Getting Around Tokyo With Kids

Tokyo’s transport system is absurdly good. Trains arrive on time — not roughly on time, not within a few minutes, but to the second. Stations are clean. Signage exists. People queue. Coming from a country where a twenty-minute delay on the Piccadilly line counts as a good day, the whole thing feels like stepping into a parallel universe where public transport actually works.

We’ve navigated Tokyo with a three-year-old in a pushchair, a seven-year-old with zero patience, and a teenager who refused to walk more than 400 metres without a dramatic sigh. All of them survived. So did we. The system is genuinely family-friendly once you understand the basics — and the basics aren’t complicated. Promise.

Here’s everything we’ve learnt across multiple trips about getting around the city with children in tow.

Trains and Metro: The Backbone of Everything

Forget buses. Forget taxis (mostly). Trains are how you’ll move around Tokyo, and they’re brilliant.

The system splits into several overlapping networks, but the three that matter most are the JR Yamanote Line, Tokyo Metro, and Toei Subway. The Yamanote Line is the big one — a loop that circles central Tokyo, hitting Shinjuku, Shibuya, Ikebukuro, Ueno, and Tokyo Station. If you’re going somewhere touristy, the Yamanote probably stops there. Tokyo Metro and Toei Subway cover everything else, running underground across the city in a web of colour-coded lines.

Between them, you can reach virtually anywhere you’d want to go with kids. Disneyland. Odaiba. Asakusa. Harajuku. Ueno Zoo. The entire city is threaded together by rail and it works beautifully.

Fares are distance-based, but here’s the bit that matters for families: children under 6 ride free. Completely free. No ticket needed. Children aged 6 to 11 pay half the adult fare, which is already cheap — most single journeys come in under ¥200 (~£1.05) for a child. We spent less on transport for a week in Tokyo than we’d spend on a family day travelcard in London. Significantly less.

Get a Suica or Pasmo Card Immediately

This is genuinely the single best piece of practical advice we can give you. Before you do anything else — before you leave the airport, before you buy a drink, before you even find the loo — get yourself an IC card. Either Suica or Pasmo. They’re interchangeable. Doesn’t matter which.

These are rechargeable contactless cards that work on every train, every bus, and — this is the magic bit — in convenience stores, vending machines, coin lockers, and dozens of shops. You tap on at the gate when you enter a station, tap off when you leave, and the correct fare deducts automatically. No fumbling with ticket machines. No working out which ticket to buy. No standing at the gate while a queue builds behind you and your toddler tries to crawl under the barrier.

Buy them at the machines in Narita or Haneda airport. Load ¥2,000–3,000 (~£10.50–15.80) per adult card to start — that’ll cover your first couple of days. Top up at any station or convenience store throughout your trip. Children aged 6–11 need a child IC card from a staffed ticket office (bring their passport). Under 6? Don’t need one.

They’re not just for transport, either. Our kids used them to buy drinks from vending machines, which they considered the greatest technological achievement in human history.

Navigating Stations Without Losing Your Mind

Japanese stations look overwhelming at first glance. Multiple exits. Multiple lines. Crowds moving at speed in every direction. Deep breath. It’s actually far more logical than it appears.

Every line has its own colour. Orange for Ginza. Red for Marunouchi. Green for the Yamanote. Follow the colour and you’ll find your platform. Platforms are numbered. Exits are labelled. Major stations have solid English signage — not perfect everywhere, but enough.

Google Maps is your best friend. It works perfectly in Tokyo, gives real-time train schedules, tells you which exit to use, and even suggests which carriage to board for the fastest transfer. We used it for every journey. Never let us down.

One warning. Shinjuku Station. Over 200 exits. 3.5 million passengers daily. The busiest station on earth, and navigating it with children is controlled chaos. We got lost three times on our first visit. Accept that Shinjuku will confuse you, build in extra time, follow Google Maps religiously, and laugh about it. Everyone gets lost there. Even locals.

Rush Hour: Avoid It Like the Plague

Tokyo rush hour is not like London rush hour. It’s bodies pressed against glass, platform staff physically pushing people into carriages, and a level of compression that makes the Northern Line at Bank look spacious.

Peak times are 7:30–9:30am and 5:30–7:00pm on weekdays. Avoid them. Not “let’s try and see” — just don’t. With a pushchair it’s physically impossible. With small children it’s unsafe.

The good news? Easy to dodge. Most kid-friendly attractions don’t open until 9:30 or 10:00am anyway, so have a relaxed breakfast and leave after the crush. By 10:00am, trains are comfortable. By mid-morning, you might get a seat.

If you must travel peak time, wait for the next train. Let packed ones go past until there’s space to board with your children and bags. Better to arrive twenty minutes late than spend thirty wedged against a stranger’s armpit with a screaming toddler.

Pushchairs and Strollers on the Trains

Tokyo is more pushchair-friendly than its reputation suggests, but it’s not seamless. Honesty required here.

Trains have priority spaces near the doors for pushchairs and wheelchairs, and people will generally move aside for you. That part’s fine. The trouble comes in the stations themselves. Lifts exist in most stations — but finding them is a treasure hunt. They’re often tucked away in corners, down corridors you didn’t know existed, and sometimes on the opposite side of the station from where you entered. Station maps show lift locations, and Google Maps can help, but budget extra time.

Escalators are off-limits with a pushchair — genuinely dangerous on the steep, fast Japanese ones. And some older stations have no lift at all. Smaller Toei stops, some JR stations outside the main loop. You’ll be carrying the pushchair up stairs while juggling a child and three bags.

Bring a lightweight stroller you can fold one-handed and carry. And pack a baby carrier as backup for the days when wheels aren’t worth the hassle. We used our carrier more than the pushchair by trip’s end.

Taxis: Expensive but Sometimes Essential

Taxis in Tokyo are pricey. Flag drop is ¥500–700 (~£2.60–3.70) and the meter ticks up fast. A ten-minute ride can easily hit ¥1,500–2,000 (~£7.90–10.50).

But sometimes you need one. Kids melting down. Rain. Lost in backstreets with a sleeping toddler on your shoulder. In those moments, a taxi is worth every yen.

A few things to know. First: the doors open automatically. Do not touch them. Do not try to open the door yourself. Do not try to close it. The driver controls everything with a lever. Grabbing at the door is the single fastest way to identify yourself as a tourist, and you risk breaking the mechanism. Just stand there and let it happen. The children will find this hilarious.

Second: car seats aren’t legally required for taxis in Japan. Feels wrong after years of ISOFIX wrestling, but that’s the law. Use your own judgement for very small children — we held our youngest on our lap for short rides.

Third: hail them on the street (a red light on the dashboard means available) or use the GO app, which is Japan’s equivalent of Uber and works well in central Tokyo. The app handles payment too, which saves the awkwardness of working out yen in a dark taxi at 9pm with tired children.

We used taxis four or five times across a ten-day trip. Short hops, late evenings, meltdown emergencies. Total cost: roughly ¥8,000 (~£42). Each one saved our sanity.

Buses: Skip Them

Buses exist in Tokyo. They cover routes that trains don’t. Some locals use them daily.

For travelers with kids? Skip them. Routes are confusing, signage is mostly Japanese, payment systems vary by company, and you’ll spend more time working out which bus to catch than walking to the nearest station. Trains are faster, more frequent, and far easier to navigate.

Walking: Better Than You’d Expect

Tokyo is enormous. Thirty-eight million people in the greater metro area. It sounds unwalkable. But station to station? Neighbourhood to neighbourhood? It’s surprisingly brilliant on foot.

Pavement quality is excellent — smooth, well-maintained, no cracked slabs catching pushchair wheels. Crossings work properly. Drivers actually stop. And here’s the detail our kids appreciated most: vending machines every 100 metres or so, selling cold water, juice, tea, and the occasional mystery drink that turns out to be melon-flavoured milk. Staying hydrated while walking Tokyo is the easiest thing in the world.

Shibuya to Harajuku? Fifteen minutes on foot, far more interesting than one stop on the Yamanote. Asakusa to the Skytree? Twenty minutes along the river. We walked more in Tokyo than any city we’ve visited, and the children complained less because there was always something to look at. Cat cafe. Capsule toy machine. Tiny shrine wedged between office blocks.

Good walking shoes. That’s all you need.

Day Passes: Do the Maths

If you’re planning a big sightseeing day with lots of stops, the Tokyo Subway Ticket can save you money. It’s designed specifically for travelers and gives you unlimited rides on all Tokyo Metro and Toei Subway lines.

Prices are ¥800 (~£4.20) for 24 hours, ¥1,200 (~£6.30) for 48 hours, or ¥1,500 (~£7.90) for 72 hours. Children aged 6–11 pay half. Under 6 still free.

The maths is simple. If you’re making four or more Metro/Toei journeys in a day, the 24-hour ticket saves money. On a day where you’re bouncing between Asakusa, Ueno, Ginza, Roppongi, and Shibuya? Absolutely worth it. On a day where you’re staying in one area and walking between spots? Stick with your IC card.

Important caveat: the Tokyo Subway Ticket doesn’t cover JR lines, including the Yamanote. If half your journeys are JR, the pass won’t help much. We found it brilliant value on some days and unnecessary on others.

Buy them at airport tourist information desks, Bic Camera stores, or selected Metro stations. They’re separate paper tickets — can’t be loaded onto your IC card.

Putting It All Together

Here’s what a typical day looked like for us. Leisurely breakfast, leave the hotel around 9:45am once rush hour clears. Tap Suica cards at the nearest station. Metro to the day’s adventure. Walk between nearby spots. Vending machine drinks. Lunch. More trains. Taxi back around 5pm when the smallest one flagged, dodging the evening rush.

Total daily transport cost for two adults and three children? Usually under ¥2,000 (~£10.50). Cheap, clean, safe, and once you’ve done it twice, completely intuitive.

Tokyo’s size is intimidating on paper. In practice, with an IC card in your pocket and Google Maps on your phone, it’s one of the easiest cities in the world to navigate with children. Easier than Paris. Easier than Rome. Definitely easier than London.

For help choosing a base that keeps your commutes short, have a look at our guide to where to stay in Tokyo with kids. And if you’re planning the wider Japan trip around your Tokyo days, our family travel Japan hub pulls everything together.

Get the IC card. Dodge rush hour. Download Google Maps offline just in case. You’ll be fine.