Japan Planning Thread Part 2

[Takoneko]

This is a thread for anyone planning a trip to Japan. All budgets and styles of trip are welcome.

I got so much out of the first thread and would love to be able to continue the conversation with everyone who has been so helpful.

I fly tomorrow morning!

First Thread

Thinking of going to Japan in September. I’m coeliac , so gluten free food is my main worry. I have been to South Korea which I loved but it was really difficult eating out, harder than I’d imagined beforehand.
I am also wondering if it will still be pretty hot then ? October would be better I think but September is the only time we can all go as a family.

@Christwosheds From stuff I’ve read and watched, I’ve gathered that gluten free can be challenging for eating out Japan. I think the ubiquity of soy sauce makes it difficult. We definitely saw some restaurants advertising gluten free okonomiyaki, gluten free pizza etc. You shouldn’t starve, but meals might need a bit of planning and there might be times where you’re relying on a supermarket or kombini to come to the rescue.

@Plan2025 Another thing we did that I think would appeal to kids was Katsuoji temple near Minnoh on the outskirts of Osaka. It’s was really family friendly. We saw loads of kids having great fun looking for all the little Daruma in their hiding spots. They also have a stamp rally. When you enter you get a little postcard that you take around to the different stamp stations where you stamp them with different colours to build up a picture. It’s a little bit out of the way but well worth the journey. We also found the mall by Minnoh-Kayano station to be a much more pleasant shopping experience than central Tokyo or Osaka… just far less hectic. The muji was enormous.

Thank you. In Korea I took GF soy sauce with me, but I only ate in one restaurant the whole trip. In one cafe the staff did tell me which cakes I could eat but I was worried about cross contamination so I took them away and ate them when back at our accommodation in case I had a reaction. Some types of soy sauce are gluten free (eg Tamari) but many not. We rented a house so I knew I could cook and eat in the evenings, but it was a bit depressing at times to be out with everyone else eating.

@Christwosheds I think you may find Japan quite similar, sadly. There are allergy cards that you can download and print to show to waiters in restaurants.

There was a gluten free okonomiyaki place in Osaka that was by our hotel. It’s called Oko. https://www.oko-osaka.com/blank-1 We also stumbled upon some other cafes and coffee shops advertising gluten free options on our travels.

Big chains will have allergen information available on their websites that you can use to check ingredients. Places like kura sushi have good online information and coco ichibanya do a gluten free curry option.

@Christwosheds I went to Japan 8 years ago with my family including my son who is a coeliac. We used Audley Travel and they made sure all the hotels we stayed at knew one person was coeliac, organised a food walking tour for our first day in Tokyo so we could have the gluten free stuff pointed out and gave us a printed card with details in Japanese on. The printed card worked fine when we visited restaurants, even one very off the tourist track that was amazed to have non Japanese customers.

Thanks for the advice. I did take a printed out sheet about coeliac when I went to Korea, when I was in the small cafe the lady read it very carefully and then showed me the cakes (made with pumpkin) that I could eat. In fact everywhere we went people read it thoughtfully but usually then said they didn’t have anything for me, even a very expensive hotel restaurant as a special birthday meal. If we do go we will rent somewhere to stay as that means I can always eat once a day without worrying. We would be in Osaka so the restaurant details are really helpful, thank you.

@2025istheyeari just got back from a 2.5 week trip to Japan, we had 3 nights in Takayama at the end and absolutely LOVED the Showa museum!! And in fact we also loved the Takayama Jinya which was much more interesting than I expected.

Thank you to all on this thread who helped me plan, I planned everything using these threads plus the fab blog about travelling to Japan with kids called The Tokyo Chapter.

@Christwosheds I'm pretty sure the author of that blog is gluten free and possibly vegetarian as well as there are loads of posts on there about that, pretty much all her roundups of where to eat include GF info. See for instance:
https://www.thetokyochapter.com/lovely-sit-down-gluten-free-meals-in-tokyo-with-kids/
https://www.thetokyochapter.com/japan-with-kids-dont-make-these-mistakes/ (info about buying GF food and having it delivered to your hotel)

Just saw you'll be in Osaka - tonnes of GF restaurant info listed here:
https://www.thetokyochapter.com/where-to-eat-in-osaka-with-kids/

Ok this is a strange one . Can you wear Birkenstocks day to day sightseeing and then carry a small pair of socks should you go into a temple or is it more acceptable to wear trainers or some other covered shoe . Going at mid / end Oct .

Sandals are fine. Just make sure you have socks to pop on where you need to take your shoes off. I wear covered shoes but saw plenty of people in sandals.

Wasn’t it awesome! We loved the Takayama Jiny too, in fact it was one of my teen sons favourite things we did- who’d have thought it!!

Brilliant thankyou

Thank you so much for this.

Such great knowledge shared in this and the previous thread... thank you, all of your trips sound fabulous!

I'm in Tokyo for 4 days in October with my two young adult kids and my 13yr old. Does anyone have ideas for how to spend our evenings? If It was just me and the older two we'd go to bars .

I'm thinking of maybe a karaoke room one evening and maybe the Red Tokyo Tower thingy another evening.

Could we just wander around and see what's happening or should we plan it a bit better?

The lightshow at the Metropolitan Government Building might be fun for everyone. There are different ones throughout the hour, so worth staying on to watch several. There is a restaurant and bar for drinks outside in the public foyer. The MGB is right at Shinjuku station, so you could wander across to the station to Kabukicho, but I'm not too sure how I feel about this with a 13 year old. Your older kids might like to go off by themselves to the clubs and bars.

@heymammy I think it’s worth stopping by kabukicho. It’s good to see thebig cat billboard, godzilla etc. Kabukicho tower is pretty family friendly in the evening (I’ve not been super late at night). I wouldn’t recommend staying out in the area super late with a 13 year old but it’s still pretty family appropriate at about 9-9:30pm. It gets seedier late at night.

Karaoke is also a good shout.

What part of the city are you staying in?

@heymammy and @Takoneko It will be fairly safe but at 13 most kids are quite clued up about things that a younger child might not register. I was a bit out of my depth with my 9 year old who spotted constant references on advertising boards etc to Squid Game and quite sexualised anime/mangas. Japanese/Korean culture feels very safe in person but strikes me as very sexualised/violent/objectifying in their entertainment products, especially as these entertainment products are so 'child like, cute' or use children games as the vehicle of extreme violence and thus appeal so strongly to younger children.

We're going on October 7th too! Our first visit to Japan and I'm very excited about it. Flying from Heathrow to Tokyo with Cathay Pacific :)

I hope anyone in this thread who is currently in Japan is safe and well.

@NellyBarney You’re definitely right about widespread sexualised and violent content. I don’t think that’s specific to Kabukicho though. Every crane game arcade has machines full of really sexualised figurines and characters from super-violent shows right next to machines filled with cute animal plushies.

Every convenience store seems to have adult magazines right next to the kids manga.
I found the ubiquity of tenga advertising and selling to be a particular culture shock. I don’t know if it was the sexual nature of the product or the thought of using that much single-use plastic for that purpose that shocked me more.

I also hope everyone in Japan at the moment is safe and well and thinking of this beautiful country and really hope it’s not as bad as feared.

Thank you. We’re in Tokyo Bay at the moment (Disneyland to be precise!). We under advisory here rather than a warning, but all seems normal. I feel rather guilty going on rides and wandering around shopping when elsewhere in Japan people are being evacuated!

We leave on Friday morning but no flights are disrupted so far.

@QueenMabby Glad to hear you’re not in an evacuation zone. I’ll keep everything crossed for you that it stays that way and you have a good rest of your trip.

It sounds like the threat of tsunami in Japan has been scaled back. Still worrying elsewhere though.
@99victoria Snap! We are also flying Cathy Pacific. I think our flight is around 17:00. I found out that the leg from Hong Kong to Haneda is operated by JAL, so I’m pleased about that.