School me on Japan

[ganesh]

Daughter wants to go to Tokyo for next summer vacation.
I have no idea where to go and what to do.
We are thinking that we will do 7 Nights.

I know bunch of you guys go there.


Tell me what to do there? Where to stay ?
Should I go with one of the Caned tour packages ? Or should I build my own package?

Thanks

[Xtrema]

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Daughter wants to go to Tokyo for next summer vacation.
I have no idea where to go and what to do.
We are thinking that we will do 7 Nights.

I know bunch of you guys go there.


Tell me what to do there? Where to stay ?
Should I go with one of the Caned tour packages ? Or should I build my own package?

Thanks

I never like canned tour. Pace on your own is best.

7 days in Tokyo is fine as a scratch the surface tour. Remember that you lose a day going there and another if you don't adjust well to timezone change. I would do 10 or 12 at least if I'm crossing the ocean.

There are endless suggestions depends on what you are into. Youtube is a good place to research.


All I would say is depends on your daughter's interests, it may impact how you schedule things. A lot of hype food require either a long queue or getting a ticket early in morning and come back hrs later.

Then there are other weeb things that require booking months ahead.

Disney Sea is one of/if not the best Disney park in the world.

Universal Japan in Osaka has the original Super Nintendo World that is better than the one in LA. (but I doubt you are heading that way)

Also, July/Aug are the worst months to be in Japan. It's going to be 40c with pavement radiating heat. Make sure you can handle heat well or you won't enjoy it. Bonus is you'll run into a lot of local festivals and fireworks.

https://tokyocheapo.com/living/summer-in-tokyo-guide/

[JustinL]

Skip summer, I've heard it's too hot. Instead plan a trip around the Japanese Grand Prix in the fall. Tokyo is awesome, but try to get out to some other places too. You can get a JR rail pass as a tourist and it was a bargain when I went.

[pf0sh0]

Stayed at the knot was great, had friends stay there recently and liked it as well.

There are so many things you can do there.. its basically limitless, everything is accessible by train so you have many options.

[Xtrema]

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Skip summer, I've heard it's too hot. Instead plan a trip around the Japanese Grand Prix in the fall. Tokyo is awesome, but try to get out to some other places too. You can get a JR rail pass as a tourist and it was a bargain when I went.

JR rail pass just doubled in price. Its not a deal any more unless you do a lot of cities hopping in a very short time.

Within Tokyo, just get a Suica and load it with cash for local trains. JR pass only limit you to like 2 lines and Google Maps doesn't necessary suggest JR lines to your destination.

EDIT: Almost doubled in price....
https://www.jrailpass.com/blog/japan...rices-increase

ie, Tokyo to Osaka is $140CAD 1 way. You have to do that trip 3 times in 7 days to offset JR Pass's new price.

[benyl]

Tokyo is hot in April. Can't imagine Summer.

I would go for spring break for the Sakura. What to do is age dependent. Do you want to stay in Tokyo or hit up other sights like Mt Fuji?

I enjoyed mario kart go carting through the streets. Disney Sea was good, but super crowded. Tokyo kids go after school on weekdays, so there is never a "down" time.

[BerserkerCatSplat]

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Skip summer, I've heard it's too hot. Instead plan a trip around the Japanese Grand Prix in the fall. Tokyo is awesome, but try to get out to some other places too. You can get a JR rail pass as a tourist and it was a bargain when I went.

Japan GP changed to spring starting next season unfortunately. It's going to coincide with sakura season and be a complete zoo now.

100% agree that fall is much better time to visit. Summer is hot and humid as hell. JR pass is way more expensive now and probably not worth it for a 7 day trip unless you are using the shinkansen a lot.

Build your own tour, fuck canned stuff. Tokyo has so much shit crammed into it you could plan absolutely nothing and just randomly wander around for 7 days without getting bored. If you or your daughter has specific interests, there are usually areas of the city that cater to them - for example, if you are into musical instruments, you go to Ochanomizu and there's a zillion stores. Lots of classical Japanese cultural stuff to do depending on time of year, but you can usually find at least one festival of some kind during a 7-day stretch. Catch a day of the sumo basho if the timing is right. The Kabuki-za offers walk-up tickets for a single act, which is about as much kabuki as a non-Japanese speaker is probably going to be interested in. Akiba is still its weeby self. Consider taking a day trip out to Nikko to see the world heritage temples, there's a special train that goes straight there from Tokyo. Street go-karting in Tokyo is back now (StreetKart, used to be MariCar), 100% recommend even if they're not doing the Mario themes anymore.

Food is everywhere. Google works OK for finding restaurants but Tabelog is better as it's largely the more popular review platform in Japan.

Getting around on the trains/subway is super easy. Google is very well integrated into the system and will tell you exactly which platform and what time. English is pretty much everywhere on the transit network, apart from local buses.

[ganesh]

Thanks for the Suggestions. Keep it going
Only reason I was thinking Summer was because of School break. If July is going to be hot I rather Avoid that. - I can't handle heat anymore
Maybe we can do this on fall break.

[Xtrema]

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Japan GP changed to spring starting next season unfortunately. It's going to coincide with sakura season and be a complete zoo now.

If recent November IRL streams show, all the touristy areas are already overran with people. Government is trying hard to promote other areas outside of Kyoto/Tokyo/Osaka to divert them.

And that's with 2M/mth less Chinese not showing up due to the whole Fukushima thing.

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Thanks for the Suggestions. Keep it going
Only reason I was thinking Summer was because of School break. If July is going to be hot I rather Avoid that. - I can't handle heat anymore
Maybe we can do this on fall break.

Latest I would go would be Apr 30th. Avoid 1st week of May due to Golden week and heat starts to pick up. October is when you want to plan to go back.

[BerserkerCatSplat]

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If recent November IRL streams show, all the touristy areas are already overran with people. Government is trying hard to promote other areas outside of Kyoto/Tokyo/Osaka to divert them.

And that's with 2M/mth less Chinese not showing up due to the whole Fukushima thing.

Yeah I hear it's getting pretty wild. We were in Kyoto in September/October 2018 and even the touristy spots were basically empty. Literally had the Arashiyama bamboo grove to ourselves, no way you'd pull that off these days. Tokyo is always crowded, so what's a few extra tourists haha.

It seems counterproductive for them to want to get people out of the big three but made the JR pass more $$$.

[msommers]

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Daughter wants to go to Tokyo for next summer vacation.
I have no idea where to go and what to do.
We are thinking that we will do 7 Nights.

I know bunch of you guys go there.


Tell me what to do there? Where to stay ?
Should I go with one of the Caned tour packages ? Or should I build my own package?

Thanks

Spend some time on the Japan Travel subreddit. That place has every answer you need.

Given this is your first time there, 7 days feels really tight. A Tokyo/Kyoto trip over 10 days would give you a lot of options and some very different experiences.

One of our highlights was seeing the snow monkeys outside of Nagano. It's quite the detour though. The Kobe Zoo was unreal, very interactive and the number of animals out of cages was impressive. Like the lemurs at the Calgary Zoo just on steroids.

[BerserkerCatSplat]

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Spend some time on the Japan Travel subreddit. That place has every answer you need.

But never, ever, mention you plan to do the street karts, they'll dogpile you. That sub has a deep, burning hatred of them for "bothering the locals". (In my experience, the locals largely found the karts amusing.)

Strongly agree to add more than 7 days if you can, you'll need a day or two for jet lag and more time is always better if you're spending that much on flights.

[Xtrema]

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Yeah I hear it's getting pretty wild. We were in Kyoto in September/October 2018 and even the touristy spots were basically empty. Literally had the Arashiyama bamboo grove to ourselves, no way you'd pull that off these days. Tokyo is always crowded, so what's a few extra tourists haha.

It seems counterproductive for them to want to get people out of the big three but made the JR pass more $$$.

Was in Kyoto in 2018 as well, the footage I saw around Kiyomizu/Gion is at least 2x more people during the day in Nov 2023.

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But never, ever, mention you plan to do the street karts, they'll dogpile you. That sub has a deep, burning hatred of them for "bothering the locals". (In my experience, the locals largely found the karts amusing.)

They were amused in 2018. May be attitude changed a bit since. I'll find out again next Apr.

[BerserkerCatSplat]

2X! Madness. I can't imagine Kiyomizu with twice the crowds, that was by far the busiest spot when we visited.

The Nara deer must be 48% crackers by volume these days.

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They were amused in 2018. May be attitude changed a bit since. I'll find out again next Apr.

MariCar had been around for ages already by 2018, doubt there would be much change in attitude. Have fun!

[msommers]

It was like Stampede density in June, with too many Honkies as well. Nearby Kodaji was nearly deserted though, was so nice.

[ExtraSlow]

Oh man, I want to go back to Japan. Was there in like 2001 maybe? Had a great time.

[flipstah]

Love Japan and WestJet makes it easier noawadays.

As people mentioned, JR Pass went up in price so you have to calculate harder on the break-even point. It is pretty sweet to book seats online nowadays vs. going to a ticket office, explaining 12 routes to someone and waiting.

I would not do a canned tour and build your own due to the fact it's easy to get around if you can read a map.

If you have not been there before, it is a culture shock to be in Shinjuku station aka 5 levels of hell. It's easy to get lost and you have to a cool mind to navigate around in that hellhole of a station.

Other than that: it's a lot of fun! Easy to get cheap food, anytime anywhere; lots of things to do for all types of activities; you can be in a rested mood in an onsen easily.

DisneySea is way more fun than DisneyLand Japan and would recommend staying on grounds to get early access. It's 10 mins before general admission opens but it does make a difference to reserve the popular rides. Have fun!

Don't go during summer or school break; September/October has been very good to travel.

[phreezee]

Summer is definitely hot and I'd recommend carrying an umbrella.
Drink lots of Pocari Sweat.
Lots of people had portable fans. I bought an air conditioned vest

Get Suica on your Apple Watch and reload with Apple Wallet. Kids will have to have physical cards, as I never figured out how to get Apple/Android Pay for minors working.
Budget for transit costs as I was surprised it added roughly $5k for the 4 of us over 3 weeks. Green cars were worth it for us.

People post their full itineraries on reddit and you can pick an choose what interests you : https://www.reddit.com/r/JapanTravel/

[davidI]

If there's a sumo tournament on you've got to check it out!

Obviously, food. Lots and lots of food.

[flipstah]

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If there's a sumo tournament on you've got to check it out!

Obviously, food. Lots and lots of food.

Yes! This. That one I would do a tour on; got great seats + education session on rankings and who they are because their ring name is different from their actual name.