We recently went on a trip to Tokyo and Kyoto with our 3-year-old. And it was a fun and nice trip. For my parent-friends, here are some tips and information about traveling with a toddler in Tokyo and Kyoto.
How is it like to travel with a 3-year old in Tokyo and Kyoto?
It was easier than I imagined. My 3-year old can already communicate what he wants, so that might also helped during the trip. But it is not much harder than getting around with a 3-year old in The Netherlands. Japan, or at least Tokyo and Kyoto (the big cities) are quite accommodating for babies and small kids. Every toilet that we went to, had a baby chair in the women stall. Also the nursery rooms near the toilets were very nice.
I picked two big Japanese cities to travel with my 3-year old kid, so that we would have all the easy access things to food, entertainment, shops, whatever. But in the end, it doesn’t matter where you go with your kid. They will like it anyway, because they are with you. And if you can survive somewhere, they will too. So in the end I regretted that we didn’t see the smaller cities in Japan. We could have managed it. And it might have been less crowded, which is also nicer for the kid (and for the parents).
But it was fun to show our kid Japan; the food, the culture, the entertainment, the kawaii stuff and the people.
What activities can you do with small kids?
Basically kids can do anything you want to do. But if you want to accommodate more to your kids then there are nice playgrounds and kid-friendly-museums in Japan.
Tokyo
In the big malls there are also very beautiful playgrounds with toys, jumping area and crafting areas. In the Skytree mall my kid enjoyed half an hour playing all these things. A parent can also join. The cost was 700 yen for the child and 300 yen for the parent. There were even massage chairs next to this playground. So I enjoyed a nice session of massage while waiting for them.
Shibuya was a nice place for shopping for the parents. Also the stores have more space, so it’s nicer to walk around there with your kid and stroller.
Odaiba has some nice museums for small children. Small Worlds is a fun museum for kids and also the area is not that crowded. The Tokyo Water Science Museum is here and The National Museum of Emerging Science. The shopping malls at Odaiba can get crowded in the weekends, but there are also indoor playgrounds for kids.
Kyoto
We visited a free temple Higashi Hongan-ji Temple near Kyoto Station, which had lot of space. When you enter the temple you need to be quiet, so this could be a challenge for small kids. And you need to take your shoes off when entering the buildings. This temple was not crowded.
The tourist spots in Kyoto were nice; Hōkan-ji Temple (Yasaka Pagoda) and the streets were nice to roam around. Lot’s of things to eat and to shop.
The Fushimi Inari Taisha (thousands of torii gates). It was crowded, but still a nice hike with the kid. You can leave your stroller in the lockers near the bicycle area. So be prepared to hold your kid or to sit at some rest areas. On the way up you will pass by little shops where you can buy a snack or a drink.
The Kyoto Aquarium was small, but had interesting sea creatures. We used this place to hide from the rain.
What activities would you not recommend with small kids?
Don’t go to too crowded places is the main tip. Unless it is a tourist place you really want to visit.
Malls in the weekend can become quite crowded and can be quite overstimulating for children. So balance it with some relaxing playground outside or go to a more quite restaurant outside the mall.
Arcade halls with claw machines are also busy places. Fun to play little games, but the noise and people can be overwhelming. Also for me sometimes. 🙈
Akihabara is quite crowded with all the small stores. I don’t recommend to walking in the stores with a stroller. Also, there is not much small children entertainment, but a lot of ‘big’ children entertainment. Anime and manga fans can go crazy here.
We visited the Museum of Contemporary Art in Tokyo. This was not that suitable for children. We could have better picked something like children-friendly museum, like Anpanman Museum. But I wanted to visit this museum.
Tips for food and kids?
Most restaurants are prepared for babies and kids. They will have children’s chairs and children utensils. I often searched for restaurants with a low table and chairs. So our kid could sit comfortably and we have place for our folded stroller. But we even ate at a counter ramen restaurant which was totally okay for our 3-year old. We didn’t go to a fancy sushi place, because that kind of atmosphere is also not suitable for children. We also went to an izakaya (alcohol and food), but they are not suitable for kids, because they are not prepared for little kids.
Our kid ate mostly the same as us, even conveyor belt sushi. Sometimes he didn’t eat much dinner, but bread from the convenience store was always welcome.
At certain chain restaurants they have a kids menus and they will give the kid a small toy. We visited a family restaurant ‘Royal Host Takanawa’ and it had western style and Japanese style food. The food was simple, but delicious. Our kid also enjoyed the food and his toy. I expected to mainly visit family restaurants. I wanted to accommodate our kid. In the end, the other restaurants were just fine.
How do you get around?
Stroller
Bring a stroller which is light and travel-friendly. (We brought the Cybex Libelle, which is 6kg and very small when folded.) Sometimes when your kid needs a nap, they can nap in the stroller. Sometimes when the stroller was not needed, we would put it in a locker. There are plenty lockers everywhere; near subway stations, train stations and in the malls etc. Because there are a lot of tourists who have suitcases with them. We also used the lockers for putting in our two big suitcases, when we couldn’t go to our Airbnb yet. The price was 800 yen for one big locker.
Subway stations have elevators, but you have to look for them, not every exit has an elevator. You can use Google Maps and put on the Trip Options > Route options: ‘Wheelchair accessible’. This way Google Maps will look for elevators.
Internet on your phone
We bought a 20 euro internet bundle for 2 GB from KPN, so we would have 4G in Japan. Malls, big stations, the airport, the hotel, some shops and restaurants will have free Wi-Fi.
Public transport
We took trains, subways, taxis and busses during our trip. Kids (0-5) travel for free with public transport. If your kid occupies a reserved train seat, then it will be 50% of the adult fare. We bought single tickets and we eventually bought a public transport card (Suica and ICOCA) and topped some money on there. You can also use your transport card to pay at convenience stores or at vending machines. If you have an iPhone it is very easy to put a digital transport card in your Wallet app and top it with your creditcard. You then can just swipe your phone on the IC area at the subway gate.
Taxi’s are also easy to call and cost more than public transport. But we used it a few times for convenience: traveling with a lot of suitcases or to save time. For example: 2000 yen (12,26 euro) in 20 minutes, in stead of 460 yen(2,80 euro) in 55 min subway ride. I believe you can use the DiDi app to call a taxi, but it’s also easy to stop the many taxis on the street.
Don’t travel with public transport during the rush hours, you don’t want to squish your little kid in a sardine train. Usually rush hour starts around 17:00. We usually were looking for someplace to eat during this time. Most dinner restaurants open at 17:00, so it’s not very crowded yet. The restaurants get crowded at 19:00.
Suitcase service: Yamato Transport
When we traveled from Tokyo to Kyoto by train, we wanted to have less suitcases on our hand. So we send one big suitcase to Kyoto beforehand. Two days before we would arrive in Kyoto we asked the concierge at our hotel to send our suitcase to our Kyoto hotel. They filled in the form for Yamato Transport and arranged everything. We got a receipt. The costs for this was around 2500 yen (15 euro). When we arrived in Kyoto two days later, our suitcase was ready next to other send suitcases.
Your hotel or Airbnb might not have this service of receiving suitcases from Yamato Transport. Then you can look for a suitcase dropping place near your hotel or Airbnb. Some seven elevens have this service, or they just have a small shop somewhere.
How are the prices of things?
Hotels
Hotels range from 50 euro to 1000 euro per night. I choose for a bit more space in the room (20m2), which was about 150 euro per night. I booked a few months beforehand at Booking.com to get some nice discounts. Kids under 6 year old can stay for free at some hotels, but then they will probably sleep in the same bed as the parents. So check how many beds you want. I picked rooms with big beds, Queen-size and King-size. I wanted more space for the suitcases to open and for the kid to run around.
Airbnb
I also booked an Airbnb in Tokyo, near Skytree. This was 150 euro per night and had lots of space (37m2). I would recommend to book Airbnb’s with children, because you get more space and there might be a kitchen and a washing machine.
The hotels and Airbnb that we used:
| Hotel / Airbnb | Per night |
|---|---|
| Hotel Intergate Kyoto Shijo Shinmachi (Kyoto) | 142 euro |
| Grand Prince Hotel Shin Takanawa (Tokyo) | 186 euro |
| C301・スカイツリー徒歩5分・オープンセール・新築37㎡・渋谷/浅草/銀座まで直通 (Tokyo) | 147 euro |
Average day cost for us
For two adults and one 3-year old our costs were:
| Average price / day | min —max | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|
| breakfast | 2 euro | 0 — 2 euro | We often ate bread or an onigiri from the convenience store. Bought the night before. |
| lunch | 23 euro | 15 — 28 euro | |
| dinner | 40 | 20 — 63 euro | 60 euro is usually when we order wagyu meat. If you don’t count our two times waygu dinner, than the average dinner costs was 30 euro for us three. |
| drink / snack | 8 euro | 2 — 13 euro | This was ice cream, drinks + cake or just 1 snack |
| entertainment | 30 euro | 12 — 43 euro | Kyoto tower, aquarium, museum |
| transport | 6 euro | 4 — 15 euro | Subway is cheapest (1,40 euro per trip per adult), taxi is average 15 euro. |
| Total: 109 euro | So average we spend 109 euro/day for the three of us. (Not counting the shopping expenses.) |
A shinkansen (high-speed bullet train) ticket from Kyoto to Tokyo is: 85 euro adult, 43 euro kid (~5 year)
What did you buy?
Shopping is fun! There are so many cute, design, and good quality items in Japan. And with the current exchange rate it is quite affordable. We didn’t buy a lot of things for our kid, but the quality of clothes is quite good. We bought a lot of gachapons for the small kid and the big kid.
I bought a lot of stationary: pens, stickers and paper items. Also shoulder bags bags are very nice. Loft was my shopping heaven.
Diapers: You can’t find any baby diapers at the convenience store like 7-Eleven or FamilyMart. You can find them at big grocery stores, drug stores and Don Quijote.
Is it hard to communicate if you don’t know any Japanese?
Most service employees (in big cities) are prepared for foreigners. Some employees know English. Or they will have a picture cardboard with questions like “do you need a bag?”. Also you can say “card”, because it’s similar to how they pronounce it in Japanese.
But it’s good to learn a few basic phrases, like “hello, thank you, yes, no, excuse me”. Simimasen (excuse me, I am sorry) can be used for a lot of situations: if you need to pass by someone, or need the waiter’s attention, or when you enter the elevator and thank someone holding it for you.
The big cities often have English menu’s or extra English explanation next to the Japanese text. There were a lot of manuals for how to flush the toilet, or how to use a certain thing. If you can read Chinese, then it can also help you understand things.
We never had a situation where we couldn’t communicate. But I think that would be different outside of the big cities.
Any more tips?
We used an Apple tag on a key-chain for our kid when we went to crowded places. And I would suggest to write your +31.6…. mobile number somewhere, on a sticker or in the clothing of the toddler. Just to be sure.
We visited Japan during the off-season (May), just behind the Cherry blossom season (March-April) and before the summer heat (July-August). The weather was really nice, average around 20 degrees Celsius. I also recommend to visit Japan during Fall, the weather is cooling down and the tree leaves are gorgeous.
Should you visit Japan with your small kids? Absolutely! They will love it, you will love it. Just be prepared for more chill days, than packed days. One big activity per day is good enough. Everything extra is a bonus.