Kanagawa with preschoolers (4–6) 3 spots
Kanagawa is where Japan's first railway arrived in 1872, in the port city of Yokohama. A monument and a preserved steam locomotive sit free to see by Sakuragicho Station, and the harbor Ferris wheel and one of the world's largest Chinatowns are all within a walk. It suits train-loving kids and families who like eating as they go.
Yokohama Anpanman Children's Museum
Eight indoor play areas set in the world of Anpanman, a Japanese children's character.
Stroller OK · Nursing room · Changing table · checked Aug ’26
Fujiko F Fujio Museum, Kawasaki City
A museum of Fujiko F Fujio's original manga pages, shown as he drew them.
Nursing room · Changing table · Family restroom · checked Aug ’26
Sail Training Ship Nippon Maru & Yokohama Port Museum
A 97-meter training sailing ship, listed as an Important Cultural Property, and a port museum.
Stroller OK · Nursing room · Changing table · checked Aug ’26
They can play make-believe in School, the Bread Factory, and Everyone's Town, and burn energy in Wanpaku Island and Ball Park. The main stage runs "Baikinman's Dance! Dance!! Dance!!!" (1 July to 13 September 2026), and "Currypanman's Cooking Time" runs on the same dates. The museum points out smile spots as the good places for photographs, and the 1st floor lines up 14 shops with goods and food sold nowhere else.Children of elementary school age and younger must come with a guardian. Tickets are sold online only as date-and-time web tickets, from 10:00 twenty-eight days before your visit until your entry time on the day, up to 10 tickets covering adults and children together. You cannot enter earlier than the time printed on the ticket, but if traffic delays you the same ticket still works. Last entry to the 2nd- and 3rd-floor museum is 16:00. A visit with a 3-year-old (2026) went in a little after 9:00 and left around 13:00. The Anpanman Restaurant and the Gohanyasan food court have dishes made without any of the eight major allergens.
In Exhibition Room I on the first floor, the right-hand wall lets you read almost a whole story straight from the original pages, while the left side features color originals. In Sensei's Room the artist's desk stands ringed by a huge bookcase overhead and the dinosaur figures he loved. The audio guide is free on your own phone: you scan a QR code in the museum and type in the Key of the Day, which changes daily, so a child can punch in the key themselves. The F Theater shows an original short film on a 200-inch screen that plays nowhere else.Admission is 500 yen for children aged 4 and over. Entry is by timed reservation and tickets are not sold at the museum, so buy them beforehand on the museum's own e-tix page; the QR code issued after payment is your ticket. The F Theater admits each person once, on a ticket handed over at entry. Some exhibition areas and the F Theater itself are no-photography; elsewhere you may shoot, though flash and video are discouraged. Strollers cannot be used inside. There is no re-entry and no parking lot, so come by public transport or use a nearby coin park. A family with two elementary-schoolers and a 4-year-old (2024) went in at 10:00 and left at 13:00, about three hours.
About twelve times a year, on soken-tempan days, all 29 sails that normally stay furled are opened, an area equal to 1,245 tatami mats, and the ship opens at 9:30 on those days. The cadets' room housed eight to a room, with beds 185 cm long and 65 cm wide. The ship's bell was struck once in the first half hour of a watch and one more time every half hour after that, until eight bells marked the change of watch. Guide tours run daily on both the ship and in the museum; you just speak to a volunteer near the gangway or in the galleries.The combined ticket for ship and museum is 800 yen for adults and 300 yen for school students, and on Saturdays school students pay a flat 100 yen. Last entry is 16:30, and it closes on Mondays (open if that is a public holiday, closed the next weekday instead). Nippon Maru alone has extra closures: 28-29 November 2026 for taking the sails down, and 28 January to 1 March 2027 for hull maintenance, when you cannot board. Guide tours take no group bookings; you ask a volunteer on the day.