Fair warning, this will probably be overly detailed and boring if you don't have kids!

Tl;dr:

We had a really great time. Japanese infrastructure makes traveling with a kid easy, and in general, we felt very welcome to bring our baby into most spaces. Tons of people (especially women) loved interacting with our baby. The most challenging aspects of this trip were a) the long flight time (NYC->Tokyo), b) jetlag/sleep (takes a few days for baby to accommodate), and c) crowds (even being from NYC, high traffic train stations like Tokyo Station or Sapporo Station are really hectic and overwhelming, especially with a stroller.)

Background

We live in NYC and we are well used to walking a lot with our baby (stroller and baby carrier), and by the six month mark we were used to taking him onto public transportation (with varying levels of accessibility, mostly inaccessible on the subway and only kind of accessible on buses).

We've also been to Japan before, and I took Japanese in uni ages ago, so I have some very basic conversational skills down. We chose Japan as our first big international family trip because we're comfortable with Tokyo, we wanted a robust public transportation system, and had been told by a few people it's a good choice for a trip with a baby. Happy to report that last part is true! Japanese infrastructure is so easy with a baby, and as I've told a few people, once you've climbed three stories with your 20lb baby in a carrier to get to the 7 train while your husband carries the diaper bag and folded up stroller, taking your kid onto a train in Japan (with a working elevator and reliable train schedule) is a piece of cake lol.

Since we had been to Japan before (two full trips for me, one full trip for my husband, and two long layovers in Tokyo that we spent in different neighborhoods), we did not focus on the Golden Route, and were also not super concerned with packing in every tourist sight ever. We wanted to leisurely enjoy Hokkaido, a place we both talked about visiting for awhile, and get experience traveling with our son. (And also: eat and shop a LOT.)

Rough itinerary:

We kept our plans fluid – what we did was based on how good the baby felt that day, or what we thought he could handle. He was able to nap in the stroller and carrier, but not for long, so we made sure to try to get him a long nap in the morning or afternoon (he's currently doing 3 naps a day).

Tokyo: We landed at Haneda early in the morning and took a direct train to the Higashi Ginza stop. We stayed at the Hyatt Centric because we had points. Great hotel, but wouldn't necessarily recommend Ginza as a base for Tokyo unless you're really, really into designer brands. We requested a crib, which the baby only slept in part of the time.

What we did: Took it slow, did some shopping, met up with a friend at Ginza 6 for matcha parfaits, Glitch coffee, yakitori.

Aomori: Shinkansen from Tokyo to Aomori. 2 nights here, stayed in a smaller hotel (ReLabo Medical Spa & Stay). Hotel was right on top of the station, and very convenient to what we wanted to see and do.

What we did: A-factory, Nebuta Museum, lots of cute cafes, nokkedon at the seafood market, miso butter curry ramen (!). ReLabo is a really nice spa hotel, and we were able to reserve a private onsen (one of us held the baby while the other took a dip). The hotel also had public onsens, which we both used.

Hakodate: Shinkansen from Aomori to Hakodate. Stayed at Villa Concordia, which I highly recommend – our room was really large, and had a crib, a little kitchenette which was useful for sterilizing bottles, and a free laundry room. Spent 3 nights here. We really loved our time in Hakodate, and pre-baby, this pace might've been too slow for us – we probably could've sped through Hakodate in 1-2 days. But with a baby, being able to slowly see sights, eat good food, and relax in a big hotel room was so lovely. Also, our hotel had incredible breakfast sets every day, a beautiful view of Hakodate, and super sweet and accommodating staff.

What we did: Hakodate morning market, Motomachi district, Mt. Hakodate ropeway at night, Kanemori Red Brick Warehouses, Lucky Pierrot (of course), really cute Russian cafe called Marutamogaya, grilled our own dango at Sabo Kikuimuzi

Sapporo: Train (Hokuto Express) from Hakodate to Sapporo. Stayed at the La'gent in Odori for 3 nights. Coslept in a huge king bed. Can't say much about the hotel – it got the job done, but not with a lot of charm. However, it had a public onsen, and a low cost laundry room.

What we did: Our itinerary kind of fell apart in Sapporo – I was too tired from a night of rough sleep to do a planned day trip to Otaru, and the other day we had planned for Sapporo Beer Factory or walking around Hokkaido University was too cold and snowy to take the baby out. We still had a good time shopping and eating in Sapporo – SO much good food here. I really love miso ramen (used to frequent Misoya in the East Village back in the day, for those who know), and we tried different styles of soup curry (sooo great on cold winter days). Had some really delicious cups of coffee at Node and Mermaid. And of course: tons of dairy, in pretty much every form.

Tokyo: Flight from Sapporo to Tokyo. 3 nights here back at the Hyatt Centric.

What we did: Mostly shopping, met with local friends in Shimokita one day to walk around, and another set of friends at our hotel bar the last night. Went to a really lovely little Italian place called Howlin' for dinner one night – sweetest staff ever with a really cool vibe. Had a leisurely and delicious meal, highballs, and even had the pleasure of changing our baby in the tiniest bathroom ever lol (they didn't mind, and our bartender was a super sweet woman who talked a lot to our baby). Peeped at some secondhand designer bag shops near our hotel – I was considering investing in a purse, but didn't end up doing it but it was just fun to see what they had in stock.

Specifics:

Resources: Tablelog (for reservations), Mamapapamap (to find changing stations – I never used it, because tbh they were in every department store or train station), Tokyo Chapter blog (more useful for older kids imo but still nice to read).

Illness: I was really worried about getting the flu or COVID while in Japan, especially because I misunderstood the vaccine scheduling and was only able to get our baby his flu and COVID shots a few days before departure. In case you haven't heard, Japan is having a major flu epidemic right now, and EVERYONE was coughing/sneezing/sniffling on the trains. Older men in particular loved to hack up a lung without masking/covering their mouths. Baby got the sniffles a few days into the trip, but no fever, was eating fine, and he wasn't particularly fussy. Snot sucker was invaluable here. We still have time to develop the flu, since we just arrived back yesterday, but crossing my fingers that we somehow dodged it with masking/avoiding large crowds when possible/saline drops and snot sucking for the baby.

Weather: This part of November wasn't the most "ideal" time for Hokkaido (missed peak fall foliage, cold, but not super snowy like winter tourists want) – however, we're used to shitty weather being in NYC, we got some beautiful fall days nonetheless, and our baby even experienced his first snow in Sapporo! It doesn't snow as much in NYC anymore so it was a treat for us, even though it meant super icy sidewalks the next day (NOT fun to lug a stroller and suitcases on).

IC cards: We both have (non-Japanese) Androids – this meant we can't use digital IC cards. We both bought Passmos at the station in Haneda. You will need to reload these with cash which is annoying.

Trains: Both shinkansens we were on had a nursing room. The Hokuto Express did not have a nursing room, but it did have a changing table in the toilet. We found out very quickly that our kid has trouble sleeping on us now because he's too big to be comfortable – baby carrying him to sleep was key. Both JR stops and regular subway stops all seemed to have working elevators, but give yourself time to navigate the station to find where the elevators are, because the signage is a little confusing at times.

Luggage forwarding: We pack very light (reformed one bagger here), but baby stuff took up a ton of room, and we wanted to bring back a lot of souvenirs – we brought two roller suitcases, two travel backpacks, and a small diaper backpack. Luggage forwarding was KEY here. You do not want to be lugging around tons of roller suitcases in addition to a stroller. Takes 2-3 days between destinations (especially if traveling between islands). I brought a packable duffel, and we ended up getting another duffel from Muji for our clothing purchases. If I were to do this again, I would just bring one or two full sized suitcases instead of all the backpacks/duffels. Our hotels handled the luggage forwarding -we just filled out the forms.

Formula: Our baby is combo fed, but my supply has been slowly dropping and he gets 50-70% of his feeds from formula these days. I brought a can of Kendamil and two of those ByHeart travel packs to Japan. The ByHeart travel packs got recalled for infant botulism (!!!) a few days into our trip. I doom spiraled about our kid having botulism for a day or two, then switched to buying Japanese formula to supplement our Kendamil.

Note: It's really hard to find varieties of formulas, diapers, etc. in most central locations of Tokyo or other cities. You won't have a lot of choice. I ended up buying a few different types of formula because we used more than anticipated, which luckily my baby was fine with. This is a good guide to different kinds of formula you might find in Japan. You can purchase formula at drugstores (like Matsumoto Kiyoshi, which should be most places in Tokyo; Sapporo had their own drugstore brands).

Brands I tried and had success with:

• BeanStalk Sukoyaka Stick type formula (wish we had stocked up on more of these, they're so handy to shove into a diaper bag)
• ICREO Carton type (ready made)
• Meiji Hohoemi can type (ready made)

Baby Food: Our baby is only just starting solids, so we brought some peanut snacks to continue allergen exposure, and he tried a little yogurt and banana on the trip. You can find baby food pouches in the drugstores, but I didn't want to mess with food introduction on the trip.

Diapers: I really wish we had just packed two weeks worth of Pampers Swaddlers. We were using Merries size L pull ups, and they are just not absorbent enough. Our kid had sooo many blowouts in these, and a few times where pee leaked through the diaper despite not being on very long. Maybe these would be more effective on a smaller baby – but our chunky 90th percentile kid needs American diapers lol.

Other baby supplies: Can find limited varieties of baby wipes, bottles, teether toys, etc. in the drugstore too. We were not a fan of the wipes we bought in Japan either; wish we had just packed a bunch of our own since we found we had to use way more of them to get our baby clean.

Dining: This depends on your baby's temperament, but we were able to eat at a larger variety of places than we originally thought. No smoky izakayas, nothing super hip or fancy, but we ate at tons of tiny restaurants, cafes, and kissatens – did lots of ramen, yakitori, unagidon, soup curry, fancy coffee, sushi (even did an omakase our last day – used Tableog to scout that one out). Had some struggle meals in department stores (depato) as last resorts, and of course, tons of konbini when needed (usually during travel days or desperation meals). Baby carriers are your best friend here, since a lot of places are way too small for strollers, though there were a few times we were able to leave strollers at the front of the restaurant and just eat inside (we saw Japanese parents do this often). If you want to ask if babies are ok, you can say "akachan wa daijobu desu ka?" No one ever told us no, but we also were smart about where to go. Hokkaido was especially welcoming to children imo, though people in Tokyo were perfectly nice about bringing a child into places as well.

Nursing rooms: Man, these are a godsend. Just having good changing tables in a big enough space that both of us could fit in was so helpful. Pretty much any department store (or big shopping complex) will have a changing room area, if not a full nursing room setup.

Laundry: We really lucked out with two of our hotels having laundry rooms, instead of laundry service. We had a lot of blowouts, and while I brought detergent to handwash clothes if needed, it was so much easier to just pop baby clothes and our own sweaty travel clothes into a machine. Dryers are not super efficient, so we had to hang dry some of the laundry for a day to fully dry out.

Airline: ANA is incredible. We fucked up pretty badly on our flight from Sapporo to Tokyo – didn't realize we had to book an infant seat, which we found out going through security (about 10 minutes before the flight was going to start preboarding; our train journey from Sapporo to New Chitose Airport had taken longer than we thought). The ANA agent assigned the infant seat to us SO quickly and efficiently – if it were up to any American airline we'd probably still be stuck in Sapporo. You also get a little gift for your kid (puzzle set, wooden plane toy, etc.). For both international legs, we were in premium economy and had a bassinet. Having a 20lb lap infant for a 14 hour flight would NOT have been fun.

Flight tips: Our baby did incredible on both international legs. He actually slept in the bassinet, and for times he wouldn't, I baby carried him to sleep. The best tip we got was to leave at night so the baby will sleep, which worked for our departure, but coming back, we flew during the day. We managed to occupy the baby with spinner toys, crinkle books, and silly faces, but I can tell that even in a month or two, he won't be as calm. There was one bathroom with a changing table, and both of us went to help with diaper changes (one to carry the baby, the other carried the supplies). I bottle fed during takeoff and landing to help with ear popping. I baby carried during takeoff and landing as well, since babies can't be in the bassinet during takeoff, landing, or turbulence.

VIP baby supplies on this trip:

• Our Uppababy Minu v2 stroller was a godsend, but I would not do a stroller any bigger than this – will be impossible to navigate onto trains and through ticket gates otherwise.
• Stroller footmuff and baby carrier winter cover
• Baby carrier (both of us find the Hope & Plum Lark really comfortable)
• Portable sound machine (Hatch)
• Doggy poop bags (for diapers on the go, and to shove blowout clothes into if needed)
• Infant Tylenol / Motrin for teething or fevers
• Electric snot sucker and saline drops
• Portable bottle drying rack with brush (Munchkin brand)

I hope this report helps someone! If you're thinking of traveling to Japan with a baby, we had a lovely time, and couldn't recommend it more. But it definitely was still really challenging – and if we had a more difficult baby, I'm not sure if we would've had as successful of a trip. But I'm really glad we did it! And we can't wait to bring him back to Japan when he's older 🙂