Travelled to Japan with my wife and two boys (8,11) in April (cherry blossom season) 2024. Kids are interested in animals and technical things.
Some quick overall notes:
1. Queues everywhere. You will wait for everything remotely popular, assuming you can even get in.
2. Don’t plan for more than 1 or 2 activities in a day.
3. Contrary to what people say, you will not be able to get good food. Unless you have heaps of spare time or are super organised (booked days in advance) or your kids are super flexible.
4. If you’re traveling with someone who likes shopping – you will end up spending a lot of time shopping/browsing.
5. Contrary to what people say, Google maps is not great. Use Navitime for trains. Way better.
(Will expand on points 3&5 at bottom)
**Tokyo**
**TLDR: Tokyo – very cool, lots to see and do. Worth it.**
First destination was Tokyo, we stayed in Yokohama – not a convenient location due to extra travel time, but we did get good value and spacious hotel rooms, which I think was overall worthwhile for us.
Travel day we arrived in the morning after a long flight. Immigration had a queue that took over 2.5 hrs! Then trained to Yokohama, and went to the Ramen Museum to eat. Long wait, and average food. I wish I’d taken the time to organise the kids Suica cards at Tokyo airport, as doing so later was a real hassle. On the other hand we were exhausted so it was good to get to the hotel.
First day wife was sick, so I headed out with the boys. We went to see the Gundam Unicorn Statue – which I loved, but the real highlight was the nearby park covered in cherry blossoms and tulips. We walked across to the Statue of Liberty (meh), and took a look at Lego Land which we skipped since it seemed for toddlers.
Ended the day at Teamlabs Planets which was simply amazing. You will get your feet wet. Kids loved it.
Second day we went to the Skytree, we were advised to buy tickets in advance – wish we didn’t. It was a bit foggy, so couldn’t see far. Rather go on a clear day. The top floor wasn’t really worth it either. Warning, the Skytree is in a shopping complex – easy to waste time there. Kirby cafe was booked out month in advance, so never got the chance – but don’t think its worth it anyway. Afterwards we went across to Sumida Park, which was just amazing – so many cherry blossoms. Not sure why this isn’t the #1 park people recommend during the season – I had a list of other park recommendations planned, but this was the highlight. Had a nice playground too.
Third day was a Monday – almost everything was closed, and it was raining all day. We went shopping at Tokyo station. Lots of cool stuff – Kirby, Studio Ghibli, etc. Wandered a bit through town, then went to The National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation as it was the only thing open. Nice tulip garden next door. Got to see a self driving car as well. A decent place to kill time if it’s raining. Kids loved the ‘internet’ exhibit they had. At night we did the Shibuya crossing, which everyone enjoyed, and a visit to the Disney and Nintendo store. Boys loved it.
Fourth day we hit Ueno zoo – long wait to see the Panda. Ueno park also has some cherry blossoms.
Fifth day we visited Yokohama, which was quite nice, especially the waterfront near the old sailing ship. Took a short look at the Gundum robot being deconstructed (closed on 30th March), and headed to Chinatown. Chinatown was interesting to look at, but the food wasn’t anything special. We travelled onto Osaka.
**Osaka & Surrounds**
**TLDR: Osaka – skip it, stay in Kyoto instead. Maybe see Osaka castle if you can’t get to Himeji.**
I originally booked Osaka because I thought we would do Universal Studios/Mario. After having experienced Japanese queues and Japanese tourist crowds in April we dropped this. No regrets. Saved a bunch of money and patience. If Japans population decreases by a good 50 million people or more, then maybe I’d reconsider it on a quiet day.
First day in Osaka we went to the castle. This was great! (Get tickets online!) Gardens were full of cherry blossoms, and the kids liked the castle and the samurai exhibits. Later we wandered through Dotonbori and the super long shopping mall.
Second day we did a trip to Himeji – wasn’t the original plan, but we heard it can get crowded so we went on a quiet day. It was good to do this, because otherwise you would never have had a chance to take a photo without a crowd. Himeji was great, a larger version of the Osaka castle, with a more impressive garden. For some reason online reviews said not to miss the external gardens (Koko-en), but these were unimpressive and could be skipped. I wish I’d planned Hemji visit better since there seem to be plenty of nice things to do here, or even just visited the zoo (my kids love animals). I’m curious if Taiyo Park would have been worthwhile (next time I guess). It definitely has a different vibe from other cities, so I think it’s worth it.
Third day was the Aquarium (loved it), and Teamlabs Gardens (so-so).
Fourth day was a trip to Kyoto, we visited Kinkaku-ji (golden temple, that you can’t enter) which was crowded with tourists and not worthwhile. Afterwards we went to Fushimi Inari Taisha, which again was crowded but the crowd does disperse as you go. Luckily we got the tip to go down an alternate route via a small bamboo forrest – this was an absolute highlight. Also got to see some real Japanese farms, houses, shrines, etc.
Fifth day we spent at the Kyoto Railway Museum. If you like trains, this place is fantastic – don’t bother with the temples! The kids had an absolute blast playing in the trains and with the interactive exhibits. On the way back at Osaka station we visited the Nintendo store – which was bigger & better than the one in Tokyo.
That concluded our trip.
*Expanding on Google:*
Google does a decent job of finding short subway connections, but makes terrible suggestions for longer trips. Use Navitime for any Shinkansen or Express trains etc. Any trip longer than 15 minutes, check it on Navitime instead.
People also say to use Google live-street-view – this never worked for me. Navigating indoors was very painful with google, seemed to get floors/stores wrong often. Worked much worse than my home country, which isn’t a surprise if you consider Tokyo/Osaka is basically a GPS nightmare of urban canyons.
*Expanding on Food:*
Like everything else in Japan, if its even halfway good its going to be booked out well in advance or have a massive queue. My kids aren’t very fussy eaters, but they don’t like to wait when they are hungry. If your traveling your likely to have big days, and then when you want to eat, you don’t want to wait 40 minutes to get into a restaurant and then wait another 30 minutes for the food. After walking around all day, we also want to sit down, not stand in a stall. Furthermore, lots of places seem to specialise in only one very narrow type of food, making it very difficult for everyone in the family to agree on what to eat. As a result – all our meals were terrible. The Japanese food we had was much worse than any Japanese restaurant in my home country. We ended up eating a lot of McDonalds and mostly supermarket food (which is pretty decent fortunately). The only time I had a good Japanese meal was when we put the kids to bed, and my wife and I went out, where we could afford to wait to get in and wait for the food – which was fabulous.
by aboeing