10 Best Things to Do with Kids in Tokyo

Everyone loves Tokyo Disneyland and Tokyo DisneySea, with many attractions can be enjoyed by people of all ages while also being suitable for those with small children. Pirates of the Caribbean, Jungle Cruise, Mark Twain Riverboat and It’s a Small World are some of the most family-friendly rides in Disneyland. 

Popular rides in DisneySea include Venetian Gondolas, DisneySea Transit Steamer Line, Nemo & Friends SeaRider and The Magic Lamp Theater. A baby centre and pushchair rentals are available, so families can enjoy everything with as little stress as possible. Tokyo Disneyland is just a step away from JR Maihama Station. To get to Tokyo DisneySea, transfer to the Disney Resort Line at JR Maihama Station, get off at Tokyo DisneySea Station, and it’s a short walk from there. Admission is free for children aged 3 and under. 

Sanrio Puroland is an indoor theme park by Sanrio, the company behind many popular characters like Hello Kitty and My Melody. It’s become very popular with inbound tourists who want to experience the Japanese world of kawaii ('cuteness' in Japanese) You’ll find many great attractions here, including a show fused with Japanese traditional drama (kabuki) and a parade with the theme of miracles. It’s also a great chance to take pictures with the characters. 

You can enjoy Sanrio Puroland even in bad weather, so you can comfortably spend time here even if you are with little children. To get there, it's a 5-minute walk from Tama Center Station on the Keio Line, Odakyu Line or Tama Monorail Line.

Legoland Discovery Center Tokyo is an indoor theme park where you can fully enjoy the world of LEGO®. It's designed for children aged about 3 to 10. There are over 10 colourful attractions to enjoy, including LEGO® Factory, a 4D cinema, Kingdom Quest, and LEGO® Ninjago City Adventure. 

You can experience the joy of giving shape to your imagination through LEGO®, cultivating creativity through play. Legoland Discovery Center Tokyo is a 2-minute walk from Odaiba-kaihinkoen Station on the Yurikamome Line or a 5-minute walk from Tokyo Teleport Station on the Rinkai Line.

Ninja Trick House in Tokyo is a facility where you can experience becoming a ninja. You can experience mysterious ninja skills, such as ninja arts, throwing stars (shuriken), drawing a Japanese sword, and practising swordsmanship, which you’ve probably only seen in a manga. You can also take a picture with a ninja as a souvenir. 

Especially popular with families and international tourists, this place is always crowded. Make sure you book ahead via its official website. There's free admission for children aged 3 and under. Ninja Trick House is within an 8-minute walk from JR Shinjuku Station and a 5-minute walk from Shinjuku Station on Seibu Shinjuku Line.

Tama Zoological Park, located in the beautiful hills of Hino, began as a branch of Ueno Zoo. This zoo is separated by moats rather than cages, so you can observe the animals living freely in the vast premises. There are tigers, wolves, snow leopards, and orangutans in the Asiatic Garden. 

There’s also a walk-in birdcage where you can observe birds up close. You can see lions, giraffes, zebras, African elephants and chimpanzees in the African Garden, and koalas, kangaroos, and Tasmanian devils in the Australian Garden. Tama Zoological Park also offers a kid's area where toddlers can enjoy petting guinea pigs.

Keio Asobi no Mori HUGHUG is an indoor play centre for children, located just a step away from Tama-Dobutsukoen Station on the Keio Line. Themed areas include Kirikabu House, a large space that encourages kids to play and have fun with wooden toys. Morino's Playground has a ball pit with over 45,000 balls, along with an obstacle course right above it,

Standing about 12 metres high and 15 metres in diameter, HUGHUG Tree is one of Japan’s biggest playground facilities. It has 4 layers of nets equipped with playing tools such as exercise balls. There’s also an area where families with babies can enjoy this facility comfortably.

ASOBono! is an indoor facility for children in Tokyo Dome City. It’s divided into areas such as Forest Area, Town Area, Ocean Area, Train Station Area and Babies Only Area, with plenty of play equipment and toys to stimulate the curiosity of little children in each area. 

ASOBono! is an excellent venue for parents and children to exercise and have fun together. You can buy a ticket for 60 minutes and extend for extra 30-minute slots after that. You can also get a 1-day pass (only on weekdays and during specific periods) because time flies when you’re having this much fun!

KidZania Tokyo is a job-experience theme park for children, supported by real companies. They can learn about the structure of society and their relationship with money while experiencing jobs in real uniforms. There are about 100 kinds of jobs to try at pavilions offered by about 60 companies. 

The most popular areas get very crowded, so you’ll need to book ahead. This park is for children aged 3 to 15, and adults can only accompany them. It’s an 8-minute walk from Toyosu Station on the Tokyo Metro or Yurikamome Line.

The Tokyo National Museum is one of the largest and oldest museums in Japan. It has a collection of more than 110,000 Nationally Important Cultural Properties, including about 90 National Treasures. There are 6 buildings – the Main Hall (honkan), Toyokan, Kuroda Memorial Hall, Heiseikan, and Gallery of Horyuji Treasures. This museum is so large that it’s almost impossible to see it all in one day, so you’ll never run out of things to see even on rainy days. 

This is a great opportunity to see special relics from textbooks up-close and in person. There are also programs for families and school programs for students of elementary, middle and high schools. (You’ll need to book ahead for these programs.) The Tokyo National Museum is about a 10-minute walk from JR Ueno Station.

Miraikan National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation, directed by astronaut Mamoru Mohri, is a science museum that makes it easy to learn about the latest science and technology. Exhibitions here cover a wide variety of fields, including wonders of the universe, the global environment and life science. The explanations by its “Science Communicators” are also very popular. 

On top of that, you can try hands-on events, such as projecting different appearances of the earth using Geo-Cosmos, a giant globe-like display, science workshops, and demonstrations of humanoid robots called ASHIMO and Otonaroid. The museum is a 4-minute walk from Telecom Center Station on the Yurikamome Line.