2026 Japan 2nd trip Part 1 Tokyo

 Japan 2

AB's work sent him to Japan for 2 weeks so W and I tagged along! And then we extended it another 2 weeks. J got to spend quality time with grandparents in Seattle :D  It was very nice not to have a hurried schedule and to go wherever we wanted!

App for transit: Japan Travel-Trip, Transit&Rail. 

App for bullet train Shinkansen: SmartEx

App for taxi: GO / Taxi app for Japan visit

App for restaurants: Tabelog (even 3 stars are good)

App for tickets: Klook

Day 1 9/28/26 Mon

Mitsui Garden hotel Ometachi: a little far from fun things, but Ab's work covered it, so it was very nice. 

Day 2 9/29/26 Tue

TeamLabs Borderless. 

Light Art Show. Very cool way of using light to create art. Hanging pointilism lights (can choose your own element): 

W favorite was microcosmos (jelly filled balls on rails) and sketch fish (sketch and then sent to display with everyone else's fish). Funny that both AB and W picked jellyfish and they colored it exactly the same way (multicolored stripes). I drew a turtle with baby turtles. 

The fish will all swim and wiggle

Also hanging balls of light very pretty. 

W was very fascinated by the balls of jelly light on rails:

W had fun in the hill room bc of the disappearing characters and following lights.

 

Interactive lights (fish will scatter, flower animals will shed flowers, butterflies die). 

Zojo-ji Temple and Tokyo Tower

Tempura at Azabudai Hills. Went to Zojo-ji temple with Tokyo Tower background.

Tokyo Tower

Ate Sushiro: screen conveyer belt sushi. Ate too much! 

Day 3 9/30/26 Wed

Senso ji temple 

This temple has a huge lantern in the front gate. It was so crowded. 

Sumida aquarium at Tokyo Skytree. 

Didn't go up Tokyo Skytree because we already did last trip. 

Garden eel feeding so fun to watch and penguin feeding. Pretty small aquarium. Relaxing jellyfish. 

Garden eels so crazy looking

Tobu Train Museum (free!)

Simulations of driving a real train or model train (very fun for W). Also controlling model trains like Spacia X that we are going to go on next week. See Steam train, trolley, electric train. 

Soranoira Nippon

Dinner at Tokyo ramen Street at Tokyo station (which is like an airport btw). I guess 6p was early for dinner? So we didn't have a line. Apparently people work so late so dinner rush hour is more like 7p.

So hard to find anything in Tokyo station. Very massive and restricted where can go bc of gates to go into train platform. 

Day 4 10/1/26 Thur

Great breakfasts every morning from hotel.

Shinjuku Gyeon National Garden

Mosquitos. A lot pf people. Flowers not right season, but still peaceful

No flowers in rose garden :(

Shinjuku golden gai

Just a drinking place that's dead during day

Omoide Yokocho Memory Lane

Had lunch: pork belly, goza, edemame. Right next to huge train convergence so w had so much fun watching trains

Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building (free)

Ab went to north tower: Olympic torches. We went to south: piano that anyone can play

Meiji jingu

One of the famous temples with a very large wooded space. So many mosquitos. 

Day 5 10/2/26 Fri

Fire museum (free): 

One of the best museums for 5 year old boys. Fun simulation helicopter and fire truck rides. Scan your drawn ambulance in. All about fires in Japan. And small souvenir if you answer small quiz/survey.

Helicopter simulator was really cool!

Fire fighting simulator where you drive to the fire and then put out fires

Can color an ambulance and scan it into the screen

Toy Museum

Get to play all kinds of different toys. W really enjoyed it

Kitte Garden Observation Deck on 6th floor (free)

Food basement or lower floors. W watched trains forever because you can see Tokyo Station.

D6 10/3/26 Sat

Imperial palace gardens

Yurikamome Train

Rode fun driverless Yurikamome train. Can sit at front and view Rainbow bridge on way to Odaiba island

Teamlabs Planet

Water, athletics, garden, and open air exhibits. Very interactive and fun. Can probably spend entire day there. W very fascinated by the little people exhibit. 

Pointillism hanging lights

Literal water with projection fish that turn into flowers when "touched"

Balls that produce sound and change color when tapped

Musical lit stones

Balance stepping course with sounds when you step on them

My Halloween dolphin and W's plane that he colored and scanned in (it'll fly away)

Hanging garden of orchids that move up when you get close

D7 10/3/26 Sun

Kamakura (1 hour train from Tokyo)

Kotoku-in temple

Large buddha. Go inside for small fee. Was enhoused in a gigantic hall but got it got destroyed and washed away 4 times so they decided to keep it open air. Supposed to sit on throne of lotus petals but budget only allowed 4 lotus petals which are displayed in back. Names of donors the petals. 

Can go inside the giant Buddha for small fee

Hase dera temple and caves

You're supposed to be able to a figure that's like you among the thousands

Osmanthus orange flowers smell great

In the temple there is an 11-head (diff expressions) buddha statue - represents that it sees different people and all their different emotions

The story is that there were 2 identical logs in Nara. One was carved into a statue in Nara and the other was sent into the ocean. The wood floated all the way from Nara to Kamakura and so it was destined to have the wood carved into a statue here and a temple built here.  

Caves: buddha of water, wealth, music and 16 child assistants.

Beach

So many beautiful seashells. Fun to watch people cross a small stream.

Day 8 10/5/26 Mon

Koishikawa Korakuen Gardens

Asabono indoor children museum

Tokyo city dome amusement park

Waterworks museum (free)

Can see how they got water to Tokyo city during the Edo period (wooden pipes)

Origami museum (free): 

170 year hand dying tradition. 

Day 9 10/6/26 Tue

Sumo training at sumo stables:

Tokyo Zoo

Sadly they had just given pandas back to China in Jan :(

Funny that W spent most time watching these naked mole rats. This is their bedroom and they have a queen and male maters and workers like an ant colony

W also watched these dwarf mongoose forever. So playful

Pretty cool to see Aye Ayes and red pandas!

Did a fun guinea pig encounter

Zoo was quite big with 2 separate areas, so it was pretty tiring to walk from 1 to the other. But it was so cheap! 600 yen!

Day 10 10/7/26 Wed 

Nikko

About 2 hours away from Tokyo. So many options: Nikko All Area pass vs Yumoto Pass... I purchased the Yumoto Pass but maybe the all area pass would have been better because we did so much?

Took Spacia X luxury express train from Tokyo to Nikko (2 hours).

Then bus from Nikko up to Lake Chuzenji Onsen Bus Terminal.

Hangetsu Observation Deck

11:10am took limited bus to Hangetsu Mountain (this bus only goes up 4 times in the day!).

Hiked 30 minutes 0.6km to observation tower from parking lot. Quite a steep hike, but W did great!

3:40p last bus back (We took 1:40p).→ Chuzenji onsen terminal #26

Kegon Falls 

Elevator down for a fee.

Cruise Tour of Chuzenji Lake

Chuzenji Temple 

Great view of the lake

330p Nikko bean hotel 

Ate delicious set meal including grilled lake fish and yuba (tofu skin) - specialty of Nikko

Didn't the realize the hotel only houses 6 people total, so the chef/owner was able to attend to our needs. For example even though I didn't order a meal for W, the chef still gave him a bowl of rice, veggie mushroom miso soup, and dessert. 

Day 11 10/8/26 Thur Nikko Day 2

Chuzenji →Senjogahara → Yudaki Falls → Lake Yunoko/Yumoto → Tobu-Nikko → Tokyo

Senjogahara Marshland:

The River & Forest (Yugawa): After crossing the main marsh via the Aoki-bashi bridge, the path ducks into a shaded forest of Japanese oak and white birch. From here, you will closely follow the beautiful, winding streams of the Yugawa River.

Boardwalk almost the entire way. Good job W for walking 1.5 hours to Yudaki Falls! Mostly flat.

 Mount Nantai in back

We made it to Yudaki Falls!

Anyo-no-yu free footbath

Nikko Yumoto Onsen 

Y500 adult/300 child  - it was very hot

Stone lamps on the way to Nikko Onsenji

Face flushed after extremely hot onsen (tip: put cold water in it). It was me and some old japanese ladies haha.

Yumoto Lake

~2:00–2:30 — Bus from Yumoto → Tobu-Nikko

~3:30–4:00 — Arrive Nikko Tosho-gu Shrine

Most ornate shrine in Japan

Original hear no evil, speak no evil, see no evil to teach kids how to live a good life

Look how ornate this is!! Gold everywhere!

Chinese door with dragons

Mausoleum: A stone staircase (208 steps) leads up through the woods to the quiet, dignified tomb of Tokugawa Ieyasu (first shogun, one of Japan's three great unifiers) - not every impressive. 

Stop #7 Shinkyo bridge

Train back to Tokyo

5:44p Spacia X train

Need to book in advance

Day 12 10/9/26 Fri

Ride high automatic metro U line:

We rode 3 times. W loved it.

Tokyo Big Sight

Convention center with cool architecture:

Water Museum (free)

Went to water science museum briefly, some interesting interactive water exhibits. Small water play area on 1st floor.

Japan imperial palace: 

Disappointing overall because it was sooooo crowded. There was a tour that we booked 1 month in advance but when we got there, there was 1 guide with maybe 100 people in the tour. There were also other tour guides with other languages spaced a few 100 meters apart. Didnt get to go in the palace, just saw the palace grounds. It was hard to hear the guide and her accent was strong so hard to understand. Also she was short so hard to see. 

Palace itself was very minimalist

3D cat billboard

Impressive how realistic it looked