We didn’t actually stay in Tokyo, but rather in the suburbs of Kanagawa with young kids all packed into my friend’s family home. After a wonderful (and also exhausting but still wonderful) time hanging out with old friends in Osaka, and then traipsing around the oft-forgotten city of Nagoya, and then exploring the hot springs and mountains of Hakone, it was time for me to get to work.
I had some work meetings in the centre of Tokyo, which did mean we had to go into the city – it’s 1.5-2 hours to get there! Traveling during rush hour in Tokyo again is kind of fun when you know it’s not your day-to-day life.
My old university friend and her family (3 kids!) live in Kanagawa. It’s about 40 minutes by walk + train to get into Shinjuku (the west centre of Tokyo) if you’re lucky. They very very kindly smushed themselves all into one room for us. I have to say — with 5 kids and 4 adults in the house, it was pretty fun. The kids generally kept each other busy (ages 5, 4, 3, 1 and 0)!
And there are some really nice things to do in this relatively suburban area. For one, it was very easy to transit here from Hakone — no train transfers necessary. Families here often have more of a car-based life than you’d typically imagine for Tokyo. I think this is quite common actually once families get to this life stage. Even in Amsterdam most families I’ve noticed do have cars. But on a daily basis, they use the trains to commute.
One thing that will not fail to terrify someone from the US is carelessness in regards to carseats in Japan. We travelled around with friends who allowed their 4-year-old to bounce around in the car on the highway, basically not buckled in. They even set off whilst I was still breastfeeding my son — as if that’s normal!! (Although for them it’s not normal that I was breastfeeding in front of them at all, to be fair; there are many nursing stations in restaurants, museums and department stores in Japan). And this friend that I visited puts the baby in the carseat up front next to her whilst driving. They have that much faith that the other cars drive safely. I still think it’s crazy.
Day 0: Family izakaya with kids
We went and got dinner at one of those awesome and relaxed family-type restaurants where you order on a tablet. We managed to get a private room which meant the kids happily ran around.
One thing I noticed during our trip was that the friends I saw are very careful to keep their kids in kid-friendly spaces; but once they’re there, they often let them run wild! We ate at izakayas (family-orientated ones) twice and their kids were running around having the time of their life.
Day 1 Tokyo commute & baby cafe
I headed to central Tokyo — Shiodome and then Shinagawa for some meetings with a client. Then I arranged to meet up with my husband and the kids for lunch at this awesome baby cafe called FORELSKET. It just happened to be a short walk from my next meeting and was so tasty and a really nice atmosphere for parents to chill while the kids played!!
The rest of the day was work, work and more work but it was good to be back in the middle of it all.
Day 2: Suburban Saturday in Ikuta Ryokuchi Park
Back in Kanagawa, we headed to this awesome open air museum – a collection of many old-style Japanese houses that had been salvaged from around the country. It’s nestled within the Ikuta Ryokuchi Park, if you have time explore it. There’s also the Taro Okamoto Museum of Art nearby.
There happened to be a neighbourhood festival in the park on that day, and as such entry was free. There were traditional dancing performances and everything was vibrant and boisterous. A wonderful, more local taste of a weekend with kids in Tokyo.
We met up for a picnic in the park with our friends’ neighbours. They are American missionaries with four kids and have just moved to Japan, placing all their kids in a local Japanese school! It was fun and chaotic — usually I imagine the park to be much more calm, with open spaces and a chance to relax.
We stopped at Baskin-Robbins on the way back for some ice cream, which my husband was desperate to get — he loves that they use dry ice to keep it cold when you order it to-go. It’s the little things.
For dinner we were welcomed by my friend’s mum whom I’ve also known for many years. She made us a delicious home-cooked Japanese meal. The kids had their own little table. Very cute!
I was surprised just how exhausted I was at the end of this day, without even much travelling around. At this point in the trip we were starting to get excited for the relaxation time coming up in Hawaii after leaving Tokyo. It’s a shame because there’s so much to do in Tokyo, and picking a random neighbourhood and spending a couple weeks there would be really appealing as a way to take things more slowly.
Day 3: Enoshima! A day by the sea
I’d never been to Enoshima, which is an island to the south of Tokyo. It’s an easy day trip from Kanagawa and there’s now a bridge connecting it to the mainland. I had read about this island steeped in culture in my travelogues from the 19th century and wanted to go now, in the present day!
There’s so much to see and do on this little island. We immediately got some Hawaii vibes on leaving the train station. I guess there’s a bit of surf culture here, at the seaside. Once you walk across the bridge, you’re presented with a busy thoroughfare leading to the stairs which go up to the shrine. My Japanese friend commented that she hates these busy, touristy shopping streets. I thought that was amusing, as to me, these aren’t cliched or over-touristy — just fun and exciting. It reminds me of how people see places like Covent Garden for the first time (that was me in 2007!), compared to how seasoned locals see a place.
You can take a special escalator up to the top. It costs a little bit of money but it’s worth it. It was fun and a little magical going up amidst the light and the dark. It feels a bit like you’re in an aquarium. Once you’re there you see the shrine which had some dancing on that day.
We found a noodle place to have lunch, which was a little tricky because the place we actually wanted to visit refused to take kids (too small of a venue, apparently; they just didn’t want the hassle). Then we walked to the end of the island and visited the historic caves. My friend and her family opted to play on the rocks at the beach.
My son loved this. There was not a lot of walking inside and there was an interactive roaring dragon (hard to explain). Also, he finally saw Mount Fuji! It was a tiny speck in the distance but he didn’t care.
On our walk back to the station, both kids were so exhausted that they fell asleep (and stayed asleep) on the train, and we relaxed with some Domino’s for dinner at home.
Day 4: Ancient Egypt in Japan + more meetings
On Monday, I had more meetings planned. It was tricky logistically to figure out who was going to watch the kids, and when, and where we would all meet up again. In the end we decided that I would take my sons into the centre of Tokyo for an exhibition I was eager to see, the Rameses the Great exhibition!
This was beautifully done, albeit difficult to get to. The rush hour train ended up getting cancelled midway and I had to quickly reroute by jumping in a taxi with my (sleeping) baby and son for half the trip. Luckily we still managed everything in time.
I’ve been sharing my love of ancient Egypt with my son for many years now, and he keeps asking me when we will visit. It’s not only a dream though and of course we will— I’m thinking in the next 2-3 years to go see the new museum in Giza!
My next meeting was at the trendy Blue Bottle coffee place nearby, which is awesome if you’re traveling with kids. This cafe is also near a well-known kids’ museum / play area, Kidzania, and an interesting-looking (if niche) gas museum. But what was so awesome about Blue Bottle is that 1) they do a really good set lunch with grilled cheese and tomato soup, incidentally one of my son’s favourites and of course they have fantastic coffee; and 2) it’s set in a park with a lot of grass to run around in. This is, like I’ve said previously, not common in Japan at all. My kids played while I relaxed with a coffee and enjoyed the sunshine outside. There’s also a playground nearby. It was bliss.
My husband arrived at this point — looking very harried as he’d had trouble with his card running out of money on Tokyo Metro — but anyway, it was my turn to hand off the kids. After that I had more meetings, headed to Roppongi for a final meeting, and then jumped on a rush hour train to get home to Kanagawa.
Day 5: Final day in Shinjuku, shopping and kids’ play area
We headed to Shinjuku, the easiest way to take the train to the airport. As a midway point, this was such a nice way to spend the day because my friend pointed us to the Keio Plaza Hotel, which happens to have a family’s paradise on the 42nd floor. You can pay to spend the day there. It includes a cafe and free coffees, has space for coworking, you can leave your baggage in the hotel lobby, and, (drumroll) there’s a huge kids’ softplay area, with an amazing view to end your last day in Tokyo!
We had a quick lunch at Komeda which is also a fun retro chain, actually originally from Nagoya. Then I finally got some me-time!! I headed out to do some last-minute shopping. I’d been wanting to properly shop this whole trip and never really got much time to (especially without the baby). It was a good chance to use up that duty-free discount that tourists get.
Finally, we had a stressful time heading to Narita Airport, as I should have expected. It was very easy to get from Shinjuku Station to the hotel, but returning — especially with heavy luggage — was not so simple. First of all the entrance to get to the Narita Express is no where near where we’d exited, and second it was impossible to find the lift. This was the second time that JR staff just weren’t that helpful to me on this trip. I can’t imagine how much harder it is to deal with this situation if you don’t speak Japanese. We ended up missing our train but luckily we were able to re-use our tickets for the next one, and still made it with enough time left to comfortably get through the airport. My advice: it doesn’t matter if Google maps says the station is close… if you’re going somewhere busy like Shinjuku with time pressure, give yourself twice the amount of time you think you need!
This was the end of our Japan journey.We did a lot, although it was not all basic touristy stuff, we certainly found ourselves heading to basic touristy places: Nagoya, Osaka, Tokyo and Hakone are all certainly on the regular Japan tourist trek. It was lovely to see all my friends, especially to see my kids interacting with their kids!
I’m already contemplating our next trip – I’d like to go when my baby is older, closer to my eldest’s current age, so that he can enjoy things like the stamp rallies in the stations, the toy set menus in restaurants, and play more with my friends. Maybe a trip up north during sakura season in 2028 during the school May holiday? Hmm…
