Gunma with preschoolers (4–6) 3 spots
Gunma has Kusatsu Onsen, where more hot-spring water rises naturally than anywhere else in Japan. The steaming Yubatake in the town center is free to watch and has foot baths, so even families with a baby too small for the baths get the experience. It suits families trying onsen for the first time.
A safari park of six drive-through zones with about 100 species.
Stroller OK · Nursing room · Changing table · checked Aug ’26
A hillside park where a zip line and a summer bobsleigh run down the slope.
Stroller OK · Nursing room · Changing table · checked Aug ’26
A konnyaku factory you tour, with a tasting buffet of about 15 dishes.
Stroller OK · Nursing room · Changing table · checked Aug ’26
On the feeding bus a child feeds animals by hand through the window; it adds 1,800 yen per adult to the admission. On weekends and holidays a safari bus also runs, adding 1,200 yen per adult. In the Walking Safari Zone you leave the car and go on foot, feeding and touching the animals. For the pony ride a staff member leads by the reins, so even a first-timer sits on the horse alone.Admission is 1,600 yen for children aged 3 through elementary school and 3,200 yen for adults from junior high. Summer hours, 20 March to 3 November, take entries 9:30-16:00 and close at 17:00; winter hours, 4 November to 19 March, take entries 9:30-15:30 and close at 16:30. The park closes on Wednesdays, except on holidays and during the no-closing stretches of spring break, Golden Week, summer break and the New Year period. A visitor with a five-year-old arrived at 10:30 and left at 13:10, lunch at the park restaurant included. There is no ATM or cash machine on the grounds, so bring cash with you; payment also takes credit cards, e-money and QR code payments. Tickets can be bought in advance from the ticket page on the official website.
The play zone lines up free equipment: the adventure fort, the long zip line, the shuttle net, the rope climbing frame. From age four a child pays the child rate on the paid attractions, 200 yen for the summer bobsleigh and 100 yen for the cycle monorail, the cycle train, the funny bicycles, the novelty bicycles and the panorama chair. The Fuwafuwa Dome is open until 16:45 from March to October.A child 120 cm or shorter, and any child in the second grade or below, needs a guardian along to use the paid attractions. Those attractions run 9:30-17:00 from March to October, with tickets sold until 16:25, and 9:30-16:30 from November to February, tickets until 16:00; they rest every Monday, or the next day when Monday is a holiday, and on weekdays only the Cycle Plaza operates. Meals are at the rest house, 10:00-15:00 last order, closed Mondays. The Tokotoko shop opens on weekends only. On weekends in spring and autumn, and on Saturdays, Sundays and holidays, the parking lot gets very crowded.
The souvenir corner runs a stuff-the-bag deal every day, for konnyaku and for jelly — as much as you can fit, 648 yen a go — and working out how to pack it is the game. The tasting buffet has about 15 dishes, from dengaku and ahijo to ramen and sweets made with konnyaku flour, and a child this age can choose and take their own. The factory tour explains how konnyaku is made, with video and panels on its history; on a weekday, when the three lines are running, the explanation and the real thing sit side by side.The make-your-own konnyaku session is for first-graders and up, minimum two people, booked by 1 pm the day before — no same-day booking. Only those with a booking may enter the workshop kitchen, and preschoolers cannot go in even with a parent. While your child is still preschool age, build the visit out of the factory tour, the tasting buffet and the stuff-the-bag corner, which comes to about two hours. The jelly production line does not run on some days between September and February. Buffet seats are limited to 20 minutes, and one family waited about 40 minutes on a public holiday. The mini ferris wheel runs weekends and public holidays only, 200 yen per person per ride.