2wk Japan Itinerary with a 6yr old – Help please! (Thanks!)

9 comments

1. You’re missing the best aquarium in the country in Osaka. I’d do that over anything near the castle.

   Nara and the bamboo forest (assuming Arashiyama here) are on totally opposite directions.

   If you’re going to go to Yokohama make it at least a half day. Theres a Pokemon center, amusement park and a bit of shopping that can be done.

   Shibuya, Shinjuku, and Harajuku could all probably be combined into one day. Perhaps take a day to Yokohama from here.

   Mabye consider fitting in a stop in Hakone? you can get a ryokan (and onsen) visit, and the Hakone loop has like 4 modes of transportation.

   Be aware, if you’re coming from the US, your kid will probably be ‘done’ around the early afternoon.

2. The first Wednesday is wayyy too crowded, don’t split the day with Kyoto and I’d pick two things – remember, you gotta eat too.

3. In Tokyo do an animal cafe! Meerkats, snakes, piglets, there’s so many to chose from

4. I’m in the initial planning stages for a trip to Japan with my wife and kids and I just wanted to say that I am glad I found your itinerary, there is a few things I didn’t know about.

   If I can just give a small bit of advice, if your child is not used to travelling, it’s a good idea to go to your nearest big city and walk a full day like you would on a big trip. I went on a trip for a long weekend with my kids a few hours away from my house with a similar day to what we usually do when we visit a new place and we were glad we did that, the kids knew what it would be like on a big trip overseas even though it was their first big 2 weeks trip.

5. Hi!

   I am a mother who went to Japan with my daughter when she was 6 (as well as a bunch of other ages) We also live in the US.

   A few bits of advice:

   Don’t go to Harajuku on a week end when it is the most crowded. It’s not fun. It’s just a huge crowd of people walking en masse and 20 minute lines to buy snacks. Why would you want to do that with a kid.

   And speaking of lines, why go to Tokyo Disney on a week end. It’s just going to be more crowded and the lines will be longer. The days I went were rated very low crowds with the crowd calendar and there will still long lines and crowds. Why would you want to increase those lines by going on a week end when you don’t have. Yes, I know you get the 15 minutes early entry, and yes it really does help, but there are limited paid rides, and once those are done you still have long lines on everything else.

   I will say the negative of tour groups is if your child is bored and done with the tour, it’s really hard to just exit the tour group. I would make sure the tour was oriented towards families with kids before I did any tour.

   I would pick hotels with larger rooms. because it is nice to have a larger space with kids. If you’re from the US, I found my daughter was up super early the first week in Japan and was out by 8:00 pm. Now that she is a tween, it’s a lot less extreme, but when she was 5 or 6, it was like 4 or 5 am every morning. It’s nice having a larger room for both those situations. It’s also nice knowing your breakfast options. I know a lot of people prefer to do cheaper places like Yoshinoya for breakfast, but sometimes hotel buffets can be really nice when it is 7:00 am and your kid has been up for an hour or two. The nice thing is most places have really low rates for kids under 7 for buffets.

   We collect fashion dolls, so we do a lot of fashion doll related things in Japan. If you think your daughter might be interested in something like that, let me know.

   I found for temples, giving her a camera to take her own pictures and collecting Goshuin with her, made it a lot more fun. At 6 mine still liked onsen. There are a few bathing suit onsen which are not really authentic but kids can definitely enjoy them a lot regardless.

   Mine use to love the Pokemon Cafe and still likes going to every Pokemon Center we can manage. Now, she is more into the Kirby Cafe for food, which is nice, because Kirby has better food, by a lot.

   If she likes feeling fancy, mine loves afternoon teas and fancy dessert buffets at fancy hotels. We’ve done 3 so far.

   Good luck!

6. If you go to the aquarium in Osaka you should either buy your tickets online or get there as soon as it opens to buy tickets because they stagger admission. I got there maybe 45 minutes after it opened and my admission time was 315pm and I had to kill four hours. There is a shopping center, Lego discovery center, and Ferris wheel right next to the aquarium so if you can’t get tickets for the time you want there are activities.

7. I never visited the Pokémon Café, but I’m 99% sure you need a reservation for it. Just keep that in mind before you go there and they’ll tell you that there are no empty seats left. (Perhaps you already knew that, just wanted to make sure you know that)

8. Few little points, there is a little mermaid statue near osaka aquarium. Not super fun but might as well.
   While going to disneyland there is a hotel Henn nn Hotel Maihama which has robot dinosaurs that check you in and a cave like dining. You can get rooms with 3 beds there and it’s 15min walk to disneyland.
   Alice in fantasy is a themed restaurant in tokyo that you might also like.
   When you get tired and need a rest and relax try rooftop seibu above Ikebukuro train station.

9. My wife and I are currently traveling in Japan with our 7 year old. We stayed at the Mimaru Asakusa location and loved it. Literally on top of a Family Mart and the Asakusa subway station so it’s super convenient for getting around. Staff was very nice and helpful and the room was a decent size for the three of us. Our son liked the bunk bed as he slept on the bottom and had a little hang out area on the top. The view from the rooftop patio was amazing too, especially at night.

   We’d definitely stay there again.