Japan experts please - I'm stuck!!

[ShoppingOnesSelfFit]

Going to Japan for 2 weeks next Easter with DH and our 14 and 10yr olds.

Only plan so far is to do a few days in Tokyo (fly into Haneda) then a week or so touring - Osaka, Kyoto and and maybe Hiroshima. Then do a few days again in Tokyo before flying home.

The only thing booked is flights and I am completely overwhelmed by the amount of areas and hotels and have no clue where to stay or what to be near?

Want to experience the culture, blossoms and do DisneyJapan and Disney Sea in Tokyo.

Don't really want to do low end or budget appreciate it's quite pricey but willing to spend a bit more - 4star ish.

Any advice will be so appreciated. Thank you.

I went (many) years ago, but loved it. Kyoto is the original capital and is where the very traditional buildings and tea houses are. You'll see the geishas and maikos (trainee geishas) there and if you can go to a tea ceremony, you won't regret it. It's fascinating. There are traditional ryokan hotels with paper walls, tatami mats and low tables that you have to sit cross-legged at which are a very different cultural experience to hotels we're used to. I stayed in the Hiiragiya Ryokan and it was first-class.

I visited an emporium (no other word for it) of traditional Japanese artefacts in Kyoto and brought back a beautiful hand-embroidered silk wedding kimono, which I still have hanging in my house. It's a fabulous reminder of my trip - don't know if the place is still there, but worth a visit if it is.

There's also the Golden Pavilion in Kyoto, which is spectacular - it's in the middle of a lake and the top floors are covered in gold leaf. It has to be seen to be believed, eye-wateringly opulent.

If you can get on the Bullet Train, that goes past Mount Fuji (which from that angle looks nothing like the postcard pictures!) and is an experience as well.

You'll have an amazing holiday and it'll be something you won't forget, I promise you. If you need someone to carry your baggage, let me know...

Hoping to do this next year

2 weeks isn't nearly long enough. We went for 3 weeks about 10 years ago and I intend to return when DS is a little older.

With regard to Disney, it will be crazy busy. Maybe not quite as busy as usual as Easter is late and I think spring break will have finished, but make a plan to make the best use of your time there. To save travel time is it worth flying into one airport and flying out of another, and having a full week in Tokyo rather than splitting it? Maybe a few days in a central location then a couple of days near Disney?

Also, if the children are Harry Potter fans it is worth going to universal in Osaka as they have a Harry Potter.bit. You can buy fast passes for universal online but you have to navigate the Japanese site - it’s managable with google chrome and an online guide. If any of you have a birthday near to the date you get a discount off tickets.

If you’re wanting to see cherry blossoms at their best you might want to consider your route - this year they opened early and you would have missed most of them at the end of April in Tokyo, Osaka etc. There are guides online with usual dates. You may see more if you take a day trip further north?

Bear in mind that many hotels in Japan don’t open booking until a few months before your travel dates so even if they show as unavailable it may be they just haven’t opened up booking yet. On the plus side you can very often book and cancel without penalty even close to your travel date so you can make a provisional booking and change it if you find something better.

Some of our favourite things (in no particular order) were, the food, visiting the cup noodle museum and making noodles by hand, kitchen street (you can do a class to make fake food) hiring kimonos to wear in Kyoto (you also get free entry to some sites in kimono) and eating a meal under the cherry blossoms, a couple of nights at an onsen in the mountains, a tour of Gion where we saw geisha/geiko at work and seeing Mount Fuji wizz past on the train.

I wonder if abbey means the Kyoto handicraft centre? That was on my list but we ran out of time.

Our kids were much, much younger when we were in Japan (only 1 and 2 😬), a few years back, but...

We stayed in the Westin in Kyoto. It had a pool, walking trails, nice gardens etc. There was a shuttle that ran back and forth to the main station (and a few other stops), and the station complex had a good food area; nice restaurants with some great Tonkatsu. The restaurant food was disappointing, but overall a nice stay (it got loads of bonus points from us for a kids playroom which had a laundry room, but it's not applicable for you).

We too saw the golden pavilion, and several other beautiful shrine complexes.

We stayed in the Ginza Creston in Tokyo. Again, our criteria was for hotels with cots so different from you, but this one was very pleasant, and a good base.

I don't recall where we stayed in Osaka (which was my favourite city), but it was more of an apart-hotel since it had a kitchenette. Osaka had a good kids museum, which did have a lot for little kids (ours were far too young really, but it was a bit of freedom for them), but plenty for older ones too. The castle is great, and the Abeno Harukas viewing deck was good too.

Japan was good; very clean, nice loos, good food, incredibly tolerant locals!!

Tokyo Disney was very easy to get to from central Tokyo from memory. It's quite compact but lots of fun.

For an easy route you could head mainly along the train line to Hiroshima- Kyoto is on the way and utterly stunning. Then Hiroshima is amazingly peaceful, the museum is fascinating and Hiroshima pancakes are delicious- there was a building that had endless stalls selling them inside.

Head to miyajima island (I think that's the name), where there is the famous floating Tori. Don't carry any plastic bags though or you'll be assaulted by deer!

You can use the bullet train along that line and it's so clean and fast.

In Japan you do need to prebook all accommodation as it's considered rude to turn up without a reservation or introduction. We stayed in a mix of business hotels and little guest houses.

Lots of cities have amazing bath houses, they are single sex and you are naked, so might completely freak out your DC, but they are a wonderful experience.

There is a crowd calendar here for Disney to help you work out your best days. www15.plala.or.jp/gcap/disney/ Open in google chrome for a reasonable translation.

Okonomiyaki, earslaps? They are amazing. I could eat my body weight in them.

This might sound daft, but if your children can’t use chopsticks well I’d suggest getting them to practise as many places won’t have an alternative.

Go to Nara and see the temples.
You can also be headbutted in the midriff by aggressive deer in the park (like I was) if you choose! My own fault, I had bought deer wafers and didnt realise the plastic wrappers would cause them all to charge me like ravenous lunatics 😁

Oh, I see earslaps had the same problem.....

Yep, okanamiyaki. Best food ever I think. I made an approximation of them at home recently (though Osaka style rather than Hiroshima style) and might need to order the special sauce and Japanese mayonnaise to make them better.

Luckily we avoided deer aggression as we'd been warned not to carry anything that looked like deer food!

Wow, thanks for the replies.

Lots to digest. How about this for a rough itinerary:

Arrive Monday afternoon - check into Tokyo hotel (where though?!)

Tuesday - wander round Tokyo - so sky tree and see blossoms, chill day.

Wednesday - Disney.

Thursday leave Tokyo for Kyoto. Stay in Kyoto for 4 nights and from there do 2 days round Kyoto, 1 in Osaka (incl Orlando studios) and 1 in Nara.

Monday go to Hiroshima - 1 or 2 nights here?

Then back to Tokyo for final 4/5 days and do Disney sea and anything we missed first time. But again, where do we stay?

Thanks so much.

We stayed at RIHGA Royal Hotel in Hiroshima. We had a corner room with views over the bay.
It was also the biggest hotel room we stayed in Japan.

Tokyo - the metro is so good and you'll visit so many bits of the city it doesn't matter too much where you stay. I think we stayed near the World Trade Centre.

Nara is brilliant, it's like spending a day with 100s of Bambis

Tokyo - Ginza District (try airbnb) Disney (2 parks,) tuna auction (Tsukiji fish market (may have moved already), & Edo Museum. Book a car from the airport to accommodation perhaps.
Osaka - Universal Studios & Harry Potter Wizarding World
Kyoto - Gion District, Fushimi Inari Shrine, Kinkakuji & Ginkakuji (The Temple of the Golden & Silver Pavillions,) Kiyomizud era Temple (UNESCO) Higashiyam a District,) Yasaka shrine, Kodaji Temple, Sagano Scenic Railway and River boat Arashiyama & bamboo Grove, Monkey park and maybe stop by Nara Deer park on the way between Osaka & Kyoto.
Look to stay in Ryokan (traditional Inn which will house the family in one room.)
If you look on Peach Airlines then you can hop between Tokyo and Osaka relatively cheaply then get the train or bus to Osaka.
Loads more info on youtube,

Well in with Bobby's list there. We did a lot of those very things.

We went earlier this year, 12 days: 4 Tokyo at a hotel near the train station, 4 Kyoto at a ryoken, 4 Nara at a spa hotel. We chose places within easy walking distance of the trains, which worked out perfectly - the cities were arranged in such a way that this makes a perfect hub for touristing from.

www.japan-guide.com is a brilliant resource. Tripadvisor good for finding local eateries. Citymapper and Google Maps/Apple Maps cover most travel stuff. Get the local transport passes, Tokyo and Kyoto for example have 1/2/3 day passes for tourists only that cost nearly nothing and covers trains and subways.

Useful trick for the big cities is that multiple-floored tower blocks can have different shops/restaurants/whatever on each floor, I've never lived in a big city and it took us a while to register! Similarly, basement/upper floor food places can be amazing and not dodgy at all.

Tokyo and Osaka relatively cheaply then get the train or bus to Osaka Kyoto

✅ Disney (2 parks - we preferred Disney Sea)

WringKindOfFace - the Handicrafts Centre in Kyoto - that's it! Thank you - I'd forgotten the name, it was so long ago.

We stayed in Shinjuku in Tokyo which was near the main entertainment and restaurant quarter and great fun at night but as others have said you could stay anywhere in Tokyo really, as the public transport is so good. Would only recommend one night in Hiroshima, as there didn't seem to be much to do there once you have visited the museum and the Peace Park-lovely city though.
Some additional tips to the advice you have been given :
-Get Japan Rail Passes(available from specialist travel companies) before you travel. They are expensive but get you on any train apart from the fastest bullets and were easy to use.

• We found trip advisor useless for restaurant recommendations outside Tokyo as it gave the restaurant names in English when the signage on the actual restaurant was very often in Japanese so it was hard to be sure you were actually in the right restaurant!

-Having access to Google maps etc when you are walking about is essential, so think about buying a local sim card or renting a portable WiFi - we did the latter. -Guided tours of both Kyoto and especially Tokyo are a great way of ensuring that you get an overview of the city. Tokyo is huge and it would be easy to miss stuff just wandering. We also did a food tour at night in Tokyo which was fun.

• If you fancy a taste of old Japan make a stop at Takayama (between Kyoto and Osaka roughly) It is one of the best preserved old towns in Japan and is stunningly beautiful - as is the train journey there

-Lastly (and best tip for us as we did a lot of travelling) use a luggage transportation service to get your bags from one place to another whilst you travel light. The stations in Japan are huge and the trains have limited luggage space, so we just packed small bags and sent our main suitcase from Tokyo to Kyoto and then onto Osaka airport. It was about 30 quid for two cases for each leg, all sorted by our hotel receptions and worth every penny. Have fun it's a great place!

We stayed in the Hotel Gracery in Kyoto. Great location.
Look out for taxis which have an English speaking driver.

I'd say two nights in Hiroshima so you can go to miyajima (or could do a night there) https://www.japan-guide.com/e/e3401.html

Op there was a brilliant japan thread only recently maybe someone remembers, try searching for it had so much advice.

Re the deer park, I thought dear gave tic bites? Is it safe? Lime diesese?

Placemarking.

A friend is in Tokyo at the moment, his third trip so I'll collar him when he gets back. Obviously he can only give opinions on Tokyo.

Just to say japan was probably my best ever holiday - you'll have a FAB time

We stayed 4 nights in Tokyo bay where Disney is yo do 3 days at Disney. Much much cheaper than central Tokyo (£100 for Hilton there versus £250 per night for shinjuki Hilton) then moved to central Tokyo afterwards. We end end may and it was pretty quiet at Disney. Go mid week!