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Takayama wasn’t on our original Japan plan. A friend who’d been the year before insisted we add it, and we’re so glad we listened. This small mountain town in the Japanese Alps has preserved Edo-era streets, morning markets where our…
Japan has a reputation for being expensive. It’s not entirely wrong — a kaiseki dinner or a night at a premium ryokan will remind you quickly that quality costs money here. But the daily reality of travelling Japan with kids…
The honest answer to “when should we go to Japan” is: whenever your kids are out of school and you can afford the flights. Japan is good year-round. There’s no bad season — just different trade-offs between weather, crowds, cost,…
People told us we were crazy for taking a toddler to Japan. The flights, the jetlag, the food, the crowds — every conversation included at least one person suggesting we wait until he was older. We ignored them and it…
We spent three months planning our Japan itinerary and then changed half of it in the first week. That’s normal. Japan rewards flexibility. The trains go everywhere, you can rebook most things easily, and some of the best moments come…
The flight to Japan from the US is long. There’s no getting around it. Ten to twelve hours from the West Coast, thirteen to fourteen from the East Coast, and every single one of those hours is felt when you’re…
Our kids met their first Nara deer thirty seconds after stepping off the train. It bowed. They bowed back. Then it tried to eat our map. That pretty much set the tone for the day — charming, slightly chaotic, and…
Hakone is the day trip from Tokyo that delivers everything: a pirate ship on a crater lake, volcanic steam vents that smell like rotten eggs (kids love this), cable cars over a valley, and views of Mount Fuji if the…
If Tokyo is the serious older sibling, Osaka is the loud, funny one who makes you eat too much. Our kids preferred Osaka to every other city in Japan. Not because of any specific attraction — because of the energy.…
Kyoto did something to our kids that no amount of screen time or theme parks ever managed. Our seven-year-old came home and drew torii gates for three weeks straight. Our four-year-old still calls every shrine we pass “a Kyoto.” We…