We toured Japan from 23 Nov to 01 Dec 2024 (Autumn Season) for 7 days 6 nights with 2 children (16 yrs old & 9 yrs old). Here’s a summary of our Tokyo, Fujikawaguchiko Itinerary. The Airline we took was Scoot Airlines and the flight hours was about 7 hours.
We visited 2 main locations: Tokyo, Fujikawaguchiko and a total of 12 places. Our Accommodations were Sheraton Grande Tokyo Bay Hotel, Hotel Regina Kawaguchiko and Hotel Wing International Ikebukuro
What We Achieved for Our Third Japan Family Trip to Tokyo | Fujikawaguchiko :
- Took a ropeway and viewed Mt.Fuji in close up.
- Interacted with the beautiful installations in Teamlab Planets.
- Visited Tokyo Disneyland and Tokyo Disneysea for the first time.
- Took the Disney monorail.
- The most theme park rides we had ever taken in a trip.
- Climbed up to Chureito pagoda and captured the famous autumn scenery against Mt.Fuji picture.
- Paddled a swan boat in Lake Kawaguchiko.
- The children ate Kaiseiki dinner for the first time. (We ate it before in a Hakone Ryokan)
- Viewed a Sand art musical performance.
- Watched a musical water fountain.
- Heard a musical performance from an automatic musical French fairground organ from 1905.
- Ate at Sanrio Cafe.
- Visited the Warner Bros. Studio Tour Tokyo – The Making of Harry Potter Exhibition in Nerima Ward (This was based in London and they brought it over).
- Stayed and explored Ikebukuro for the first time.
7-DAY FAMILY TRAVEL ITINERARY FOR TOKYO | KAWAGUCHIKO
DAY 1 – Tokyo
- Flight to Tokyo Narita Airport
- Purchase Keisei Airliner tickets at Narita Airport for last day [ took train transport for our train enthusiast]
- Took Airport Limousine Bus to Sheraton Grande Tokyo Bay Hotel
- Checked in Sheraton Grande Tokyo Bay Hotel to secure room first – left luggage with counter.
- Visited Teamlab Planets Tokyo
- Lunch and shopping at Shibuya – Hello Kitty Store in MAGNET by SHIBUYA109/ 7-storeys Don Quijote / Model Train shop – Imon
- Top-up ICOCA Cards in Shibuya metro station.
- Buffet dinner back in Sheraton Grande Tokyo Bay Hotel (included with room)
DAY 2 – Tokyo Disneyland
- Morning Buffet Breakfast.
- Buy 2-Day Pass for Disney Monorail at Bayside station.
- Took Disney monorail from Bayside station to the Tokyo Disneyland Station using Day Passes
- Took rides in Tokyo Disneyland
- Booked lunch for Grandma Sara’s Kitchen through the Disney app so we could go at the timing and no need to queue.
- Watched: Mickey’s PhilharMagic show
- Buffet dinner back in Sheraton Grande Tokyo Bay Hotel (inclusive with room)
DAY 3 – Tokyo Disneysea
- Morning Buffet Breakfast
- Took Disney monorail from Bayside station to the Tokyo DisneySea Station using Day Passes
- Took rides in Tokyo Disneysea and ate lunch there.
- Watched show at Big Band Broadway
- Acquired Rapunzel’s Lantern Festival night access for Fantasy Spring (we booked a pass for it the moment we entered on Disney app) instead of the Anna and Elsa’s Frozen Journey [did not get…sob]. The booking ensured we go in at a specific “booked” time at 7pm. [ NOTE: This was last year when it was still newly opened and we needed to book to get in. Now it is a paid access to take the ride fast – “Disney Premier Access”. Alternatively, you can just walk up to queue in line with long wait times.]
- Watched Fireworks which came from Disneyland.
- Buffet dinner back in Sheraton Grande Tokyo Bay Hotel (inclusive with room)
DAY 4 – Tokyo to Fujikawaguchiko
- Morning Buffet Breakfast and checkout
- Took tourist shuttle bus from Shibuya mark city to Fujikawaguchiko resort town.
- Collected booked Hertz car at Toyota Rent-A-Car Kawaguchiko.
- Drove to Lunch at Sushiro – delicious sushi that comes to you on a conveyor belt after ordering.
- Checked in Hotel Regina Kawaguchiko
- Visited Fujisan World Heritage Center – information on Mt. Fuji and its history
- Ate Kaiseiki dinner (multi-course Japanese dinner) in Hotel Regina Kawaguchiko (inclusive with room)
DAY 5 -Fujikawaguchiko
- Morning Buffet Breakfast
- Took the Mt. Fuji Paranomic Ropeway (Kachi Kachi Ropeway) up Mt. Tenjo to observe Mt. Fuji in close-up and take many pictures.
- Hiked up a while to the shrine on Mt. Tenjo
- Lunch in Ramen Fukuchan in Fujikawaguchiko – to try ramen.
- Explore Kawaguchiko music forest museum and watched three musical performances. The Sand Art musical of the Pinocchio story was an eye-opener!
DAY 6 – Fujikawaguchiko
- Explore Oishi Park with its nice garden and children’s playground – view of Mt. Fuji and autumn leaves.
- Explore Arakura Sengen Shrine and Chureito Pagoda – to take Mt. Fuji with pagoda picture
- Swan boating on Lake Kawaguchiko – scenic boating
- Walked at Momiji tunnel to take some autumn leaves pictures.
- Visited a Japanese village – Oshino Hakkai (village) with eight ponds
DAY 7 – Tokyo Ikebukuro
- Took tourist bus back to Shibuya Mark City and made our way to Ikebukuro via Tokyo metro.
- Checked in Hotel Wing International Ikebukuro.
- Ate at Sanrio Cafe in Sunshine City Ikebukuro. [should have just takeaway as we wasted too much time here and did not get to shop]
- Visited the Warner Bros. Studio Tour Tokyo – The Making of Harry Potter Exhibition in Nerima Ward (until 12 Jan 2026)
- Ate dinner in Sunshine City in Ikebukuro.
DAY 8 – Tokyo (Morning Back to Singapore)
- Early morning checkout from hotel at 4:45AM
- Took a 30-mins taxi ride to Nippori Station.
- Took the Keisei Skyliner to the Airport [ for Dar, fulfilling his wish to take train transport]
- Reached airport at 7am – 9am flight back to Singapore.
Time
Tokyo Time is 1 hour faster than Singapore (e.g. 1pm SGT is 2pm Tokyo Time)
Exploring in Cold Weather in Japan – Clothing Needs
The autumn weather was cold in Japan Tokyo and Fujikawaguchiko with temperature at 10-13 degrees Celsius and we are not so tolerant of low temperatures. In the early morning, it was even just 5 to 6 degrees Celsius in Fujikawaguchiko. Therefore, we wore around 2 layers (sweater plus downcoat) with thermal top and bottom underwear (heat tech).
The weather was mostly good for the entire trip and we only experienced light rain in Disneyland in the afternoon. Do always remember to bring an umbrella around while travelling during this period and wear waterproof shoes if possible.
I also needed gloves when we were high up in Mt. Tenjo as it was colder there with the wind early in the morning. It would be helpful to buy some skin moisturiser products for hands and legs as my girl encountered itchy skin rashes after wearing warm clothing. I feel it was because of the heat tech as when I changed to other brand of thermal wear for my girl, the itchiness on her skin stopped. I would have to switch to other brands of thermal wear next trip.
Bus to Fujikawaguchiko From Tokyo
We took thetourist bus number 2023 from highway bus company which departs at 10.30am on the Shibuya – Kawaguchiko Line. and reached Kawaguchiko Station at 1.32pm.
It took a while for us to find the bus terminal as we took a taxi directly from our hotel to Shibuya Mark City (a department store). The taxi driver dropped us outside Keio Inokashira Line station with Daiso near it. We thought we were early and the bus terminal was easy to find so we even went Daiso to do a quick shopping of some insoles for our tired feet.
Alas, we only found a sign indicating “Departure for Highway Bus” after walking along the street. From Avenue Exit, we proceeded up the stairs on the right to take an elevator to the 5th floor. Time was ticking by and we kept walking in circles on the 5th Floor itself. We even walked past a huge bus once and I noted some people loading luggage onto it. After we confirmed with someone that the area was the only boarding place, we were already on the other end of the 5th floor. We then made a mad dash for it with our luggage just in time! The highway bus was a comfortable smooth ride and there was even a tiny toilet on board which my girl used.
Fare: 2100 yen each (as of Nov 2024)
Website: https://www.highwaybus.com/gp/inbound/index?lang=EN
Rental Car in Fujikawaguchiko
I thought we would have more flexibility in getting around in Fujikawaguchiko if we do not need to wait for bus at certain timings. We saw long queues at the bus terminals waiting for the bus to bring them to the Mt.Fuji Panoramic Ropeway and long queues again when they all alighted at the same time around noon.
Therefore, we rented a car in the resort town the moment we dropped off from the tourist shuttle bus we took from Shibuya Mark City. It was an easy process at Toyota Rent-A-Car to collect the car we had booked beforehand on Klook website and we had a comfortable driving experience in Fujikawaguchiko where there were not many cars. It was so convenient to stop where and when we wanted. Read more details about Car Renting in a post that Vin wrote.
Travelling with a 9-yr-old and a 16-yr-old in Japan Tokyo / Fujikawaguchiko
*This was their 2nd time to mainland Japan. First time to Japan was our 8 Days in Okinawa Island. This was our third trip to Japan mainland.
9 year old – My girl is becoming more independent now and would voice her likes. She developed an interest in Sanrio characters all of a sudden. Previously, she was more into Frozen Elsa, Sylvanian families and Licca dolls which we bought on her first trip to Japan in 2022.
Nature / Historical / Transport Itinerary changed to Shopping / Theme Parks
For each trip as she grew older, she is shopping more while in the past, we usually avoid shopping malls and go for historical/nature places. To indulge her, our family itinerary had totally changed because of her to include shopping malls. (I believe there is no use forcing someone to go somewhere they are not interested in so we compromised and everyone is satisfied). Fortunately, she is still interested in hiking in nature and exploring nature places so she did not mind walking around in the resort town Fujikawaguchiko.
I thought she would like theme parks and included Disneyland and DisneySea into our itinerary because of Frozen/Elsa [ We only manage to get “Rapunzel” in the end T_T ]. Dar was not fond of theme park rides when young so we seldom go theme parks and I discovered that she was just like her brother, fearful of thrilling theme park rides. She was upset when taking The Journey to the center of the Earth ride in DisneySea. Fortunately, the other normal slow rides, delicious different flavoured pop corns and the lovely playground in the Little Mermaid area calmed her nerves down.
Shopping Craze – Interest in Blind Boxes and Gachapon
She went shopping happy and grabbed lots of Sanrio merchandise from the Hello Kitty store in MAGNET by SHIBUYA109 [and made me pay $$]. She had discovered gachapon machines in Japan in 2022 but we did not buy much then. Now, she kept wanting to turn the knob on the gachapon machines the moment we saw them. There were some cute Sanrio characters in the toy capsules so I agreed since it was reasonable pricing that we would not be able to get in Singapore ( 200 to 500 Yen around SGD$1.70-4) In Singapore, gachapon with characters costs around SGD$6 .
She also bought several character figurine blind boxes and cute Japanese stationeries in Don Quijote. We would have ended up shopping more in Sunshine City on the last day if the stores were not closed by time we finished the Harry Potter exhibition. She left with some regret because of this and vowed to get more on our next trip [o_o”]. This Tokyo trip started her interest in blind boxes and we ended up buying lots in our 2025 China Xi’an trip which was so much cheaper than in Japan [made in China compared to made in Japan – licensed Sanrio merchandise].
No Transport Itinerary This Trip
16 year old – This was Dar’s second trip to Mainland Japan and was a trip to commemorate his graduation from 4 years of secondary school. He fulfilled his wish to purchase Japanese model trains and some rail tracks. They were very expensive but he paid himself with his savings. This time, there were only a few metro rides throughout and no Shinkansen for him to take. We took more taxi rides but saved lots of time. Thus, we specially took Keisei Skyliner high-speed airport express train for him back to Tokyo Narita Airport on the last day.
Food
Japanese food is our favourite and for this trip, we spent lots on food and tried different types of Japanese food. We tried Sushi on conveyor belt in Shibuya and Fujikawaguchiko, Ramen in Fujikawaguchiko, Kaiseki dinner in Hotel Regina Kawaguchiko, International buffet dinner in Sheraton Grande Tokyo Bay Hotel and Sanrio Characters- themed Lunch in Sanrio Cafe Sunshine City. We also tried snacks such as ice-cream on Mt.Fuji Paranomic Ropeway and different flavours of popcorn/ ice-cream in Disneyland. It was the trip we ate the most so far.
Toilet Needs
As usual, Japanese toilets were the cleanest and there were high-tech bidets toilets almost everywhere. There were some squatting toilets in the more rural area of Fujikawaguchiko or metro subways.
Shopping and Souvenirs
I seldom shop for myself now and usually we would just buy a fridge magnet to remember the places we had been. The girl shopped the most during this trip for character figurines. Dar is a big boy now and paid for model trains. He is only interested in transport models or architecture models of places we had been to.
Travel.Snap.Stories 
Leave a comment