• What we did: Got jet-lagged, rode bullet trains, combated culture shock with karaoke and sampled sushi in the land of the rising sun
• What we learned about travelling with kids: 1) Our toddlers cannot be quiet and polite just because everyone else in Japan is! 2) Sleeping on futons on the floor is the best possible sleeping arrangement for a young family on the move.
• Overall rating:
  • Adults: 4
    (+) Sushi, sumo & shinkansen bullet trains; karaoke and camp Americana; traditional temples, gorgeous geisha, gardens and gyoza dumplings - what's not to like?!
    (-) Crushing currency conversion costs and cringing in a quiet kid culture when we have two crazy, cavalier coots!
  • Kids: 3
    (+) Disneyland Tokyo! An inexplicable love of plain white rice! Super-fast trains! Sleeping on the floor with mum & dad on futons!
    (-) Culture shock. Remembering to take shoes off when entering houses. Being unnaturally quiet everywhere.

Tokyo's dramatic, ever-changing cityscape.

Not all architectural innovations receive equal acclaim: the wispy golden flourish of Asahi Tower is affectionately known as the 'Golden Turd'!

2 giant rucksacks, 2 day packs, 2 children's backpacks, 2 children - all chugging along merrily on a Phil 'n' Ted's double stacker pram!

The much debated decision to take a pram along fully vindicated - for transporting heavy loads and for long city days it's a godsend.

Japanese inns (ryokan) have futons on the floor at night and cushions for sitting by day.

With no raised bed to roll off this arrangement was brilliant for the kids.

The hard bit: reminding Zoe to take her shoes off in the bedroom, but back on to go to the courtyard, but off again at the bathroom, then back on again to enter the dining room!

The Tokyo Tsujiki Fish Market: largest fish market in the world and home to the freshest, finest sushi anywhere.

With a menu of unexplained wobbly and still quivering items freshly hauled from the sea it was time to follow the locals, wash it down with green tea and emerge blinking into the street, to almost be mown down by a futuristic fish trolley-car

More Twinkle Twinkle Little Star than Star Maker!

Japanese toilets can provide a bewildering (and rather intimidating) selection of options.

Fearlessly inquisitive, Maxwell poked a button while taking a poo - and got a hose-like shot of water blasted up onto his bum as a reward!

No Basho (sumo wrestling contests) while we were in Tokyo but we did spot some big waddling sumo boys blocking the escalators between feeds!

The Japanese tea ceremony: rich with a many-stepped ritual around its presentation and consumption.

We were just glad we were able to keep the kids from rampaging through the tea hall in their muddy shoes...

The Shinkansen Bullet trains are the fastest in the world and zipped us across Japan in a blur of motion.

Equally futuristic - incredible self-steaming food packages. Pull a wee string and a cloud of steam emerges from the box, creating a piping-hot meal!

Japan's No.1 most visited destination.

Cheesy? Contrived? Counter-cultural?

Chipmunk cuddles! Car chases! Contented Campbells!

Across Japan we visited gorgeous temples and Shinto ceremonies, heirs to an ancient culture that developed in parallel but distinct to the west.

Top Row: Narita Temple

Middle Row: Tokyo Asakusa Temple and Kagoshima Castle (home of the Last Samurai)

Bottom Row: Endless temple gates, Kyoto; Golden Pagoda, Kyoto.

A 'must see' event fizzled out by a torrential downpour.

Family sanity retained by:
1) Two umbrellas and
2) Two little apple juice packets!

On the discrete side streets of old Kyoto, we passed a geisha, quietly shuffling towards her long training in traditional song and dance.

The samurai dude, however, was surely lost en route to a film set!

Temples and bamboo forest in the ancient capital of Kyoto: best explored by bike and the occasional rickshaw when legs get tired.

At first we were perplexed - where did the fuel come from in Japanese gas stations?!

Then we looked up!!!

Site of the first atomic bomb fired in anger, Hiroshima is now a lively, bustling city.

An echo of the tens of thousands of innocent people incinerated to speed the end of the second world war still haunts the streets.

Maxwell Displays The Power To Levitate Noodles - With His MIND!

Eating the toxic fugu (puffer fish) can be fatal if not prepared correctly.

Magnus scarfed a tasty bowl, then waited nervously to see if the chef was up to scratch...

The black volcanic sands at Ibusuki are heated by geothermal vents below.

What better way to spend the afternoon than buried alive and slowly broiled under a mound of burning hot sand?!

A final Japanese treat - a luxury stop over at a hot spring Japanese inn (onsen ryokan), accompanied by haute cuisine meals and burning hot medicinal waters.

A last chance, also, to sense the rising panic as a small child charges screaming through the metaphorical paper walls of Japanese taboo - Maxwell mistook an outdoor hot spring tub for a urinal and started taking a standing up naked pee into it as we stood aghast!!!

Time to get out of this country while we can - next stop South Korea!

If you want to see even more photos of our trip in Japan, check out the Full Japan Album on our photo album site.