Aichi with a toddler (2–3) 3 spots
Aichi is Japan's factory heartland, flat and quick to cross. Ghibli Park is here, Totoro's world built at full size, and the companies that make Japan's cars and bullet trains keep museums where you climb into the real thing.
Little World Open-Air Ethnographic Museum
Houses from around the world, rebuilt full-size along a 2.5 km loop.
Stroller OK · Nursing room · Changing table · checked Aug ’26
Nagoya Castle, built by Tokugawa Ieyasu, wears golden shachihoko, mythical fish, on its roof.
Stroller OK · Nursing room · Changing table · checked Oct ’26
Inuyama Castle, above the Kiso River, has Japan's oldest surviving keep (main tower), a national treasure.
Stroller OK · Nursing room · Changing table · checked Oct ’26
This is the age the place is built for: in a door, a look around the room, out, next house. Between the houses it is open ground rather than corridors, so there is room to run.The park bus is free until the third birthday and 300 yen after it, and a costume costs extra on top of admission. Parking, the coin lockers and the vending machines take cash only, so keep coins in your pocket.
The palace exhibits are a little hard for preschoolers. The wide grounds, however, offer plenty to enjoy without going into any building, and one boy of two was more absorbed in sand play than in the castle.
For one 2½-year-old who insisted on climbing by himself, going up with a sibling's help went fine, but on the way down any sudden run was hard to stop, so even a child who climbs alone may need a hand on these stairs. The walk up from the town was also a long way for one 3-year-old, whose parents kept him going with play and carrying.