Comments on: Traveling in Japan with Young Children

By: Loretta

Loretta — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 00:12:09 +0000

Hi, i’m travelling to Osaka in about 3 weeks with my 7 month old daughter.. i was just wondering if you have an ideas on where to get food and formula for her? i’m worried about all the additives that they can put in baby food such as egg, nuts and fish, if you could be any help that would be great thank you

By: Kathie

Kathie — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 20:42:16 +0000

Having read your blog, am feeling slightly daunted at the prospect of travelling out to Nagoya with my Mum, 2 and a half year old and 6 month old twins in October I’m meeting up with my sister currently living in Australia so am hoping one adult per child will suffice. I’ll need both a double buggy and a single one. I doubt I’ll be able to carry the boys on my front for too long. Having braved the tube in Mexico City in rush hour am well aware of the potential danger with little ones. I’m sure a double buggy will cause us a great deal of hassle! Do you have any advice on hotels? Will be travelling into Tokyo etc aswell. Any advice on anything would be gratefully received.

By: Jaime

Jaime — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 03:26:55 +0000

Hi, thanks so much for the post – love it. I will be travelling to Japan in end Sept for 12 days, and will have a 4 and 5 years old girls + hubby + parents (

By: Elaine

Elaine — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 16:55:44 +0000

Thanks so much for your post. My husband and I traveled to Japan 2 years ago and we loved it. We’d love to go back so much but always wonder how can we do it with our 6 months old daughter. Your eperience gives us some inspirtaion to start planning our trip now. Thanks again!

By: Lauren

Lauren — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 08:33:00 +0000

You are SPOT ON about getting around Japan with kids. I am American, but live in Japan. I have 3 children under 5 years old. I frequently have to take the trains and subways with one or two of them during rush hour. It is ugly! The riders are almost robotic, avoiding all eye contact, and walk onto the train and run over anyone in the way. It is so opposite from the overall culture! I am very respectful of being “the outsider”, but on the train I am in a offense posture, planting my feet as solidly as I can. Thankfully, I am a tall woman and therefore sometimes a head taller than the other patrons.
Your comments about the strollers is also right on the money. An American stroller, Graco, etc. is ridiculous to get around Japan. If you can’t do a small umbrella type stroller, then you must carry your kids in the front pack. If you do a back pack carrier, then you must take it off on the train. My blonde kids get lots of attention everywhere we go, and I love that they speak the language and eat the food, with chopsticks! It is an amazing experience for all of us!

By: Netsato

Netsato — Sat, 12 May 2007 10:27:43 +0000

Alene,

You’re basically looking at two ways to get to your hotel from Narita airport; bus or train. The airport limo bus is a good choice if it stops at your hotel. If it doesn’t stop at your hotel, you’ll have to ride it to a hotel near yours and catch a cab from there…that’s not so good. The good thing about the bus is that you take your luggage with you on the bus, and depending where you’re staying, will drop you off at your door step. But, the bus can be very slow and you could be sitting on that thing for a couple of hours depending on traffic and where your hotel is. I believe you’re looking at about $40 per person.

There are many different train choices from the airport – it all depends on the location of your hotel. Accordingly, the cost of riding a train is variable. If you take a train you’ll need to do a lot of walking. This means that if every person in your party can collectively manage all your luggage through train stations and up and down stairs then the train is good. If you have a lot of luggage, then riding a train can be very difficult. But, a train will nearly always be faster than the bus.

If you are very wealthy, you could also catch a cab. A car ride from Narita airport to central Tokyo could take about an hour, so a cab would be pretty damm expensive.

Japanese hotels are interesting in that they not only charge by the room as in US, but they also charge by the person. So if you try to save money by sharing only one room you’ll still have to pay for each person. A “business hotel” is the economy choice in Japan.

Tokyo to Fukuoka is pretty far. Don’t quote me, but think along the lines of San Francisco to San Diego…a good day long trip even by shinkansen.

A JR Railpass is not super useful in Tokyo. When I go to Japan, if we don’t leave Tokyo, I don’t bother with a railpass. In Tokyo, the subways are more useful than the JR Lines and your railpass won’t work on the subways. If you’re traveling to multiple cities, than a railpass is the way to go. A railpass must be “activated” in order to use it, and once you do, the clock starts ticking. This means that if you buy a 1 week railpass and plan to spend your first week in Tokyo and another other week traveling down to Fukuoka, you could activate your railpass when leave Tokyo and use if for your second week in Japan.

November is a really nice time of year. I would plan to spend some time in Kyoto or Nara to check out the Fall scenery. Grandpa will love it but I’m not sure about your boys.

Good luck on your trip!

By: Alene

Alene — Sat, 12 May 2007 01:00:44 +0000

Planning on taking our 2 boys (8 and 9) with us to Japan…along with my 82 yr old father. I’m sure you’ll have a lot of suggestions from getting to/from the airport to our hotel to a place we can all stay in a minimum # of rooms.

Grandpa wants to go from Tokyo to Fukuoka. Do we need to have a JR railpass start from the get-go just to use the subway, trains in/around Tokyo? Thinking of being there 12 days in November.

Thanks