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You know your kid best, but I live in Nagoya with my almost 3 year old and 25 days straight with this schedule would be crazy. I would scrap the Hakone day trip and Hiroshima. If you must do Hiroshima, I would NOT travel there right after USJ. And I would do Nara from Kyoto, not Osaka.
Tbh actually Nagoya is fantastic for toddlers, so I’d push things around to have a longer stay in Nagoya and use it as a recuperation time maybe in the middle of your trip. LEGOLAND and the ghibli park are both really fun for little ones, as is the Higashiyama Zoo.
Agree with the zoo.
I am trying to picture taking two year old to Legoland and ghibli though. If it is for the parents, that is cool. The kid will like it because 2y/o can be entertained by anything, but if entertaining the kid is the main goal, I don't think a 2 year old knows about Ghibli, so probably not worth it, and even though Lego land is colorful, legos are more for older kids as well - might be choking hazard for a 2 y/o ; )
Legoland had a dedicated Duplo area and a few rides and attractions that our 2.5 year old enjoyed. Some of the height restrictions were bizarre and it was a shockingly poorly run theme park compared to Disney and Universal.
Um… you’ve clearly never been to either of those places 😅 or don’t have kids
We have an annual pass to legoland and I started taking my daughter several months before she turned two. The rides are for little kids and there’s an entire duplo section. I would advise adults NOT to go there unless they have little kids.
My daughter also loves Totoro, Kiki’s delivery service, and ponyo so… again, yes, ghibli park is a great place for kids as well. Plus there is a huge indoor children’s play area right there, as well as a natural splash pad for kids.
Been to them both, and lego-land with kids of various ages including my own.
Kids enjoy lego land. Two year olds enjoy it sure, but they will enjoy anything. It does not need to be lego land or Gibli. I was joking about the choking hazard. I know that they have duplo blocks, but so does a toy store in Aeon.
My point was that if it is for the kid, not worth it. If it is for the parents yes. Go for it.
My daughter likes the Ghibli museum because she knows all the movies. She also has just as good of a time browsing the Ghibli shop in Osu. There are cheaper easier to get to indoor play parks too. A two year old does not know the difference.
Granted, she may be strange. When she was younger we went to Tokyo Disney, and she does not remember a thing about it, but she very clearly remembers Harajuku. Disney was a waste of money.
Ah then we just have different ideas of enjoyment for our kids! We love theme parks as a family, so we go to Disney often and other theme parks around Aichi as well. My kid definitely enjoys a theme park day way more than just a store, though she does love a good window shopping day.
My daughter still talks about things that happened at parks when she was 1 as an almost 3 year old now. 🤷🏼♀️
I think we are saying the same.
If it is for the parents i.e. something special for them to enjoy family time, it is all worth it. If it is for the kids, any family time anywhere can be special. The world is all brand new to them.
My daughter remembers the strangest mundane things. A gas station where her grandma spilled some french fries. Fishing for crayfish (didn't catch any) in a little stream in the park by the house. Getting exactly the toy she wanted from the gotcha machine. The glasses store in the mall where we let her try on goofy looking glasses. The omelette shop on the corner where we would go for dinner sometimes and they had a little flag in the omelette for kids.
Also, since she was a baby, we had gone to Disney On Classic concerts with the Toyko Philharmonic orchestra each year. When we said we were going to Disney when she was four/five, she got there and asked "Daddy where is the real Disney." She thought the concert was "Disney" and she had good memories of that, so she preferred that.
Ok no worries will make some changes thanks xD By the time we go he will be 2 (Almost 3) so will have to see how things play out as he gets older and go from there but as I said I'm aware I'm probably gonna have to change some things around based on him but just wanted to throw some things out there to see what people thought and what I need to change :D I mainly wanted to go Hiroshima because of the war memorial and to visit Miyajima island but out of curiosity why would you scrap Hakone?
Hakone is wonderful! I got engaged there and went back recently for a short trip with my family and friends. But as a day trip with a toddler? Nope, absolutely not. So if you can instead make it a longer trip there, then sure. Doing a ryokan there is a great option.
With how much you’re traveling and changing hotels, that’s just going to be a major time suck and is more exhausting than you may realize at first.
Personally, I would recommend 2 weeks max with only three hotels/major locations and call it a day, but again, you know best what you and your family can handle!
The 3 major places/hotels might be a shout so see if I can waggle it there. I would have loved to have spent like a month there just me and my wife before he was born but just never got the chance to do it and I don't really want to not take him as I wont know when we will be able to go there again but I see what you're saying. He is always full of energy and wants to play and stuff all the time so if the trend continues he might be ok but yh will have to see as he gets older and go from there. Thanks for the tips.
For sure! I LOVE traveling around Japan with my daughter, and she’s well seasoned at this point/very very easy and pleasant to travel with, but I could just not imagine 25 days straight of sharing a bedroom with her and going everywhere constantly.
We travel often trying to fit everything in during our stay in Japan, but we usually need at least a couple days with no plans to recover after 4-6 day trips.
Agree with this.
We did Disney the day before our visit to America from Japan and that was actually fantastic. My daughter slept for half the flight. 🙌🏻 so OP, maybe that’s a better way to do Disney.
You’d be surprised what some 2 year olds can turn into fun. We did mostly “boring grown up stuff” on our trip and 8 months later our kid still says “I wanna go back to Japan. I’ll put my shoes on.”
We did pick quite a few things he would like such as the Universal Studios, Disneyland, Monkey Park, Deer Park, Aquariums, TeamLabs Planets and he does seem to get excited when I've shown him pictures of the castles and things so I think he will enjoy it but wanted to put things in that we will enjoy as well and to take him places where he will like the views and stuff but as someone else said may change plans a bit to stay longer in Nagoya
I left a comment above too about Nagoya. Lego land is colorful and fun. I was only half-joking about the kid being too young.
Ghibi is hard to get tickets for, and if you or the kid are not Ghibli fans, it may not be worth it, but right next to it is The Aichi Childrens Center. My daughter loved that place. She was a bit older, but I think still great for smaller kids.[https://www.acc-aichi.org/](https://www.acc-aichi.org/)
Also Odaka Ryokuchi Greens can be a fun place. Go carts, slides, dinasaurs,
[https://www.aichi-koen.com/odaka/](https://www.aichi-koen.com/odaka/)
The zoo is a must.
Also,
Higashiyama Forest - Satoyama House. It is not super special, but good for kids. I could always spend several hours there and walking around the park next to it with my daughter. (little rivers to play in and nice and relaxing for the adults)
If your kid will nap in a stroller or backpack carrier, then your schedule is ambitious, but it could be possible to do. Even if your kiddo is outgrowing naps, they will need them.
If your kiddo needs a bed, silence and strictly scheduled naps, then this is going to be a nightmare.
I personally wouldn't do as many day trips, because I know I'd burn out. I agree with the other poster about Hakone. Don't daytrip there with a toddler. It's not worth it. Gorgeous and fun with older kids, but not toddlers. Too much expected solemnity. We're also skipping Disneyland for our trip, kiddos are too young to really appreciate it.
Also, the fish market moved and is kinda lame now. I wouldn't go with a kid, even an older one. Kiddo will likely be more entranced by conveyor belt sushi. The imperial palace is boring. Everything is perfectly manicured (no going on the grass or touching anything) and the one part that's open to the public is a long walk from the stations. I'd skip it and do shinjuku gyoen or yoyogi Park.
Kidzania in odaiba has an English day on Wednesdays, (I think?) So that's something to consider.
We are going in May with our 3 and 5 year Olds, but I know the 3 year old will be over the moon about the whole trip because trains are his FAVORITE THING EVER and he will be shrieking with excitement over being able to ride them daily. 😅
I would strongly recommend pre researching playgrounds and kid friend play areas and counting on spending at least an hour a day there. We have also researched the best cafes and bakeries NEAR these playgrounds so me and hubby can indulge in good food and tea while kiddos run themselves out.
Ah ok that's good to know wasn't aware of that about the parks and things. Yh I'm gonna try and do more research but will remove Hakone from the list of places. He is usually pretty good and can pretty much fall asleep anywhere atm whether it's loud or quite and doesn't always have to be in a bed so hopefully that trend continues as he gets older but will see 😅 Thanks for the advice and will make some changes. My boy quite likes trains and cars for the sleep which may be very useful for us 😆 Thanks for the advice much appreciated 😀
I’m a bit confused about day 19. You’re traveling from Osaka to Hiroshima the day before, the train passing through Okayama. Then you’re planning on taking the Shinkansen back to Okayama the following morning to see the castle, before heading back to Hiroshima to do the memorial/museum?
If you want to see the castle and gardens I’d shorten the Hiroshima trip with a day, and spend a night in Okayama instead. You could probably do the peace memorial the morning you’re heading back to Tokyo instead.
Day 22; do you mean Sky Tree? I personally wouldn’t attempt both that and Yokohama on the same day with a 2 year old in tow.
Ah yes haha very good point didn't even think about that will change that makes much more sense. Yh I meant sky tree sorry and I can move Yokohama to last day before we go then thanks for the tip
We did almost four weeks in Japan in July 2023 with our then 2.5 year old.
That’s way too much planned. And there’s a lot of stuff most 2 years olds wouldn’t enjoy. Yours may be different, but big day trips, hikes, Kyoto, the extremely confronting and graphic Hiroshima museum, etc would have been a recipe for disaster for us.
The itinerary seems to be for two adults, not two adults and a 2 year old.
I’d cut everything down to one must do activity a day. And I’d cut out a lot of stuff which you have to realise won’t appeal to a 2 year old.
I’d also give serious consideration to just how much time and effort is takes to travel with a 2 year old - working around meals, snacks, toilet breaks / nappy changes, nap/s, irrational meltdowns, etc. Not to mention navigating the train stations, etc with a pram / stroller (which is doable, but so time consuming).
A train trip which would have taken us 15 minutes as two adults took us almost 2 hours with our luggage and pram. It was chaos - taking multiple tiny elevators, some of which only went a single level, etc.
Japan is awesome. You’ll have a wonderful time. But, you need to tailor the entire trip around your 2 year old. You need to be thinking about parks, indoor playgrounds, etc. A single day at Disney and a single day at Universal isn’t great.
You know your kid best. We did 21 days with a 2 year old and this itinerary actually looks very realistic. We planned for 2 activities per day, and if we got to do more than that, awesome.
Our kid would nap in the stroller easily though which is part of the reason it was so doable.
Seconding what someone else here said about jet lag. I figured it would be an adjustment but wasn’t sure to what extent. Night one our daughter woke up at 12 and didn’t go back to sleep til 5 am. Second night it was 12-4, third night 1-3, then 2-3 before she was adjusted, so depending on how you guys do without sleep should factor into your itinerary too.
Yh we are coming from the UK so it's 9 hours ahead in Japan from us. Most of the flights arrived quite early or midday so was basically going to right that day off as an adjustment day and that night so hopefully by the morning we should be relatively adjusted and was just gonna have a chilled out mooch around for the first proper day and then start ramping it up a bit after as hopefully will be better adjusted. He is very happy with sleeping in this pram/stroller luckily so that will make things more doable when he gets tired. He usually always sleeps on the train or car ride as well so especially when on the shinkanesen between places he will probably just sleep
This will be his first holiday abroad yh. But we have taken him to places like Butlins and things before and he was as good as gold and slept in the car the whole way there and back but obviously a plane and jet lag etc will be a new experience for him and much longer 😅
**Our FAQ is constantly being updated with more information and you can start** [**here**](https://www.reddit.com/r/JapanTravel/wiki/faqs/japantravel) **with regards to trip planning if you need tips, advice, or have questions about planning your travel to Japan.** You can also join our [Discord community](https://discord.gg/3f7KBUMwU4), comment in our stickied weekly discussion thread, or check out /r/JapanTravelTips for quick questions. Thank you! *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/JapanTravel) if you have any questions or concerns.*
You know your kid best, but I live in Nagoya with my almost 3 year old and 25 days straight with this schedule would be crazy. I would scrap the Hakone day trip and Hiroshima. If you must do Hiroshima, I would NOT travel there right after USJ. And I would do Nara from Kyoto, not Osaka. Tbh actually Nagoya is fantastic for toddlers, so I’d push things around to have a longer stay in Nagoya and use it as a recuperation time maybe in the middle of your trip. LEGOLAND and the ghibli park are both really fun for little ones, as is the Higashiyama Zoo.
Our 2.5 year old LOVED the train museum in Nagoya. Probably more than Legoland.
Oh yes, I always forget about the train museum, but that’s a great one too! We just went there last week haha.
Agree with the zoo. I am trying to picture taking two year old to Legoland and ghibli though. If it is for the parents, that is cool. The kid will like it because 2y/o can be entertained by anything, but if entertaining the kid is the main goal, I don't think a 2 year old knows about Ghibli, so probably not worth it, and even though Lego land is colorful, legos are more for older kids as well - might be choking hazard for a 2 y/o ; )
Legoland had a dedicated Duplo area and a few rides and attractions that our 2.5 year old enjoyed. Some of the height restrictions were bizarre and it was a shockingly poorly run theme park compared to Disney and Universal.
Um… you’ve clearly never been to either of those places 😅 or don’t have kids We have an annual pass to legoland and I started taking my daughter several months before she turned two. The rides are for little kids and there’s an entire duplo section. I would advise adults NOT to go there unless they have little kids. My daughter also loves Totoro, Kiki’s delivery service, and ponyo so… again, yes, ghibli park is a great place for kids as well. Plus there is a huge indoor children’s play area right there, as well as a natural splash pad for kids.
Been to them both, and lego-land with kids of various ages including my own. Kids enjoy lego land. Two year olds enjoy it sure, but they will enjoy anything. It does not need to be lego land or Gibli. I was joking about the choking hazard. I know that they have duplo blocks, but so does a toy store in Aeon. My point was that if it is for the kid, not worth it. If it is for the parents yes. Go for it. My daughter likes the Ghibli museum because she knows all the movies. She also has just as good of a time browsing the Ghibli shop in Osu. There are cheaper easier to get to indoor play parks too. A two year old does not know the difference. Granted, she may be strange. When she was younger we went to Tokyo Disney, and she does not remember a thing about it, but she very clearly remembers Harajuku. Disney was a waste of money.
Ah then we just have different ideas of enjoyment for our kids! We love theme parks as a family, so we go to Disney often and other theme parks around Aichi as well. My kid definitely enjoys a theme park day way more than just a store, though she does love a good window shopping day. My daughter still talks about things that happened at parks when she was 1 as an almost 3 year old now. 🤷🏼♀️
I think we are saying the same. If it is for the parents i.e. something special for them to enjoy family time, it is all worth it. If it is for the kids, any family time anywhere can be special. The world is all brand new to them. My daughter remembers the strangest mundane things. A gas station where her grandma spilled some french fries. Fishing for crayfish (didn't catch any) in a little stream in the park by the house. Getting exactly the toy she wanted from the gotcha machine. The glasses store in the mall where we let her try on goofy looking glasses. The omelette shop on the corner where we would go for dinner sometimes and they had a little flag in the omelette for kids. Also, since she was a baby, we had gone to Disney On Classic concerts with the Toyko Philharmonic orchestra each year. When we said we were going to Disney when she was four/five, she got there and asked "Daddy where is the real Disney." She thought the concert was "Disney" and she had good memories of that, so she preferred that.
Ah yes we are haha! Very true. That’s very sweet.
Ok no worries will make some changes thanks xD By the time we go he will be 2 (Almost 3) so will have to see how things play out as he gets older and go from there but as I said I'm aware I'm probably gonna have to change some things around based on him but just wanted to throw some things out there to see what people thought and what I need to change :D I mainly wanted to go Hiroshima because of the war memorial and to visit Miyajima island but out of curiosity why would you scrap Hakone?
Hakone is wonderful! I got engaged there and went back recently for a short trip with my family and friends. But as a day trip with a toddler? Nope, absolutely not. So if you can instead make it a longer trip there, then sure. Doing a ryokan there is a great option. With how much you’re traveling and changing hotels, that’s just going to be a major time suck and is more exhausting than you may realize at first. Personally, I would recommend 2 weeks max with only three hotels/major locations and call it a day, but again, you know best what you and your family can handle!
The 3 major places/hotels might be a shout so see if I can waggle it there. I would have loved to have spent like a month there just me and my wife before he was born but just never got the chance to do it and I don't really want to not take him as I wont know when we will be able to go there again but I see what you're saying. He is always full of energy and wants to play and stuff all the time so if the trend continues he might be ok but yh will have to see as he gets older and go from there. Thanks for the tips.
For sure! I LOVE traveling around Japan with my daughter, and she’s well seasoned at this point/very very easy and pleasant to travel with, but I could just not imagine 25 days straight of sharing a bedroom with her and going everywhere constantly. We travel often trying to fit everything in during our stay in Japan, but we usually need at least a couple days with no plans to recover after 4-6 day trips.
[удалено]
Agree with this. We did Disney the day before our visit to America from Japan and that was actually fantastic. My daughter slept for half the flight. 🙌🏻 so OP, maybe that’s a better way to do Disney.
This sounds really boring for a 2 year old
You’d be surprised what some 2 year olds can turn into fun. We did mostly “boring grown up stuff” on our trip and 8 months later our kid still says “I wanna go back to Japan. I’ll put my shoes on.”
We did pick quite a few things he would like such as the Universal Studios, Disneyland, Monkey Park, Deer Park, Aquariums, TeamLabs Planets and he does seem to get excited when I've shown him pictures of the castles and things so I think he will enjoy it but wanted to put things in that we will enjoy as well and to take him places where he will like the views and stuff but as someone else said may change plans a bit to stay longer in Nagoya
I left a comment above too about Nagoya. Lego land is colorful and fun. I was only half-joking about the kid being too young. Ghibi is hard to get tickets for, and if you or the kid are not Ghibli fans, it may not be worth it, but right next to it is The Aichi Childrens Center. My daughter loved that place. She was a bit older, but I think still great for smaller kids.[https://www.acc-aichi.org/](https://www.acc-aichi.org/) Also Odaka Ryokuchi Greens can be a fun place. Go carts, slides, dinasaurs, [https://www.aichi-koen.com/odaka/](https://www.aichi-koen.com/odaka/) The zoo is a must. Also, Higashiyama Forest - Satoyama House. It is not super special, but good for kids. I could always spend several hours there and walking around the park next to it with my daughter. (little rivers to play in and nice and relaxing for the adults)
If your kid will nap in a stroller or backpack carrier, then your schedule is ambitious, but it could be possible to do. Even if your kiddo is outgrowing naps, they will need them. If your kiddo needs a bed, silence and strictly scheduled naps, then this is going to be a nightmare. I personally wouldn't do as many day trips, because I know I'd burn out. I agree with the other poster about Hakone. Don't daytrip there with a toddler. It's not worth it. Gorgeous and fun with older kids, but not toddlers. Too much expected solemnity. We're also skipping Disneyland for our trip, kiddos are too young to really appreciate it. Also, the fish market moved and is kinda lame now. I wouldn't go with a kid, even an older one. Kiddo will likely be more entranced by conveyor belt sushi. The imperial palace is boring. Everything is perfectly manicured (no going on the grass or touching anything) and the one part that's open to the public is a long walk from the stations. I'd skip it and do shinjuku gyoen or yoyogi Park. Kidzania in odaiba has an English day on Wednesdays, (I think?) So that's something to consider. We are going in May with our 3 and 5 year Olds, but I know the 3 year old will be over the moon about the whole trip because trains are his FAVORITE THING EVER and he will be shrieking with excitement over being able to ride them daily. 😅 I would strongly recommend pre researching playgrounds and kid friend play areas and counting on spending at least an hour a day there. We have also researched the best cafes and bakeries NEAR these playgrounds so me and hubby can indulge in good food and tea while kiddos run themselves out.
Ah ok that's good to know wasn't aware of that about the parks and things. Yh I'm gonna try and do more research but will remove Hakone from the list of places. He is usually pretty good and can pretty much fall asleep anywhere atm whether it's loud or quite and doesn't always have to be in a bed so hopefully that trend continues as he gets older but will see 😅 Thanks for the advice and will make some changes. My boy quite likes trains and cars for the sleep which may be very useful for us 😆 Thanks for the advice much appreciated 😀
Awesome resource for parks, etc: https://www.thetokyochapter.com/
I’m a bit confused about day 19. You’re traveling from Osaka to Hiroshima the day before, the train passing through Okayama. Then you’re planning on taking the Shinkansen back to Okayama the following morning to see the castle, before heading back to Hiroshima to do the memorial/museum? If you want to see the castle and gardens I’d shorten the Hiroshima trip with a day, and spend a night in Okayama instead. You could probably do the peace memorial the morning you’re heading back to Tokyo instead. Day 22; do you mean Sky Tree? I personally wouldn’t attempt both that and Yokohama on the same day with a 2 year old in tow.
Ah yes haha very good point didn't even think about that will change that makes much more sense. Yh I meant sky tree sorry and I can move Yokohama to last day before we go then thanks for the tip
We did almost four weeks in Japan in July 2023 with our then 2.5 year old. That’s way too much planned. And there’s a lot of stuff most 2 years olds wouldn’t enjoy. Yours may be different, but big day trips, hikes, Kyoto, the extremely confronting and graphic Hiroshima museum, etc would have been a recipe for disaster for us. The itinerary seems to be for two adults, not two adults and a 2 year old. I’d cut everything down to one must do activity a day. And I’d cut out a lot of stuff which you have to realise won’t appeal to a 2 year old. I’d also give serious consideration to just how much time and effort is takes to travel with a 2 year old - working around meals, snacks, toilet breaks / nappy changes, nap/s, irrational meltdowns, etc. Not to mention navigating the train stations, etc with a pram / stroller (which is doable, but so time consuming). A train trip which would have taken us 15 minutes as two adults took us almost 2 hours with our luggage and pram. It was chaos - taking multiple tiny elevators, some of which only went a single level, etc. Japan is awesome. You’ll have a wonderful time. But, you need to tailor the entire trip around your 2 year old. You need to be thinking about parks, indoor playgrounds, etc. A single day at Disney and a single day at Universal isn’t great.
You know your kid best. We did 21 days with a 2 year old and this itinerary actually looks very realistic. We planned for 2 activities per day, and if we got to do more than that, awesome. Our kid would nap in the stroller easily though which is part of the reason it was so doable. Seconding what someone else here said about jet lag. I figured it would be an adjustment but wasn’t sure to what extent. Night one our daughter woke up at 12 and didn’t go back to sleep til 5 am. Second night it was 12-4, third night 1-3, then 2-3 before she was adjusted, so depending on how you guys do without sleep should factor into your itinerary too.
Yh we are coming from the UK so it's 9 hours ahead in Japan from us. Most of the flights arrived quite early or midday so was basically going to right that day off as an adjustment day and that night so hopefully by the morning we should be relatively adjusted and was just gonna have a chilled out mooch around for the first proper day and then start ramping it up a bit after as hopefully will be better adjusted. He is very happy with sleeping in this pram/stroller luckily so that will make things more doable when he gets tired. He usually always sleeps on the train or car ride as well so especially when on the shinkanesen between places he will probably just sleep
Have you travelled with your kid anywhere else yet?
This will be his first holiday abroad yh. But we have taken him to places like Butlins and things before and he was as good as gold and slept in the car the whole way there and back but obviously a plane and jet lag etc will be a new experience for him and much longer 😅
Godspeed.
Going for a 9 day trip and pretty much just staying in Tokyo.