Advice on Itinerary (1 adult+1 child)

Hi, I've been to Japan many times, but not since I had my daughter and never with a child, so advice on my possible itinerary is appreciated. I'm thinking:

Arrival Day possibly visit Tokyo Disney depending on arrival time (night Tokyo Disney)
Day 2 Tokyo Disney (night in Tokyo or Odaiba)
Day 3 trip to Licca-chan castle in Fukushima (night same location as Day 2)
Day 4 trip to Kyoto (night in Kyoto)
Day 5 Kansai area (night in Kyoto)
Day 6 Kansai area (night in Kyoto)
Day 7 Kansai area (night in Kyoto)
Day 8 visit Himeji and return to Tokyo (night in Tokyo)
Day 9 Tokyo (night in Tokyo)
Day 10 Tokyo (night in Tokyo)
Day 11 return to the USA

In Kansai I am hoping to: visit the Osaka Aquarium, Maybe go to SpaWorld in Osaka, maybe visit Nara, visit Kiyomizudera in Kyoto. I want to keep things a little open, based on what my child wants to do and her energy level. I've been to every place in the itinerary except Tokyo Disney (I've only been to Disney Sea.) In Tokyo, my daughter wants to see the Tower and we will do some shopping. I want to try to mix seeing my friends who live in Japan, shopping and sightseeing. I do plan to avail myself of takyuubin to move my suitcase.

I am also debating bringing a 9lb lightweight umbrella stroller. My daughter is 5, and I'm a little worried about all the walking in the hot sun at Tokyo Disney. (We have to go in the Summer because school.) Am I insane to bring the stroller? It folds up and is light, and I figure I can takyuubin it as well post Disney. She's too tall to rent a stroller at Tokyo Disney.

Thank you in advance!
Rachel

Do not bring a stroller. You only have 2 hands. One for you child and one for you luggage.

It really depends on you child's interests. My eldest was 5 on my last visit to Japan. Just about anything interested him. The shrines probably were the least interesting things for them.

Places like Arashiyama with the Monkey park, train and boat rides were a child's heavenly dream.

It depends on the child.

Our 6 yr old has been to Japan 3 times - aged 4yrs 1 month, 5.5 yrs and 6.5 yrs. Each time, we did a lot of travelling, and she coped with it pretty well. Either we're really selfish adults, or we don't underestimate what a child is capable of. I guess time will tell...

We would typically have two or three nights when we were in a different hotel every night, and then we'd stay in the same place for two or three nights. She was fine with that. On the journeys, we'd all help her with her holiday scrapbook - cutting out and sticking in various pictures from brochures, admission tickets, etc. Doing some writing and drawing. This was the best idea for keeping her happy and busy, and we use her scrapbooks as great reminders of those holidays.

We didn't consciously change the things we did to be hugely child-centred. We took the view that things like temples, train travel, museums, unusual food, etc were of appeal to children as well as adults. One thing she particularly liked was onsens, and ryokan living in general. All sleeping on the floor together in the same room was a special treat for her, and having a bath with mum or dad was something she loved. She also loved izakayas where we could eat in a little private room.

As she got older, we made sure to give her some choices and we incorporated those choices into our plans. However, because we'd spent time between trips watching a lot of NHK World (brilliant resource for anyone planning a trip to Japan - child or adult), her choices were pretty Japanese in theme, and were really fun for all the family (e.g. she wanted to have chanko nabe after seeing a programme about sumo, and we took her to the Miraikan in Tokyo after she'd seen a programme about ASIMO). We also spent a bit of time in every town searching for Kitty phone charms. She now has a collection from many places in Japan that serve as a fantastic memory-trigger.

We never took a stroller. Even with two adults, the idea of one of us having both hands full with the stroller was a no-go. Plus, even at 4 yrs old, we took the view that it was reasonable to expect her to be able to deal with a day out and about. IME, young children have a lot of energy!

What we did do, on our first trip only, was to take a scooter for her - with a detachable pull-along strap.

In most situations (i.e. anything other than a real crowded city street or train station), she was able to scoot alongside/in front/between us, which meant that we could all move at a decent walking pace.

If she was really tired at the end of a long day, we could slip the strap onto the scooter and pull her along.

After that first trip, she walked, and was just fine with that. but of course all children are different.

@Hakata14, I would only have the stroller with me when I have no suitcases outside the airport. I'd Takyuubin it, so that I was only using it while sightseeing.

I thought about Arashiyama and the monkey park. I personally found the boat ride a little dull and I'm not sure my kid would enjoy it.

@Winter Visitor, part of the problem, is we don't have a good way to build up walking abilities where we live. We live in exurbia and about 1/4 mile from a road with a 40 mph speed limit. She skates and has started swimming, but when we were in SF she did get tired with all the walking we did and I want to try to prevent that from becoming an issue in Japan.

I collect Licca dolls, so visiting Licca-chan Castle is for me too. It's actually really fascinating to see how they create dolls. Disney is my one real concern because it is a lot of walking, even more so than some of the touristy things we will do.

I love the scrapbook idea. Mine loves to draw and do art and one of the big souvenirs we want from Japan are art supplies.

Ah, I see. We live central, so we walk everywhere

Yeah, when I was a kid, I lived in a more central city and walked all over the place. I mostly like where we live, but it's a place with no sidewalks and lots of roads with cars going 40+ mph. It makes me anxious to try to walk along these roads with her because I've just seen too many people on cell phones or trying to pass someone over a double yellow line.

I did get her to walk from the Castro to the 16th BART station and I know she can go for 5k because she did a 5k at Disney. But she also felt awful the next day.

So we will have to work on our walking as best we can. Mine is looking forward to onsen/Japanese baths, as am I! It's just also tricky because I have around dozen people I would ideally like to meet up with, all of whom work and none of who can easily travel.

We started doing more walk with my kids months before the actual visit to allow them to get used to it.

A 1/4 mile from house to road is a good place to start. If not, bring a stroller. If you can manage it, then do it. There just is ways to do things without one.

I sympathise with your problem.
Maybe a scooter (that can be folded or disassembled for traveling) might be an answer?

Is there anyway you could link me a scooter like that? Our stroller does fold up relatively small and has a back strap. When she was younger, I had no problem carrying it up stairs with her in it.

Hakata, She can walk 1/2 mile already, she can do a mile. The problem is she really wants to go to Disney, and I know Disney generally involves trudging 3-5 miles back and forth across the park (at least in FL it does.) in the heat and humidity. If I could just rent one for Disney, I would. It's why outside Disney, it is likely to be mostly takyuubinned and sitting in our hotel.

Seeing as you are spending more than one day at Disney you can lessen your walking time each day. Unless your plan is to go to both disneys.
Especially after a long plane ride, kids tend to be either really groggy or want to run around. If your kid is the latter, great.

We've not been to Japan, but she has been to Hawaii and is a mix of groggy and energetic post a long flight.

For Japan, we have the option to arrive in Narita either in the am or mid afternoon. In the past, I've always used United or ANA so always came in mid afternoon. I can't decide if am is better or worse. Will coming in to lots of sun help keep her awake until a good time to crash, or will she just want to crash.

She wants to do Sea and Disneyland, I am less sure Sea will work out since it looks like Stormrider will be down and Raging Spirits and Journey to the Center of the Earth she won't make the height line for. I did Sea in '09 before I got pregnant. Sea is beautiful to look at, but gets so crowded! I guess.... is Tokyo Disney more compact like CA Disneyland or spread at like WDW?

So please keep in mind that I am not a parent, so I don't know how helpful this is, but recently while traveling I saw a kid riding on their suitcase. They were able to use it as kind of a scooter, but it looked like the parent could pull it if necessary. It struck me as a genius idea! The kiddo could walk and pull it, scoot on it, and the parent could pull when they got tired. Plus, it was super cute, and also gave the kid something to sit on while waiting around (like on the shinkansen platform where I saw it).

I was actually impressed enough to look it up: https://www.trunki.com

I can't attest personally to this thing, but it seems like it might be an idea to consider!

OK, that is so incredibly cute. I'm not sure I would want to pull it around Tokyo Disney, but having a spot to sit while waiting for trains would be very nice indeed!

I do need to get her a new travel bag. We have a Frozen themed one which is 1) Oddly Shaped and 2) has pieces that keep breaking off and 3) is Frozen themed and mine is "over" Frozen. :P

http://www.micro-scooters.co.uk/ for scooters.

Cheaper ones are available, but these ones are pretty bomb-proof and are really well engineered. Ours had the smaller one for about 3 years, gave it some heavy use, and when she grew out of it (and we got her the bigger one from the same company) it was still in great shape. A little scuffed and dirty, but the wheels and other moving parts were still working really well. We handed it on to a friend and it's still in use.

They're not meant to be constantly assembled and disassembled, apparently, but the stem does come away from the floorboard quite easily so you can stow the whole thing flat for travelling on trains, buses, etc. Much smaller and lighter than a buggy, and really easy to carry up and down stairs or to get on and off tube trains with.

We then bought a webbing strap (basically a dog-lead sort of thing, but for scooters ;0)) that popped on and off and fitted in a coat pocket, and when she was tired at the end of a long day she could just stand on the footboard and one of us could pull her along. These scooters have really good wheels with very little rolling resistance, so it makes it very little effort to act as parental tugboat.


Hope that helps.

FWIW, I hate trunki cases. Unless my child can carry her own case, I don't want her to have a separate case. Especially if there's just the two of us travelling. Ideally, we'll sort it so that all her stuff fits in the same bag as mine, and that bag will be some sort of backpack so I have both hands free. If there's three of us, then it's one backpack and one small wheely case (adult sized, so I don't get backache bending over to pull it along). YMMV, of course...

OK, those scooters are also really cute. We don't have as much like that here (We're in the USA, where there is a bigger assumption you will be driving everywhere, unless you live in certain cities.)

The stroller I currently use is an older version of this one:
http://uppababy.com/g-luxe/overview/

which as you can see folds relatively well. Our older version is lighter and has fewer bells and whistles. I love it, because I also use it for bags. We bought it when she was tiny and was one of the best baby things we bought. I adore the sunshade.

For SF, I had her take a small carry on wheelie and I had a backpack bag. I had most of our actual stuff, while her bag had entertainment for the plane/hotel/etc. I find keeping her with me, a small wheelie and a bag are doable. Though I plan to rethink our bags for Japan since check-ins are free and I might take something larger and just have it always sent onwards.

I am tempted to just make her walk around Disney. I just don't want to end up having to carry her like what happened in SF a few times. It was funny, she would go from no energy and needing to be carried to running all over the playground there. I think she just partially didn't want to walk everywhere because she is not used to it. She did great on our 1.5 mile walk to the BART. We were slow, but she did do it.

Does anyone know if there are benches/tables areas to sit and regroup there?

We have had a similar dilemma with our upcoming trip to Japan with a 4 and 2 year old. We definitely need a buggy for the 2 year old, but the 4 year old might get tired sometimes with all the walking we are doing. In the end I have bought a Mountain Buggy Nano, which folds up teeny tiny, and to go with it a Mountain Buggy Freerider, which is a scooter that can attach to the buggy to be a buggy board, but can also be used independently so they can scoot about.

We do have one of those Micro scooters, they are excellent scooters, and almost every child in the UK seems to have one. My problem with it is my little boy is so quick using it we just cannot keep up!

We also have a trunki, they are great for the airport, but I wouldn't want to be pulling it around the streets of Japan.

Did you know that hiring child equipment is quite a big thing in Japan? If I were you, I would hire a buggy for the days you think you will need it. There are a few websites that offer the service (In Japanese only). If you don't want to drag your buggy around Japan then this could be a good compromise for you.

buggies become annoying to navigate places in tourist heavy locations.

if you can do without a buggy. do it. it will make you trip a lot better. your 4yo should be fine. surprisingly when kids are entertained, they forget about tiredness. just make sure you have a few easy days spread out in your itinerary to allow some recovery.

for the 2yo, i would do a mixture of walking and carrying.