Hi. I’m not really into Japan and I shy away from urban, crowded, touristic areas, but my son likes disney, pokemon, Mario, and we love sushi and we haven’t vacationed in a while. Also curious to see DisneyLand + he’s never been on a rollercoaster. Here is my plan with some comments at the end. The plan is purely made for his maximum enjoyment so only kid friendly activities.
Day 1: Arrival, get PASMO passports (credit card-apple pay didn’t work) and practice using it.
Day 2: DisneyLand.
Day 3: DisneySea.
Day 4: DisneyLand.
Day 5: train to Osaka, see the aquarium there, ferris wheel.
Day 6: Universal Studios inc. Nintendo World (only reason we’re going to Osaka).
Day 7: Osaka Castle Park. Take train back to Tokyo.
Day 8: Ueno park, museums, zoo (see panda). Akihabara and some shops (Super Potato, yodobashi akiba)
Day 9: teamLab borderless, some toy stores (kobayashi, hakuhinkan toy park, …)
Day 10: REEAST room, Nintendo Tokyo, Pokemon Center, Kiddy Land, Meiji Shrine
Day 11: Ninja Trick House, Samurai Museum, Godzilla Head (we pass it on the way), Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden, Don Quijote (two near locations)
Day 12: Full day Fuji Tour, should relax on the bus. Took the english guide version.
Day 13: Sumo practice, Senso ji, souvenir shopping, chilling
Day 14: Odaiba -> unko museum, small worlds, gundam statue+base, whatever else we like there (tussads, sega arcade stuff, joyopolis,….
Day 15: Departure
– I prebooked some tickets, the rest can only be booked 1 month or 1 week prior.
– Can’t use credit card for disney resort. Bought day tickets via klook. Guess no premium pass for us.
– Will pack hats and sun screen.
– Some things in the schedule can be cancelled if we feel tired. Some can be done on different days if we have free time.
– We wanted to go to some fine dining but every michelin star restaurant I looked at doesn’t accept kids. He is 8 years old. I will ask the concierge for best restaurants that would accept kids. We only like sushi pretty much. No tempora, no weird sea animals, no spice or soy.
– Laundry and dry cleaning will be handled by the hotels we’re staying at. Same for luggage storage (e.g. tokyo hotel will store luggage while we’re in Osaka).
– I’m tall, brown, big beard, mohawk, from the middle east. Experienced racism in some east and southeast asian countries, and cars would stop sometimes to take pictures of me like i’m a circus freak. Will Japan be the same? I already spent 3 weeks going through a gruelling visa process.
– Some activities involve using the metro early. When is the time where everyone is completely stuck together on the train? So I use a taxi instead.
– I took some Japanese classes over 10 years ago. Do I need anything more than hello, thanks, excuse me, how much, what time?
– Anything to do in Ginza? Are the clothes there unique from any ultra luxury stores I can already buy elsewhere?
Thanks for any help
**EDIT:**
Flight leaves/arrives @ Narita airport. Will take skyliner to tokyo station then taxi. On the return will take taxi direct (I assume we’ll have full luggage from souvenirs).
Hotels:
first 4 nights -> Grand Nikko Tokyo Bay Maihama \[right next to Disney resorts\]
Osaka 2 nights -> THE SINGULARI HOTEL & SKYSPA at UNIVERSAL STUDIOS JAPAN \[right next to the studios\]
Last 8 nights -> Accor Pullman Tokyo @ Tamachi \[next to train station, central from everything\]
by forgotPSS