Hi all. Currently planning our first family trip (2 adults and a 7 year old) to japan.
We are interested in anime stuff like One Piece (son is a huge fan).
Would like to have any feedback or recommendations on the below plan.
In particular if there’s any restaurants that we can check out along our routes.
Thanks in advance!
Day 1 (29 Nov, Wed)
\[Morning\] Arrive in Nagoya about 8-ish. Travel to Courtyard Nagoya via private airport transfer\[Late Morning – Noon\] Rest up + Lunch in the area
\[Afternoon\] Nagoya Science Museum
\[Evening\] Walkabout in Osu + Dinner
Day 2 (30 Nov, Thu)
\[Morning – Evening\] Ghibli Park: Ghibli Warehouse / Mononoke Village
Evening\] Dinner along the way back, any suggested ares to check out?
Day 3 (Dec 1, Fri)
\[Morning\] Breakfast tbd, Port of Nagoya Public Aquarium
\[Afternoon\] Lunch tbd, SCMaglev and Railway Park after.
\[Evening\] D\] ??, or back to hotel to rest
Day 4 (Dec 2, Sat)
\[Morning\] Shinkansen to Shin-Kobe to pick up at 9ish, drive to Mount Rokko
\[Morning – Afternoon\] Ski lesson + self ski, maybe check out places around Mount Rokko
\[Evening\] Return vehicle at Osaka station, check out Round 1 Stadium if not too tired, then check in hotel (Hilton Osaka)
Day 5 (Dec 3, Sun)
\[Whole day\] Day trip to Kyoto, Ararshiyama monkey park, walkabout in Higashiyama old town district.
\[Evening\] Wondering if we can squeeze in TeamLab Botanica here?
Day 6 (Dec 4, Mon)
\[Morning – Afternoon\] Kidzania (9am – 3pm) for the kid
\[Evening\] Round 1 Stadium (if we did not check it out on Sat)
Day 7 (Dec 5, Tue)
\[Whole day\] USJPlanning to arrive 730am-ish, to enter Nintendo World without time entry and go direct to Mario Kart to skip the queues. It’s the only ride we target which we dont have the express pass for. This plan will work?
Day 8 (Dec 6, Wed)
\[Morning\] Shinkansen to Tokyo, rest up, check in if possible (Conrad Tokyo)
\[Afternoon\] Lunch in Shibuya / Harajuku area, then spend 1 hr. at MiPig cafe
\[Rest of day\] Shopping and walkabout in Omotesando
Day 9 (Dec 7, Thu)
\[Morning to Early Afternoon\] Ghibli Museum if we can get the tickets in Lawson in Japan / CapyNeko Cafe, then walk aroound the area (e.g. Inokashira park)
\[Rest of day\] Nakano Broadway
Day 9 (Dec 8, Fri)
\[Morning\] Toyosu market, then Teamlab Planets
\[Rest of day\] Akihabara
Day 10 (Dec 9, Sat)
\[Morning\] Breakfast at Ginza Muji
\[Rest of day\] Ginza, Art Aquarim, Yoyogi Park + Shibuya area
Day 11 (Dec 10, Sun)
\[Whole day\] Yokohama: Cup noodle museum, Gundam Factory
Anything else we can fill in here?
Day 12 (Dec 11, Mon)
\[Morning-Afternoon\] Asakusa the Ueno.
\[Evening\] Travel to Hilton Narita (early flight)
Is it worth going to Narita are earlier to check out the town before heading to the hotel?
Day 13 – Flight home in the morning.
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3 comments
Just chiming in on the USJ and One Piece portion 🙂
Reaching USJ at 7.30am should allow you to walk in to Nintendo world without timed tickets. But just register your ticket on the app and get a timed entry for early noon too once you enter the park. Because if you are planning to eat at Kinopio Cafe, you can exit Nintendo world to do other rides and enter back later with the timed ticket. And do get the timed meal entry tickets at the entrance of Kinopio, after you finish the mario ride.
On One Piece, there is actually a One Piece official store at Daimaru Shinsaibashi in Osaka (Osaka Pokémon cafe is there too) and also a Shonen Jump Store at Hep Five. But don’t think you can squeeze it in during your Osaka day, so check out the Jump store in Daimaru Tokyo instead (13 or 14th floor). Otherwise, Tokyo station basement 1 has a Character street with a Jump store, Ghibli store etc.
Have a good trip!
Also on the One Piece track…the flagship Mugiwara store in Shibuya is…okay. I didn’t find much there besides can badges, there’s not a lot of figures or shirts, so if the kid has particular collecting wants/needs, it’s still worth a stop just to say he’s been but look for better merch at Nakano Broadway, any Book Off (cheap secondhand goods and tax-free win!), and Uniqlo for shirts. Even the Jump stores are meh, though the decor is cool and it’s fun to look at. So, if you’re planning Akihabara instead of Shinjuku or Ikebukuro thinking he’s going to find good One Piece shopping, reconsider or do specific research into the “top” stores in the area for shonen series merch. He’ll have decent opportunities to gawk and shop in Shibuya.
Shame you don’t have time to trave to Kumamoto but oh well. Unlike series set specifically in Japan, One Piece doesn’t have any other special locations tied to the series worth visiting. Just shopping. Highly recommend Book Offs, I spent SO MUCH at every one of them.
Please don’t patronize those awful animal cafés. The animals are kept in poor, unhealthful, and inhumane conditions and are badly stressed by the human traffic. The only reason they are allowed to exist is that Japan has weak animal welfare laws. The ‘Mipig’ café is particularly egregious, as the pigs are chronically and systematically underfed to keep them small. When they become too large, they are killed.
If you need to see animals, both Inokashira Park and Ueno Park have zoos; Inokashira Park does have a petting area, but I don’t recall if Ueno Zoo does.