Fantastic report, fourfortravel. I'm planning a trip to Japan in January, 2009 and this info was very helpful.

Would you mind providing the name of the ryokan near Ueno Park, as well as contact info for the calligraphy/origami lesson in Kyoto?

Therese,

Sure! The ryokan website is http://www.japaneseguesthouses.com/index.htm . We stayed at the Yamanaka ryokan.

The calligraphy lessons were arranged through the Women's Association of Kyoto (WAK). Their website is http://www.wakjapan.com

Thanks!

Can I ask roughly what the cost of your trip was, excluding airfare? I have looked into going to Japan with my kids (and husband), but the budget always winds up too high, so we choose somewhere else.

Thanks for posting.

poutine,

not sure if this is relevant or not but we spent 2weeks last summer in Japan with 2 young kids.

JPY48,500 for rental car
(from ToCoo, for 1 week out of Tokyo)
JPY 13,000 highway tolls, petrol
JPY 7,000 train, taxi
JPY190,000 accomodation
(4 different places over 13 nights, 4 of which incl breakfast)
JPY 30,000 food (mainly self-catering)
JPY 22,000 various attractions
JPY 22,000 various gifts/shopping

Compared to other major cities like NY or London or even some popular beach resorts, I didn't particularly find hotels in Japan to be that expensive, esp if you get a plan that includes buffet-style breakfast. (Then again, we live in high-cost London...) We aimed for JPY10,000-15,000 per night (only one room as our kids are quite young though we checked the room sizes to make sure it's large enough to have two beds).

Probably transportation costs would be lower if you use JR pass. On the other hand, you'll probably spend more on foods if not self-catering (though JPY1000 for lunch and JPY3000 for dinner seem adequate). Small things like temple visits in Kyoto (JPY300-500 per person per visit) may add up.

Lodging Total: $1752
Tokyo Apartment (4 nights): $700
A small apartment, but since we spent little time in there it didn’t matter much.
Kyoto House (5 nights): $625
The loveliest accommodations of our trip.
Ryokan (1 night): $400
A bare bones ryokan—no onsen, no garden, but a welcoming place with delicious food. The rooms were spartan, but clean, quiet and comfortable.

Transportation Total: $1152
Narita Express (arrival to apartment): N’Ex Suica card $105. The card contained additional train fare; plus, we recharged as needed on the Tokyo subway.
Tokyo subway: $120
Seven Day JR Passes: $783 (2 adult, 2 children)
Kyoto Bus Passes: $144 (unlimited daily travel for 4 days)

Food:
W9London, I’d love to know your food-budget secrets! Did you really only spend about $25 per day on food? We came closer to about $40 per day, not counting the occasional stop for a sweet or a cup of tea. Then again, I'm feeding an 11 year-old boy...

Attractions:
The highest cost attractions were the calligraphy and origami lessons; the total on that was $140. Not all temples and shrines charged admission, but those that did averaged between $3-$5 per adult, with the children’s cost being either half or no-fare. The rental phone cost $50 for the 8 days we rented it.

We budgeted $5000 (not counting airfare, since DH’s was paid for and we had enough FFpoints to cover 2 of the remaining 3 tickets), and definitely came in under that amount.

Thank you both W9London and fourfortravel for answering my question.

So, it's me! I am going back to the drawing board and do a better job researching. You hear that Japan is so expensive, but then Europe is also (relatively) expensive to travel with four, and we have managed to do so three times in the past two years. I am used to looking at hotels, not apartments, and since the majority seem to be designed for a max of two people, I was budgeting two rooms per night.

fourfortravel, which vrbo's did you choose for Kyoto and Tokyo?

Thank you both once again.

poutine,

The Tokyo vrbo was
http://www.vrbo.com/71100

and the Kyoto one was
http://www.vrbo.com/144950