Gifu with preschoolers (4–6) 3 spots
Gifu is steep valleys on the road between Tokyo and Kyoto. People still live under the huge thatched roofs at Shirakawa-go, and on summer nights fishermen work the Nagara River with trained cormorants while you watch from a boat.
Gifu-Kakamigahara Air and Space Museum
An air and space museum with a full-size mock-up of the ISS Japanese lab module.
Stroller OK · Nursing room · Changing table · checked Aug ’26
Sample Kobo (Food Sample Workshop)
A museum and workshop in the town that made most of Japan's plastic food models.
Stroller OK · checked Aug ’26
A World Heritage village whose streets are lined with thatched gassho-zukuri houses.
Stroller OK · Nursing room · Changing table · checked Aug ’26
Simulators for an airliner, a small jet and a VR helicopter put the controls in their own hands. The space area on the second floor holds a full-size mock-up of Kibo, the Japanese lab module of the International Space Station, fitted with a wheelchair lift; it reopened renewed on February 21, 2026. The kids' room stays open to them through age 6, so there is still somewhere to go back and play. A family visiting with a 4-year-old and a 6-year-old took two and a half hours in all.Admission is free for junior high age and under and 800 yen for adults. E-tickets are sold on Jalan net and Asoview; there are no convenience store advance tickets. Photography for personal use is generally free, but not in the theater, not of the exhibit commentary videos, and not of the Boeing 787 fuselage section in Zone A3 on the first floor. Tripods, monopods, selfie sticks and gimbals cannot be brought in. To read the exhibit commentary in English, Chinese, Korean or French, install the UDT Sorahaku app over the museum's free Wi-Fi. Volunteer spot guides work the second and fourth Sunday of each month. The museum closes on the first Tuesday of the month, except in August when it stays open.
The sweets-tart memo stand is the least difficult of the workshops and the quickest to make (1,600 yen below elementary age). The sushi phone-and-pen stand has them press the rice into a shari and pick one topping: tuna, salmon, fatty tuna or shrimp nigiri, or ikura or uni gunkan. There is also a hunt, Sagashite Miyou, for nostalgic characters hidden around the house, with a beginner level to start on and hints published officially.The tempura-and-lettuce workshop uses molten wax and is for elementary age and up; kindergarten and nursery children cannot do it even with a parent beside them - come back once they are in elementary school. It must be booked, is held in a separate room from the other workshops, and cannot always be added on the day. A second workshop can be added at a reduced rate (cup ice cream 1,100 yen, sweets tart 1,600 yen and so on, individuals only).
Gassho-zukuri means beams joined into a peak, a building style unique to Japan, and the name is said to come from how the shape looks like two palms pressed together seen from outside, so a child can put their own hands together and compare. Along the street stand the five-story Nagase House, the Kanda House with over 160 years of history, and the Wada House, an Important Cultural Property about 300 years old where a family still lives. Rethatching the roofs is called yui, and the whole village still does it together.A family with a 4-year-old and a 1-year-old spent five hours here, lunch in the village and the viewpoint shuttle included, and reported that you walk a fair distance, so a stroller or carrier helps. Walking up to the viewpoint on your own feet is the one short climb. During the Doburoku Festival and long holidays the wait for parking can exceed an hour; the village runs a dedicated site, Shirakawa Going, with a congestion forecast calendar and live traffic cameras.