Family-Friendly Attractions in Kyoto
A visual guide from the Kyoto travel guide — see all posters in Visual Guides.
A steam locomotive still shunts across the turntable at the old Umekoji roundhouse, ten minutes' walk from Kyoto Station, and it pulls a short passenger run several times a day — the sort of thing that keeps a five-year-old occupied while the adults read the exhibit boards. Kyoto's family circuit is unusually compact: aquarium, railway museum and a broad lawn all share one park, the Manga Museum sits on the subway, and the scenic railway north of Arashiyama turns a river gorge into a 25-minute ride.
Where to go
Umekoji Park, a short walk west of Kyoto Station, is the anchor: the Kyoto Railway Museum, where steam locomotives fan out around a working turntable and one of them pulls a ten-minute shuttle, and the Kyoto Aquarium next door, whose giant salamander tanks usually draw the longest queues. The Kyoto International Manga Museum at Karasuma-Oike occupies a converted 1869 primary school and lets visitors pull volumes off open shelves and read on the lawn. In Arashiyama, Iwatayama monkey park repays a steep twenty-minute climb with macaques and a city panorama, while Toei Kyoto Studio Park at Uzumasa stages samurai swordfights on a working film set.
Getting around with children
Kyoto's buses are the slow option with a pram — routes 100 and 206 through Higashiyama are often standing-room only by mid-morning. The two subway lines, Karasuma and Tozai, are lift-equipped and far calmer, and JR's Sagano Line runs from Kyoto Station to Umekoji-Kyotonishi in a couple of minutes. Coin lockers under Kyoto Station take the day's bags. For the Sagano Scenic Railway between Torokko Saga and Kameoka, seats are usually released about a month ahead and sell out in autumn; the Hozugawa boat back down the gorge takes roughly two hours and suits older children better.