10 Day Tokyo Itinerary for 2025: The Perfect Japan Stay For Families and First Timers

Tokyo is our favourite city in the world: so it makes my mind boggle that most people only spent a few days in the city. We could stay here forever! On our last trip we spent 10 days in Tokyo, and on our next trip we’ll be spending two weeks in the city.

We’re definitely city people, much preferring it to the calm of the countryside. And there’s no city better than Tokyo! Which I why I decided to put together this itinerary. This is the EXACT itinerary we followed on our 10 days in Tokyo, travelling as a family of four with two boys (aged 8 and 11 at that time) and is perfect for families who want to go beyond the Tokyo highlight reel, and those taking their time to really explore the city.

10 Day Tokyo Itinerary for 2025 The Perfect Japan Stay For Families and First Timers

✨MUM NOTE: This itinerary is completely flexible, so feel free to mix and match the days. We put together our itinerary in this order to ensure we weren’t in a theme park (or anywhere too crowded) on the weekend days!

Here’s our perfect (in my opinion at least!) 10 day Tokyo itinerary:

Heads up! This post may contain affiliate links, which means if you click and make a purchase, I might earn a very small commission – at no extra cost to you. This helps to keep the blog going. Thanks for the support!

Day 1 – Warner Bros Harry Potter Studios Tour and Tokyo Character Street

For our very first activity on our first day in Tokyo, we went to the Warner Bros Studio Tour, the making of Harry Potter. This was a Christmas gift for our youngest, who is completely Harry Potter crazy, and he couldn’t wait another day to cash in those tickets!

The Hogwarts Express at the Harry Potter studios in Tokyo

The kids have been to the Warner Bros London Studio Tour before, but Tokyo’s version still completely blew them away. It’s bigger, newer, and even more interactive, making it the perfect stop for families, film fans, or anyone who ever wished they could step inside the Great Hall.

🧙‍♂️ Read our full review: Harry Potter Studios Tour Tokyo: Is It Worth It?

We arrived at the Studios at 10am (when you book your tickets, you have to choose a timed entry slot) and stayed there until around 3pm. This gave us plenty of time to see everything at our leisure.

From here, we headed back to our hotel, a metro route that saw us pass through Tokyo Station. So we used this as the perfect opportunity to hop off the train and visit Tokyo Character Street, which is located in the station. This is the perfect place to shop if you have an interest in any Japanese pop culture characters like Sanrio, Ghibli, or Pokemon.

Tokyo Character Street is also home to Tokyo’s newest Pokemon store: The Tokyo Station Pokemon Store is home to exclusive merchandise, and has a lot of great stock for such a compact space.

🚄 Read my full review of the Pokemon Store Tokyo Station Shop – What to Buy and Why It’s Worth Visiting

MUM TIP – I won’t add links to every activity, as it makes things too busy and hard to read, but I recommend booking all of these activities with KLOOK to save time and money.
🎁 Use my code THATMUMTRAVEL5KLOOK for a 5% discount on all Klook activities, which is a great way to save extra money for my favourite Tokyo activity…shopping!

Day 2 – Tokyo Tower and Shibuya

For day two, we headed to the Tokyo Tower and surrounding area, which is a wonderful place to really appreciate the scale of the city. Here you can climb to the top of the Tokyo Tower (There are two levels with two different ticket prices, but I recommend going all the way to the top for the best views.

🗼 Read our experience of going to the top of the Tokyo Tower here.

We also went to Red Tokyo Tower, which is right inside the base of Tokyo Tower. Red Tokyo Tower is Japan’s largest e-sports and entertainment park, and it’s spread over 3 floors of the famous Tokyo Tower. This incredible attraction is worth visiting for the change to try your hand at robot fighting alone.

🤖 Read Tokyo Tower Review: Why This Is a Fun, Futuristic Attraction in Tokyo

Finally, if you’re looking for a little injection of culture, or a moment of tranquility, you will find the Zojo-Ji Temple right behind the Tokyo Tower. The Zojo-Ji temple is a historic Jōdo-shū Buddhist temple that was founded in 1393 and it’s only around a 5 minute walk from the Tokyo Tower, so well worth exploring as part of your visit.

🎎 We wrote a full review, Exploring the Zojo-Ji Temple in Tokyo with Kids

You can’t visit Tokyo without walking across the famous Shibuya Crossing, but this area doesn’t need a whole day in its own right. Instead, we spent the late afternoon and evening here, stopping for dinner and doing a little shopping. Shibuya looks great lit up at night, so in my opinion this is a great time to visit.

Day 3 – Harajuku, Meji Shrine, and Pokemon Cafe

Day Three is a dream day for kids who love all things pop-culture, and youth culture in Japan! Start your day in Harajuku: The earlier you get there, the quieter it will be. If you don’t like crowds, try to avoid visiting at the weekend.

Activities in Harajuku include animal cafes, arcades and gachapon centres, fun rainbow food, and so much more!

🧁Check out Harajuku For Kids: The Best Things To Do For The Whole Family!

Standing outside the Meiji Jingu Shrine in Tokyo, Japan

Right behind Harajuku, you’ll find the Meiji Jingu Shrine. This is worth visiting for a myriad of reasons: firstly, because it’s a significant and beautiful shrine. Secondly, because it’s surrounded by woodland, making it the perfect place for kids to run and let off steam.

🎍 Visiting the Meiji Jingu Shrine in Tokyo: A Fascinating History Lesson

Finally, we made our way to the Pokémon Centre DX and the Pokémon Cafe, because we had secured a rare reservation in the cafe for a late dinner. If your kids love Pokémon then this is a MUST VISIT spot!

The food is themed, the decor of the restaurant is excellent, and you’ll see Pikachu come out and do a dance mid-meal. My boys have been twice, and they’re still keen to go back for a third time on our next trip.

🐭 Check out my tips for how to book the Pokemon Cafe in Tokyo here

Day 4 – Exploring Odaiba

Odaiba is one of the best places to explore in Tokyo if you’re travelling with kids, because there’s such an enormous range of things to see and do here, and on a great range of budgets too. You can see Tokyo’s own version of the Statue of Liberty or a Giant moving Gundam statue without spending a penny. Alternatively, you can visit the Sega Joypolis Centre, The Unko Museum (a museum dedicated to poop), take a boat ride around Tokyo Bay, or shop in one of the huge Odaiba malls.

💡 Read my guide to One Day in Odaiba With Kids: The Ultimate One Day Itinerary For Families

We visited Joypolis, which is a cross between an arcade and an indoor theme park, and which my boys LOVED. We then headed to see the giant Gundam statue, did a little shopping, and had a delicious steak dinner with views over the bay.

Day 5 – Sanrio Puroland

Now I’m aware this might not be a stand out day for everyone, but I have loved Hello Kitty since I was a kid, so the chance to explore the home of Hello Kitty was a real bucket list moment for me.

Sanrio Puroland isn’t actually located in Tokyo (although that’s where most people visit the park from). It’s located in Tama City and getting there will take around between 30 minutes – 1 hour from Tokyo, depending on where in the city you’re based. But with outstanding decor, cute shops, a couple of trippy rides, and some of my favourite themed food, it’s worth taking the trip for.

🎆 Check out my Sanrio Puroland Practical Guide. The Ultimate Guide to Visiting Sanrio Puroland in 2025

You’ll notice that I haven’t included an evening activity here: After your day at Sanrio Puroland, grab dinner and relax (we actually got McDonalds to take away, then the boys ate it on their beds while we all watched a movie, which they loved!) The reason? You have a very early start to hit Disneyland tomorrow, so now is the time to rest!

Day 6 – Tokyo Disneyland

We LOVE the Tokyo Disney Parks, so we spent one day in each park and we have NO REGRETS. If we had longer, we would have booked in another Disney Day because it’s such a highlight for our boys. If you have a little less time or you’re not interested in theme parks, you could cut a day out.

Highlights of Tokyo Disneyland not to miss include eating the Alien Mochi, riding Splash Mountain and the Beauty and the Beast ride, and watching the Electric Light Parade.

📅 How Many Days Do You Need for Tokyo Disneyland and Tokyo DisneySea? Check this article to find out!

Day 7 – Tokyo DisneySea

Choosing your favourite Tokyo Disney Park is tricky: I think it’s Tokyo DisneySea, Mike thinks it’s Tokyo Disneyland. Even the boys have opposing opinions!

Allocate whole days for your Disney days, and stay in the park from opening to close to really make the most of, and take advantage of, your time immersed in the magic. Don’t miss the change to meet Duffy Bear, the unique Tower of Terror, and take a boat ride around Mount Prometheus during your time in Tokyo Disney Sea.

🎢 These are the 7 Best Rides in Tokyo DisneySea: Read this so you don’t miss out!

Day 8 – Ueno Zoo, Ueno Park, and Akihabara

Day 8 might well have been our family favourite day, because it had something for everyone! We started by heading to Ueno Park, where we explored the shrines and temples, and took photos under the many cherry blossom trees.

Our next stop was Ueno Zoo (a destination I know can be controversial) which we visited because the zoo is home to two pandas. There are no pandas in the UK, so this was an opportunity for the boys to see pandas that we just couldn’t miss! We explored the zoo in full and saw the other big animals too.

🐼 Complete Guide to Ueno Zoo in Tokyo: Seeing the Pandas, Ticket Prices and more

After the zoo we explored Ameyoko Shopping Street (one of the most famous shopping streets in Tokyo) and had a late lunch of delicious street food here, then we headed over to Akihabara for an afternoon and evening of fun.

My boys LOVED Akihabara! If your kids love manga, collect Pokemon cards, or have any interest in pop culture then this is the place to be! The boys shopped for hours, checking our vintage and modern Pokemon cards.

Akihabara Electric City in Tokyo at night

Then we had a sushi dinner before whiling away the evening in the many gaming arcades here. They were in heaven, and this is right at the top of their list of places they want to see when we go back to Tokyo next year.

Day 9 – The Sensoji Temple and Tokyo SkyTree

We try to think geographically when we’re planning our travel itineraries, because noone wants to spend half their day getting from one end of the city to the other on the metro. That’s why we visited the Sensoji Temple and Tokyo SkyTree in one day: they’re just a couple of stops apart (or we opted to walk between the two).

The Sensoji Temple is Tokyo’s oldest and most famous temple. Its history date backs to 645 AD. Because it’s such a popular tourist attraction, I recommend getting to the Sensoji Temple early in the day: the earlier the better! There are also so many great restaurants around here: I recommend checking out The Wagyu Brothers if you like burgers: not only was their wagyu burger the best burger I’ve ever had in Japan, it was the best burger I’ve ever had anywhere!

From here, we walked to the Tokyo SkyTree. This is much more modern than the Tokyo Tower and also offers excellent views: the SkyTree is also home to a wonderfully modern mall with its own Pokemon Centre. It’s well worth checking out.

Day 10 – Teamlab Planets and Time For Shopping

On our final day in Tokyo, we slowed what has been a very hectic schedule down a little bit. We needed to pack our suitcases in the morning (not an easy task because we had done a lot of shopping!) and we were flying home in the evening.

So for our activity, we took a trip to TeamLab Planets. This is such a great place for adults and kids alike: an immersive art gallery where you can climb, slide, touch and explore to your hearts content. This was a great place for the boys to let off steam before a long flight, but it’s also beautiful and significant from an adults perspective.

🎨 Read our full review of TeamLabs Planets here (including what to see and how to book)

From TeamLabs we went shopping for souviners, our last change to do a little shopping before heading home. This is a great time to do your final souviner shopping, as you’ll know how much suitcase space you have left!

And that’s it: we ate one final noodle supper, and our 10 days in Tokyo were over like a flash. Whenever we leave, we can’t wait to get back, and I hope you love Tokyo as much as we do!

Practical Information

Getting to Tokyo

Most international visitors arrive via either Tokyo Haneda Airport (HND) or Narita Airport (NRT). Haneda is closer to central Tokyo and ideal for families arriving with children because the transfer is shorter and far less tiring after a long flight.

But realistically (if you’re anything like us) the airport you land into will depend on flight prices as well as availability.

🚕 Tokyo Airport Transfers: A Complete Guide to Getting from Narita and Haneda Airports to Tokyo

The above link will cover ALL your transfer options, so it’s well worth reading. If you’re arriving at Narita, the easiest and most comfortable way to get into the city is to pre-book an airport transfer. We used Klook’s Narita Airport Transfer service on our last visit — it saved us the hassle of navigating trains with luggage after a long flight and was a great price. Don’t forget my code THATMUMTRAVEL5KLOOK for an extra discount.

Getting Around Tokyo

Tokyo’s transport network is one of the best in the world, and it’s easy to navigate once you get used to it. The Tokyo Metro and JR lines cover almost every corner of the city, and trains are incredibly punctual and clean.

If you plan to use public transport frequently, it’s worth getting a Suica or Pasmo card (now available digitally on iPhone and Android). You can use these on trains, buses, and even in convenience stores. We wouldn’t be without our Suica cards in Japan: the boys have their own too, and kids cards mean that kids can travel for a discounted rate.

Staying Connected

Having data on your phone is a must in Tokyo for maps, translation, and booking tickets on the go. We recommend using an eSIM so you can connect the moment you land.

I personally use Sim Local eSIMs (order yours here), which have great coverage and no roaming fees. They also offer a 5% discount for my readers with code THATMUMTRAVEL — it’s what we’ll be using again on our next Japan trip.

Money in Tokyo

Japan is becoming more card-friendly, but cash is still important, especially for smaller shops, temples, and local eateries.

ATMs that accept international cards can be found in 7-Eleven and Japan Post offices. If you’d like a detailed guide, see my post: Do You Need Cash in Japan? A Guide for First Time Travellers.

Why 10 Days in Tokyo is Worth It

I know that 10 days in Tokyo may seem like too long for some travellers (and if you’re planning a shorter trip to Tokyo then you can read my 5 day Tokyo itinerary here). But it’s such a huge city, and one packed full of so many things to see and do, that even 10 days might not be enough.

I think 10 days is the perfect amount of time to spend in Tokyo: enough time for all the main attractions without burning out!

Are you visiting Tokyo soon? How long as you staying in the city for? I’d love to hear about your plans!

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