Wakayama with preschoolers (4–6) 3 spots
Wakayama has Nachi Falls — at 133 meters Japan's highest single-drop waterfall — and the Kumano Kodo, one of only two pilgrimage routes in the world listed as World Heritage. You choose how much of the trail to walk, so it bends to your children's legs. It suits families who want to show their kids nature at full scale.
A Shirahama park where staff ride the safari bus with you, next to fairground rides.
Stroller OK · Nursing room · Changing table · checked Aug ’26
Wakayama Electric Railway Kishigawa Line (Tama trains & Kishi Station)
A 14.3-kilometer local line ending at a station shaped like a cat's face.
checked Aug ’26
Toretore Market Nanki-Shirahama
A seafood market run by the local fishery cooperative, one of western Japan's largest.
checked Aug ’26
From age 4 a child rides the merry-go-round alone (400 yen; the mounts are the park's own lions, sea lions and pandas). The Challenge Cart stays theirs to drive until 12, and at 110 cm they can ride the panda-shaped Pandaful Coaster on their own. Splash Maze, the water maze rigged with buckets, mist and showers (700 yen), is theirs to run through as well.Admission is charged from age 4, at 3,300 yen for children, though September 3 to 29, 2026 is announced as a period when children enter free. The rides carry height rules: Pandaful Coaster is 90 cm and up, with someone 16 or over from 90 to under 110 cm; Big Adventure Coaster is 105 cm and up, with an adult from 105 to under 125 cm. Measuring at home saves an argument at the gate. A child 5 or under who is 80-110 cm and up to 20 kg can rent the animal-shaped Original Cart (1,500 yen, same-day at the rental counter) for when legs give out. Animal badges that serve as lost-child tags are kept at Information, the Support Center and the baby care room.
Five trains run this line: the Ichigo (strawberry), the Tama, the Umeboshi Densha, the Chuggington and the Tama Densha Museum-go, and which one you get changes by the day. The Tama Densha has 101 stationmaster Tamas drawn inside, so a child can ride along counting them. The platform at Kishi has a layered stamp station and a commemorative medal machine (Tama, Nitama, Gotama) with a stamping press. Getting off, you use the front door of the first car where the driver sits, and drop your own ticket into the fare box.Each train's timetable differs day by day and some days a train does not run. The rolling stock can also change without notice for inspections, so it is safer not to promise a child "we are riding the Tama Densha." The fare from Wakayama to Kishi is 480 yen for adults and 240 yen for children; the child fare is for ages 6 to under 12 (elementary school) at half the adult fare, while children aged 1 to under 6 (preschool) ride free, up to two per accompanying passenger aged 6 or over. If you ride Wakayama to Kishi and back and also get off at Idakiso, the operator says the one-day pass (1,200 yen adult, 600 yen child) works out cheaper. No IC cards, cash only. Take a numbered ticket when boarding at an intermediate station; Wakayama and Kishi do not issue them.
You can watch a tuna being broken down, once or twice on weekdays and two or three times on weekends and holidays, around 11:00 to 13:00 when the hall is busiest. For the barbecue you check in at the entrance and take a table first, then choose and buy your own seafood inside the market and grill it yourself outside. The barbecue area reopened as a two-story building in March 2024.The tuna cutting is not on a fixed schedule and the market declines advance enquiries, so if you want to see it, be inside the hall between about 11:00 and 13:00. At the barbecue you may not bring in food or drink sourced anywhere other than Toretore Market; if found you are asked to leave with no refund, and seasonings are sold at the barbecue itself. Set-menu reservations close at 17:00 four days before, and you cannot reserve a table alone. Last entry is about 16:30 on weekdays and about 17:00 on weekends and holidays. Photography intended for posting on social media is not allowed.