First time family holiday in Japan

Hi Tegan,

Here are some answers for you:

1. It's really easy to get to Osaka station using the JR Kansai Airport Rapid Service train. Assuming you clear customs by 9:00pm, here are a set of sample itineraries. As you can see there are a lot of trains so you should be fine I think. Also, it's a direct service so there will be no changes before Osaka (good with kids!).
2. For travelling between Tokyo and Osaka you should aim to use the bullet trains. These will be by far the simplest option and are a great experience. (I'll attach a sample itinerary below)
3. For Disneyland you can simply pay on arrival I think. Getting to Disneyland from Tokyo station is really easy so can be done without a tour. I will include an example below using Maihama station, the station for the Disney Resort. For Mt Fuji I recommend you visit Hakone with the Odakyu Hakone Free Pass. Hakone has lots of great views of Mt Fuji (on a clear day!), and has many things to do (Ropeways, trams, lake cruises and so on), in addition to having some great hot spring Japanese Ryokan hotels.You could book a tour for this, but it is also a fairly simple trip if you wanted to attempt it by yourselves. For reference you would get the JR bullet train to Odawara, and then use the Hakone Free Pass to travel up to Hakone itself. I have included the Odawara trip in your itinerary below on your way down to Kyoto.

Here is a breakdown of your train legs that you can use as a starting point:

1. Kansai airport > Osaka: ¥2,600 (53mins, 57km)
2. Osaka > Tokyo: ¥13,950 (194mins, 556km)
3. Tokyo > Maihama: ¥210 (15mins, 12km)
4. Maihama > Tokyo: ¥210 (16mins, 12km)
5. Tokyo > Odawara: ¥3,840 (35mins, 83km)
6. Odawara > Kyoto: ¥11,950 (160mins, 429km)
7. Kyoto > Kansai airport: ¥3,690 (79mins, 99km)

JR ticket cost: ¥36,450 for 7 legs

• 7 day Japan Rail Pass (¥28,300) saving: ¥8,150

You can look up precise train timetables and costs at the Hyperdia travel planning website and learn how to use Hyperdia for JR Pass holders through our video blog.

Note that if you did use a JR Pass, you can use it on all the JR lines in Tokyo freely. Here's a map of JR lines in Tokyo for reference.

Hope this helps!