Our Family Trip to Japan- EVERYTHING You Need To Know

Planning a trip to Japan can feel overwhelming. I know this because I spent weeks frozen in indecision—staring at the screen, flipping between tabs, trying to figure out where to go, how long to stay, and how to make the most of it with two teenagers in tow. Every city sounded amazing. Every blog had a different opinion. And every time I thought I had a plan, I’d change my mind again.

Then a friend told me to get some help from ChatGPT! So literally type in everything like what you want to see and do, your budget, who will be on the trip and how many beds are needed etc. and keep tweaking it with everything you can think of! So I finally pulled the trigger and planned a 12-night trip during cherry blossom season in April with my husband and our two kids (13 and 14 years old). We visited Tokyo, Hakone, Kyoto, Nara, and Osaka, then returned to Tokyo before flying home.

This blog is for people like me—people who dream of Japan but feel stuck figuring it all out. If you’re a parent trying to make the most of limited vacation days, or if you just want a clear, honest overview of what worked (and what didn’t) with a family-friendly itinerary, I hope this helps.

But grab a cuppa as it's a long one!

Our 12-Night Japan Itinerary at a Glance 🌸

We travelled to Japan in early April for 12 nights during the cherry blossom season, and it was magical. We moved around a lot, but it was worth it to experience the contrast between Japan’s buzzing megacities and its tranquil mountain and temple towns. Here's a quick overview of our route:

Tokyo – 5 nights
A fun and energetic start to the trip, exploring both modern tech and traditional neighbourhoods.
Hakone – 1 night
A peaceful mountain escape with hot springs, art, and stunning views of Mt. Fuji.
Kyoto – 3 nights
Temples, geishas, tea houses, and cherry blossoms galore.
Nara – day trip from Kyoto
Deer, giant Buddha statues, and a feel of ancient Japan.
Osaka – 2 nights
Food capital of Japan! We came hungry and left happy.
Tokyo again – 2 days and 1 night
Ending with a return to Tokyo for more exploration and shopping before flying home.

Our Japan Family Trip: Where We Stayed & What We Did

Tokyo — 5 Nights

Where we stayed: Shiomi Prince Hotel Tokyo Bay
Flying Jetstar from Brisbane to Narita (about 8 hours), we landed and took a bus + train to our first hotel. The Shiomi Prince was a total win — family-friendly with a built-in Family Mart (convenience stores are so incredible in Japan!) and amazing women’s and men’s onsens where I soaked every night after long days. They also had a nice restaurant, but we mostly enjoyed breakfasts and dinners from the convenience stores — seriously, Japanese convenience store food deserves its own rave — and we ate lunch out to keep the budget manageable.

Highlights:

Mind-blowing digital art at TeamLab Borderless - just go, you'll thank me! Try and book the first entry of the day at 9am like we did and we didn't have any queues and were also able to make use of the tea house (incredible experience!) which opens at 10am.
Exploring Tokyo Station (it's like a city within a city!) including Character Street and the Pokémon store
Eating our way down Harajuku’s Takeshita Street and visiting a super cute Mameshiba Puppy Cafe
Experiencing the iconic Shibuya Scramble Crossing and hanging out at the new Miyashita Park with its rooftop playground
The serene Meiji Shrine, where we did some blessing and prayer rituals

Despite it being a very big and complex system, we pretty much mastered Tokyo’s train system by about day 3 without needing to keep asking for assistance! We used a Suica card preloaded on our phones back in Australia (you can top it up easily at stations and even use it in supermarkets and convenience stores).

Hakone — 1 Night

Where we stayed: Hakone Ashinoko Hanaori

We purchased a Hakone Free Pass at Odawara Station for two days of unlimited travel on the famous Hakone Loop—cable cars, ropeways, and a pirate ship on Lake Ashi!

Highlights:

The breathtaking Hakone Loop, especially the aerial ropeway with jaw-dropping views and our first glimpse of Mt Fuji
Cruising on the pirate ship across Lake Ashi
The stunning and quirky Hakone Open-Air Museum — easily spend a full day here, but we fit in lunch and a 4-hour visit
Our splurge accommodation was beyond amazing — lakeside views from every angle including our room, incredible outdoor onsen, and banquet-style breakfast and dinner

Pro tip: We forwarded our luggage ahead from Tokyo to Kyoto (about $100AUD for four big suitcases), which let us travel light during our one-night stay in Hakone. This made sightseeing so much easier!

Kyoto — 3 Nights

Where we stayed: Mimaru Kyoto Kawaramachi Gojo

I fell head over heels for Kyoto! The apartment-style hotel gave us so much space with a full kitchen—perfect for family life. My husband and I even had a date night while the kids safely stayed in the locked apartment!

Highlights:

Cherry blossoms everywhere — a dream come true and many many photos were taken 🤭
Exploring Arashiyama for mochi heaven, the bamboo forest, and the peaceful Tenryu-ji Temple, where I even had a moving spiritual moment connecting with my Papa
Foodie paradise at Nishiki Market: wagyu, crab legs, tuna sashimi, pickled cucumbers (I may have eaten 4…), grilled octopus, tempura prawns, and mochi! Plus, hubby found the amazing Koe Donuts
History and beauty at Nijo Castle where I marvelled at cherry blossoms and the incredible nightingale floors built to squeak and protect from ninja attacks
We visited the famous Fushimi Inari Shrine but it was too crowded for us to enjoy properly as we didn't get there until 9am
Quiet moments in Maruyama Park and wandering the atmospheric Hanamikoji Street in Gion, hoping to spot a real geisha (we did — bucket list moment!)
Date night at a restaurant in the Pontocho District — we dined at a little restaurant called Sansai Gosai Tenshin and had about 8 courses and 2 drinks each for $120AUD - Grilled duck, my fave Nasu Dengaku, miso, edamame, the best tuna sashimi I have ever had in my life (it melted like butter in the mouth!), prawn and vegetable tempura, chicken yakitori, obanzai (Kyoto-style tapas with seasonal ingredients) including fish cakes, omelette roll, and homemade tofu.

Getting around: Unlike Tokyo, taxis were our best bet in Kyoto — about $70AUD per day for four of us, and it saved so much time seeing as we only had a few days here.

HOT TIP: If you are in Japan during a busy tourist season like Spring, go to any temples and shrines early in the morning — between 6am and 8:30am — to avoid the crowds! From 9am onwards, places get packed. If I could have gotten my teens out the door before 8, I would have!

Nara — Day Trip from Kyoto

We stopped off on the way from Kyoto to Osaka to visit Nara Park and meet the friendly deer. We stored our suitcases in coin lockers at Nara Station (family locker discount available if you ask) so we could wander hands-free.

Highlights:

Feeding and bowing to the friendly sacred deer of Nara Park — a magical experience for the whole family
Visiting the stunning Todaiji Temple, home to the Great Buddha — awe-inspiring in both scale and serenity
Wandering through serene parklands under a canopy of cherry blossoms

Osaka — 2 Nights

Where we stayed: Nico Hotel Osaka
We booked a family apartment and ended up with 6 single beds all in the one open room (we used 2 beds to have open suitcase!) with kitchen, laundry, and balcony — perfect for washing clothes and relaxing after busy days. It was a 10-minute walk to the buzzing Dotonbori nightlife and food scene.

Highlights:

Catching up with friends visiting from Western Australia and spending a couple of days doing all the stuff below together! How cool was that!?
The incredible Osaka Aquarium Kaiyukan. Honestly seen nothing like it in my life. The Pacific Ocean tank is HUGE and goes for three levels — you can see everything from whale sharks to manta rays. Also loved the dolphins, seals and penguins. This was a must-see for me and we all thoroughly enjoyed it.
Eating our way down the famous Dotonbori strip — street food, neon signage, oversized food models and canals. At night it was magical! We had dinner at a Japanese BBQ where we grilled wagyu and veggies ourselves and ate with rice and beef broth. Delicious!
Universal Studios Japan — We only got through about half the park! I loved Harry Potter Land the most, followed by Jurassic Park rides. The kids loved Nintendo World. It was a big day (9am–5pm) and we loved every minute.

Again, with such a short time here and big days of walking, we got taxis around Osaka, but if you had more time, trains would be the best mode of travel.

Tokyo (Asakusa) — Final 2 Days

Where we stayed: Mimaru Tokyo Asakusa Station
This hotel was a stone’s throw from Asakusa Station with a rooftop terrace boasting incredible views. The kids had bunk beds, and we had king singles — roomy and comfortable.

Highlights:

Exploring the lively Asakusa neighbourhood — I just loved walking around as there is so much to see around every corner! Every district and area is a bit different. Asakusa was probably my favourite neighbourhood in Tokyo as it was such a mix of old and new.
A wash and blow dry at a local hairdresser (treat yourself!)
Shopping and food markets reminiscent of Kyoto’s Nishiki Market. Yummmmm.
Visiting Tokyo Skytree (warning: vertigo alert!) — So high but so worth it! It cost a family of 4 adults (kids are usually charged as adults once they are 13 in Japan) $250 AUD. It's the tallest building in Japan and you view the city of Tokyo from 350m up in the sky! The lift travels at 600 metres per minute!
The stunning Senso-ji Temple — so beautiful. Again, try and get there early!
Holding baby hedgehogs at a hedgehog café — so cute!

Then it was time for a train to the airport for our night flight back home!

More Hot TIPS and Things I Loved About Japan!

The Vibe:

Japan felt so chill and surprisingly calm despite the crowds. There’s this almost zen energy everywhere, and I always felt peaceful. People are incredibly kind and helpful, going out of their way to assist you.

Culture & Safety:

I’ve never felt safer in any country. I’d happily travel solo here — even let my daughter do the same, day or night. Everything is ultra-organized and efficient; things run on time and places are spotless. You can leave your shopping bags unattended without worry, and lost items almost always find their way back to you.

Etiquette:

Trains are quiet zones — no loud phone calls or chatting. Don’t walk while eating, and be mindful of standing on the correct side of escalators and walking on the correct side of steps and ramps. Learning a few Japanese words like “Arigato gozaimasu” and a respectful bow makes a big difference. Google Translate is a lifesaver for longer conversations and reading signs.

Shopping:

If you love cooking, invest in one or two Japanese knives — they’re world-class and amazing to use. Japan’s secondhand clothing stores are next level; I found cool denim jackets and great kids’ clothes. Shoes are cheaper too — I grabbed Skechers slip-ons for $85 AUD each! Skincare is affordable and fantastic. We travelled light with minimal purchases but be ready to shop if you want!

Food:

Try as much as you can because everything tastes incredible. Gluten-free? Join the Gluten Free in Japan Facebook group for tips. Don’t miss sakura-flavoured treats in spring — mochi, ice cream, donuts, all delicately pink and subtly almond-coconut flavoured. Convenience stores like Family Mart, Lawson's and 7-Eleven are lifesavers with fresh sushi, bento's, hot fried chicken, steamed buns, and more, all easy to heat and carry. You can ask to have anything heated up behind the front counter. We saved heaps eating most meals from them.

The Toilets:

Japanese toilets are an experience — heated seats, bidets, music for privacy. Honestly, coming back home, I miss them so much!

Onsens:

Bathhouses are gender-separated and you need to be naked, but it’s a relaxing and beautiful tradition. You wear yukata robes and slippers to get there. Cover large tattoos if you have them, but small ones like mine weren’t an issue.

Other Tips:

Public bins are rare, so carry a plastic bag for trash during the day.
Wear comfy shoes—you’ll walk tons!
Always have cash (yen) plus your Suica card.
Book major attractions early, they fill up fast!
Get e-sims for your phones even before you arrive in Japan. Purchase online and you can then have data and make phone calls with the internet — very handy for all 4 of us when we needed to communicate when we were apart. Most places had wifi (including the bullet trains!) we could connect to so we didn't need much data at all.

Travelling Japan for neurodivergent people!

I'm ADHD and my daughter is AuDHD so we knew that our biggest hurdle would be making sure we didn't get too overstimulated. That's why I also booked accommodation close to train stations so if things were getting too much, we could just go back to the hotel and take some time out for a couple of hours. Long days like Universal Studios, we just found somewhere quiet to sit and regulate when it all got too much and then got back to it! I also travelled with my medication and had no issues. My daughter doesn't take any on school holidays but I now take it most days and I had an email and medical certificate from my psychiatrist if it was needed but it never was. I made sure to pop our medications, supplements and flower essence blends in a toiletry bag in our checked luggage so we also had our Help and Slow Down blends when we needed them!

I hope this helps someone feel less overwhelmed when booking a trip to Japan and my best advice while you are there is to pretend you are coming back (or maybe don't pretend and tell yourself you WILL come back like I have done!) so you don't feel you need to push yourself and do everything as there is no way you possibly can!

Each day will be amazing and it will be exactly what you need to do! Sometimes the best bit about exploring new places is to leave it up to the day and see what it brings you (and Japan will always bring you something special!) Just make sure you book ahead any of your deal breaker experiences and then let whatever happens happen...

Alisha x

Ps. As you can tell, we loved every minute of our trip! If you want to see all our adventures, check out my Instagram story highlights — from ‘Tokyo’ all the way to ‘Back to Tokyo’ (7 stories back).

Pps. I recently wrote a blog about How I Felt About My Body in Japan — you can read that HERE.

Our Family Trip to Japan- EVERYTHING You Need To Know

Our 12-Night Japan Itinerary at a Glance 🌸

Tokyo – 5 nights
A fun and energetic start to the trip, exploring both modern tech and traditional neighbourhoods.
Hakone – 1 night
A peaceful mountain escape with hot springs, art, and stunning views of Mt. Fuji.
Kyoto – 3 nights
Temples, geishas, tea houses, and cherry blossoms galore.
Nara – day trip from Kyoto
Deer, giant Buddha statues, and a feel of ancient Japan.
Osaka – 2 nights
Food capital of Japan! We came hungry and left happy.
Tokyo again – 2 days and 1 night
Ending with a return to Tokyo for more exploration and shopping before flying home.