Hello, first of all thank you for your advice. We are a family of 5, kids will be 10,14, and 17 when we go. This is our “big family trip” before the kids start moving out. I am really looking forward to it but want to get it right! We are planning on 10 days total.
Main items I would really appreciate feedback on:
\- Advice on travel, good ways to get from one place to the next
\- Advice on good places to stay for 5 people
\- Input on any family-friendly sites we’re missing
\- Input on good places to eat for kids that don’t love seafood. (We will try to get them out of their comfort zone, but there are limits!)
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Itinerary (haven’t bought any tickets yet but need to soon!)
**Day 1:** Fly into Tokyo (recommendation on airport would be appreciated). Check into hotel
**Day 2 (Tokyo**):
\- Would be nice to get an overview of the city to help orient ourselves (if that’s possible) Maybe visit Tokyo Tower? Is there another tall building that would help us get oriented?
\- Ueno park, walk around, see the sites. Seems a more chill spot to get eased into Tokyo.
\- Afternoon – Akihabara, see electronics shops?
**Day 3 (Tokyo):**
\- Disney Sea
**Day 4 (Tokyo):**
\- Asakusa shops and Senso-Ji Temple
\- Harajuku street life
**Day 5:**
\- Travel to Kyoto
**Day 6 (Kyoto):**
\- Arashiyama Monkey Park
**Day 7 (Kyoto):**
\- Other suggestions (I want to see other parts of the country besides Tokyo, just haven’t figure out what is good for kids yet…) ?
**Day 8 (Kyoto)**
\- Other suggestions in Kyoto or if there is another city/town nearby would be open to that. However would like to minimize checking into/out of hotels.
**Day 9:**
Head back to Tokyo
**Day 10:**
Fly home
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I know this is a barebones itinerary, but I have been trying to plan this for a while and am not making much progress. Would love any input/advice you have.
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Thank you in advance!
7 comments
Check the timing of golden week.
Have you bought tickets to Tokyo yet? I’d highly recommend flying into Haneda if possible. It doesn’t take long to get to Shibuya/Asakusa/other parts of Tokyo. Narita will take 1.5 hours ish.
As far as places to stay, with a group of 5, Airbnb is one of the best ways to go. You can find some decently priced ones even right in the city.
Restaurants: there are so many options that don’t include seafood! I hate all fish and seafood, and nearly every restaurant i went to had a ramen, beef, fried chicken, rice etc.. option unless it was a sushi specific restaurant.
For Day 2, I highly recommend Tokyo Skytree. It is the tallest building in Tokyo (i believe? or tallest that the public has access to, anyway) and is STUNNING at night, good during the day but for the money it’s worth it to go during sunset if possible.
My suggestions for Kyoto:
* Fushimi Inari Taisha, one of the most famous attractions (excellent if your kids like to be active)
* There are some really good karaoke places near Kyoto station for super cheap. I think for a family of 5 for two hours, it would be maybe $20 or so if you go to Jankara (type into google maps and it’ll show up right next to Kyoto station)
* There is a fun aquarium there, kids get discounted tickets!
* Nishiki market. It gets really crowded so I’d recommend going around 10 or 11am, they have yummy fried chicken, sweets, etc.. as well as an owl cafe, cat cafe and shiba cafe where you can pet and learn about the animals.
* Maruyama park: extremely beautiful and just super fun to walk around!
Day 8: There is a place called Nara Park not too far from Kyoto, maybe an hour or so by train. It is a very large park with THOUSANDS of wild deer. you can feed them, pet them, bow and they’ll bow back. If i was a kid, I’d remember going there for the rest of my life because how stinking cool is it to pet deer! Go as early as you can to beat the crowds, and then stop at the Mcdonalds close by for some ice cream before heading home 🙂
Honestly, that’s just a basic list of recommendations. I spent a long time in Japan so let me know if you have more holes in your itinerary or have questions!
For hotels, look at the Mimaru brand. The rooms are huge, and have full kitchens too. Free laundry as well.
There will be plenty to do in Kyoto for three days (it’s actually a pretty big city, just not as big as Tokyo because nothing is haha)! The other major sites in Kyoto that people usually hit are Kinkakuji (Golden Pavillion, can be the done the same day as Arashiyama), Fushimi Inari (hike with thousands of red torii gates, on the opposite end of the city from Kinkakuji), and Kiyomizudera (pretty wooden temple with a fantastic view).
But if your kids get burnt out on the temples and shrines, you can always take a day trip down to Osaka and visit the aquarium, which is super impressive. There’s also Universal Studios Japan down there, but not sure if you want to do two theme parks in one trip.
Nara is also a day trip option, and while it’s more shrines and temples, there are also the free-roaming deer which might be fun for the kids.
It’s actually very easy to avoid seafood in Japan. Ramen, curry, tonkatsu…plenty of things to eat that aren’t sushi!
Best way to get from Tokyo to Kyoto and back is the shinkansen (bullet train). Don’t get the JR pass because it won’t be worth it for you, especially with the recent price increase. For everyday travel, if your kids have their own smart phones, everyone can download the Suica card to their wallet, which will work for tapping on and tapping off all subways and buses. If not, I believe you can still get the physical cards at the airport but only at the airport. Everyone needs to have their own card (whether it’s physical or on a phone). You can’t tap into a station with the same card twice to count for two people, if that makes sense. Google maps makes navigating the subways and buses pretty easy, and all signs and announcements will be in both Japanese and English.
With the amount of luggage you’ll have for five people, I highly recommend luggage forwarding. Just bring your luggage down to the hotel front desk, and they’ll send your luggage to the next hotel so you don’t have to take it on the train. It’s very affordable (about $10-15 for a large suitcase, less if the suitcase is smaller). It takes a day from Tokyo to Kyoto so you’ll need to plan one night of not having your luggage (we just put everything we needed for one night in a small backpack). If you don’t do luggage forwarding, you’ll need to reserve shinkansen luggage space ahead of time.
For Tokyo:
Visit the Tokyo Municipal Government Building (in Shinjuku) to view the city. It’s free, doesn’t require reservations, and has good views of Mt. Fuji on clear days. (You can see my house from there, too.) SkyTree is fine, but you have to buy tickets to get in and (I think) still have to make reservations. Alas, as for orienting yourself by looking at the city from above, it’s hopeless. The views are pretty, though.
Akihabara is no longer a good place to see electronics shops unless you’re interested in used things or parts. The area just south of Shinjuku Station has several huge shops that should suffice for electronics-stuff viewing.
Our child is 10 and likes the National Museum of Nature and Science in Ueno. He also enjoys the nearby Ameyoko shopping area (the site of the black market stalls that sold stolen US military supplies during the occupation period). Both places are also interesting for 17-year-olds and adults, too.
Asakusa and Harajuku are on opposite sides of the downtown, so if you want to go to both it would be more convenient to schedule them for different days.
As for food, you will have no trouble anywhere in Tokyo with finding foods that everyone will like. Nearly all of the 60,000 to 100,000 restaurants in the city are good or better, and soba, udon, and tempura shops will have Japanese (or Japaneseish) food that does not include seafood.
If you’re looking for a quieter day out that doesn’t involve a lot of travel, consider going to a place called ‘Nihon Minka-En’, a collection of folk houses from around Japan on display in a large park in north Kawasaki, just across the river from Tokyo. (Including train travel and walking, it takes less than an hour to reach from Shinjuku Station.) The park sometimes has craft demonstrations/lessons, and on the grounds there is also a science museum and planetarium and an are museum devoted to the works of Okamoto Taro. Again, this is a place with things that will interest a good range of ages.
Day 7 would be too short, try visiting Fushimi Inari as well. Or try to squeeze the Kiyomizu Dera temple and the Yasaka Pagoda. On day 8 try Fusihimi Inari then head to Nara Park afterwards
– Advice on travel, good ways to get from one place to the next
Use Google Maps it will tell you what train/subway/bus to take.
– Input on good places to eat for kids that don’t love seafood.
It’s really not hard to avoid seafood, there is a LOT of options of dished that do not include it… likely even more options without than with. If you cannot find anything, put the name of a dish in Google Maps and it should give you options of restaurants.
Tokyo have 2 airports, Haneda and Narita. Haneda is closer, so if you can, pick it, but if it’s significantly cheaper or easier to fly in Narita, there is also fast train connecting the airport to the city.
Tokyo Tower would not be my first choice of observation deck. Roppongi Hills Mori Tower or Shibuya Sky would be my choice. However, it could make more sense to go to Tokyo Skytree, then pass by Asakusa on the way to Ueno and Akihabara as all these places are king of close to each other. Like it make no sense to do Asakusa and Harajuku on the same day considering they are in opposite side of the city. Of do Harajuku on the first day and do Shibuya Sky on that day as it’s nearby.
Would check to add a daytrip to Nara from Kyoto.