u/babybeaniebaby

I'm hoping this will be helpful to parents who are stressed about planning Japan with young kids. I was stressed about stroller use and Golden Week given what I read about this on reddit.

We just got back from a 2 week trip through Osaka, Nagoya, and Tokyo with a group of 5 (3 adults, two kids ages 4 and 1.5). We also used a side-by-side double stroller (Mompush Lithe) the entire time.

The Verdict: If I didn't know it was golden week, I wouldn't have noticed anything out of the ordinary. Go when you can go. Bring a stroller if needed for your family.

Golden Week: My husband and I have been to Japan a few times and also went two years ago with our now 4 year old. Japan during Golden Week did not feel much different than Japan any other time we have gone (usually during off seasons in the past). Crowded tourist attractions will be crowded most of the time, but we didn't have any trouble navigating anywhere. The busiest it ever felt was on par with Times Square in New York during a regular visit (so regular levels of touristy crowds). The only time we noticed any sort of hindrance during Golden Week was when it was dinner time and we tried finding a restaurant in Tokyo Skytree. Everything had a line. We just walked outside and found a regular local restaurant. The food was great and it was no problem. (Disclaimer: We did not go to a single castle as we've gone during previous trips. Maybe that would've been more crowded?)

Where we spent time:

Osaka area (Dotonbori, Denden town, Kuromon Market, Kids Plaza, Kobe Nunobiki Herb Garden) - none of these seemed unusually busy

Nagoya Ghibli Park - long line for lunch, otherwise, didn't feel too busy. There was also a food festival at the park which was fun

Tokyo area (Shinjuki, Nakamise/Senso-ji, Tokyo Skytree, Akihabara, Shibuya, Tokyo station, DisneySea) - felt like normal levels of crowds compared to our previous visits. DisneySea was also apparently the least busy of the year so far on the last day of Golden Week (Wednesday).

Stroller Use: Streets were fine for our double stroller. Subway was fine for our double stroller. Every single elevator was fine for our double stroller and also fit the 3 adults at the same time. A lot of elevators actually fit our double stroller plus an additional stroller from other families going about their day. Sometimes, the adults not pushing the stroller will opt to take the stairs or escalators so that other people can fit. Most of the time, we were able to get on the subway without folding the stroller if it wasn't busy and there was enough room. If we saw the train was crowded, we just folded up the stroller to get on. It was a non-issue. Sometimes if the elevator was too far away, we had the kids come out and we would carry the stroller up or down the stairs. It's certainly a bit heavier than the Yoyo we used last trip but nothing worth stressing or thinking twice about. I also saw a few Japanese families with tandem double strollers (granted, theirs do look more compact). Our stroller is 30 inches wide for reference.

Shinkansen: I booked our tickets and reserved seats when they became available about 29 days prior on the SmartEx website. I booked the last row of the train car so that we can use the space behind the seat for our stroller. There was plenty to choose from. I also peeked at the website once we got to japan (3-4 days before the shinkansen ride) and there were still reserved seats available for booking. So no need to stress about booking immediately after tickets release if you are flexible. Shin-Ueno, Nagoya, and Tokyo stations were busy, but didn't feel more busy than what I would expect or what I remembered in the past. But maybe I have high tolerance for crowd levels based on what I was expecting for Golden Week.

Subway: We had no issues navigating. Some elevators took a bit of walking to get to and there was often a short wait if a lot of people were in line, but nothing that caused any issues at all. We actually hit less rush hour crowdedness than the last time we went to Japan. We didn't plan around rush hour times at all and just went out when it was right for our family and schedule. We had a single train where we skipped it because it was crowded and we didn't fold up our stroller in time and we were not in a hurry (there were other people skipping and other people shoving their way on). We took the next train that came 2-3 minutes later with our folded up stroller without any issues.

Restaurants: Most places we went to had high chairs or booster seats available. Most had child utensils and plates as well. We usually left our stroller folded outside the restaurant or sometimes inside if they indicated there was room for it.

Happy to answer any questions!

Hi everyone! I wanted to share a quick "trip report" because I spent so much time panicking after reading that Golden Week is a busy time to visit Japan. I'm hoping this will be helpful to parents who are stressed about planning Japan with young kids.

We just got back from a 2 week trip through Osaka, Nagoya, and Tokyo with a group of 5 (3 adults, two kids ages 4 and 1.5). We also used a side-by-side double stroller (Mompush Lithe) the entire time.

The Verdict: If I didn't know it was golden week, I wouldn't have noticed anything out of the ordinary. Go when you can go. Bring a stroller if needed for your family.

Golden Week: My husband and I have been to Japan a few times and also went two years ago with our now 4 year old. Japan during Golden Week did not feel much different than Japan any other time we have gone (usually during off seasons in the past). Crowded tourist attractions will be crowded most of the time, but we didn't have any trouble navigating anywhere. The busiest it ever felt was on par with Times Square in New York during a regular visit (so regular levels of touristy crowds). The only time we noticed any sort of hindrance during Golden Week was when it was dinner time and we tried finding a restaurant in Tokyo Skytree. Everything had a line. We just walked outside and found a regular local restaurant. The food was great and it was no problem. (Disclaimer: We did not go to a single castle as we've gone during previous trips. Maybe that would've been more crowded?)

Stroller Use: Streets were fine for our double stroller. Subway was fine for our double stroller. Every single elevator was fine for our double stroller and also fit the 3 adults at the same time. A lot of elevators actually fit our double stroller plus an additional stroller from other families going about their day. Sometimes, the adults not pushing the stroller will opt to take the stairs or escalators so that other people can fit. Most of the time, we were able to get on the subway without folding the stroller if it wasn't busy and there was enough room. If we saw the train was crowded, we just folded up the stroller to get on. It was a non-issue. Sometimes if the elevator was too far away, we had the kids come out and we would carry the stroller up or down the stairs. It's certainly a bit heavier than the Yoyo we used last trip but nothing worth stressing or thinking twice about. I also saw many Japanese families with tandem double strollers (granted, theirs do look more compact). Our stroller is 30 inches wide for reference.

Shinkansen: I booked our tickets and reserved seats when they became available about 29 days prior on the SmartEx website. I booked the last row of the train car so that we can use the space behind the seat for our stroller. There was plenty to choose from. I also peeked at the website once we got to japan (3-4 days before the shinkansen ride) and there were still reserved seats available for booking. So no need to stress about booking immediately after tickets release if you are flexible.

Subway: We had no issues navigating. Some elevators took a bit of walking to get to and there was often a short wait if a lot of people were in line, but nothing that caused any issues at all. We actually hit less rush hour crowdedness than the last time we went to Japan. We didn't plan around rush hour times at all and just went out when it was right for our family and schedule. We had a single train where we skipped it because it was crowded and we didn't fold up our stroller in time and we were not in a hurry (there were other people skipping and other people shoving their way on). We took the next train that came 2-3 minutes later with our folded up stroller without any issues.

Restaurants: Most places we went to had high chairs or booster seats available. Most had child utensils and plates as well. We usually left our stroller folded outside the restaurant or sometimes inside if they indicated there was room for it.

Happy to answer any questions!