Hey everyone – Planning a 2 week trip to Japan in Mid-February with my wife, 2 year-old son, and in-laws. Would love feedback as well as any tips or ideas to make it fun and interesting.
**Some random things:**
* Our interests are generally to get a sense of the local culture and history with temples and palaces, but one is usually enough. We would rather devote more of our time to seeing cool, unique sights and experiences if possible. Also, since we are spending half the trip in Kyoto, I’m thinking we would be best off seeing more modern sights while in Tokyo.
* We like experiences, great food, fun characters, cool sights. None of us are big fans of Pokemon or anime. I love Nintendo though and our son has enjoyed seeing Mario videos since we started showing him some in prep for Universal (which we’ve now nixed since he won’t be tall enough for any of the rides. Kind of crazy that Yoshi’s adventure requires 92cm…)
* In-laws like to shop. They are also very easy going so they’ve asked me to plan the itinerary and they will join us, and split off if they want to do their own thing, which will likely be shopping based.
* We haven’t determined how often we can do it, but we are going to try and get a few nights in Tokyo and leave the in-laws back at home while we go out and check out some bars and night life. In-laws are not interested in bars and night-life. We aren’t either generally but we want to get out at least a couple times while in Tokyo since we know Kyoto isn’t really known for it.
* It’s kind of tough to explore a city when every afternoon you have to set aside 2-3 hours. Luckily he naps well in the stroller, but its very tough to get him to nap when he’s out because he’s so curious and loves looking around, so sometimes he won’t go down until 2 or 3, and then we have to limit him to an hour so it doesn’t screw up his night time routine.
* Anyone have any good ideas for tours or experiences that would be suitable for a kid? Samurai shows? Character based?
* In Kyoto, since it will be cold, I would love to take more advantage of the hot springs. If anyone can think of ways to insert more of this into our Kyoto itinerary would love to hear it. Having our in-laws take our son for the day or half a day would probably be no issue. Is there a close half-day trip somewhere outside of Kyoto that people would recommend?
\——————————————–Itinerary—————————————————–
**Sunday Feb 11th**
* Arrive in Haneda around 11am (we have a short flight from Asia in the same time zone so we will not have any jet lag)
* Travel to hotel and Check in to – Sheraton Grande Tokyo Bay Hotel near Disney
* Hoping to check in early so son can nap in the hotel until around 3
* After nap, plan to explore the area a bit around Disney. I guess their version of Disney springs. Id anyone has ideas would be open to getting outside Disney though! Stuff around Odaiba looks like about 30-40 min by train so if there’s anything closer we’ll try that.
* **Monday Feb 12th**
* Breakfast at the hotel
* Disneyland
* Likely returning to the hotel for the nap and then going back in the evening until after night parade \~8. If the weather is nice we may try and stick it out and have him nap in stroller
* Dinner in the park
**Tuesday Feb 13th**
* DisneySea
* Generally the same itinerary as above
**Wednesday Feb 14th**
* Breakfast at hotel
* Check-out and train to AirBnb near Ueno station (Don’t have the exact location but apparently it’s about a 5 minute walk
* Lunch nearby and then nap
* After he wakes up will walk around Ueno Park or maybe Yamashiro until In-laws arrive
* Dinner Nearby
**Thursday Feb 15th**
* Morning Teamlabs Planets or maybe Borderless if it’s open?
* Taxi to Ginza to get lunch (10 min)
* Train back home to Ueno and take nap
* After nap, explore Ueno park until in-laws arrive \~4-5pm from the US
* Dinner near Ueno
* Depending on how in-laws our feeling, we may try and get out and see some night life after little man goes down to sleep and they rest at the Airbnb.
**Friday Feb 16th**
* Breakfast at Benitsuru – heard this was a good fluffy pancake spot?
* Senso-ji
* Nakamise-dori street for food
* Back to airbnb to nap
* Train to Tokyo skytree in evening and reserve tickets to go up
* Check out Pokemon Center nearby
* Dinner nearby and then train home
**Saturday Feb 17th**
* Assuming this will be a day where jetlag starts to set in and they feel rough so will stay closer and explore Ueno park in the morning
* Zoo (although I’ve heard this is depressing? and we’ve definitely seen some awesome zoos before so don’t care that much unless it’s special)
* Science museum
* Lunch near Ueno and then Nap at home
* After nap either go to Imperial palace and/or Ginza to shop- whatever people are feeling like doing and are up to
* Dinner in Ginza and then Train home
**Sunday Feb 18th**
* Looking for ideas here. I’m thinking that the in-laws can take a day trip to Lake Kawaguchi and Mt Fuji if they want. We don’t plan to do that because my family generally don’t do well on buses and would love to cut down on travel if possible. If you guys think this is a worthwhile trip and wouldn’t be too bad for a 2 year old, maybe we do this as well
* If we don’t go, i’m thinking maybe we go to Odaiba
* National Museum of Science and innovation
* Diver City
* Teamlabs Borderless?
* Nap in stroller
* Walk across Rainbow bridge while son naps
* Tokyo Tower
* Anything else in the evening?
* Dinner nearby and then train home
**Monday Feb 19th**
* Train to Shibuya station in the morning
* Hachiko statue
* Shibuya crossing
* Nintendo store
* Lunch
* Stay out for nap – wander and explore
* Head north a bit to Harajuku
* Meiji Jingu
* Takeshita street
* Anakuma cafe – saw this on Instagram and looks hilarious haha.
* Dinner Nearby and then train home
**Tuesday Feb 20th**
* Semi-early Shinkansen to Kyoto
* Lunch near Airbnb which is close to Gojo station
* Will ask Airbnb if we can check-in early to nap once we arrive to Nap
* Explore neighborhood and get dinner nearby
**Wednesday Feb 21st**
* Early morning to Fushimi inari – think this is about 20 minutes via train?
* What else should we try and do in the morning? I’ve heard this can take a while and is worth taking your time but guess that all depends on having a toddler or not haha I will plan to carry since I know strollers are not ideal
* Head back to Airbnb and nap
* Any ideas for the afternoon for something that would take about half a day? Ninenzaka looked interesting
**Thursday Feb 22nd**
* Nara Day trip
* Nap while out so will have whole day
* Is this a good use of a full day? Should it be a half day? We don’t need to see everything there is to see
* The alternative would be to spend a half day in Nara, and then come back in the evening and see if our in-laws would be interested in taking over babysitting while we go out and explore some more natural areas further outside of Kyoto. Or make a trip to Osaka and explore the city a little
**Friday Feb 23rd**
* Kyoto for full day- want to hit below spots. Will see how timing works on whether or not it makes sense to go back to nap
* Arashiyama Bamboo Grove
* Arashiyama Monkey Park
* Tenryuji Temple
* Kinkaku-ji Golden Temple
**Saturday Feb 24th**
* Will want to keep this day relatively open to be flexible
* Things or experiences we would like to do before we leave
* Spend some time at a relaxing onsen (will talk with in-laws about looking after toddler)
* Just kind of wander around to see Geisha’s in Gion or are there any other neighborhoods that would be good to check out?
* **Sunday Feb 25th**
* Check out and grab early morning train (1.5 hours i believe) to KIX and fly out at 11:30 flight out
* Will try and board a 8am train to make sure we leave ourselves enough time
\———————————————————————————————————————————–
How does this sound to people? Is there anything we are missing? Our in-laws will generally follow our itinerary but obviously they are probably going to do their own thing when we are on naps. Are we scheduled too thin and should we try and scale back?
Will try and answer any questions if there’s anything that isn’t clear.
Thanks!
​
8 comments
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I’ll come back later to finish reading everything, but thought I would mention that most restaurants open 10-11 AM. I would suggest visiting Sensoji before Benitsuru, it gets very crowded and I can’t imagine it to be a great experience with a toddler. Maybe get there around 8:30? I went there at 7:15 AM on a Saturday and it was quite empty; however, we wanted to try out the shops on Nakamise-dori and those didn’t start opening until ~9 AM. By 10 AM it was already packed.
Also, carrying a toddler up a mountain (Fushimi Inari) sounds rough. As an alternative, I really enjoyed Ginkakuji (tons more than Kinkakuji) and the Philosopher’s Path is a nice walk. You should also try to go to Kiyomizudera (preferably early AM).
Looks like we’ll be in Tokyo around the same time! We were in Hokkaido in Feb and planning on going back to Japan again in mid Feb next year.
For naps I found most department stores have a parents room. My son was 3.5 when we went to Hokkaido and had dropped naps a while ago but he got exhausted on some days. I found the parents room perfect cos it was really comfortable, there a good size couch for me to lay him on. There was a crib but it did say it was for kids under 1yo. I could chill while he napped while my partner explored the department store. The only annoying thing is that there were signs saying that men were discouraged so my partner and I couldn’t swap.
heard from a co worker that their son went to USJ and he is 6’4″ and was really disappointed he couldnt go on most rides because he was too tall. quite the opposite problem but same result 😮
We’ve done a trip to Japan with a toddler and had a fantastic time. You’ll love it. One thing to note from your itinerary – early and/or late check ins don’t really seem to be a thing in Japan. We didn’t have any luck with that. Kyoto is also kind of tricky to get around with a toddler. The metro won’t take you to many of the major attractions, but a combo of buses/metros will. We chose to take taxis instead because it was quicker and easier with a toddler/pram in tow (especially if your time is limited and you need to get back home for a nap). A lot of places aren’t pram friendly either, so it’s good to look that up ahead of time and make sure your pram can easily fold up and be carried if needed. We actually found Tokyo to be more toddler friendly than Kyoto – we took the pram everywhere and found it super easy to get around and do everything we wanted to do. While it’s good to have a plan, you might need to adjust and just go with the flow! I wouldn’t try to cram too much into each day – things take much longer than you except when you’ve got a little one with you! Good luck!
If you go to teamlabs Planets, I would suggest dressing your son in a swimming suit for the exhibit. The water goes up to about adult knee length in some places. Our son was 3 at the time and we just changed him directly into a swimming suit in case he fell or if the water was too high. This worked out well for us because he did end up slipping and getting splashed a bit from the running water parts. Then we could just change him back without having to worry about him being soggy for the rest of the evening.
Feb 18: I’d try move this day to a weekday. Odaiba’s malls are quite unremarkable (although very well suited for kids in strollers and the area itself is very open and spacious) but it gets uncomfortably crowded on weekends. Also old Teamlabs borderless was in Odaiba; the new version will be in Roppongi.
In Kyoto, the train museum is a good place for kids. Lots of exhibits and space. And it also has a park nearby with a large playground; I’ve never seen so many Japanese kids together at once. There is also Kyoto Toei Studio Park; it’s dedicated to Japanese TV history (think period dramas and anime) and is actually a working film set too. It’s also much less crowded than other Kyoto attractions so my son could roam with much more freedom.
One place a lot of people skip but I feel is great to visit is Uji. It’s on the Nara line so you could work it into your Nara day trip. Might be a good thing to do in the morning, eat lunch on the long street going from temple back to the station (lots of old tea shops plus some cafes etc), then go to Nara for the rest of your day.