— A FAMILY FIELD TRIP TO THE FUTURE —
Six days. Two flights. One green loop line.
Godzilla, Sailor Moon, ten thousand orchids & a giant glowing robot.
JULY 2 – 8, 2026 · ORLANDO ✈ TORONTO ✈ TOKYO
ROUTE MAP · 路線図
Tap a glowing station to jump to that part of the story. Our home base was up by Ueno; nearly everything else hangs off the Yamanote loop.
Up before the Orlando sun. A hop to Toronto, a long layover, then the big one — thirteen hours over the Arctic and the Pacific, chasing tomorrow across the date line.
Wheels down. Elevated expressways stacked over rivers, a skyline that doesn't quit, and the happy blur of finally being here. We checked in and kept it local — backstreets, shrine fountains, a Pikachu vending machine, our first konbini run, and the city glittering outside the hotel window.
One famous green loop, three iconic stops. We rode the JR Yamanote Line like locals — Shinjuku for a kaiju, Shibuya for six floors of pop culture, Shinagawa for moonlight and magic.
Kabukicho's most famous resident, peering over the Toho Building — duly saluted by a kid in his Godzilla shirt. King of the Monsters, meet your biggest little fan.
The nerd-heaven floor: Pokémon Center (Mewtwo brooding in his tank), the Godzilla Store, Jump Shop, and a Hunter × Hunter mural on the way in. Souvenirs were acquired. Many souvenirs.
A live Sailor Moon stage show in a theater dressed head-to-toe for it — glittering transformation costumes framed like royal portraits, wands and tiaras on crimson walls, and a Happy Birthday finale with the whole cast. In the name of the Moon: unforgettable.
A slower Tokyo. Yamanote plus little local transfers out to the west side: latte art and monster desserts in hidden cafés, thrift-shop streets, painted bike lanes, stone stairways with red railings, and glass-bottle Coca-Cola from a corner shop. No agenda — that was the agenda.
A lazy hotel morning, then out across the water — the driverless Yurikamome climbing its loop and gliding over Rainbow Bridge to the islands of Tokyo Bay. The best day saved its best for dark.
チームラボプラネッツ TOKYO · 豊洲
You leave your shoes — and, honestly, reality — at the door.
Wading knee-deep through warm water while koi made of light swim around your legs and burst into flowers.
A mirrored garden of thousands of living orchids drifting down around you.
Rooms of enormous breathing spheres that shift color like a sunset you can walk through.
A crystal universe of infinite falling light.
Photos can't hold it. We tried anyway — 93 times.
After dark at DiverCity: the RX-0 Unicorn Gundam — 19.7 meters of white armor — lights up, shifts into Destroy Mode on schedule, psycho-frame glowing pink-red, while an anime projection show plays across the whole building behind it. One small Gundam fan (Sonic plush in tow) was extremely in his element.
🚗 The ride home: an Uber back across Rainbow Bridge — the city stacked in lights out the windows, one very tired kid, and the quiet kind of happy you only get at the end of a perfect day.
A sunrise drive to Haneda past a still-sleeping city, pilot-uniform Pikachus for the plane ride, a handwritten thank-you card from the hotel — then back across the Pacific, landing the same day we left. Time travel is real; it just requires a boarding pass.