Planning first out of country trip

trainingupmy4princes

DIS Veteran
Joined
Jul 31, 2008
This is our family's first attempt at an international trip. We are wanting to go to Japan with a couple days stop in Hong Kong next summer. I have bought several Japan/Hong Kong guidebooks. None of them have any info. on Disney parks.:earseek: As I try to plan this trip, I was if any well-traveled people have a timeline on when it's best to book things. For example, when is the best time to buy airfare for the best price 9 months in advance, 6 months, etc? Hotels? I know we want to stay at Disney affiliated hotels at both Hong Kong and Tokyo for the perks, then move to other hotels for sightseeing. Maybe stay at a Ryokan for a few nights. Any other ideas to start? Thanks
 
The Tokyo Disneyland hotels you can book 5 months before, unless you do a package then it's 6 months before.

I love ryokans. :) There aren't many in Tokyo, the ones I did come across were in the Asakusa area. You can do a side trip from Tokyo to Hakone, Nikko, or Kamakura, where you can find many ryokans. My choice for a first time visitor would probably be Hakone. The one we stayed in Hakone had it's own funicular down the mountain to get to the entrance and an outdoor natural onsen by the river you could reserve for private use. It was a very memorable experience! I'd recommend it, but sadly it seems to have closed (this was some 10 years ago). You can probably find something similar though. Or if your kids are ninja fans, you can do Nikko. On our trip last year (with kids this time), we went to Edo Wonderland (i.e. the ninja park) as well as Tobu World Square (miniatures of places around the world).

The airfare question is a hard one with no perfect answer. I have read that for Asia, it's better to buy very early - just how much truth there is to that, I don't know. We bought about 6 months in advance. I did occasionally check after and saw it go down by a little ($50 maybe?). For me, buying airfare always feels like a game of chicken. The most helpful thing I find is to have a target price for the route and season (i.e. summer will be more expensive).

Besides this board, I also found this one helpful:
https://www.japan-guide.com/forum/

Hotel/ryokan booking websites. I find them especially useful for ryokans where booking direct is very hard, if not impossible for foreigners.
http://www.japanican.com/en/
https://travel.rakuten.com/

Have fun planning!
 
The Tokyo Disneyland hotels you can book 5 months before, unless you do a package then it's 6 months before.

I love ryokans. :) There aren't many in Tokyo, the ones I did come across were in the Asakusa area. You can do a side trip from Tokyo to Hakone, Nikko, or Kamakura, where you can find many ryokans. My choice for a first time visitor would probably be Hakone. The one we stayed in Hakone had it's own funicular down the mountain to get to the entrance and an outdoor natural onsen by the river you could reserve for private use. It was a very memorable experience! I'd recommend it, but sadly it seems to have closed (this was some 10 years ago). You can probably find something similar though. Or if your kids are ninja fans, you can do Nikko. On our trip last year (with kids this time), we went to Edo Wonderland (i.e. the ninja park) as well as Tobu World Square (miniatures of places around the world).

The airfare question is a hard one with no perfect answer. I have read that for Asia, it's better to buy very early - just how much truth there is to that, I don't know. We bought about 6 months in advance. I did occasionally check after and saw it go down by a little ($50 maybe?). For me, buying airfare always feels like a game of chicken. The most helpful thing I find is to have a target price for the route and season (i.e. summer will be more expensive).

Besides this board, I also found this one helpful:
https://www.japan-guide.com/forum/

Hotel/ryokan booking websites. I find them especially useful for ryokans where booking direct is very hard, if not impossible for foreigners.
http://www.japanican.com/en/
https://travel.rakuten.com/

Have fun planning!
Thanks, we are planning on sightseeing in Japan 2 weeks. Of course 4 days are at Tokyo Disney. We will have one of our teenager sons and our little girl with us. I had been looking at Edo Wonderland and my son is into anime and Ghibli so we were looking at the Ghibli museum. Any other areas that are must see? This is probably our only visit to Japan so we are looking to see as much of Japan as we can, so I'm not sure how much time to do in Tokyo vs seeing other areas. I might be able to add 2 more days on if DH can swing the time off. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. If this trip goes well we may visit other countries that I've always wanted to go to. It's just taking my kids out of the country for the first time is making me nervous due to it being an unknown.:blush:
 
It depends who you are using to book your airfare. I frequently use JTB (Japanican I believe is a subsidiary of JTB) to purchase my airfares and I usually do it 2-3 months out. In general, airfare is better if you are near a major city with direct flights to Japan. (So the best fares are from LAX and SFO, and you can find all right fares from NYC, Chicago, Seattle, and a few other cities.) I've flown direct from NYC and done a few plane changes in SFO, Chicago, and LAX when going to and from Japan. Usually I had changes because I wanted a specific airline or I was looking to fly into or out of an airport besides Narita and I don't live near SFO or LAX.

In your case, if you are continuing onto Hong Kong or coming from Hong Kong you might want to look into flying into/out of an airport besides Narita or Haneda. So for example, fly into say Fukuoka from Hong Kong and then work your way East to Tokyo and Tokyo Disney and then leave from Haneda or Narita for the USA. Or fly into Narita/Haneda from the USA and then fly out of Kansai Airport to Hong Kong. Generally, it doesn't cost that much more to do an open jaw flight and you will save money in transport costs within Japan unless you plan to just stay in Tokyo.

I know this is not a popular feeling on this board, but I couldn't take 4 days in TDR. The parks are nice and well done, but there is just so much to see and do in Japan I would be miserable giving up 4 days of my trip to Japan to be in TDR when there is so much more I could be doing elsewhere. I definitely like giving a day to each park, but more than that I just can't do.

My DD loved TDR. She's currently 6, turning 7 soon. TDR is very different from WDW and DL, which she has also been to. There are things I love about TDR but there are other aspects I find disappointing. We're going to go back in late June or July of 2018 and I am debating staying at the Tokyo Disneyland Hotel again or just staying in Tokyo because while I loved the 15 minute early entry, I was so disappointed by the actual hotel. The beds were awful and I thought the bathroom looked dated.

I am a regular contributer to Japan-Guide. Their forum has some really great information but I'd recommend spending time on the website first and doing some research. There are a few members there who've gotten a little snarky with people who haven't done any research first.

For booking hotels/ryokan I use: the actual hotel's website, Booking.com (because they include all taxes), Japanican (they have some better rates for luxury properties), Rakuten and I've used Jalan a few times in the past. A lot more places have English websites than once did.

The Ghibli Museum is very popular. You need to try to book ahead of time with JTB and pay their premium. If you can't get your date that way Japanican offers a "tour" with an even higher premium for the tickets. I wet a long time ago, it was fun. I plan to take my daughter next trip.

I think if you're going to be in Japan for 2 weeks you really should try to make it to Kyoto and Nara. Kyoto and Nara are also good places to stay in a ryokan. I like Hakone, and if you are there in late June, you are there for their big hydrangea time (and the special hydrangea night trains) but I am not sure how interesting the area is for kids. When we were there in June 2016 it poured and Owakudani was closed for walking around because of volcanic fears. I also just have not yet found a hotel I like there. I've stayed at several.

I really Kamakura and I enjoyed Nikko. But again, if you have 2 weeks there are a lot of other places you can also visit. One of the people on Japan-Guide whose view I always appreciate loves Enoshima as a place to stay.

I think the big challenge for you, might be accommodations. I am not sure how many of you will be going, but just so you know most accommodations will count anyone over 12 as an "adult." There are AirBnBs but be warned, in many municipalities they are not legal and your reservation can be cancelled at the last minute.

As you just say Summer, I would avoid going in August, because it's Obon and things in general are more crowded and booking trains can be harder because it is a holiday time in Japan. It's a little hot and it can be rainy, but I've enjoyed the 2 trips I've now done late June to early July. My daughter will be doing trip #3 in 2018. We're still working on destinations because I can't decide if Naoshima is worth it or if we are better off visiting Ritsuin and the caves at Akiyoshidai. :D
 


Thanks
It depends who you are using to book your airfare. I frequently use JTB (Japanican I believe is a subsidiary of JTB) to purchase my airfares and I usually do it 2-3 months out. In general, airfare is better if you are near a major city with direct flights to Japan. (So the best fares are from LAX and SFO, and you can find all right fares from NYC, Chicago, Seattle, and a few other cities.) I've flown direct from NYC and done a few plane changes in SFO, Chicago, and LAX when going to and from Japan. Usually I had changes because I wanted a specific airline or I was looking to fly into or out of an airport besides Narita and I don't live near SFO or LAX.

In your case, if you are continuing onto Hong Kong or coming from Hong Kong you might want to look into flying into/out of an airport besides Narita or Haneda. So for example, fly into say Fukuoka from Hong Kong and then work your way East to Tokyo and Tokyo Disney and then leave from Haneda or Narita for the USA. Or fly into Narita/Haneda from the USA and then fly out of Kansai Airport to Hong Kong. Generally, it doesn't cost that much more to do an open jaw flight and you will save money in transport costs within Japan unless you plan to just stay in Tokyo.

I know this is not a popular feeling on this board, but I couldn't take 4 days in TDR. The parks are nice and well done, but there is just so much to see and do in Japan I would be miserable giving up 4 days of my trip to Japan to be in TDR when there is so much more I could be doing elsewhere. I definitely like giving a day to each park, but more than that I just can't do.

My DD loved TDR. She's currently 6, turning 7 soon. TDR is very different from WDW and DL, which she has also been to. There are things I love about TDR but there are other aspects I find disappointing. We're going to go back in late June or July of 2018 and I am debating staying at the Tokyo Disneyland Hotel again or just staying in Tokyo because while I loved the 15 minute early entry, I was so disappointed by the actual hotel. The beds were awful and I thought the bathroom looked dated.

I am a regular contributer to Japan-Guide. Their forum has some really great information but I'd recommend spending time on the website first and doing some research. There are a few members there who've gotten a little snarky with people who haven't done any research first.

For booking hotels/ryokan I use: the actual hotel's website, Booking.com (because they include all taxes), Japanican (they have some better rates for luxury properties), Rakuten and I've used Jalan a few times in the past. A lot more places have English websites than once did.

The Ghibli Museum is very popular. You need to try to book ahead of time with JTB and pay their premium. If you can't get your date that way Japanican offers a "tour" with an even higher premium for the tickets. I wet a long time ago, it was fun. I plan to take my daughter next trip.

I think if you're going to be in Japan for 2 weeks you really should try to make it to Kyoto and Nara. Kyoto and Nara are also good places to stay in a ryokan. I like Hakone, and if you are there in late June, you are there for their big hydrangea time (and the special hydrangea night trains) but I am not sure how interesting the area is for kids. When we were there in June 2016 it poured and Owakudani was closed for walking around because of volcanic fears. I also just have not yet found a hotel I like there. I've stayed at several.

I really Kamakura and I enjoyed Nikko. But again, if you have 2 weeks there are a lot of other places you can also visit. One of the people on Japan-Guide whose view I always appreciate loves Enoshima as a place to stay.

I think the big challenge for you, might be accommodations. I am not sure how many of you will be going, but just so you know most accommodations will count anyone over 12 as an "adult." There are AirBnBs but be warned, in many municipalities they are not legal and your reservation can be cancelled at the last minute.

As you just say Summer, I would avoid going in August, because it's Obon and things in general are more crowded and booking trains can be harder because it is a holiday time in Japan. It's a little hot and it can be rainy, but I've enjoyed the 2 trips I've now done late June to early July. My daughter will be doing trip #3 in 2018. We're still working on destinations because I can't decide if Naoshima is worth it or if we are better off visiting Ritsuin and the caves at Akiyoshidai. :D
Thanks for all the information. I have several Japan tour books to read but I wanted people's personal opinion as to what areas are worth the time and are child friendly. The books have lots of information but no opinions and obviously we can't see everything so I wanted to narrow down which sections to read through first if there are specific areas to lean towards itinerary wise. We are just 4 of us going our 7 Yo girl and teen boy. The other boys are busy in the summers. We are leaning towards June as July might be hard to swing with DD's dance. I had read that late May was better but I'm not sure that would work as DD would miss her big dance recital then. I'm hoping June will be OK and not terrible. Vacations are getting harder to plan around the kid's schedules.:goodvibes I miss the days when we just pulled them out of preschool and went on vacation.:rotfl:
 
We're a family of 4 (kids were 4 and 7 on the trip) and I found it a little tough to find hotels that will fit all of us in one room in Tokyo. The hotels near TDR were okay and most ryokans (but a little hard figuring out the child pricing sometimes). We ended up at the Gate Hotel Asakusa. Their policy is kids under 12 stay for free in existing bedding (i.e. bedshare). So we fit in a twin room (Japanese terminology for a room with 2 beds). They have reasonably priced triple rooms too that would work for you. It's not fancy, but modern, clean, and comfortable. We got a great rate through Travelocity when they had their 17% off coupon.

Location wise, it was convenient for touring Asakusa and it was close to the direct train to Nikko. It may not be that convenient for other places in Tokyo, so you'll want to check train routings (I used hyperdia.com).

We also took the kids to Odaiba. The giant Gundam there was very impressive. At certain times, there's a little show and it moves with sound effects. DH and DS also enjoyed Tokyo Mega Web.

In Nikko, we stayed at a ryokan called Tsurukame Daikichi, which we enjoyed. There's a free bus to Edo Wonderland about a 5 min walk away.

From our trip 10 years ago, the most memorable parts for me were Miyajima and Arashiyama. Miyajima is an island near Hiroshima, it has the famous torii gate that the one at Epcot is modeled after. Many people do day trips, but I enjoyed staying overnight in a ryokan and seeing the torii gate at night. Arashiyama is a charming riverside town near Kyoto with a bamboo forest and a monkey park. In Kyoto, we saw many temples, which kind of blend together after a while, but the most memorable ones for me were Kinkaku (because it's golden!) and Kiyomizu-dera.

We went in early June last year and thought the weather was pretty good. A little hot and humid, but nothing too bad, and it only rained a little. Crowds at TDR were not bad either.
 
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Our school doesn't end until mid June so we tend to go right after school ends. I've been other times of year before she was born. I actually like going late June/early July. It is hot and humid and some days it has rained a lot, but we've not yet had problems with horrible crowds and I thought even on our sunny day in TDR it was quieter than a "quieter" day in DL. But that is a personal opinion. We enjoyed all the Tanabata decorations. It's not as hot as WDW in Summer/September.

I think... where are good places to visit sort of depends on your interests and what you want to do? Other than going to Disney, I'm not really sure what else interests you/your family in particular. Are you looking for an overview of Japan? Are you into hiking? Are you interested in flowers? Do you enjoy gardens? Are you into art? It's really hard, Japan has a lot to see and do. I've been many times and I feel like there is just so much still I've not done and I guess that is why for me 4 parks is just 2 days too many, though I understand different people have different interests. We like fashion dolls, so we go to a factory where they are manufactured in Japan. But it's not for everyone. I also really like onsen (the naked baths) but that is also something not everyone likes. It also gets more complicated if anyone in your family is tattooed.

Kyoto has a lot of places to rent kimono and yukata for the day and a lot of people enjoy it. Mine really liked it as did I, though she wasn't feeling the geta. Mine likes being able to feed the semi-wild wild life, so Nara with its mostly tame deer and Arashiyama and its monkeys were huge hits. I've thought about going to the monkey onsen in Nagoano-ken but I am just not sure it's worth it. Rail passes are great, but they don't often cover private lines and while a bargain for a lot of travel can still get expensive.

My daughter loved Miyajima. I know a lot of people think it is less interesting during low tide, but she loved being able to walk out to the torii gate and seeing all the sea-life left behind as the tide went out. You can no longer feed the deer there, but they are omnipresent.

It's hard to know what is child friendly to your child. Someone on Japan Guide says their 8 year old loves Naoshima. I am just not 100% convinced mine is going to vs. karst caves in Akiyoshidai which I know she will like. I would say though that I found that giving my daughter her own camera to use has really changed how she feels about temples/shrines/gardens.

My favorite place I have ever stayed was the Tokyo Station Hotel. It is not cheap. I love the location though and the service is top notch. I also really liked the Royal Park in Shiodome.
 


I've been to Japan 5 times and to Hong Kong twice in the last 10 years, but I never did both on the same trip. My first trip to Japan was 10 years ago and I went in October. Weather was perfect and for the Tokyo Disney portion, we stayed at the Sheraton Grande Tokyo Bay behind the parks. It is across the street from the monorail and we were lucky enough to get upgraded to a 12th floor park side room and I attached a picture of what the view looked like when we looked toward Tokyo Disneyland.

raging-spirits-overhead-view.jpg


The Sheraton Grande Tokyo Bay and the other hotels nearby were much more reasonable price wise, but do not include the 15 minutes early entry that the 3 official hotels get. Speaking of that, arriving an hour or two before the park opens is absolutely necessary if you want a shot at scoring Fast Passes for Toy Story Mania! at Tokyo DisneySea and Monsters Inc. Ride and Go Seek! at Tokyo Disneyland. The clientele is mostly locals and they will arrive in masse using the JR trains to the parks. The merchandise has a very different style to what we're used to seeing in the US. Lots of character "cute" items, but you can still find some park related gems, like the Tomica Die-Cast ride vehicles. I discovered one store at a mall west of Tokyo that was full of stores selling used items and one of them had a 1/3 of its shelves dedicated to Disney stuff. Would be worth it to see if you can find some gems that you can't find in the parks.

Fast Pass is still the old system there: scan your park ticket at a machine near the park and you get a paper return ticket. Due to all the savvy locals, playing the Fast Pass game is mandatory. Grab a high demand fast pass in the morning and as soon as you can use it or two hours went by, get another one, etc. Single Rider lines are at 3 attractions and are very efficient: Raging Spirits, Indiana Jones Adventure and Splash Mountain.

The food is quite delicious and expect one or two restaurants per park to serve your typical American burgers and fries. Each restaurant has somewhere inside or outside plastic versions of every dish and you can see what you can order and receive.

Outside the parks, with the kids, you have quite a few options. Do they enjoy video games? Sega runs its own indoor "theme park" in the Odaiba area and its very interesting. You have an indoor roller coaster, large versions of arcade games and other activities. Going around Akihabara, the "Electric Town" is also popular due to all the video game stores that sell old games and video game merchandise. Are they into the Pokemon craze? The Tokyo area has a few stores where they sell all kind of official Pokemon stuff and I also had great luck at Yodobashi-Akiba department store in Akihabara. The official site with the address for the Pokemon stores in Japan: http://www.pokemon.co.jp/gp/pokecen/english/

I stayed in a Ryokan once, on Miyajima Island near Hiroshima. Very relaxing and fun since Miyajima Island has great hiking on the mountain and you have a network of cable cars to reach the top where monkeys live freely. If you get a JR Pass, the JR ferry to the island is included. The JR Rail Pass is very useful if you venture out of Tokyo since the Shinkansen bullet trains are expensive and you can ride them all you want with the JR Rail Pass. The pass is a voucher you need to buy in your home country and you take with you to Japan when you go. You then go to one of the exchange point and get it processed and off you go. If you will visit Tokyo Disney, I strongly suggest you process the pass after you go or you do the Tokyo Disney segment after your pass expires as once its activated, its 7 or 14 days straight and you can't change the date on it if you end up not using it for 4 days.

Last year, I did a roller coaster hunt style of trip where I land at Tokyo Haneda airport from Toronto on Air Canada. I got my JR Rail Pass processed at the JR office inside the international terminal with no waits and then made my way to the ANA domestic terminal by bus. ANA offers great 100$ US per flight domestic flights for foreigners when you buy them on their website and this saved me 8-9 hours of Bullet Train since my trip started in Fukuoka. I had a 14 day JR pass and I used it to visit 8 theme parks and 11 days later, I was back in Tokyo for my return flight. I did not do Tokyo Disney that time as my focus was on a wrestling event in Osaka and I built my schedule around that.

For Hong Kong Disneyland, the park is on Lantau Island, which is the same one as Hong Kong International airport. Figure that it is around 5 hours on a direct flight between Tokyo and Hong Kong, less if you fly out of Osaka or Fukuoka. If you're only doing Hong Kong Disneyland, I'd say to book a Disney hotel and grab a taxi from the airport to the resort. Beside that, its really a one day to visit park and its too far by train from the city to really explore the city more than a day. Fast Pass at the park is only offered on three rides: Space Mountain (now running Hyperspace Mountain based on Star Wars), Winnie The Pooh and Iron Man Experience.
 
Just want to add a bit of logistics information that I hope is helpful to the OP. I'm a big fan of the delivery services (takuhaibin) in Japan. They're very reliable and relatively inexpensive (on the order of ~$20 for a big luggage). We used it on our first trip, which was Tokyo, Hakone, Miyajima, Kyoto. We sent the big luggage from Tokyo to Kyoto and just took a small carry on for Hakone and Miyajima. Our recent trip was Tokyo, Nikko, TDR, and we sent the big luggage from Tokyo to TDR. The hotels will fill out the form for you and send it off. The receiving hotel will keep it for you until you arrive, often having it in your room already when you get there. It makes travelling between places so much easier, especially with kids!
 
Monkey onsen! That is going on my mental list of places to go some day. :)

https://www.japan-guide.com/e/e6025.html <==monkey onsen entry. :D

It's best to visit in the Winter when there is snow, but the park owners feed the monkeys year round so even in the Summer they do use the ponds. A friend of a friend is going in February or March and I was helping them research the trip. :)

I totally agree on takyuubin. The only rule to remember is you need 36 or 48 hours when sending bags to the airport, and bags arrive ~24 hours after you. So if you send them on a Monday they won't be there until Tuesday. (there are a few exceptions, like Hakone-Yumoto to your hotel/ryokan before 1:00) Last trip, I sent my bags from Kyoto to Tokyo, and then spent 1 night in Takayama and 1 night in Nagano before meeting up with my bag. :D
 
So if your goal is cute animal sites in Japan.. outside of the monkey onsen in Nagano-ken, the deer in Nara and Miyajima, the monkeys in Arashiyama in Kyoto, other places that might (I have not been to most of these just saw recommendations) appeal are:

Zao Fox Village (located in Miyagi-ken outside Shiorishi, unless you rent a car you're looking at over 10,000 yen in tax fares round trip to visit. There is no public transportation there) https://en.japantravel.com/miyagi/zao-fox-village/10167

Tashirojima (also in Miyagi-ken) is a cat island or you can visit Aoshima in Ehime-ken (near Shikoku) along with about 9 others. https://allabout-japan.com/en/article/3882/

Okunoshima (not far from Hiroshima) is a rabbit island https://modernfarmer.com/2017/03/japan-island-full-rabbits-small-island-dark-history/

Kobe Animal Kingdom is a zoo/petting zoo/animal interaction location in Kobe http://animalcafes.com/v/25525.html

Nagasaki Bio Park is a zoo/petting zoo/animal interaction location located in Nagasaki-ken but quite a distance from Nagasaki City. The closest other tourist attraction is Huis Ten Bosch the Dutch theme park. http://www.biopark.co.jp/en/

Uminokamichi in Fukuoka also seems to have some sort of animal interaction area https://uminaka-park.jp/en/

This next trip, we are probably going to Kobe and Uminokamichi. I keep thinking about Okunoshima, but I am not sure if I would rather do that or something more cultural or caves... >>;

There are almost definitely more places to interact with semi-wild animals in Japan, but there is a starting list for possible places to think about visiting.
I hope this helps either OP or Wanderlust7 or another person viewing this thread. :)
 
Other people have covered the basics but for the Ghibli museum you need to book on the 1st of the month, at 9am Japan time, three months prior.

So if you want to go September 6th, you will need to book 9am on June 1st.

They don't have that many tickets for outside visitors and getting them is tough. It is worth it though - I loved it.

If you are going to Tokyo Disney definitely stay on site - its expensive but Happy 15 allowed me to do 10 attractions before 10am and get a fast pass for Monsters. Personally I also think 4 days is too much. We did 4 and used half of 2 days to go into actual Tokyo and sight-see. It depends on crowds and what you want to do though. We were an adult couple who aren't interested in shows so we could power through an open-close day with no rest breaks.
 

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Just wanted to add that I found these two websites helpful when planning for Tokyo Disney Resort:
https://tdrexplorer.com/
http://www.disneytouristblog.com/

We were there the first two weeks of July and it was really hot and I think late June was not much better. However, crowds at TDR were very managable. We never waited for anything more than 30 minutes. We stayed at the Hilton Tokyo Bay and thought that it was really great. They have a flash sale two or three times a year when they reduce prices quite considerably. The TDR Explorer usually puts out an alert on Facebook when a flash sale starts, I followed him on facebook and jumped when I saw the post about it.
 
Wow, what a lot of great info. It gives me a lot to start with.:disrocks:
As far as family interests, we are a varied family. My son is in Boy Scouts so into nature and hiking, obviously Ghibli and Anime, as well as music. He has a ukulele, violin and 12 hole ocarina he likes to learn to play. He likes unusual instruments instead of typical ones. I love Art, theater, and history as well as architecture. My DD loves animals and gardens, Disney and princess things, and dolls . My DH is an outdoor person, he wants to hike to the top of Mt. Fuji but I don't think we'll have time for that.:rolleyes1

I have read about the onsen but none of us are comfortable being naked with strangers so would only be able to do a private one.:blush: We are going to try to avoid eating American food as we want to experience the culture but may have to grab a few snacks DD will eat.
Thanks to everyone for your suggestions and experiences.:thanks:
 
Wow, what a lot of great info. It gives me a lot to start with.:disrocks:
As far as family interests, we are a varied family. My son is in Boy Scouts so into nature and hiking, obviously Ghibli and Anime, as well as music. He has a ukulele, violin and 12 hole ocarina he likes to learn to play. He likes unusual instruments instead of typical ones. I love Art, theater, and history as well as architecture. My DD loves animals and gardens, Disney and princess things, and dolls . My DH is an outdoor person, he wants to hike to the top of Mt. Fuji but I don't think we'll have time for that.:rolleyes1

I have read about the onsen but none of us are comfortable being naked with strangers so would only be able to do a private one.:blush: We are going to try to avoid eating American food as we want to experience the culture but may have to grab a few snacks DD will eat.
Thanks to everyone for your suggestions and experiences.:thanks:

Mt Fuji can only be climbed from July to early September. Until official climbing season starts it is ill advised to try climbing Mt. Fuji, people do die trying to climb Mt. Fuji out of season. Only one trail is open for the first half of July, the other trails open later in the month.

There are however lots of smaller hikes which can be fun and are more readily accessible for a variety of skill levels. If you go to Miyajima, climbing up (or down) Mt. Misen is very doable. I was trying to figure out how to make it to Kamikochi last trip for day hiking. There is also some easy hiking in the hills above Kamakura, I enjoyed the hike between Kurama and Kibune, and I have a friend who accidentally hiked down Hieizan after visiting Enryakuji. I would like to do the the hike between Tofukuji and Fushimi Inari. Japan offers a lot of hiking adventures, many of which will also hit on your interest in History.

A lot of ryokan do have reserved onsen where just your party can use the onsen. If you don't want to worry about any of that, Yunessun is an onsen theme park in Hakone that requires bathing suits for many of its attractions. Only the Mori no Yu section is the traditional naked onsen. Yunessun is a lark with its themed baths, like the coffee, wine, and green tea ones.

We're planning to go to a doll event in Japan in July 2018. We're huge doll people. If you like doing art, make sure to visit Tokyu Hands, Japan sells a lot of really high quality art supplies. We love Copics.

Animate is the big store for buying new official anime merchandise and Mandarake is the store for buying used stuff. Animate has branches throughout Japan, though their headquarters are in Ikebukuro in Tokyo where they have their largest store. The Nakano (another area in Tokyo, on the same train line as the Ghibli Museum) branch of Mandarake is my favorite branch because they break up their items into lots of smaller stores, making it easier to avoid the things you don't like. It's also easy to get to. The big thing about anime is to always remember that just because something is popular here doesn't mean it is popular in Japan. Mandarake probably has used Disney stuff as well.
 
Wow, what a lot of great info. It gives me a lot to start with.:disrocks:
As far as family interests, we are a varied family. My son is in Boy Scouts so into nature and hiking, obviously Ghibli and Anime, as well as music. He has a ukulele, violin and 12 hole ocarina he likes to learn to play. He likes unusual instruments instead of typical ones. I love Art, theater, and history as well as architecture. My DD loves animals and gardens, Disney and princess things, and dolls . My DH is an outdoor person, he wants to hike to the top of Mt. Fuji but I don't think we'll have time for that.:rolleyes1

I have read about the onsen but none of us are comfortable being naked with strangers so would only be able to do a private one.:blush: We are going to try to avoid eating American food as we want to experience the culture but may have to grab a few snacks DD will eat.
Thanks to everyone for your suggestions and experiences.:thanks:

For your son, I'd recommend a walk around Akihabara - the electronics district - they have so many interesting shops and arcades. My boyfriend and I are both video game nerds and we loved it.

We also enjoyed the Samurai Museum - it's only small but well worth it and it's located right in the middle of Shinjuku.
 
This board along with the great advise from TDRExplorer.com helped me with my first Trip to Japan 2 years ago. You obviously want to check for the best fares and hotel rates as far in advance as possible. When you do , make sure you search for them while incognito mode on your browser. Airlines and hotels tend to raise their prices if they notice you looking on their websites regularly.

I just found an awesome fare from LAX to Narita on Singapore Airlines (My absolute favorite airline in the world) and will be returning to the TDR next year. Let me know if I can be of any assistance regarding where to stay in Tokyo, and what to see ;)
 

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