Mummy Milli

While it was easy to find lots of information and tips about travelling to Japan, I found it a bit harder to find toddler travel tips. Our 2023 Japan trip was full of ups, downs and mistakes and while the overall trip was great there was a lot we learnt and could have done better. Below are some of my takeaways after three weeks traveling around Japan with Monkey, who was about 18 months old at the time.

Pick accommodation that’s either bigger or the traditional Tatami mat

We were surprised by how well suited to a toddler the traditional style of accommodation was. Normally when we would walk in to our room there would be the tatami mats, a table and a closet/cupboard. In the cupboard were the mattresses and other bedding. What this meant was that there was a large open space for Monkey to run around and play. 

On our previous trip when we stayed in Tokyo we ended up in a double room of a hostel, which was bunk beds plus the extra space you needed to walk into the room and climb a ladder, there must have been no more than 50cm (a foot and a half) from the side of the bed to the wall. Remembering this had us paranoid about our accommodation choices with a toddler, who really wanted to move. 

We also decided on which onsen town to visit in the south Island based on accommodation. Hubby found an entire house we could rent at a wonderful price, both of these points were more important to us than being right in the town. We knew we could be a bit more relaxed with where the house was as we hired a car for when we were staying on the south island. 

Take the train rather than fly

While the flight time on your ticket would seem much faster than the train, taking the train was not only more scenic and enjoyable but, when you add in travel times, boarding and security for the airport the times can be almost the same. 

The train stations are easy to get around and well marked, at least in the towns we went to. There isn’t the screening to go through and often their stations are in the middle of the town or city rather than on the outskirts like airports tend to be. 

We would try hard to get the first row of seats in a cabin as these had a bit more room for Monkey to play on the floor in front of us. He didn’t have to be in our arms the whole time. 

The trains are, of course, a novelty that we don’t have at home. Monkey loved watching them arrive and depart at the station and was much more interested in what was going on out the window as he recognised things, such as diggers and trucks. I think it was hard for him to understand what he was seeing out the plane window. 

Expose your child to Japanese foods before your trip 

We love Japanese foods, it’s one of the big reasons we went to Japan. Because of this Monkey was very familiar with sushi, ramen, edamame beans and karaage. We would cook with Japanese sauces often at home so the food wasn’t drastically different or scary for Monkey. We are lucky that he has always been a good eater, maybe this is in part because he has been exposed to so many different cuisines from a very young age? 

This also gave us confidence that he wouldn’t have any allergic reactions we might not be aware of. We knew he had a slight gluten intolerance and the prevalence of rice based dishes helped with this. Although as it is only an intolerance we weren’t too worried about it. Monkey shared almost every meal with us and was also happy to eat the snacks we would buy at the convenience stores along the way.

Take a carrier rather than a pram 

While it may seem tempting to take a pram we found the carrier to be much more useful. The carrier was much easier to manoeuvre around on thin or extremely steep streets. The pram sometimes became a carrier for the bags. We borrowed a cheap pram that folded up fairly compact (long and thin) but too frequently found ourselves carrying it rather than using it.

As we like to back back, use public transport and frequently moved accommodations, having the extra item to lug around actually turned out to be more frustrating that what it was worth. If it was our pram we probably would have given it away. 

Do your research on where to pick up baby goods 

Coming from Australia where nappies and baby food are found in every supermarket and most pharmacies and chemists, it was a surprise that this is not the case in Japan. We found nappies and baby food easiest in specialty stores. We made sure to stock up when we could so we didn’t have to keep searching out these stores. This became a bit easier when we had a car, it was better for storage and also for accessing shops outside of the city centres. Luckily, Monkey was out of the 8 – 12 nappies a day phase so they stretched a fair way for us. 

We also accessed these shops to buy good quality pouched food options for him. I wanted some shelf stable fruit pouches that weren’t full of sugar and I could only find them in specialty stores. They were our back up food for him and over the entire trip we only carried half a dozen, as food was very easy to come by.

Don’t stress about carrying too many snacks

This is something Japan does extremely well, their konbini (convenience store) are, in fact, super convenient and numerous. There is almost always one in a train station, finding them walking around even small towns is common and if you need coffee those machines are simply everywhere. Some of them in places I would almost think you have to hike in! As far as convenience food goes there are definitely some healthy options as well. Veggie sticks, yogurt, pre-washed and cut fruits,  along with dinner meals too.

While I have many other tips we learnt during this trip to Japan with a toddler, these were what we would have found the most helpful, of course it is not one size fits all. Soon I will have a post up about how we budget for our trips with a big focus on Japan. Let me know what worked for you or if you have any questions I could try to help you out with.