My husband and I and our 2 kids (5 yo and 2 yo) will be travelling to Japan from 29/4 – 8/5. We booked our flights and accommodation and I only just realised that we will be travelling during Golden week!! After reading some posts about how bad it is I’m having major anxiety as our flights are non-refundable. We’ve been looking forward to travelling to Japan for so long and I’m really hoping to get advice on how we can still enjoy our trip and manage the crowds with 2 kids.
Our plan is to start our day very early (6-7am) with a midday break for nap time and possibly visit another site in the later afternoon if we’re up for it. We’ll be flying from Sydney so we’re 2 hours ahead and our kids are early risers. Here’s our itinerary:
Day 1 (29/4):
Arrive in Haneda airport at 6am – have our luggage sent to our accommodation via takkyubin
Visit Asakusa
Senso ji temple
Nakamise shopping district
Have lunch there and walk through sumida river before checking into our accommodation at 3pm
Day 2 (30/4):
Teamlabs planets,
Spend time in obaida,
Possibly book Pokemon cafe for later in the day
Day 3 (1/5):
Disneyland – planning to arrive 2-1.5 hour before opening
Day 4 (2/5):
Meji shrine, yoyogi park, harajuku district, Shibuya crossing and sky tower
Day 5 (3/5):
Take the Shinkansen to Kyoto (plan to book reserved seats well in advance)
Our accommodation is in shimogyo ward, so have lunch close by and visit to-ji temple
Day 6 (4/5):
Bamboo Grove and Kameyama-koen Park,
Iwatayama Monkey Park
Explore surrounding area (depending on our kids/crowds) e.g Otagi Nenbutsu Temple/ Tenryu-ji Temple /Gioji temple
Day 7 (5/5):
Fushimi inari shrine, then visit kiyomizu-dera temple later in the day to watch sunset (4:30pm) and walk down Nine-Zaka & Sannen-Zaka Street
Day 8 (6/5): Kyoto – Nara (half day) for deers and Tōdai-ji Temple (keep luggage in lockers at Nara Station)
Train from Nara to Osaka
check in accomodation and head to Dontonbori Street in the evening for dinner
Day 9 (7/5):
Universal Studios (we’re huge Mario and Harry potter fans, hoping the crowds won’t as bad since its after golden week??)
Day 10 (8/5):
Osaka castle or kids plaza (or something else worth visiting on our last day?) and be at Osaka airport by 3:30pm for our 6:30pm flight home
Are there any places that we should definitely avoid and possible alternatives to less crowded sites? Thank you!
by Ecstatic_Pair23