Dec 14 – 29, 2026 · Updates on 9/21/2026
Fifteen nights, three hotels, one direction of travel. Kyoto does the whole of Kansai as day trips, Nagoya is a free stop on the line east, and Tokyo gets a full week with DisneySea on the last good day before the New Year crush.
Waiting for Nintendo Museum lottery results on October 1.
The museum closes Tuesdays, which rules out Dec 15. Eligible days are now Dec 16, 17, 18 and 19. Applied for Thursday Dec 17 and Friday Dec 18 — two weekdays, best odds, and the Saturday avoided.
Three hotels for fifteen nights. Kyoto reaches Nara, Uji, Osaka and Fushimi Inari as day trips; Nagoya sits directly on the Kyoto–Tokyo line, so it costs no detour at all.
DisneySea lands on Wednesday Dec 23. Crowds go vertical from Dec 25 through the first week of January — the 23rd is an ordinary weekday and the last clean day available to you. That single constraint is why Tokyo starts on the 22nd.
No ryokan, no Fuji day, no Universal. All three were cut deliberately, and the plan is tighter for it: nothing left in here is a compromise attraction.
Wheels down 7:10 PM at Terminal 1. Immigration and bags about 45 minutes, then the JR Haruka runs direct to Kyoto in roughly 80 minutes. In the room around a quarter past ten.
With Universal gone there's nothing to sleep in Osaka for — going straight through saves a whole hotel. Book somewhere with a 24-hour front desk; plenty of smaller Kyoto machiya stop taking arrivals at nine.
Kiyomizu-dera opens at 6:00 — one of the very few Kyoto temples that early, and at that hour in December the stilted verandah is nearly yours alone. Walk down through Sannenzaka and Ninenzaka in the empty light, and be at the Starbucks Yasaka Chaya for its 8:00 opening: a hundred-year-old machiya with three tatami rooms upstairs, shoes off, about an hour to enjoy properly.
Then Kōdai-ji, Yasaka Shrine and Maruyama Park at whatever pace survives. Back to the hotel by early afternoon to sleep, out again for dinner in Pontocho.
The dawn start is free: on your second morning eastbound you'll be awake at five whether you like it or not. Use it rather than fighting it — early start and a midday nap is the right jet-lag strategy anyway. The Starbucks has ~50 seats, bans street queueing and stops admitting once the indoor wait area fills, so opening time is the whole trick.
The Arashiyama bamboo grove first thing, with the Iwatayama monkeys on the hill above it. Then ten minutes along the Randen tram to Toei Kyoto Studio Park — a working period-drama backlot with ninja shows, samurai costume rental and a properly frightening haunted house.
Confirm Toei's winter calendar once you're inside 30 days; it has irregular closure days. Also a fallback Nintendo Museum date if the lottery lands here.
Fushimi Inari at first light — the tunnel of vermilion gates is magical empty and miserable by eleven. Then twenty minutes to Uji: Byōdō-in, the Phoenix Hall from the back of the ¥10 coin, and a matcha lunch in the town that made Japan's most famous green tea. Nintendo Museum on an early-afternoon slot.
Give the museum three to four hours. A 14:00 entry gets you out by five or six with the day intact. Ten play coins each and they go fast — spend yours alongside the boys. Head to the reservation desk on arrival if you want the hanafuda Play Room (¥500, 30 min, pairs — perfect for a family of four). At Byōdō-in, the Phoenix Hall interior is a separate ¥300 timed ticket bought at the garden reception from 9:10 — twenty people per slot, every 20 minutes. Claim yours the moment you arrive, then see the garden while you wait.
The Cupnoodles Museum in Ikeda in the morning — free entry, and ¥500 buys each boy a cup he designs, fills and seals himself. Osaka Castle grounds after, then the Umeda Sky Building's open-air rooftop for the 4:50 sunset and down into Dotonbori for neon, the Glico Running Man and takoyaki.
The museum runs 9:30–16:30 and shuts Tuesdays, so Friday works. My CUPNOODLES Factory takes no bookings at all — on busy days you collect a numbered time-slot ticket at the door, and once they're gone they're gone, so go straight there on arrival rather than touring the exhibits first. This is the second lottery target — if your wife wins this date instead, swap the whole day with Dec 17.
Forty-five minutes down from Kyoto. The deer in Nara Park bow for crackers, which does not stop being funny at ten and twelve, and Tōdai-ji houses a bronze Buddha fifteen metres tall inside the largest wooden building most people will ever stand in.
Saturday is fine here — Nara Park is enormous and the deer don't care what day it is. Repack tonight; tomorrow you move.
Kyoto to Nagoya takes barely half an hour. Drop the bags and head to the SCMAGLEV and Railway Park — real maglev trains, a hall of retired shinkansen you can walk through, and driving simulators. Then out to Nabana no Sato for the evening: 30 minutes from Nagoya, ¥2,300, and one of the largest winter illuminations in Japan.
The Railway Park shuts Tuesdays, so Sunday is clean — tickets come from machines at the door, no advance purchase. But the shinkansen driver and conductor simulators run a same-day lottery: tear the stubs off your brochure and drop them in the boxes the moment you walk in, because draws happen at fixed times through the day. The maglev and local-train simulators are first-come, no lottery. Nabana no Sato needs advance date-specified tickets on Dec 23–25 only, so today you can just turn up; ¥2,500–3,200, and it's ¥200 cheaper from a convenience store. Direct bus from the Meitetsu Bus Center, platform 22, 35 minutes. Dress warm — it's an outdoor garden and you'll be there after dark.
Thirty minutes out at the old Expo park. Ghibli's Grand Warehouse, Howl's moving castle, Kiki's bakery, Satsuki and Mei's house — recreated with absurd care.
Tickets go on sale two months ahead on the 10th at 2 PM Japan time — for Dec 21 that's 10 PM on Friday Oct 9 in Los Angeles. First come, no lottery, six per purchase. Monday is a weekday, so weekday pricing applies: Standard ¥9,900 for the four of you, Premium ¥21,900.
Book the 10:00 Grand Warehouse slot — it is the only area with an assigned time, and you may enter up to an hour after it. A later slot is a trap: Mononoke Village and the Valley of Witches must be entered by 16:30 with your whole party, and a 13:00 or 14:00 Warehouse entry eats the afternoon before you get there. Standard is 3–4 hours of content, so a 10:00 start also puts both outdoor areas in daylight — sunset is about 16:45.
Standard covers the Grand Warehouse, Mononoke Village and the Valley of Witches — the two your boys would care about most are in there. Premium adds Dondoko Forest (Satsuki and Mei's house) and Hill of Youth, both smaller and more nostalgic. But some buildings inside the Standard areas carry extra fees, so check what's gated before assuming it's the bargain. And be clear what the whole thing is: not a ride park — walkthrough settings. Ask the boys before you spend either figure. The park closes Tuesdays; confirm the calendar for maintenance dates, which have fallen in early December before.
Into Tokyo by early afternoon. Check in, then out to Sensō-ji — the temple grounds and the Nakamise arcade stay lit long after dark — and up Tokyo Skytree, which runs until ten.
You'll pass Mt Fuji on the right somewhere after Nagoya. December averages 27 clear days out of 31, so keep an eye out — it's the view you'd have gone to Hakone for, free from the window.
An ordinary Wednesday, two days before the crowds go vertical. Gates before opening.
Fantasy Springs — Frozen, Tangled and Peter Pan — needs a Standby Pass or paid Premier Access on top of your ticket, so read up on that before you go rather than at the turnstile. Buy dated tickets the moment Dec 23 opens; late-December dates sell out.
Ameyoko in the morning — the last week of December is when Tokyo buys its New Year seafood, and the market under the railway tracks becomes shouting, bargaining street theatre. Then the National Museum of Nature and Science: dinosaur halls, a blue whale on the forecourt, 9:00–17:00.
Here on a Thursday because the museum closes every Monday and shuts entirely from Dec 28 — the window is narrower than it looks. Admission is ¥630 for adults and free for anyone school-age or younger, so about ¥1,260 for the four of you. Christmas Eve is the hardest dinner booking of the year in Japan: reserve ahead, or lean into the local tradition of fried chicken and strawberry shortcake.
Arcades, retro game floors, Super Potato, and the multi-storey electronics buildings. Illuminations at Marunouchi or Roppongi in the evening.
Christmas Day is an ordinary working Friday in Japan and schools have only just broken — this is the emptiest day of your Tokyo week, which is exactly what Akihabara needs. Narrow stairwells and packed arcade floors are the first thing a holiday crowd ruins. Presents happen in the hotel room before you head out.
Out to Nerima for the Great Hall, Diagon Alley, the Forbidden Forest and Platform 9¾. Leave Asakusabashi around 9:45 after a real breakfast lands you comfortably inside. Four to five hours in there plus 45 minutes each way, so let it own the day.
This is the right thing for a Saturday in the holidays: timed entry with capped capacity, so the crowds outside simply can't reach you. Book well ahead — it sells out — and note the ¥1,500 fee per date change. Entry tickets are the only thing to reserve; broomstick photos, the Quidditch green screen, butterbeer and the Backlot Café are all walk-up on the day. Only worth it if the boys are actually into Harry Potter; if not, Small Worlds Tokyo in Ariake is the swap.
Book teamLab Planets in Toyosu for a morning slot — you wade barefoot through knee-deep water, so go before the temperature drops and bring a towel. Then fifteen minutes down the Yurikamome to Odaiba for Miraikan: humanoid robots, a hands-on space-station module, and the Geo-Cosmos globe rendering the live Earth in ten million LEDs.
The busiest day of your week gets the two venues crowds can't touch: teamLab admits in strictly capped waves, and Miraikan is a national museum with halls big enough to swallow a holiday Sunday. Miraikan runs 10:00–17:00, last tickets 16:30, and closes entirely from Dec 28 — so today is nearly its last chance anyway.
Harajuku and Takeshita Street late morning, then the Scramble crossing — the one thing on your list a crowd actively improves. Shibuya Sky around four for sunset. Then Shibuya Parco at seven for Nintendo Tokyo and the Pokémon Center.
The evening order is deliberate. Nintendo Tokyo issues numbered tickets on busy days — handed out from 9:30 at the Spain-zaka entrance — but Parco runs to 21:00 and entry usually opens to walk-ins in the last hour or two as crowds thin. Going at seven skips the queue without an early alarm on your last full day. Book Shibuya Sky ahead; it sells out, and the open deck is brutally cold at 229 m in December — it also closes in high wind. Repack tonight. Nothing loose goes on the rooftop — bags, scarves, loose hats, tripods and earphones all go into 46F lockers (¥100 coin, refunded). Dress in zipped layers so what keeps you warm is worn, not carried.
Shop until about one o'clock, leave the hotel by half past, and you're at Haneda Terminal 3 comfortably by half two for the 5:05 departure. The Edo-themed shopping street on the fourth floor is a good final souvenir stop.
Two of these are hard dates measured in Japan time, which lands them earlier in Los Angeles than you'd expect.
Closes Sept 30, 23:59 JST — 07:59 that morning in LA, so treat the 29th as the deadline. Apply for Thu Dec 17; your wife applies separately for Fri Dec 18, four tickets each. Name your companions at submission — transfers are only allowed to guests entered at that point. Results on the 1st, payment within seven days.
On sale two months ahead, on the 10th at 2 PM Japan time — which is 10 PM on Friday Oct 9 for you. First-come, no lottery, six tickets max per purchase, through Lawson Ticket or Klook. Premium Pass covers all five areas; Standard covers three.
Dated tickets, and late-December dates sell out. Sort your Fantasy Springs strategy at the same time — Standby Pass or paid Premier Access, decided before you arrive.
Rolling release, sells out over the holidays. Book Dec 26 as soon as it opens.
teamLab is timed entry on a holiday Sunday, so morning slots go long before the usual three-weeks-out advice. Book it as soon as the date opens. Miraikan itself is walk-up, but online sale opens one week ahead — buy then rather than queueing at an outdoor booth in December, and take the combo if you want the Dome Theater, which needs its own reservation.
The window is 14 days, confirmed against the live site. Dec 28 opens at midnight JST on Dec 14 — which is 7:00 AM PT on Sunday Dec 13, six and a half hours before your flight. Note the 17-hour gap: US daylight time ends Nov 1, so it is 7 AM, not 8. Book the 15:20–15:40 slot — about 20 minutes from the 14F gate to the rooftop puts you up by 15:45, with 45 minutes before the 16:30 sunset and blue hour after it. Buy four adult tickets: child tickets are counter-only on the day, and overpaying ¥2,200 for the 10-year-old removes any dependence on counter stock.
The official site checks out through Webket, which states no country restriction but requires 3-D Secure — so enrol your card in Visa/Mastercard's verification programme first and it may well work. If it fails at payment, that's why. Klook or KKday are the reliable fallback: overseas cards, English e-ticket, free cancellation up to 24 hours out — worth something, since the open deck closes in high wind. Have passports handy; Klook asks at checkout. Same-day tickets exist at the 14F counter but cost more and won't get you sunset.
Open exactly one month ahead at 10:00 JST. Kyoto → Nagoya on Dec 20, Nagoya → Tokyo on Dec 22. Short hops and frequent, but four seats together are still worth reserving.
Three short hops on one line total roughly ¥20,000 per adult against about ¥80,000 for a 14-day JR Pass. Not close. JR child fare covers ages 6–11, so your 12-year-old pays adult.
Kyoto → Nagoya is 35 minutes and Nagoya → Tokyo is 100. With only two moves in fifteen nights you can just carry the bags — the one real advantage of a three-hotel trip.
If you want the boys to experience a Japanese bath with nothing riding on it, book a hotel with a communal bath — the Dormy Inn chain has them in all three cities. They can try it or not, and you haven't committed a night and a kaiseki dinner to the idea.
Search Asakusa, Kuramae or Ueno first — Taitō and Sumida have the best legal Airbnb supply in the city, three of your seven days are right there, and the Asakusa line runs direct to Haneda on departure day. Kiyosumi-Shirakawa or Monzen-Nakachō is the alternative: better for DisneySea and teamLab, quieter, better value.
Japan's minpaku law requires registration, and the number must appear in the listing. Unlicensed places get pulled — sometimes weeks before arrival. Also check for a lift, a washing machine, and 50m²+; a Tokyo flat listed as sleeping four is often 30m² of futons.
Sunset is around 4:50 PM in Kansai and 4:30 in Tokyo. Your outdoor day ends at four. Front-load daylight; save shops, arcades and food for the dark.
Get ICOCA on arrival — it works nationwide. Children aged 6–11 need their own child card, issued at a staffed window with passports; machines can't do it.
Three things can't be pre-booked and go to whoever turns up first: the Phoenix Hall interior at Byōdō-in, My CUPNOODLES Factory in Ikeda, and the shinkansen simulators in Nagoya. All three are claimed on arrival. Walk in and sort the ticket before you look at anything.
Tuesdays: Nintendo Museum, Cupnoodles Museum, SCMAGLEV Railway Park, Miraikan, Ghibli Park, Ghibli Museum. From Dec 28: Miraikan. The plan clears every one — check before you reshuffle anything.
| Leg | High | Low | What to expect |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kyoto · Dec 14–19 | 10–12°C | 1–3°C | Crisp and often bright. Autumn colour is finished; gardens are bare and quiet. |
| Nagoya · Dec 20–21 | 10–12°C | 2–4°C | Dry and cold. Nabana no Sato is entirely outdoors after dark — dress for it. |
| Tokyo · Dec 22–29 | 11–13°C | 4–6°C | The best weather of the trip — dry, bright, almost no rain. Good Fuji odds from the train. |