You could call it a stretch, comparing my 19-week-old son to Bill Murray – despite the fact that newborns often resemble old wrinkled men (sorry, Bill!) – but when it came to this particular Sofia Coppola-inspired analogy, my husband had a point. Back in May, he compared the relationship between Murray and Scarlett Johansson in 2003’s Lost in Translation – late night Tokyo companions, up-in-the-clouds hotel buddies, partners in existentialist angst – to my own relationship with our baby, Larry. This made me the pink-wig-wearing Johansson, and Larry, if you swap whisky for breast milk, the significantly more diminutive Murray. My hubby, much to his marital discredit, was Johansson’s barely-seen partner John, who frequently disappears on assignment, leaving his significant other alone at Tokyo’s iconic Park Hyatt Hotel to hang out with Murray/Larry.
.jpg)
Long analogy short: my architect husband had to travel to Japan for work. I had two choices: stay in Walthamstow for two weeks, alone with said baby, or follow my husband to Tokyo and Kyoto, Larry in tow.
“It’s the best time to travel!” friends with toddlers insisted. “Larry won’t be eating, crawling or walking!” “Breastfeeding is a breeze on holiday!” “Do it NOW!” A 19-week-old baby did sound like the sweet spot for long-haul travel… pre-weaning or bottle feeding, pre-toddler tantrums and mid-air meltdowns, pre-the slow-dawning realisation that you can’t actually relax on holiday ever again.
If you’re also considering getting lost in translation lactation, here’s my honest guide to travelling Japan with a newborn.
The attitude
With a baby, life quickly becomes a matter of expectation vs reality. I imagined grand adventures in Japan. In Tokyo: raucous solo evenings in Shibuya’s Drunken Alley once the baby was in bed, and oodles of vintage treasure hunting. From Kyoto: a day trip to nearby Nara, where Bambi-like deer roam the streets. In reality, I ended up exploring places that were maximum a 30-minute walk or a short taxi ride from my hotel, to allow for emergency nappy changes or impromptu meltdowns. But the joy of doing this in Japan is that the mundane really is magical, whether you are ordering a morning coffee, sampling futuristic refreshments from a vending machine (honestly!), walking to a shrine, or simply looking upwards at the seemingly unending towers that populate Tokyo’s skyline.
The flight
Ah, those elusive British Airways Avios points. The ones you squirrel away for decades, stockpiling for a rainy day when you can blow them all on, say, business class return flights to Japan for you and your small family. Think again! Despite having several hundred thousand points, our air mile redemption options were laughable, and given my fairly meagre maternity leave budget, we settled on KLM economy flights via Amsterdam. Ok, with a baby in tow, you don’t really want to make your journey longer with an indirect flight, but we figured the short 45-minute hop from City Airport to Schiphol would be a good testing ground for how Larry might fare on the next, significantly longer leg. (Reader: he slept the whole way!)
Whether you’re flying direct or indirect, three simple rules apply. Feed your baby by breast or bottle on take off or landing, to reduce ear pain from flight pressure; take your child’s suitcase as a carry-on so you have a stash of nappies, fidget spinners, clothing and Calpol; and do everything in your power to bag a baby bassinet for your child to sleep in. Contact the airline as early as possible in advance, as there are often more babies than bassinets, and you do not want to be the couple facing travelling through multiple time zones with a newborn writhing on your laps.
Sensible, more cash-rich flyers should consider overnight flights, which align with a baby’s natural sleep schedule. But remember that planes are essentially giant vibrating white noise machines that feel like a flying womb, and if your baby does experience a moment of at-altitude angst, people pay far less attention to your child than you do. Also: a mini bottle of Chardonnay is available at the push of a button.
Eating
Restaurants and bars in Japan are renowned for being tiny, often catering to just a handful of guests, with many offering only counter top seating. Throw in the fact that most restaurants don’t do reservations and thus involve lengthy queues, and the desirable dining options in Tokyo or Kyoto become pretty inaccessible for young families. Even if you do manage to snag a bar stool to balance on with your baby, the prospect of a mid-meal meltdown might deter you from doing this too often (I had to escort Larry out of the ramen bar we visited on our first night in Tokyo after just a few slurps of my spicy pork noodle soup).
Another thing to watch out for: indoor street markets that serve alcohol and allow smoking restrict entry to the under-20s – and that includes babies on the boob! We were shuffled away from an izakaya in Ebisu, which was probably for the best considering the amount of second-hand smoke emanating from the packed tables inside.
So, where to eat? The sprawling street market where Tokyo’s famous Tsukiji fish market once sat, and Kyoto’s 400-year-old Nishiki market ended up being perfect options for an on-the-move lunch. Think: barbecued eel, prawn tempura the size of your fist and okonomiyaki served on paper plates, which you can balance on top of your pram. The food available at Japan’s 7-Eleven supermarket chain is also not to be sniffed at. Compared with the delicious rice balls and chocolate-dipped cream pancakes and various green tea-infused drinks, the M&S deli aisle pales in comparison.
Japan’s shopping centres also house some surprisingly highly rated eateries, many of which provide significantly more seating space for families. If you’re pushing bedtime (jet-lagged babies love a split sleep) restaurants with traditional sunken seating and pillowed benches are a perfect spot to rest their heads.
Lastly, make the most of room service! Not exactly traditional, but a cheeseburger and chips enjoyed with a white wine at in our hotel room at The Edition Ginza was among my favourite meals of the trip – even if it was eaten in silence as Larry slept.
If you do fancy taking a risk, we queued for 90 minutes for a spot at Imakatsu, which serves some of the most delectable tonkatsu you will ever encounter. In Kyoto, we also discovered Sugari, a Brutalist box of a ramen bar, accessible via a labyrinthine staircase inside a traditional wooden townhouse, or “machiya”, where soup and a bottle of beer cost well under a tenner (a bonus when said bottles are being pushed over by your baby).
Accommodation
When researching our options, I was intrigued by Japan’s Mimaru flats, a chain of apartment-hotels that cater to families. I was also keen to book accommodation that included a baby cot, as co-sleeping into early childhood in Japan is the norm. In the end, we opted for a series of hotel stays, as knowing my husband would be absent during the weekdays, and often into the evenings (eat your heart out, Scarlett!), I wanted to be able to order room service and relax with a time zone-confused baby, rather than face cooking or dining alone.
The Edition, Ginza
After a near 20-hour journey tinged with the fragrance of baby sick, baby poo, and questionable Dutch airline grub, breathing in the Le Labo-created, bespoke black tea scent in the reception of The Edition in Ginza felt a little like ascending into heaven. Were the curtains rippling like waves as we entered, or was that just my jet lag? The hotel brand’s Ginza outpost is situated in Tokyo’s most elite shopping district, and has 86 sleek and modernist rooms designed by Japanese architect supreme Kengo Kuma. Think tranquil wood panelling, floor-to-ceiling windows, and dreamlike beds so big your baby can sleep horizontally between you and your husband when they point blank refuse to sleep in the hotel cot you insisted on.
For someone who views shopping in Japan as a serious cultural pursuit, Ginza was a perfect location for popping between Dover Street Market, Beams and the Sanrio store, while being able to nip back to the Edition for contact naps, nappy changes and freshly-baked cookies from the lobby bar. True, it’s less bustling than Shibuya or Harajuku, and promises more calm than karaoke and cavorting, but I was never out after 8pm, anyway! Sophie, the hotel’s modern brasserie, was my go-to after a long and wakeful night, for a traditional Japanese breakfast of grilled fish and miso soup (genuinely invigorating at 7am), or waffles with berries and whipped cream.
- Baby amenities: Cot, baby bath and nappy bin, high chair, organic baby products.
- Address: 2 Chome-8-13 Ginza, Chuo City, Tokyo 104-0061, Japan.
The Bulgari Hotel, Tokyo
.jpg)
Sadly for Larry, he won’t remember a single thing from our Japanese adventure – including the spectacular views from the Bulgari hotel in the Tokyo Midtown Yaesu skyscraper. Your ears literally pop as you swish up to reception (40th floor) in the lift. In your room, shutters open automatically to reveal floor-to-ceiling windows and panoramic views of the Imperial Palace Gardens. One thing I will ensure he treasures: the incredibly cute bib that was laid out in his plush baby cot, embroidered with Bulgari’s multicoloured Serpenti motif – just one of the Roman jewellery house’s icons referenced in the design of the hotel (I spied a Mount Fuji print inspired by a bespoke 1970s brooch design, and framed photographs of Elizabeth Taylor, Bulgari’s most famous celebrity client).
Before we flew, I had imagined my husband and I would alternate spending evenings alone after Larry was asleep, sipping whisky highballs in listening bars or befriending locals in tiny bars. In reality, most nights I was so exhausted I settled with watching Netflix on my phone with earphones, as Larry snoozed. While my husband spent his final evening in Tokyo peacefully sipping a Cosmopolitan in the 45th floor Bulgari Bar (ok, Carrie?!) as I co-slept with Larry in the ginormous bed, I did manage to spend the last afternoon of our stay luxuriating alone in the spa, swimming for the first time since childbirth in a Vicenza stone- and teak-lined 25-metre pool, before having five months of fatigue massaged away during my Augustinus Bader Exclusive Bulgari facial.
- Baby amenities: Cot, baby bath and nappy bin, high chair, Bulgari bath products.
- Address: 2-chōme-2-1 Yaesu, Chuo City, Tokyo 104-0028, Japan.
Hoshinoya Tokyo
%2520-%2520HOSHINOYA%2520Tokyo.jpg)
After two flights, two hotels, two bullet trains and way more than two tantrums, by the time we arrived back in Tokyo for the last bookend of our trip, I was sick of the sight of our suitcases. We’d travelled as light as possible (one giant suitcase plus Larry’s carry-on made it easy-ish to go from place to place), but we had picked up additional shoulder bags and backpacks by the time we got back to Tokyo – largely due to my husband’s penchant for tax-free Porter-Yoshida & Co. I breathed a sigh of relief when we were ushered into the atrium of Hoshinoya Tokyo, and our pram was whisked out of sight (we did not see it again until check out the following morning).
This tranquil retreat, a modern spin on a Japanese “ryokan”, or traditional inn, is located in the business district of Ōtemachi, but inside it’s anything but bustling. The hotel’s sleek, wood-panelled ground floor caters to just one activity: the ritualised removal of outdoor shoes, and the sliding on of indoor slippers. For someone who, for five months straight, had barely taken a moment to wash her face or brush her hair, this was satisfying to say the least.
Most parents of newborns are conscious about interacting with others – particularly fellow hotel guests who might not relish eating next to a grisly baby. Not an issue at Hoshinoya: the expansive restaurant space on the lower ground floor features tranquil (and soundproofed) private dining rooms, where guests are served a Franco-Japanese 11-course tasting menu. While this could in itself be anxiety-inducing with a tiny baby, our attendants were reassuring and patient, retrieving the nappy bag we’d left in the pram and even bringing out a selection of hand puppets when Larry starting whining. The pièce de résistance? The hotel’s Modernist onsen, which features an outdoor hot spring and is open until midnight.
- Baby amenities: Cot, baby bath and nappy bin, high chair, bath products.
- Address: 1-chōme-9-1 Ōtemachi, 千代田区 Chiyoda City, Tokyo 100-0004, Japan.
While Kyoto may be steeped in tradition, it has the most exciting hotel scene in all of Japan.
The Ace Hotel, Kyoto
.jpg)
And so, to Kyoto, and our second Kengo Kuma-designed hotel, The Ace. Housed partly in an old telephone company building, the hotel blends pared-back Japanese aesthetics with the Ace group’s signature retro Americana – a mix exemplified by the Japanese soaking tub, Pendleton blankets and Teac turntable in our sizeable twin room. This is a spacious, sleek and incredibly calming hotel, with plenty of pillow-lined nooks and crannies and eateries to hang out/snooze in.
I frequented its Stumptown Coffee branch numerous times a day for much-needed caffeine (or the signature soft serve), before pottering around the neighbouring streets with Larry (there are plenty of cultural pitstops within a 15-minute walk, including the Nishiki market, the Museum of Kyoto, and a handy shopping centre next door). Piopiko, the in-house taqueria (the Japanese take on any other cuisine with incredible aplomb!) was also a great option for an early evening solo dinner when my husband had nighttime work plans and I… couldn’t be bothered to take Larry outside.
The Ace offers all the essential amenities for travelling with a baby – cot, nappy bin, baby bath – and also provided us with bed bumpers when we gave up on trying to get Larry to sleep in a crib. But the most impressive bit happened when I woke up one morning with a hot and stinging boob and what felt like a looming case of mastitis. I called reception and a doctor’s appointment was arranged for me that same afternoon, at a sleek surgery that looked more like a chic restaurant. I procured antibiotics and painkillers and banished any rising hysteria at the prospect of ending up hospitalised with a breast abscess on holiday – and all for under £50.
- Baby amenities: Cot, baby bath and nappy bin, high chair, bath products.
- Address: 245-2 Kurumayacho, Nakagyo Ward, Kyoto, 604-8185, Japan.
The app
While how and where a woman feeds her baby is entirely a matter of personal choice (at home in London I’d certainly grown used to getting my baps out on buses and in bars), breastfeeding in public is rare in Japan. While I found that many travel forums insist that it is the norm, I was actually escorted out of an upmarket eatery in Tokyo by a fleet of serving staff after I started breastfeeding. I was chivvied several floors up to a public nursing room (of which there are thousands in Japan), stocked with everything from hot water for preparing bottles of formula to microwaves for warming food. To all travelling mothers: download the Mamamap app before travelling. It provides a map of all available rooms around the country, with handy feedback and ratings. There is even a nursing room at Dover Street Market in Ginza.
Transport
Japan’s most popular taxi is the sedan-style Toyota Comfort, often accessorised with kitsch white lace seat covers. When travelling with a pram, keep your eyes peeled for the more modern and spacious JPN Taxi – some drivers will allow you to wheel your pram (with baby) into the main bulk of the taxi, as you would in a black cab in London. It’s worth noting than in more traditional taxis, your child is legally allowed to ride in on your lap. We resorted to this for a couple of short hops, but a JPN Taxi that will cater to a child strapped into a pram is far preferable.
If travelling via bullet train, as we did from Tokyo to Kyoto, pre-reserve a family carriage, which will have dedicated changing facilities. If you have large pieces of luggage you are also required to reserve an oversized baggage ticket – something we were not aware of when we boarded the Shinkansen hauling our enormous suitcase. The best travel tip we did not use? Forget shifting suitcases from hotel to hotel yourself, especially with a baby in tow. It’s common in Japan to have your luggage couriered between hotels. Getting your cases from Tokyo to Kyoto (a distance of 450km), would cost around £100.
The shopping list
The Stokke YOYO is one of the most compact prams out there, and not only fits into overhead lockers on flights (ideal when you are navigating flight connections with a baby), but is also streamlined enough to slip into narrow restaurants. I also found a baby carrier was essential for short trips to and from the hotel, for transporting Larry through Tokyo’s labyrinthine underground system, and for on-the-go naps. The Artipoppe is undoubtedly the chicest option out there. Last but definitely not least: those trusty baby fidget spinners – perfect for sticking on plane TV sets, bullet train windows or the side of a cot.
