Trip report (2 Adults, 2 Kids aged 10 and 8 travelling from Australia). Hopefully some of the tips below will help you like the advice I got here when planning our trip.
We’ve just returned from two weeks in Japan. We were lucky enough to have a late season cherry blossom, meaning week one saw Tokyo in full bloom with hanami picnics, while week two in Kansai was sakurafabuki (blossom snowflakes falling around us).
Our itinerary was fairly standard golden triangle stuff (being the kids first trip to Japan, my third). We had 4 nights in Tokyo (Prostyle Ryokan, Asakusa); 2 nights Hakone (Hananoyado Fukuya); 4 nights Kyoto (Kiyomizu Inishie-an); 3 nights Osaka (Mimaru Namba Station). All hotels were great and recommendable, averaging out at about $500AUD per night, Mimaru much cheaper and the others a bit more expensive. Hakone was our luxury ryokan with kaiseki dinner/breakfast and balcony onsen.
Transport-wise, I can’t stress enough how easy it is to get around if you have a IC Card (Suica on your iPhone or Pasmo, or ICOCA, etc). We picked up child Pasmo’s with the Hello Kitty design on them as soon as we arrived at Narita. By the end of the fortnight the kids were powering through every IC gate like locals. Top-ups were super easy and we used trains to get around multiple times a day. Forget about a JR Pass, the IC cards work for inter-city trips like Kyoto to Osaka and day trips to Nara,etc. We booked reserve Shinkansen tickets the day before or day of via the Smart EX App and the only tricky part was going through the gates where you needed to scan the QR code but also not have your Suica beep on the way through. Train attendants have a block card that they can place over the IC reader to stop it registering, but we had to get them to cancel the IC fare a couple of times, so keep an eye on that when heading in and out of the Shinkansen.
Taxis did come in handy for short trips (say 1500 yen or less) where we were moving between sites or the kids wanted a quick trip back to hotel.
We managed about three-quarters of our daily planned activities. The best idea was to get out early and beat the tour groups, which seem to arrive at every major site by the endless busload from about 10am. By about 2pm each afternoon our kids were pretty tired, and the weather was pretty hot for April, so we’d often go back to the hotel for an hour or two before one last afternoon / early evening activity and dinner.
One lesson would be to have a bit of a plan where to eat for dinner, or at least what type of food you want to eat. We only made one reservation for a special meal and while we found some incredible small local haunts, it’s tricky to wander busy districts looking for food with hungry kids. So, have a game plan before you head out (and some back-ups for when the place you want to eat at has a hour plus wait!).
Top 3 Highlights as voted the fam:
1) Teamlab Borderless - sensory overload of gorgeousness
2) Himeji Castle and Koko-en gardens - history overload and very well presented for tourists with maps, guides, AR for kids
3) Shibuya Sky - sunset booking is a must, the view over Tokyo tower in the pink hue was total Lost in Translation territory
We did both Disneyland and Universal - well trodden ground on this forum so I won’t labour, they were fun days, just get all the express passes humanly possible!
And 3 underwhelming experiences:
1) Arashiyama bamboo forest - small and very crowded, a tourist trap made redeemable only by a visit to the Okochi Sanso gardens at the end
2) Hakone Open Air Museum - its nice enough for a sunny day, but lots of stuff like this in modern art parks around the world
3) Nara - a day trip where the kids liked patting the deer, and of course Todai-ji temple is great (I made it through the nose-hole!), but it feels like a place you need more time for other historical sites/museums, which aren’t as kid or time friendly.
Finally, we have mixed feelings about Kyoto. It is without a doubt suffering from over-tourism. Most sites are absolutely heaving with people, and this was in the weeks AFTER Japanese work and school went back post spring break. I coined the phrase “Kyoto shuffle” because in some parts in the middle of the day you want to walk around but the crowd shuffles you forward like you’re on a busy train platform. The streets around Ninenzaka and Shinenzaka heading up to Kiyomizu Dera were among the worst for this. Also, the temples and shrines are very beautiful but the city centre is not, so people gravitate to the sides of the mountains in huge numbers moving from site to site. Arashiyama was similar. The only solution I could come up with was getting out solo at sunrise without the kids to take some pics, and even then I was not alone!
Award for best temple goes to Nanzen-ji for its beautiful interior wall paintings, gardens and aqueduct. Most underrated temple was Ryozen with its WW2 history and enormous kannon.
Each of our kids plus the adults got to choose a cultural activity for the trip. All three were incredible:
1) My son chose sushi-making at Washoku in Asakusa. Two hour class, just do the Temari version it’s much better value.
2) My daughter chose Ninja Dojo in Kyoto - a much more authentic zen introduction to ancient Japanese stealth than the costume stuff we looked into elsewhere
3) Us parents chose Miyako Odori given it was April - what a stunning artistic experience in a beautiful theatre!
Final tip - buy an Eki Stamp book and have a fun game finding the station stamps everywhere you go. We collected over 30 beautiful stamps from every mode of transport, plus a few sightseeing stamps (e.g. Nara, Himeji)
Sorry for the long post, but feel free to ask any questions!
