I am SO excited to finally start sharing this trip with you.
I’ve been sitting on all of this content trying to figure out how to even begin because there is just so much to say… and I definitely won’t be fitting it all into one post. So I’m going to break this into a few blogs… this one (a general blog about our trip to Japan), then Tokyo, Disney, Kyoto, Okinawa… what we did, what we loved, what I wouldn’t do again… all of it.
But I wanted to start here… because honestly, this trip almost didn’t happen.
The Honeymoon That Almost Didn’t Happen
Japan was always something Justin and I had talked about for our honeymoon. Our family LOVES the Japanese culture, food and people, and little Leo has been asking about Japan for a LONG time… but after our wedding back in August we hit a bit of a wall. We were so burnt out, we definitely overspent on the wedding (like 3x budget lol), the kids were back in school, and the idea of planning a big international trip… especially somewhere that felt far, unfamiliar, and with a language barrier… just felt like too much.
And then there was the flight.
In my head, our honeymoon always looked like lie-flat seats, relaxing, easy… and when we priced that out for four people it was just not happening. So, I kind of just put the whole idea on hold.
From Hawaii to Mexico to Japan: How This Trip Came Together
That’s when we pivoted to Hawaii… it felt easy, familiar, Justin’s parents are there to watch the kids while we did proper honeymoon things (boom shaklaka boom hahaha), we have wonderful family like friends there… it just made sense at the time.
But, I’ll be completely honest… things started to feel a little heavy. I’ve shared a bit about this on my Instagram, but the political climate between Canada and the U.S. started to affect not just how I felt, but also our business. Admittedly, I had gotten a lot of pressure from my audience about my decisions to travel south, and at first, I just didn’t align with that perspective…. I guess everyone has their own threshold with that kind of thing… and at some point, mine just kind of hit. I could open a whole can of worms here but I will just leave it at that for now.
So we pivoted again and booked Mexico with Tori and Charles. Fun for the whole family, hopefully Aunt and Uncle to watch the kids for a night or two (remember the whole honeymoon thing lol). But as soon as we booked I just did not have the excitement… I started looking closer at pricing and was honestly shocked at how expensive it was. And then with everything happening there at the time, I just had this gut feeling like… shit… this isn’t the right trip either.
So we cancelled again.
We were sitting there like… are we just staying home in Kelowna for spring break? Which of course would be great – we could take the kids skiing up at Big White, spend downtime at home… but it just wasn’t the plan we were dreaming of.
About ten days before spring break, Justin and I looked at each other and said… let’s just do it. Let’s go back to square one: Japan.
No overthinking. No spiralling. We just did it. And honestly… best decision ever.
Flight Experience: Is Premium Economy Worth It for Japan?
I didn’t get my lay flat honeymoon seats, but we ended up flying premium economy with Japan Airlines and I would do that exact same thing again. It felt like the perfect middle ground. The seats were big, they reclined really well, there was a footrest, meals, drinks… all of it.
We actually slept about four hours each, which made such a difference. It’s about a ten hour flight from the west coast, and for some reason I found it smoother than flying to Europe. We landed around 3:30pm feeling a little groggy but honestly pretty good!
I also want to note: nothing on this trip was sponsored or comped. This was our actual honeymoon… so everything I’m sharing is just our real experience.
Our Japan Itinerary: What We Did + What I Would Change
The general itinerary for our Japan trip is something I feel like we really got right. We started high energy, layered in a bit more excitement, and then gave ourselves a reset before continuing… which with kids (and jet lag) mattered so much.
We started in Tokyo for three nights… which was a bit of a shock to the system at first, not gonna lie, but it was such an incredible way to dive in. Then we did Tokyo Disney for 3 nights (2 days) which honestly felt like its own little world within the trip.
After that we went to Hakone for two nights and stayed in a ryokan… this was our “honeymoon” portion. Slower, quieter, more traditional, biggest splurge. We REALLY wanted to stay both nights at this ONE ryokan but they didn’t have availability… so we had to split it up – let’s just say we had one amazing experience and one not so amazing one… which I’ll get into later because there’s a lot to say there lol.
Then we went to Kyoto for four nights (three full days) and it was just so beautiful. Justin and Leo went to watch F1 for one of the days while Annie and I stayed back and explored Kyoto and that ended up being such a special part of the trip.
And then we finished in Okinawa for four nights which was our exhale. Beach, slower pace, tropical vibes… but also way more history than I expected!
I would not change the order of this Japan itinerary… it really worked. Maybe my next career will be a travel agent?? Lol.
Traveling to Japan With Kids: Jet Lag Reality
Let’s talk about JET LAG. I really thought I’d be fine. The way I saw it was… I’m a busy mom, I don’t sleep great at home anyway… I thought I’d power through.
Nope.
Getting there wasn’t terrible, but dinner time for the kids during the first week was the hardest. The kids were done by like 4pm… exhausted, starving, emotional… and of course that’s exactly when we were trying to go out for dinner.
We had this vision of all these amazing restaurants in Japan we wanted to try, and what I didn’t fully realize is that Japan has a serious “wait-in-line” culture. If you don’t have reservations… you’re waiting. Sometimes for a long time.
So picture tired kids, jet lag, starving, standing in line… we definitely had some meltdowns. Ourselves included.
If I could do anything differently, I would plan those first few dinners way better.
Coming home from Japan has honestly been just as hard. We are four days in and kids are still waking up at 1am with broken sleep.
One thing that surprised me… because of jet lag we were waking up so early, but nothing opens early. Coffee shops don’t really open until 9 or 10 and shopping doesn’t open until 11… so those early mornings with kids were actually kind of tricky.
Food in Japan: What We Loved (and What Surprised Us)
If you know our family, you know we’re HUGE foodies, so we were super excited about the Japanese cuisine.
The food in Japan overall was amazing, but also a bit hit or miss. I would say about 60 to 70 percent of our meals were unreal… sushi, udon, teppanyaki… all of it. But there was definitely a solid 30-40% where we honestly didn’t know what we were eating. At first, we were in it and cool with whatever, but over 16 days, I did feel we were all looking for something familiar lol.
All four of us are adventurous eaters… like our kids eat oysters and foie gras… and even they struggled at times.
For those of you asking about gluten-free in Japan… I’m not celiac so I had a bit of flexibility. I definitely had soy sauce and miso soup without overthinking it too much. But I avoided obvious things like bread and pasta and found it actually pretty easy to navigate. Lots of rice, rice noodles… I didn’t feel like I struggled too much.
Where to Stay in Japan With Kids (Hotels vs. Ryokans)
One thing that surprised me traveling as a family of four in Japan is how many hotels don’t allow more than three people per room. Especially with older kids, they’ll often make you book a second room.
Looking back, I would have leaned more into ryokans that have multiple beds… some have three, four, even five twins in one room.
We stayed in a mix of boutique hotels and chain hotels like The Ritz-Carlton and The Westin… and I’ll be honest, the chain hotels were just easier. More accommodating, easier communication, and at the end of a long day it was just nice to come back to something familiar.
If I did it again, I would probably lean more into brands I know like Fairmont Hotels & Resorts, Marriott, Hyatt, or Sheraton… unless you’re doing an Airbnb of course.
Travel Tips: eSIMs & Wifi
For phones/WiFi/eSIMs… I did a ton of research on eSIMs for Japan before we left, but right before we went we checked with our providers.
Justin is with Telus, I’m with Rogers, and we both had roam like home. So we just did nothing… and it worked totally fine for almost the entire trip. The only place we struggled a bit was Disney, but otherwise we had full service.
What to Pack for Japan
Justin and the kids did carry-on and I used a medium sized suitcase… but I probably COULD have done carry on. I probably only wore about 75 percent of what I brought.
A lot of people recommend using luggage forwarding in Japan, but sometimes your bags don’t arrive until the next day and I didn’t love that idea. So we just carried everything ourselves and honestly it was totally fine. There’s so much room on the trains, especially the Shinkansen.
What I did love was using the hotel laundry service. We did it twice… it was about $100 each time which sounds crazy, but it was so worth it. You just send your laundry out and it comes back clean and folded… no laundromat, no wasted time. I would do that again in a heartbeat.
Overall Takeaways
A few things that really stood out to me about Japan… people are just as polite as everyone says. Truly. Everything is so clean… like unbelievably clean. There are barely any garbage cans anywhere which I found so interesting… you basically carry your garbage with you all day. Slightly inconvenient, but also kind of amazing.
The train system in Japan is incredible, but I will say… it’s not the easiest to navigate at first. Even Justin found it tricky with the language barrier.
We went from March 19 to April 4 and just missed peak cherry blossoms in Tokyo and Disney. We caught them at the end in Kyoto which was beautiful, but if I did it again I would push the trip one week later.
Overall… this trip to Japan was incredible. Not always easy, definitely moments of chaos, but such a beautiful, eye-opening experience. You can really feel how much people care… about their country, their surroundings, each other.
It’s really special.
We are already talking about going back… doing Tokyo again, heading north, maybe even snowboarding.
Next up, I’ll share everything we did in Tokyo… exactly what I loved, what I didn’t, and what I would do differently.
If you’ve been to Japan, I would love to know what we missed. And if you’re thinking about going… this is your sign.
xo
Jilly
