Looking back at my journal from the ABD as I start these articles, and here’s what I wrote on the eve of the trip: “We’ve been waiting for this trip since early last year. It’s hard to believe it’s finally time. Prep was a ton of work—but I’m hoping that now that we’re actually headed there that falls away and I can be in the moment and enjoy this incredible opportunity.” Let’s kick off this recap and see if I made good on that hope for myself…

The Trip There

We left on May 15th, early in the morning, and flew from MCO to LAX and from LAX to Osaka’s airport, Kansai International. Between the two flights and losing 13 hours along the way, it was the evening of May 16th when we arrived.

I’d pre-submitted my Customs paperwork through the Visit Japan Web app and the process was super smooth once we landed. I‘d finished up with the agents and had my checked luggage scanned in less than 15 minutes and was out the door and into the arms of the Adventures by Disney agent who was waiting for us on the ground. This was my first opportunity to break out my Japanese in ages and I chatted that poor woman up while we waited for the other people from my flight to join us. Once they’d finished and joined the group, we were taken to a comfortable van for the 90 minute drive to Kyoto, where we’d be for the first 6 nights of our trip—two technical “pre-trip” nights, and the first four nights of the ABD itself.

Hyatt Regency Kyoto

The Hyatt Regency Kyoto is beautiful—set in a great location for walks (or cab rides) in any direction, full of modern-enough comforts with a traditional look. The rooms weren’t huge, but the beds were comfortable and the bathrooms had the standard high-end Japanese toilet set up and a “wet room” with a bath and shower. (Typical in many Japanese hotels, you’ll have a room with the tub where the rest of the space is the shower.)

The lobby is lovely. The breakfast buffet and service, which were included with our stay, were DIVINE. (Like I legitimately went to bed every night looking forward to it the next day.) There was a nice little bar space downstairs as well, along with a little reading room where I’d sometimes go to take a call or have a 7-11 takeaway meal (more on those at a later date) with friends. 

If there was anything I wish I’d been more prepared for, it was the lack of storage space in our various hotels. The Japanese clearly travel lighter than I do, because there was almost no drawer space and limited hanging space everywhere we went. If I could do it again, I’d pack more like I do for a cruise, where I actually add a hanging sweater organizer to my suitcase to use for storage (along with packing cubes to stay organized) in my cabin. That would have been super useful on the trip.

That said, there are a ton of things that you actually don’t need to bring with you on a typical trip to Japan, and I wish I’d known that too to save the space. Every hotel we stayed in provided lovely pajamas and tons of great toiletries. Unless you’re partial to your own, you can save yourself the packing space.

When we first got to the hotel that first night after the 90ish-minute drive from Osaka, we saw our bags to our respective rooms and met in the bar downstairs for a drink and a nosh.

Looking at this picture of my drink from that night, a Kiwi & Matcha Old Fashioned, I can practically taste it and it takes me right back to that energy that night, with the whole trip still ahead of us. We were all jetlagged as could be with the 13 hour time difference, but exhausted enough to hope that we could crash and start fresh in the morning.  

Day 0 – Saturday, May 17th

We had a rainy first day in Kyoto before the official kick off of the ABD. I managed to sleep until 5:30 a.m. Kyoto time and spent the day exploring the streets of the city, popping into small shops and exploring the many, many floors of the department store, Takashimaya. We had rings custom made in front of our eyes at a shop called glänta and ate awesome snacks from convenience stores.

When I got back to the hotel, my roommate for the trip, Staci, had arrived.

We took a walk and stumbled on a Buddhist temple called Chishakuin Temple around the corner from our hotel. We wandered the grounds, not entirely sure we should be there—it felt that private and serene—until we came across a few “do not enter” signs that told us that where we otherwise were was alright. We wandered so far back that we came upon a cemetery, called Jizoyama Cemetery, behind the temple grounds that extended far into the hills behind it. From the street we hadn’t been able to see that any of this was there at all. 

At night we all walked to the Pontocho Park area on the water together to find dinner. It being Saturday night in Kyoto, most restaurants’ being tiny 10-seater establishments on side alleys, and our being a pretty large group, made the process of tracking down dinner a bit of a challenge, but we ended up landing at a spot that was fantastic and ate and drank enough to refuel for the first technical day of the Adventure.

Day 1 – Sunday, May 18th

The first official day of the ABD was mostly unstructured as people continued to arrive and settle in. We had the glorious hotel breakfast and checked in with and met our extraordinary Adventures by Disney guides, Rick & Tomomi, for the first time. There was an optional temple tour but we just made up a day for ourselves because there was so much we wanted to see. 

So we started with Kinkakuji, the golden temple immortalized in Mishima’s Temple of the Golden Pavilion. I’d last visited this place in 1999 and when I thought back to my time in Kyoto it was the image that stuck with me. Being back there was incredible, though I don’t know if memory serves me right when I think back to that first peaceful visit. Because there were SO MANY PEOPLE there. It was still beautiful, and I’m still so glad we went…but it was definitely at times one of those silly “Instagram v reality” moments.

After Kinkakuji, we headed to the Philosopher’s Walk, a path along the water in Kyoto dotted with shrines, nature and little shops full of crafts and noshes.

Blessing by two lovely locals who stumbled upon us.

Then we took a ride over to Nishiki Market to check out more of the local fare. 

And then dinner (which seems absurd given what I’ve already written about, but this is what my trip journal says) was on our own. So we hit up the local 7-11 and ate in the reading room of the hotel. I’ll write more about convenience store culture in Japan in a separate post, because it is a topic unto itself…but suffice to say, these aren’t your grandmother’s 7-11s. 

And onward

I’m so tempted to keep writing…but I’m remembering now that Day 2 included a rickshaw tour through the bamboo forests and streets of Arashiyama, a walking tour of the area, lunch at a wonderful restaurant there, a dessert and tea making lesson, and a welcome dinner with a Geiko (basically the Kyoto-specific term for a Geisha) in attendance. And so I’m going to stop for today and pick up with all of that tomorrow.

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