2 week holiday in tokyo with 18 month old?

HI,

Me and my wife hope to travel to Japan at the end of may/start of june, for a two week vacation. The plan was to base ourselves in tokyo. Is this a feasible idea with a young one? If so are there any must see's or definietely dont do's? and is there any family friendly accommodation anyone can recommend? anywhere that would do 2 rooms for not ridiculous money would be a great help!
Thanks in advance for all your help, any advice welcome!

Gavin

I would try to find a baby sitter and leave the young one home.
It will be very difficult in the crowded stations and trains.
In the many years I lived in Tokyo, I seldom saw very young children on the trains.

Even crossing a street could be difficult.
This is HARAJUKU station in Tokyo.

http://dickh.zenfolio.com/img/v17/p30145683-3.jpg

Every one is different every child is different its totally depends on how comfortable you are with you bub. Our daughter was with us traveling or just going out to restaurants from 5 weeks old.
My best advice would be stay in a apartment such as FRASER APARTMENTS . The benefit would be you have a base to work from and cooking washing facilities . Some have 2 bed rooms

We took our then 12mth old, based ourselves in Tokyo.

It wasn't the same as previously holidays without a baby...there were some frustrating moments.

We had an Ergo carrier for her, and a pram. There was only one peak hour journey on the train that the pram was an issue...we just breathed through it...Tokyo is full of little people and all of their paraphernalia.

We stayed at Flexstay Higashi Ikebekuro, and we like all flexstay/wmt we've stayed in cheap washing facilities on site.

We had taken JR passes with us as we normally travel far and wide on the shinkansen- in hindsight we wouldn't with a toddler again...we were very close to the yamanote line but by the time we left the hotel with baby and made it somewhere we wanted to go within tokyo it took an amount of time and we were exhausted....let alone going for a few hours out on a shinkansen.

Maybe we're just not cut out for traveling with a baby?

As a blonde haired blue eyed lil person she got attention from all ages and genders where ever we went, so that was a conversation starter.

We had some lovely moments but it's not something we'll repeat in a hurry....

It is alright to travel with baby. since we live in Japan, we went everywhere with our daughter. Not a problem, but DO CARRY baby pram. A comfortable pram would help a lot. You can not carry baby in your arms all the time.


PS: I made album of all the places my daughter went before she completed 1 year. And she went to many places in that period. It is very good gift for her (she will cherish it when she grown up).

Have you considered basing yourself in a different city like Kyoto?

Honestly, Tokyo metro is just not a city designed to accommodate people with small kids, especially for vacationing.

I lived near Shinjuku/Shibuya for several years and I can probably count on two hands the number of times I saw people with strollers on the average weekday.

Are their some particular aspects of Tokyo that you must be near? Tokyo is mostly about adult entertainment (fine dining, drinking, music, fashion, shopping, arts) and none of those can really be enjoyed with a toddler.

I'm not saying it can't be done but I don't recommend it and it's hard to understand the benefits of you staying in Tokyo without more specific information.

I'm sorry, I have to agree with DickH: in 3 trips to Japan, NOT just Tokyo, we have rarely seen young children. The transport system is not geared for strollers etc; and in crowded trains it would be an absolute nightmare.
The usual tourist attractions require significant amounts of walking, not necessarily on stroller or toddler friendly surfaces.
It would seem a real shame to travel to this amazing country and not experience all it has to offer: a toddler would severely limit the ability to do that.

Wow.

I thought that it would be tough but was actually expecting more advice on times to avoid the subway, what areas you can take kids etc etc as opposed to a flat out just dont come.

Other reactions ive had to the trip idea from people who have been and experienced it have been along those lines, difficult but rewarding, and i was pointed in the direction of this forum as it has a good reputation.

I guess i'll have a rethink then. Thanks to all who took the time to reply.

Gavin.

Please realize we are not just trying to be negative, but simply telling you the reality of getting around in Tokyo.
If you haven't been here, it's impossible to imagine the crowded trains. About the only times you can expect to not find crowds are before 7AM and after 9PM.
Where I changed trains in Ikebukuro, during the AM crush hour, they had ropes on the lower level to prevent people from using the entire width of the stairs. It took a few minutes waiting to finally reach the platform, then we had to wait for 2 or 3 trains before we could get in. I'm talking about the Yamanote Loop line around Tokyo. Each train has 11 cars and they run every 2 to 3 minutes. The rated capacity of each car is about 154, but they fill up to 240% at times. Doing the math gives you about 4000 people on each train. Get the point?

I lived in Tokyo for a year pre children and then returned to Japan last year with my 3 & 6 year old. We all loved it.

Tokyo is a busy city, so there is lot's of walking. So we took our stroller with us for our three year old although at times I pushed both children at the same time, which was funny. I made sure that I only took a very basic stroller ($30) so that it folded really thinly and enabled us to hold it against us on the train or place it under the seat when we had seats. This even included one rush hour jumping on at Shinjuku and although not an ideal time we did it, without too much fuss.

There are many places to go with children especially disneyland and disnysea. At the same time there will be lots you may want to see that won't interest your child. We tried to keep mixing it up e.g dinosaurs at the museaum followed by a walk through the park and streets. This seem to keep the kids interested. Although if your child is a good sleeper in a stroller perfect time to just wander around and visit shrines and temples.

Tokyo is certainly a sight seeing place and we came home exhausted from being so busy so it's not like go to Bali where you come back refreshed from just relaxing with your family around a pool. But it is an unfogettable experience. We are planning on going again next year with the kids again.

We rented an apartment in nakano through homeaway which was reasonable and then splurged by stayed at the disneylad hotel.

People are always very helpful.

I hope that gives you more information if you were still wishing to go to tokyo. Google family trips and you will find quite a few with toddlers to tokyo and that may give your more information, what worked for them.

Enjoy

Thanks Katrina.

My understanding was it certainly wasnt the easiest trip to take however i thought, as you suggested, that if we mixed it up between things to interest him and then us, then we could at least go someway to satisfying our curiosity.

The subway does indeed sound manic, especially during rush hour so if we go ahead we'll be sure to take it all into account.

If we do go and then afterwards think it was tough and maybe not want to repeat it, i think i would still rather this than always wondering what if.

Thanks again for everyone's thoughts.