How one family had a 2 week holiday to Japan - Prologue
Introduction
I’ve always wanted to visit Japan — have you? At the ripe age of 48, I couldn’t keep making excuses or putting off one of my life’s biggest dreams. As an avid Japanophile, I was already familiar with the main tourist spots and travel basics. But one thing seemed to be missing: a practical, dad-level guide for taking a family (not just the kids) to Japan.
So here’s how my UK family of four finally made the trip — and crossed Japan off the bucket list without completely falling apart at the seams.
Pre-travel
So here’s how my UK family of four finally made the trip — and crossed Japan off the bucket list without completely falling apart at the seams.
Pre-travel
The pre-travel/booking details may be useful to you but if you want to skip to the actual holiday, please click here.
Do UK travellers need a visa?
DAD HINT - Make sure your room for your family has the actual number of beds your family needs. Don’t just trust the booking website, check the photos and ideally room layout too.
Why we stayed in Sumida (and why I’d do it again)
We stayed in a hotel called Playsis East Tokyo. It’s a 3 star hotel on the, you guessed it, east side of Tokyo. It’s located in Azumabashi which is in Sumida City which isn’t a typical tourist hotspot. So, why did we end up in Sumida?
We’ve used Purple Parking Park & Ride service at Gatwick a couple of times before without issue. Strangely this time when looking for airport parking the dropoff by the terminal service was cheaper. I didn’t look that horse in its mouth and booked straight away. It cost just over £100 including an upgrade to cover a possible late flight on our return.
Buying tens of thousands of Yen with GBP!
We used the Post Office website to order £500 of Yen. The rates were as good as we could get anywhere else, and once ordered, the Yen arrived the next day at the local Post Office for collection. This amount lasted us around 10 days, but honestly, could have lasted the whole trip if I hadn’t kept using cash to top up our Welcome Suica cards. But you live and learn, well at least I try too.
With everything prepared, bookings made, a detailed YouTube Japan travel guidance playlist, and personal Google Spreadsheet itinerary I was excited to finally set foot on the land of the rising sun.
After all this time waiting to make the trip, and now planning for it, would it be everything I’d hoped for?
- Do UK travellers need a visa?
- Who has the cheapest flights to Japan? - Chinese Eastern Airlines
- How to find hotels with actual beds for a family of four?
- Tokyo hotel - Why we stayed in Sumida (and why I’d do it again)
- Kyoto hotel - location Kyoto
- Pocket Wi-fi
- Airport parking
- Buying tens of thousands of Yen with GBP!
Do UK travellers need a visa?
For a 2-week holiday to Japan, UK citizens don’t need a visa. But you still are advised to register yourself and family via Visit Japan Web which may (or may not, more about this later) help you get through customs when arriving in Narita Airport. https://services.digital.go.jp/en/visit-japan-web/
DAD HINT - Screenshot the QR code you’ll need before landing in Narita. Don’t pain if you don’t as the airport has free wi-fi you can connect to right after landing and crucially before clearing immigration.
Who has the cheapest flights to Japan? - Chinese Eastern Airlines
We booked our flights via Kayak, though we could just as easily have used Skyscanner or another aggregator. Filtering the results from lowest to highest price quickly revealed the cheapest option: indirect flights with China Eastern Airlines. At around £2,800 (a little less than the cost of our usual holiday), it was the obvious choice for us. That said...
DAD HINT - For all the busy parents out there please try to purchase your tickets in advance. Thanks to one family delay after another, we kept putting it off until, suddenly, the price had increased by over £700. That mistake still hurts and one hopefully you’ll avoid it now that you’ve been warned.
Hotels - How to find hotels with actual beds for a family of four?
We booked our hotels via Expedia. I’ve used Expedia and Booking.com frequently in the past. But for this trip, using Expedia made it easier to understand how many beds were in a room. This, it turns out, is crucial because in Japan, children at a certain age, share beds with their parents. So, a “room for four” is actually 1 double and a single bed! For a UK family of average size (I’m 5’11” my wife is 5’8”) squeezing in one of the kids, assuming they would, which they definitely wouldn’t, was never going to work. I’m informing you of this because naturally I made the mistake I’m talking about and had to cancel our first two bookings after realising.
DAD HINT - Screenshot the QR code you’ll need before landing in Narita. Don’t pain if you don’t as the airport has free wi-fi you can connect to right after landing and crucially before clearing immigration.
Who has the cheapest flights to Japan? - Chinese Eastern Airlines
We booked our flights via Kayak, though we could just as easily have used Skyscanner or another aggregator. Filtering the results from lowest to highest price quickly revealed the cheapest option: indirect flights with China Eastern Airlines. At around £2,800 (a little less than the cost of our usual holiday), it was the obvious choice for us. That said...
DAD HINT - For all the busy parents out there please try to purchase your tickets in advance. Thanks to one family delay after another, we kept putting it off until, suddenly, the price had increased by over £700. That mistake still hurts and one hopefully you’ll avoid it now that you’ve been warned.
Hotels - How to find hotels with actual beds for a family of four?
We booked our hotels via Expedia. I’ve used Expedia and Booking.com frequently in the past. But for this trip, using Expedia made it easier to understand how many beds were in a room. This, it turns out, is crucial because in Japan, children at a certain age, share beds with their parents. So, a “room for four” is actually 1 double and a single bed! For a UK family of average size (I’m 5’11” my wife is 5’8”) squeezing in one of the kids, assuming they would, which they definitely wouldn’t, was never going to work. I’m informing you of this because naturally I made the mistake I’m talking about and had to cancel our first two bookings after realising.
DAD HINT - Make sure your room for your family has the actual number of beds your family needs. Don’t just trust the booking website, check the photos and ideally room layout too.
Why we stayed in Sumida (and why I’d do it again)
We stayed in a hotel called Playsis East Tokyo. It’s a 3 star hotel on the, you guessed it, east side of Tokyo. It’s located in Azumabashi which is in Sumida City which isn’t a typical tourist hotspot. So, why did we end up in Sumida?
As mentioned, finding a room with one double and two single beds wasn’t super simple and as such limited our options. But while searching on Expedia, we found rooms at our price point, in Sumida. From Playsis East Tokyo you are able to walk to the Asakusa and the Tokyo SkyTree within 15 minutes. And with easy access to transport for the popular tourist destinations in West Tokyo it made for a great base. So when it came time to book Kyoto, we looked for something equally convenient.
DAD HINT - As you will read later I think Sumida is a greatly overlooked treasure. I would 100% stay there again if/when we go back.
DAD HINT - If you book a hotel near the Skytree you can also get the cheap(er) train from Narita Airport. Bonus!
Booking accommodation - Kyoto location
This one was easy. With the options available (again within budget) the RESI STAY Kyo Ryuvilux Nijo, a serviced apartment-style hotel, is slap bang in the middle of Kyoto. With two bus routes and the Metro in walking distance gave us the convenient travel options we needed. Additionally it’s just a short walk from the Kyoto Gyoen National Garden and Imperial Palace.
Similar to our hotel in Sumida, the area looked mostly residential and quiet. Looking around the streets near the hotel I was excited to see that this would give us another authentic taste of Japan I was looking for.
With the hotels booked, it was time to cover what no modern man can live without: a reliable internet connection.
DAD HINT - When booking hotels in Kyoto make sure you have bus route/s relatively close by. Having these within walking distance will enable you to get around Kyoto with ease.
Pocket WiFi - device data connection in Japan
To connect 3 phones to the internet and all its wonders I choose a pocket wi-fi option with Japan Wireless.
DAD HINT - As you will read later I think Sumida is a greatly overlooked treasure. I would 100% stay there again if/when we go back.
DAD HINT - If you book a hotel near the Skytree you can also get the cheap(er) train from Narita Airport. Bonus!
Booking accommodation - Kyoto location
This one was easy. With the options available (again within budget) the RESI STAY Kyo Ryuvilux Nijo, a serviced apartment-style hotel, is slap bang in the middle of Kyoto. With two bus routes and the Metro in walking distance gave us the convenient travel options we needed. Additionally it’s just a short walk from the Kyoto Gyoen National Garden and Imperial Palace.
Similar to our hotel in Sumida, the area looked mostly residential and quiet. Looking around the streets near the hotel I was excited to see that this would give us another authentic taste of Japan I was looking for.
With the hotels booked, it was time to cover what no modern man can live without: a reliable internet connection.
DAD HINT - When booking hotels in Kyoto make sure you have bus route/s relatively close by. Having these within walking distance will enable you to get around Kyoto with ease.
Pocket WiFi - device data connection in Japan
To connect 3 phones to the internet and all its wonders I choose a pocket wi-fi option with Japan Wireless.
There are other vendors which seemed all similar priced and reviewed well enough but I think that easy return options of the equipment sold it for me. My review is thus:
Used Japan Wireless for 2 weeks for a family trip. I was able to collect the pocket-wifi easily at Narita airport and set it up as soon as I got to the hotel. Connected the pocket-wifi to 3 mobile phones with no issues with connection, speed or data-limits for 2 weeks. I was extremely impressed with the coverage this provided for us too. It provided a better data connection for my phone then my home network back in the UK!Airport parking
Product：Premium Wifi
We’ve used Purple Parking Park & Ride service at Gatwick a couple of times before without issue. Strangely this time when looking for airport parking the dropoff by the terminal service was cheaper. I didn’t look that horse in its mouth and booked straight away. It cost just over £100 including an upgrade to cover a possible late flight on our return.
Buying tens of thousands of Yen with GBP!
We used the Post Office website to order £500 of Yen. The rates were as good as we could get anywhere else, and once ordered, the Yen arrived the next day at the local Post Office for collection. This amount lasted us around 10 days, but honestly, could have lasted the whole trip if I hadn’t kept using cash to top up our Welcome Suica cards. But you live and learn, well at least I try too.
With everything prepared, bookings made, a detailed YouTube Japan travel guidance playlist, and personal Google Spreadsheet itinerary I was excited to finally set foot on the land of the rising sun.
After all this time waiting to make the trip, and now planning for it, would it be everything I’d hoped for?
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