Trying to plan first trip

[Blue nose]

Help... I don't know where to start. I'm reading lots and not getting any further. Completely overwhelmed.

We're a family of 4 (2a 2teens) want to go next summer school holidays.

What would you recommend?

I'm thinking Universal, Disney and some sightseeing (no ideas where - maybe Tokyo or Kyoto?)
Ideally wanted a beach for few days at the end to rest. Is that possible?

We're away for 14 days max.

What order would you do and how many nights in each place?

I think I read you could travel between Disney and Tokyo so does that mean one less move?

[kevin_cambs_uk]

Trip reports were my first stop and then books and YouTube

I spent 9 months studying the transport system but I thourighly enjoyed it

Been twice and I would live there is a flash.

Best place I have ever visited.

[AntonyJ]

Help... I don't know where to start. I'm reading lots and not getting any further. Completely overwhelmed.
I remember feeling that way before I went!

We're a family of 4 (2a 2teens) want to go next summer school holidays.
Remind me what sort of dates the school holidays are, and I could look to advise if any specific dates to avoid and why - e.g Japanese public holidays etc.

What would you recommend?
I'm thinking Universal, Disney and some sightseeing (no ideas where - maybe Tokyo or Kyoto?)
What do you and the kids want to see / do - what the list of MUST / WOULD LIKE TO / IF HAVE TIME type of thing.
Seeing Disney and Universal are in there - are you a "want to do it all" type of Disney group, or have yo do the other parks a lot? On my first trip I did 1/2 day in Disneyland as it had many things that were in other parks (my better half is not a Disney fan, it was a compromise!) and a full day in Sea, as was not sure if would go back again. However going next year (fingers crossed!) we are doing a full day in each Disney park.

Ideally wanted a beach for few days at the end to rest. Is that possible?
Sorry, no idea on Japanese beach resorts!

We're away for 14 days max.
What order would you do and how many nights in each place?
As above, what type of visit do you want to do in parks - get a flavor / highlights or do it all. 1 day in each as a minimum, 2 days each as minimum if you want to do it all. NOTE - in pre pandemic times you had to pick parks for days 1 and 2, and then park hop on days 3 and 4.

We are doing a day at each Disney and a full day (overnight stay) for Universal

I think I read you could travel between Disney and Tokyo so does that mean one less move?
Yes you can and read people on here doing that and it working well for them. Depending on where you are coming back from in Tokyo each day, it is between 20 and about 40 mins to get to Miahama station (the Disney train station), and then a 10 min shuttle bus ride back to the hotel, or similar time on the Disney monorail to Bayside Station. Should note that is based on your staying at the Hilton or Sheraton at Tokyo Bay, they are next to each other - well a new toy Story hotel is being built between them currently! We moved to Tokyo itself after our Disney days, as did not fancy doing that trek to the hotel at the end of a full day in Tokyo.

The upside is that you get MUCH more room for your money staying at the Hilton / Sheraton - rooms are nice and big for a family of 4, while in Tokyo itself they are very very ... compact!

Another option that might be best of both worlds, is the Hilton at Odiaba, it is a bit further round the bay from Tokyo Disney, again big rooms and prices often a bit cheaper that the ones near Disney - is about 45 mins on trains to Disney, but only 35 minutes to places like Shinjuku - and the area itself has 2 huge malls, the giant Gundam robot / cafe and the teamBoardless digital art museums - which are amazing! A full day in just that area itself

[AntonyJ]

Oh and summers can be very hot humid and rainey - depending when you go

[AntonyJ]

We moved to Shibuya in Tokyo and found it a great area, about 20 mins walk got us to about 80% of the other parts of Tokyo we wanted to see, and for the other stuff the trains are great.

The downside was the hotel room was MUCH smaller - it was fine in the end but they are ... compact!

[kk20]

I can tell you what we did if that helps. We are 2+2 with similar aged children and we went in summer 2019 school holidays. We are in the planning stage of a Japan return but haven't committed yet due to uncertainties.

1) we looked and ranked what we wanted to do. Disney was a must and high up our list. Sightseeing some "old" Japan was high, exploring Tokyo was high, Universal was medium.

2) Look at how to get around, is it possible to fit these in. Flights! These tend to be expensive so pair this with getting around and see what we could do. In the end we saw that the bullet train was good, you can get a JR pass to get around using trains. So we looked at a twin centre Tokyo and Kyoto. Flights (plus JR rail pass) ended up cheaper for us being EDI->NRT, train to Kyoto, train to Tokyo, HAN->EDI.

3) List time in each centre. Disney was a must so 4 full days, 1 day move to Kyoto and explore area, 5 days in Kyoto, 1 day return to Tokyo and explore, 5 days in Tokyo and fly home. Jet lag was for wussies (! ), we took it easy the first day, slept in the afternoon for a few hours and hit disney for opening time in the morning.

4) Accommodation. We set an aggressive task of an average of £100 per night for 4 of us. We pretty much succeeded by stopping at the Okura Bay next to Disney, then we had AirBnB house in Kyoto (awesome decision) and an AirBnB in Tokyo.

5) Sightseeing. Too much to list. Kyoto is a WEALTH of things to do. We did temples, Nara deer feeding, Yucata day, tea ceremony, Nijo Castle, Arishiyama, the station alone is a day of exploring! Tokyo was shopping in Shinjuku, Harajuku, imperial park, government building.

(i'll edit this in a short while to add more, minor kitchen/food/teenager/incident... )

6) Extra bits we need. WIFI portable brick, translation apps, Suica card (think oyster), weather, clothing, spends, currency, food. We went in July, everyone said "its will be a humid nightmare" but we didnt think so. Tokyo and Disney were 24-28 with reasonable humidity (HK was worse when we went). Weather was totally bearable, the odd shower but they were welcome and umbrellas are everywhere and cheap - no need for coats. Disney is geared for heat with water sprayers and also shows that got you wet if you wanted (excellent shows). Kyoto was 30C+ and humid, we simply took it slower and had no issues, plenty of drinks and you will be fine. Public WIFI isnt great so we used a portable WIFI brick, this was easy and useful - dont forget power packs! We took minimal currency with us and used ATMs with our Halifax Clarity card, it worked every time we needed it to. We had a backup reserve card that we used once and that worked too. Suica card is an oyster-esque card - check a few threads below for a much better write up by AJ. Clothing was packed as we would a Florida summer. Mildly tropical with the showers but umbrellas were fine.

Food probably needs its own section really. We didnt use many restaurants, we prefer street food and little vendors, there were no problems eating. Vending machines are nothing like the ones in the UK, prices are not eye wateringly expensive and you can find vending machines for just about anything (including cars apparently). the same goes for train stations. In the UK you would think twice about doing your shopping in a train station - not so in Japan. Train stations are social hubs and necessities, they have department stores in them (Kyoto statition is awesome, it has light shows, skywalks, 13 floors of shopping, they are also good sources of cheap takeaway and food courts. We liked the smaller back street "pull up a stool" vendors - nearly all shops have small plastic mock ups of the dishes so you can point at one if you wish (politely of course!)

7) Language. This was the one we feared the most. I ended up learning to speak japanese via lingodeer. After a year of 10 minute daily lessons I could count, ask for things, get tickets, check in, ask for room bits, queue up just fine. Im not fluent, cannot read japanese at all and sound like a pigin tourist (I always elicited polite smiles and grins but was at least complemented on trying). Most places will at least understand you in English with some pointing, but in Kyoto there are areas that are Japanese only and I got by just fine (ordering food, getting the bill, getting drinks etc). There is english signs in built up areas, not so much in rural areas. Enter google maps, hyperdia and VoiceTRA translation. VoiceTRA is simply amazing and works (and free!). We had no issues at all.

8) Getting around Japan is a piece of cake. The public transport system simply works, thats all you need to know. Use hyperdia to plan, voicetra to ask, suica to pay (or JR pass). There are lots of other info places for JR pass, for us it was a no brainer (and if you have 2x centre stays with a bullet train then it will be for you too). We paid for the monorail next to Disney, this took wear and tear off our feet.

9) Disney was the nicest, politest, cleanest Disney we have *ever* been to. It was a joy to go to.

For our return we are having a similar format to the last time. Disney is a must but we would like to add universal to the mix this time. We couldnt budget it last time as Universal is very expensive - quite simply, it is too small for the footfall so it queue intensive without the fastpasses. We intend "communting" from Kyoto and not moving to Osaka. We also intend a 3 center stop - our current itinerary (depending on flights) is Kyoto (5) -> Hiroshima (2) -> Tokyo (7) with a 2 day disney. We will probably commute from Disney area as the hotels are larger and we intend using a "twilight" disney ticket on other days. When we stopped "in Tokyo", we found that we needed to move around anyway so a single trip to Tokyo from our Hotel wouldnt add much to the start/end of the day. Use Hyperdia to see the times (train times are fairly accurate).

If there are specifics you would like then just ask, there are a few of us here who have been and love the place. First time to Japan? I would split 50/50 Tokyo/Kyoto with at least 2 full days in Disney and (if budget allows) 1/2 days in Universal.

[Blue nose]

Right so I've done more reading threads on here.

School holidays are roughly 25th July to 1st September. There's nothing on our must do list other than Disney. Don't know anything about Japan so will just find 'stuff' around where we stay.

I'm now thinking:

Arrive and stay at Disney - Hilton Tokyo Bay 5nts (arrival night plus 4 more) this will give us 3 full days at Disney to do all the parks. Is that enough?

Then move to Kyoto for 6 nts. So night we move plus 5 full days. This will give us 4 days sightseeing and one day Universal. Does that sound enough?

Then back to Tokyo. I like the sound of Shibuya so we can walk places. For 3 nts. Takes me to 14 nts in all.

AntonyJ - where do you recommend in Shibuya to stay? We might have to go for two rooms as really don't want to be too squashed.

Does this sound doable? Or do I need to alter my days in any location?

[kk20]

looks fine. you can also use a 7 day JR pass and activate it when you set off to kyoto, that will save money.

[AntonyJ]

1) we looked and ranked what we wanted to do. Disney was a must and high up our list. Sightseeing some "old" Japan was high, exploring Tokyo was high, Universal was medium.
We were more about wanting to see the modern Tokyo, the mega city etc. We did Disney the first 2 days to get it out of the way (my better half is not a Disney fan, but was so impressed by the Japanese parks we are going back to them for longer this next trip!) and the limo coach from Haneda made that first trip after landing, quite a short one to the Hilton Tokyo Bay. We had a day trip on the bullet train to Kyoto to see the temples and the older buildings etc, but that was pretty much it for the old.


2) Look at how to get around, is it possible to fit these in. Flights! These tend to be expensive so pair this with getting around and see what we could do. In the end we saw that the bullet train was good, you can get a JR pass to get around using trains. So we looked at a twin centre Tokyo and Kyoto. Flights (plus JR rail pass) ended up cheaper for us being EDI->NRT, train to Kyoto, train to Tokyo, HAN->EDI.
Forgot you too are in Scotland, when world better we must meet for a coffee and a good old Disney / Japan natter

3) List time in each centre. Disney was a must so 4 full days, 1 day move to Kyoto and explore area, 5 days in Kyoto, 1 day return to Tokyo and explore, 5 days in Tokyo and fly home. Jet lag was for wussies (! ), we took it easy the first day, slept in the afternoon for a few hours and hit disney for opening time in the morning.
With the airmiles getting us lux seats we could sleep on our flight (well a series of good snoozes!) and that meant we avoided the jet lag.

4) Accommodation. We set an aggressive task of an average of £100 per night for 4 of us. We pretty much succeeded by stopping at the Okura Bay next to Disney, then we had AirBnB house in Kyoto (awesome decision) and an AirBnB in Tokyo.
I wish I was brave enough to go AirBnB, apart from going into someone's house, what if I damaged or spilt something, I would not be able to relax!

5) Sightseeing. Too much to list. Kyoto is a WEALTH of things to do. We did temples, Nara deer feeding, Yucata day, tea ceremony, Nijo Castle, Arishiyama, the station alone is a day of exploring! Tokyo was shopping in Shinjuku, Harajuku, imperial park, government building.
We never made it to Shinjuku on last trip, but will be doing this time.

7) Language. This was the one we feared the most. I ended up learning to speak japanese via lingodeer. After a year of 10 minute daily lessons I could count, ask for things, get tickets, check in, ask for room bits, queue up just fine. Im not fluent, cannot read japanese at all and sound like a pigin tourist (I always elicited polite smiles and grins but was at least complemented on trying). Most places will at least understand you in English with some pointing, but in Kyoto there are areas that are Japanese only and I got by just fine (ordering food, getting the bill, getting drinks etc). There is english signs in built up areas, not so much in rural areas. Enter google maps, hyperdia and VoiceTRA translation. VoiceTRA is simply amazing and works (and free!). We had no issues at all.
Both ashamed and proud that #I did not speak one word of Japanese the whole trip, but mostly ashamed... the French Policeman from 'Allo 'Allo has scared me for life with foreign languages...

8) Getting around Japan is a piece of cake. The public transport system simply works, thats all you need to know. Use hyperdia to plan, voicetra to ask, suica to pay (or JR pass). There are lots of other info places for JR pass, for us it was a no brainer (and if you have 2x centre stays with a bullet train then it will be for you too). We paid for the monorail next to Disney, this took wear and tear off our feet.
Yeh if you do a return trip on the bullet train, the pass pays for itself they say.

9) Disney was the nicest, politest, cleanest Disney we have *ever* been to. It was a joy to go to.
Agree 100% - I was pretty impressed with most cast members I interacted with in Florida, but this was next level. Sooooo helpful, and the kindness and consideration of the average Japanese person was humbling.

[AntonyJ]

Originally Posted by kk20

looks fine. you can also use a 7 day JR pass and activate it when you set off to kyoto, that will save money.

See more...

I have seen that the new JR passes are a bit more easier to use now, the old one was a chunky bit of card that you had to show to manned gates, but the new ones work at the automated ticket barriers - much easier!

Also I think you can get them sent to your home now before you travel, rather than getting that voucher before travel, and exchanging once you arrive. Need to read up on that...