First Time in Japan
 

First time traveling to Japan...what do we see? Planning on 4 nights in Tokyo - 3 nights in Kyoto - 3 nights in Osaka. Is it too much or too little? My daughter wants to see Disney Tokyo but what do we do after that? Was thinking about the Bunrako Theater in Osaka and perhaps Kinosaki for the spa. Any suggestions?

Forgot to mention that we will be traveling in April.

It really depends on your interests. You should find a lot of useful information at the following web-stie:

http://www.japan-guide.com

Please come back with more specific questions.

Enjoy!

I went to the National Bunraku Theater last November to see a performance. The whole show is several hours. I bought a ticket for the first act and that was something 90 minutes. That was enough. I was able to rent a headset that explained, in English, what the narrator was saying. It was difficult to follow. I think would have been a good idea to read the story beforehand, if it was available and then see the performance - if you are serious about it.

Bunraku is more than a "puppet show". It is serious theater and not for children. How old is your daughter?

Osaka has a Universal Studios theme park that might be of interest to you. But, there are other places in Japan of more interest to first time visitors.

Nikko, Kanazawa, Takayama, or Hiroshima & Miyajima would be good choices, unless you daughter is too young to visit the memorial museum.

April is cherry blossom time in Japan, so what days in April will you be there?

Kinosaki is has onsen - hot springs. I would hesitate to call it a "spa", if by spa you mean a place with a lot of skin treatments and massages and hot tubs and sauna and steam room. I think you should be able to find that kind of place (the Hilton in Odawara, might have that). But a visit to an Japanese onsen is different from that (and well worth going).

While in Japan, I had really wanted to see a Bunraku performance. The only thing I could find was a 20 minute segment of a tourist-oriented display of various traditional Japanese performance arts at Gion Corner in Kyoto:

http://www.kyoto-gioncorner.com/global/en.html

Note that the "7" performing arts include flower arranging and tea serving (or at least they did when I was there). But the other "5" arts included short, but entertaining, bits of various entertaining Japanese traditions. It's clearly geared to tourists. But I'm a tourist! And I got to see some things I probably wouldn't have seen elsewhere, and I enjoyed myself. In particular, I saw a bit of bunraku. It was the final "act" of the show and lasted about 20 minutes - a time span that allowed the full development and resolution of the depicted story.

I think I would have enjoyed a longer bunraku experience, but I did not feel at all dissatisfied with this performance as an introduction to this ancient art. Instead, I was very glad to have seen a performance that went from start to end in a reasonably intimate setting.

Hope that helps!

Thank you everyone. I guess I should have mentioned that my daughter is over 30 and her husband is also traveling with us. We are arriving in Tokyo on 4/7 and departing Osaka on 4/16. I am hoping to "fulfill" some of my lifelong dreams. I would love to visit Hiroshima - is it difficult to get there from Kyoto?

kja - I have been looking at the site you recommended for the last month or so. I am confused because I feel that Japan will be a very different experience from the one I had in France (I at least speak the language) culturally as well as gastronomically. However, I am really looking forward to the experience.

Is it difficult to communicate?

Does anyone have recommendations for food? I love sushi but have a feeling it's going to be very expensive. I am open to most foods - cannot eat Sea Urchin.

mrwunrfl - thank you for the information regarding the Bunrako. I am thinking a short performance might be in order.

In the movie "Sayonara" (Marlon Brando), they depicted young women who were actresses. Does anyone know of theater that has all women? I'm not sure if they were geishas...

Does anyone know the Shin Miyako in Kyoto or the Hotel Granvia Osaka?

We had a very positive experience at the Granvia in Kyoto, veeolette.

Actually, you might benefit from reading our trip report:

http://www.fodors.com/community/asia...rom-mrmsgo.cfm

It's from April of 2009. And our itinerary was very similar to yours (at least, the first 7 days of it).

Photos here:

http://onelittleworld.zenfolio.com/f434652612

Hope this helps!

Don't know of a theater with all women but this comes close and you should try to see the Miyako Odori if you are in Kyoto this April.

http://www.miyako-odori.jp/odori_en.html

The Granvia hotels are owned by the JR company, the same one that owns the JR trains so most are right at the train stations. The Osaka Granvia is connected to the JR Osaka station in Umeda. Umeda is the upscale shopping district of Osaka but you can easily get to the Namba (Dotombori) area of Osaka (my favorite)in a few minutes on the subway.

http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e4001.html

I have stayed at the Granvia's In Kyoto, Hiroshima and Wakayama but not the one in Osaka. Expect a comfortable room with all the amenities of a 4 star hotel in the US.

I don't find language too much of a barrier as I don't speak Japanese except for a few words and phrases after ten visits to the country. You can read some of my trip reports here on Fodors to get some insight to Japan travel. Most signs are in English and announcements made in the train stations and on the trains are in Japanese and English also. Its nice to know a few basic words like good morning, hello, good bye, thank you, please, etc but you can get along fine without knowing the language. If you have an iphone the app called Jibbigo-Jp is useful but not necessary.

Sea Urchin is called "Uni" in Japanese.

You will be there at peak cherry blossom season so be ready for the crowds and know where to go in the cities you are in to see the best sights. If you have already been perusing the Japan Guide site I am sure you have seen these pages.

http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2164.html

http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2158.html

http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2157.html

http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2011.html

lots of good information for you here just click the topics that interest you

http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e623.html

Have a nice trip!

Aloha!

http://kageki.hankyu.co.jp/english/

Here's information about the Takarazuka Theatre - all female....is that what you meant?

Yes, absolutely go to the Miyako Odori in Kyoto. It is at the top of my list of things to do in Japan.

I think it will be baseball season. There are several teams in Tokyo and one in

Yokohama. There are also teams in Osaka, Kobe, and my team, the Carp, in Hiroshima.

In the movie Sayonara, Gruver fell in love with a Takarazuka actress.

Hirohshima is about 2 hours by shinkansen from Kyoto and about an hour and a half from Osaka. You probably would also want to visit Miyajima.

This JNTO webpage has a lot of good info:
http://www.jnto.go.jp/eng/location/rtg/index.html

The Bunraku Theatre in Osaka is something that I really enjoyed: http://www.osaka-info.jp/en/search/d...eing_1953.html
But then I have also enjoyed kabuki and noh, which many western visitors would find boring.
The all-female Takarazuka Revue is uniquely Japanese and located an easy distance from Osaka by the Hankyu Railway (best RR in Japan!). The actresses are celebrities with huge fan followings.
Depending on your tastes, any of these forms of entertainment would take you into an entirely different world, hardly comparable at all to anything else.
As for baseball, the very best and most exciting team in the Kansai area is the Hanshin Tigers, who are terrifically popular. Again, unlike American baseball, it is thoroughly "Japanized."

Oh, geez, thank you everyone. Yes, Mara and mrwunrfl, that's what I'm looking for! I wouldn't mind seeing some kabuki and noh. The Bunraku Theatre is definitely on. Not into baseball, but both my daughter and son-in-law are...I'll suggest a game to them and see where it goes. They could do that while I do something else...works for me!

I'm really loving Bento.com...I am definitely a "foodie" and have been lost on that site all day. Too bad there are only so many meals a person can eat in 10 days.

Does anyone have a favorite restaurant in Tokyo or Kyoto or Osaka?

PLEASE tell your daughter and SIL to go to see The Hanshin Tigers baseball team play while they are in Osaka, if the team is playing at the Dome then. Once in a lifetime experience for a baseball fan, trust me on this.

Tokyo: LOVE the Sometaro restaurant , very close to Senjosi (which is a must see/experience IMO). At Sometaro (entrance looks like something out of the Hobbit) you take off your shoes when entering and sit on floor in front of a table w/grill in middle. Order items to cook on the grill. This is a homey place. VERY good and totally fun and Japanese. It is down the block from the Drum Museum, which I missed going to as it was closed when I treid to go. Go to the Drum Museum too..

P.S. The Miyako Odori, which I attended w/my teenage daughter and mrwunrfl (who happened to be in Kyotot same time as us) was WONDERFUL. Awe inspiring. DO NOT MISS. Get tickets as far ahead as possible, right now, before you go to Kyoto.

The baseball schedule is available online...

GO TO HIROSHIMA. And as suggested, take the ferry over to Miyajima that day after seeing the Peace Park. And leave Kyoto ( or Osaka) early and stop at Himeji castle in Himeji on the way to Hiroshima! This is very easy to do.

And as you are in the train station in Hiroshimageting ready to go back to Kyoto or Osaka, go downstairs into the basement of the train station. There is a grocery store down there. JUST OUTSIDE the entrance to the grocery store (if you were exiting the grocery store, look to your left) is the most WONDERFUL counter restaurant w/a man and his wife who make the best okonomiyaki. DEFINITELY have okonomiyaki in Hiroshima, and trust me, that place is just mind blowing it is so good and fresh, and the couple running it are very friendly.

That is pretty much a perfect day , IMO.

My 18 year old son and I thoroughly enjoyed our trip to Japan last summer and we hope to return someday. We did go see the Seibu Lions play the Hanshin Tigers. It was one of the best baseball games we have ever seen. Even if you don't like baseball you should go. The fan participation is so much more than any place/sport we have ever seen!

Thank you everyone! I am becoming more excited everyday. I received my E-tickets today. I love all the tips...we are going to try to do each of them.

I have asked our travel agent to make reservations for the Miyako Odori - just the kind of thing I want to experience - emd3, thanks for that tip.

emd3, I will definitely try Sometaro restaurant...we are also going to try Mondo. While in Kyoto, I am going to try and send DD and SIL to the ball game while I go to Hiroshima. Hiroshima is one of my desires because I am a post-war brat. I feel a definite pull toward it.

Has anyone tried any of the "game" restaurants in Tokyo? ie, Momonja, La Chasse, or A Ta Gueule? I have wanted to try wild boar for years and this looks like a good opportunity.

I so appreciate all your advise. If anyone thinks of anything else, please tell me!