[Whynotnow]

Originally Posted by dubc80

Good to read up on some "Japan with kids" posts a few pages back.

We're heading there for almost a month with kids aged 10, 8 and 5.

Rough itinerary:
- 7 nights in Tokyo to start. (Random wandering in neighborhoods, Disney, and typical tourist stuff)
- 3 nights in Hakone (Onsen hot springs, pirate ship cruise, cable car and chill out at the lake)
- 5-6 nights in Osaka (Universal Studios and more typical tourist wandering, eating and shopping. There's a good aquarium)
- 3 nights in Kyoto (Seems like temples and "old" Japan. Fully expect kids to complain that shrines are boring)
- 1-2 nights in Nagoya (Legoland, maybe)
- Few more nights in Tokyo before we head home

I think this is pretty close to what we'll do.
I briefly considered Hiroshima to see war stuff but not sure I wanted to make it that far west. Too much moving.
Did not even really consider anything up north cause it's not ski season.

Its our first BIG airplane trip as a family. I'm really excited. Our older 2 will really love the kitschy stuff like vending machines, arcades, toy stores etc.

I expect to be saying "no" a million times a day to all the toys and stuffed animals they will want to buy.

I'm also going to try to catch as many baseball games as I can.

We are planning on going to a Giants game together as a family, but hopefully I can catch a few more either solo, or with my son if the wife and younger ones dont wanna come. Swallows, Tigers, Buffalos are all playing at home when we're in those cities but I'm only marking the Giants game as the only "must do".

I booked some traditional Japanese AirBnB accomodations so we'll he having a few family sleepovers on mattresses on the floors. I think the kids will like that too.

Looks like an amazing itinerary and similar to ours, our kids were 10 and 7 when we went.

Osaka - might feel like a night or two too long to be honest. Universal was a fun couple of days, really fun to see the same rides in a different language in a weird way. The aquarium is awesome, do not miss it. The castle is neat, rebuilt, but still a good visit.

In the area we went to the ise toba coastal area for a night, was nice.

Kyoto - don’t underestimate the temples. Kiyomizu-dera temple is pretty interactive and the streets leading to and from it are filled with lots of shops and places to grab food. We went from there to Maruyama park by rickshaw and had more food and explored.

Also in Kyoto is Sanjusangendo - was built in the 1100’s and has 1001 Buddha statues in this long building, all unique. It’s fascinating.

In Kyoto but could be done anywhere we went to a karaoke place where we had our own room for the family and just had an absolute ball, one of our favourite family memories.