We scheduled an Uber pick-up for 3:15am on 4/2/19 to get us to the airport. We were flying United which had been recommended to us by several people for getting back and forth to Japan. Our first flight to San Francisco went well. We got a surprise upgrade to the exit row, so that was nice! We had video screens in the seat backs so we were able to watch Crimes of Grindelwald and Mary Poppins Returns.

Our flight to Tokyo had MUCH less leg room. The coach section of that plane was seven seats across (3-4-3). We were in the middle section with an aisle and middle seat. It was pretty miserable to be honest. We never really got to sleep either, which was frustrating. We watched a ton more movies and episodes of TV shows instead. They did serve us pretty decent food though, which was nice – a snack, then a hot meal, then sorbet, and then a hot breakfast just before we landed in Tokyo.

We arrived at the Tokyo Narita Airport at around 2pm on 4/3/19. We found the Tourist Information desk and were able to exchange our Japan Rail pass vouchers in for the actual rail passes. We had purchased a 7-day pass and we were able to exchange the vouchers on the 3rd even though we didn’t want the pass to be activated until the 6th. The passes cost us about $250, but if you’re doing at least one round-trip on the bullet train from Tokyo to Kyoto (which we were planning on), it pays for itself.

We also found the Traveler’s Factory shop. If there are any stationery nerds out there, that is the company behind the Japanese Midori notebook system. I’ve wanted one for so long so I knew I wanted to get one in Japan! I was able to get a Narita Airport exclusive leather cover and refill notebook, plus I got a camera charm for the cover (naturally). We bought tickets for the Airport Limousine Bus which brought us directly to the Hilton Tokyo Bay at Disney (about $16 each). We checked in and received free gifts – chocolate chip shortbread cookies and a face mask that heats up when you wear it!

Then we went down to the lobby to buy our Disney park tickets! It can be really challenging to purchase Disney tickets before you get to Japan. One of the main reasons we chose to stay at the Hilton was because it is on the monorail line and it is a “guaranteed admission” hotel which means we are guaranteed to be able to buy tickets for the park, even if they’re over capacity and not allowing people to buy tickets at the park gates. We were pretty exhausted but decided to jump on the monorail to head to Ikspiari (essentially their version of Downtown Disney) to use the international ATM and grab some dinner.

When we got back to our room we could see some fireworks from one of the Disneyland nighttime shows right from our hotel room window. Oh yea, did I mention we had a view of the castle from our room?! We headed to bed early so we could get a fresh start for the next day at Tokyo Disneyland!