MORE: Geisha hunting in Kyoto: 7 things to know before going to Gionįirst, you’ll need to toss your Universal Studios fantasies out the sliding shoji screen door. This is when you need to hit the Toei Kyoto Studio Park – or Toei Uzumasa Eigamura – and spend an afternoon geeking out on some of the most familiar icons of Japanese pop culture, from samurais and geisha to “Dragon Ball” and “Sailor Moon.” When traveling to Kyoto with kids, the mutinous cries of “Not another zen garden, dad!” will inevitably ring out, threatening to derail that dream family vacation. Unless you’re a traveler under the age of 12 and don’t give a hoot about learning the correct way to whisk a bowl of matcha green tea, exploring ancient UNESCO World Heritage sites or counting how many torii gates there are at the Fushimi Inari-Taisha Shrine (10,000, for the record). Kyoto, Japan’s capital from 794 to 1868, is one of the biggest stars on the Japan tourism trail, recently voted “ world’s best city” by Travel + Leisure magazine readers.

Studio park theater