Take Your Toddlers To Tokyo: Japan - What To Expect

By Wisterian Watertree

Small kids may not enjoy travel as much as adults, but the memories stay with them for life. The more different environments you are exposed to as a small child, the broader your perception you will have of what the world can be. 

Taking small children to Japan is a perfect way of broadening their perspectives (while indulging mom and dad at the same time). The Japanese culture - both traditional and modern - is fascinating, and few places are so steeped in living history. Visiting Japan never fails to make an impression, on children and adults alike. 

But bringing children anywhere requires special planning and management skills. They do not automatically do as you say, and a supermarket tantrum is never pleasant. Sleeping in a new place is scary, eating new foods is yucky (or, if you get wasabi on your sushi, subject to another tantrum). 

This book tells you how to get the best out of your visit with your small children to Tokyo, one of the most fascinating places in the world. And there is a huge plus: Navigating Tokyo with kids is downright easy. Let me tell you how in this book. 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Wisterian Watertree
• Release date: Oct 31, 2022
• ISBN: 9798201149017

Wisterian Watertree

Wisterian Watertree has lived in Japan for more than 15 years, and traveled the country from the southern tip of Okinawa to the northern edge of Hokkaido with his three children. Enjoying every minute of it, even the tantrums and hours spent looking for lost mittens in the snow. 

Book preview

Take Your Toddlers To Tokyo: An Infant Parents Planning Guide For What To Expect. Getting The Best Experience Out Of Your Visit With A Baby In A Stroller. A Guide For People Who Like To Read About How To Keep Your Child Happy In The Capital Of Japan.

Preface

Congratulations. You have got help at the best possible moment – before the problems happen. You bought this book!

Tokyo can be as frustrating as it is rewarding. Especially with a baby (or a couple) in a stroller. I have three, so I can tell you a lot about it, and how we have solved the problems. As we liked Japan so much that we now live in Tokyo, we have had to do it every day.

This is not a book with lists of what to see and what to do. You can find that on the web. This is a book that tells you what to expect. How do you handle situations in a completely strange culture, where you can not even read the writing?

As so often happens with this type of book, it is the book I wish I had had when we came to Tokyo. It does not contain anything about the different aspects of the move, immigration, and related things. But it does tell you how to navigate the city with infants in a stroller, and how to find attractions and daily necessities those infants will appreciate. And you too. But then, you are probably coming as a visitor, not immigrating.

This is a book for people who like to read. There is a lot of text and no pictures, and the text flows. You will find a lot of that in this book, and Japan is one of those places where history (ancient and modern) creep up on you from behind and tap you on the shoulder at almost every step.

I am happy and honored to help you, but I also appreciate your feedback. If you need more help, visit my website, http://www.wisterianwatertree.com, where you will find continuous updates and tips. That is also where you can ask questions and where you can give me feedback on how this book could be improved. Check out the website for some even more amazing offers exclusive for you, now that you bought this book.

And one more thing: If you read this book and did not like it, let me know what you did not like and why. If you do, I will give you a discount coupon for 100 % off one of my other books. Yes, I will give you another book for free. Just be sure to let me know what you did not like and why. The more detail, the better. Then I can write the next book in a way that you will like.

Check out the website for more details.

Chapter 1  Plan Your Trip Well

You know as well as I do that when you travel with kids, the only thing you can count on is that nothing works as you counted on. There will be sudden upchucks on the customs officers, diaper changes in the train, tantrums in the temples, and that moment when you notice your child has disappeared somewhere when you were not looking.

The only cure is to know what to expect, and that is why I wrote this book. It is based on our own experiences from 15 years of traveling in Japan, with and without kids. Knowing about our experiences is just the first step, however. You need facts about what you will see, and what you will find. The companion website has links for each chapter (as the Internet keeps on changing, I will track them for you).

Since everyone is different, planning is different too. One family wants to see temples and gardens; the other cares about nothing but anime and street food. Some people build a dossier as thick as their suitcase to figure out every detail in advance; others might check their smartphones every few days. Everyone is different, and so is the way you will experience Japan.

Yet, your kids are the same. Sure, some love daifuku, but others will hate oyakodon. Some want to do nothing but find the nearest playground, others care more for a quiet spot in the nearest bookstore. But they all need diaper changes, they all scream loudly when they are hungry (at least until they learn to talk, and sometimes after that), and they all have limitations how far and fast they can go by themselves. You need to adapt your plans to them, because they are the least flexible members of your family. At least until they reach school age.  

Sometime around six to seven years old, there is a huge transition, as big as the one when they finally decided diapers were not for them and food was something you could eat, instead of drink. After school age, your kids will be much more communicative, and able to tell you what they want to do. And then, there is another thing – school. Unless you are homeschooling your kids (and I could write a different book for those who do), your children will be limited by the vacations set by the school. In some countries, that means three months of summer vacation, and weeks of vacation around Christmas and New Year, plus several weeks during the terms. In other countries, having a vacation of a couple of days is considered long. And depending on where you live, the timing will be different, too.

But before school, you have much more freedom to decide when and where to go. Even if you are limited by having your kids in a stroller. This book will help you plan for that. So let us start with what happens when you land in Tokyo.

Chapter 2  After You Get Off The Plane

When you pick up your stroller at the gate, you still have quite a distance to go to get your luggage. Regardless if you come in at the Haneda airport, which actually is located in the Tokyo city limits on an artificial island, or whether you came to Narita airport, which is much further from the city but handles the bulk of the international traffic. But since both Haneda and Narita are managed by the same company, they have a similar layout and work the same way.

When you exit the jetway and get out into the airport, there is an escalator carrying most people up to the floor where immigration is located. There is an elevator behind the escalator, so use it. You are not supposed to use strollers in escalators in Japan, because they may tip over and hurt your child (and other people). There is always an elevator in public spaces like train stations and airports, so use those.

When you get off the elevator there is a long corridor with a walkway towards immigration. There is a toilet about every 50 meters, and just after the toilets a changing and nursing room. It has an outlet for water to make formula (very hot – 90 degrees, so you can also sterilize the bottle with it), regular hot and cold water for washing and drinking, a curtained-off space for the nursing itself, and changing tables for your babies. Use them, this is going to be the last opportunity you will have to change the children before you arrive in your hotel or apartment. And the luggage is not going anywhere. Take your time.

Water in Japanese pipes is good enough that the water companies bottle it and sell it in stores, so fill up the sippy cups of your children in the nursing room. It will take at least 40 minutes, maybe an hour and a half, before you walk out into the entrance lobby where there are coffee shops and convenience stores, so make sure your children have plenty to drink, either formula or water, if you are starting to wean them off the formula. Buildings are airconditioned but the air in an airplane is drier than normal outside air, so you need to drink to rehydrate the mucous membranes of the nose and throat.

Before you arrive at immigration (a long walk including a couple of escalators, followed by an elevator ride down a couple of floors), you have to pass the quarantine desk. When there is an epidemic they actually measure the temperature of people passing and also give you a questionnaire to fill out (not filling it in will mean you will not be let in to Japan).

This is only used in international epidemics, like during the Covid-19 pandemic and the SARS outbreaks in China and Korea a few years ago, but if you or your babies have had any recent health problems that go past the normal cold or stomach problem, and is not under treatment by a doctor already, mention it to the staff inside. They can help prescribe medication if you need it.

During the pandemic, the measures have also started to include PCR testing, since you will have to quarantine if you show a positive result. This is regardless of whether you are vaccinated or not, and your kids will have to take the test as well (which may be quite unpleasant). There will be long lines in front of the testing desks, so ask if there is somewhere they will test your children. It may depend on the time of day if there is a separate office open.

The doctor in the quarantine office will also want to talk to you if you come from areas of the world where some diseases are endemic, like Ebola or yellow fever. Sometimes there is an outbreak of animal diseases that you may not have heard of, and they will require you to report yourself if you have been to a farm. Usually, you just walk through. The squishiness on the mat is disinfectant.

After quarantine comes immigration. There is a long line, longer if you happened to arrive at the same time as flights from countries with many tourists or would-be visitors, and there is no priority line for parents with strollers. You will see a number of foreigners go through different gates, where there is no line; these are permanent residents and they can come and go pretty much as Japanese citizens, who have a much larger number of desks to themselves.

When you finally arrive at the desk with the immigration officer, he may ask you to come one at the time, although with several children they usually ask the entire family to come up so they can check everybody’s passports. You will also see the reason there are fewer desks for foreigners and why they do not use the desks designated for Japanese: A small machine that takes photos and fingerprints. This is supposedly intended to capture criminals who are trying to pass into the country, which may be the reason they do not fingerprint persons under 16 (and do not require them to have their photo taken, either). The agent will politely refuse your kids if they try to get their photos taken.  

Give the passports and the landing cards you filled in on the plane (one per passport, so one per child) to the agent behind the desk. Follow the instructions of the agent, take off your glasses and put your index fingers on the machine, and your passport will be stamped in no time. Now you can enter Japan, if you can only turn the stroller past the officers desk.

But first, you have to pick up your luggage. Japanese customs require a separate form declaring any contraband you may have, and the value of the goods you bring. You get it on the plane, and fill it out with the other forms, but the immigration officer will not look at it or stamp it. Just keep it until you get to the customs checkout. They only require one form per family, so keep it with your passport (the customs agent will ask to see those).

The luggage carousel where your luggage will arrive is displayed on a big sign that you can look at while you ride the escalator down the cavernous space where the luggage carousels are located, but as you will take the elevator (there is one at each end of the walk in front of the immigration desks), you will not see it, so take a good look. The numbering can be a bit confusing, and you need to know the abbreviation of the airport you came from. But once you get there, you can see the bags already coming onto the belt. Although they may actually be bags from the flight before, since they try to keep the bags flowing.

Put the stroller by the seats between the carousels and go get your bags. If you see a dog patrolling the baggage claim area (in a leash with a customs officer behind him), do not be worried if he starts sniffing your children’s stroller. The dog may not be looking for drugs (there are narcotics dogs too, of course), but for fruit. Japan has very strict rules about fresh fruit, and if you accidentally have some fresh fruit left that you gave your kids as a snack on the plane, drop it off in the special desk at the end of the baggage claim hall. Bringing fruit that has not been cleared into Japan is a criminal offense, as they are afraid the fruit may carry some disease or insects which is not present in Japan. Do not try to pet the dog. He is working, and may actually growl if you try to pet him. 

Pick up your suitcases, put them on a cart (or wheel them yourself), and go to the customs desk. They will ask to see your passports, all of them, but they only want one customs form per family. And unless you look unusually suspicious and come from a suspicious destination, the officer will wave you by. Especially if you have written a Japanese address on the customs form, including a telephone number.

Chapter 3  Airport Transportation

Tokyo has two airports, Narita (成田空港) and Haneda (羽田空港). Haneda airport is located on an artificial island in Tokyo Bay, and is closer to the Imperial Palace than Tokyo Disneyland. Narita is located in the nearby Chiba prefecture, about sixty kilometres from Tokyo city centre. It is also a city, so make sure you are going to the airport, and not Narita City. If you are traveling internationally you may come in to or leave from either of the two airports, but if you are taking a domestic flight, they normally depart from Haneda.

Narita Airport

The customs desks open directly into the exit. You are only a short cart roll from your first steps in Japan. Which is likely to feel slightly overwhelming, as there is the usual crowd of people waiting for passengers.

At Narita airport, you go past the people waiting, and take the down escalator in front of the sales desks for the express trains and buses. Unless you are going to Tokyo Disneyland, in which case you should take the bus. In general in Japan, trains are the single most convenient way of travel. But it depends on which airport you arrive at, and where in Tokyo you are going. 

If you have more than one child, you will have more than the ordinary amount of carry-on luggage. This makes the train more convenient than the bus, especially if you are going to continue on trains a bit after reaching the city. If you are coming directly from the airport, Tokyo Disneyland is easier to reach with the bus. Buses also stop directly in front of the big hotels, which means that if you arrive on a rainy day, you do not have to change to a taxi, or walk the last few hundred meters. Of course, this does not matter if you are staying in an apartment, or rented a house.

The bus to Narita takes almost two hours to central Tokyo, in particular if you are going to a hotel. To Tokyo Disneyland from Narita, the bus ride is a little more than an hour. Most of the buses are run by Airport Limousine Bus, a company that specializes in running the airport buses around Tokyo, but there is also a cheaper alternative, which is only 1000 yen (plus tax, as of this writing) that runs between Narita and Tokyo Station. This is the cheapest alternative for getting to the airport, and if you are taking a low-cost carrier, you may consider it to keep the price down, if you are on a budget. 

The bus service works the same at Narita airport, but Narita is so far from Tokyo that unless you are going to destinations which would mean changing trains, like Tokyo Disneyland, you will not want to take the bus with kids. Even if there are buses which are much cheaper than the train.

At Narita, there are two train stations, and you want to be careful which train you buy tickets for. Different train companies have different stations, and they may be connected but not co-located. The Keisei Ueno station, for instance, is almost 500 meters from the JR Ueno station. 

The Keisei Skyliner boasts that it only takes 56 minutes from Narita to Ueno, and this is the fastest way of getting to Tokyo from Narita. Be careful though, the train does not stop at the JR Ueno station, but the Keisei Ueno station, which is 500 meters away. If it is raining, it is better to change trains at Nippori, the last stop of the Skyliner before it connects to the airport line. Then you go to your final destination with the Yamanote line, the ring train that connects all parts of central Tokyo.

To take the Yamanote line, you have to change to the JR lines, which means going up one floor with the escalator (or elevator if you have a stroller), and then passing through the ticket gates connecting the two railway systems. The Nippori station is not very large, but you still have to go through the entrance hall to get to the track you are looking for. Be careful to take the Yamanote line in the right direction, there are two trains which run clockwise and anti-clockwise, so make sure you know which direction is closer to your destination.  

The other station at Narita airport is Japan Railway, JR. The JR station is also where you exchange your Japan Rail pass voucher for the real thing, but there is no hurry to do that. Instead, use if you are going somewhere that is covered by Narita Express, buy one of the special tourist tickets that include a Suica card. This is a stored value card that you can use on the trains (not just JR), and since you have to fill it up with money it makes sense to use it for shorter trips. The card can also be used to pay in stores (not just in railway stations but most convenience stores), and in many vending machines, so it is a very easy way to reduce the amount of change you have to carry.

Narita airport is about sixty kilometers east of central Tokyo, and there are two special trains running to the airport: The Narita Express, which runs on the JR lines, and the Skyliner, which runs on a specially constructed line which is much shorter. It runs on a dedicated track, created on land rights which were intended for a Shinkansen line, and can get up to respectable speeds over 250 km per hour on part of the line.

Narita Express takes about 1.5 hours from Tokyo to Narita, but this is because many of the trains run through Chiba station, which is actually a detour. JR manages commuter traffic in most of Japan, as well as the Shinkansen trains, and the Narita Express train is their offering to get to Narita airport. It runs all the way to Zushi south of Tokyo (only at certain times), and runs to Shibuya, Shinjuku, and Ikebukuro. If you do not want