Author: Seiichi Sato | Editor-in-Chief, TamagoDaruma

Paper cup toys are easy to turn into sound play, stacking play, or pretend play, making them a familiar homemade option for indoor play with babies and toddlers up to age 3, and older toddlers can take part in the craft steps themselves. On a stretch of rainy days, when you don’t have the energy to go outside, or don’t have time to run out to the 100-yen shop for more supplies, being able to put together something your child can enjoy using just the paper cups already at home can be enough, on its own, to make things feel…

Summer break lunches for toddlers get easier to keep up with when you build a simple rotation around a staple, a protein, and a go-to side — it cuts down on the parent’s load. Once summer break starts, lunch for the toddler suddenly becomes a bigger job at home. Kindergartens (yochien) and certified centers for early childhood education and care (nintei kodomoen) typically close for an extended break, while licensed daycare (hoikuen) tends to stay open since it’s tied to parents’ work needs — but between daycare absences and family-care days, there are more times when meals normally covered by…

Indoor play for 2-year-olds is easier to keep up with when you choose activities based on how much energy you actually have left. On hot or rainy days, do a quick safety check and keep switching between short activities. Extreme heat, rainy days, times when infections are going around — when the days you can’t get outside start to pile up, plenty of parents find themselves wondering, “What are we going to do at home today?” Around age two especially, children want to move their bodies but still can’t judge danger well on their own. They want to play, but…

For families looking for parent-child events in Japan in summer 2026, good starting points include Kasumigaseki Kids’ Day, the Summer Kids’ Chemistry Experiment Show, the JAXA Chofu Aerospace Center summer event, and the Kidsweekend online research festival. This article compares parent-child events, independent-research events, and online programs confirmed for summer 2026 in Japan, looking at free vs. paid, age range, registration deadlines, whether they’re available online, and how easy they are to attend with a preschool-age sibling. For summer events, it’s more realistic to pick one or two that fit your family than to try to fit in as many…

The cost of a plane ticket for a child depends on three things: the child’s age on the day of travel, which airline you’re flying, and whether they sit on an adult’s lap or in their own seat. Both ANA and JAL generally accept infants from 8 days old on domestic flights, but whether that means travel without a separate fare depends on the airline’s infant age category and whether a seat is used. Ahead of Obon (Japan’s mid-August holiday travel season), summer vacation, or trips home for the year-end and New Year holidays, a lot of parents search questions…

A “snack book” is a collecting game that started on social media in Japan: kids arrange unopened snacks or snack packaging in a clear-pocket binder or notebook, the same way they might with a sticker album. If you’re doing this with your child, it helps to agree on the rules first—whether the snacks get eaten, traded, or just kept on display. If your child has recently asked to make a “snack book,” you may not be sure what that involves. Sticker albums are familiar territory for most parents, but collecting and displaying real snacks raises different questions—hygiene and safety chief…

Deciding whether your child is ready for a paddling pool isn’t just about age — constant supervision, caution around shallow water, and draining the pool after use all need to be in place first. As the heat sets in, more families bring out a small paddling pool — sometimes called a kiddie pool — in the garden, on the balcony, or by the front door to enjoy some water play with their kids. Even on days when outdoor play elsewhere is difficult, being able to splash around close to home is a welcome treat for children. At the same time,…

The Yoru no Odoriko meme is a social media trend built around Sakanaction’s song “Yoru no Odoriko” (Night Dancer). It spread through overseas platforms before returning to Japan — and has now reached parents wondering: is it OK to post a video of my child dancing along? If you plan to, a few things are worth checking first: face visibility, background details, geotags, other children in the frame, and music licensing. If you’ve been seeing videos on TikTok, Instagram Reels, or YouTube Shorts set to the Sakanaction track “Yoru no Odoriko,” you’re not alone. The trend spread widely in 2026,…

If you’ve ever thought to yourself, “I didn’t really play with my baby properly today” — this article is for you. Play that supports development from 0 to 2 isn’t about buying expensive materials or setting aside a special program every day. The foundation is simply giving your child the chance to experience sensation, movement, language, and human connection through ordinary moments in daily life. A baby looking at your face. Turning toward a sound. Reaching out for a soft cloth. Taking something out of a box and putting it back. What looks small to an adult can be a…

Starting with July 2026 billing, childcare facilities and other providers in Japan that have not filed their required management information reports are expected to be subject to a deduction — or rate reduction — from their official public pricing rate. For operators running licensed daycare centers (hoikuen), kindergartens (yochien), certified early childhood education and care centers (nintei kodomoen), community-based childcare providers, and similar facilities, there are several practical questions to address early: whether your own facility is covered, what needs to be filed and by when, and what a deduction would look like in practice if a report goes unsubmitted.…

Japan’s school lunch system — along with meal programs at nursery schools — encompasses far more than nutrition. It is part of children’s everyday learning, covering eating habits, serving routines, local food culture, and food safety. You may have come across the idea that “Japanese school lunch is impressive” or that “kyushoku is unlike anything you see overseas.” Japan’s school lunch and hoikuen (nursery school) meal programs do include elements that go beyond a simple midday meal: planned menus, student-led serving, cleanup routines, regional ingredients, and food culture. But those elements deserve a grounded look — not just admiration. For…

“I’d love to take my little one somewhere to splash around this summer — but I’m nervous about getting there and finding out babies aren’t even allowed in the water.” If that sounds familiar, this article is for you. Here we compare wading pools, waterside parks, and water play spots near Tokyo — known in Japanese as jabu-jabu ike (じゃぶじゃぶ池), these are the shallow, free-access public splash areas found in many of Tokyo’s municipal parks — all reviewed through the lens of what actually matters to parents of infants and toddlers. When choosing a water play spot near Tokyo, popularity…