I had dreams of visiting some other Japanese parks while we were there, but my daughter wasn't having it as a family; she wasn't there particularly to visit theme parks and was making an exception for Tokyo DisneySea only because she'd also heard it was exceptional.
Our trip was evenly divided between Tokyo and Osaka, which is where Universal Japan is. We were first contemplating the Japan trip back before the pandemic and had been thinking about hitting Universal because my kid was very interested in their Super Nintendo World area. But she's a bit older now and that isn't quite as fascinating as it was--besides, there's now a Super Nintendo World in California and another under construction at Universal's new Florida park, so you don't have to go to Japan for that any more.
I also had a crazy dream of taking a side day trip to Fuji-Q Highland to maybe ride the intense thrill coasters there--Eejanaika, Fujiyama and Takabisha. But given how far we were from home physically and culturally, Sam was initially a bit leery of our splitting up into ones and twos on this trip, the way we often do, and I was the only one with any interest in Fuji-Q Highland.
Once we'd gotten our bearings in Japan, she was more comfortable with getting around there and we were able to sometimes split up for adventures of more specialized interest. But our schedule ended up pretty full and exhausting as it was; we even ended up nixing a side trip to Kyoto that we'd originally planned on taking. I felt like I had relatively little time to experience Tokyo once we'd shaken off our initial jet lag, and aside from the Disney trip (which involved getting out to Chiba prefecture) we kept that portion of the vacation in the city.
If I ever get back to Japan, I'd like to have the time to visit some other parks--Nagashima Spa Land looks like I'd enjoy it greatly. But there's a lot there that I'd still like to do.
Other Japanese parks
Our trip was evenly divided between Tokyo and Osaka, which is where Universal Japan is. We were first contemplating the Japan trip back before the pandemic and had been thinking about hitting Universal because my kid was very interested in their Super Nintendo World area. But she's a bit older now and that isn't quite as fascinating as it was--besides, there's now a Super Nintendo World in California and another under construction at Universal's new Florida park, so you don't have to go to Japan for that any more.
I also had a crazy dream of taking a side day trip to Fuji-Q Highland to maybe ride the intense thrill coasters there--Eejanaika, Fujiyama and Takabisha. But given how far we were from home physically and culturally, Sam was initially a bit leery of our splitting up into ones and twos on this trip, the way we often do, and I was the only one with any interest in Fuji-Q Highland.
Once we'd gotten our bearings in Japan, she was more comfortable with getting around there and we were able to sometimes split up for adventures of more specialized interest. But our schedule ended up pretty full and exhausting as it was; we even ended up nixing a side trip to Kyoto that we'd originally planned on taking. I felt like I had relatively little time to experience Tokyo once we'd shaken off our initial jet lag, and aside from the Disney trip (which involved getting out to Chiba prefecture) we kept that portion of the vacation in the city.
If I ever get back to Japan, I'd like to have the time to visit some other parks--Nagashima Spa Land looks like I'd enjoy it greatly. But there's a lot there that I'd still like to do.