Kagawa with preschoolers (4–6) 3 spots
Kagawa is Japan's smallest prefecture and it runs on udon: shops everywhere, bowls out fast, nobody waiting. Offshore, Naoshima is an island of art you walk between outdoors, yellow pumpkin on the pier and all.
An aquarium at the water's edge, where dolphins swim with the Seto Inland Sea behind.
Stroller OK · Nursing room · Changing table · checked Aug ’26
A noodle school where you take Sanuki udon from flour to bowl in twelve steps.
Nursing room · Family restroom · checked Aug ’26
The largest of Japan's cultural-property gardens, with six ponds and thirteen landscaped hills.
Stroller OK · Nursing room · checked Aug ’26
What held a four-year-old was the dolphins at play and Uzushio-no-Kei, which shows the Naruto Strait's current - up to 19 km/h - as if you were standing in the sea watching it. With no fixed route, a child can start at whichever tank they want. The theme is the waters of Shikoku, so many of the fish are ones that turn up at dinner, and the walk becomes a hunt for the ones they have eaten.Seeing the exhibits alone takes about an hour and a half. Takeaway bought inside is eaten at the Sunset Deck, the Setouchi Deck, beside Olive, or Shiokaze-no-Niwa, the lawn on the sea side; carrying it into the buildings is discouraged. The second-floor restaurant looks out over the Seto Inland Sea and serves a kids' curry on a dolphin plate for 1,380 yen, with a sea-creature sticker. Timed web tickets can be bought in advance through Klook and Rakuten Travel Experiences, sold for weekends and holidays and sometimes weekdays in busy periods. Convenience stores do not sell them.
Each person gets one ball of rested dough, stretches it with a rolling pin and by hand, folds it screen-style and cuts it 3 to 4 mm wide. One account has a five-year-old doing the knife work with an adult helping. If you eat there, you move to the restaurant and the group boils the noodles together in one pot. If you take them home, they go into a package with your own name on it, sealed with an oxygen absorber, and the school's noodle broth comes with it.Preschool children are advised to work paired with an adult. In one account the companions who were not taking the class came into the classroom too, and a father who was not enrolled helped his five-year-old with the knife, in March 2025. The class is 1,760 yen including tax per person, or 1,980 if you take it alone. A Jalan booking plan sets its own age condition, one person aged 6 and up from 2,800 yen, so the terms change with where you book. Same-day booking is possible, but sessions run at set times and can fill, so they ask you to call ahead.
Six ponds and thirteen landscaped hills give a child something to count off on their own two feet. On the wasen boat a boatman rows one lap of the south pond with commentary, about 30 minutes including boarding (420 yen a ride for children). The Shoko Shoreikan inside the garden was built in 1899 and is symmetrical left to right, like the Phoenix Hall of Byodoin in Uji. Admission is free below school age.Walking the grounds once through takes about two hours (from a 2025 visit report). Balls and other play equipment may not be brought in, and running or jogging in the garden is not allowed. Picking plants or insects, catching fish or birds, and bringing feed are all prohibited, so plan it as a day for looking and walking. The garden has no lighting and gets very dark 30 minutes after sunset. After closing time you leave by the service gate, the East Gate only. The wasen boat needs a guardian along for children of elementary school age or under, and same-day tickets go on sale at the boat ticket window from 8:30.