Walk in the footsteps of samurai...

This was such a hard list to write. The thing is, while some countries have a clear-cut shortlist of top family destinations, Japan is totally awash with them. Every city is packed with stuff to do, every town has a local festival to join in, and every village has a friendly innkeeper ready to take your kids under their wing. Family travel in Japan is pretty much an unmitigated delight.

So, while the destinations on this list offer some of our favourite experiences, they’re really just the tip of the iceberg. Take them as your starting point and let your imagination run wild — because there’s no end to the fun you can have with children in Japan.

Feel dwarfed by the sculptures at Sapporo's snow festival�

Imagine a traditional Japanese festival, then add twinkling illuminations, snow slides, ice skating, and mammoth snow and ice sculptures depicting everything from Darth Vader to pagodas. Welcome to the Sapporo Snow Festival, the biggest event in Japan’s winter calendar.

Held over a week in February, the snow festival a winter wonderland for kids — but it’s fantastic for adults too, thanks to the free-flowing Sapporo beer, “Genghis Khan” lamb barbecue, and steaming hot spring baths in the snow. It’s also easily paired with a few days on the slopes in Niseko, which is a fantastic option for skiing families.

It’s not for those who hate crowds (the festival draws in more than two million visitors per year), and you won’t love it if you’re bothered by the cold — but if your family loves snowball fights and cosy meals together, Sapporo in the winter is a fantastic experience.

Become a pirate on Hakone's Lake Ashi�

Watched over by looming Mount Fuji (whether you can see her or not), the hot-spring resort of Hakone is Japanese holidaymaking at its finest.

If your family has diverse interests, Hakone is one of the best places in Japan to indulge them. You could spend days exploring its many bizarre activities, which range from a Ferrari showroom to a preserved section of the Tokaido samurai trail, and from boiling black eggs in sulphurous hot springs to climbing on artworks at an interactive open-air sculpture park. Getting around is part of the fun, as you bounce between bubbling hot springs, mountaintop observatories and oddball attractions by cable car, funicular railway, bus and (our personal favourite) pirate ship across magnificent Lake Ashi.

If you’re after unspoilt Japan, Hakone isn’t going to be your first choice. But if you’re up for a weird, wonderful, and unashamedly commercialised good time in a stunning mountain setting just a stone’s throw from Tokyo, there’s nowhere better.

Meet the friendly deer in Nara�

Affectionately dubbed “Little Kyoto” for its authentic old town centre and impressive clutch of temples and shrines, Nara is one of our favourite places to get away from the usual tourist trail. (Plus, it’s easier to get children interested in temples and shrines if they’re overrun with friendly deer). You can buy some sembei crackers to feed them, but sometimes we find it’s entertaining enough just to watch them stealing maps out of people’s pockets and chasing nervous tourists.

For an added bit of fun, head to Todai-ji Temple to see the giant Buddha and look for a pillar with a hole in it. It's said that the hole is the size of the Buddha’s nostril, and if you squeeze through it you’ll be guaranteed enlightenment in your next life. So they say, anyway.

If you want the history of Kyoto without the crowds, Nara could be the perfect escape.

Walk in the footsteps of samurai at Himeji Castle�

What’s cooler than a samurai castle? A samurai castle that’s also starred as a ninja training camp in a James Bond film, that’s what.

OK, so your kids are definitely too young to remember You Only Live Twice (come to think of it, you’re probably too young too). But Himeji Castle is still all kinds of cool. Built over 400 years ago, this is the biggest and most beautiful feudal castle in Japan. It’s so huge that you could spend hours playing ninjas and samurai around its grounds and keep, and its beautiful gardens are a stunning place for a picnic lunch (beneath the cherry blossoms in spring). Stay overnight and visit in the morning to avoid the crowds, then head to little-visited Engyo-ji Temple in the afternoon to get off the usual tourist trail.

For children who are fascinated by history, the castle donjon is full of details like portholes, rock chutes, samurai armour and hidden crawl-spaces that instantly bring the past to life.

Sneak through hidden passageways at Kanazawa's ninja temple�

Kanazawa is best-known for its beautiful garden and preserved wooden buildings — unless you’re a kid, in which case it’s the ninja temple all the way.

Built by the Maeda Clan back in the Edo Period, Myoryuji Temple earned its nickname because of its remarkably tricky set of defences — tricky enough to flummox the shogun’s building regulators, anyway. Today, it’s great fun to explore the hidden tunnels, booby traps, secret rooms and labyrinthine corridors and staircases that allowed this temple to function as a secret military outpost.

When you’ve finished exploring the temple, Kanazawa is packed with activities that are fun for the whole family. Stand beneath Leandro Erlich’s fake swimming pool at the contemporary art museum, watch artisans at work in the crafts shops of the old town centre, or make day trips into the beautiful surrounding countryside. This small, laid-back city is an absolute gem.

Go on a street-food tasting adventure in Osaka�

Osaka is city life on steroids: overwhelming, but in a way that’s never intimidating or scary.

Osakans are famous for their friendly, down-to-earth attitude, and there’s no better way to make friends than by snacking your way down neon-drenched Dotonbori, grabbing kushikatsu meat skewers and takoyaki octopus balls from food stalls beneath giant moving crabs and illuminated pufferfish. It’s busy but super-safe: lose sight of a child for a second and they’ll probably be chatting with a shopkeeper, or being cooed over by some old ladies. Japan’s like that.

And when you’re not eating, Osaka’s full to bursting with fantastic family-friendly ideas. The big one is Universal Studios, but there’s also Osaka Castle, the Cup Noodle Museum (where you get to create your own instant ramen), arcades filled with video games and claw machines (which actually work) — and that’s just for starters.

Explore the teen fashion hub of Harajuku�

In Tokyo’s Harajuku district, the kids are in charge. The obsession with cutesy kawaii; the out-there fashion culture; the rainbow grilled cheese sandwiches and the conveyor-belt dessert bars: all these trends were born in Harajuku, and there’s always something new just around the corner.

Arrive into the mock-Tudor Harajuku Station and then take a walk down Takeshita Street. Pop into the famous Daiso 100 yen store (amazing for souvenir-shopping), grab a crêpe piled high with strawberries and cream. Get lost in a five-floor toy shop, dive into a monster thrift store, or tackle the chaotic bastion of lolita fashion that is the 13-storey Laforet department store. Be sure to swing by Reissue, where the resident latte artist will recreate a picture of your choosing on top of your coffee, and make a stop at Dog, where Lady Gaga has been known to visit incognito.

Of course, the real draw of Harajuku is the people-watching. Come on the weekend, when the city’s teen army descends in all their candy-coloured, gothic, neo-punk, accessory-spangled glory, and you’ll get to see what this little slice of Tokyo is all about.

Ride the monorail to Tokyo's Odaiba Island�

Odaiba’s a strange one, and that’s precisely why we love it. Getting there is an adventure in itself. Take the monorail across the Rainbow Bridge at dusk and watch as the glittering lights of Tokyo recede across the bay, passing beneath a glowing suspension bridge and approaching the spherical observation room of the Jetsons-eque Fuji TV HQ.

Once there, you might start with the famous Gundam Wing statue, then head to the teamLab Digital Art Museum, where the whole family can lose themselves in psychedelic dreamscapes made out of trampolines, obstacle courses and projected lights. Then, you might head to DiverCity shopping centre to check out the poop museum (yep), hit the amusements at Sega Joypolis, or explore the futuristic tech at the Miraikan museum of science and innovation.

If you’re looking for a way to see out your family holiday with a bang, the non-stop stimulation and sheer only-in-Japan kookiness of Odaiba makes it a fantastic choice.

Join in Japan's biggest dance festival in Tokushima�

Japan’s traditional culture isn’t always easy for kids to appreciate, but spend a night or two in the city of Tokushima and you’ll see that it's not all about the delicate movements of tea ceremony and the stillness of a Zen garden.

Celebrating nothing more high-brow than the local “fool’s dance” — a joyful hopscotch performed with flailing arms to the accompaniment of flutes and drums — Awa Odori is one of Japan’s most beloved summer festivals.

This is the Japanese at their most laid-back and uninhibited, and you won’t be able to avoid being dragged into the dance — whether it’s by an elegant lady with a pink skirt and a hat like a folded sembei cracker, or a fan-wielding fellow with a handkerchief tied beneath his nose. The festival is held between the 12th-15th of August, but you can experience Awa Odori at any time of year as performances are held pretty much every night at the dance hall.

If you want to snack on street-food, make friends with the locals, and soak up the unique atmosphere of a traditional Japanese festival — all in a part of Japan rarely visited by foreign tourists — Tokushima can’t be beaten.