We finally rescheduled our canceled December 2020 trip to Japan. While we have been to Japan many times, this was the first time we visited in Spring.

This trip occurred in March and April 2024.

View other posts in this series:

• Trip Introduction: Springing for Sakura (this post)
• Review: oneworld Qantas Business Lounge LAX
• Review: Starlux A350-900 Business Class LAX-TPE
• Review: Starlux Galactic Lounge TPE Terminal 1
• Review: Starlux A330neo Business Class TPE-NRT
• The Airport Limousine Bus is Indeed Friendly
• Quite a Grand Stay: The Tokyo Disneyland Hotel
• Thoughts on Tokyo Disneyland
• Thoughts on Tokyo DisneySea
• Japan Pro Tip: Luggage Delivery Services
• Review: Park Hyatt Tokyo
• teamLab Planets: I Don’t Understand The Hype
• Cuteness Overload: A Review of the Pokémon Cafe Tokyo
• You Fished Your Wish: Zauo Fishing Restaurant
• Tokyo with Kids: Perhaps The Largest Playground on Earth
• Japan Pro Tip: IKEA Has Cheap Eats
• Review: Starlux A350-900 Premium Economy NRT-TPE
• Review: EVA The Infinity & The Star Lounges
• Review: EVA Air 777-300ER Royal Laurel TPE-LAX

Reason for the trip

I’ve been wanting to take my dad to Japan since he has never been (while it was my fourth trip to the country). We originally had plans to go back in December 2020, booked prior to the world truly knowing about COVID-19. We all know that Japan in particular remained closed for several years after the pandemic started. That pushed our trip back a few years until we finally had an opportunity to return to planning this trip.

Similar to our Paris trip last year, I had to schedule this trip around school holidays to avoid pulling the kids out of school unnecessarily. Though I know others are comfortable taking their children out of schools for a vacation, I’m mentally not at that point yet and would prefer them to not miss opportunities to grow academically in a school setting.

When I was originally planning this trip, I actually hadn’t specifically considered forecasts for sakura (cherry blossom) season in Japan (after all, I was locked into specific dates determined by the school). It turned out to be perfect match between the blossoms and when we would be there, but it was purely happenstance and I can’t take credit for it. In fact, the forecasts of the blossoms are just that–forecasts. We all know how (in)accurate weather forecasts can be and so whatever blossoming forecast is distributed, well you just have to take it with a grain of salt. The forecasts predicted we would be there for the tail end of the season, but instead we were closer to the start due to some colder weather passing by than was otherwise predicted. I heard there were a number of tourists who were in Japan the week before we arrived, disappointed that most blossoms had not yet occurred. If you’re looking to time it to be in the country specifically for a full bloom, you might want to spend a longer time in Japan and add some buffer on both ends.

Flights

We ended up taking a little bit of a longer route to get to Japan. On both the outbound and inbound flights, we routed through Taiwan (TPE). It might seem a bit inefficient–and it was–but that was ultimately the availability I could find for award flights for five people, mostly in business class. It’s hard enough to find award space for more than two people (and certainly more than four), but it’s also extra difficult to find that award space for the most crowded season in Japan. Everyone wants to be there to view the sakura and that meant competition was fierce. Routing through Taiwan offered us a fighting chance to make it to Tokyo.

Our flights out of LAX were on Starlux’s A350-900 aircraft. Starlux is a relatively new airline, starting just before the pandemic and somehow surviving despite all the depressed demand during the pandemic. A year ago, Starlux announced a partnership with Alaska Airlines and promised award flights would be made available in the near future. Knowing I needed five seats, I was hopeful they would release enough for the whole family. Thankfully, they did and made it all available at a special promotional price (60,000 Alaska miles per person per direction). I jumped on it as fast as I could, replacing a backup flight I had made on EVA when that airline briefly opened the flood banks on awards.

The special promotional price meant I couldn’t tack on another flight beyond TPE, so I had to separately book Starlux’s A330 flight from TPE to NRT in business class. The airline flies a perfectly reasonable business class within Asia and while I wouldn’t mind flying it again, I’m not sure it’s absolutely necessary unless you’re looking for lounge access (and even then I don’t think it’s worth it).

The flights back from Japan were on Starlux’s A350-900 aircraft, but this time we flew in premium economy. I enjoyed this flight, partly because of the relatively low price (10,000 Alaska Airlines miles per person) and partly because it’s a pretty decent product. You get two checked bags flying within Asia, which more than satisfied our needs, and it makes family travel easy with four-across in the middle section of seats.

The flight home from Taiwan was on EVA’s 777-300ER aircraft. I booked this flight back in early May 2023 when EVA made lots of award space available, enough to fit the family. While I could have used Air Canada miles to book this at a cheaper rate, I used up my Air Canada miles on the placeholder flight I replaced with the Starlux option above. Instead, I booked the flight using United Airlines miles at 88,000 miles per person (the rate has since gone up to 110,000 miles per person shortly after I booked this trip). Booking both Starlux and EVA has given me an ability to reflect on both Taiwanese airlines, and I’ll share my thoughts of it soon while also comparing China Airlines, which we last flew in 2018.

Hotels

We only spent five nights on this trip, making it a bit shorter than I would have liked. All nights were spent in Tokyo, but we did break them up between two different hotels. The first was the Tokyo Disneyland Hotel, since we were going to spend two days at the theme parks. It seemed most convenient to stay by the parks. And while the hotel itself is expensive (as you might imagine all higher-end Disney hotels would be), the pricing actually wasn’t out of line with where most hotels in the city cost given how popular the sakura is. The nice thing is that the Tokyo Disneyland Hotel has rooms designed for larger families and it wasn’t a problem to fit five people in one room.

Following our time at the theme parks, we spent the next three nights at the Park Hyatt Tokyo. I hadn’t actively been tracking award nights at the hotel, but I do know the hotel played some games with availability given it is currently going through refurbishment (though you would honestly not be able to tell at all if you were a guest). Given the size of our party, I was forced to book two rooms at the hotel at 35,000 Hyatt points per room per night. The hotel remains one of my favorite city hotels in the world despite service being ever-so-slightly less impressive this time than it was during our first visit 10 years ago.

Getting around town

We mostly got around using the very efficient Tokyo metro system. There has been a recent shortage of IC cards (Suica, Pasmo, Icoca, etc.) but thankfully I had four to use on this trip that I accumulated from past trips. As long as the cards are used within ten years, they’ll still retain the value stored on them. Since Char is a pre-school student, she didn’t cost anything. Technically, Alex could have been set up with a child account for discounted fares, but I didn’t want to waste precious time on this trip proving his age to get the discount.

To and from the airport, we settled on the Airport Limousine Bus. Yes, you can get caught up in traffic, especially if you’re taking it during rush hour, but it’s convenient not having to worry about our luggage. Char was also free, but had to sit on our laps for the journey. Frankly, it’s one of the cheaper methods of getting out of Narita airport (taxis are expensive and the N’EX isn’t going to be the most convenient option if you’re not going to the major urban stations).

What we did

We spent two days at Disney–one at Tokyo Disneyland and one at Tokyo DisneySea. Both parks continue to be among the best Disney parks in the world, though the crowds were quite heavy on this trip. It wasn’t a surprise given how crowded Tokyo is in general in the spring. We do have some updated thoughts on the Disney parks and will share those thoughts in the coming posts.

After Disney, we spent a couple of days going around the city exploring a few sights, eating some delicious food, and constantly finding ourselves at Pokémon-related places (our children are huge fans). This included the very-difficult-to-reserve Pokémon Cafe, which was arguably one of their most memorable meals here.

Thanks for reading along

I hope this series provides some help if you’re looking to book your own Tokyo getaway. I probably wouldn’t be so ambitious to fit this in a single week next time, but it was nevertheless an awesome opportunity being able to experience sakura season. And like always, feel free to leave a comment or share your own experiences and tips too.

Thanks!