Going to Japan in 2 weeks - what/where is a MUST?

[blacquejacqueshellacque]

Family of 5 all over 11. Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka and Hiroshima.

Booked Disney Sea, will book Osaka universal too. Planned a trip to Nara

What else should we do, see, buy?

Ruled out Ghiblu museum, sky tree and Disney.

Going to take £1000 (in Yen) cash and spend rest on credit card (hotels and meals) - should we do less cash and buy a Suica card?

So excited! Thanks.

Bump

From Tokyo you can do a day trip to kamakura. It’s really lovely. While you’re in Tokyo you should look up what theme restaurants there are. We went to a weird prison hospital themed one which was fun.

Trip on a bullet train?

Himeji-jo castle, absolutely stunning. Feed the deer in the park at Nara. Golden temple in Kyoto. Bento boxes for lunch.

Have fun!

I would take an awful lot less cash (£100 to £200 max) and apply today for a Starling account or two and put your money on there - it will be set up in a few days.

You can then pay or withdraw cash when you are there at the best bank rate without any charges and you don't have a huge wedge of cash to worry about not losing.

If they like theme parks and roller coasters the there's a on in Fuji, it's amazing!!

Nikko from Tokyo
Peace museum Hiroshima

Make sure everyone has clean new socks - no holes ! As you need to take your shoes off everywhere !!!

We really enjoyed Joyopolis the sega museum tokyo-joypolis.com/language/english/ I seem to remember there was an interesting train ride there over the water and a nearby Ferris wheel for views over the city. Tokyo tower is good for this too

The Hakone loop was also fun. This article recommends overnight but we did it in a day quite happily www.japan-guide.com/e/e5210.html (if you are real train fans there is a steam train museum in Kyoto too!)

Do you want to go in an onsen? Full nudity might be a bit much for teens (!) but these ones allow swimwear jw-webmagazine.com/5-swimwear-allowed-onsen-spots-near-tokyo-b1507ba4cd67

Definely the Hiroshima Peace Museum and Shrine, both quite upsetting of course so maybe plan something gentle afterwards

Golden palace at Kyoto? Day trip to Miyajima to see the deer?

Have some authentic sushi?

I have holiday envy!

I can't believe you are going all the way to Japan and not going to the Ghibli Museum!!
Have a nice trip though.

Yoyogi Park (Shibuya)

I would have definitely suggested Ghibli Museum and Skytree. If you or any of the family are into anime, then Akihabara is a must. If anyone likes Gundam, then I’d recommend a trip to Odaiba island to see the life size Gundam and visit Gundam Front.

If there are any sumo tournaments while you’re there, that’s a fantastic experience. If you book an organised tour, you get a guide who will talk you through what’s going on. Our guide had a favourite wrestler, and she got us all into cheering him on because she was a fan herself. Well worth paying for.

My son and I liked:

Fushimi inari taisha near Kyoto. Hundreds of torii gates, climb the hill for beautiful views over Kyoto.

Samurai theatre in Kyoto. Samurai lessons with real swords.

Second the suggestion of Kamakura from Tokyo. Giant Buddha is amazing.

Pokémon center.

Takeshita Street, Harajuku. Just for pure madness, froyo, Japanese teens doing their thing.

I liked Meiji shrine too, so peaceful.

Thank you so much - the kids said they weren't interested in ghibli - but I might see if I can show them a YouTube video of that and the sky tree but we're all scared of heights!

What about things to buy or things to avoid?

Thank again.

Don't do what I did and assume the green ice cream would be pistachio or mint.

It wasn't. It was green tea and it was quite the most disgusting thing I've ever tasted.

Well at least it wasn't wasabi Silene.

They have a very wide variety of flavours of kit kats.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kit_Kats_in_Japan

I'm rather excited about the kit kats

Is there anything else, make-up or clothes or electricals that are a must buy?

Or is everything more expensive than the uk?

We went last year and the highlight was an Origami lesson in Kyoto. Huge fun, and we were all adults! We're still flipping our Origami frogs.

I also bought a Yukuta in Osaka. Generally made of cotton and MUCH cheaper than a Kimono. Makes a great house coat. If you have small feet, the socks are worth getting too. Good quality and not very expensive.

The kitkats are in flavours you wouldn't believe.

Skin care- cheap from the chemists and lots of it!
Dried foods- go to muji and buy a selection
The department stores are epic- tokyu hands in shinjuku is awesome as is I Setan.
Takeshita dori in harajuku is a must and buy socks there- amazing little sick boutiques
Walk from harajuku through yoyogi park on a Sunday morning and see all the teens do their thing! It’s next level crazy. Keep walking and you’ll pop out in shibuya.
Eat ramen in the back streets of ikebukero- totally authentic and amazing.

If you go to see Mount Fuji, check the weather first. It's often cloudy, which means you won't see a thing (speaking from experience).

If you just go to one castle, go to to Osaka castle. It's very impressive and the garden cleaning staff are dressed as Samurai Warriers. Lacquer armour, flags - the lot.

The towers aren't very exciting really, no worries there. I was gutted we didn't get tickets for the Ghibli museum - DParents have been and loved it.

Otherwise I commend everything Atalune just wrote, saves me from typing!

Some of the most fun we had was wandering through streetmarkets, which can go on for a mile or more. Also just walking between landmarks, the different way of life as shown by architecture and street planning is just fascinating. To me, anyway!