by Eshaa G · 2026-10-30T10:21:10.074Z · 14 min read
Curated Guide For Indian Travellers
by Eshaa G · 2026-10-30T10:21:10.074Z · 14 min read
Japan works beautifully for families with kids and grandparents in the same group, as long as you plan it wisely. Theme Parks: Super Nintendo World (Osaka), Tokyo Disney Resort, PokéPark Kanto (near Tokyo), Ghibli Park (Aichi) Digital Art: teamLab Planets and teamLab Borderless (Tokyo) Animals And Nature: Mount Fuji from Hakone or Kawaguchiko, Nara Deer Park Food And Quirk: Cup Noodles Museum (Osaka Ikeda and Yokohama) City Landmarks: Fushimi Inari Taisha (Kyoto), Osaka Castle, the Dotonbori River Cruise
If your family WhatsApp group has been filling up with reels of neon Tokyo crossings and deer bowing in Nara, you already know where this is going. Japan has become the holiday Indian families actually plan, not just save to a folder. Part of that is logistics, because Delhi and Mumbai both fly non-stop to Tokyo now. The rest is anime, which arrived in Indian homes years before Japan became one of the most loved destinations.
The top things to do in Japan with family range from Super Nintendo World and Tokyo Disney Resort to Nara's deer and Mount Fuji. Here is the full list of the 12 things your family will love. 1. Super Nintendo World, Universal Studios Japan (Osaka) You walk in, and the ground is Mario's. Warp pipes, question blocks, Bowser's castle looming over the whole thing. The headline ride: Mario Kart: Bowser's Challenge, an augmented reality race through the castle Donkey Kong Country: The jungle expansion next door, with its own mine cart coaster Power-Up Bands: Wearable wristbands that turn the area into a live game, collecting coins and stamps The catch: A Studio Pass gets you into Universal Studios Japan, not automatically into Super Nintendo World Voyaah Insider Tip: On busy days, you need a separate area entry ticket for Super Nintendo World. Free slots are released through the USJ app on the day and vanish within minutes of the gates opening, so families end up racing the app instead of enjoying the park. Book an Express Pass that specifically names Super Nintendo World, because not every Express Pass includes it. Plan your Japan holiday with Voyaah, and we will sort the passes before you even fly. 2. Fushimi Inari Taisha (Kyoto) Ten thousand vermilion gates, standing shoulder to shoulder, climbing a wooded mountain behind Kyoto. Children tend to treat it as a tunnel to run through, which is the correct response. Entry: Free, open 24 hours a day, every day of the year The full climb: About an hour to the summit of Mount Inari and 2 hours return The short version: You do not have to summit. Turn back whenever the group has had enough Access: Two minutes from Inari Station, an easy ride from Kyoto Station Voyaah Insider Tip: Most visitors photograph the first few hundred gates and turn around. Keep walking for fifteen minutes past that point, and the crowd thins to almost nothing. Early morning and after dark are the two windows worth planning for, because the gates are lit at night and the path never closes. 3. Tokyo Disney Resort (Disneyland and DisneySea) Two separate parks, two separate tickets, one monorail between them. Most families assume it is one place and lose half a day finding out otherwise. Tokyo Disneyland: The familiar one. Castle, parade, and the rides your children already know from somewhere Tokyo DisneySea: The one that exists nowhere else in the world, built around harbours and a volcano, with Fantasy Springs and its Frozen, Tangled and Peter Pan areas now fully open Voyaah Insider Tip: Everything runs through the Tokyo Disney Resort app, both the free Priority Pass and the paid Premier Access, and the park's wifi at opening time is where plans go to die. Install it in India, set the language, and register every ticket the night before you go. 4. teamLab Planets TOYOSU (Tokyo) You have to leave your shoes at the door. When you step in, the floor goes soft, then wet, then knee-deep, and the koi swimming past your ankles scatter into flowers the moment you touch them. The water rooms: You walk through barefoot, and the water comes up to the knee on adults. This is the part everyone photographs The mirrored rooms: Light falls all around you and the corners disappear. You will lose track of how big the room actually is The garden: Shoes back on for this one. Orchids hang low enough to brush your head, and there is a moss garden outside Athletics Forest and Future Park: One is for climbing and jumping, the other for drawing. Both are for the children who have run out of patience Voyaah Insider Tip: Wear trousers you can roll well above the knee. If you forget, ask at the entrance, because they lend shorts for free. Skip skirts and long dresses, since several floors are mirrored.
5. teamLab Borderless, Azabudai Hills (Tokyo) No map, no route, no numbered rooms. Artworks walk out of one space and into another while you are standing in it, so what you see depends on when you turn. Bubble Universe: A mirrored room full of floating spheres that shift as people move through them Light sculptures: They build and collapse in the air around you The tea house: A flower opens inside your cup and keeps growing while you drink Future Park: Your child draws something, and a moment later it is up on the wall with everyone else's Voyaah Insider Tip: Borderless keeps your shoes on and has no water, so it is easier for grandparents and for anyone pushing a pram. Give it two hours and let people wander off rather than herding everyone together. 6. Dotonbori River Cruise (Osaka) On foot, Dotonbori is a slow shuffle through a crowd. Get on the water, and it opens up. The signs that were looming over you turn into the view. How long: 20 minutes under the bridges, with a guide filling in what you would have walked straight past Where to board: Beside the Don Quijote store on the Tonbori River Walk When: On the hour and the half hour, from late morning until nine at night Voyaah Insider Tip: You cannot book by phone. Same-day tickets go on sale at the booth an hour before the first boat, so send one person to queue while everyone else eats. But if you are travelling with Voyaah, your tour manager will sort it all so you can just board the cruise and enjoy. And go after dark. The neon is the whole reason you are on the water. 7. Mount Fuji Fuji has five lakes along its northern side, and the hot spring town of Hakone sits to the southeast. Where you stand decides what kind of photograph you come home with. Hakone: Take the cable car over a steaming valley with Mount Fuji ahead of you, then board a pirate-themed cruise across Lake Ashi. Somewhere mid-crossing, the mountain appears again behind a red gate standing in the water Kawaguchiko: It is quieter and much closer. Roughly two hours from Shinjuku on the highway bus, and Fuji simply sits there across the lake looking like the postcard. A three-minute ropeway up Mount Kachi Kachi puts the lake and the mountain in one frame, which is where the family photo usually happens Motosuko: The view that used to be printed on the 1,000 yen note. Further west, much quieter, and worth the extra drive if the photograph is the point of the day Yamanakako, Saiko and Shojiko: The other three. Yamanakako is the biggest and busy with watersports, while Saiko and Shojiko stay almost empty even in season Voyaah Insider Tip: Fuji is clearest from November to February and almost always hidden through June and July. Whatever month you go, aim for early morning. The Yamanashi tourism board runs live cameras at FUJISANWATCHER so you can see which side is clear before setting off, and if you are travelling with Voyaah, your tour manager checks and plans your visit accordingly. Want a stress-free family trip to Japan? Our Japan travel guide covers the best cities, hidden gems and Voyaah Insider Tips to make it easy. 8. Ghibli Park, Nagakute (Aichi) Studio Ghibli built this inside a park, not over it. Five areas sit across the old Expo 2005 grounds in Aichi: Ghibli's Grand Warehouse, Hill of Youth, Dondoko Forest, Mononoke Village and Valley of Witches. There are almost no rides. You walk, you find things, you stand inside scenes you have watched a hundred times. Nearest hub: Nagoya, an easy Shinkansen hop from Tokyo, Kyoto or Osaka Two pass types: A standard pass covering three areas, and a premium pass covering all five Who it suits: Families who would rather wander than queue Best time: Almost all of it is outdoors and on foot, so spring and autumn are far kinder than a Japanese August Voyaah Insider Tip: Overseas tickets go on sale two months ahead, on the 10th of the month at 2:00 PM Japan time, which is 10:30 AM in India. Set an alarm, because the good dates go in minutes. Booking with Voyaah means someone else is sitting at that screen for you.
9. Cup Noodles Museum (Osaka Ikeda and Yokohama) An instant noodle museum sounds like filler until you watch a ten-year-old spend forty minutes deciding on four toppings. There are two branches, and they are not the same. Osaka Ikeda: Free entry. 5 minutes from Ikeda Station on the Hankyu Takarazuka Line, with an Instant Noodles Tunnel displaying around 800 packets from across the decades Yokohama: Paid entry, with a hands-on factory where you knead and fry your own noodles from scratch, a children's play factory and an Asian food court The common draw: My CUPNOODLES Factory, where you design the cup, pick the soup and choose the toppings 10. Osaka Castle (Osaka) Toyotomi Hideyoshi, a peasant's son who rose to rule all of Japan, built this in the 1580s to be the strongest fortress in the country. The tower in the middle was rebuilt in 1931, so what is inside is a museum rather than a castle. Inside: 8 floors on Hideyoshi and the war that wiped out his family. The top one opens out to a view over the whole city Outside: The part children actually enjoy. Moats to walk along, walls to stand under, and open lawns to run on Best time to visit: Late March into early April, when the cherry trees in Nishinomaru Garden come into bloom, and families spread out on the lawns below the walls with lunch. The garden is a separate ticket, but totally worth it! To plan your trip around Japan's seasonal highlights, read our guide on the best time to visit Japan. Voyaah Insider Tip: The lift stops at the fifth floor, and the view is on the eighth, so save 3 flights of stairs for the end. Prams stay at the entrance. 11. Nara Deer Park (Nara) Around 1,200 wild deer live freely in a city park, and they have worked out that bowing gets results. You buy a packet of shika senbei crackers from a stall, and the negotiating begins. Todai-ji Temple: Inside the park, holding a 15-metre bronze Great Buddha The pillar: A wooden column in the Great Buddha Hall with a hole the size of the Buddha's nostril. Squeeze through, and you are said to be granted enlightenment in your next life, which children manage far more easily than their parents Good to know: The deer are wild, not tame. They get pushier in autumn, which is mating season, and in early summer when the mothers have newborns to protect Voyaah Insider Tip: When the crackers run out, raise both hands with your palms open and facing the deer. They read it, and they move on. Keep the packet hidden until you are ready, and put away paper maps and tickets, because deer will happily eat those too. Never offer them your own snacks. 12. PokéPark Kant, Yomiuriland (Near Tokyo) The world's first permanent Pokémon theme park opened at Yomiuriland in 2026, about an hour from central Tokyo. For a child who has spent years trading cards, walking into a forest where Pokémon live is the whole holiday. Sedge Town: The central hub, built like a Pokémon town you can walk through The forest: A woodland trail where Pokémon appear among real trees Shows and parades: Daily, with life-size characters Voyaah Insider Tip: There are no gate tickets at all. Everything sells online in advance, and your forest entry is a fixed time slot chosen at the moment you buy.
1. Do Indian passport holders need a visa for Japan? Yes. Indian nationals need a short-stay tourist visa, and Japan now issues it electronically for applicants resident in India. The visa notice is displayed on your phone at the airport rather than stamped in your passport. Requirements change, so check the Embassy of Japan in India website before you apply, or let your Voyaah Holiday Manager handle the paperwork. 2. Is it hard to find vegetarian food in Japan? It takes preparation rather than luck. Buddhist temple cuisine, called shojin ryori , is fully plant-based, and convenience stores carry kelp rice balls, edamame and tofu. Larger Japanese cities also have Indian restaurants. 3. What is the best time to explore Japan with kids? Spring and autumn are the most comfortable, with cherry blossoms in late March and early April and autumn colours through November. 4. Is a Japan Rail Pass worth it for a family? It depends on how much intercity travel you are doing. Children aged six to eleven pay half the adult price, and under-sixes travel free without a pass, though they are not entitled to a seat of their own. If you are moving between Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka with a Hakone or Nagano detour, the sums usually work. For a single-city trip, they rarely do. 5. How many days do I need to cover these attractions? 8 to 10 days covers Tokyo, Osaka and Kyoto with two or three of these attractions in each. Trying to fit all 12 into a single holiday is what turns a family holiday into a logistics exercise.
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