Once more into the Fray

We woke for our final morning in Japan. Still a final expedition planned before we head home. We're all tired. Zander in particular has struggled for rest at this final hotel without a cot. Instead hes on a queen bed, fenced in with a poor makeshift barricade.
Whether hes a little unwell, teething or just overstimulated, who knows.
The trips been excellent and im proud weve met such a challenge so well, but I think we all need a breather. Its such an adjustment for the kids, and well us all. Family travel brings huge upside, but huge restrictions and encumbrances.
We checked out at 10am, left our luggage and headed out once more onto the JR metro. The agenda, malls and shopping around Tokyo central station, then a walk to the Imperial Palace, to make it back to the hotel for an airport transfer by 4pm.
It was all a bit of a wash. The malls were all super underwhelming. Feels like weve been to a half dozen, mostly up market women's fashion.. KITTE, Tokyo Diamaru, Tokyo Midtown.. I mean some of those Takashimaya malls feel like theyre laced with gold and wed be arrested for entering. We didnt find much around Shinjuku or Shibuya yesterday either.
We're so sick of looking for lifts, carrying the pram up and down stairs, not being able to fit our party or pram in restaurants, telling the kids to keep their hands to themselves, looking for a seat or bin.
After a couple hours wandering around the same stores today I called it and reset our course for the Imperial Palace via the East National Gardens. You cant actually enter the Palace here but the gardens were fairly pretty I guess.
We spent an hour or two here to wrap up our Tokyo experince and returned to the hotel at Ryogoku via a quick coffee shop lunch where our 4pm transfer was waiting at 345.
The requested 1yo child seat was pretty big for Axel so Zander had to free range it annoyingly and illegally between Nat and I.
We arrived at Narita around 5pm for a 830 flight. Its a pretty good airport, and its limited shopping options beat any mall we'd visited. We picked up a few things, managed some playground time and a snack for us all, by which time we were still rushed to board. It was pretty chaotic. Its a packed flight and I think theres 9 infants aboard.
The boys are all asleep, even Zander for now. Little chunkyboy still JUST fits in the bassinet with minimal rolls overflowing.
All went rather well though and as I type this its around 130am. We passed some islands an hout ago, who knows where.
I cant sleep on planes. Nat and I are gonna be exhausted for a while. I watched a terrible movie called Companion, and this Game of Thrones soundtrack is worse than season 8.
Overall, I still reflect with pride on the achievement of this trip and memories we made.もっと詳しく