12 Day Japan Family Small Group Adventure

Welcome to Japan. Arrive in Tokyo and make your own way to the hotel, where the rest of the day is yours to settle in and find your feet after the flight. You may receive a welcome letter when checking in to the starting hotel that will include the time of the welcome meeting with your tour leader tomorrow. If you do not receive this, please speak to hotel staff or feel free to reach out to us directly. The evening is at leisure. Special InformationAirport transfers are not included. Our transfer portal may offer the option to book your airport transfers for an easier arrival experience (additional charges apply). Access to this portal will be available through your Traveller Hub once your booking is confirmed.

This morning after breakfast you will meet your tour leader and the rest of the group for a welcome meeting and a run through of the days ahead. You will then travel across to Asakusa to visit Senso-ji, the oldest temple in Tokyo, approached along Nakamise, a street of small stalls selling rice crackers, fans and sweets that has been trading in one form or another for centuries. From there you continue to Ueno, where the park, the shrines within it and the Ameyoko market streets alongside show a different side of the city. Tonight you will attend a sumo show, where former wrestlers explain the rituals, the training and the techniques of the sport, take on challengers from the audience and answer questions. Dinner is included. Inspiring Highlights Tokyo - Senso-ji Temple and Asakusa Tokyo - Ueno Tokyo - Sumo show

After breakfast you will visit teamLab Planets, a digital art museum where the works fill whole rooms and you move through them barefoot, across mirrored floors, through knee-deep water and beneath hanging gardens of orchids. You carry on to Harajuku and Takeshita Street, the narrow lane at the heart of Tokyo youth fashion, and then to Shibuya to cross the scramble crossing, where several thousand people can move through the intersection on a single change of the lights. The afternoon is yours. The basement food halls at Shibuya Scramble Square and the surrounding department stores are worth a wander for anyone curious about how Japan shops for food, and Yoyogi Park, a short walk back towards Harajuku, is a quiet place to sit for an hour. The wooded approach to Meiji Jingu shrine runs alongside it. The evening is at leisure. Inspiring Highlights Tokyo - teamLab Planets Tokyo - Harajuku Tokyo - Shibuya scramble crossing Special Information At teamLab Planets you will walk barefoot through shallow water in parts of the museum. Please wear clothing that can be rolled above the knee, or shorts.

Today is free, with breakfast at the hotel and no fixed plans, so the city is yours to use as you like. If you are looking for a magical experience, spend the day at Tokyo Disney Resort, choosing between the classic castle-and-parade charm of Tokyo Disneyland or the nautically themed Tokyo DisneySea, which is unique to Japan. The East Gardens of the Imperial Palace are free to enter, easy underfoot and give a sense of the old city sitting beneath the modern one, with the moat, the stone walls and the foundations of the keep still in place. Ginza, a short walk on, is good for browsing and has no shortage of places to sit down. For a view from the water, the river boats that run from Asakusa down the Sumida to Hinode are an unhurried way to see Tokyo from a different angle. Special Information Tickets for Tokyo Disneyland and Tokyo DisneySea must be purchased online in advance and linked to the Tokyo Disney Resort app. Tickets are not sold at the gate. Sales open 60 days before the date of entry and popular dates sell out quickly, so book as soon as your window opens.

After breakfast you will leave Tokyo behind and travel by coach towards Mount Fuji, watching the buildings thin out and the land rise as you go. On the way you will board a pirate ship on Lake Ashi in Hakone for a cruise across the water, with the wooded slopes of the caldera on either side and, on a clear day, Mount Fuji standing behind them. You continue on to your hotel at Lake Yamanaka, on the northern side of the mountain, where a buffet dinner is included. The evening is at leisure. Inspiring Highlights Hakone - Lake Ashi pirate ship cruise Special Information Your travel time today will be approximately 5 hours. Views of Mount Fuji depend on the weather and cannot be guaranteed.

After breakfast you will set out for Kyoto. Today is largely a travel day, heading south and west through the middle of Honshu, with stops along the way to stretch your legs. You will reach Kyoto in the late afternoon and check in. This evening you will walk through Gion, the old geisha quarter, where the wooden machiya townhouses, the lanterns and the narrow lanes off Hanamikoji are at their best after dark. The remainder of the evening is at your leisure. Inspiring Highlights Kyoto - Gion Special Information Your travel time today will be approximately 6 hours.

This morning after breakfast you will head out to Arashiyama, on the western edge of Kyoto, and walk through the bamboo grove, where the stems close overhead and the light drops away. There is time in the district around it, with the Togetsukyo bridge over the Katsura river and the temple gardens that back onto the hills. The afternoon is yours. Kyoto is flat, compact and made for cycling. Hire bikes and explore at your own pace. Or discover the covered arcades at Teramachi and Shinkyogoku run for several blocks and are easy going in any weather, the grounds of the Kyoto Imperial Palace are open to walk through, and the rooftop terrace above Kyoto Station gives a view across the whole basin. The evening is at leisure. Inspiring Highlights Kyoto - Arashiyama Bamboo Grove

Today is free after breakfast, with a choice of optional activities or a day at your own pace. Kyoto rewards walking. The lanes below Kiyomizu-dera, Sannenzaka and Ninenzaka, climb through the old Higashiyama quarter past tea shops and pottery stalls, and the Philosopher's Path follows a canal north between temples with plenty of benches along the way. Nijo Castle, with its nightingale floors that squeak underfoot by design, sits closer to the centre. The Kyoto Railway Museum, a short walk from the station, is a good option for families, with steam locomotives, a working turntable and shinkansen carriages that can be walked through. The evening is at leisure.

After breakfast you will travel out to Nara, the capital of Japan before Kyoto and home to some of the oldest buildings in the country. You will spend time in Nara Park, where more than a thousand sika deer roam freely and have done so for centuries, protected as messengers of the gods. Crackers can be bought from stalls to feed them and the deer will bow for one. You will also visit Todai-ji and its Great Buddha Hall, a timber building on a scale that is difficult to convey, holding a bronze Buddha cast in the eighth century. You return to Kyoto later in the day, with the evening at leisure. Inspiring Highlights Nara - Nara Park deer Nara - Todai-ji Temple and the Great Buddha Hall Special Information Your travel time today will be approximately 3 hours. The deer in Nara Park are wild animals. Please follow your tour leader's instructions when feeding them and keep food out of sight until you are ready.

This morning after breakfast you will visit Fushimi Inari Taisha, where thousands of vermilion torii gates stand end to end in tunnels running up the hillside behind the shrine, each one donated by a business or a family. You will then check out and board the shinkansen for the short run to Osaka. It is a brief leg, but the bullet train is worth doing in its own right, and the platform routine that surrounds it is part of the experience. In Osaka you will visit Osaka Castle, rebuilt on its original stone base and set in a large park, before heading to Dotonbori, the canal-side strip of neon signs, street food stalls and restaurants that Osaka is known for. Your dinner is included tonight. Inspiring Highlights Kyoto - Fushimi Inari Taisha Shinkansen from Kyoto to Osaka Osaka - Osaka Castle Osaka - Dotonbori Special Information Your travel time today will be approximately 1 hour. The torii gate paths at Fushimi Inari climb the hillside on uneven stone steps

Today is free after breakfast, with a choice of optional activities or a day spent as you please. The evening is at leisure.

After breakfast your tour comes to an end. Make your own way to Kansai International Airport for your onward flight. Thank you for travelling with Inspiring Vacations. We hope you had a memorable experience. Special Information Airport transfers are not included. Our transfer portal offers the option to book your airport transfers for an easier departure experience (additional charges apply). Access to this portal will be available through your Traveller Hub once your booking is confirmed.