• Japan Through My Eyes
• Japan - No Problem
• Travels to the South: A Trip to the Other Japan
• Omiyage - Art of Gift Giving
• Ukiyoe: "The Floating World" Revealed
• Seto: Japan's Porcelain City

My Daughter and I

by B. Burger

My 5-year-old daughter is a great traveler and loves sushi. I loved my previous trip to Japan, so I decided to take her there without my wife and younger, considerably less easy, son. Our goal was mainly to soak up the atmosphere and not aggressively sightsee, however we did always have a destination in mind to keep things interesting.

We spent 6 days in Tokyo with the middle 3 days in Nikko. I wouldn't recommend that for a first-time visitor, but I'd been to other parts of Japan before, there is plenty to do in and around Tokyo, and I wanted to minimize travel time. Nonetheless I perhaps should have looked for additional places to stay in the direction of Nikko. While we had lots of fun in Tokyo, the many subway rides got a bit old.

TOKYO
One clear highlight was our ryokan, Homeikan. Very friendly and authentic, conveniently located in a pleasant residential neighborhood near the Kasuga train station. The optional breakfast and dinner were superb, there is a beautiful garden that you can walk or sit in, and there is a nice private family bath as well as shared men's and women's baths. There are several small restaurants that are near the station, and, most exciting for my daughter, are about 15 beverage vending machines during the 5-minute walk. We also enjoyed several random walks in the neighborhood. While I normally avoid the expensive Japanese taxis, we took several taxis between Homeikan and Ueno when we had our bags or when she got tired at night, since there is no good train route; the fare averaged under 1000 yen.

We did Tsukiji Fish Market the first morning, and while my daughter was intimidated by the frenzy (especially the motorized frenzy we walked through to get there), she still had some fun and I consider this an essential part of Japan for foodies. Her highlight was shopping for snacks in the outer market. Since we each had only one pair of shoes on the trip, I brought plastic bags and rubber bands to double-wrap each of our feet; this kept our shoes clean.

The toy store I chose was Hakuhinkan Toy Park. While most of the items aren't especially Japanese, the place is enormous and we did buy polyester kid kimonos (also found for the same price at Narita airport) and jigsaw puzzles with interesting Japanese scenes. Lots of Hello Kitty stuff, too. We also visited Bingoya, a lovely Japanese folk-craft shop, but they didn't have many toys of interest to a kid.

Seeking an exciting amusement park but unwilling to confuse Japanese culture with Disneyland, we went to Toshimaen, the oldest amusement park in Tokyo. Several new rides were quite good and since it was an off-season weekday, there was nothing close to a line. The play structure, while a bit dilapidated, was great fun for her.

My daughter liked the Fukagawa Edo Museum more than I expected. It's an authentic recreation of a 19th-century Japanese village. It's small and indoors, unlike such exhibits in some countries, but she still enjoyed it a lot. We had a great time in 2 gardens, one by Korakuen and the other by Kiyosumi-Shirakawa train station (near Fukagawa Edo Museum). We wished we'd brought a nice picnic. Ueno Park was fun, too. We enjoyed watching and buying from the dozens of street food vendors at the south end of the lake. Great people-watching too.

NIKKO
A couple of comments on the train to and from Nikko. While the Tobu Nikko line from Asakusa is more convenient if you have your choice of where in Tokyo to start from, JR (without the expensive shinkansen option) is more flexible since you can start from several places in Tokyo. We started near Ueno and ended near Shibuya, so it ended up being easier to take JR both ways. Also, the regular JR trains don't require reservations, and kids under 6 are free.

We stayed at the Turtle Inn, well-documented in any guidebook. Very friendly and fairly modern, but not completely authentic; the toilets were all western, you can wear street shoes in the halls, and breakfasts are western style. On the other hand, we appreciated amenities like the washer/dryer and internet service. The price is right, and I'd happily stay there again.

Tosho-gu (Shrine) was great, of course. Plenty to interest my daughter. There was a nice, extremely friendly restaurant just before the entrance. But the highlight of Nikko was a 3 km hike from the Turtle Inn to a rotenburo (outdoor hot spring) on the edge of town. I don't know the name of the place but it was quite elaborate. They have very nice baths indoors and outdoors, locker facilities, and an excellent restaurant. Since it's out of the way, we sprung for a pricey taxi ride back.

We took a day trip to (Lake) Chuzenji-ko. The lake and waterfall were beautiful. We couldn't hike much at the top (in early April) because there was still too much snow; indeed, there was some snow in town. But we enjoyed walking around town, shopping at a crafts shop, and pedaling a duck-boat on the lake. The highlight for my daughter was seeing monkeys playing in the fields and on the buildings in town.