Edit: toddler was 18 months old at the time of this trip.
Well, I should’ve posted this a while ago but never got to it. Sharing our 24-day trip last December with a toddler. Apologies in advance, it will be a long one. I hope this will help other parents planning a trip to Japan. We’re heading back this December :). I'll try to include the restaurants we ate at as much as I can remember them, if not mentioned, no high chair was available. List of tips for parents at the end!
I will preface all of this by saying that we've been lucky enough to travel a lot with our toddler so we weren't stressing too much. We also live in NYC so we're also used to navigating big cities with a little one. The report will become less detailed towards the end as I didn’t document as much by then.
- Day 1: JFK – HND, arrival at 5AM. We slept on the flight and were feeling pretty good. Took a cab to our hotel and were able to check in around 7AM. We freshened up and decided to just start exploring the area and stay awake as long as we could. Toddler did an extra nap that day whilst holding onto 7/11 fried chicken and seemed otherwise fine.
- Hibiya Park: we were lucky to still see foliage, Ginza, Tokyo Station
- Restaurants: Glitch Coffee, Soranoiro Nippon (high chair + kids cutlery available), Ginza Sando (not sit down but amazing wagyu sando).
- Hotel: The Peninsula. Great hotel, good location for us to ease into our trip. Very family friendly, they gave us a cute bib, snacks, slippers, baby soap/lotion and a guard rail for the bed so my toddler could just sleep in the big bed. The breakfast in the hotel was also great, they had high chairs, pencils and paper for drawing and kids menu.
- Day 2: Tokyo. We love to walk around areas and just explore. We also made sure to find playgrounds wherever we could for our toddler to run around for a bit.
- Yoyogi, Yoyogi Park, Meiji Jingu shrine, Shibuya, Aoyama
- Restaurants: Menchirashi, Miyashin
- Day 3: Tokyo. We were up early still due to the jetlag so went to Tsukiji outer market. It was busy but not as touristy as I thought it would be. It may be a bit overpriced but we still enjoyed the food a lot nonetheless.
- Tsukiji outer market, Daikanyama, Shibuya
- Restaurants: Tempura Abe. This was booked through our hotel and it was such a fun, authentic experience. It was so busy during lunchtime but enjoyed it thoroughly. Highly recommend. Chatei Hatou, cozy little coffeeshop with delicious cakes.
- Day 4: Tokyo.
- Yayoi Kusama Museum, Shinjuku, Shirogane Park, Kagaruzake, Akasake, Aoyama
- Restaurants: Akomeya: this was a cool shop with an excellent food section, one section was just dedicated to rice and another floor of misc. goods. We ate lunch at the cafe and it was delicious. Sunnyhills for their pineapple cake.
- Day 5: Tokyo > Hakone > Kawaguchiko. We decided to rent a car to have more freedom to move around in the five lakes area. I’m glad we did, we were able to see different views of Fuji without any crowds.
- Hakone Open Air Museum: really fun and beautiful museum in general and also great with a toddler.
- Hotel: Bessho Sasa. Did not love the resort-y vibes of this hotel. The view of Mt. Fuji from our private onsen on the balcony of our room was beautiful but we weren’t a fan of how big the hotel was. It was pricey and the food was good but it was a lot. They provided a high chair and bed guard rails in our room.
- Restaurants: 7/11 on the road, dinner at the hotel included
- Day 6: Mt. Fuji. Weather forecast was rain + overcast so we went to the heritage center but we still got lucky because the weather turned. We had lunch and then drove around Lake Motosu-ko which was not crowded at all and have beautiful views of Mt. Fuji.
- Mt. Fuji World Heritage Centre, Lake Motosu-ko
- Restaurants: Unaten, fantastic unagi-don in a small local shop run by a wonderful husband/wife.
- Day 7: Mt. Fuji > Mishima > Kyoto. We dropped our rental car off at Mishima station and then took the Shinkansen to Kyoto.
- Chureito Pagoda: we got there at 9AM, it was getting crowded, Tenku-no Torii: we didn’t realize how busy this area would be and that people get 3 min to take photos. We did end up staying but it was a bit of a waste of time, Kawaguchiko lake (Nagasaki Park): this had a stunning view of Mt. Fuji with no crowds. We had our 7/11 lunch there and just soaked in the views.
- Restaurants: had the best hojicha soft serve of the trip here. Men-ya Kirameki – Kyoto Santo: one of my favorite bowls of ramen of the trip. Rich chicken broth.
- Hotel: Hyatt Regency Kyoto. Wonderful hotel with attentive staff that booked some restaurants for us. Room was fine, big bathroom but not anything special imo. Bed guard rails provided + toiletries for toddler.
- Day 8: Kyoto. We did the sightseeing early in the morning to beat the crowds (and toddler wakes up early anyway) and then chilled/explored the city the rest of the day.
- Fushimi Inari (7AM), Tofuku-ji (9AM)
- Restaurants: Hana Ice, Söt Coffee Roasters Kyoto, suba: excellent soba in a standing restaurant. Tea Ceremony, Fukujuen Honten.
- Day 9: Kyoto. I felt a bit sick so my husband took our toddler to explore they did the following:
- Arashiyama bamboo forest (7:30AM), Arashiyama Monkey Village, Kinkaku-ji.
- Restaurants: Kanga-an. All vegan temple cuisine in a beautiful setting.
- Day 10: Kyoto > Osaka. We took the train to Osaka and had a chill day as I was still feeling off.
- Hotel: voco Osaka. New hotel with modern interior. It was next to a nice park with a big playground which was nice the little one.
- Day 11: Osaka. Exploring the city and its food
- Kids Plaza Osaka, yes this is what you think this is. It’s really fun for kids but intense for the adults haha. But good place for toddler to decompress.
- Restaurants: Glitch Coffee Osaka, Takoyaki Umaiya,
- Day 12: Osaka
- Day 13: Osaka > Naoshima. Train to Okayama Station, bus to Uno Port, ferry to Naoshima.
- Naoshima is fantastic with a toddler. So much nature and cool sculptures to explore. It was low season which made the experience even more special as it wasn’t crowded.
- Hotel: Bennese House Park. Super cool hotel with shuttle service around the island. You get access to their galleries after hours as you walk to the restaurant for dinner.
- Day 14: Naoshima. We rented bikes (one with a kid seat) and biked around the island to all the different museums/artworks. One of my favorite days of the trip.
- Tado Ando Museum, Art House Project, Bennese Museum, Chichu Art Museum (our favorite!!), Lee Ufan Museum.
- Day 15: Noashima – Takamatsu – Tokyo. We took the ferry to Takamatsu and ate at an oldskool udon shop before taking a flight to Tokyo.
- Ritsurin Garden, stunning gardens close to the udon shop we went to. Unfortunately we didn’t have a lot of time before our flight.
- Restaurants: Sanuki Udon Ueharaya
- Day 16: Tokyo. My parents joined us for the remainder of the trips which meant we had babysitters!
- Hotel: Airbnb in Asakusa
- Restaurants: Sushi Taira, no kid dinner. Our fanciest dinner of the trip, the service was attentive and the chef was friendly. Food was great but with the overall standards of food in Tokyo I was happy we just did this once.
- Day 17: Tokyo
- Nezu Museum
- Day 18: Tokyo
- Day 19: Tokyo > Sapporo. Sapporo was another highlight of our trip in terms of food. The seafood there was just next level and as a soft serve lover the soft cream there is still something I dream of.
- Hotel: Randor Residential Hotel Sapporo Suites. Good location and big rooms but nothing special.
- Restaurants: Nijo Market, we had the most incredible seafood bowl here. We came back the next day. LeTAO, famous cheesecake made with Hokkaido milk.
- Day 20: Sapporo
- Restaurants: Jingisukan Daruma, no frill local spot for Hokkaido specialty BBQ “Gengis Khan”. This was delicious!
- Day 21: Sapporo > Lake Toya. We drove through the snow to a beautiful hotel in Lake Toya.
- Hotel: Lake Toya Tsuruga Resort Hikari no Uta. Very kid friendly, bed guard rail and toiletries provided. We had a private onsen on the balcony which was wonderful with the snow. Food in the hotel was excellent, we had the Japanese dinner in a private room.
- Day 22: Lake Toya > Noboribetsu/Jigoku-dani > Sapporo > Tokyo. We drove back to the airport and made a stop in Noboribetsu to check our Hell Valley (Jigoku-dani). It was a little slippery but still walkable and very impressive to see. We then continued our drive to the airport and feasted on the wide variety of restaurants before flying back to Tokyo.
- Restaurants: Kinotoya, the best soft serve we’ve ever had. We had it twice before our flight took off.
- Hotel: Cerulean Tower Tokyu Hotel. Hotel was super central and provided toiletries and bed guard rail for toddler. We got executive rooms which included lounge access (kids not allowed though but my parents enjoyed it).
- Day 23: Tokyo
- Teamlab Planets, had toddler in the carrier and he seemed to enjoy it, same for my parents. To me it seemed a glorified instagram photo-op but enjoyed it nonetheless.
- Restaurant: Shogun Burger
- Day 24: Tokyo
- Restaurants: Caffe Michelangelo, cute Italian restaurant in Aobadai. Torisoba Juban 156 (Ichikoro) another great chicken ramen spot.
- Day 25: HND – JFK. Evening flight home, we slept again and arrived at 6pm. Jetlag was tougher going back but manageable.
Tips for parents:
- Not every restaurant will have a high chair, we brought this with us which was handy!
- Small stroller is recommended, especially if you go to a small restaurant, they may ask you to fold it up. We used the Bugaboo Butterfly and also used the carrier a lot.
- We used luggage forwarding between every accommodation. We traveled with stroller, small suitcase with 2 days worth of clothes & toiletries and a small personal bag. We forwarded our big suitcases with more clothes, items we bought during our trip and additional diapers etc.
- There are so many playgrounds! Try to look up some playgrounds in areas you’re interested in and if your kiddo needs to decompress you can easily navigate there.
- Download the app mama papa map on your phone, it shows nursing/changing rooms close to you.
- All gardens/temples are great for kids to walk around without having to worry about cars. Of course be respectful of your surroundings.
- Most malls and airports will have kids playing areas, just look for them on the map.
- Diapers and wipes are not easily to find everywhere. I brought a lot of diapers from home (and knew I would use that space in my suitcase for clothes/items I’d buy on the trip).
by merposaur