We started our international travel as a family when my oldest turned 10 and we let him pick our spring break destination that year. (He chose Belize.) Things came full circle this year as he graduated high school and he picked our latest (but hopefully not last!) international family trip before he heads off to college.
This one was an easy choice for him – he has wanted to go to Japan for years.
I’ll admit that I struggled to get going on the travel planning for this trip. I had never been anywhere in Asia before and it is just so different from any other region we’ve been to. The language and cultural differences felt more challenging than on any previous trip.
This was the trip that probably needed the most planning but I got the latest start because it felt so intimidating. When we reached the point where I knew we needed to be booking flights and hotels, I finally kicked it into high gear. We booked tickets in and out of Tokyo and settled on our main stops – Tokyo, Osaka, Hiroshima, and Kyoto (with a couple of day trips / overnights sprinkled in).
We had 15 nights (excluding flights) and decided to spend the most time in Tokyo, both because there was so much to do there and because I knew we’d need time to settle in and adjust to the time difference. From there our route was Hakone, Osaka, Hiroshima, Miyajima, and Kyoto. We decided to separate Osaka and Kyoto despite how close they are because they are a good mid-point between Tokyo and Hiroshima and we liked the idea of breaking up that trip in both directions.
This is what our final itinerary looked like:
Day 1-2 – Travel to Tokyo (overnight on flight and then in Tokyo)
Days 3 – Tokyo – Shibuya (overnight in Tokyo)
Day 4 – Tokyo – Asakusa and Akihabara (overnight in Tokyo)
Day 5 – Day trip to Kamakura and Enoshima (overnight in Tokyo)
Day 6 – Tokyo – teamLab Borderless and Shinjuku (overnight in Tokyo)
Day 7 – Hakone (overnight in Hakone)
Day 8 – Hakone and travel to Osaka (overnight in Osaka)
Days 9 – Osaka (overnight in Osaka)
Day 10 – Hiroshima (overnight in Hiroshima)
Day 11 – Miyajima (overnight in Miyajima)
Day 12 – Travel to Kyoto (overnight in Kyoto)
Day 13 – Kyoto eBike Tour (overnight in Kyoto)
Day 14 – Kyoto – Arishiyama (overnight in Kyoto)
Days 15 – Kyoto in the morning and travel back to Tokyo (overnight in Tokyo)
Day 16 – Depart Tokyo
