Kyoto Railway Museum is all indoors which makes it the best rainy day with kids options I’ve found so far.
It is just 3 mins walk from a big park with a playground called Umekoji Park. I’ve written about visiting Umekoji Park with kids here.
There is a soft play area for babies on the 2nd floor. Kids will need to take off their shoes.
If you have snacks on you and the weather is fine I highly recommend the sky deck on the top floor. Kids can see lots of real trains and bullet trains from there too.
KYOTO RAILWAY MUSEUM
京都市下京区観喜寺町
KANKIJICHO, SHIMOGYO-KU, KYOTO
OPEN 10AM-5:30PM
CLOSED WEDNESDAYS (ALTHOUGH OPEN ON NATIONAL HOLIDAYS)
ADMISSION: ADULTS 1200 YEN, HIGH SCHOOL & UNIVERSITY STUDENTS 1000YEN, ELEMENTARY & JUNIOR HIGH STUDENTS 500 YEN, CHILDREN OVER 3 YEARS OLD 200 YEN.
KYOTO RAILWAY MUSEUM
Just next to the Kyoto Railway Museum is a great adventure playground. I have written about it here.
If you love good children’s museum here is my list of my favourite museums in Japan for kids.
See here if you are looking for general Kyoto with Kids tips
Where to eat with kids near the Kyoto Railway Museum and Umekoji Park & Playground?
Schole Pizza have a kids menu and accept most major credit cards. They do have some vegetarian pizza options. I recommend budgeting for 2000 yen per adult to eat lunch here and more like 3000 yen a dinner time. They have space to store your stroller while you dine. Should you decide to walk back to Kyoto Station from here it will take approximately 15 mins (so take the train from Umekoji Kyoto Nishi Station instead as that will take just 3 mins or so) They have the standard margherita pizza or 4 cheese pizza type deal here but also this is a good chance to try popular Japanese pizzas such as tuna & corn, seaweed mayo & mentaiko or crispy teriyaki chicken pizza. They also have dessert pizzas such as chocolate marshmallow pizza or apple pie pizza.
You can ask your hotel to make a reservation for you or you can just turn up and try your luck (the restaurant seats 20 people.)
SCHOLE , UMEKOJI
京都市下京区上之町417 ナカキンズフラット
417 NAKA KINS FLAT, KAMINOCHO, SHIMOGYO-KU, KYOTO
OPEN 11:30AM-9PM (LAST ORDERS AT 8:30PM)
Or you can go to Soniya for Indian Food. They also have a kids menu. They accept most major credit cards. It is 4 mins walk from Umekoji Park. I would budget approx 1200 yen per adult when enjoying a meal here. This restaurant is non-smoking. They also do take-out. Closest station to this restaurant is Toji Station. It will take 12 mins to walk to Kyoto Station from here.
SONIYA
京都区南区八条坊門町6-7
6-7 HACHIJOBOMONCHO, MINAMI-KU, KYOTO
OPEN 11AM-3PM & 5PM-10:30PM
13 mins by cab from the Railway Museum is this sushi train branch in Gion that has video games between certain numbers of plates for kids
OR a few mins walk from Gion Shijo Station, is Sushiro. This sushi train chain restaurant welcomes kids and, if you sit in a booth, kids get to play short video games on the big screen in your booth every time you hit a certain number of plates (warning: the games are very very short – a few seconds only – so play it down to kids or take turns or something as it moves quickly and I don’t want anyone to get disappointed. To avoid queues, I recommend getting there with kids a few mins before opening times OR between 2:30pm-5pm (quieter dining hours.) They accept most major credit cards here. Most dishes are 200 yen or so – so for a meal here I would budget 1500 yen per adult. See the full Sushiro menu here. Sushiro is great for gluten free diners as they have an allergen menu.
Please note that Sushiro technically doesn’t have any truly vegan sushi options as they use fish extract-vinegar – you may want to look at alternative sushi train restaurants if this is a deal breaker for you.
SUSHIRO, KYOTO GION MACHIKITAGAWA
京都市東山区祇園町南側574 フジビル B1F
BASEMENT 1 FLOOR, FUJI BUILDING, 574 GIONMACHI MINAMIGAWA, HIGASHIYAMA-KU, KYOTO
OPEN 11AM-11PM (OPEN FROM 10:30AM ON WEEKENDS)
