We’re with the massive swell of a crowd pouring into DisneySea at gate opening time. My eyes are darting from the ground to make sure I don’t trip on someone in this throng, to the buildings which all depict an Italian coastal village. Amazing set design here. There is already a queue for the plushy store on the left as you enter. Inside a brand new bunny is being revealed and the crowd wants it. This afternoon Boo will buy one with her birthday mone...

Gab has thoroughly excelled herself here. We wake up to a pile of gifts that have assembled themselves overnight at the foot of Boo's bed. Boo drags out the reveal longer than Matt Preston savoring a mouthful. Eventually, the festival begins and she starts unwrapping, she's oohing and ahhing through all of them.Sadly no Mickey waffles to be had at the TDH Breakfast Buffet, later on, I'll find a waffle iron and claim this failure as the clincher for w...

The morning drizzle means there is no view of Fujisan today, but it also makes for a beautiful misty mountain morning - every cloud... Today is Boo's birthday eve, we're back moving again today heading to Mishima station then on to Tokyo Disneyland. Down by the lake we found the best manhole ever with an imprint of Fujisan on it. This Shinkansen back to Tokyo was a toasty relief from the chilly gusty train station. We left the Shinkansen platforms and h...

Day 3 of our most unplanned trip yet and we're about to discover there is no point to point public transport from Kyoto to anywhere near Fujisan. After a touchy few minutes balancing the risk of missing the train with the need to get just the perfect donut for the trip, we're aboard. We're heading to Mishima station, but still don't have a plan of what to do once we get there.A few weeks ago, at Emerson's entrance interview for high school, t...

It’s 6am Sunday, out the window in the drizzling grey and perfectly formed line of school children, two deep, are orderly walking up the street from the station. The crossing ahead is red, they remain perfectly queued for 50 meters, patiently waiting in their line and in the rain. That earnest demeanour of our taxi driver last night is being honed right in front of me. We were once at a breakfast buffet with unlimited watermelon, Boo lost all composure. Th...