Japan with teens

[BoDiddlySquat]

We are planning a 2025 holiday (2-3 weeks) in Japan. We would like to make 3, max 4 stops in places whilst there. We don’t want to stop over on the way, but go direct.

We definitely want to go to Tokyo, but also would like to visit somewhere a complete contrast to this. We love history, culture, food, hiking and nature. We are really open to anything. I would like to also do some modern Japanese activities, or visit a place where my teens can see anime or manga. It is actually my teens interest in Japan and its culture that have led to this trip. They are up for anything whilst on it. I’d love to hear about great places to visit, things off the beaten track, great places to eat, and in particular interesting accommodation to stay in preferably traditional Japanese.

Please can anyone share any ideas they have for the trip of a lifetime to Japan.

Japan is great. We went with our two teens and spent 6 nights in Tokyo, one in Hiroshima, four in smaller towns, three in Kyoto (Manga museum there), but the most memorable stay was two nights in Koyasan in a Buddhist temple. It’s a beautiful mountainous area and was a really interesting experience.
We did 17 nights and I wouldn’t have wanted to do less.

OMG Houseplant, Koyasan is exactly what I had in my mind. That looks fantastic.
Thanks for the tips.

I've spent a lot of time in Japan, I've been roughly 12 times, mainly to Tokyo but also done some travelling.
For anime and manga, a trip to the akihabara area in Tokyo is your best bet there's also a fantastic katsu place there called gogo curry. It doesn't look like much from the outside and seems a bit fast foody but it's the best katsu I've ever had. Make sure you also eat at Piss Alley one evening, but be sure to check the menus carefully before choosing and avoid the ones that serve whale as this isn't legal. Yoyogi park is a good visit on a Sunday and close to Harajuku and Takeshita Street.
Outside of Tokyo, my absolute favourite place is Nara, its very old and the temples are out of this world. Kyoto has a very different vibe to Tokyo and there's a lot to see there in terms of temples and shrines. You could also do a visit to hakone from tokyo where you can see mount fuji. If you're up for it you could climb fuji. We drove to station 5 and hiked the rest of the way from there, its not too difficult if you've got a decent level of fitness but you do need proper boots, head torch etc. We did it overnight and summitted at sunrise. Niko national park is also a good day out from Tokyo.
You could also get the bullet train to hiroshima and visit miyajima from there. We also stayed in a Buddhist temple in Koyasan which was an amazing experience. I'd day you'd need 3 weeks to see enough without feeling rushed

Following with interest.

I want to book for me and DD next year, too.

We went into Trailfinders and the itinerary they came up with was bonkers. It was one night here, two nights there. Absolutely manic and not what I was thinking about. I asked for something less frenetic, but they still tried to squash too much in.

The price also shocked me.

Who did you book with @Houseplantmad if you don't mind me asking?

• 3 nights Toyko (teenagers will love Akihabara and Harajuku in particular).
• 2 nights Hakone where you can stay in a Ryokan and do the 'Hakone loop' (cable car up a mountain to a sulphur mine, cable car down, boat trip back to the start).
• 6 nights Kyoto where there is TONNES to do every day - Fushimi Inari, Arashiyama Monkey Park, shrines and temples galore, bicycle hire, the Karuma to Kibune hike, a 15-75 minute train journey to Osaka for a day out (depending on which type of train you catch).
• 2 nights back in Tokyo to be ready for the return flight.

All of this can be done easily using the train. All stations have lockers where you can dump luggage. But also look into luggage forwarding, which is a service which all hotels take part in.

If you have a geek among you, get a Japanese stamp book and collect Eki stamps from every train station and Goshuin stamps from every shrine, plus additional stamps at museums, certain shops, tourist attractions, parks and so on.

@RainbowZebraWarrior I booked it myself. We flew with Alitalia, as it was then. Stopping at an airport in Europe seemed to save a lot of ££ rather than flying direct. Also, try to fly into Haneda rather than Narita as it’s closer to Tokyo.
I booked accommodation via Booking.com (getting cashback via TopCashback) and Airbnb.
Price up your train journeys before buying a rail pass as it can often be cheaper to buy singles, especially as some lines aren’t included in the rail pass. Google the Japan rail site and you can see prices, which are fixed.
Eating was very cheap - we ate at local cafes and bought bento boxes for lunch when travelling. Seven Eleven stores have a good range of well priced sandwiches etc for lunches.

That's incredibly helpful. Thank you so much.

On a 2-3 week trip like yours the JR pass will almost certainly not work out as good value for money.

However a regional pass may work out good value.

We’re planning a trip next year staying in Tokyo, Osaka and Hiroshima as bases and plan to get a JR West Sanyo-San’in pass that will save us a lot of money. It is a 7 day pass that we will use for a chunk of our Osaka and Hiroshima leg. It will cover our Shinkansen from Osaka to Hiroshima and also day trips to Wakayama, Himeji, Miyajima Kurashiki and Onomichi. We are really looking forward to Onomichi and Kurashiki in particular.

We were also in Japan this spring and our favourite places outside Tokyo this time were Nara and Kamakura. Nara is an easy day trip from Osaka or Kyoto and Kamakura is an easy day trip from Tokyo.

We also loved Osaka. It’s a contrast from Tokyo but in a different way to Nara. Osaka is more casual, more relaxed, less formal. It’s bright and loud and busy but has a very different character that is hard to describe until you experience it. People in Tokyo felt far more standoffish when we arrived there from Osaka.

There's been a few threads on this so do search back. We went in April. Incredible trip. I wrote up everything into blog post for various friends who are hoping to go which I've shared below

affordacool.wordpress.com/2024/04/25/japaneasy/

My other big piece of advice is to consider not flying in and out of Tokyo. We flew into Osaka and out of Haneda this time. Next year we are flying into Haneda and out from Hiroshima. The difference in price of flights is negligible (and sometimes slightly cheaper even) and it will save us a lot of time and hassle.

Just make sure you consider luggage. We flew via Helsinki to Osaka rather than via Tokyo so that our luggage could be checked all the way through to our destination. We flew Finnair there and JAL back (both part of the same alliance so all booked on one ticket). Next year we are flying purely JAL so are departing from Hiroshima (flying via Tokyo) rather than starting in Hiroshima for the same reason. We’ll be able to check bags from Hiroshima to London but wouldn’t be able to check them from London to Hiroshima because of customs.

We also booked everything ourselves for our trip this year and will be doing the same for our trip next year. We didn’t have any difficulties or problems and paid less than £3500 pp in the end for a two week trip (11 nights/12 days in Japan plus travel) and that includes spending money, food, travel, entry to attractions, souvenirs etc. I expect next year will be a similar sort of price if the exchange rate stays favourable.