Japan Adventure with Teens: A 13-Day Itinerary

We arrived in Tokyo via Haneda Airport very late in the evening. We took a direct flight from Chicago O’hare and after 14 hours on the plane, were eager to check into our hotel. Fill out your paperwork before your trip, to make clearing customs quick—make sure you print your QR code and do it for each person on the trip. There is plenty of public transportation, but we opted for an Uber to quickly get checked into our hotel and rest. Try to stay awake on the flight so when you land you can get some rest, as you will want to be rested for the adventure ahead.

Explore Tokyo neighborhoods. In the morning, we started our day in the Akihabara Electric Town neighborhood. Taking public transportation is very easy & affordable—you can use Google Maps and buy an IC Card, or download the Suica app for subway tickets.

We explored shops with new and vintage video games, manga, and anime. Later, we hired a local guide and she showed us around Harajuku where we visited Ninja Experience Cafe—our son dressed up like a samurai and threw stars & blow darts. We shopped and ate our way through the street food—try the rainbow grilled cheese, then later went to Shibuya to the famous busiest crossing in the world. Our son was completely engaged from the start of our itinerary despite the jet lag!

We started the day at teamLab Planets Tokyo, which is an immersive futuristic experience. Make sure you wear flat shoes and pants so you can hike up—you will walk in water at this museum. It is best to buy tickets in advance and arrive 30 minutes early. My son absolutely loved this—it takes about two hours to complete.

Later, I stopped in at Wayan Puri in Shinjuku for a head spa experience while the guys explored more around Shinjuku. We topped off the evening with a sumo wrestling experience—the teens will love this as you can challenge the sumos.

We boarded the Shinkansen “Bullet Train” for Nagano and then transferred to a bus for Hakuba. Purchase tickets in advance so you can have a reserved seat, then you will use the QR code to redeem your tickets. Arrive 30 minutes early and ensure you are on the right platform.

Pro-tip, take only a carry on suitcase and backpack so you can easily get between each city and quickly board trains. We rented our ski gear from Rhythm in Hakuba and picked it up just a short walk from the bus stop. Confirm a dinner reservation using Tabelog app as many places are small and fill up quickly, especially during the holidays.

Hakuba is a cute ski village with several mountains to ski. We chose to ski at Hakuba 47 as it was our intermediate ski level. We bought lift passes that morning and there is a bus that runs on a schedule to get you from the hotels to the lifts. While the guys finished with more ski runs, I opted to leave the mountain early and lounge in the Alice Cafe drinking warm tea and corn potage soup. It was easy and fun to order the food.

We went back to Nagano and then boarded the bullet train to Kyoto. At this point, there is an option to go see the famous snow monkeys in Nagano if you have enough energy, however we opted to go straight to Kyoto. My son brought a book to read on the train and again, renting our ski gear was key to allowing us to pack minimally, only bringing carryon luggage. When you arrive in Kyoto, check out the Nishiki street food market known as “Kyoto’s Kitchen”.

We hired a local guide and started the day seeing Fushimi Inari Shrine—the famous red torii gates. She took us down the backside and we had a wonderful warm rice drink with the locals. She took us through a few zen gardens. Next stop was Kiyomizu Temple, Kyoto’s most important temple and iconic wooden stage—spectacular views here. We finished with Ninenzaka District and Gion—the historical Geisha district. We had amazing sushi at SushiTetsu, up close and personal with the sushi chef for amazing melt-in-your-mouth sushi all at an affordable price.

We woke up early and took a quick 25-minute train to the Bamboo Forest in Arashiyama. Going early is better to beat some of the crowds. We entered through the Tenryu-ji Temple, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and then hiked a bit. From there, we walked to Monkey Park—it is a long walk and a 20-minute hike up. Up top, we had some amazing views and got to feed the monkeys—my son loved all of this! Later back in Kyoto, we watched a Geiko Maiko Dance at the Vion Museum—which I loved, however it wasn’t the guys cup of tea. Speaking of tea, we reserved a ceremonial teatime with Koto Lily, she taught us about tea, matcha, and the harp and I tried on a kimono.

We boarded a subway train and headed to Osaka—just 30–40 minutes, and from there we explored and shopped in the Namba area. We became obsessed with Sushiro, a conveyer belt sushi restaurant—we ate enough sushi for the whole family for less than $40. Don Quijote is an epic discount store with all things—you can use your Passport to get some items tax-free. We took the rest of the time to rest.

We took the train to Universal Studio Japan, which again was very easy and the maps are precise. There is an entire station just for USJ. We pre-bought tickets and fast passes to make our day efficient and got there 30 minutes early. We had a great day and we especially enjoyed the Super Mario World—the mine train was our favorite and we had some great views on the Yoshi ride.

We hired a guide and set out on a 5-hour walking tour, hitting the best spots in Osaka. It included Osaka Castle, street art in Amemura, Dotonbori & Glico Man, hidden alleyways and some local street food from the Kuromon market ending in Shineskai. We had time to shop and rest after our long walk.

Since many of the shops were closed on New Year’s Day, it was the perfect time to get out of the city on a short day trip to Nara. We took a 40 minute train to Nara—very simple, we used our IC cards to get on the train (no reservations needed). Nara is known for their sacred deer and giant bronze Buddha. We fed the deer—a bit aggressive, this was not my son’s favorite part. We explored Todai-ji Temple, Kofuku-ji Temple, and Kasuga Taisha Shrine on our own. We arrived around 8 am, well before the crowds were there.

We ate a big breakfast at the hotel and did our final shopping for souvenirs. We brought some foldable bags and went home with two more bags full of items we purchased. There were so many items—clothing, video games, pottery, and even some of the basic products we found—great beauty masks and other interesting products. We took the train to Osaka’s Kansai airport and headed back to the states.