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A sightseeing boat styled as an old sailing ship on Lake Ashi, with a red Shinto gate on the shore, Hakone

Sample journey · 12–14 days

Japan with children, at a gentle pace

Tokyo, Hakone, Kyoto, Nara & Osaka

Photo: Steve Sharp / Unsplash

Illustrative journey ideas — not bookable packages. No prices, dates or accommodation are implied.

Children often love Japan as much as their parents do: bullet trains that arrive to the minute, parks among the skyscrapers, shrines with long tunnels of red gates and food you can eat with chopsticks right there in the street. Yet what feels like a wonderful day to an adult can be one impression too many for a child.

So this sample route has just four bases, and the journeys between them rarely take more than a couple of hours. Each place leaves room to slow down: mornings for what you'd most like to see, afternoons for a park, a rest or a swim. Treat it as a starting point; we'd shape the pace, stays and season around your children's ages and what excites them.

The route

The journey

  1. Tokyo
  2. Hakone
  3. Kyoto
  4. Nara
  5. Osaka
  1. Tokyo Tower above the lawns and trees of a city park on a clear day

    01Days 1–4 · Tokyo

    A big city in small doses

    After the long flight, the first day is simply for settling in and a short walk nearby. Then one neighbourhood a day: a morning at a science or nature museum, lunch in a department-store food hall where everything looks like a miniature, and an afternoon in one of Tokyo's surprisingly many parks. Children often remember the simplest things best: watching trains from a footbridge, or their first onigiri from the shop round the corner.

  2. Cable-car gondolas above a volcanic mountainside in drifting cloud

    02Days 5–6 · Hakone

    Train, ropeway, boat, and a ryokan

    Hakone is about ninety minutes from Tokyo by train, and the mountain day itself becomes an adventure in several vehicles: a switchback mountain railway, a cable car, a ropeway over the steaming Owakudani valley and a boat across Lake Ashi. The evening is spent at a ryokan, in a family tatami room, with yukata and dinner served in many small dishes. Some ryokan let you book a private hot-spring bath just for your family.

  3. An empty stone-paved lane between wooden houses in the early morning, Kyoto

    03Days 7–10 · Kyoto

    The old capital, before the lanes fill up

    Kyoto is about two hours away by bullet train. For families, a rented wooden machiya townhouse with a small kitchen works beautifully, as does a quiet hotel a little away from the centre. Early mornings are for the stone-paved lanes and the gate tunnels of Fushimi Inari before the crowds arrive; afternoons for the riverbank, a mochi-making class or simply a rest. The bamboo grove at Arashiyama and the monkey park on the hill above often become the children's favourite day.

  4. Deer on a sunlit lawn, seen through the shade of old trees, Nara

    04Day 11 · Nara

    Deer that bow

    Nara is under an hour from Kyoto by local train, which makes an easy day out. Hundreds of deer roam freely in the great park, and some of them seem to bow when offered a special cracker. Nearby is Todai-ji, with its enormous bronze Buddha and a wooden pillar with a hole that children squeeze through for good luck, or so the story goes. If you'd prefer a slower pace, you could stay a night in Nara too.

  5. A red paper lantern above a takoyaki stall near Dotonbori, Osaka

    05Days 12–14 · Osaka

    Takoyaki and an aquarium to finish

    The last days are in Osaka, an easy base for flying home from Kansai airport. A large aquarium by the harbour, an evening walk along the canal in Dotonbori and takoyaki, octopus dumplings turned by the cooks right in front of you. If your children dream of a theme park, one day could go to that; if not, to a slow morning before the flight.

Experience highlights

  1. 01

    The Hakone loop

    A mountain railway, cable car, ropeway and boat in a single day: a journey that is the entertainment in itself.

  2. 02

    A ryokan night for the whole family

    Futons on tatami, yukata and a hot bath: children often see it as a game, adults as true rest.

  3. 03

    Kyoto before breakfast

    Empty lanes and tunnels of red gates while the city is still waking up.

  4. 04

    The deer of Nara

    Deer wandering freely through the park and one of the largest wooden temple halls in the world, under an hour from Kyoto.

First, we listen. Then, we explore what's possible.

Make it your own

  • With younger children

    Three bases instead of four, with Nara as a day trip from Kyoto, and stays with separate bedrooms so naps and early nights stay peaceful.

  • With teenagers

    More Tokyo: a digital-art museum, the anime and gaming districts, and in Kyoto a cycling day or a hill walk between Kurama and Kibune.

  • Longer and more varied

    An extra week could add Hiroshima and Miyajima, or a few days on a quiet Inland Sea island for cycling and swimming.

  • In another season

    School holidays often fall in Japan's hottest, most humid weeks, so in summer we'd build the days around early mornings and cooler places such as Hakone.

Practical considerations

  • Spring and autumn are usually the most pleasant and also the busiest; July and August are hot and humid, and typhoons are possible in late summer and early autumn.
  • Luggage can be forwarded between cities, so a small daypack is enough on the trains, which makes a real difference with children.
  • Ryokan have few family rooms, and popular museums and some attractions need tickets in advance, so they're worth planning early.
  • The Hakone Ropeway sometimes closes for wind or volcanic gas; a bus then replaces that section, and the lake boats usually still sail.

General guidance only. Seasons, weather and wildlife are never guaranteed, and travel requirements are always worth checking before you go.

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