Please help a guy out who wants to give his parents a long-overdue and well-deserved vacation 😀
Hi, so my family of 4 (dad is 71, mom is 55 y.o.) will be visiting Japan this December 20-31. My brother and I are huge anime fans but this trip is mainly our gift to our parents so we want them to enjoy. That said, we’re not going to be that loose on money so free attractions / experiences are welcome, as well as passes that let us save money. I used AI to generate and edit the itinerary mostly, but there are days where I’m not set where to go and could use a little help.
I didn’t wanna overload the itinerary as walking could be a bit of a problem cuz of the age. Also we love illuminations since they’re mostly free and seasonal. Feel free to suggest some others which are good to visit at night.
**Day 1: December 20 – Arrival**
Evening: Arrive at KIX by 7 PM.
Transport: Nankai Railway or JR Line to Osaka.
Check-in hotel
**Day 2: December 21 – Recuperate chill day, get some things out of the way**
Morning to Afternoon: Osaka Castle, Dotonbori, Shinsaibashi.
Evening: Osaka Festival of Lights or Osaka Castle Park Illuminage.
**Day 3: December 22 – Day Trip to Nara**
Transport: Activate JR Pass.
Activities: Todai-ji Temple, Nara Park, Kasuga Taisha Shrine.
**Day 4: December 23 – Day Trip to Kyoto**
Transport: JR Pass.
Activities: Fushimi Inari Shrine, Kinkaku-ji, Gion District.
**Day 5: December 24 – Rest day in Osaka**
Options: Osaka Aquarium Kaiyukan, Umeda area, Tennoji, Osaka Museum of History.
Evening: TeamLab Osaka Garden.
**Day 6: December 25 – Day Trip to Mount Koya**
Transport: Nankai Koya Line.
Activities: Kongobu-ji Temple, Okunoin Cemetery.
\*\*\* Use koyasan world heritage ticket
**Day 7: December 26 – Day Trip to Kobe**
Transport: Train using JR Pass.
Activities: Kobe Harborland, Meriken Park
**Day 8: December 27 – Universal Studios Japan**
Full Day: Spend the day at USJ. We like the festive feel of amusement parks
**Day 9: December 28 – Any experiences worth “doing”? Like sake stuff? cooking classes?**
Options: Cooking class, cultural experience, Spa World Osaka(?)
**Day 10: December 29 – FREE DAY (this is where we wanna do our anime stuff while parents rest)**
FREE DAY – DENDEN TOWN?
Evening: Farewell dinner (Any suggestions? My parents don’t really eat sushi but they love meat. Steak maybe?)
**Day 11: December 30 – Last Minute Shopping and Prep to go home
(night flight)**
Thanks in advance guys!
4 comments
If you are looking for sake stuff, you can do a walking trip of sake breweries in Kobe. I don’t know of any official tours though, I just followed a map I found online, and there is a fair bit of walking so I don’t know if that’d be good for your parents unless you or your brother wanted to rent a car and drive. You can do like a 6 hour or 12 hour car rental in Japan and there are rental places everywhere. Or you could just go to a couple of the main breweries near the station. There’s a big one that has the whole sake brewing process and a couple of other big ones that do tastings.
At USJ, you can hire wheelchairs for free. I went with my sister who had mobility issues and it was totally worth doing because it’s so much walking otherwise. You get like a disability passport thing that allows you to hold your place in lines, although not sure if your parents would be all that into the rides. But hey, not making assumptions about their age 😀 We got a ticket, I think it’s called the sunset ticket, something like that, for late day entry since we only really wanted to go to Harry Potter World and my sister gets tired easily.
I love Spaworld. It’s really awesome and relaxing, but one thing to be aware of: sounds like your group is 3 men, 1 woman. The spas etc are segregated so your mum will be alone for that part of it. Dunno if that would be an issue for her. There is a lot of communal areas for like food, massages etc.
Day 2 seems pretty packed for a chill day.
Day 5 is really packed and very spread out. Everything is all over the place. I would skip the Umeda area and if you’re looking for a Observation Deck, Abeno Harukas in Tennoji has you covered.
Day 10: Den Den Town has you covered for anime. Definitely check out Mandarake
You don’t need JR pass. It’s a waste of money for your use case. Hopefully the link below should help regarding transportation options
https://youtu.be/3DAEaUMC8VQ?si=GvShRvrgsplolrMx
cant imagine buying 4 jr passes and barely using them lol. try using more than “AI” to do your research.