Curator’s statement
Japan is one of the most kid-friendly countries in the world and one of the best cultural experiences for little ones! Traveling to Japan with kids can seem intimidating, but having just mastered a two-week trip with my three kids (ages, 6, 4, and nearly 2), I want to inspire you to take the trip. This guide will focus on activities in Tokyo and Osaka as I feel these are the best bases for traveling to Japan with kids. Japan is a country you can visit again and again, and seeing it through your child’s eyes is immeasurable.
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Things to do
TeamLab Planets
Tokyo activities
Tokyo Disneyland: I loved this park! Experiencing a theme park in another country is such a cool experience and this one was so fun! Beauty and the Beast was the coolest ride ever, so I would encourage you to prioritize this one if you can since you won’t find anything like this in the U.S.. This park was very manageable with little ones and lots of food options.
Tokyo DisneySea: This park is massive! While truly unique, it was much larger and more spread out and uphill than I realized, definitely more challenging if your kids are young. I also found it challenging to find food as there are limited options in certain areas, that only allow mobile ordering, and not all kid-friendly food (example: curry popcorn). I think this park is designed more for older kids or adults. While still a fun day, it’s a bit more exhausting if your kids are on the younger side.
KidZania Tokyo: This place has an amazing concept, but a bit overwhelming for a first timer to say the least. Your kids sign up for different jobs (everything from nurse to dentist to firefighter to flower shop, etc) and they earn money which they can later spend in the department store. If you choose to visit, you should install the app ahead of time, which I did not know about. This allows you to see various wait times for jobs and sign up for jobs. Due to not having the app, we tried to join activities on the fly and my girls were only able to complete two jobs before they were tired out, so I did feel like it was a bit pricey for what we got, but a good experience and with better planning it would be fun to do again.
TeamLab Planets: An immersive art museum, with three different sections (water, garden, and forest), unique to Japan. You will definitely want to book tickets in advance for this one as they can sell out.
Unko Museum: A poop museum, who knew? If you happen to have a couple hours to kill or want to make your kids really happy, this is a cute little spot with a ball pit, inside a shopping center, next to Starbucks and the HelloKitty store. I would say we spent about 1 to 1.5 hours here total. Your child will leave with a pretend poop toy. It was a hit!
Legoland: We never actually made it here, but it was in my list. They have locations in both Tokyo and Osaka, so you could plan a visit in either city.
Ginza Art Aquarium Museum: This is a beautiful aquarium on the 8th floor of a shopping and dining center in Ginza. Perfect to add to a shopping day if you are traveling with kids. It’s somewhat small, maybe an hour total.
Osaka activities
Osaka Aquarium: Without a doubt one of the most impressive aquariums I’ve ever seen and one of the best in the world. This one, in my opinion, is a must do! It’s located next door to Legoland so it could easily be combined for a full day depending on the age of your kids and their energy levels. The aquarium was absolutely beautiful! We saw the hugest whale sharks, stingrays, and sea lions. There is a small café with limited options for snacks and dining, so bring snacks and get lunch afterward in the mall next door.
Osaka Castle: My kids were excited to see a castle, but not as thrilled with the inside. It’s beautiful, with a museum in the center of a park. It’s a good half-day activity offering some picturesque spots of Osaka and the surrounding park.
Cup Noodles Museum (also in Yokohama, near Tokyo): One of the coolest experiences ever! Your children will get to design and create their own ramen noodle cups. You pay for the cups, 500 yen per cup, and can create three cups per person. My girls made one cup each. The experience starts by walking through the museum and the kids decorating their own cups. After decorating, they proceed through the assembly line where they choose a base flavor for their noodles and additional four toppings. A super cool activity and one of their favorites. They get to take home and eat their noodles.
Kobe Harborland and Kobe Children’s Museum: We did a day trip to Kobe. This is a cute, harbor front town with boutique shops and exceptional Kobebeef dining. I took my three kids to the Kobe Children’s Museum which does have a younger crowd, probably ages eight and younger would most enjoy it, but there are other kid-friendly activities in Kōbe for older kids.
Universal Studios Japan: While I didn’t make it here this trip, I would love to visit someday! It would have been our third park day and due to not having energy to tackle another park and having younger kids, I decided to focus on other activities, but I think this park looks super fun and if you have older children, definitely worth a visit! You will want to install the Universal Japan App before you go.
Umeda Sky Building: Absolutely worth a visit! It’s a beautifully designed building, with a café, on the 40th floor and an open-air rooftop observatory with two escalators going across connecting the two towers. You’ll get some of the best skyline photos of Osaka. Due to having a double stroller and three children, I didn’t do the escalator, but we were still able to go up, get photos, and walk around the rooftop observatory floor.
Places to eat & drink
Tempura set meal
Lawson, 7/11, and FamilyMart will be your best friend when traveling to Japan with kids. Convenience store food is actually exceptionally good in Japan. My kids loved the Lawson chicken nuggets, 7/11 egg sandwiches and smoothies, coolish ice cream pouches, the jello pouches, grape gummies, etc. There were many times I treated myself to a nice meal and got them convenience store food either before or after if they didn’t want to eat what I was eating.
Lunch: Due to having younger kids, I typically planned one excursion or activity per day in the morning and we ate lunch near whatever we were doing that day. I would recommend installing the Tabelog App on your phone so that you can see various restaurant ratings and even if you don’t have a spot in mind, it will allow you to assess options nearby your activities.
Treat your kids to at least one McDonald’s meal for comparison. They have some tasty treats unique to Japan.
Almost all dinner spots have either rice, tempura shrimp, or noodles, which were a hit with my kids when they refused to eat anything else.
Need to know
Trash: I’m still not sure what they do with all their trash in Japan, but you won’t find trash cans all over like you do in the U.S. They are hard to find, other than in metro stations and bathrooms, and even then they were sometimes small. I recommend bringing a bag to use for trash if you are traveling with little ones.
QR code: Before you leave, go to Visit Japan WebWeb and get a QR code for fast immigration entry. If you don’t do this, it’s okay, and you can easily fill out the immigration form on the airplane, but if you have the QR code in advance it will save you time on arrival. Each person needs this.
Elevators: I did my entire two-week trip with a double stroller and I can tell you I took hundreds of elevators on this trip. I took multiple elevators in every station, I think I took seven elevators in Tokyo Station alone. So they are there, they are doable, and some are easier to find than others. It was honestly the craziest and best workout of my life. I carried the double stroller up and down many stairs when it was more convenient. To find the elevators, like for the square image with the three stick figures inside of it with up and down arrows above.
Suica Mobile App: You have the choice to either purchase tickets as you go (which is what I did) or install the Suica Mobile App on your phone for efficiency and use it as like a prepaid tap purchase to board and take metro rides, much more efficient. Public transportation in Japan is the best in the world. Other than the two airport transfers on arrival and departure, I didn’t take a single taxi.We took metros everywhere and the Shinkansen JR trains to and from Osaka. The Shinkansen trains I did book in advance using the Klook App. I chose to do non-reserved seats so that we would have more flexibility in terms of taking a different train, vs. reserved seats where you must take your designated train.The great thing about traveling with kids in Japan is that only ages six and up have to pay for public transportation, so with four people on a two-week trip, I only had to pay for two! Totally worth it!
Luggage forwarding: The best service ever!!! I cannot tell you how wonderful this was! Traveling alone with three kids, it was my lifesaver. Both times to and from Osaka, our suitcase arrived at our next hotel before we did. You can ship your suitcase the day prior to your next hotel. Save one outfit for each family member and ship the rest for about $18–20 USD. If you are worried about doing this, get an air tag and put it in your suitcase to track your bag.
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