Rainy day things to do in Tokyo with kids 16 spots
Tokyo is Japan's capital and one of the world's largest metropolitan areas. Districts with very different characters sit within a short train ride, and zoos, aquariums and museums are all walkable from stations. It suits first-time visitors who want to build days without renting a car.
National Museum of Nature and Science
A national museum shown at full size — dinosaur skeletons, a life-size blue whale.
Stroller OK · Nursing room · Changing table · checked Aug ’26
Tokyo's closer airport, about 15 minutes by train from the terminals to Shinagawa.
Stroller OK · Nursing room · Changing table · checked Aug ’26
Solamachi Tabe-Terrace Food Court
A food court at the foot of Skytree: udon, ramen and rice bowls at one table.
Stroller OK · Nursing room · Changing table · checked Aug ’26
A toy museum inside an elementary school built nearly ninety years ago.
Nursing room · Changing table · Elevator · checked Aug ’26
At 634 meters, the tallest free-standing broadcast tower in the world.
Stroller OK · Nursing room · Changing table · checked Aug ’26
An aquarium at the foot of Tokyo Skytree, built so you get close to the animals.
Stroller OK · Nursing room · Elevator · checked Aug ’26
Japan's national museum of emerging science, hands-on throughout.
Stroller OK · Nursing room · Changing table · checked Aug ’26
Japan's oldest museum, six buildings on one site, showing almost only real objects.
Stroller OK · Nursing room · Changing table · checked Aug ’26
An aquarium of over 500 species, built around a 2,200-cubic-meter doughnut tank of bluefin tuna.
Stroller OK · Nursing room · Changing table · checked Aug ’26
Kura Sushi Global Flagship Store Harajuku
A 245-seat conveyor-belt sushi restaurant with an open-air deck over the city.
Elevator · Family restroom · checked Aug ’26
Asakusa Imahan Kokusai Street Head Restaurant
A sukiyaki and shabu-shabu house in Asakusa since 1895, serving only female black wagyu.
checked Aug ’26
The first permanent Pokémon cafe, in a department store near Tokyo Station.
Stroller OK · checked Aug ’26
A crab restaurant by Shimbashi Station, with kaiseki courses that run to nine dishes.
Changing table · Elevator · Family restroom · checked Aug ’26
An indoor playground at Tokyo Dome City, its ball pool filled with some 40,000 balls.
Stroller OK · Nursing room · Changing table · checked Aug ’26
Western food in a corner of Ueno Park, from a restaurant founded in 1872.
Nursing room · Changing table · Elevator · checked Aug ’26
Haneda Airport SIM & Wi-Fi Rental Counters
Staffed counters for SIM cards and Wi-Fi sit in two of the three terminals.
Nursing room · Kids' toilet · checked Aug ’26
The dinosaur floor and the taxidermy halls are inside; what sits outdoors is the life-size blue whale model and the D51 steam locomotive. The Global Gallery rooftop closes in bad weather, and the museum warns that the basement-floor lounge in the Japan Gallery gets very crowded when it rains.
The kids' spaces, the konbini and the nursing rooms are all inside the terminal buildings; what is outdoors is the observation deck on the terminal roof. Terminals 1 and 2 are also linked by a roughly 400-meter underground passage on foot (its moving walkway is closed for construction).
The seats are on the 3rd floor of Solamachi's West Yard, ringing the big atrium above the 2F Food Marche. The baby room (diaper changing table, filtered hot water for formula, microwave, private booth) and the stroller parking are both at 3F block 3, the same block the stalls line, so you never leave the floor.
The venue is the elementary school building itself, built nearly ninety years ago. Toy Forest with its wooden ball pit of 20,000 beads, the Baby Wood Play Area for ages 0 to 2, and the daily craft-making are all rooms inside that building.
Indoors. The Tembo Deck at 350 meters is a floor ringed 360 degrees with glass panels over 5 meters tall, and the Tembo Galleria is a glass-walled tube.
The whole aquarium is indoors: the official FAQ answers the question of whether anywhere is toured under an umbrella on a rainy day with no, it is all inside. The entrance is on the 5th floor, reached by the aquarium's own elevator, which stands outdoors on the 4th floor of the West Yard, or by escalator.
The permanent exhibition zones, the Dome Theater, and the nursing rooms are all inside one building, floors 1 through 7. The only outdoor spots are the 7th-floor terrace and the courtyard; the walk from the station is 4 to 15 minutes outside.
The collection is shown inside six separate buildings: Honkan, Toyokan, Heiseikan, the Gallery of Horyuji Treasures, the Kuroda Memorial Hall, and Hyokeikan. What's outdoors is the garden and the Kuromon gate, and the gate's weekend and holiday opening (10:00 to 16:00) can be called off depending on the weather.
The exhibits are inside the main building, and you can bring a stroller in. On a rainy day, the roofed places to eat a packed lunch are part of the restaurant and the rest house beside the main gate.
The meal happens entirely indoors, at 245 seats on the 4th floor of Y.M. Square Harajuku. The only open-air part is the Japanese-modern balcony with its sweeping city view.
Families with children under junior high school age are seated on the 1st floor, at chair seats or the raised tatami seats, all inside the building. The restaurant is right next to Exit A2 of Asakusa Station on the Tsukuba Express.
The cafe is on the 5th floor of the Nihonbashi Takashimaya East Building, and the roughly 10-minute Pikachu greeting show is watched from your seat. The nearest exit is B2 at Nihonbashi Station on the Tokyo Metro Ginza and Tozai lines.
The restaurant is on the 2nd floor of Ginza Nine Building 2, so the meal stays inside the building. The building has an elevator, and it is a 1-minute walk from Exit 3 or Exit 5 of Shimbashi Station on the Tokyo Metro Ginza Line.
An indoor kids' facility built mainly for preschoolers aged 0 to 6: the ocean area with its pool of some 40,000 balls and the babies-only Haihai Garden are among five areas, all inside the building.
Meals are inside the building. The Western-food restaurant's entrance is on the left side of the front, and it takes no reservations, seating people in the order they arrive. The outdoor part is the beer garden held on the rooftop terrace, entered on the right side of the front and reached by elevator to the fourth floor.
Every counter is inside a terminal building. In Terminal 3 it is the arrivals lobby on the second floor, the first floor you walk through after immigration; in Terminal 2 it is the international arrivals lobby, also on the second floor.