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| Part six of my 2025 China Japan trip report. |
October 20: Fly to Tokyo and Shop at Ikspiari
After the long day at Universal Studios Beijing, I got a good three hours of sleep before my alarm went off. R and I had to pack up and check out of the hotel before our 4:20 am black car service was to take us to the Beijing Capital International Airport (PEK) for our 7:20 am flight to Tokyo.
In hindsight, the pickup was too early. We were very tired. But checkout was smooth and our driver was at the porte cochère on time.
The car was booked through the same service that our pickup was booked through, so I wasn’t very worried about the 30 minute drive to the airport. However, once we were on the 6th Ring Road, I noticed the driver was very loose about maintaining his lane. The empty expressway was three lanes wide and we had the road to ourselves, so I thought that perhaps the orderly driving I previously observed in Beijing was something that occurred while the road is busy. Perhaps drivers drift when the road is empty here.
But as we got closer to the airport, the road became more busy, and other drivers were clearly alarmed by our car’s behavior. At one point, the central barrier ended at a toll plaza. Our driver began to drift into oncoming traffic before another driver flashed their high beams at us, which seemed to jolt our driver into action and drive on the correct side of the road.
I couldn’t tell if our driver was falling asleep or what. But I felt trapped. If I was in an English-speaking country (or Japan, for that matter), I would have insisted that the driver get off the highway and let us out so we could take a different taxi to the airport. But China doesn’t have Uber, and I never figured out how to get DiDi working on my phone. So if we were let out, it would have been very difficult to get to the airport.
After about six more near-misses, we arrived at the airport.
The average driver in Beijing ★★★☆
Not very different from the average driver in a large city in the United States.
Our driver to the airport on October 20 ☆☆☆☆
Woof. A major contender in a three-way tie for worst car ride in my life. The other two car rides vying for last place include a seat belt-free taxi ride in Hong Kong in 2018 and an 11-mile ride in my friend Andy’s Toyota pick up truck between high school and work in 2004.
Our flight to Tokyo was on Hainan Airlines, which was out of Terminal 2 of the Beijing Airport. When we arrived, the airport was very quiet, with no lines for passport control or both of the security checkpoints.
The website that said we needed to arrive 2½ to 3 hours early to the airport was not correct in this case. Assuming it got busier as the morning went on, we still could have easily arrived 90 minutes before the flight with plenty of time to spare.
Airports in China have a security checkpoint at the building entrance where they scan you and all your bags (similar to their security screenings in subway stations) and a second security checkpoint at the usual location where you enter the air side of the airport. It is rare for something to make the US airport security strategy seem “light touch”. But congratulations, China, you’ve done it
Our plane was an old Boeing 737-800. The aircraft was clean and in working order, the staff provided adequate beverages, and we arrived to Tokyo Narita on time.
For some reason, everyone on the flight around us was French. It would be one thing if they were Australian (there are so many more Australians in the tourist areas of Asia than there are Americans in Europe). But I’ve never encountered flocks of French people outside of France.
After flying Air China, China Eastern, and Hainan Airlines, Hainan Airlines is my favorite mainland China-based airline hands down. It may not be as nice as the Japanese, Hong Kong, Korean, or Singaporean airlines I’ve flown in terms of amenities or service. But I would say it is similar to an average US-based airline, and I would not hesitate to fly with them again.
After we landed at the Tokyo Narita airport, Japanese customs and immigration took less than five-minutes.
Since our stay in Japan was going to be a bit longer than our stay in China, I opted not to use the American Telephone and Telegraph Company's International Day Pass for cell phone and internet service ($12 per device per day). Instead, I had arranged to use a pocket WiFi device from Ninja WiFi, which cost ¥6,969 for an eleven-day rental of two devices with 1GB data per day for each (this worked out to be approximately $47 USD total).
I made arrangements to pick up the device at the airport terminal just outside of the customs inspection (they have booths at all terminals at Narita and several other locations across Japan), and my rental was set to drop them off at the airport on the day of departure. I used Ninja WiFi on a previous Japan trip, and found it to be very easy to use and affordable, since I was not planning to stream video on the trip. WiFi is commonly available in hotels and many other public areas in Japan, so I figured that I didn’t need very much data. The daily 1GB limit turned out to be more than enough for us. And the experience of picking up, using, and returning the pocket WiFi was very easy.
After we got our phones set up, we proceeded to the JR-East train station. An English-speaking JR employee was stationed near the ticket machines and volunteered to help us get our tickets. We wanted to get round trip Narita Express (N’EX) tickets to Tokyo Station with return service from Yokohama (total cost: ¥5,000 or $33 USD per person).
Once we got the tickets, we went down to the train platform, where we discovered that the drains were delayed due to an issue on the line. Over the seven months I have spent in Japan riding trains nearly every day, this has only happened on four or five occasions. Our N’EX train ended up being about an hour late. And when it arrived, the train was facing backwards, so the assigned seats were accessed from different doors from those indicated on the train platform. Happily, prior to the train’s arrival, a JR employee checked the tickets of everyone on the platform and led them to the correct location to find their seats.
Once on the train, R commented that I looked very happy. In fact, my face was hurting from smiling too much. I think Japan may be one of my absolute favorite places in the world. Even a few years ago when I was there working long hours every week, I felt so lucky to be there.
Once we arrived at Tokyo Station, I made a serious mistake. You see, it was well after lunch time, and we had not had anything to eat other than the snack on the airplane. My original plan was to transfer to the Keiyo Line where we would travel on to Tokyo Disney Resort and get a late lunch after checking in to our hotel. However, at this time R informed me that she did not have her IC Card from her last visit to Japan.
IC Cards are the transit passes used in Japan which are usable on nearly every transit system in the country. I keep my IC Card in my passport wallet, so it didn’t even occur to me to remind R to pack hers.
I assumed that it would be easy to find a vending machine for Suica Cards everywhere (Suica Cards are the IC Card issued by the JR-East railway), so we walked with all our bags ~2,000 ft across the train station to the Keiyo Line entrance. Once we got there, we discovered that there were vending machines to top off your IC Card, but there was no vending machines that would issue a new one.
We ended up spending the next 90 minutes walking up and down the train station looking for a Suica Card vending machine. We even waited 20 minutes in line at a place that does not have them. Eventually we found one under the Tokyo Station Marunouchi North Gate Dome.
One of the reasons that I took so long to get R’s IC Card is that I wanted to get her a Suica Card, which has no expiration date. I did see a few places to get a Welcome Suica Card, which is an IC Card that expires 28 days after issuance and has an extra ¥500 fee ($3.30 USD) attached to it. I think I was just not thinking straight because of the early morning and lack of food. If I could do it over again, I would have picked up a Welcome Suica Card and paid the measly ¥500 fee. I genuinely don’t know what I was thinking.
Note: If you have an Information Phone, you can put a digital Suica Card in your Apple Wallet, so you can avoid this whole process. This option is not available on most Android phones purchased in the US, which is why we needed the physical IC Card.
Quite understandably, R was frustrated with me, tired, and hungry by the time we got her transit card. But we continued on towards our hotel, transferred to the monorail at Tokyo Disney Resort, and finally transferred to a free shuttle bus from the Disney Resort Line Monorail Bayside Station to our destination, the Tokyo Bay Maihama Hotel First Resort.
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| We stayed at the Tokyo Bay Maihama Hotel First Resort. |
After we checked in to our room, we dropped off our bags and I got a few snacks from the convenience store in the lobby. The food improved our moods considerably. And I was happy with the hotel room.
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| Our room had a decent view of the back side of Space Mountain, which was being rebuilt at the time of our visit, and the Tokyo Disneyland Hotel. |
Then we took the free shuttle bus to Ikspiari so R could so some shopping. Ikspiari is Tokyo Disney Resort’s version of Downtown Disney, although it is more of a true shopping mall than the locations in Orlando, Anaheim, or Paris.
R ended up buying a coat and a few other items, and I marveled at the awesome Halloween promotions that some of the stores were having. My favorite was a store banner with the motto “Black On, Blood Out”. I also found a store with a collection of clothing emblazoned with various locations in rural Florida. I especially enjoyed the jacket that said “Clay County” on the front, “Tallahassee” on the side (Tallahassee is not in Clay County), and it had a patch on the shoulder that said “Florida’s Motto is ‘In God We Trust’.” The idea that a bunch of cool Japanese kids are walking around with clothing celebrating Clay County, a place known only for its prison and highway speed traps just warms my heart.
We got a fantastic iced chocolate beverage at the Godiva store at Ikspiari. And we finished out the night with an authentic meal at the Ikspiari location of Red Lobster. It was pretty good, although the server seemed to be too afraid to talk to us and eventually we were served by the manager.
The next part of this trip report will cover part of my day at Tokyo DisneySea!
Series Directory
Part 1: Background, Trip Planning, and Flight to Beijing
Part 2: Forbidden City and Great Wall of China at Mutianyu
Part 3: Review of Universal Studios Beijing Part 1
Part 4: Review of Universal Studios Beijing Part 2: Scares @ Universal
Part 5: Review of Universal Studios Beijing Part 3: Closing Thoughts
Part 6: Beijing to Tokyo and Shop at Ikspiari
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