Trip motivation In July 2023, our family visited Kyoto and Osaka! This has been at the top of our family wish list for a few years. We visited in late July and combined this trip with a Hawaii visit and 3 days in Seoul.  We visited Asia previously (Tokyo 2017) but this was the first time Ellie came and the first time we visited the Kyoto/Osaka area. Traveling internationally with kids can be daunting but with a little preparation and research and tips from other travelers, we had a successful trip! This post covers our flights, hotel, itinerary, planning process, and international logistics such as using the subway, getting a phone card, and finding budget restaurants. Read all of our 2023 Korea/Japan posts at the following links: Seoul, South Korea: Flights, Logistics, and Hotel Info Seoul Day 1: Myeongdong, Namsangol Hanok, Seoul Tower Seoul Day 2: Hanbok rental, Gyeongbokgung Palace, Gwanham square, Hongdae Seoul Day 3: Gangnam Area, COEX Aquarium, Myeongdong Night Market Kyoto, Japan: Flights, Logistics, and Hotel Info Kyoto Day 1: Higashiyama Temples: Maruyama Park, Yasaka Shrine, Kiyozdemeru Osaka: Nintendo World at Universal Studios Japan and Osaka Dotonbori Kyoto Day 2: Arashiyama River Cruise, Monkey Park, Bamboo Gardens, Kyoto Day 3:Aeon Mall, Nishiki Market, Pokemon Center,Gion Matsuri Gallery Kyoto Day 4: East Kyoto Temples: Philosophers Path, Nanzeji Temple Planning our Itinerary I love planning trips, especially through well-traveled places where there’s a ton of information to read through and make plans for. Many online blogs were really helpful! One tip for traveling with kids is take a 3-day best of guide and cut out half of it to make it actually realistic. We spent 4 nights in Kyoto and had 4 full days of exploring. Several months before, I sketched out our plan in excel and on google maps with a balance of activities, rest time, food, rest, and fun. We made sure to research how far areas were and tried to schedule several anchor points with a few optional activities so we didn’t overstuff our schedule. Overview Day 1: Arrival, Higashiyama Temples: Maruyama Park, Yasaka Shrine, Kiyozdemeru Day 2: Universal Studios Japan, Osaka Dotonbori Day 3: Arashiyama River Cruise, Monkey Park, Bamboo Gardens, Gion Day 4: Aeon Mall, Nishiki Market, Pokemon Center,Gion Matsuri, Gion Day 5: East Kyoto Temples: Philosophers Path, Nanzeji Temple Some spots in the Kansai area we’ll save for our next trip: Railway Museum Samurai exhibit Golden Temple Fushimi Inari red shrines Side trips to Himeji, Nara, Kobe, Hiroshima Flying to Kyoto/Osaka Prior to this portion of our trip, we spent some time in Hawaii visiting family and a few days in Seoul. From Seoul airport to Kansai airport, we booked one-way flights on Jeju air. The flights were 2 hours. We use miles for a lot of trips and we did use miles for our Japan to Nashville portion. Its not all or nothing. We were able to save money in other ways on this trip and decided to pay cash for this portion. We used the Chase Sapphire Reserve  to get more points for our next trip!  See more detailed tips on using points and miles here. Flying to the US Flying back from Japan to the US, we used United points to fly from the Kansai area to Tokyo to New York to home. We had some travel difficulties coming home but ultimately made it back together. Sleeping on planes West to East: Plan to sleep! For the overnight red-eye flight, we emphasized that after dinner service, everyone was going to try and get some sleep. I gave each kid a dose of melatonin and they passed out pretty immediately. We packed these cheap pillows from Amazon (They came with eye masks!). On arrival, get outside and try to limit naps so you can readjust. For more on our favorite activities and tips for flying, see our post here. Headphones Melatonin Airplane pillows Hyatt Place Kyoto For 2 nights, we stayed at the Hyatt Place Kyoto.  We booked 2 connecting rooms! We used our Hyatt credit card to get points for future Hyatt stays. You can also use points from this stay. You can earn Hyatt points from Hyatt stays, the Hyatt credit card and Chase points which can be transferred to Hyatt. Learn more about points here.   Chase Sapphire Preferred Apply Here Chase Sapphire Reserve Apply Here Chase Hyatt Apply Here We were glad to have 2 rooms so we could spread out. We even set up the kids TV with the nintendo switch! For more on sleeping on vacations, see this post here.  All team members spoke excellent English and were very willing to help us. The location was about a 5 minute walk to the train station and taxi rides were $10-$15. Airport Hotel On our last night, we stayed at an airport hotel so we could save time in the morning. The hotel was great and very convenient right across the terminal. Transportation in Kyoto Hello Kitty Train! We kicked off the Japan portion of our trip with a ride on a Hello Kitty Train! The Haruka runs from Kansai airport to Kyoto station and has cute decoration, seats, and even bathrooms lo. Tickets are about $24 per adult and half-price for kids In the, we mapped destinations using google maps and compared the time/cost/effort to use a taxi, train, bus, or walk. We used uber or the train depending on where/how far we were going. If you have little ones, it might be harder to use a taxi due to the car seat. If you plan on using a stroller on the subway, many have elevators, but be prepared to fold it and carry up stairs. Eating in Japan Our hotel came with free breakfast, and we enjoyed starting the day filling up with omelets, noodles, and rice dishes. During the day, we tried to balance quick meals with sit-down meals. We didn’t do any true gourmet fancy meals but did have some excellent food. A few