KeyFit 22

You can use the infant seat in the car and stroller until baby is either 30 inches or 30lbs, whichever is first (or when there is less than 1 inch above their head in the infant seat shell. Your manual will have more on that). Typically the “toddler” part of the stroller is about 6 months OR when they can sit independently. I would also consult with the manual on when this specific stroller allows for that.

Typically you’d get about 1 year out of that seat, but that’ll be largely dependent on how quickly your baby grows. Some people get longer and some shorter amounts of time.

I didn't take mine to Japan, but I found the Chicco Bravo set was the best for travel when they are that little. The carseat clicks into the stroller. It doesn't really help with your storage issue, but it is airplane compliant. I would ask the hotel if they could help with storing it as you go. I never used it, but there is an app called "ecbo cloak" that looked like it showed storage options around Japan. That may give you some other ideas around where you're staying and that might be able to accommodate your 30 day time frame.

Somebody bought it for us, but the Chicco Bravo 3 in 1 travel system works well for us. Once we got the hang of it, its very easy to use. It is pretty heavy duty and should last us several years. Car seat clicks in/out of car and then clicks into the stroller. I feel confident in our LO being in it. It is pricey seeing it online ($449 US) but I think it was on sale when they bought it for us, maybe it was around $300? Today there are carseat-stroller combos that go for almost a grand. People had recommended the Cicco Bravo to us. Baby likes being in the car seat, which is a plus.

I’m sure tons of car seats have cons. Both the infant and convertible car seats I bought have features that some people don’t like, but they both worked great for us. The rolled towels under the seat for the recline is actually pretty common and considered safe (and recommended by the manufacturer), but I agree, I wouldn’t want to do that either, even just purely out of convenience. The Nuna Pippa car seat we used also has a consumer rating in the 60’s. It was a fantastic seat. This was just an example of an affordable seat. There are tons of 100-200 dollar seats that are just fine. Obviously still do your research, but they all pass the same safety testing. I recommend the Chicco key fit car seat for something affordable but still highly recommended. Check out safe in the seat instagram for others recs. Good luck! Edit to add: [well, look at that! under 200 dollars and a consumer report score of 90 for ya](https://a.co/d/duUtd6t)

Babies shouldn't spend more than 2 hrs in a car seat so if you're wanting long walks you'll want a bassinet seat. I had a chicco because it could fully lay down and could install a base for the car seat in both cars to make switching cars for it easy. But daaaamn is it a big stroller. I got a big sibling ride on scooter attachment thing for it but it was annoying. If you want 2 kids is find one that has a better buddy board intigration. For baby 2 I got a Strolyy. It's like an umbrella stroller for infant seats. Much nicer for tighter spaces like Dr offices and restaurants. And after baby out grows car seat it's nice for pool and water park gear as like a half sized wagon. Helped me get my money worth out of the bucket seat since baby + seat gets HEAVY. Edit. Also, my nursery theme was dino with baby 1 and the chicco had a version of its system with the color name Lava. Because there were just so many choices, letting that be my deciding factor made it easier lolol.

We went with Chico bravo stroller and car seat system and been liking it so far. We live in an urban/suburban area. It is pretty heavy, but folds up/unfolds quick and easy. I like how sturdy both the car seat and stroller are though. Not great for “off road” purposes which we discovered at an Apple orchard last weekend 😂 but I’m not sure there would be a stroller that would be good on unpaved surfaces. If I’m wrong let me know!

I had an infant car seat then switched to rotating convertible at 4m and wish I went with convertible from the start. We never used the infant car seat as a method of transportation if you want to call it that, it always stayed in the car and we just took baby out into stroller or carried her home or baby wore. Our main stroller is the UB vista and our infant car seat was the Chicco key fit and our convertible was evenflo 360.