Japan was fantastic. We all loved our vacation, learned new things about a completely different culture, and, most importantly, appreciated the time we had together.
Of course, I spent what felt like a lifetime researching Japan before we left. I wanted to know what to do, what not to do, where to go, what to eat, how to use the trains, and approximately 4,000 other things.
And despite all that research, there were still several things that surprised me.
Here are five things I didn’t expect when traveling to Japan with kids this summer:
1. Japan is even cleaner than you think.
I knew Japan was supposed to be clean. I had read the blog posts. I had watched the travel videos. I had even read that we should probably carry our own little grocery bags with us each morning because there aren’t many public trash cans.
All of that was true. But I don’t think I was prepared for just how clean Japan actually is.
If “you could eat off the sidewalk” isn’t an accurate description of a city, I don’t know what is.
I could have eaten off the sidewalks; I could have walked barefoot down the streets of Tokyo.
I did neither of those things, obviously. But I could have.
The funny part was that there were plenty of days when we left our hotel without a bag for our trash and immediately regretted it.
But somehow, despite the lack of trash cans, the streets stayed spotless. There was no litter, no random wrappers blowing down the street. It was just…clean.
It’s one of those things you don’t fully appreciate until you’re standing in the middle of an enormous city and realizing that somehow there isn’t a piece of trash anywhere.
2. Eating vegetarian in Japan was much harder than I expected.
This one caught me completely off guard.
Over the last year, we’ve traveled to England, France, Thailand, Vietnam and several places within the U.S., and I never felt like finding a decent vegetarian meal was particularly difficult. So I assumed Japan would be similar.
It wasn’t.
Part of this was absolutely on me. I didn’t do nearly enough research on vegetarian restaurants before we left, and I probably should have. But even with all the research I did do for the trip, I wasn’t expecting vegetarian food to require quite so much planning.
So, thank goodness for Japanese convenience stores, specifically, the egg salad sandwiches. Those things are everything they’re cracked up to be, and I ate about 35 of them.
Not kidding. And it’s probably no surprise that I haven’t had one since.
The good news is that once we knew what to look for and planned ahead a little more, things got easier.
So, if you’re traveling to Japan as a vegetarian, I would absolutely recommend doing some restaurant research before you go!
3. We loved Tokyo Disneyland WAY more than we thought we would.
Before our trip, I knew I wanted to visit Tokyo Disneyland. We’re a Disney family, and since this was probably a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, it only made sense to check parks number 9 and 10 off our list.
But I wondered if we would be wasting valuable time in Japan doing something we’d already experienced many times before.
Don’t get me wrong. I am always grateful for a Disney day, and we always have fun, but Japan has temples, shrines, markets, castles, incredible food, neighborhoods we’ve never explored and an entire culture we’d traveled halfway around the world to experience. Was spending a day at a theme park we’d basically already done before really the best use of our time?
100% yes! We loved Tokyo Disneyland far more than I expected.
There were familiar rides and familiar characters, but the experience still felt somehow different.
The atmosphere, the attention to detail, the cast members, the food and even the way guests interacted with the park all made it feel like its own experience.
I won’t turn this post into another Disney review, but if you’re curious about whether Tokyo Disneyland and DisneySea are worth adding to a Japan itinerary, I’ve written an entire post about our experience.
[Read our Tokyo Disneyland vs. DisneySea post here.]
Looking back, I’m really glad we made the time for it. Sometimes the best travel experiences aren’t necessarily the ones that are the most different from home. Sometimes the familiar things somehow feel… new.
4. Japan was much more affordable than I expected.
I knew Japan wasn’t going to be outrageously expensive. I also knew that, in general, we’d find food and everyday expenses less expensive than we would at home in the United States.
But I was still pleasantly surprised by how affordable our trip felt once we were there.
The biggest surprise?
Food.
We could take our family of five out to dinner and spend less than half of what we’d typically spend on a similar meal at home. Sushi dinner for $30? Yes, please!
And then there was the tipping. Or, more accurately, the lack of tipping.
After living in the United States, where a 20% tip can feel like an automatic addition to every purchase, it was incredibly refreshing to simply pay the price on the menu.
No calculating, and no adding another $20+ to the bill before we’ve even left the restaurant. Just the price of the food.
We also found lodging and many of the experiences we wanted to have to be surprisingly reasonable. And when you’re traveling as a family of five, those little savings add up quickly.
Our Japan trip definitely wasn’t free, but I was surprised by how much we could do without spending the kind of money I had expected.
If you’re curious about exactly what we spent, I broke down our entire 17-day Japan trip, down to the dollar, in another post.
[Read exactly what our family of five spent on 17 days in Japan here.]
5. I was struck by how much consideration people showed for one another.
There is a Japanese word, omoiyari, that describes the idea of being considerate of other people and anticipating their needs or feelings.
I don’t pretend to understand an entire culture after one trip, but throughout our time there, I was struck by how often people seemed to make an effort to not inconvenience the people around them.
They waited patiently. They followed the rules. They were conscious of noise and personal space.
They seemed to be considerate of those around them, and I noticed it constantly.
Traveling with kids can be expensive and exhausting. It can be stressful, even daunting at times. But one of the main reasons we keep traveling as a family is because I want our kids to see how people outside of our little circle live their lives.
Sometimes what they see will be better than what we’re used to; sometimes it won’t.
But the point is to see that there are a million different ways to live a life.
And hopefully, every time our kids experience something different, they walk away with a little more curiosity, a little more understanding and a slightly brighter perspective on the world. Maybe they’ll even carry some of those lessons with them as they grow into the people they’re becoming.
And if traveling halfway around the world teaches them to be a little more thoughtful, a little more curious and a little more aware of the people around them?
Well…
That’s worth the 15-hour flight.
Planning Your Japan Trip?
If you’re planning a trip to Japan with kids, here are a few of the things we used (and loved) along the way.
🏨 Hotels: We booked most of our stays through Booking.com.
🎟️ Activities: We use Klook to help find activities and attractions.
🎒 Travel gear: Check out our product page for gear we use that makes traveling with five people even easier!
Some of the links above are affiliate links, which means I may earn a small commission if you book or purchase through them, at no additional cost to you. We only recommend things we actually used or would use ourselves.