Japan Trip!

Theme Park Review's Japan Travel Tips!
The following pages include our trip itinerary and some of the travel research we did over the prior months before our trip.
Please feel free to use this research as a guide for planning your trip! I've also included Trip Reports from all the park's we visited.
After reading through this page, you should get a pretty good idea of how to prepare for a theme park trip to Japan!

If you have any questions, please feel free to ask them in our forum.

Part One - Getting to Japan, Tokyo Disney Resort, and Sega Joypolis
Part Two - "Tokyo Area Parks"
Part Three - "Nagoya/Osaka Area Parks"
Part Four - Back to Tokyo, More Tokyo Parks and useful Japan travel links

Part Two - "Tokyo Area Parks"
Tobu Zoo, Fuji-Q, Tokyo Summerland, Toshimaen, Yomiuriland, LaQua

Day Six (Thursday)
Tobu Zoo Park
From the hotel, walk to Shinjuku Subway Station. Take the Marunouchi Line towards Tokyo Station. Get off at Ginza station. Transfer to the Hibiya Subway line towards Ueno or Kita-Senju. At Kita-Senju, take the Tobu-Isezaki Line Rapid Express (Not the Tobu Kukan Line Semi-Exp.) to Tobu-Dobutsukoen station. Walk 10 minutes to the park. (To the west)

A couple of notes about the train stations:
Once in the rail station, you want to look for what line and what platform your train will leave from. Here is an example:

On the platform of each stop, there is a sign that usually displays the following information:
What direction your train is traveling (The arrow on the image below), what stop you are currently at (Nippori),
the next stop the train is making (Mikawashima) and the last stop the train came from (Ueno). These signs are
usually both in Japanese and English. (Note you should see the sign below when transferring at Nippori on your way to Tobu Zoo.)

Here is the train information taken from the JR Rail Timeline website:

Above rail Information from: http://grace.hyperdia.com/cgi-english/hyperd01.cgi

Note: From the above rail information website, you can also print out detailed travel information that includes each stop your train
will make, how long it will take, and what the distance is. I will post one below as an example, but they are VERY helpful when
planning your rail travel.
JR Yamanote Line

Train number 811G

Station/Airport Arrive Leave Platform Distance
SHINJUKU 08:47 08:47 8.6km

SHINOKUBO 08:49 08:49 9.9km

TAKADANOBABA 08:51 08:51 11.3km

MEJIRO 08:53 08:53 12.2km

IKEBUKURO 08:55 08:55 7 13.4km

OTSUKA 08:58 08:58 15.2km

SUGAMO 09:00 09:00 16.3km

KOMAGOME 09:02 09:02 17.0km

TABATA(TOKYO) 09:04 09:04 18.6km

NISHINIPPORI 09:06 09:06 19.4km

NIPPORI 09:07 09:07 19.9km

JR Joban Line

Train number 1351M

Station/Airport Arrive Leave Platform Distance
NIPPORI 09:12 09:13 2.2km

MIKAWASHIMA 09:15 09:15 3.4km

MINAMISENJU 09:18 09:19 5.6km

KITASENJU 09:21 09:21 7.4km

Tobu Isesaki Line Semi-Exp.

Train number 2313

Station/Airport Arrive Leave Platform Distance
KITASENJU 09:26 09:27 7.1km

NISHIARAI 09:31 09:31 11.3km

SOKA 09:37 09:37 17.5km

SHINKOSHIGAYA 09:42 09:42 22.9km

KOSHIGAYA 09:44 09:45 24.4km

SENGENDAI 09:50 09:50 29.8km

KASUKABE 09:55 09:56 35.3km

TOBUDOBUTSUKOEN 10:01 10:01 41.0km

Above rail information from: http://grace.hyperdia.com/cgi-english/hyperd01.cgi

After Tobu Zoo, take the train back to Shinjuku.

Above rail Information from: http://grace.hyperdia.com/cgi-english/hyperd01.cgi

Click HERE to read our Tobu Zoo Trip Report.
Click HERE to see our Tobu Zoo Photos.

Stay at Shinjuku Washington Hotel
3-2-9 Nishi-Shinjuku, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo
+81/(0)3 3343-3111

Day Seven (Friday)
Fuji-Q Highland

Take the bus (http://www.fujikyu.co.jp/bus2/hlset/toku.html) to Fuji-Q Highland from Shinjuku Station at 7:10:

Leaving Shinjuku Station at 7:10
Leaving Fuji-Q Highland Station at 5:13

More bus notes:
Use the fuji-q go bus “fuji goko-line”

1.Where to get on:
JR Shinjuku station’s west gate, the terminal is located at the first on the 2^nd building of the "yasdaseimei."

2.Fares
one way adult :1700yen / children :850yen

3. Procedures (reservation orders)
- Call up the express bus terminal reservations center (81-3-5376-2222). Make a reservation for the 19:10. The 20:10 bus is the last bus of the night.
- Days you travel, the location of your departure (Shinjuku nishi-guchi), location
of your arrival (Fuji-Q Highland), number of people (how many adults and kids), you tell the operator your telephone number (your     reservation number)
- Procedure complete : please speak in Japanese or English
You may get on without reserving, but it's likely that you may not get the right time that you want.

Here is the bus that will take you to and from Fuji-Q Highland. This park is an EASY day trip from Shinjuku.

Click HERE to read our Fuji-Q Highland Trip Report.
Click HERE to see our Fuji-Q Highland Photos.

Day Eight (Saturday, 25 September)
(two parks in one day!)

Tokyo Summerland
From the hotel - go to Shinjuku rail station. Take Chuo Special Express Main Line towards Takao, Toyoda, or Otsuki.
Get off the train at Hachioji station. Take the bus from bus station #6 bound for Tokyo Summerland. Allow 30 min on the bus.

From Shinjuku station, follow these signs for the Chuo Line:

Above rail Information from: http://www.jorudan.co.jp/english/norikae/

Toshimaen
Take the bus from Tokyo Summerland back to Hachioji station. Take the Chuo Special Express Main Line train from Hachoiji station back to Shinjuku rail station. At Shinjuku transfer to the Toei Oedo Subway Line towards Hikarigaoka. Get off at Toshimaen station.

Above rail Information from: http://www.jorudan.co.jp/english/norikae/

Toshimaen is very easy to find from the rail station. Turn left out of the station, make another left, and it's just past this 7-11. =)

Visit Toshimaen from 2pm to 6pm

After Toshimaen, take the subway from Toshimaen Station back to Shinjuku:

Above rail Information from: http://www.jorudan.co.jp/english/norikae/

Stay at Shinjuku Washington Hotel
3-2-9 Nishi-Shinjuku, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo
+81/(0)3 3343-3111

Click HERE to read our Tokyo Summerland Trip Report.
Click HERE to see our Tokyo Summerland Photos.

Click HERE to read our Toshimaen Trip Report.
Click HERE to see our Toshimaen Photos

Day Nine (Sunday)
Yomiuriland
From the hotel, walk to Shinjuku Rail Station. Take the Keio Line Commuter Rapid toward Hasimoto/Kanagawa (very important!
Do NOT go towards Takaosan-Guchi or Hachioji). Transfer at Chofu Station. Get off the train at Keio Yomiuriland station.
From the station take the gondola to the park entrance.

From Yomiuriland Take the Keio Line towards Shinjuku. Get off the train at Shinjuku station.

Stay at Shinjuku Washington Hotel
3-2-9 Nishi-Shinjuku, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo
+81/(0)3 3343-3111

Click HERE to read our Yomiuriland Trip Report.
Click HERE to see our Yomiuriland Photos.

Day Ten (Monday)
La Qua
From the hotel - Walk to Tochomae Subway Station. Take the Toei Oedo line to Kasuga station. LaQua is a short walk from Kasuga station.

Above rail Information from: http://www.jorudan.co.jp/english/norikae/

After our day at LaQua, take the train back to Shinjuku (Tocho-Mae)

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Above rail Information from: http://www.jorudan.co.jp/english/norikae/

After our day at LaQua, head back to the Shinjuku Washington hotel to pick up our luggage. From Shinjuku station take the
19:04 JR Chuo line to Tokyo station. From Tokyo station take the bullet train, Hikari No. 329 leaving at 20:10 to Nagoya Station
which arrives Nagoya Station at 22:04. Walk 15 minutes to hotel.

Above rail Information from: http://grace.hyperdia.com/cgi-english/hyperd01.cgi

At Tokyo Station change to the bullet train:

Above rail Information from: http://grace.hyperdia.com/cgi-english/hyperd01.cgi

Click HERE to read our LaQua Trip Report
Click HERE to see our LaQua Photos.

Walk 15 minutes to hotel, or take a taxi. (about $5) Stay at Comfort Inn, Nagoya
1-16-0, Nishiki, Naka-Ku , Nagoya, JP, 460-0003
Phone: (81) 52 221-6711     Fax: (81) 52 221-6729
Note: Nagoya turned out to be a GREAT 'base camp' for the next 5 nights. It was located about an hour away from Osaka by
bullet train, and Nagoya is a large enough train station that we were able to get rapid service to just about every park we needed
to go to. Also, the Comfort Inn ended up only being about $65 per night, and it was perfect for what we needed. Air Conditioning
worked really well, water pressure was great, and there was a 24 hour mini-mart right next door. Highly reccomended!



Click HERE to see Part Three - Nagoya/Osaka Area Parks

Click HERE to see our Japan Photo Update

Click HERE to read our Japan Trip Reports

Click HERE to return to Theme Park Review