One of the things that put most people off from travelling with young children, especially babies and toddlers, is the stress of moving around with all the luggage, stroller, baby essentials, and many more things we feel we must carry with us at all times.
In this post we will explain to you how to travel around Japan with a stroller. How to navigate their underground metro system with a stroller, how to take local trains and the world-famous bullet train with a baby and a stroller and how to travel between cities in Japan almost hands-free.
We know that stress levels rise massively if we think about being stuck on a tiny seat of a plane for over 12 hours with our baby or hyperactive toddler. We have been in those shoes. You can also check our post on tips for planning a trip to Japan with a Baby and soon we will upload an article with tips on how to survive a 14-hour long flight with a baby or toddler and how to deal with the baby jet lag.
Let us show you how to easily travel around Japan with your baby so you can finalise planning that Japanese family trip you have been dreaming about for years.
Travelling Around Japan with a Stroller
Japan is known for its busy crowded streets. There is a reason why they have one of the busiest and the most famous pedestrian crossings in the world, the Shibuya Crossing. Walking with a stroller can be challenging in large cities like Tokyo, Kyoto or Osaka.
One advantage of most Japanese cities is that they are mostly flat, except for a few steps to access some shrines and temples. Although most of them now have an alternative route for wheelchair users and families with strollers.
The downside to visiting such large cities is that most of the tourist attractions are far away from each other. Hence, you will have to take some way of transport to get there. In Japan, this is usually the metro or a train, which means going to the underground stations. Even though there may be more than 20 access points to a single station, there are just a few with lift access.
The best way to move around Japan with a stroller is to have a lightweight and compact stroller. You can read about our opinion on the best travel strollers in this post.
How to Take the Public Transport in Japan with a Stroller
Taking the Metro in Japan with a Stroller
During your trip to Japan with a baby, you will most likely need to take the metro several times a day. As most of the metro stations in Japan are underground, you will have to take the long stairs down or find the lift that gets you down to the metro tracks.
The truth is that the Japanese metro infrastructure to access the stations is not as modern as we would think. Most metro stations in Japan have only 1 or 2 access lifts. Additionally, these are not always well indicated by the signs.
If you are happy to carry the stroller with you up and down the stairs, then you must definitely have a lightweight compact stroller. These weigh less than 7 kgs (15 pounds), so between two adults, it is not a lot of weight. We ended up carrying the stroller quite a few times as we didn’t find the lift or we found it was a lot faster taking the stairs.
Using Google Maps to Avoid Stairs When Taking the Metro
If you are solo travelling with your baby through Japan or don’t want to carry the stroller, then we recommend you use the “wheelchair accessible” option in Google Maps to get directions via lifts, avoiding stairs. The app will give you directions to the nearest lift to access the station.
Using the Welcome Suica Car in Japan to Access the Japan Metro
The Welcome Suica would speed up your access and exit to the metro. It is very easy to use as you only need to touch the pad with the card when you go through the access gates and touch it again when you exit. The screens at the gate will indicate how much money you have left on the card at your exit.
You will get charged when you leave the metro station. Don’t worry about running out of money in the card as there are machines on either side of the gates to recharge your cards.
Finding the Lift to Get to the Surface When Travelling by Metro with a Stroller
Each car will indicate through voice and on the screens over each door the name of the next stop. The screens will display the name of the stop in both Japanese and English. They will also display an illustration of the car, indicating in which car number you are sitting, and also the location of the lift with respect to where your car will stop at the station.
This is very useful, as many times, the lift is located on the opposite side of the station than the stairs that most people will use.
Taking the Train in Japan and Bullet Train with a Stroller
When visiting Japan, you probably plan on visiting a few cities, say at least Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka. Tokyo and Kyoto are around 450km apart. By car, it would take over 6 hours to go from one city to the other. Fortunately, the train network of high-speed trains works perfectly and allows you to travel easily around Japan. This is very appreciated when travelling with a baby. In half of the time, just 3 hours, and with a lot more comfort, you can make the same journey in the world-famous Japanese bullet train, known as the “Shinkansen”.
Buying the Bullet Train “Shinkansen” Tickets for a Family with a Baby
You can buy the Shinkansen tickets online, at the ticket machines at every major station or at the JR ticket offices which can be found at every major and most minor train station throughout Japan.
We recommend that you buy them online or at the JR ticket offices. We bought all our Shinkansen tickets at the JR rickets offices with no issues. As we were on a relaxed trip with our little Baby O, we didn’t want to be stressed out about not making it in time to the station in the morning. So, when we were ready, we just went to the station and bought the tickets for the next available Shinkansen train. There are usually Shinkansen trains at very close intervals so you should not have any problems.
If you are travelling during a very busy week or weekend, then it may be better to buy the tickets in advance.
There was only one trip, from Takayama to Kyoto, when we bought the tickets the day before as we were staying very close to the station, and we wanted to take the last available direct train. We didn’t want to risk losing it.
Reserving Seats on the Shinkansen Train in Japan for a Family with a Baby
We also recommend buying tickets with reserved seats to ensure the whole family is seated together. We didn’t buy a seat ticket for our baby as she was travelling on our lap. If you are more than 2-3 people, depending on the train, remember that all seats can be rotated 180 degrees to face each other. There is a little pad below the seat, facing the aisle that unlocks the rotation mechanism.
There are a few cars which you can board on with no ticket reservation, but there is always the risk that there are not enough seats together for the whole family.
Carrying your Luggage and Strollers in the Japanese Bullet Train
As we will mention below, when we travelled between cities, we did not take any luggage other than one backpack each and one for the baby. This was mainly because we wanted to travel comfortable and light. The backpacks and the baby stroller are already enough.
The Cybex Libelle we used in our trip to Japan with our baby, an ultracompact and lightweight stroller, fitted the overhead storage shelf of the train. As it is smaller and lighter than most luggage, it was very easy to store. It is worth noting that the Cybex Libelle stroller actually fits in the gap between our row and the seats in front. So, if you want, you can keep your baby in the stroller if they are asleep.
How to Take the Bus in Japan with a Stroller
Although you probably won’t be taking the bus in Japan that often, as you will rely on the metro system, you may find it useful on some occasions. We took the bus in Kyoto after a long day of visiting temples and shrines. The bus was the fastest way of getting back to our hotel.
To board the bus with a stroller, you will need to go up a few high steps. If you are on your own, someone will help you as Japanese people or other tourists are usually very friendly and want to help. All buses have priority seating for people who most need it like pregnant mums or parents with a stroller.
You can use the Welcome Suica to take the bus. Just tap on the pad next to the driver as you get off to pay.
Travelling Hands-free Through Japan
If you are travelling to Japan, you are probably planning on visiting the country for at least a week, and most likely for at least two weeks to make the most of it. This will mean that you are going to take a considerable amount of clothes. This gets worse if you are travelling during colder months.
Travelling with a baby doesn’t help as you almost need a set of clothes for every day as they will get dirty with food scraps, dirt, and things you don’t even know how they got on their clothes. Even if you are planning and manage to wash their clothes regularly, which we did, they will take up a lot of space in your luggage.
On top of moving around with all the luggage, you need to push the stroller. That’s if your baby or toddler wants to be in the stroller. Otherwise, a pair of hands and arms will be busy holding the baby.
Additionally, Japanese cities and streets are not made for people walking with large suitcases as they are narrow and crowded most of the time.
That’s why they have a very good system in place of luggage delivery services between cities, directly from and to your hotel, or even the airport.
Japan Luggage Delivery Service Between Hotels
As we just mentioned, we didn’t want to move around Japan with our baby, the stroller and a few suitcases. Therefore, we used the luggage delivery service offered throughout Japan. We used Yamato Transport Global, known for its famous logo of a black cat over a yellow oval background.
We used it a few times during our two-week trip to Japan with our baby O. And it worked perfectly on all the occasions. When we arrived at our hotels, the suitcases were either already in our room or waiting in the hotel’s storage room.
The cost depends on the size (the sum of the length, width and height) of your luggage.
There are a few other luggage delivery services available, although we didn’t use them.
A Few Tips to Consider When Planning on Using the Yamato Luggage Delivery Service
- Send your luggage 2 days before your arrival to your next destination or departure airport. Even though they mention same-day delivery. That depends on the office you use and the cities you are trying to connect.
- If you have short intermediate stays, send your luggage straight to the next destination. When we had planned just one or two nights in one city, we sent our luggage to the next destination, skipping our shorter stay. We packed our backpacks with spare clothes for those 2-3 days and nights. We highly recommend this as you will travel a lot lighter. Such a pleasure travelling light.
- Look one or two days in advance via Google Maps at the opening times of your nearest Yamato office. Some Yamato offices do not open on Sundays or have reduced opening times. To avoid losing too much time having to travel further to get to an open office, do a bit of research beforehand.
