Miyagi with a baby (0–1) 3 spots
Miyagi pairs a leafy, walkable city with a bay full of pine-covered islands. Sendai grills gyutan beef tongue over charcoal, and boats from Matsushima weave in among the islands.
A Sendai aquarium with an outdoor dolphin stadium and a part-open sea-mammal yard.
Stroller OK · Nursing room · Changing table · checked Aug ’26
A city zoo with polar bears and African elephants, right outside a subway exit.
Stroller OK · Nursing room · Changing table · checked Aug ’26
A science museum greeting you with an allosaurus skeleton cast, its exhibits built to be handled.
Stroller OK · Nursing room · Changing table · checked Aug ’26
The main routes through the aquarium are ramps and elevators, so you can go round the exhibits with the stroller. The exhibition areas have no steps and plenty of room, and the tanks sit at a height that can be seen from a wheelchair. A visitor who came with a six-week-old in a type A stroller wrote that there were no steps, ramps were provided, the elevators were easy to find, and they got round smoothly.There are two nursing rooms, one near the 1F entrance and one by the jellyfish area, Kurage no Iyashi, on 2F. Each has a sink with a hot water tap for formula, one diaper changing table, and a bin. Each floor has just the one room and one family uses it at a time, and the hot water for formula is only inside it, so on busy days you queue even just for water: one record from the July 2023 holiday weekend has three families waiting, over 40 minutes. When the rooms are full, staff may show you to a temporary nursing space. Men cannot enter the nursing rooms, so a father changes diapers in one of the four multipurpose restrooms. Changing tables are in six places in all: the two nursing rooms, near the 1F entrance, beside the 1F escalator, next to cabana on 2F, and by the jellyfish area on 2F. Strollers are not allowed in the dolphin show seating, so you leave yours at the rack right beside it, where a notice says locking is at your own risk. A type B stroller can be borrowed free at the 1F information desk, but the number is limited and it cannot be reserved. The entrance gates are 90 cm wide.
Polar bears and African elephants live here, and the whole visit can be done from the stroller — you may bring your own, and paid rentals are available. The entrance is right at the top of the elevator from Exit Chuo 1 of Yagiyama Zoological Park station on the subway Tozai Line, so a sleeping baby goes from train to zoo without being woken.The two nursing rooms, in the visitor centre and in the Fureai-kan, each have a women-only nursing space, hot water for formula and a diaper changing table. Changing tables (baby seats) are in seven more toilets around the park, and a toilet map is published as a PDF. Diapers are sold at the Zebra Shop inside the West Gate visitor centre and at the East Gate shop, which are also the two places that rent strollers for a fee. Preschoolers enter free. The zoo is closed every Wednesday, or the following Thursday when that Wednesday is a public holiday.
An allosaurus skeleton cast stands in the entrance hall, and a human-powered aircraft built by a Tohoku University student club hangs from the ceiling above it — large things to look up at, right where you come in. Photographing the exhibits and the building is free.Strollers are lent out — ask at the main reception. Diaper changing beds are outside the 3rd and 4th floor toilets and in front of the 2nd floor office, and a baby bed with a diaper bin is set up near the accessible toilets on the 3rd and 4th floors on the east side and near the 2nd floor toilet on the west side. Nursing rooms are on the 2nd, 3rd and 4th floors; for the one on the 2nd floor, speak to the office at reception. With a parent, preschoolers enter free. It is about a 5-minute walk from Asahigaoka station on the Namboku Line, but the way there has a long flight of stairs, so use Exit Higashi 1 for the elevator. That day's ticket lets you step outside and come back as often as you like.