRAROK]

hope you have a safe trip

[MRHilux87]

Have fun.  Its hard to get away when you own a small business but everyone deserves a break. 

[Nation]

安全な旅を持っている     or something like that   

[BigMike [OP]]

Getting on the plane!

[Cheesemaker]

How exciting!!   

[81 shortbed]

This isn't going to be national lampoons Japanese vacation, is it?  " look kids, Big Ben, parliament ". Haha!

[Prismo]

That is great! Have a wonderful time 

[OVRAROK]

Bring back a couple r452 transmission s

[BigMike [OP]]

We just landed!! Had a safe and uneventful flight.

Here come some in-flight pics



Our flight was delayed by almost an hour for technical issues with their entertainment software. They announced that two technicians from Panosonic were on-board trying to fix it.


Eventually they got it working and we were off. In the words of Jerry Seinfeld, the pilots "made up time" and turned our 12 hr flight into a 10 hr flight!

Marlin was the first to conk out

[BigMike [OP]]

Marlin was also the first to start dismantling the plane He said he could have designed that much better.



Marlin reading things with his work flashlight



I forgot to check for sure but I believe we were on a 777.

[BigMike [OP]]

Local time is 4:28pm Thursday

[BigMike [OP]]

This isn't going to be national lampoons Japanese vacation, is it?  " look kids, Big Ben, parliament ". Haha!

Hahaha Actually I hope it is

Bring back a couple r452 transmission s

Yes, we already asked the flight crew about this and they said so long as the gear oil is drained we can stow three of them in the overhead storage

[Nation]

That looks like a blast! One day 

[Cheesemaker]

After being around Marlin many times, I can't see him truly relaxing.  I see that Mike and Christine has their hands full on this trip!!   

[BigMike [OP]]

Marlin's first Japanese purchase by himself!



Bus to our train station


The aisles have fold-down seats for extended capacity

[BigMike [OP]]

All of the buses here are still manual transmissions.

Steady rain outside

[BigMike [OP]]

Getting on our first train

[BigMike [OP]]

Stopped at a Lawson's which is like our AMPM. Some random pics







Checked into our hotel and then crashed for the night

[BigMike [OP]]

"Continental" breakfast at our hotel





My wife Misato about ready to dig in

[BigMike [OP]]

Heading to Tokyo Disney Sea!

[BigMike [OP]]

The current weather here around 7am is overcast and high 40s F.

[BigMike [OP]]

Finally made it and are waiting in line. Park opens soon

[BigMike [OP]]

Welcome to Disney Sea!



First order of business is to get a fast pass to the most popular ride, Toy Story Mania.

Ummmm how about nooooo. This is just a line for a fast pass. The stand by wait time is already 120 mins and the park just opened 15 mins ago!

[81 shortbed]

Wow! I'd be outa there. I hate crowds and lines.  What season is it over there ?

[Nation]

Hey! Quit holding out on the MC windbreakers!!