Kagoshima with a baby (0–1) 4 spots
Kagoshima faces Sakurajima, a volcano that smokes across the bay in full view of the city. At Ibusuki you get buried to the neck in sand the ground heats from below, and ferries cross to the volcano itself.
About 130 species live in this zoo, which also has a Ferris wheel and go-karts.
Stroller OK · Nursing room · Changing table · checked Aug ’26
Kagoshima City Aquarium (Io World)
An aquarium of 800 species from Kinko Bay to the Nansei Islands, whale shark included.
Stroller OK · Nursing room · Changing table · checked Aug ’26
Kagoshima Municipal Science Hall
A science museum about the Sakurajima volcano and space, with a 280-seat planetarium.
Stroller OK · Nursing room · Changing table · checked Aug ’26
The cafe that invented shirokuma shaved ice in 1947, now serving over ten kinds.
Elevator · checked Aug ’26
The shuttle around the park runs as three animal-shaped buses - Whitey, Nangoku Shirokuma and Koala - free for anyone, every 15 minutes or so, carrying up to 15 people and with room to stow a stroller on board. When legs give out there are two foot baths, in front of the Africa Zone and in the India Forest Zone, fed by a hot spring drawn from 1,500 meters below the park, with a handrailed considerate space.Strollers and carry carts are lent at the general information desk by the entrance gate, 9:00-17:00: a hooded model for 1 month up to 18 kg at 500 yen, a hooded model for 1-2 year olds at 300, an unhooded one for 1-2 year olds at 200, an infant model for 1-3 month olds at 300, and a carry cart at 100. The lent strollers are not intended for babies who cannot yet hold their head up or sit, so bring your own during that stage. There are six diaper changing and nursing spaces: the ride corner in the amusement area, the cafeteria, the India Forest Zone, the Animal Learning Hall, the Australia Zone and the Hakuchoike Rest House. The cafeteria offers hot water, a baby bed and a hand basin; the India Forest Zone, Animal Learning Hall, Australia Zone and Hakuchoike Rest House have water heaters. The cafeteria nursing room is open until 15:30 on weekdays and 16:30 at weekends and holidays. Eleven further diaper changing spaces exist besides these six. Disposable diapers are sold at every shop in the park, two size-L diapers for 200 yen. Preschool children enter free, the child alone.
The 13 loan strollers are free and reserved for children aged 2 and under. You can go round the main building with the stroller, looking up at the seal tank, the pirarucu tank and the mangrove tank on the first floor and the great Kuroshio tank on the second. Dolphins also swim in the channel outside the building, so they can be watched from the open air.Strollers cannot be reserved; they go out in the order visitors arrive, so ask a staff member as soon as you are inside. There are 20 wheelchairs and 13 strollers, in two types, A and B. They may not be taken out of the building, so leave the stroller behind when you go to see the dolphins in the outdoor channel. Two private nursing rooms sit near the group entrance on the first floor of the main building, and men may use them. They have a baby bed, a nursing chair, hot water for formula at about 70C, a sink, a microwave, an air purifier, a bin that also takes diapers, and a digital baby scale. Hot water for formula is also kept at the general information desk on the first floor and at the second-floor restaurant. Each men's and women's restroom on floors 1 to 4 of the main building has one diaper changing table, and floors 1 to 4 have multipurpose restrooms - but the first floor of the Dolphin Hall and the outdoor restrooms do not.
In the Space Theater on the fifth floor, a small child watching from a parent's lap is free, one child per parent. Ten million stars are projected onto the 280-seat dome, the faint Milky Way among them resolved into its individual stars. On the second floor the entrance exhibit From Earth to Space projects images of the planet and the galaxy onto the floor, so a baby in arms can look down at them. On the same floor hangs the Foucault pendulum, a 16-kilogram bob suspended from 14 meters up on the fourth floor.Preschool children enter free, but both entry and the Space Theater require a parent alongside. Using a seat in the theater costs the child rate; on a parent's lap it is free, one child per parent. Screenings last about 45 minutes and run five or six times a day at 10:10, 11:10, 13:10, 14:10 and 15:10, plus 16:10 at weekends and holidays. Five loan strollers are kept on the second floor. The nursing room is on the fourth floor; diaper changing tables are on the third and fifth floors, the fifth being the theater level, and a baby keeper seat is on the third. If stairs are impossible with a stroller, enter from the first-floor entrance and press the call button for a staff member. The museum is closed on Tuesdays - or the first following weekday when that falls on a public holiday or on 2 or 3 January - and from 29 December to 1 January.
A polar bear model and a stuffed bear stand at the entrance, a known photo stop in Tenmonkan; a baby in your arms can be photographed beside the big bear. From the Tenmonkan-dori tram stop you walk about 150 metres along the Tenmonkan G3 arcade, so the whole approach is under a roof.Seats cannot be reserved; you are seated in order of arrival. The semi-private rooms on the second floor of the main shop are described as being for families with small children, but seats cannot be assigned in advance, so ask on the day. The second floor is reached by the stairs or the elevator inside the building. If queuing is hard, the window on the left of the entrance sells the walk-and-eat Handy Shirokuma (550 yen) without taking a seat. Both floors of the main shop are entirely non-smoking.