Japan with kids

Small, timed and no photography inside. Tickets go on sale monthly and sell out in minutes.

Pandas, a five-storey pagoda and a park to run in, all above one station. Cheap and central.

Real locomotives, a driving simulator and a working turntable. Thirty minutes out and worth the trip for any child who likes trains.

The tallest tower in the world with an aquarium and a mall at its foot, so nobody is stuck queueing for a lift they do not care about.

A compact aquarium with a projection-mapped dolphin show, right by Shinagawa station. Good for a half day between trains.

On a rooftop in Ikebukuro, with sea lions swimming overhead in a glass tank. Small, and easy with a pushchair.

On the beach at Fujisawa with Mount Fuji across the bay on a clear day. Pairs with the Kamakura trip rather than standing alone.

An enormous miniature museum — a working airport, Evangelion, Sailor Moon. Details reward slow looking, so allow more time than you think.

A Moomin park by a lake at Hanno, an hour out. Quiet, wooded, and aimed at families who want a day that is not a theme park.

Dinosaurs and a blue whale outside the door, in Ueno Park, for about four dollars. The best-value indoor day in Tokyo.

A planetarium in Yurakucho with reclining seats. Programmes are in Japanese, but the sky is the sky.

The older, redder tower, with a glass floor panel on the main deck. Cheaper than Skytree and the queue is shorter.

An open-air rooftop deck over the crossing. Timed entry, and the last slots before sunset go first.

The best of the Disney parks and unique to Tokyo. Buy tickets the moment the date opens, and download the app before you go.

The gentler of the two and the better choice under five. A separate ticket — you cannot do both parks in one day.

A miniature city where children work as pilots, bakers and firefighters for a currency they earn. English-support sessions exist; book one.

The Making of Harry Potter, on the old Toshimaen site. Three to four hours indoors and timed entry — book well ahead.

Hello Kitty and the rest, entirely indoors at Tama. Parades and shows rather than rides, and aimed young.

Serious roller coasters under Mount Fuji, plus a Thomas the Tank Engine area for the younger end. Two hours out of the city.

An aquarium and a small amusement park on an island off Yokohama. A whole day, and the walrus show is the bit they remember.

A city-centre fairground with a centreless ferris wheel, priced per ride or as a pass. Handy because it is genuinely in town.

Sega's indoor theme park at Odaiba — simulators and VR rather than fairground rides. Better for older children.

Japan's oldest amusement park, wedged behind Senso-ji and charmingly small. The rides suit the under-tens.

A museum about poo, in earnest, and very pink. Utterly ridiculous and reliably the thing a seven-year-old talks about afterwards.

Optical-illusion rooms at Odaiba built for photographs. An hour, about eight dollars, and it does what it says.

Rooms of projected light children walk through and change by touching. Wear shorts or trousers — some floors are mirrored.

The train is the outing. Hakone or Nikko and back in a day, with reserved seats booked ahead.

Barefoot through knee-deep water and a room of floating lights. Wear shorts — the water rooms are real and you will be wet to the knee.

The Azabudai one, with no set route — you wander and the rooms change around you. Easy to lose a child in; agree a meeting point.

Open-top loops between Asakusa, Odaiba and Shinjuku. Useful on the first day, when the metro map is still defeating everyone.

The round-trip boat ticket on its own, if you are doing Hakone under your own steam rather than on the coach day.

A hot-spring complex with yukata provided and family areas, so children are welcome. Tattoos are still an issue at most Japanese baths — ask first.

Dress hired near Senso-ji, about seven dollars. Children's sizes are stocked and the temple street is the obvious place to wear it.

Making the wax tempura and ice cream that sit in restaurant windows. An hour, and a very Japanese souvenir.

Pouring and filling the fish-shaped cakes yourself, then eating them hot. Short, cheap and hands-on.

A proper class rather than a demonstration, and you eat what you roll. Say ahead if a child will not eat raw fish; most schools adapt.

Watching a stable train at close range, which is quiet, formal and nothing like a bout. Expensive, and it lands with children who like the ritual of it.

A guided hour or so through the temple and the market street, about ten dollars. Mostly buys you someone to explain what everything is for.

Order on a tablet, watch it arrive on a little train, count the plates at the end. The easiest meal in Japan with a fussy eater.

Ninety minutes out past Odaiba with tea and cake, at about eighteen dollars. The cheap, calm alternative to the dinner cruises.

Two hours of tasting through the outer market for about twelve dollars. Go hungry, and go early — the good stalls sell out by mid-morning.

Buses, the Kachi Kachi ropeway and several lake-area attractions on one pass. Sensible if you are staying at Kawaguchiko rather than day-tripping.

One ticket across a choice of the city's paid attractions. Worth it only if you will genuinely use three or more — add them up before buying.

The lakes, Oshino Hakkai and the famous viewpoints, with the driving done. The mountain is often in cloud — treat a clear view as a bonus, not the plan.

A pirate ship across Lake Ashi, a ropeway over the sulphur vents at Owakudani, and the floating torii gate. More moving parts than the Fuji day, which children prefer.

The carved shrine at Toshogu, the hairpin road up to Lake Chuzenji and the Kegon falls. Two hours north and cooler than the city.

The Great Buddha, a beach and the little Enoden tram that runs between houses and the sea. An hour out and the gentlest day trip from Tokyo.

A spiral walk down around a central tank with whale sharks in it. Two hours, and it works in any weather.

Wild deer that bow for crackers. They also nip and shove — keep the crackers out of small hands until you are ready.

Go at eight or the grove is a queue. The monkey park up the hill is a twenty-minute climb and much quieter.

Thousands of orange gates up a hillside. Walk fifteen minutes past the first stretch and the crowds vanish.

Fifty-three real trains, a working roundhouse and a steam locomotive that takes passengers. The best railway museum in the country.

A moated keep with a lift to the top and an enormous park to run in. Cherry blossom in April, and shoulder to shoulder with it.

Part aquarium, part zoo, arranged by colour and texture rather than species. Small, strange and very good with young children.

A converted school with the walls lined in manga you may take down and read. Mostly Japanese, with a foreign-language shelf.

A long-running Kyoto show with no dialogue at all — mime, juggling, projection. About twelve dollars and language is not a barrier.

Straight across from the station, about six dollars, and the quickest way to make sense of the city's grid.

The top of Japan's tallest building, sixty floors up over Tennoji. Glass on three sides and rarely queued.

Two towers joined by a floating open-air deck, reached by an escalator through mid-air. The building is the attraction.

An aquarium staged as art — dark rooms, a huge spherical tank, projection. Less educational than Kaiyukan and more atmospheric.

A cable car up the hillside to terraced gardens above the city. The ride up is most of the appeal.

Nintendo World and the Harry Potter section are the draws. Express passes are expensive and, in school holidays, close to essential.

A hands-on children's museum with a climbing structure by Hundertwasser through the middle. About ten dollars.

An indoor centre at Tempozan, next to the aquarium. Adults are not admitted without a child.

A local amusement park between Osaka and Kyoto with a wooden coaster and a summer pool. Cheap and rarely crowded with visitors.

The Kansai role-play city. Same format as Tokyo's and usually easier to get into at short notice.

An anime park on Awaji island with Naruto and Crayon Shin-chan zones. Ninety minutes from Osaka and a genuine day out.

A working samurai film set you can walk through, with ninja shows and costume hire. Kyoto's most child-shaped attraction by a distance.

Hired by the day near Gion, children's sizes included, and returned before six. It changes how a temple afternoon feels for everyone.

A replica galleon around Osaka bay, forty-five minutes, about ten dollars. Leaves from beside the aquarium.

The digital-art treatment applied to a real garden after dark. Outdoors, so check the forecast before booking.

A large Edo-themed bathhouse near the aquarium, with yukata hire and a footbath court. An easy first onsen with children.

The old hot-spring town in the hills behind Kobe, with a day-use bathhouse. An hour from Osaka and a proper change of scene.

A named rental house rather than general advice, about nineteen dollars. Children's sizes are stocked; book the morning slot.

A short, explained ceremony where you whisk your own bowl. Eight dollars, forty-five minutes, and it needs a child who can sit still.

An open-sided train up the gorge, then a flat-bottomed boat back down it with the boatmen poling. The best half-day in Kyoto for a child.

Market walk then a class turning the batter in the moulds, which is harder than it looks and entirely the point.

Takoyaki, okonomiyaki and a neon canal. Loud and busy from six — go early with younger children.

Unlimited subway plus entry to a long list of attractions for a day. Genuinely good value if you are moving around the city.

A choice of Kansai attractions on one ticket. Same arithmetic as the Tokyo pass — work out what you would actually visit first.

Kiyomizu-dera, then the deer at Nara Park and the great hall at Todai-ji. Does in one guided day what takes two on the trains.

The Peace Park and the floating torii, in one very long day by coach. The memorial museum is unflinching — read up and decide before you go.

Enormous ice sculptures along Odori Park for one week each February. Bitterly cold after dark — hand warmers, plural.

Famous for the winter penguin walk, when the king penguins are marched along a cleared path twice a day. Cold, and worth it.

A ropeway up to brown bears and a Hokkaido hot-spring town below with steaming vents in the street.

An aquarium on the upper floors of a downtown building, with penguins. Indoors, central, and exactly what a blizzard afternoon needs.

A cable car and then a little cable-driven car to the summit over the city lights. Cold at the top, and worth staying for dark.

The end of Odori Park from above, which is where the snow festival sculptures are laid out in February.

Farm Tomita's lavender rows and the Shirogane blue pond. July is the peak and the rest of summer is still worth it; winter is a different trip entirely.

For the ones too small to ski. Most resorts run a fenced snow park with tubes and toboggans, charged by the hour.

English-language lessons are the whole reason to choose Niseko or Rusutsu. Book the instructor before the flights in peak season.

A gaslit canal, music-box workshops and a glass studio where children blow their own. Forty minutes by train from Sapporo.

A cruise on the eastern lake with a stop at the marimo exhibit — the algae balls that grow only in a handful of lakes.

Lift pass and full rental on one booking at a small resort near Otaru. Quieter and cheaper than Niseko for a first attempt.

The canal town, a blue-cave boat and the Shiroi Koibito chocolate park. The boat runs only in the warmer months.

Transport, lift pass and optional hire on one booking, ninety minutes from the city. The simplest way to get a first-timer onto snow.

Rich, buttery and exactly what a cold day asks for. Ask for less salt for children and it still works.

Crab, scallops and salmon roe over rice, eaten at eight in the morning at a market counter. Not every child will; the ones who do remember it.

A week-long pass across a list of Hokkaido attractions. Worth it on a longer trip that moves around the island.

The zoo with the penguin walk, plus the blue pond and the flower hills at Biei. Two hours each way from Sapporo and the standard first day out.

The steaming Hell Valley, the bear ranch at Showa Shinzan and the lake. Sulphur smell throughout, which children find funnier than adults do.

Not a theme park with rides — recreated sets from the films that you walk into and photograph. Tickets go by advance lottery; book before anything else.

One of the largest aquariums in Japan, with orcas, belugas and a stadium-sized dolphin pool. Next door to LEGOLAND.

A Danish-themed garden park with a play area and a miniature railway, and under two dollars in. Gentle, and almost entirely local.

A flat river valley under the Hotaka peaks, walked on boardwalks rather than climbed. Closed by snow from mid-November to mid-April.

The full outdoor park on the Nagoya waterfront, with rides and a Miniland of Japanese cities. Aimed squarely at the under-tens.

The motoring theme park attached to the Formula 1 circuit, where children drive small cars on real little roads and earn a licence.

Steep thatched farmhouses in a mountain valley, and an old merchant town on the way. Deep snow in winter, which is when it looks like the postcard.

One of Japan's few original castles, with steep wooden stairs, plus two preserved post towns on the old highway.

The most important shrine in the country paired with an aquarium that keeps dugongs. An odd pairing, and the aquarium is what the children come back talking about.

Whale sharks and manta rays in one of the largest tanks in the world. Ninety minutes from Naha and the reason most families come.

A smaller, newer aquarium near the airport, heavy on projection and walkthrough sets. Good on an arrival or departure day.

A walk-through aviary and animal park at Nago where the birds are loose around you. Nine dollars, and there is a little train.

A modest municipal zoo with a hands-on museum attached, about six dollars. Not Churaumi, and not trying to be.

A long limestone cave with a walkway through it, plus a craft village and an eisa drum show above ground.

Relocated Ryukyuan houses with crafts being worked and daily dance. Touristy, and the clearest window into pre-Japanese Okinawa.

A self-driving pineapple cart through the plantation, then tasting. Deeply silly and about ten dollars.

A tower over the bridge to Kouri island, reached by an automated cart through the grounds. Six dollars for the view of the causeway.

The new jungle theme park in the north of the island, opened 2025. Expensive by Okinawan standards and still finding its feet.

The children's version — you colour in a fish and it swims onto the wall. An hour, and it holds a three-year-old.

Reef and fish seen through the hull, so nobody needs to swim. Fourteen dollars and the right answer with small or nervous children.

The Ryukyuan dress rather than a kimono, hired for a session in Naha. Different from the mainland, which is the point of it.

A choice of the island's paid attractions on one ticket, about twenty dollars. Cheap enough to be worth it on a three-stop day.

The aquarium with the whale sharks, plus Kouri island and Cape Manza, by coach from Naha. The island is long and the bus solves the driving.

Gyokusendo cave, the DMM aquarium and the American Village on one loop, about twenty-six dollars. The cheapest way to see both ends of the island.

A big aquarium on the sandbar across the bay, with a dolphin stadium and a beach beside it. The ferry over is half the outing.

The seafront tower, about six dollars, and the quickest way to see how the city is laid out between the bay and the hills.

A walrus-and-sea-lion aquarium on the coast at Beppu, with a hands-on touch pool. Pairs with the hells rather than standing alone.

Seven steaming, coloured hot springs you look at rather than bathe in — one is cobalt blue, one blood red. Sulphur smell throughout.

A drive-through safari park on the karst plateau, with a feeding bus. Over in Yamaguchi, so a full day.

The role-play city, in town at Rakuten Seimei Park. Usually easier to book at short notice than the Tokyo branch.

A stack of attractions on the side of the baseball dome — slides down the outside of the building, a climbing course, arcades.

A small indoor Sanrio play space in the city, about seven dollars. An hour, and aimed young.

The outdoor Sanrio park in the Oita hills, with rides and parades. A long way out — pair it with a Beppu night rather than day-tripping.

A full-size Dutch town near Nagasaki, canals and windmills included, with an enormous evening illumination. Odd, enormous, and a genuine day.

The Fukuoka teamLab, inside the BOSS E ZO building. Smaller than the Tokyo sites and much less crowded.

Japanese baseball is a brass band, coordinated chanting and a great deal of food. You do not need to follow it to enjoy an evening.

A flat punt poled through the old castle canals, an hour south. Slow, shaded and about thirteen dollars.

A beach-and-waterfall day west of the city, with the married-couple rocks and a much-photographed swing. Gentle, and mostly outdoors.

Seven attractions across the island on one pass, at about eight dollars. Cheap enough to be worth it on almost any itinerary.

The shrine, the hot-spring craft town and the Beppu ropeway in one guided day, with a boiled onsen egg thrown in.

A drive-through African safari park where you feed the animals from the bus, paired with Yufuin. The best animal day on the island.

The largest caldera in Japan and a castle still being rebuilt after the 2016 earthquake. The crater shuttle is weather- and gas-dependent.

A basalt gorge you row yourself through, under a waterfall that drops straight into the river. The boats sell out; the tour includes them.