Sweet! We won the Shiki Shima lottery!
Japan has a number of fun, tourist-oriented excursion trains – vintage steam locomotives, open-air summer trains, Sanrio and anime-themed trains, and high-end luxury "cruise" trains.
A couple years ago, the latest and greatest version of the latter was announced – the four seasons Shiki Shima cruise train. Rather than relying on vintage looks, the Shiki Shima is boldly modern. There are two "cruises" you can take – a 2 day and a 4 day. There's a view car, a gorgeous restaurant, a bar, and the entire train only holds 34 passengers!
Given that Japan is a nation of train nerds, demand was insane despite the sky-high prices. They implemented a lottery system for people hoping to buy tickets. With both of our 50th birthdays coming up, I decided to enter for a shot at this amazing experience. I've been on pins and needles for the past 3 months, but the email arrived a couple of days ago:
I had originally planned to keep this a surprise, but given the vast number of moving parts involved (the largest being a time off request to my husband's boss), it just seemed easier to surprise him a few months early:
One of the sweet things that sticks with me from Ben Schlappig's early days of blogging was his story about wanting to surprise his mother with a trip that began on her birthday. My memory of the story has her saying essentially, "Surprising me would have been a terrible idea! It would have robbed me of half of the joy of a great trip: the months of anticipation!" Welp, now we both get to have 7 months of excitement while we wait.
For now, it's time to figure out the flights! (Update: done!) A few things have changed since my last Asia trip-planning:
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| Anpanman train! |
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| Vintage steam locomotive! |
A couple years ago, the latest and greatest version of the latter was announced – the four seasons Shiki Shima cruise train. Rather than relying on vintage looks, the Shiki Shima is boldly modern. There are two "cruises" you can take – a 2 day and a 4 day. There's a view car, a gorgeous restaurant, a bar, and the entire train only holds 34 passengers!
UPDATE: our trip report from this amazing journey is here!
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| View car |
Given that Japan is a nation of train nerds, demand was insane despite the sky-high prices. They implemented a lottery system for people hoping to buy tickets. With both of our 50th birthdays coming up, I decided to enter for a shot at this amazing experience. I've been on pins and needles for the past 3 months, but the email arrived a couple of days ago:
 |
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| Ta da! A Shiki Shima model wrapped in a train-themed furoshiki |
One of the sweet things that sticks with me from Ben Schlappig's early days of blogging was his story about wanting to surprise his mother with a trip that began on her birthday. My memory of the story has her saying essentially, "Surprising me would have been a terrible idea! It would have robbed me of half of the joy of a great trip: the months of anticipation!" Welp, now we both get to have 7 months of excitement while we wait.
For now, it's time to figure out the flights! (Update: done!) A few things have changed since my last Asia trip-planning:
- Korean left Chase's UR program,
- Points bloggers waaaay more popular than I am effectively killed the Virgin Atlantic-ANA trick
- SPG merged with Marriot so we ended up with a pile of those points when the new upgraded cards were announced
- Singapore announced the world's longest flight on their new A350ULR
- Crazy Rich Asians came out and I reallllly want to go to Singapore now, but not without my two friends who know the town really well (and their partners)
- ANA's fuel surcharges have shot up
- AirBnB yanked most of their Japan listings
- Several Asian carriers have gotten new A350s, and I've yet to ever fly one
- Tsukiji Market is gone!
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