Japan again (yawn!) - advice for short stay with 5 year old

[Mr MXT]

Hi all

Another Japan thread. For background my wife and I have been to Tokyo 3 times and love the place. Last visit was right at the start of Covid before the restrictions. We are pretty comfortable with the place, getting around etc etc.

Since covid, our circumstances have changed and we now have a 5 year old boy, whos Mario mad, this will become relevant.

We are headed to Australia for Christmas and have decided to have a few days in Japan on the way. Flights are already booked, so dates are fixed.

Land Haneda Fri 18th 1425
Depart Narita Tues 22nd 1920

We are flexible on what to do with our time in Tokyo - but we do want to go to Universal Japan in Osaka so my boy can go to Super Nintendo World.

Our vague plan is

Stay in Tokyo Fri/Sat night, Sunday afternoon get the Shinkansen to Osaka and spend the evening in Dotonbori having an explore. Stay near to Universal to get in early on Monday morning. Spend the day at Universal then get the Shinkansen back to Tokyo early evening.

Stay in Tokyo Monday night and enjoy a final Tuesday morning doing something fun before we head to the airport in the afternoon.

Any comments? The Osaka element is a challenge, but im hopinh with it only being 2.5hrs on the train its doable...

[Voodoo Blue]

Keeping the theme park vibe going Disney Sea is a fairly unique park with some attractions you won't see anywhere else and is a short ride away from central Tokyo.

[toastyhamster]

We've just got back, our rough itinerary was:

Studio Ghibli
Tokyo Disneyland/DisneySea
Fuji-Q
Nagashima Spa Land
Universal
DisneySea

That was a pretty full on two weeks, probably too much, I think we had one run of 3 nights in the same place (lovely AirBnB near Nagashima) and one run of two nights (Godzilla hotel - if you do this bear in mind the "interesting" location might not be suitable for a 5 yr old after dark) and every other time we moved accommodation every day. We only took rucksacks and travelled light, so luggage wasn't a problem, it was more the effort.

Osaka/Universal is absolutely doable from Tokyo, we broke up the journey there to take in the other parks but took the Shinkansen direct back and it was a pleasant 2.5 hours with a nice view of a cloudy Mt Fuji if you choose seats on the correct side of the train. Also, being used to rip off Britain train pricing, paying another few quid for the Green cars was a no brainer.

If you want the theme park hotels - BOOK EARLY!

Osaka wasn't much fun for us, we did the Pokemon centre and the other stores on that floor of the shopping centre but Dotonbori was too hot and absolutely heaving with people, so we found a small Pizza place down a side street, had lunch and bailed early to Tokyo.

[Mr MXT]

Thanks that’s really helpful.

The Osaka portion was my worry but it sounds quite doable.

[//j17]

For the Shinkansen worth looking at getting a train from Shinagawa station rather than Tokyo station. Significantly less hectic and only the 1 Shinkansen line to worry about.