Going to Japan, where to begin

[greyfriarskitty]

We are thinking of going to Japan for three weeks in the spring with DD who is 11. We would like to travel outside Tokyo and possibly go to a theme park; that's about as far as we have got. DD is obsessed with manga and kawaii and so as long as she goes to some shops will be happy beyond belief.

I know that our dates (not in our control) may mean that we hit cherry blossom season - will that make it really difficult?
Also, should we start in a hotel and ride out the jet lag there? We are considering doing AirBnB as well, but will we cope/eat?
What else do we need to know? When do we book? I'm used to going to Europe and knowing my way around, so am out of my depth.

Thank you in advance!

Watching as I'm planning to go next year - I lived there for two years but two decades ago!

The trains are fantastic and all the train stations have English language signs.

Food is brilliant.

Try and get out in the countryside, stay in a ryokan or minshuku and definitely go to an onsen!

Shadow I've been but we chickened out of going up! It was so busy! Just the crowd on the main - shopping and eating - floor was absolutely heaving, and tbh the ticket-price to go up the tower seemed massively expensive. Hopefully someone will be along soon who's actually achieved lift-off

We had a AirBNB in Tokyo a couple of years ago and it came with a free personal wifi hotspot device so we could keep it in my bag and connect our phones via that. Very useful for maps.

On our first visit we went to Sanrio Puroland (Hello Kitty land) as our DD was almost 6 years old. On our last visit we offered to take DD/DS to Disneyland but they didn't want to go. I think they just found the whole of Tokyo amazing that they weren't bothered about theme parks.

If your DD is into anime, then you could book tickets for the Studio Ghibli Museum. Also second the Ramen Museum in Yokahama and the big wheel there is worth a ride too.

We flew with Emirates into Osaka and back out of Tokyo. It was actually cheaper than flying in and out of the same airport and saved travelling across the country twice, nice as the bullet trains are.

Top Tips...
Buy your JR pass before you go
Harajuku is great for crazy shops & people
Mori Art Museum is great for the sunset view
Watch out for super heated toilet seats!

My sister lives in Tokyo and we went to visit her a couple of years ago. The one thing she did have was a box that gave you wifi - you paid a set fee for the box and put it in your handbag and then hooked your phone up to that. It was great for google maps.

We loved Kyoto and also went at cherry blossom time - it was beautiful and the traditional costumes were all being worn (apparently its more common to wear you kimono at cherry blossom time).

Definitely would also recommend the rail pass.

I was dubious about the food before we went but loved every meal we had out there - the breakfasts were normally savoury which I was not too keen on but there were hundreds of Starbucks (sadly!) around so we had a pastry there each morning. We went to a place in Kyoto that just had pictures on the menu alongside Japanese so we pointed to things that we wanted and ended up with raw horsemeat - surprisingly delicious.

Thanks Halsall!

They do an international ticket so we might give it a go. DS really wants to go. It is so expensive though.

Useful information re Ghibli museum on how to buy tickets (these have to be purchased in advance). I liked it there very much.

The only pushing on the underground trains occurred during the early morning rush hours; then the staff do push people onto the train. If you avoid those times you will be ok.

www.ghibli-museum.jp/en/ticket-information/

A visit to the Tokyo skytree is well worth doing for the views.

English is widely spoken in the hotels. Not many Japanese people that we met in the streets spoke English apart from saying hello but they were unceasingly polite.

Do not take a taxi from the airport due to high cost; there is a very good coach service that runs from Narita airport into the city itself.

I'm so jealous, what a fab experience for your DD!

Random practical point (and I've not been in a few years so I'm sure someone will say if this is no longer the case), lots of places are cash only, and most ATMs won't accept non Japanese cards. However, the ones in Post Offices always do, so if in need of cash head there!

Drink lots of Umeshu (plum wine) and find an all you can eat dessert buffet. mmm...

One easy way I found to beat the jet lag is to spend the first day or two in Hakone (in the mountains near Tokyo). Easy to get to from Haneda (and okay ish from Narita too), and stay in a ryokan with a proper hot spring etc. The peace and quiet + mountain air + soaking in hot water etc mean you’ll switch time zones very easily and be well set up for the rest of your holiday. You can leave most of your bags in Tokyo for a day or two and only carry a change of clothes up to hakone (or take the whole lot it’s not a big deal).

I’ve done this twice on trips to japan and it’s worked a charm!

Interest in possession trust can cause IHT, but not CGT.

Oops wrong thread!

Hakone is beautiful and stay in a ryokan too!

Thank you so much everyone. Having had a chat to the travel people, we are going to hammer out a possible itinerary this weekend (Tokyo, Hakone, Kyoto, Universal Studios, Studio Ghibli all in the running, as is the Ramen Museum).

How are the hotels for interconnecting rooms? I'd rather not spend 3 weeks sharing a room with DD all the time. Or would we be better off with AirBnB, at least in Tokyo?

If you go to Hakone you can do the round trip that involves a little train, a funicular, a cable car up a volcano (!) and a 'pirate ship' (yes, really) across the lake, taking in the wonderful Hakone Open-Air Museum along the way. Another slightly bonkers trip but again, great fun. If you stay there for a few days - maybe taking in an onsen - you don't have to do it all in one day, which is what we did.

We went up the Tokyo Skytree. Amazing views, but it does sway! dd and dh had to come down very quickly as they felt sick.

Pretty much all the food we had was fabulous. We loved the breakfasts, at one buffet dd had cakepops and ds had curry :) Lots of places have their own specialties and there were lots of food festivals too which were really fun (with lots of Japanese tourists).

I would also highly recommend Inside Japan tours we went as a family this year on the Tokkaido trail it was fantastic

Not sure if it's been mentioned download a Japanese language app it's great as you can listen so you use the correct pronunciation.

Nara is amazing. The deer are beautiful and slightly obnoxious, but they look like bambi so you forgive them. It's about 50mins from Osaka.

The metro systems all have western text, we got lost a few times and went the wrong way - but just hopped off and went back the other way. All part of the fun.
Get the shinkasen pass - you pop into the booking offices and book your seats for the next leg of your journey.

Most places have western text menus - but the food descriptions are factual rather than typical menu language - 'chicken in spicy gravy'.
As long as you're not a hugely fussy eater you'll be fine, just go with the flow.
Also google translate is good for things like crisp flavours - just take a photo and google will translate.

Hiroshima is really interesting, but almost brought me to tears. We were there when North Korea were making threats.

Oh... there are loads of arcades.
We spent a happy evening wandering around an arcade, playing grab games and Mario and watching Japanese youth culture.
There is a delicious ice cream parlour in Kyoto.
Vending machines are fun - anyone for a bottle of Sweat?
Get up early one morning and go to the tuna auction.

Watching with interest as I've been looking at Japan for a trip next spring with my DD age 10. I'd been in touch with Audley Travel but haven't properly engaged wit them yet, will have a look at Inside Japan

The pocket precincts books for Kyoto and Tokyo are really good for children as they are mainly photos. Really good recommendations for shopping and restaurants.

I have been to the Skytree and yes it is worth doing the two floors.

Useful website:-

www.tokyo-skytree.jp/en/ticket/

zara - those sound great. DD had a Rome map which was great when we were there, so it would be great to have something similar.

Grey the Tokyo one is quite large the Kyoto book is more compact. However, both have amazing photos in and recommendations for shopping and eating are fab. We ended up at the cat and rabbit cafes they were fun and had some very exotic looking cats. The rabbits were cute too.

We went with Audley Travel and had a great time. Hotels were fantastic and I found the book Japan By Rail to be very useful as well as the Lonely Planet book.

Personally I think Japan has so much to offer in terms of culture and experience, I cannot see why going to a theme park is remotely worthwhile. Tokyo is a theme park in it’s own right.

The Hotel Mume in Kyoto is wonderful and Audley pulled out all the stops to get us in there. It books up very quickly. While in Kyoto we also did a cookery class with two Japanese women in the home of one of them. I think it was via the Women’s Association of Kyoto. We also went to the Geiko theatre show although it’s not very child friendly. Kyoto and Nara will be wonderful in April and there is so much to see. Like others, I thought Japan was amazing and we intend to go back.

The Ryokan we stayed in at Tsumago was amazing! Audley recommended it and our stay was memorable.

I was a bit underwhelmed with Hakone. The sulphur springs were so pungent we had to get back on the cable car. We couldn’t breathe! The galleons on the lake are a bit faux to say the least and the scenery was in the mist so we didn’t see much.

We flew BA and that worked well. I would get a knowledgable agent to help plan and I am not sure the Japanese have family rooms in hotels. Mostly hotels are business ones with small rooms. You may need a bit of expert advice to find bigger rooms.

If you can go and watch a sumo match when you are there it's DEF worth it. We were thoroughly engaged by the whole event. I thought I would tire of it, but I could have watch for hours. Something a bit different.