I thought I should mention few more things before I forget..
So we were in Japan end of May to early June, and it was a lot hotter than what I remember 3 years ago in June. In fact, the weather was so crazy that the temperature rose as high as the normal August days on our 2nd day there. It was not as hot on our two Disney days because of rain and clouds, but other days it was mostly so hot. We actually welcomed a rain day to have a break from the heat. But it could get chilly on rain days, so you should be prepared with a light jacket.
And the sunrise and sunset were earlier than we are used to. When we woke up around 4:30 AM and saw it was bright outside, we thought our room clock was wrong. We checked our phone, clock, and turned on TV to triple check the time.
View attachment 414527
Sunrise over
Disneyland...view from our Hilton park view room.
The second thing is that I completely forgot about the morning rush hour on the train.
So we used the JR pass for the first time this trip. We heard about the exchange office at Narita airport being co busy and normal wait time could be longer than 1 hr. I thought I would just go exchange it at Tokyo station the next day. Well the next day we did more things and got more tired than we though we would, DD did not have energy left to go look for the JR office in the huge Tokyo station. The next 2 days we were at Disney, and the JR office at Maihama station near Disney does not exchange for JR pass. So we had to get the voucher exchanged on the day we needed to start using it. I had no idea how busy the JR office in Tokyo can get, and since JR pass limits the type of bullet train we can ride, we had to go to Tokyo station earlier than we wanted. We got to Maihama station, waited for the train...and that is when it hit me that OMG WE ARE TRYING TO GET ON A RUSH HOUR COMMUTER TRAIN! We tried to get on the first train, but we could not. We did not have a large suitcase with us, but we still had a carry-on luggage and we just could not get on. We waited for few minutes, and the next train was full again. We knew we had to get on, because it was going to be the same for the next 1 hour. So we did...it was an experience we hope we never have to go through again. I held on to the luggage handle and held DD's hand in other hand, while both of were squished and tried not to fell on anyone. The following day I felt muscle pain on my arm... It was good that many people got off 2 stations after Maihama. But that day that morning, I was THAT tourist...getting on a morning commuter train with a carry-on and a kid!
So my advice to the others visiting Japan...be prepared for crazy weather and do NOT get on a morning commuter train!
We don't know when we will go to Japan next time. I envy you those who have plans! Have a fun-filled magical trip!