JAPAN: Tokyo Area

 

We arrived in Tokyo on 9/3/25 after a long flight from Hawaii. Our hotel was in Ueno, a little north of Tokyo. 

TOKEYO

IMPERIAL GARDENS / PALACE

Got up and went to see the Imperial Palace, but we couldn’t find the way in, but we did see the Imperial Gardens, which were very pleasant. As it turns out, there are still people living at the Imperial Palace, so you can't go in (without a lot of difficulty). 

We went to find lunch just south of the Imperial Palace, but it is all government buildings and businesses, so finding a place was difficult. We found a food court, and after waiting a while to order our food, we discovered that all the tables had buttons to summon the waiter or waitress. This is common in Asia.

TOKEYO NATIONAL MUSEUM

(1000 yen per person)

We started in the Asian Gallery. They have art and artifacts from across Asia and parts of the Middle East. 

Then we cut our efforts short and went over to the Japanese Gallery (Honkan). The second floor has an overview of Japanese art from prehistory to the 19th century.

SHRINES

We visited a few of the shrines in Ueno Park. There is also a zoo.

RAINING! 

The next day it rained due to a typhoon in the area. We trudged in the rain for about 30 minutes, and we were thoroughly soaked! Both our shoes need to be more waterproof, though my boots did a little better. 

We went back to the Tokyo National Museum. We only saw half of it yesterday. We started in the Japanese Gallery, did the second floor, and finished it. 

Then we went to the Heiseikan building. It has 10,000 years of artifacts from Japan’s ancient cultures.

Some of them were from 40,000 years ago. Frankly, I didn’t know that Japanese culture went back that far. I always thought of 10,000 BC as caveman time. But I suppose our understanding of that has changed over the last century.  Or maybe I was just thinking of a sci-fi film.

PHONES AND ESIMS

 

We wanted to keep our same phone numbers, so we didn't cancel our US service. Instead, we found the cheapest possible plans. 

HARD LESSONS

When we went to Europe 7 years ago, we took out our American sims and put in sim cards from those countries. And we put our phones in suspension mode. Because of this, we later got cut off from various accounts, and worse, from our bank accounts, which took a lot of trouble to rectify. So we wanted to be sure we could receive SMS messages.

SMS MESSAGES

To get my SMS messages, first I make sure I'm on wifi, then put my iPhone in airplane mode. I have to enable wifi calling for my iPhone (which works on mine because I have Prepaid AT&T, but not on Khevron's because he has Prepaid GCI). I have to make sure to turn on my US line (which I usually have turned off because I don't want to get calls while roaming, as I have no international plan).

ESIMS

Now they have eSIMs, where you can just "install" a SIM by using an app. My phone, the iPhone XR, is a little older. I think it only has 2 sims, but Khevron's has like 24 slots (or something) for eSIMs. We chose Airalo and downloaded it. They had very affordable plans, and they come from different vendors, so you have to look around. 

But as far as I can tell, most of them just offer data, not an actual phone service (though I think they can). 

I bought a 2-week eSIM for Japan with 2 GB of data on it. I'd hoped that would be enough; however, it got used up in two days. So, I had to top up my data, which I did, for $25, I bought 20 more GB of data. But it was just for Japan. I discovered that had I looked around, there were Asia eSims that worked in all Asian countries. Khevron bought one of those.

USE DATA SLOWER

I used several methods to cut down on my data use. First, I went into the Cellular section of my system and set almost all my apps not to use cellular. Also, I often simply turned off the Cellular function when I didn't need it. This saved a lot of data, so that by the end of our two weeks in Japan, I still had a lot of data left. 

After that, I simply bought an Asia eSIM. So far, I've used 1.25 GB of data, and we've been here in South Korea for about a week. And I have 20 GB of data for Asia, so it will go a lot further this time.

MAPS DON'T NEED DATA

Another trick, if you don't have a lot of data,  is to set your destination on your map, let it load in all the data, then turn off your cellular. Even without data, the Maps app will follow the route and show you where you are. That's a nice hack.

Our Travel Plans

 

ALSO LOOK FOR MORE PHOTOS / INFO ON KHEVRON’S PAGE

https://khevron.tripod.com/khevron/mooseadventures2025.html

OUR FACEBOOOK MOOSEADVENTURES PAGE:

https://www.facebook.com/ourmooseadventures

We started in Hawaii, as Lareena hadn't been there yet. We both now have all 50 States Visited.

I'll be splitting up this page into different countries soon, so links will be displayed once I have time!

Possible Route - Many factors could alter this plan.

HOW LONG

We will be traveling for about 8 months and plan to get back in May next year.

WHERE WILL WE GO 

Looking to visit the following or more:
Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Vietnam? Thailand, Cambodia, Malaysia, Singapore..
This between September and into November.
Pic from Google Earth

and Australia and New Zealand!, Fiji? Guam?
November-March, and then back to Australia in April, then making our way back to Alaska in May.
Pic from Google Earth

How: Via Planes, Trains, Buses, Cars, Motorcycles, Scooters and lots of Walking!
What: Castles, Caves, Beaches, Mountains, Wildlife, SCA, LoTR Sites esp Hobbiton, Ocean.

An auspicious start, we saw Denali from the plane on the way to Juneau.
Our flight from Fairbanks was delayed a couple of hours with notice, so we got a few more things done we may not have. So that was lucky! Had dinner at 49th State at Anchorage Airport as well.

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The Polynesian Cultural Center & Luau

 

August 30th

Last night we bought tickets for the Polynesian Cultural Center, on the opposite side of side of the island, on the northeast, maybe a 45 min. Drive from Honolulu. You can also opt for a bus ride up there.

We drove our rental car and did a little sightseeing on the way. 

We stopped at the Valley of the Temples Memorial Park, which was also a cemetery. The interesting thing was that it was split up in different areas, like Christian, Buddhist, and other cultures. 

They have a Japanese temple, the Byodo-In Temple, but it cost $7 each and we will soon be in Japan, so we just took a picture of the outside and walked around for a bit.

We stopped and had an acai bowl at Coconut Joe’s on the way. I think this was the first time I’d ever tried one. It was like a smoothie with granola and fruit on top, slightly chilled. 

The Polynesian Cultural Center is next to BYU Hawaii campus. It is basically a theme park set around 6 villages that celebrate different Polynesian cultures:, Aotearoa (Maori/New Zealand), Fiji, Samoa, Hawaiian, Tonga, and Tahiti. Then there’s a luau, and after that a show: Ha, Breath of Life. It starts at 12:30 pm and ends at 9 pm, so all day. We paid close to 200 per person, though we found a coupon online that gave us 10% off. If you schedule it 10 days in advance, you’ll get 15% off.

We opted to have a tour guide, which helped us navigate through the activities and shows. You can opt to be self-guided, which costs less. Our guide was named Aleisha. She was from New Zealand. She kept us moving and knew exactly where to go, which was good because the place was as big as Disneyland and there were a lot of things that we skipped. The ticket allows you to go back for 3 more days in case you want to wander around and see more.

We started with a show where all six cultures were showcased on a river show, with dancing and drumming, staged on canoes. 

We saw a drumming demonstration and we learned to dance the hula. We got to try a stick throwing game. Khevron and I were really good at it; we hardly dropped our sticks or missed until it sped up really fast.

In the Aotearoa area, they had community hall for celebrations and meetings. There, a chieftain told us about life among the Maori and how the young boys would cook and first serve their elders and parents, and not eat until last. He demonstrated how they started fires with sticks, how they broke open coconuts and shaved out the center. He told a lot of jokes, like a stand-up comedian.

We took a canoe ride through the villages to the other side, at one point.

THE LUAU

This was our first ever luau. When we came in, they gave us a lea. It was more of a buffet with entertainment. A small band played soft Hawaiian music, and there was some hula dancing. Largely the show commemorated the life of Queen Lili‘uokalani.

From the brochure:

The presentation ‘Onipa‘a was a tribute to Hawai‘i’s last ruling monarch and only sovereign queen Lydia Lili‘u Loloku Wewehi Kamaka‘eha or Queen Lili‘uokalani. She is considered to be one of Hawai‘i’s finest composers. The show shared the remarkable stories from Her Majesty’s life, told through her own words, songs and original compositions. 

‘Onipa‘a, which means steadfast, was the motto of Queen Lili‘uokalani. The spirit of ‘Onipa‘a was integrally woven through every experience of her life.

After dinner, we had an hour to walk around then headed to the show:

HA, Breath of Life.

The brochure describes it as:

The symbolic story of Mana and his beloved Lani, punctuated by Polynesian dance, music and blazing fireknives, is told in “HĀ: Breath of Life,” our stunning evening show featuring Pacific Islanders, special effects, animation and surround sound. It is a Pacific isle saga of birth and death, love and family, tragedy and triumph.

One theme in the show, was the idea of mutual aid. After a disaster, a couple fled their island. The mother was pregnant. When they arrived on another island, the people there helped them build a hut and gave them blankets and other aid. 

I was struck by how this mentality differs from our world today. Why can’t we be more like that? I want to help people, but we are ruled by corporate America, and we must make everyone pay for everything. Many Americans don’t have a close-knit community of family and friends they can rely on. Greed is pervasive, and since costs are high, we have little choice.