Travelling to Japan with kids in Winter

Some pointers for me to keep a record

Travelling tips -

Japan is very well connected by its public transport network so there's no need to self-drive!

1) Buy unlimited 24 hour Metro pass to hop within Tokyo, Adult price is 600 yen and Child's ticket price is 300 yen (@Dec 2016). Plan the timing when purchasing the 24 hour pass to ensure that you can fully utilize the trip the next morning.

2) Have some 1000 yen notes ready if you foresee that you are taking a lot of local bus rides. These will help to pay for the fares because the machine only takes in 1000 yen notes.

3) Buy Hakone Free passes (near Odakyu Shopping mall in Shinjuku station) if planning to do more than 2 days activities in Hakone. Great value.

4) Book JR passes in SG before the trip, cheaper than getting them direct in Tokyo. There are 5 trips to utilize with the JR passport.


Outfits for weather below 9 degrees

1) Thermal wear - we were on the normal Uniqolo heattech range and it didn't help that well. Maybe extra-warm series will do better. Leggings are good to keep the legs warm. With heattech pants, wearing jeans will be fine.

2) Socks - heattech or woolen socks will help greatly

3) gloves - cheap gloves can't do much, invest in heattech or woolen ones which are useful

4) scarf - invest in good woolen scarves which will save you from feeling frozen!

5) covered shoes - sports shoes with breathable fabrics will allow the chill to sip through. Best footwear is to get well-covered shoes / boots

6) Face masks to prevent the nose from dripping!


Medicine

1) Vitamin C Gummies/pills to pop everyday!

2) Lip Balm

3) Moisturizers

4) running nose and fever medication

5) motion sickness pills


Games
Monopoly board game, Uno cards are some good choices to keep them occupied


Shopping

• Midori Nagano station - Made in Japan working shoes - so light and comfortable
• Niko and..  - good nice clothes
• Yodobashi Camera for electrical goods and cosmetics products
• Loft for stationery and bags
• Issey Miyake BaoBao 
• Flying Tiger at Omotesando or Shibuya
• Kiddy Land at Omotesando
• Favourite in my list  - Sunshine City at Ikebukuro! B1 has a few home living product stores at good prices