Please advice if this plan is too ambitious for family travel in October

11 comments

1. Not sure if I missed but would definitely recommend you go to an animate or other stores. Lots of spy family and demon slayer merch around! And/or keep an eye on gatcha machines

2. the 20th, 23rd and 25th all seem like you’d literally just be ticking off the list instead of experiencing any of the sights. You should cut these days in half imo.

3. This is definitely too much imo. Seems like you’re just cramming stuff in. There’s no way you’re going to be able to do that especially with children unless it’s like arrive, mark it off the list that you’ve seen it and then on to the next destination.

4. Way too much

5. There’s the Warner Bros. Studio Tour Tokyo – The Making of Harry Potter which has some built in sets you can explore and such

6. You would have to be constantly jogging throughout your trip to do what you want to do.

   You will be lucky if you get half of it done. Especially with kids.

7. Is there any standalone Harry Potter themed place to visit? :

   Yes, the Warner Bros Studios Tour in Tokyo.

8. Just want to check- are you getting the JR pass before you leave? There is a massive price increase after 30 Sep. I don’t think it will be worthwhile for your trip after the price increase. Even if you do get it before September, I don’t see the JR pass being cost efficient for you.
   You can check [here](https://www.japan-guide.com/railpass/)- do note that hakone/Kawaguchiko is not covered fully by the JR pass.

   Best to just get a [welcome suica](https://www.jreast.co.jp/multi/en/welcomesuica/welcomesuica.html) at the airport and buy tickets individually.

   Kawaguchiko >hakone— did you check the journey? It’s not very easily accessible by transport. You should pick either hakone or Kawaguchiko.

9. As you wrote in your update, it’s better to remove a few things.

   For Tokyo, I’m not sure what to remove, so I will start from 10-22:

   – After checkout from your hotel, what are you going to do with your luggage?

   – When I went to see Mt. Fuji a long time ago, it was disappointing, because it was foggy and nothing to see. But YMMV

   – 10-23: Remove Tempozan (nothing special there) because the Aquarium will take half a day at least, and be careful it’s not a weekday or holiday, otherwise there will be a long line. You can also remove Kita District, and depending on how tired your kids are, one of the remaining two spots.

   – 10-25 and 10-26: I would try to visit Fushimi Inari half a day and Arashiyama half a day. If you take a taxi in between, it should be no problem. Climbing up Fushimi Inari all the way to the top can be exhausting. Which leaves you with a full day in Nara to enjoy the deer, and have some relaxing time in the parks.

   – 10-27: Why do you want to see Tokyo Big Sight, it’s just an exhibition hall, or is there an event going on?

10. Hi!

    I am a mother who travels to Japan with her tween daughter and we are both vegetarians.

    The 22nd is completely impossible.

    Kawaguchiko is a good 2+ hours from Tokyo. It’s another 2 hours between Kawaguchiko and Hakone, you then want to do the full loop and take a train to Kyoto?!? I think that will be very hard. I think doing the full loop and and Kawaguchiko in one day is very hard. I think you need to do one or the other. I think getting to Kyoto on the same day will be hard because both Mishima (the station the bus from Kawaguchiko goes into and Odawara the closest shinkansen station to Hakone, only have Hikari trains every 2 hours. You could maybe take a Kodama, but most end in Nagoya so you still have an additional 45 minute trip to get to Kyoto and then you need to get to where you are staying. That might be a really long day. From Kawaguchiko, you are almost better off going back to Tokyo and taking a shinkansen from there. It’s 6 of one or half dozen of the other.

    Unless there is some specific place you are eating or some specific activity like a cafe or a museum, Roppongi is sort of boring for kids. At night it is a lot of night clubs and bars. We went to Akasaka and then walked to Roppongi to take a subway, but we were specifically going to the (now closed) Sailor Moon Museum. That was her 6th trip to Japan and the only time I’ve taken her to Roppongi because it’s not really somewhere to take a kid just because.

    I only took her to Big Sight to go to an event there. I would not take her just because

    We only spent about 2 hours at the Osaka Aquarium. My daughter loves aquariums but it wasn’t as extensive as others we have been to and it gets very crowded.

    I don’t know which vegetarian recommendations you are looking at, but just be careful some places don’t like kids or have age limits. Uzu ramen is delicious and the one near Planets is easy to visit, but the one in Kyoto requires your kids to be over a certain age because of tripping hazards. The Ain Soph Journey in Kyoto gave by then 6 year old a lot of dirty looks even though she spent most of the meal reading.

    Good luck!

11. Sadly this year the fall leaves will be later than usual. You can check the forecast from this website. And they will update very regularly: https://n-kishou.com/corp/news-contents/autumn/?lang=en

    There are other websites which you can compare. Google is good place to check out the websites.

    Also it is better to book tickets for very popular places like Shibuya Sky.