We are so excited to finally be taking our previously planned Spring 2020 trip. Even better is that what was our 3 year old is a now 6 year old so no stroller or nap and less whining!
I have been reading itineraries for over 3 years planning this trip and I think I have the nerve to post our preliminary one and ask for some advice (please take it easy on me!). It’s unfortunately not as long of a trip as we had originally planned but now our daughter is in grade school so we have to follow her spring break schedule.
It will be me (36F), my husband (37m) and our daughter (6F). I didn’t really include every single meal since we will probably snack as we find food spots and other than Pokemon Cafe we don’t have reservations anywhere special. Feel free to suggest places if you think we are in a good area for a must eat!
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**March 28 (Travel)**
Land at Narita at 5pm.
Buy IC cards
Head to hotel in Shinjuku
Send husband out to grab some dinner at 7-11? Is that the right place to grab quick food?
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**March 29 (Tokyo)**
Ok I have been torn on what to do on our first day since we will be jetlagged and I don’t want to over plan. This could possibly be switched with the next day but in Harajuku we plan on going to a friends taproom and I know drinking with jetlag doesn’t mix well.
Wake up early (presumably), Grab coffee and breakfast (recs in Shinjuku or near Ueno? latte art for mom or something fun for kid)
Ueno Park
Asakusa
Kaminarimon
Nakamise Dori (lunch around here or after the temple, dependent on time)
Senso-ji
Sumida Park
Head back to hotel to rest and then maybe go to Shinjuku National Garden in the late afternoon if we aren’t exhausted.
Eat dinner in Shinjuku. Husband and I may take turns going out that night and/or the next for a drink in Golden Gai, would it be safe for a woman alone?
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**March 30 (Tokyo)**
Meiji Jingu
Yoyogi Park
Harajuku for lunch and fun shops
Shibuya crossing
Hachiko statue (a MUST for my daughter lol)
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**March 31 (Tokyo)**
Toyosu Market breakfast
10am TeamLab Planets resy
Gundam statue (but do I need to see this at night?)
4pm Pokemon Cafe resy
Pokemon center before or after resy
Imperial Palace grounds before or after resy
These bottom 2 will be switched depending on how much time we have before our reservation
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**April 1 (Kyoto)**
Head to Kyoto
Lunch at Nishiki Market
2pm Tea Ceremony
Check in to Ryokan
Hanamikoji Street
Yasaka Shrine
Maruyama Park for illuminated hanami
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**April 2 (Kyoto)**
Breakfast at Ryokan
Arashiyama Bamboo Forest (early morning)
Nonomiya-jinja Shrine
Tenryu-ji
Lunch
Monkey Park Iwatayama
Would going to Kinkaku-ji after all this be too much?
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**April 3 (Kyoto)**
Breakfast at Ryokan
Fushimi Inari (early morning)
Make our way north stopping along at shrines to Kyoto Imperial Palace
\*\*OR head to Nara for the day, after Fushimi, to see deer?
Head to Tokyo Bay in the evening
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**April 4 (Tokyo Bay)**
Tokyo Disneyland
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**April 5 (Tokyo Bay)**
Tokyo DisneySea
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**April 6 (Tokyo, Travel)**
\*Head to Tokyo for missed things. Akihabara? Viewing deck?
Depart at 6pm Narita
\*Is there anything else we are missing that we MUST do in Tokyo before leaving? I know there are 1,000,000 more things but I tried to keep it to basics that interest us, we will definitely come back again one day, hopefully without our child, or maybe even with the other 2 we are leaving home 😀 We have time before our flight on Day 9 so we could go to another neighborhood and put our luggage in a locker (I assume) and explore for a few hours.
Which would you recommend, Tokyo Tower or Skytree?
\*\*I worry that my daughter will get bored of shrines and temples, so I was wondering if it was too much to go to Nara that day after Fushimi and then head from Nara to our Disney hotel in Tokyo. If that is too much, what are some other things we can do in Kyoto before we leave. We are in no rush to get to Tokyo Bay since we are just checking in to the hotel in prep for Disney the next day.
We have a lot of early morning set in our schedule, our daughter (and twin babies that aren’t coming) tend to wake up VERY early everyday so it won’t really be a change to our normal schedule, don’t think we are doing it out of necessity lol. Plus, I have read to go early to certain spots during peak tourism time.
2 comments
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Hi!
On my daughter’s 2nd trip to Japan she was 6, and that is the trip we went to Nara. Mine really enjoyed feeding the deer and there is a hole through one of the beams in Todaiji which she enjoyed easily fitting herself through.
I also found that giving my daughter her own camera (it’s one of my old digital cameras) and letting her take pictures made temples, shrines and gardens a lot more fun. If you have any sort of old digital camera you can give it a shot.
Just make sure to go to Disney early. Lines can get long and it is very popular. Download the app ahead of time and have it set up with your entire party. It makes it easy if you decide to purchase any lPremier Passes (they’re the same as Lightning Lanes in the US.) Getting US Visa cards to work to buy tickets from the US for TDR didn’t work for me, but my Visa worked fine in Japan for Premier Passes.
My tween isn’t a morning person, except in Japan lol
At the Pokemon Cafe, make sure you stay there long enough for Pikachu (or Eevee) to come out. It’s usually towards the end of the 1.5 hour time slot.
Though it is counterintuitive, I would go to the Hachiko Statue first. You’re going to Japan during a holiday/school break time (at least on the 30th) and Shibuya can get super crowded and getting near the statue can be a challenge. Go before most of the shops have opened first thing in the morning and it will be much easier for your daughter to see it.
Breakfast can be sort of a challenge in Japan unless you like go somewhere like Starbucks or mister Donuts or a Combini. The general assumption is most people eat breakfast at home or in their hotels. Most hotels do not open their restaurants for breakfast to people not staying there. If your hotel in Shinjuku offers breakfast, I would see if I can add it to your reservation and eat there.
My tween likes Skytree, it has another Pokemon Center with slightly different merch than what is found in Nihombashi where the Pokemon Cafe is, and we went to the Kirby Cafe there. It’s a hard reservation to get, but there are a few take out options. We want to go early to get the drinks for the little straw charms. There is also a relatively large Ghibli shop outside and several levels of shops. It can get very very crowded.