Thursday, 27 March 2014

Japan Part 2 Tokyo and Sahoro

We travelled by Shinkasen (Bullet Train) from Kyoto to Tokyo. These trains are awesome, they are super clean, spacious, on time and go fast! We collected food for everyone a sticker book for each of the kids and off we went, through the Japanese countryside.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
It was amazing to look out the window and see rural Japan houses, fields, industry and snow!! The kids all slept and we took it all in.
 
We arrived in Tokyo and headed straight for out hotel, it was magnificent, so quiet and with views over parkland and Tokyo Tower.
This hotel was the nicest hotel I have ever or most likely will ever stay in it was beautiful. The girls had an adjoining room and felt like Eloise in the city with their robes and tea and croissants overlooking the park each morning.
I was stoked with the complementary Shiseido skincare and huge spa bath and Mr These Beautiful Days loved the heated toilet seats!! The beds were plush I have never wanted to take a hotel bed home with me so much!!
 
 We decided to head straight up Tokyo Tower and timed it perfectly for the sunset. The next few hours were magic! To get the scope and scale of a city like Tokyo from this view was mind blowing, the kids sat and stared out for ages.... all those people. We took our time and tried to capture the moments on film but nothing could really translate what we were seeing, sunset over Mt Fuji and day turning to night... We were in Tokyo!!
We finally tore ourselves away from the windows and headed down into the city, we headed to Roppongi Hills. This was built in 2003 and is a city within a city, it was not far from where we were staying and looked good from above but it was confusing once we were there. We walked around, ate some food, looked for baby nappies (so hard to find) and headed back to our bliss full hotel.
Due to time constraints we had one day in Tokyo city..... One day and it was a massive one. Firstly we headed to Tsukiji Fish Market. The main market area is only open to a few tourists every day and we were a little late to get in but the outer market has plenty of stalls, seafood sushi. We tasted, browsed and froze. The people were friendly, we had loads of comments on having 4 children and being very lucky, Everyone in Japan loved the little boys especially Littlelove who smiles at everyone, and the market was no different. We lined up for 30 mins at a sushi restaurant to eat the freshest sushi, it was beautiful. Again such care and attention to detail in the presentation of food and plastic cups were offered for the kids.
 When we had eaten till we could eat no more (except for Miss 6 who declared on sitting down she doesn't like egg, rice or fish.... she enjoyed her green tea though) we headed to our next stop. Shibuya crossing... the busiest crossing in the world. We walked up the stairs from the subway and then were hit with people, we watched and waited and held onto kids, it was interesting! We crossed back and forth to say we had done it then we went shopping. The girls hit up the shops to find Hello Kitty, the boys went in search of cash. We met back up at a time and a place like old school (without mobile phones) then we headed to Shinjuku. We were in search of 'Daisio' a 100 yen shop.... and we found it.... all 5 levels of it. We thought we went crazy here then got to the register... we had spent the grand total of $64 Aus. Now if I could turn back time I would have sent Mr These Beautiful Days to the sports store and headed back in there to do more damage though I am not sure we could have carried more. We enjoyed a fair amount of time at the sports store while Mr These Beautiful Days bought a pair of special running shoes that he had been dreaming of and loves which made him super excited (I can't remember details, but you know they must be good cause he still wears them and its been a few months). Back on the train we were headed back to Shibuya to the best most fun sushi restaurant in the world. Its all computerised so you sit order off a screen and then your food is delivered by train straight to your seat, it was awesome!! Back up to Starbucks to see the crossing at night, then back to the hotel.... Phew what a day!! But tomorrow was Disneyland.
 I have always as long as I remembered wanted to go to Disneyland and we did it!! The next morning we were up super early and off to the happiest place on earth (and in Japan in January also the coldest).
 We had a great time the looks on the kids faces was priceless we are so lucky to get there when 3 out of 4 will remember and they loved it. We walked and ate and shopped and met Princesses and characters.
We went on a few rides and watched the parades, the day went fast really fast and though we were really freezing most of the day (Miss 8 bought a blanket from the gift shop with her own money) there were no complaints.
We got back late and packed to get ready for the next day, we were heading to the snow!!
We had a bus transfer to the airport an internal flight and another bus transfer to the Sahoro on the island of Hokkaido where we  spending the next 5 nights. The signage at the airport was in Russian and Japanese so we knew we had travelled a long was. We were so excited as we flew overhead to see a clanked of thick white snow covering the ground, so far from home now!! The snow was beautiful and we all really enjoyed skiing, the food was very western as were the staff so for this time we didn't really feel like we were in a different country. One of the kids had a tummy bug after each other almost the whole time we were here starting 24 hours after we arrived so our time skiing was a bit of a juggling act, but we made the most of it and had lots of fun. We all cant wait to head to another ski slope soon, though being novice skiers we didn't fully appreciate the quality of the snow. We enjoyed snowfall 3 out of the 5 days we were there this was magic as was the food and drinks available. I got to do a trail ride through the snow here, this was lovely to see the snow covered countryside from horseback and to see the difference of a farm covered in snow rather than red dirt!!
On our last morning we faced every parents worst nightmare.... travelling with a child with a tummy bug!! Master 3 started 3 hours before our bus arrived, I was so happy all he lived on for the last few days was hot chips and coke. Once this was out of his system, it made things a lot less messy. The next 24 hours was a juggle, we can only laugh looking back on it! A 2hr bus ride, 2 hr wait, 1hr flight 5 hr wait, and 7 hr flight to arrive back to the tropics at 4am Australia Day, with no hotel booked (insert cranky exhausted face here). All with a 3 year old that looked like we were travelling weekend at Bernie's style.
 We headed to McDonalds (with Master 3 still asleep and now running a fever) and worked out a game plan. Luckily our usual hotel had a vacancy and let us in straight away, up we cranked the air conditioner and got medication into Master 3 from the chemist across the road.... it had been a massive day night day. We rested for an hour or two then showered and headed to town for burgers and a swim it was Aussie day after all!!
 
Learning's from this part of the trip....
1. Always always always pack some medication for vomiting
2. If you ever get at a 100 yen shop go crazy then go crazy again
3. Approach travelling with kids with a sense of humour, appreciate what you can do and enjoy it.
4.Spend 500 yen ($5) at each airport for a new sticker book for each kid.... they love it and it keeps them happy
5. Remember to feed them whenever you can
6. Where you see the opportunity to withdraw money.... do so even if you don't need it
 
7. If you see something you want to buy... buy it don't think or question it, yo can't really go back to get it later.  (Mr These Beautiful Days is still dreaming of a shirt in a shop in Kyoto)
 
The kids have come away from this experience with a love of travel, a feeling that its possible to see the world and an appreciation of differences. They now realise that they are part of a globe, and come from a small part of the world where things are done a certain way but that there are different ways of living and that's a good thing. I think this has made them more confident little people. I am so thankful that we have had the opportunity to travel as a family, I could never imagine that we would ever be able to take our kids on such a trip and I feel so lucky we were able to do this. The only problem is we all have the travel bug Miss 9 is headed to Paris, Miss 6 to Mexico, Master 3 wants to go to everywhere and Mr These Beautiful Days is planning races wherever he can... I might just have to chaperon them all!!!
 

Thursday, 20 March 2014

Japan (Part 1) Kyoto

We are officially crazy. In some hormone induced pre baby high where everything is easy and you are sleeping through the night..... every night, we (I) booked a trip to Japan for January 2014. We wanted to go somewhere different to home, different culture, climate, food and language... but a direct flight. We took all the hassle out of the trip by using BYO Kids to book everything. Erin our consultant booked flights, transfers, accommodation in adjacent or adjoining rooms (we cant fit in one room...anywhere anymore) and was on the phone or email constantly with options in planning and booking, I highly recommend using BYO Kids for anyone travelling with kids especially with a large family. 



Not sure if eating the book will teach you Japanese
Every trip has an obstacle, ours had a few. Firstly our plane was delayed..... for 8 hours. We took the opportunity to run the kids raggered at the airport, games, races, songs, activity books so when we boarded 3 were sleeping soundly before take off whoo hoo!!!
 
There were all so tired they slept the whole way. We arrived at Osaka at 3am then boarded a bus for a complementary random hotel (as we had missed our transfer) checked in at 4am to check out at 7am to return to the airport to find our way to Kyoto. A few things stuck me during this time, not everyone in Japan speaks English (we should have learnt more Japanese), the people are so helpful (even opening more customs stations for our unplanned flight at this crazy hour) and everything is so clean. This is Japan, helpful, clean, organised..... a travelling with kids dream.
 
 
 
Mr These Beautiful Days quickly acquainted himself with the Japanese transport system (I still don't get it) and maps and worked out a plan to get to our hotel in Kyoto. The kids slept on every train and walked and pulled luggage like seasoned travellers.... we checked in to our hotel at midday (awesome effort). We quickly got changed into our real winter clothes then set off for Gion we had lost sightseeing time and we weren't missing anything. It was so nice to finally feel cool after leaving a Far North Queensland summer behind. Our first real Japanese meal was in Gion, tofu and soba noodles with green tea overlooking a Japanese garden... beautiful, simple and stunning.
We walked and saw Japanese gardens, temples, Geisha's,  markets, we drank strange drinks ate real Japanese food, tasted Japanese coffee (then quickly found Starbucks) and were in bed by 8pm.
 
Kyoto is an amazing place, the people are so friendly you go into a Family Mart or 7 Eleven to by 6 bottles of water and they open the door for you greet you with a smile and  as you leave endless bows of "Arigato gozaimasu" they make you feel so welcomed and every transaction is considered and done with respect regardless of the value. Nothing is rushed or hurried, it was lovely seeing the kids embrace this part of the culture.
The next day we found a bakery for breakfast, we were learning happy kids are fed kids (funny that) and piled our trays high with pastries, croissants breads, juices and coffees we ate.
We then went to Fushimi Inari (The Fox Temple). The big orange tori gates line pathways trough the forest and are donated by businesses for prosperity. There are Fox statues everywhere that are regarded as messengers.
We loved it and found lots of Foxy gifts here. We then continued on to Nara and saw the Deer and Todaiji Temple (Great Buddha).
 
The deer were, well Deer (on advice from others who had been there we didn't buy food for them and after seeing what happened to others that did we were glad). The Deer were quite happy to be patted by the kids and were very gentle to us but were a bit crazy to those with food.
The Todaiji Temple is majestic and was one of my favourite Japanese experiences. There aren't words to describe the dimensions of the statue and the feeling of calm, and peacefulness here. It is truly a spiritual, magical place.
The next day we went to Nijo Castle. This is a fort.... a real fort with beautiful gardens and a squeaky floor that sounds like birds to detect when Ninjas were trying to invade... for real. We looked for Ninjas for Master 3 but we couldn't find any ( we may have bought one home though). I liked the castle and the gardens but I got really bored here, the kids liked it but I was the first one on the trip to get bored (go figure).
 


In the afternoon we then went  on to Arashiyama and to the Bamboo Grove. This was also beautiful the lines of bamboo in the forest were hypnotic and all encompassing. It made everything feel a little green and the kids loved running up the pathways. There is a lovely little village here that we would have loved to wander through a bit more but by this time we had some tired kids (I wonder why). It was interesting seeing parents here pick up their kids from preschool on bikes sometimes 2 or 3 kids on one push bike, so different to the car filled pick up back home!!
 



One of my favourite meals was here at a little road stop stall. Miso soup with tofu for about $4.00....delicious.
 
 
Our last night in Kyoto we ate at a restaurant where we ordered at the 'teller machine" in the front using the pictures, basic Japanese, and the helpful Japanese girls that Littlelove at 7 months was chatting up. We thanked them by letting them look after him at their table while we ate in peace!
We then went to Karaoke and sang every Taylor Swift song before going back and packing for the next leg tomorrow we were on the Shinkansen (Bullet Train) to Tokyo.
 
So far we had learnt.....
 
1. Feed the kids, feed the kids, feed the kids (they cant move without food, funny that).
2. Where there is a toilet use it and everyone must go and nappies must get changed... otherwise in 5 mins someone will need to go and we will waste 20 mins trying to find a toilet to then miss the train and have to wait 15 mins for the next one... Just go now!!
3. See Starbucks get coffee (little like no.1 but for the parents).
4. Just ask don't try and figure it ,out take a phrasebook and ask.
5. Forget Lonely Planet food guide, see a place and eat.
6. Mum gets bored first.
7. Get the kids to sleep where and when they can, planes, trains a 10 min nap makes all the difference at 5pm.
 
 
8. It takes 47 mins to get 4 kids ready from normal clothes to outside clothes to leave the hotel in a cool climate..... I am in wonder of people that do this all the time...
Next Friday on the blog we are off to Tokyo!!!