My family and I travelled from Toronto, Canada to Japan and Korea during April 10th to April 24th. We spent 5 days in Tokyo, 2 days in Osaka, 2 days in Kyoto, 3 days in Seoul and a final night in Tokyo before flying back to Toronto. My kids are 4/5F(her birthday was while we were there) and 3M. Wife and I are 38F and 37M respectively.
**April 10th/11th:**
-Our flight was in an Air Canada 787 that was absolutely packed. I would not recommend a flight this long in economy with kids. Save up for premium economy or business class for your own sanity.
-Taxi from Haneda to hotel was worth every cent. We checked into the Cerulean Tower Tokyu Hotel. Highly recommended and it was perfect for us. It is a 5 minute walk to Shibuya scramble and station.
-Went out for a quick walk before getting to bed. Shibuya scramble is wild at night. We had MOS burger for dinner and the tried acclaimed shrimp burger… it was okay. We definitely didn’t look for any more MOS burger locations for the rest of the trip.
**April 12th**
-First day was tough with jetlag; I woke up at 4 AM, along with my 3 year old son.
-Tried family mart egg sandwich and tuna and mayo onigiri… the eggs sandwhiches live up to the hype (particularly Family Marts) and for me, it was the start of a daily addicition with the onigiri. Quick note for the jetlagged- Combinis do not restock sandwhiches and other food until 6AM.
-Went to Sensoji. It was absolutely stunning, especially with the Cherry blossoms in bloom. Kids loved the fish in the gardens, though not much else. We tried the viral fruit candy and it was definitely worth the hype. There were a lot of influencers and content creators clogging up the central alley in front of Sensoji.
-We then took the Tobu train to Tokyo Skytree, pretty cool and a nice place to catch your breath and enjoy some views. Kids were way too tired for the aquarium. There was a food court in the basement of the Sky Tree building with some absolutely killer udon and banana ice cream.
-train back to hotel to rest.
-went to Rappongi Hills and Mohri gardens for an evening stroll, we walked down Sakurazaka to see the cherry blossoms. On Sakurazaka, there was a pretty cool little park for the kids to play for a few minutes.
-had shake shack and taxi back to hotel.
**April 13th**
Trip to Mt Fuji
-Went from Shibuya to Shinjuku by local train.
-Tried to take the bus to Fuji, but it booked for three hours – and we would have lost some prime Fuji viewing time.
-We took the express train to Otsuki. Extremely busy and no reserved seats available. Absolutely sucked riding on the floor for a few hours. There was a wait to see the Chureito Pagoda that was nearly 2 hours in uncovered heat and dust. Met some cool people in line though. Kids had fun looking at the lizards running around.
-took the train back to Tokyo with the same issues; this time the train was even more packed and there wasn’t even space on the floor between the cars to sit for much of it. Would plan this out better, but it was the middle of Cherry Blossom season, plus it was an exceptionally clear day, so we didn’t have too many options.
**April 14th**
-Went to TeamLabs Borderless. The whole family absolutely loved it and it was a great way to start the morning. My only piece of advice would be to ensure you are wearing either shorts or pants that can roll up above your knees. My kids especially loved the water part and the large balls, where my son in particular loved tossing the balls around.
We then went over to Shinjuku to the rest of the day with my wife’s family at Shinjuku Goeyn Park who happen to live in Tokyo. Some obervations about the park:
– Extremely busy
– very beautiful with Cherry Blossoms
– Nice day and was very warm
– no drinking in the park and we ended up with a few bottles of Kirin that we had to carry back to the hotel
**April 15th**
Trip to Tokyo Disneyland
-Moved hotels to Grand Nikko Mahaima hotel next to Tokyo Disneyland.
-Nice hotel with beautiful lobby and free shuttle bus to Maihama Station that connects to the entrance of Tokyo Disney.
-Tokyo Disney was pretty busy, most rides had a wait time of 10-30 minutes.
-Paid for DPA on the Beauty of the Beast ride that was incredible. Absolute Must see Attraction. My daughter is still talking about it and the “real magic” she saw.
-I wouldn’t recommend Tokyo Disneyland to anyone under the age of 20. My kids didn’t really care about the characters or rides, and my daughter in particular was very sad that she didn’t get to meet Elsa or any of the newer Disney princesses. I would suggest skipping Tokyo Disneyland and heading to Tokyo Disney Sea instead if you have younger kids.
-Sent baggage from Hotel Lobbey to our hotel in Osaka via Sagawa. I later found out that they wrapped the luggage in plastic, which was a nice little surprise.
**April 16th**
Heading out to Osaka
-Took train from Maihama to Shin Tokyo.
-Shin Tokyo to Shin Osaka took around 2 1-2 hours via Shinkansen.
-Dont buy extra tickets for young kids, as there’s plenty of seating typically on this route and it isn’t really required.
-Ended up spending way too much at the E-cute in Shin Tokyo, which is something similar to a Mercato Centrale or St Lawrence market in Toronto.
-Checked in to Hotel Keihan. Pretty nice, but rooms are small and the check in process was automated. It was about a 10 minute walk from Namba Station.
-Went to Dotanburi and the Namba shopping area. Bought some stuff from Gu and Uniqlo – about 40% cheaper than Canada.
-Onitsuka store was very over priced and the Mizuno store was sold out of what I wanted.
-Wife bought some skin care items from a pharmacy.
-Kids absolutely hated how packed the area around Dotunburi was, but were fine after some McDonalds. Wife and I had some Takoyaki and various other street foods for dinner.
**April 17th**
Trip to Osaka Castle
-had Komeda coffee for breakfast. It was okay about 6.5/10. Good coffee continues to elude me in Japan.
-took taxi to Osaka Castle
-buy ticket in advance, the line up for general admission was 30 minutes in uncovered heat.
-Castle was fairly interesting, kids found it a bit boring and the souvenir shop was fairly priced. My son was not allowed to try on the Samurai helmet and sword, which I found fairly irritating. No explanation was provided as to why.
-took train to Nara park to feed deer
-some deer were extremely friendly, but a couple were very aggressive and bit my wife around her hip. A couple of the more “wild” ones became aggressive with my daughter and wife. I had to lure them away with an entire packet of crackers. Despite the aggression from a few of the deers, it was a great experience and I would recommend every one check out Nara park. The pagoda and temples were all under constructions at the time I was there.
-There was a little alley next to the train station and we ended up going to Gyukatsu Kyoto Katsugyu. Incredible food andreally great service. I saw this restaurant in Tokyo with absolutely gigantic lines, so it was a breath of fresh air to be able to just walk in somewhere with out booking in advance or waiting in line.
-rapid express train back to Osaka Namba followed by a junk food party with the kids (by this point in the trip, they had become obsessed with Family Mart).
-tried using laundry at the hotel. It was a combo washer and dryer. It took two hours and cost 600 yen; ultimately did not dry my clothes and I had to hang everything up in the room.
**April 18th**
Off to Kyoto
-took the rapid express train from Namba station to Kyoto station
-checked in Tennen Onsen Renka no Yu Onyado Nono Kyoto Shichijo. Kids absolutely loved the fact there were PJs and you had to take your shoes off.
-The whole family desperately needed a rest day and the onsen was welcome. Felt amazing after some time there and the kids also enjoyed it. There was unlimited ice cream in the cool down room, which was a huge hit.
-Went to Isetan for a cake to celebrate my daughter’s birthday. The Isetan in Kyoto station was the only place where I felt I was being scammed in all of Japan. They were trying to charge me double the listed price for 4 pieces of cake. It might have been a mistake, but I had to type out the correct pricing on Google translate about 4 times before they agreed.
**April 19th**
-Went to Yasaka Pagoda and then to Kiyomizu Dera. Crowds weren’t that bad and it was extremely beautiful. By this time in our trip, the cherry blossoms had more or less disappeared.
-We were quite bored of Japanese food by now and I found a Turkish doner stand in Nagakyo market. Kids has Wendys.
-There was also a Shoei design studio near this market and if you are interested in buying a motorcycle helmet, this store is a definite visit. Also went by the Grand Seiko boutique in my search for a limited edition SLGA007 Lake Suwa, but they didn’t have it. Second choice was a SLGH005 White Birch, which they did have but weren’t willing to give me a 5% discount that other retailers were willing to give me.
-back to hotel to enjoy more of the onsen. Kids became obssessed with the onsen and are still talking about it.
-went to Kyoto Tower Sando for dinner where we tried a few different places.
**April 20th**
Flight to Seoul
-Took the train from Kyoto Station to Shin Osaka, from Shin Osaka directly to Kansei International. Different rapid express limited ticket required and but we had to run from platform 3 to 6 at Shin Osaka so we didn’t have time to buy it before boarding. You can buy it onboard from the fare inspector.
-Flying Air Busan to Seoul. It was undoubtedly a LCC. Flight was completely packed but they were generous with our luggage weight and the customs and security was an absolute breeze at KIX.
-Went to the Kansei North Lounge next to Gate 18 using Dragon Pass. They had a couple of hot plate items, sweets, cereals and drinks including a very cool beer pouring machine. There were only 3 or 4 other people in there and it was very nice to get away from the noise. Clean toilets and there’s a mono rail shuttle to take you to Gates 1-14 once you finish up. I quickly bought two esims from Ubigi which costs $9 for 3GB of data (I only used 4 GB for th 9 days I have been in Japan thus far).
-Landing at Incheon was tough. Absolutely monster line at customs, the likes of which I’ve only ever seen at Istanbul International before. It took about an hour and a half, and the customs officers were constantly in a shouting battle with the Vietnamese and Chinese tourists. Very poor air conditioning and the heat was making everyone miserable.
-We checked into Hotel Skypark Kingstown Dongdaemun. It was all right…there was a very strange grape smell being pumped in to the hotel and hallways. The rooms were extremely large compared to the rooms I had been staying in Japan.
-Taxi service was available outside of the baggage claim and there were plenty available.
-Had Korean BBQ in Dongdaemun and went to sleep.
**April 21st**
-Next day went to Bonchok village. It was pretty interesting and worth a visit. There were many tourists with ~~kimono~~ Hanbok rentals taking pictures. Tons of cool coffee spots on the way as well. I would say the coffee shops in Seoul are definitely the best thing about it.
-went back to Hotel to rest
-went out to Myeongdong night market. It was packed and there were a huge amount of street vendors, clothing stores and skin care retailers. Kids had a lot of fun and my son ate at 5-6 different vendors. My wife went to a lot different skin care retailers, but ultimately just ended up going to Olive Young.
**April 22nd**
Third day in Seoul
-Went to Gyeongbokgung palace and museum. Very beautiful place to let the kids play and enjoy the sights. There aren’t many historical things due to Korea’s history of occupation. Worth a visit though.
-My wife really wanted to see the Starfield COEX library and mall. The mall was okay, had a pretty nice food court with a lot of different options. The library was really cool – definitely something I haven’t seen before. The books are obviously mostly Korean, so it’s a place you visit for aesthetics more than anything else.
-wife was craving more shake shack and it was right next to our hotel. Tried a couple of the local items. Absolutely hated the fact that there are no washrooms in restaurants.
-walked around the Dongdamaun neighborhood and then went to sleep.
**April 23rd**
Back to Tokyo
-took a taxi back to Incheon for our flight from Seoul to Tokyo with Zip Air
-absolutely breezed through security and immigration because of a sticker the Zip Air agent put on our passports.
-i went for the tax refund ($20 USD lol) while my wife bought some sunglasses from the Hyundai duty free.
-Went to the Sky Hub lounge at Incheon. It was all right, the front desk was being annoying with using Amex, so I had to use some Dragonpass visits I had saved up. Food was pretty good for a lounge that isn’t exclusive to 1st/Business class travelers.
-Zip Air was fantastic. Used a 787-8 and I have never before seen such clean washrooms on a plane before. Seats were extremely comfortable as well in economy. Free wifi was available.
-Landing in Narita was a bit of an eye raise taxi wise – they were charging 32000 yen for a taxi to Ginza. Absolutely a massive difference compared to Haneda. For this reason alone I would never recommend flying into NRT over HND. We opted for Low Cost Bus for 3900 yen than would take us to Ginza station followed by a taxi to our hotel (8000 yen).
-Checked in to KOKO HOTEL Tsukiji Ginza. It was definitely more Tsukiji than Ginza. Decent hotel for the price and we were only staying there for one night.
-Went to Tsukiji Sushiko for our last dinner in Japan. Very local spot, with great service and absolutely incredible sushi.
-hit up Family Mart one last time
****April 24th****
-Flight was later in the day, so we decided to head to Ginza Six and Mitsukoshi for my ever elusive GS. By this point, I had decided to go with the hi-beat White Birch. There was nothing of interest at Ginza Six, so went to the GS Wako Boutique. I wanted the 5% discount on top of the 10% VAT refund, so I walked over to Mitsukoshi across the street and bought the White Birch.
-Went to a small stationary store across the street from Mitsukoshi to buy some more presents for people back home
-Headed over the Haneda. Went a little crazy at the Duty Free and Gift shops. Wife picked up more skincare stuff.
-Flight was Air Canada AC02. Just as packed as the flight on the way in, got through the 13 hours. Once again, do not recommend if you can afford Premium or Business class.
by Staplersarefun