Hi! Me (28f), my husband (33m), and our daughter (1f) will be visiting Japan from September 25th – October 10th.
I'm excited for anime merch, wacky/cliche tourist experiences, and feeding the deer in Nara. He's big on anime, historically significant places, and can read hiragana and have very basic conversations.
Fitnesswise, I'd say I'm on the low side of average. I'm hoping to go on lots of walks and practice my stair climbing over the next few weeks. My husband is the king of cardio (runs over 30k a week). We were planning on having me push the baby in a travel stroller whenever possible, then he will baby wear and carry the diaper backpack when needed (which will probably be most of the time). I'll carry the stroller in a backpack.
https://a.co/d/9Yiuct7
We're an interracial couple – brown woman and a white man. I've read that sometimes interracial marriages are frowned upon? I've also heard rumors about men shoving foreign women into walls??
We were also planning on hiring a babysitter to watch the baby at our hotel for a few days. This is the company we found: https://babysitters.jp/en/
Does anyone have any good/bad experience with this?
Here's what we were thinking:
DAY 1
- Flight from Canada to Tokyo
- Check into hotel in Ikebukuro
- Recover
DAY 2
- Fish market
- teamLab Planets
- Akihabara (maiddreamin, super potato)
- Suggestions for dinner?
DAY 3 (babysitter)
- teamLab borderless
- Shibuya crossing ("the roof" sky bar)
- Pepper parlor robot cafe
- Kabukicho
DAY 4
- Sensoji temple
- Nakamise Shopping Street
- Sumo show restaurant
- Tokyo nation museum
- Dinner suggestions?
DAY 5 (babysitter)
- Shinjuku Samurai Restaurant (rip robot restaurant, this was the next best thing I could find)
- Otome Road
- Swallowtail Cafe lunch
- Sunshine City mall (pokemon floor!!)
- Convenience store dinner
DAY 6
- Meiji Shrine
- Takeshita Street (rainbow food!)
- Revisit area of our choice
- Tenka Zushi dinner (conveyer belt sushi!)
DAY 7
- Romancecar train to Hakone
- Lunch suggestions in Yumoto?
- Check into ryokan
- Take turns watching baby and relaxing in Yu No Sato onsens (they're definitely too hot for a baby, right?)
DAY 8
- Heiwa no Torii
- Pirate Cruise
- Owaku-dani Valley (black egg!)
- Open Air Museum
- Kowaki-en Yunessun (onsen theme park)
DAY 9
- Relax a bit more
- Train to Kyoto
- Check into downtown hotel
- Sunset hike up Kiyomizu-dera Temple
- Dinner suggestions?
DAY 10 (babysitter)
- Kimono Rental
- Tea Ceremony
- Kaiseki Lunch (suggestions near Gion Corner? Chefs that speak English and cost less than $400?)
- Walk around
- Pokemon center
- Daimaru Basement Food Floor dinner
DAY 11
- Fushimi Inari Shrine
- Sanjusangen-do Temple
- Gear Show (special infants allowed matinee show)
- Pochonto Alley
DAY 12 (very busy day, we're just trying to walk through all these places quickly)
- Ryoan-ji Hojo Teien
- Kinkaku-ji
- Taxi to Otagi Nenbutsuji Temple
- Adashino Nenbutsu-ji Temple (secret bamboo grove)
- Saga Toiimoto Preserved Street (Rakushisha)
- Jurakuan (small noodle shop) lunch
- Okochi Sanso Garden House
- Bamboo walkway
- Nonomiya Shrine (kosazuke amulet)
- Kimono forest
- Dinner suggestions?
DAY 13
- Iwatayama Monkey Park
- Togetsu-kyō Bridge
- Tenryu-ji (dragon painting)
- Travel to Osaka
- Check into hotel
- Explore Shinsekai and Dotonbori, sample foods
DAY 14
- Himeji Castle, Arima Onsen, Mt. Rokko 1-Day Bus Tour
DAY 15
- Train to Nara
- Tōdai-ji (buddha)
- Nigatsu Hall
- Tamukeyama Hachimangu
- Nara Park (deer!!)
- Naramachi Nigiwai-no-le (historical house)
- Mochiidono Shopping Street
- Train back to Osaka
DAY 16
- Flight back to Canada
Hotels:
* MIMARU TOKYO IKEBUKURO
* Hotel Okada Hakone
* HOTEL MYSTAYS Kyoto Shijo
* Hotel Monterey Grasmere Osaka
by RiddikulusNicole