Tokyo, Kyoto or both?

I'm planning a 7-8 day trip with my 15 year old daughter from the U.S. to Japan. It will just be the two of us. She is really into Japanese anime, manga, art, etc. and I really just want to experience a beautiful country. Japan looks like a great time for both of us. .

I'm really struggling to decide whether the Kyoto/Osaka region or Tokyo would be a better destination.

My daughter thinks Tokyo because obviously there are a lot of anime culture things there, as well as it being featured in a lot of the shows she's watched. But the thought of being stuck in a huge city all week doesn't appeal to me. It seems like visiting only New York and thinking you'd experience what the U.S. is like. I'd like to get out and see some countryside, smaller cities and historical sites. Kyoto area seems a lot better for that, and it looks like within an hour on the train each way you can take day trips to a lot of smaller cities and sites. That really appeals to me. And nearby Osaka is a big city, too, but maybe my daughter would feel like she missed out on some anime culture if we skip Tokyo?

So I guess I can't decide which is going to be better for us. I guess we could hit both, but then aren't you wasting the better part of a day traveling between cities and spending a bunch of extra money on the train fare? And then would we feel a bit rushed in each location since we'd only have a few days each?

I guess any advice on choosing a destination for us would be great. Thanks.

Hi. Personally I am finding Kyoto so crowded these days that it has lost a lot of its charm. I much prefer towns around it like Nara and Hikone.

If I had a week and had to start from Tokyo, I think you could get a lot of "bang for your buck" by spending a couple of days in the city (it is huge and some areas are pretty nice even for me, and I cant stand cities) then get off to Kamakura and Enoshima which are awesome with historical sites, then maybe off to a place like Bessho Onsen to see what an onsen town is like (and you'd get a run in a bullet train along the way) and stop off at Karuizawa or go on to Nagano. If you are in Tokyo, get to the Ghibli museum at Mitaka which is a nice town.

If on the other hand you had a week in the Osaka area, I'd spend at least 2 days in Kyoto but dont miss Nara (deer and buddhist sites) and Hikone (awesome castle). Uji is nice too.

No matter what, you wont be bored.

Tokyo and Kyoto are considered musts, especially for the first timers.

Kyoto is crowded, of course, for the obvious reason that it is popular. I have been to Kyoto 4 times in the past 12 months, but I have not seen all I want to see in Kyoto. I intend to visit Kyoto again in the next trip to Japan.

I think, that for a first time visit, I would hate to miss out on either Kyoto or Tokyo. I would find a few nice day trips to do, to get a bit away from the big city or plan to do stuff that is a bit away from the city centers.
From Tokyo, I think Kamakura is a nice option to get in some temples and nice views, and it is fast and easily accessible.
In Kyoto, going to climb Mt Daimonji is great for getting out (it is relatively easy) and/or walking to the top of the Fushimi Inari Shrine will offer you lots of nice views and nature, without having to spend a lot of time on transportation.

Btw, I went to the Manga Museum in Kyoto a few years ago, which was actually quite nice (especially on a rainy day) even though everything was in Japanese. I second the Ghibli Museum, it is a amazing! Do note that tickets must be bought well in advance.

I think your daughter would love spending some time in Akihabara or Ikebukuru, if she's into anime/manga. Shinjuku after dark is also quite enjoyable.

I think you can easily fit in things you will both enjoy. I would skip Osaka and just do Tokyo+Kyoto.

One week really isn't long enough to do both Tokyo and Kyoto - it would be very rushed. Personally I would base myself in Tokyo (your daughter is right, there's far more to see and do in Tokyo), and take a day trip or two down to Kamakura, where you can see temples, the beach, mountains and hiking trails all in one place. There are a few other interesting day trips out of Tokyo that can help break up your trip so that it's not all big-city stuff.

I disagree with the post above. Yes, 7-8 days is not enough to see everything in both Tokyo and Kyoto, but you will definitely be able to see the highlights. I highly appreciated the contrast betweeen both cities with modern Tokyo and traditional Kyoto.

If you spend half a day or max one day digging through anime stuff in Akihabara I think you've seen most of it. As mentioned Shinjuku and Shibuya by night are also must sees. Harajuku may be nice for your daughter but is highly touristy these days so you don't need more than two hours there. I would encourage taking at least 5 days in Tokyo and 4 in Kyoto and maybe one more day for a side trip from either location. In Osaka there's less to see during daytime but evenings are great.

If you can aim for the 8 days, that would help a lot.

3 full days in Kyoto, and 4 full days in Tokyo, with a few 1/2-3/4 days with travel in between.

for example you could use half a day to walk around Akihabara and the rest of the day on train to Kyoto, or vise versa. and 3 hours at Fushimi Inari and train back to Tokyo, or vise versa.

It really depends on your interests and what appeals to you. You only mentioned manga/amine as one interest. So plenty of time to see the more pretty scenery and cultural stuff.

We have previously done Tokyo, Kanazawa, Kyoto, Kawaguchi-ko in 15 days (our first trip) and that was plenty of time (2 nights spend in both Kanazawa and Kawaguchi-ko). I felt like we covered most of the must do's as well as some fun extra stuff out of interest. This included the things I mentioned above - however, it was all due to a lot of planning! But I never felt rushed.

If you are on a budget - both money and time wise - preparing is key. We divided our days into 'morning' and 'afternoon/evening' and researched how to get between areas of interest beforehand, so as not to spend time backtracking.

Also, a great trip out of Kyoto I just remembered is Arashiyama.

- try to make your trip a little longer (you'll maybe have jetlag for a day)
- see if you can fly into e.g. Tokyo and out of e.g. Kansai airport and then you don't have to backtrack on your route if you go to both places
- maybe have a look at Peter Carey's book about a dad travelling to Japan on holiday with his manga-obsessed teenager https://www.amazon.com/Wrong-About-Japan-Peter-Carey/dp/1400078369
- don't necessarily think that the time it takes to travel from Tokyo to Kyoto is wasted time. (i) you get to go on a shinkansen - which is pretty amazing (you can have fun choosing a bento lunch at the station, and the trains are awesome!) (ii) if you sit on the "right" side, and the weather is good, you can get a pretty good view of Mt Fuji as you whizz by it.

Everyone has their preferences for a trip like this and 7-8 days are tricky; you don�ft want to miss out on things but also don�ft want to make things to rushed.

If you really only planning on picking one of these cities I would go for Tokyo.
As mentioned by other posters above, there is plenty to do and see there, especially for an anime obsessed 15-year old (Ghibli museum was nice) and there are also enough options for culture or day-trips. Kamakura would make a wonderful change of scenery, and you could spend a night or two there in a ryokan for the experience or spend a night at Hakone. (You could probably leave your luggage stored at the hotel/hostel you�fre staying at for the one night your away, saves you the hassle of taking it with you. Check with the hotel.)

If it�fs possible to fly into Tokyo and leave from Kansai airport (or the other way around) and this option is not too expensive for you then you might still want to consider doing both – as Winter Visitor says, the shinkansen and possibly the view of Mt. Fuji is a nice enough experience if it�fs just a single trip instead of a round trip. Also, spending time in two different places/hotels could make it more like a trip to Japan than just a city-trip to Tokyo. And the travel will take you only a few hours, you still have the rest of the day to settle at the place you are staying and, for example, go to the Fushimi Inari Shrine (it stays open at night and is a nice place to visit in the evening and watch the sunset).

If you do plan on staying in Kyoto for a few days, since you don�ft have a lot of time there make sure to choose your hotel/ryokan carefully in terms of transport to where you want to go. The hassle of dragging suitcases on and off one of the busses to and from Kyoto station is really not worth it for a few days visit (personal opinion). I suggest a ryokan near the station, or one along the subway or railway lines that also go to whichever places you want most of all to visit.

Arashiyama is nice to spend a morning or afternoon for a bit of nature and temples. A day-trip to Nara is also great (the deer, temples, atmosphere), but would cost you a day.

A tough decision! Good luck.

Thank you very much for the excellent replies I have received, they have been very helpful! Not everyone is in full agreement, but they give me a lot to read and think about.

The more I think, the more I feel like I cannot skip Tokyo. So we will definitely start there. I'm still reading a lot about all the side trips from Tokyo, and it seems like there is probably more than enough opportunity to get out of the city for day trips with 60-90 min train rides. So it's either a week in Tokyo with maybe every other day riding out to places like Nikko, Hakone, Enoshima, Kamakura - or stay inside Tokyo for 3-4 days and head to Kyoto for the last 4 days. Both options seem really fun, so maybe I should just flip a coin? :)

Looking at flight, I think we could do an open-jaw where I fly into HND and out of KIX for maybe $100 more each. That is cheaper than the shankisen back to Tokyo and it saves me a half day. That seems like the best plan if I do both cities.

If I had unlimited time and money, I'd stay for a month! But 7-8 days is already at the limits of what our budget and schedule is going to allow. I

Having lived and gone to school in Tokyo, I enjoyed it a lot, and know a lot of interesting places. However, I hate visiting there now because the city is so large and crowded it eats up huge amounts of time just getting between places. I would limit my time there to the manga resources and the Ghibli Museum for your daughter and then get out of town.

My last visits to Kyoto have seemed to be to explore the fringes. Last time I hiked from Takao down to the Hozu River visiting the towns and temples along the way. Kyoto is also a large city, and the main sights can be far apart and filled with tour groups brought in by the busload. If you want some old architecture mixed in with some countryside, the Kiso Valley between Matsumoto and Nagoya has some worthwhile stops such as Kiso-Hirasawa, Narai, Magome, and Tsumago. Matsumoto also has an old section of town along the river as well as an original castle. Tsumago is the most touristed, and Kiso-Hirasawa the least, even though it's famous for its lacquerware. The train getting to these places follows a narrow river valley with a mixture of mountains, fields, and small villages.
http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e6075.html

Up a different river north of Nagoya gets you to Hida-Takayama, the home of the carpenters that built Kyoto. There is an old section of architecture as well as a temple line across the hills, a lot of museums, a collection of old farmhouses brought in from the countryside, and a strange church with a cherry on top.
It's a walkable town even though the walk back from Minzokumura (Hida no Sato - the farmhouse place), can take a while. If you do walk, there are some more sights that no one visits as they're not on the bus line. It's also noted for wood carving.
http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e5900.html

I find visiting Kyoto's temples to be similar to visiting the cathedrals of Europe; after a few they begin to merge into one, only the cathedrals are older. Most of the temples of Kyoto, from Higashiyama to Arashiyama, were all built in the 1600s or later to keep the samurai leaders (daimyo) from having any spare money to raise troops. It depends on how many days you want to spend going from temple to temple. The temple I've probably visited the most in Kyoto is Enryaku-ji, on the top of Mt. Hiei. It's less crowded, cooler in summer, and has some nice walks between sights. It's probably considered on the "fringe" of the city also. I've taken people to Kinkakuji and Ginkakuji when they've insisted, but not of my own volition.
http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e3911.html

Good luck deciding . . .

Would like to another approaching.

15yd aughter, you can leave her alone in Tokyo for 1 or 2 days no problem.
You should tell her to come back to the hotel before 19:00 in the evening,
instead, pls contract with a "rental mobile phone" for her
or if you have "Wi-Fi" terminal such as "iPad","mobile router" will be cheaper.
She can do it in English, such as map, translation, train/bus transfer search, etc by apps.
Allso you can talk to her by voice call apps Skype or.

And don't know what kind of anime or manga she loving,
but in that age "Ghibli" may have graduated already.
(Before that you can not easily book "Ghibli museum")
Also "Cartoon" and "Animation" are different things,
her interest has already shifted to adult world theme's one rather than fantasy and just "cute".

Yr daughter is in trouble separating fr you is that
she cannot say "pleeeease!" when in anime shop also cannot deposit large luggages after shop out.
Managing money also no problem, if you give cash for shopping and eating
with "Suica" or discount tickets for transportations also for convenience stores.
She can understand "money sense" in first two days.

And, do not know when to travel,
but it is also good to make same age Japanese friends on the internet before.

Anyway, first step is let's talk about where the daughter absolutely want to go ASAP,
then check the traveling time by Google map.
Also she can easily go to Kyoto alone by taking a Shinkansen(bullet train).
If taking "Nozomi(fastest Shinkansen name in this section)" fr Tokyo stn,
will be stopping at "Shinagawa(Tokyo)", "Shin-Ykohama", "Nagoya"
next is Kyoto so 3 stops only about 2h20min, so you can eat together if take a early evening train.
https://youtu.be/_K1CuPTKGy0

" Hi. Personally I am finding Kyoto so crowded these days that it has lost a lot of its charm. "

I find this kind of advice quite strange. Very nice for you if you have been able to visit Kyoto so many times that you don't like it anymore. But for someone visiting it for the first time I find this kind of advice just "not cool". I have been to Kyoto excactly one time and we enjoyed it A LOT. It is a beautiful historical city and I would recommend people travelling to Japan take a look at tour quides and if the city ( any city) has sights that would intrest you, GO.

As for the original question. Talk with your daughter. I she is interested in going to Tokyo, why not go there. I don't see the point going then only to Osaka region if she is exited about seeing Tokyo.

If you can, make it at least 8 days, or a few more and go to Tokyo and Kyoto. You can easily do both in that timeframe.

Oh, and if your daughter hasn't seen it yet, watch Your name movie before going :) It's a beautiful story and located in Tokyo and Takayama mountains.

Late to the thread but another voice for Tokyo 7 days is not long enough to do both. If you want to get out of the city then then a day trip to Kamakura, Hakone or Nikko will fill that need. One other thing, if she loves anime etc don't miss Nakano Broadway http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e3069.html

For someone who has 7, 8 days, usually I would recommend covering both Tokyo and Osaka, particularly if they can fly into one and fly out the other (unless they say they are slow travellers).

However, seeing that your daughter is "likely" to like Tokyo so much over Kyoto (see if she finds any interests around Kyoto from Japan Guide for example?), I would hate it if you started in Tokyo and by the time you move on to Kyoto she starts complaining that she wants to stay more in Tokyo, or if you flew into Osaka and started from Kyoto, while you are still i Kyoto (which you may love) her heart is already in Tokyo, or something like that.

So for you this time, if your focus is on your daughter's enjoyment, I would suggest staying in Tokyo and doing day trips to Kamakura and Nikko, etc.

I agree with the post above, childrens usually come first, when it comes to parenting, and if you are that type of person, I will stick with Tokyo and have side trip to Enoshima or Kamakura. if your daughter is crazy about manga, Japanese anime's, one day is not enough and you also have the choice at Akihabara or Nakano Broadway or both, as for historic places, there are plenty around Tokyo, including Kamakura.

I think that is very good advice. Most of the goal of this trip is some bonding time before she gets too grown up and busy. So I think letting her pick the basic itinerary is a good idea. I've collected enough info to plan 2-3 scenarios, so I guess I'll just put them together and let her choose.

Thanks again.

P.S. she has seen Your Name several times. It's probably her favorite movie. 😀

I've done Osaka-Kyoto-Tokyo in 7 days and 6 nights. 1 night in Osaka, 2 nights in Kyoto, shinkansen from Kyoto to Tokyo (with a 5 hour stopover to explore Nagoya) and 3 nights in Tokyo.

As an anime fan in my youth, my exposure to japanese culture through anime is a big part of my appreciation and love for other aspects of the country such as it's natural beauty, cuisine, subculture, temples, shrines, gardens, etc. I think your daughter will recognize that nature, temples and shrines are a common theme in anime and seeing these things first hand would give context to the things she's watching.