Right at the end of the cherry blossom season in April 2025, we spent a memorable 8 full days in Tokyo. It was our 4Y1M daughter’s third time in Tokyo, after her first trip at 1Y9M and her second trip at 2Y2M. We experienced a mix of cultural highlights, family-friendly activities, and unique dining options. Despite staying at three different hotels, we made the most of our time exploring the city’s vast offerings.

This is a belated post, as I was in my first trimester of pregnancy with our second child on this trip, and time has flown by since then.

Airport limo bus from Shinjuku to Haneda airport

Usually, we stay within walking distance of a train station with a direct line to the airport. This time, since there is no direct train from Hyakunincho station to Haneda Airport, we tried an airport limo bus from a stop within walking distance. From the DOMO Hometel Hyakunincho where we stayed, Kabukicho Tower was the closest stop, about a 10-minute walk. However, I’d allow at least 10-15 minutes of leeway, as it took us a few minutes to find the bus stop within the tower building. The reserved seats were comfortable, and the price was affordable (1400 yen per adult and 700 yen per child, ~25 USD for the three of us).

Lodging

This trip, we stayed at 3 different hotels for 9 nights in total. Generally, we prefer not to change hotels. But because we booked a Disney hotel in the middle of the week to avoid crowds, we decided to pick two other hotels on opposite sides of Tokyo.

Koko apartment hotel Asakusa Tawaramachi

We stayed at this apartment hotel almost two years ago for the first time and had a good experience, plus the price was more reasonable than other apartment hotel chains like Mimaru. We loved the location, just a 5-minute walk to the Tawaramachi station on the Ginza line. The room type we got this time was spacious, and our daughter slept on a tatami with a futon in a divided area. Even though we did not cook on this trip, the kitchenette was useful for heating up breakfast and preparing simple fruit snacks from the supermarket.

Toy Story Hotel

We stayed at a Disney hotel for three nights for the first time during our visit to the parks. More details can be found in my dedicated Disney post.

Domo hometel Hyakunincho

Since we usually stay in eastern Tokyo, we picked lodging on the western side of the city for the last part of the trip. Domo Hometel is a Taiwanese hostel company that runs a few apartment hotels in Tokyo and Taiwan, and we actually stayed with them a few years ago. The Hyakunincho location offers room sizes perfectly suited for our family, and the price was very reasonable.

Day 0

We arrived on a Saturday, and navigating the train to the city was fast and easy using Google Maps.

Japanese Western dinner at Yoshoku Yoshikami

After settling down at the hotel, we walked toward Senso-ji in Asakusa and decided on a restaurant we had wanted to try previously, but couldn’t because our daughter was too small at the time. It is a small, cozy restaurant that first opened in 1951, featuring a retro interior that was clean and neat. Since it was full at 5 PM on a weekend, we put our names down and were given a return time. There were many shops and arcades around, so we played some games to pass the time. Our table was ready when we came back a few minutes before our designated time. The menu was pretty extensive; the three of us shared curry rice, pasta gratin, and omurice. They also served a peanut appetizer that likely came with my husband’s beer. Every dish was so delicious, and we finished everything happily.

Day 1 in Akihabara

We planned our Akihabara visit on a Sunday because they usually close the streets to create a “pedestrian paradise,” but for some reason, the day we went was an exception. Still, the roads and alleys were very pedestrian-friendly, and we had a fun day exploring Akiba.

Breakfast at Komeda Coffee

On our first morning, we crossed the street to have breakfast at a Komeda Coffee located inside an APA hotel. Komeda is a chain we also have in the city where we live; the menu in Tokyo was quite similar with only small differences. At 8 AM, we had to wait a bit as the cafe also serves breakfast for the APA hotel guests. We ordered the morning set, which includes free toast and a side of choice (like a hard-boiled egg) with the purchase of any drink.

Dragon Quest lunch at LUIDA’S BAR

Because my husband plays Dragon Quest with our daughter, we booked this theme cafe for 11:30 AM. The restaurant was already full when we went in, and it was just as immersive as the Eorzea (Final Fantasy) Cafe upstairs that we visited before, run by the same company, Pasela. We shared a Slime meat bun, omurice, and burger steak. Each reservation came with one complimentary drink and a coaster per adult. The drinks were mostly fun sodas, and some were quite elaborate, featuring capes and swords.

Dinner at Denny’s

We opted for Denny’s, a family restaurant we’ve dined at before, for a relaxing dinner after a long day of walking around Akihabara. Our daughter had a kids’ meal, and I got a gratin with a side salad. Water was self-serve at the drink fountain. On a Sunday at 5 PM, we only waited about 15 minutes for a table.

Day 2 in KidZania

We spent most of Monday at KidZania in Lalaport Toyosu. You can find more details in my dedicated KidZania Tokyo post, where I share all about our daughter trying out different jobs in the KidZania world.

Day 3 to Toy Story Hotel

Today we packed up and headed from our hotel in Asakusa to Disney, staying at the Toy Story Hotel for the very first time.

Shopping Yamashiroya

Yamashiroya is a building with 5 floors and a basement dedicated entirely to toys. There was no elevator, and it wasn’t particularly stroller-friendly as the walkways were narrow, so I walked with our daughter to explore the floors. They had toys for absolutely everyone—my husband got a Tonberry keychain from Final Fantasy, and our daughter and I got some small themed accessories. There weren’t too many demo toys out in the kids’ section (mostly Anpanman ones), but it was so fun browsing every corner.

Walking through Ueno Park

We had an hour before our lunch reservation, so we spent it at Ueno Park right next to the restaurant. We just missed the cherry blossoms at the park, but we walked along some nice paths with other blossoming flowers before letting our daughter play at the playground. It was small but cute, perfectly shaded, and breezy.

Dreamy lunch at Sanrio Characters Garden Café

Even though we aren’t hardcore Sanrio fans, we thought our daughter might love this spot given her obsession with plushies. The reservation system offers two options: tables with a random character, or couches with a designated character (they also have a VIP room that we saw a couple using). We booked a couch with Kuromi, our daughter’s second choice after My Melody. Right near the entrance, there was an entertaining Hello Kitty popcorn machine. While checking in, we ordered our lunch. Our daughter had the kids’ curry rice meal, and we also ordered curry plates. The bathroom was very child-friendly, and we really enjoyed the photo area where we could sit surrounded by Sanrio plushies and props.

Transportation to Tokyo Disney Resort Toy Story Hotel

After a stroller nap around Ueno Park, we retrieved our luggage from the hotel and asked the front desk to call a taxi to the Toy Story Hotel. The taxi ride cost about 10,000 yen (~70 USD at the time) and took roughly an hour, with little traffic on a weekday afternoon.

Dinner at Ikspiari

After checking in and settling down at the Toy Story Hotel, we took the monorail to the Ikspiari mall for dinner. The mall has a huge selection of restaurants, and we decided on an okonomiyaki restaurant called Chibo. It was pretty empty at 5 PM on a weekday, and we enjoyed our only okonomiyaki meal of the trip. After dinner, we walked around the plaza, and our daughter loved playing with the little light projections on the ground.

Day 4-5 at Tokyo DisneySea & Disneyland

On Wednesday and Thursday, we spent two full days exploring Tokyo DisneySea and Disneyland. I wrote more details in a separate Tokyo Disney post. We all had so much fun despite the long days at the parks.

Day 6 heading to Shinjuku

After breakfast at Lotso Garden Cafe, we requested a taxi from the hotel back to the city. The fare and duration were about the same as our trip there. We dropped off our luggage at the Domo hotel and hopped on the subway to spend a few hours out while our room was getting ready.

Coffee at Blue Bottle Coffee Shibuya & lunch at food truck

We took a short subway ride to Shibuya and walked to a Blue Bottle Coffee located in a food truck park called Kitaya Park. It was the perfect spot for a late lunch, with a few very appealing options from three different food trucks. I got a pork rice lunch box that was delicious, flavorful, had a perfectly balanced amount of meat and rice, and wasn’t too heavy. My husband had a freshly made pork katsu sandwich that he still talks about. We sat on the benches, sipping coffee and matcha, and enjoyed our food while our daughter tried napping in her stroller.

Shopping at Nintendo Tokyo

After the food truck park, we walked over to the Parco mall to check out the only official Nintendo store in Tokyo. The entire floor was dedicated to gaming stores, including a CAPCOM store, a Pokémon Center, and a new Sega store that hadn’t opened yet. The Nintendo store was by far the busiest. We shopped around for a while and picked up a cute Kirby insulated water bottle for our daughter’s preschool.

Dinner at Royal Host

For dinner, we decided on a chain family restaurant near our hotel. We opted for the unlimited drink bar, which was very affordable. It was impressive—not just standard fountain drinks, but iced coffee and other specialty beverages in pitchers. The menu was extensive, and we had a fulfilling dinner sitting comfortably by the window.

Day 7 in Ikebukuro

We spent Saturday in a neighborhood we hadn’t explored much before, which was easily accessible via a direct train on the Yamanote line from our hotel.

Coffee and breakfast at Blue Bottle Coffee Ikebukuro

We always try to visit this US coffee shop chain when a city has it, so we started our morning in Ikebukuro with a nice breakfast and great coffee. Our daughter had a bowl of granola and milk that she loved. I had a meat pie (on the smaller side) and their signature iced NOLA. The shop has fewer than 10 seats, but since we arrived early, we snagged a table. They also had a clean restroom available.

Play time at Minami-Ikebukuro Park

After breakfast, and before most stores opened, we spent some fun time at the park across the street from Blue Bottle. There is a popular cafe called Racines right next to it. The park isn’t big, but it had a few seesaws and spinning facilities that our daughter just kept rotating between. They also had a flat stone wall functioning as a slide, which was very friendly for small kids.

Soba lunch at Ikkyu-An (一久庵)

We picked a restaurant inside the Sunshine City mall at the last minute because it didn’t seem overcrowded. It ended up being a great choice. Our daughter loved the soba soup and ate almost an entire bowl of noodles. I got a set meal with half kitsune soba and half curry rice (which I shared a bit with our daughter), and she also had a simmered egg soba in warm broth. The restaurant filled up quickly after we sat down, and the food was wonderfully comforting.

Coffee break at Seattle’s Best Coffee Ikebukuro Sunshine 60 Shop

About half an hour after lunch, our daughter began her stroller nap. We searched the mall a bit for a quieter coffee shop and found a Seattle’s Best Coffee on the office side of the building. This turned out to be a popular spot for families with young kids; we sat next to some other groups who also had kids in strollers. The outer seating area made it easy to park our stroller right in front of our small table.

Shopping UNIQLO Store

While we have UNIQLO stores back home, the prices in Japan were much better with tax-free shopping and the exchange rate at the time. There is a massive multi-level store in Ikebukuro equipped with an elevator, making stroller access a breeze.

Omurice dinner at Kitchen ABC Ikebukuro Higashiguchi

A random find on Google Maps, we visited this restaurant—famous for its omurice—right before 5 PM. It was already more than half full. It’s not a big place but had a compact, clean bathroom. We sat on high chairs, and the portions were so massive that our daughter and I couldn’t even finish our two types of omurice. The sauce on the black curry was a bit heavy, but overall we enjoyed the food a lot.

Shopping at Ikebukuro Loft

After a hearty dinner, we tried walking off the calories and stopped by Loft, my absolute favorite stationery store to browse in Japan. Due to some construction, the route through the department store wasn’t very straightforward, but we found the right floors eventually. The store felt a bit smaller than the one in Shibuya, but it still had a bunch of items that captivated both my daughter and me.

Day 8 in Yoyogi & Shinjuku

On our last full day in Tokyo, we took the Yamanote line to Yoyogi and explored a different part of Shinjuku than where we stayed. The breezy weather was perfect for outdoor activities like biking and playing at the park. We eventually ended the day by literally fishing for our own dinner.

Breakfast at Sarutahiko Coffee

Located right upstairs from the Harajuku train station exit, this café gave us a beautiful breakfast view by the window, watching trains go by under the tunnel. We all got sandwiches, our daughter had a kids’ orange juice, and we enjoyed our coffee. The food and beverages were quite good, and the nice bathroom and ambiance were a great bonus.

Biking at Yoyogi Park Cycle Center

We rented two adult bikes and a kids’ bike at the cycle center in Yoyogi Park, about a 10-minute walk from the JR station. The price per hour was incredibly affordable: 210 yen per adult and 100 yen per child (as of April 2025). You ride on a dedicated path, with each loop being about 1.5km. Since we only rented for an hour, we did one loop. Our daughter had just learned to ride a pedal bike, so she spent some time adjusting to the terrain and slight hills. The route was nicely paved, and while there were a few large groups (like scouts), it wasn’t too busy. If we lived nearby, it would be a fantastic place for kids to practice biking in various road conditions. They also offer bikes with training wheels and a dedicated area for practice.

Lunch at Natsume Doria & Gratin

After returning our bikes, we headed to a Japanese Western doria/gratin restaurant we had really loved on our last visit. We arrived around 11:50 AM, but the restaurant was already full, so we were put at the top of the waitlist. The food was just as good as we remembered. Our daughter got a kids’ meal this time, and I got the same vegetable doria with a chicken add-on as last time, finishing every bite happily.

Park time at Shinjuku Chuo Park

Our daughter took a stroller nap while we relaxed at a quiet Tully’s near an office building in Shinjuku. After her nap, we visited a large park nearby. It is rare to see a park of this size in the heart of Tokyo, which is probably why it was very crowded on a Sunday afternoon. There were a few different play areas, and our daughter tried almost all of them—it was hard to get her to leave.

Fishing for our dinner at Zauo Shinjuku

We had heard about this fishing restaurant for a while and finally got to try it out with our daughter on this trip. Even after the explanation by the staff, it took us some reading to fully understand the process. We mainly wanted to avoid catching the most expensive kind of fish, got our gear, and started fishing. Standing among other customers, with our daughter up on a stool, we waited patiently, expecting it to take a while. Suddenly, I felt a strong pull, and my husband came over to help lift it up—we caught a pretty big striped jack! The staff helped us handle the fish with a dramatic drum ceremony to celebrate. We then got to choose two ways for the kitchen to prepare it: Kamameshi Rice and pan-fried with salt. We also ordered some side dishes and rice. The bill came out to be close to the Sanrio restaurant, but it was a uniquely entertaining experience to dine surrounded by flowing water and the anticipation of catching your own meal.

Wrap Up

There are so many more activities we can enjoy with our daughter at this age, making our time in Tokyo wonderful every single day. We lucked out with the weather, and I finally got to experience the cherry blossoms for the first time. We will certainly be back to explore more places in this vibrant city.

Last but not least, here is the full itinerary and lists of places that we visited and considered for our Tokyo trip: