Hello! Planning my family's first ever trip to Japan. Three of us, kiddo is 11y and very into anime. Favorite shows are One Piece, Demon Slayer, and My Hero Academia. Unfortunately unless we pull him out of school for a few days the only time we can travel is summer, but we'd probably aim for late June/early July.
Flying from Washington DC area. The order of the Tokyo days or Osaka/Kyoto days doesn't really matter.
DAY 1 – TOKYO
Arrive, check into hotel
DAY 2 – TOKYO
TeamLab Borderless (if we can get tickets), Tokyo Tower, Tsukiji Market
DAY 3 – TOKYO
Shibuya (crossing, Meiji-Jingo shrine), Harajuku, Shinjuku, Ikebukuro/Sunshine City Mall
DAY 4 – TOKYO
Samurai Ninja Museum, Senso-ji temple, Skytree Tower, Akihabara for anime shopping
DAY 5 – TOKYO
Ghibli Museum (if we can get tickets), anything else? Otherwise we could cut a day…
DAY 6 – TRAVEL TO OSAKA
Take the bullet train. Explore Osaka shopping areas (Americamura, Dotonburi, Orange Street, Denden Town)
DAY 7 – NARA
Todaiji Temple & Nara Park
DAY 8 – OSAKA
Aquarium Kaiyukan
DAY 9 – OSAKA
Universal Studios
DAY 10 – OSAKA
Himeji Castle, or Osaka Castle, or Museum of Housing and Living
DAY 11 – KYOTO
Gion, Nishiki Market, (Samurai Ninja Museum if didn't do it in Tokyo), Nijo Castle
DAY 12 – KYOTO
Nintendo Museum (if can get tickets) or Toei Studio Park, or else maybe Fushimi Inari shrine, Philosopher's Path or just explore Kyoto some more
DAY 13 – TRAVEL DAY
Take bullet train back to Tokyo, unless we can find reasonable flights out of Osaka
DAY 14 – TRAVEL DAY
Fly home, unless we flew home from Osaka day before
Questions:
- Would Tokyu Stay Ginza be a good place to stay? I like the idea of in-room laundry, and it seems pretty convenient to the various places we need to get to. Can we get a triple room?
- Should we split up our Tokyo itinerary to bookend the trip?
- Should we stay in Osaka then relocate to Kyoto or just stay in Osaka the whole time?
- Is it best to fly direct from the US East Coast, or take a connecting flight from the US West Coast?
- It seems like there are fewer flight options from Osaka, or that they're a lot more expensive, so is it worth looping back to Tokyo to depart?
Thanks all!
by IrisEyez
