Family trip to Osaka 5N, Kyoto 4N, Legoland 2N and Tokyo 6N. Sharing some highlights that were special and / or useful in our views. These worked for us, may or may not work for you depends on your family travel preference, kids’ personalities, plan and other circumstances.
I had been to Japan for pleasure and business for 5 times in total before kids. Husband’s second trip. Kids age 1, girl who is very active and age 3, boy who is shy and sensitive. Son is a great eater, he loves sushi, beef, fish and any snack. Girl doesn’t adore Japanese food as much but she is still breastfed and ate a lot of snacks.
When I copied over, the formatting is gone! Sorry for the report to be so messy!
Pre Trip: Things we found them useful
– [ ] Purchased Ubigi SIM Card 10GB online. Easy to install before reaching Japan. Turned the sim card on when touched down and ready to go. I used up all 10GB.
– [ ] Completed Arrival procedure Visit Japan Web for every family member. It can be done together, created a travel plan and added family member if I remembered correctly.
– [ ] Downloaded IC cards: Suica and Icoca on my husband and my iphone respectively. Top up using Amex card, other cards didn’t seem to work. Helpful for train, for payment at shops where credit card was not accepted.
– [ ] Purchased 2x Shinkansen tickets. Designated IC card to each shinkansen ticket by inputted IC card numbers to SmartEx App. Tap QR code at Shinkansen entrance. Collect the seat ticket stub and tap out when exited.
– [ ] Exchanged 50,000 Yen cash in home country.
– [ ] Brought Wise card for ATM withdrawal. Did one more withdrawal of 50,000 Yen which was the maximum ATM withdrawal limit per transaction. Fee 220 Yen per withdrawal.
– [ ] Purchased diapers and other kids toiletries via Amazon Japan and had them deliver the day before arrival to hotel. I added in a bribery Anpamman toy to welcome the kids after long red eye flight. Winner with 2 toddlers!
– [ ] Reserved via concierge or online that few restaurants that we were looking forward to.
– [ ] Purchased via Klook an airport transfer from Osaka Airport to Hotel at Umeda.
– [ ] Two private drivers: a) 4 hours for a tour in Kyoto through GoWithGuide. Extremely good service pre and during the tour. b) 2 ways trip to Mother Farm Chiba from Tokyo via hotel concierge.
– [ ] Read Tokyochapter and Reddit Trip Reports for tips with toddlers!
Accommodation
– [ ] Osaka: Intercontinental Residence Umeda, 1 bedroom apartment. Good size, kids amenities available like diaper bin, toilet seat, step stool, crib, etc. Good location, about 7-10mins walk to Osaka station through Grand Front Osaka. Comes with breakfast. I regretted it a bit as no washing mqchine!! But this is my lack of research.
– [ ] Kyoto: Genji Kyoto River Suite Balcony room. Communal washing machine. Good size. Amazing view, lovely area walkable to Gion about 15-20 minutes. By the river.
– [ ] Legoland Nagoya: Pirate room was fun for kids.
– [ ] Tokyo: Oakwoods Premier 1 bedroom executive, great size, all amenities including kids, cooking facility, washing machine and drying function in bathroom. Location unbeatable right next to Tokyo station Daimaru. Basically 2 mins walk. Easy to grab taxi in front.
Food
Generally we ate 1 sit down meal in a day. Out of 4 hotels we stay, Osaka and Legoland provided breakfast however in Osaka we missed a few days of breakfast. We had a fair bit of days where we ate picnic lunch or just random snacks from Konbini. My boy loves Japanese food and requested for sushi most days. He is a good eater. My girl ate whatever her brother fancies however she is impartial to Japanese food.
All the places we reserved were children friendly i.e. accepting kids with some have private room and some provide kids meal. Our kids order from adult menu sometime.
We also ordered a few uber, mostly ramen or yakitori. Not every shop has English info on Uber Eats. I just looked at pictures. We did many konbini breakfast or lunch picnic, coffee break that I did not include below.
Osaka
– [ ] Matsusaka Yakiniku M Hanare Branch at Namba dinner. Reserved online a month ago for private room. May be a danger if your toddler is extremely active with hot barbeque in the middle of table within their reach. Got to be vigilant at all time which made it a bit stressful. My boy enjoyed beef a lot.
– [ ] Zauo Fishing Namba dinner for our kids to experience fish for their food. Seated at boat area (tatami). Reserved online two weeks back and changed timing on the day itself with no problem. I assume no need to reserve in advance then, seems easy to get table. Kids meal available. Fun time, they love it!
– [ ] Kura Sushi dinner (60 mins wait). Actually some @ss took our number and by the time I got there, they just asked me to wait and wait then issued my husband a new number later on so we kind of re-queued. Anyway we can reserve Kura Sushi online in Tokyo (maybe other cities too?)!
– [ ] Coco at Tempozan. Very kids oriented.
– [ ] A few restaurants selling Japanese dishes. Walk in with no wait. They were called “izakaya” in google. One of them is Osaka-oden Yakiton Kyu at Grand Front Osaka (Tatami seat). Another place we went at some basement of a shopping centre in Umeda didn’t have high chair and while they didn’t seem happy, they provided kids’ cutleries.
Kyoto
– [ ] Ayuchaya Hironaya lunch, reserved 2 weeks in advance by hotel concierge. Delicious yudofu set meal. Our kids loved the tofu. Private room in beautiful traditional setting with stream outside. Tatami seat. Sets for adults only – kids shared.
– [ ] Kikyo Sushi dinner, reserved 2 weeks in advance online. Table seat. English speaking waiter. Food was alright. Have high chair.
– [ ] Gion Maruyama Kaiseki lunch. Reserved via Pocket Concierge. 2 adults set + 2 children set. Private room. Tatami seat. My boy enjoyed the food especially from my set. My girl did not and was asleep on the floor for an hour or so.
– [ ] Soba Takahasi Kawaramachi. Walk in. Delicious! Seems like an one man show. We were seated upstair and we were only table. All customers were downstairs. Perfect. Our kids can whack havoc. Tatami seat.
– [ ] Udon and Salad at Omokage Arashiyama. I love its udon and garden. No high chair.
– [ ] Takoyaki from random shop at Gion for dinner
Legoland
– [ ] Excellent dinner at Gyukatsu Kyoto at Maker’s pier. Kids menu available. My boy ended up eating all my beef!!
– [ ] Lunch inside the park. Lazy to walk out.
– [ ] Dinner at Gottie’s Beef at Maker’s Pier. Kids menu available. Service and food are unmemorable/
– [ ] Bread from Patissiere at Maker’s Pier for lunch
– [ ] Pizza from Marino Pizzeria at Maker’s Pier.
Some notes:
1. Almost all shops were closed on Monday so we made do.
2. Some restaurants closed at 6-7pm such as Marino Pizzeria.
Tokyo
– [ ] Ginza Kyubey for Sushi lunch. Reserved 2 weeks in advance via hotel concierge. Set menu. Ala carte cooked food or maki is available for kids. Private room.
– [ ] Ishibashi Sukiyaki for Sukiyaki dinner. Reserved via JPNEAZY 2 weeks in advance. Private room.
– [ ] Kura Sushi (my boy loves it!). Can reserve online.
– [ ] Tsukiji sushiko wa nagomi.
– [ ] Torasuzu Asakusa.
– [ ] Din Tai Fung.
– [ ] Barbacoa.
– [ ] Gonpachi Nori Temaki Takeaway for picnic at Yoyogi.
– [ ] Thai Food take away from basemant of our hotel.
Transportation
Intercity
– [ ] SmartEx prebooked Shinkansen Kyoto – Nagoya & Nagoya – Tokyo. Designate each ticket to IC card.
– [ ] Osaka – Kyoto. JR no prebook. Regular train.
– [ ] Osaka – Nara. Limited express sightseeing train. Not worth the trouble with kids I feel. Perhaps just catch regular train.
Within City
– [ ] Midosuji line from Namba to Umeda.
– [ ] Nara to Osaka Aquarium
– [ ] The rest of times we 1) used GO or Uber App or hail taxi from street 2) walk. This is by far, the best choice. Saved time and energy. To note, our daily activities were usually within 1 to 2 areas maximum so we averaged 2 taxi rides + walk.
Medical
– [ ] We bought all our kids medicine for fever, flu, cough, diarrhea hydration sachet, antibiotic cream and thermometer.
– [ ] When our boy developed cough in Osaka, we first went to drugstore to get cough syrup. Easy to find Sugi Drug store or any other drug store, employees were always helpful to recommend and we can communicate using Google Translate.
– [ ] After 2 days of cough, although we had our own medicine and also tried Japanese medicine, we went to Kid Clinic Kijima at Hotel Osaka just in case given we were early in the trip so we hope to resolve his cough early! Very easy to register and received a slot. Suggest to call ahead to ask what time you should go for registration as there are non infectious (I assume for vaccination and stuffs) and infectious slots. Brought passport for registration. Nurses and doctors were helpful and spoke English. Cost 8000 Yen.
– [ ] Then our boy fell from bed, vomitted twice and fell drowsy. Now we were not sure if he was having possible concussion or just crying after shock caused him to vomit because he just finished eating breakfast. So we sent him to Tokyo International Clinic at Tokyo station. Fast and good English spoken. They do not have any scanning machine so they recommended to us to go to Toranomon Hospital ER however at that point (2 hours after fall) after my boy drank apple juice, he was back to normal self and full of live. We decided to observe. Cost 16000 Yen.
– [ ] To note, we have travel insurance.
Other Toddler Stuffs
– [ ] We used a Bugaboo Butterfly. We had an attachment board which we used for a day or so then abandoned it. Our two toddlers shared the stroller, they are petite. We also had an Ergobaby carrier. Combination of both was super useful. Stroller was useful, the kids can nap, rest, hid when it was hot or rainy and put our bag under.
– [ ] Easy to find elevators most times just added more time to walk. Sometime if only my boy was in stroller, we pushed it up escalator. There was only one time we needed to carry stroller up down staircase, when we got lost in Osaka station.
– [ ] Please bring and apply sunblock!! We were blessed with great weather. Only 1 downpour and 2 drizzling days. Other days were hot and our kids were sunburnt.
Activities Our Toddlers Love
Osaka
– [ ] Aquarium – it was a cold rainy day!
– [ ] Kids Plaza Osaka
– [ ] Dotombori lights
Kyoto
– [ ] Kyoto Railway Museum
– [ ] Temples: Otagi and Adashino
– [ ] Kyoto Zoo
– [ ] Walk by the river
– [ ] Arashiyama rickshaw and boat ride
Tokyo
– [ ] Mother’s Farm at Futtsu, Chiba
– [ ] Picnic at Yoyogi Park on Sunday
– [ ] Tokyo Toy Museum
– [ ] Asakusa Sensoji Temple (we went at 5pm, not crowded)
– [ ] Asakusa Rickshaw ride
– [ ] Tokyo Station Character Street
– [ ] Shibuya Disney Store
Ultimately Legoland took the prize. Small enough to walk around and yet sufficient to entertain kids below 6 I guess. Lovely 3D2N there!
Hope this is of any help. Please let me know if you have any question. Lastly, I made an itinerary pre trip that each day had 1 must see and rest are optional. We dropped some stuffs, added some and switched the days around but I think we managed to accomplish 80% of what we wanted.
Couldn’t ask for a better holiday ❤️
by Acrobatic-Archer9218