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!!!