Morning
Land at Haneda (HND)
Clear immigration at Terminal 3, then the Keikyu line or the Tokyo Monorail into the city. Shinjuku is about an hour door to door.
Pick up Suica or Pasmo cards
Sold at the airport station counters and machines. One tap card per person covers every local train, bus and convenience store, though the Shinkansen and the reserved limited expresses are ticketed separately.
Afternoon / Day
Check in: Keio Plaza Hotel Tokyo
2-2-1 Nishi-Shinjuku, a minute from Tochomae station exit A1. Family rooms are large by Tokyo standards and the Odakyu terminal for Hakone is a six-minute walk.
Shinjuku Gyoen
58 hectares of lawn, ponds and greenhouse a 25-minute walk east, or two stops on the Marunouchi line to Shinjuku-gyoemmae. The best possible place to let jet-lagged children run; over a thousand cherry trees are usually in flower in early April.
Evening
Dinner at Tsunahachi
3-31-8 Shinjuku, by the station east exit. Tempura counter running since 1924 — the set menus are the easy order and the fryers are in full view of the seats.
Morning
Metro to Asakusa
Marunouchi Line from Shinjuku to Akasaka-mitsuke, then cross the platform to the Ginza Line and ride to the last stop. About 40 minutes, one change.
Senso-ji and Nakamise-dori
2-3-1 Asakusa. Tokyo's oldest temple, founded in 645, reached through a 250 m shopping lane of rice crackers and ningyo-yaki cakes griddled in front of you.
Afternoon / Day
Lunch at Asakusa Imahan
3-1-12 Nishi-Asakusa. Sukiyaki house open since 1895; beef is simmered at your own table in a private tatami room, which buys you a calm hour.
Tokyo Skytree
1-1-2 Oshiage, one stop on the Tobu line from Asakusa or a 20-minute walk over the Sumida River. The 350 m Tembo Deck is enough; the glass floor panel is the bit children talk about afterwards.
Evening
Dinner at Tokyo Solamachi
The mall wrapped around the base of the tower has a full floor of family restaurants with plastic food models in the windows. Point at what you want.
Morning
Meiji Jingu
1-1 Yoyogikamizonocho, straight out of Harajuku station. A shrine to Emperor Meiji inside 70 hectares of forest planted by donation in 1920 — the gravel approach under three cypress torii runs a good ten minutes, so allow for short legs.
Takeshita Street
The narrow teen shopping lane opposite Harajuku station — crepe stands, character shops and a permanent crowd. Fifteen minutes is usually the right dose.
Afternoon / Day
Lunch at Maisen Aoyama
4-8-5 Jingumae, two streets off Omotesando in a converted 1950s public bathhouse. Tonkatsu sets, plus katsu sandwiches at the takeaway window if anyone would rather eat outside.
Shibuya Scramble Crossing
Twenty minutes downhill from Harajuku along Meiji-dori. Cross it once at street level, then watch a few cycles from the second-floor window of the Starbucks on the far side.
Evening
Shibuya Sky
2-24-12 Shibuya, on top of Shibuya Scramble Square above the station. Open-air rooftop 230 m up with the crossing in view just beyond the station; timed entry, and it is genuinely windy, so the indoor deck one floor down is the fallback.
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Morning
Ueno Zoo
9-83 Uenokoen, inside Ueno Park. Japan's oldest zoo, opened 1882; a footbridge linking the two halves, and a gorilla forest and elephant house that hold children for a while. The giant pandas left for China at the start of 2026, so do not come for them. Around two hours end to end.
Forward the big bags to Kyoto
The front desk will send suitcases on to the Kyoto hotel by takkyubin. Hand them over before the daily courier collection and they arrive tomorrow; leave it until the evening and they follow a day behind you. Pack one overnight bag for Hakone — the Romancecar and the mountain railway are far easier without wheels.
Afternoon / Day
Lunch in Ameyoko market
The open arcade under the Yamanote tracks between Ueno and Okachimachi. Takoyaki, grilled skewers and cut fruit eaten standing up — no reservations, no sitting down.
National Museum of Nature and Science
7-20 Uenokoen, five minutes from the zoo gate. A blue whale model out front, a full dinosaur hall inside, and English audio guides at the desk.
Evening
Akihabara
Two stops down the Yamanote line from Ueno. Multi-floor arcades, corridors of capsule-toy machines and the Yodobashi electronics store — all browsable with children in tow.
Morning
Odakyu Romancecar to Hakone-Yumoto
Reserved-seat limited express from Odakyu Shinjuku, about 80 minutes with no changes. Only the GSE trains carry the glass observation saloons at each end, and there are just two of them, so pick a GSE departure specifically if the front view is the point.
Hakone Tozan Railway up the mountain
Japan's only full-scale mountain railway, running since 1919, climbs towards Gora in about 40 minutes using three switchbacks — the train reverses at each one and the driver and guard swap ends.
Afternoon / Day
The Hakone Open-Air Museum
1121 Ninotaira, at Chokoku-no-Mori station one stop short of Gora. Moore and Brancusi sculpture on open hillside, a Picasso pavilion, and the Woods of Net — a crocheted play sculpture children are meant to climb inside.
Check in: Hakone Kowakien Ten-yu
1297 Ninotaira, a short bus ride from the museum. Every room has its own open-air hot spring bath, which quietly solves the tattoo and shyness problems that public onsen create for families.
Evening
Kaiseki dinner at the ryokan
Multi-course seasonal dinner in the hotel dining room. Children's sets are standard at Japanese ryokan — mention ages when you check in and it is handled.
Morning
Cable car and ropeway to Owakudani
Funicular from Gora up to Sounzan, then the ropeway gondola over the ridge. It runs directly above the sulphur vents of Owakudani, where the valley trail has been closed since the 2015 eruption, so you stay on the station deck. The kiosk still sells the black eggs, boiled up at the spring source and carried down.
Lake Ashi sightseeing cruise
Togendai to Motohakone across the caldera lake, about 25 minutes on one of the mock galleons. Fuji is behind you on this leg, so take a stern seat and look back to the north-west.
Afternoon / Day
Hakone Shrine
80-1 Motohakone, ten minutes from the pier through cedar forest. The vermilion torii standing in the shallows below the shrine is the picture everyone comes for.
Bus to Odawara, Shinkansen to Kyoto
Hakone Tozan bus down to Odawara in under an hour, then a Hikari service on the Tokaido Shinkansen to Kyoto in about two hours. Sit on the right-hand side for Fuji.
Evening
Check in: Hotel Granvia Kyoto
Built into the Kyoto Station concourse, so you walk off the Shinkansen and into a lift. Your forwarded suitcases will be waiting. Nine ramen shops sit on the tenth floor of the same building if nobody wants to go out again.
Morning
Fushimi Inari Taisha
68 Fukakusa Yabunouchicho — two stops and five minutes from Kyoto Station on the JR Nara line. Thousands of vermilion torii climb Mount Inari, each donated by a business; the Yotsutsuji viewpoint is about 45 minutes up and a sensible turnaround with children.
Afternoon / Day
Kiyomizu-dera
1-294 Kiyomizu. A wooden stage braced out over the hillside, built without nails and reroofed in 2020. The approach up Chawanzaka is steep and cobbled — a carrier beats a stroller here.
Lunch on Ninenzaka and Sannenzaka
The stone-stepped lanes below the temple are lined with noodle and tofu restaurants in old machiya houses, most with picture menus. Yatsuhashi cinnamon cakes are handed out as samples at nearly every door.
Yasaka Shrine and Maruyama Park
625 Gionmachi Kitagawa, at the eastern end of Shijo street. Hundreds of paper lanterns in the courtyard, and the park behind holds Kyoto's most famous weeping cherry.
Evening
Dinner in Pontocho
The lantern-lit alley one street back from the Kamo River. The wider restaurants at the northern end take families and put photographs on the menu; the narrow ones mostly do not.
Morning
Kinkaku-ji
1 Kinkakujicho, about 25 minutes by taxi from Arashiyama. Gold-leaf pavilion reflected in its own pond, rebuilt in 1955 after an arson. The route is a one-way loop of half an hour, which is all anyone has left by now.
Arashiyama Bamboo Grove
JR Sagano line from Kyoto Station to Saga-Arashiyama, 15 minutes, then a short walk. The path is a through-route rather than a park, so before 9 is the only quiet window.
Afternoon / Day
Tenryu-ji
68 Sagatenryuji Susukinobabacho. Zen head temple whose 14th-century pond garden survived every fire the buildings did not; the north gate opens straight onto the bamboo path.
Lunch by the Togetsukyo bridge
The riverfront street between the station and the bridge is soba counters, riverside cafes and soft-serve stands. Eat before the monkey climb rather than after it.
Arashiyama Monkey Park Iwatayama
61 Arashiyama Nakaoshitacho, across the Togetsukyo bridge and 20 minutes up the hill. Around 120 wild macaques roam loose at the summit; you stand inside the feeding hut and pass food out through the mesh, which children find backwards and excellent.
Evening
No activities planned
Morning
Kyoto Railway Museum
Kankijicho, a 20-minute walk west of Kyoto Station, or two minutes from Umekoji-Kyotonishi. Fifty-four vehicles from steam locomotives to Shinkansen cars, coaches and freight wagons, a working roundhouse turntable, driving simulators and a short steam-hauled ride in the yard.
Afternoon / Day
JR Special Rapid to Osaka
Kyoto to Osaka Station on the JR Kyoto line in under 30 minutes, no reservation needed. Change to the Midosuji subway south for Namba.
Check in: Swissotel Nankai Osaka
5-1-60 Namba, built directly above Nankai Namba station — which is also tomorrow's airport platform. Dotonbori is ten minutes north on foot.
Osaka Aquarium Kaiyukan
1-1-10 Kaigandori, Midosuji line from Namba to Hommachi, then the Chuo line to Osakako, about 25 to 30 minutes door to door. An escalator lifts you to the eighth floor and you walk down five levels around the central Pacific tank, ending at a shallow touch pool of rays and small sharks.
Evening
Dinner in Dotonbori
Takoyaki, okonomiyaki and kushikatsu along the canal under the Glico running man sign. Loud and bright — the one Osaka evening children reliably remember.
Osaka Castle & Sayonara
Morning
Breakfast at Kuromon Ichiba Market
2-4-1 Nipponbashi, a five-minute walk east of the hotel. Covered market where the stalls grill scallops and tamagoyaki to order and you eat at the counter in front of them.
Check out and leave the bags
The front desk holds luggage until the afternoon, and the airport platform is directly downstairs when you come back for it.
Afternoon / Day
Osaka Castle and park
1-1 Osakajo, about 35 minutes from Namba: Sennichimae line to Tanimachi 9-chome, change to the Tanimachi line for Tanimachi 4-chome, then a fifteen-minute walk through the park. The reconstructed keep is a museum; a lift serves the middle floors and stairs take you the rest of the way up. The moats, the stone walls and the cherry trees in the Nishinomaru garden are the better part with children.
Evening
Nankai Rapi:t to Kansai Airport
Reserved limited express from Namba station under the hotel to KIX in about 38 minutes. The dark blue train with the round porthole windows is worth the seat fee on its own.
Fly home from Kansai (KIX)
The rail concourse feeds straight into Terminal 1; allow extra time if you are flying an LCC from Terminal 2, which needs a shuttle bus. Allow three hours: tax-free purchases are exempted at the till, and Customs checks them against your passport before immigration, which is where the queue builds.
