Shizuoka with preschoolers (4–6) 4 spots
Shizuoka is Mount Fuji facing the sea, with tea planted on the slopes in between. Its safari park drives you past lions with the mountain itself in the background, and the Izu coast has warm beaches and hot springs.
A safari park you drive through in your own car, past lions and elephants.
Stroller OK · Nursing room · Changing table · checked Aug ’26
A zoo of about 130 species on 13 hectares, with a 390-meter roller slide.
Stroller OK · Nursing room · Changing table · checked Aug ’26
An aquarium built into a natural cove on Suruga Bay, Japan's deepest.
Stroller OK · Nursing room · Changing table · checked Aug ’26
Sawayaka Charcoal Grill Restaurant, Shizuoka Ikeda
A charcoal-grill restaurant found only in Shizuoka, serving a 250g hamburg steak.
Stroller OK · checked Aug ’26
The Jungle Bus has wire mesh instead of window glass, so the animals' breathing carries inside; on the Super Jungle Bus they lean in from overhead and you see their faces, tongues and paw pads. On weekends and holidays, Cheetah Run Plus — same-day sign-up — sends the fastest land animal past you at full speed. From July 11 to late September there is the summer-only Swimming Elephant.Admission starts at age 4 (child 2,000 yen, adult 3,200 yen). Electronic tickets bought as a MySAFARI member — registration is free — are 1,700 yen for a child and 2,700 yen for an adult. Cheetah Run Plus is same-day sign-up on weekends and holidays; the private charter Jungle Bus tour, for up to 28 people, must be booked on My SAFARI by noon seven days before. Strollers cannot go on the Jungle Bus and are left at the stroller area beside the information desk. There is no re-entry.
From age 4 a child can ride the 390-metre roller slide, the longest in Japan, seated with a parent; from elementary school they ride it alone. Moujukan 299 puts the big animals right in front of you, and the zoo's own visitor survey puts red pandas, polar bears, Asian elephants and Humboldt penguins at the top.Sandals and bare feet are not allowed on the roller slide; rental shoes are 100 yen a go (17-28 cm) and socks 200 yen a pair. The ride is 200 yen one way for an adult and 100 yen for an elementary-school child. Pregnant visitors cannot ride, so the other adult takes the seat for a paired ride. Preschoolers enter free; elementary and junior high school students are 150 yen.
At Ajikko Paradise a child becomes a horse mackerel, in costume and through play equipment, and follows the fish from the catch through processing and cooking to the dinner table. The deep-sea tank DON-Zoko has a touch pool with Japanese spider crabs, and at the natural pens and the Dolphin Sea children feed the sea lions and dolphins. In Mitosea no Mori there is a session where you touch an otter's fingers and shake hands.Admission from age 4 is 1,300 yen (1,200 yen through the web ticket site, and answering the survey after adding the LINE account gives a coupon worth another 100 yen off a child ticket). The kids' corner equipment is for children up to third grade, so at this age all of it is still open. Children of elementary age and under who visit in their birthday month get a birthday gift, in limited numbers each month. Reckon on 1.5 to 2.5 hours; one family that took in two shows and a feeding went in at 13:06 and left at 17:00. Penpara is where the penguins live, so watch quietly and do not touch.
The genkotsu hamburg steak (250 g, 1,540 yen) arrives whole and round, and at the end it is cut open at your table and pressed onto an iron plate at around 350C to finish. A child watches the whole thing happen in front of them. If you want it cooked through, say so when ordering and the kitchen flattens it thin before charcoal-grilling (the texture comes out firmer than usual, and the cut-and-finish at the table is dropped). If it just needs a little more, they will bring a heating pellet to the table.The iron plate used for the finish at the table reaches around 350C, so keep the child away from that side while the steak is being cut. How hard and how long it is pressed can be adjusted within the shop's set range, so ask when you sit down. Nothing can be taken away, so order the 250 g on the assumption the family shares it (there is also the 200 g onigiri hamburg at 1,380 yen, the 170 g handmade hamburg at 990 yen, and a small rice at 220 yen). Weekends get very crowded, and depending on the queue they may stop accepting customers before the last-order time. The Shizuoka Ikeda branch closes on Thursdays, except on holidays and busy days.