absolutely love the toddler seat toilet. they have those in major Japanese dept stores here in Malaysia, and if my son wants to pee-pee, he'll get excited going to that toilet. :)

we'll be travelling to Tokyo next March, and I am bit concerned about my son's food intake. We'll be travelling around Tokyo for 5 days and the next 4 days will be spent in Disney Resorts. Probably spend some of the meals in McDonalds, basements food court & the like. Anyone can advise on cheap & healthy food?

Most kids enjoy udon, which is cheap and easy to find. The top floors of department stores have a variety of restaurants. Many restaurants have what is called an okosma seto...kids set meal. The basement floors of department stores sell all kinds of food for take out. Hotel breakfast buffets (in the nicer hotels) have a good selection that you should find plenty for him. Stations are also filled with small restaurants. There is no shortage of inexpensive, good food in Japan, that's for sure.

lina219...at the Disney Resort there is this really neat kids camp in the Ikspiari mall. Our daughter did a 1/2 day there when she was 3 and loved it. http://www.ikspiari.com/en/nepos/ There are also a lot of restaurants in Ikspiari that are quite good and reasonable. It's right on the Disney monorail.

thanks kimjapan... read about the kids camp, but not sure whether son will be ok - he just started learning a little bit of english now (fav word is no... ;P) and no japanese but very talkative in Malay. Don't want to give the minders there a headache!

I don't think they really have a problem with language from what I saw. If I remember correctly, we had to indicate what language she spoke. They also have an hourly thing that he could try and doesn't fill up so much as the set programs. As it is quite experiential and hands on based, language seems to be a non-issue.

Interesting thing about language...when our daughter was 3 we took our first trip to Thailand. At that time she spoke Japanese and English, but of course no Thai. At our hotel, one evening before dinner she disappeared along with one of the staff's children. We quickly found them, happily playing in some sand near the playground/restaurant area...funny part was our daughter was babbling away in Japanese and the Thai child was babbling away in Thai, and it seemed as though neither one of them realized that their languages were different and they had negotiated a pretty good game somehow.

It's been years since our last trip to Tokyo Disney, but I remember theme park food was different from the Disney parks in the US. As an example, outside the Country Bear Jamboree they served S&B curry instead of hamburgers. I loved hearing the bears sing in Japanese, especially the Davey Crockett song.

great... might give the camp a try. maybe son will love it!

i remember the last time we went to Tokyo Disney (w/o son) for a day, we didn't even stop to a have a decent meal... :)

Thanks so much to KimJapan for your advice on breastfeeding in Tokyo and around. This has really reassured me and I will be much more confident!

To anyone reading...my wife and I will be off to Tokyo with a 9 month old in June...we can not find any info on shots she may require...anyone have any info here? Note our pediatrician was not sure...is doing 'research'.
Thanks.
Dave
[email protected]

There are no required immunizations in Japan, even for attending school. By age 9 months, Japanese resident babies have had BCG (for tuberculosis) and polio. If you are coming from the US, you will not need anything at all and will just pass through immigration and customs.

to the top for Montrealer!

Thank-you so much especially to emd and mrwnrfl for this thread. It's so reassuring to think that we can be positive about travelling with a baby. I'll definitely report back when we return.
A bientot,
montrealer

Peters2...Beppu!! I "lived" there for nearly two years...1946-1948...as a teen age GI ! I plan to re-visit mext spring for the first time.

Please tell me what it's like now...it was a sleepy beach and spa (skonsen)town back then, with most everything "off limits"...right after the war. We were the fist troops into Kyushu...24th Division. I have some very old photos that I snapped back then..would be happy to scan a few and send them to you...address, please.
Stu T. [email protected]

Wow! Impressive! I got frustrated at times lugging camera equipment around Japan, but a baby takes the cake. Kudos Peters2 and thanks for sharing!

Andrew
TripTie.com

Thank you for sharing your experience, it has helped me get prepared for my visit to Japan with my 8 month old baby. We plan to travel Tokyo area and spend Christmas and New Years there. It should be interesting. Thanks for all your tips. Greatly appreciate them.