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This was our second trip to Japan, we have completely fallen in love with the country and look forward to going back a third time (hopefully in the fall sometime). There are so many great places to explore and eat. The Japanese people are so kind and courteous. The city is clean and orderly. I love the fact that we were in a different country but felt totally safe. It’s such an amazing destination, I highly recommend visiting Japan!
Day 1
Land at Narita airport
Took Limousine bus to ANA Intercontinental Tokyo in Akasaka. You can take a train to the city, but if you have large luggage this is a great way to travel especially if your hotel is one of the stops along the way. You don’t need to book in advance, just buy tickets at the counter as you exit the terminal.
Day 2
We started the day early at Ueno Park to check out the Cherry Blossoms and the crowds were light early in the morning. The key to lighter crowds really is to wake up early.
Next we headed to Asakusa for lunch to check out the following:
- Sensō-ji temple
- Nakamise-dori Street (we ate Melonpan and Taiyaki)
- Kappabashi Kitchen Street – street that sells lots of kitchenware (bring cash)
- Lunch at Sushiro (conveyer belt sushi that also had things like chicken, fries and ramen for the non-sushi eating people in our family)
In the evening we went to Akihabara for our youngest, he wanted to check out the manga, anime, and electronics stores.
Day 3
We started the day at TeamLab Borderless which is a digital art museum. I highly recommend! It was a trip highlight for all for of us. You can purchase tickets one month in advance. I recommend trying for the earliest time slot so the museum isn’t as crowded, it definitely gets fuller as the day goes on. TeamLab Borderless is fun for kids too, there is an area where you color a sea creature, they scan it and it ends up on the wall. It’s so fun!
They also have another one which is called TeamLab Planets, and it’s a little more interactive, you take off your shoe and walk through water. We did not book this one, but after visiting TeamLab Borderless, we really wish we did.
Next up, we headed to Ginza to check out Age.3 and their viral fried sandwiches, we waited in line for about 30 minutes. They were good, but I’m not sure I would wait much longer then 30 minutes for them.
We also had some shopping planned at the following stores:
- Itoya – largest stationery store founded in 1904 with 12 levels of paper goods, pens, crafts and more. Absolute heaven!
- Uniqlo Flagship Store – There are 12 floors at this store and you can even customize some items (tip: this store gets crazy busy and crowded so there are several other Uniqlo stores around Tokyo worth visiting if your aren’t up for braving the crowds)
- Loft – great place for useful souvenirs, stationery and more. Just a fun store to check out!
We headed to Shinjuku in the evening to eat at a Yakiniku restaurant, which is a a Japanese-style barbecue restaurant where we grilled bite-sized pieces of meat, seafood, and vegetables at our table.
Day 4
We took a day trip to Kamakura to see the Great Buddha statue at the Kotoku-in Temple. We also strolled the streets to check out the shops and get something to yummy to eat.
We also had a stop at Enoshima planned to check out the Enoshima Shrine and Samuel Cocking Garden. This was a nice stop along the coast that got us out of the hustle and bustle of the city. I highly recommend!
Day 5
We planned this as a little more relaxing and chill day so we didn’t burn ourselves out, walking in Tokyo is no joke…so much walking and so many stairs! We still got to see some great things! We visited Shinjuku Gyoen National Gardens where the Cherry Blossoms were in full bloom. I recommend visiting this park even if it isn’t cherry blossom season, it’s so pretty!
We also explored Meiji Jingu, which is a temple in the middle of a dense forest right in the middle of the city. If you don’t want huge crowds, I recommend visiting early in the morning at both of these locations. Early evening is a great option too!
We had dinner at an Indian Restaurant we found on our last trip to Japan that we enjoyed very much. It’s called KHANA Indian restaurant, the portions are good, the food is great and the price is small. Food is Tokyo is so good and often very cheap!
Day 6
We got lucky and scored tickets to the Ghibli Museum! My son is a fan and this was one of the things he really wanted to do. Getting tickets for the Ghibli Museum were harder to secure than Taylor Swift Eras Tour tickets. LOL! Tickets become available on the 10th day of the month (10 am JST) before you want to attend, you will need to be online about 10 minutes or so before they are released and use multiple devices. We had 6 devices running, most said were were between 25,000-30,000 in line. I’ve heard if you get a number 8000 or less there is a decent chance you will get tickets. Fortunately, my son was number 3800 in line on his phone and we were able to secure the tickets.
It’s a rather small museum, but if you are big Ghibli fan, you will go nuts. There is some memorabilia, a short film to watch and a gift shop.
We visited Shibuya Crossing, it’s neat to cross the crazy intersection, but my son said he was underwhelmed, so it may or may not be a worth a visit to you.
We stopped at the Disney flagship store in Shinjuku because we are huge Disney fans. There is a really cute store in Shibuya too, but it is smaller and has too many shoppers in a small space for my liking!
In the evening we headed toward the Tokyo Disney resort and checked into our room at the Tokyo Disneyland hotel. We chose to visit by private shuttle because we all had large suitcases. You can use a luggage forwarding service and take public transportation as an option too.
Day 7
We started our day at Tokyo Disneyland. Since we were staying at the Tokyo Disneyland hotel the night before we gained early entry to the park. They call it Happy Entry and you only get in 15 minutes early, but it really does make a difference. You can ensure you get in line for a popular ride before everyone else lines up, or you can take photos in front of the castle with an empty park.
Do not miss the Enchanted Tale of Beauty and the Beast attraction, it’s amazing. We also really enjoyed the Micky’s Magical Music World show. Food spots we enjoyed:
- Rackety’s Raccoon Saloon – Critter Sundae
- Queen of Hearts Banquet Hall
Day 8
We spent the next two days at Tokyo Disney Sea, which is my opinion is the best theme park I have ever visited! It’s visually stunning! We transferred hotels and checked into the MiraCosta, you can see a peek at our patio above.
We were fortunate to ride pretty much all the rides we wanted because we booked and unlimited vacation package, which gave us access to ride tons of the popular rides as much as we wanted. We were also able to book priority passes for three of the popular rides in the new Fantasy Springs section.
Day 9
Disney Sea is such a large and amazing park we knew we wanted a second day there. Since we accomplished most of the rides we wanted yesterday we took this day to really explore the park and ride the few rides that we missed yesterday. We were able to score seating for the musical show Big Band Beat, which we enjoyed.
Probably the highlight of the day was dining at Magellan’s, it’s a fine dining restaurant within Disney Sea, the food is amazing and the atmosphere in the restaurant is stunning. The cool part is we got seated in the “secret room”, you push a button on a book case and a door opens up to the hidden room. It was so cool!
Day 10
We took the Shinkansen to Kyoto. Booking tickets ahead of time is not necessary, but because we were traveling with our luggage we wanted to ensure we had luggage storage seats, so we booked ahead. We all grabbed a Bento Box at the train station before boarding the train. We chose to travel from Shinagawa Station since it’s a little less overwhelming then Tokyo station.
We checked into the DoubleTree by Hilton Kyoto Station, which was a very short walking distance from the station. We dropped off our bags and headed to visit the Fushimi Inari gates in the early evening. You can hike all the way to the top and be rewarded with a great view of Kyoto.
Day 11
First thing in the morning we took the Hozugawa River Boat Ride at 9 am towards Arashiyama. The ride was very scenic and our guides were so much fun! It took us longer than usual because the river was really low (almost 2 hours travel time), but the river was lined with Cherry Blossoms and we even got to see some wildlife.
Once we got to Arashiyama we checked out the following:
- Bamboo Forest
- Okochi Sanso Garden
- Kimono Forest
Day 12
This was probably one of my favorite days! We went to Goin in the am to avoid crowds and then we visited the Ginkakuji (Silver Pavilion). The grounds were gorgeous and peaceful. Next we walked the streets to head to the Path of the Philosopher and stopped at a stand that had strawberries covered in a hardened sugar (Tanghulu). They were so good! The strawberries in Japan and so sweet and fresh!
The Path of the Philosopher was a stone path through the northern part of Kyoto’s Higashiyama district. The path follows a canal which was lined by hundreds of blooming cherry trees. The walk was absolutely wonderful, the views were gorgeous and it was very peaceful.
Day 13
We only had a half day in Kyoto before we had to head back to Tokyo due to the fact we were flying out the next day. We spent our morning at the Kinkaku-ji (Golden Temple). Once again the ground were stunning and the golden temple was so pretty, surrounded by water and Japanese trees. We got some ice cream afterwards complete with golden flakes!
We rode the Shinkansen from Kyoto to Shinagawa station and then took the Narita Express to the airport. We caught a shuttle bus to our last hotel stay before we headed home.
Day 14
Our flight wasn’t until the late afternoon, so we took the free hotel shuttle to the Narita Mall, which was actually kind of nice. We flew home in the afternoon. The entire trip was amazing! I love visiting new places, but this was our second trip to Japan and I can’t wait to go back again. I’d love to visit in the fall, since our last 2 trips have been in the spring. I would personally avoid the summer months, the heat in Japan is scorching in the summer and I am a wimp when it comes to heat.
Flights – We flew Premium Economy with Japan Airlines, we booked our flights with Alaska Airlines miles so we only had to pay the fees.
Hotels: (I would recommend them all)
