There and Back Again

We did it. I never thought this trip was going to be a picnic or walk through an open field. It was possibly more challenging and exhausting than I anticipated, but I'm so proud we pulled it off.
I love the adventure, the thrill of exploring a new and different place. The prospect of finding something incredible, amongst the risk of getting lost, and finding the former without the indignity of the latter. I'm pleased I was able to not only guide Nat, but three young fellows around and never lose our way.

Travelling solo is easy and free without the joy of sharing the experience with someone you love or care about. Travelling as a couple of adults brings companionship, but requires mutual consideration of the overall experience. Travelling as a family with (not one but three!) little ones involves massive restriction of movement, speed, access to restaurants, food options, activities and constant parenting on the go, in unfamiliar situations (and being outnumbered in that regard!). However, the upside is huge! If 70% of family travel is crying, complaining kids, repeating discipline and scolding, tending to the needs of others and not seeming to satisfy anyone, the 30% of upside is massive. Those moments you see the world through the eyes of happy, smiling, awestruck, impressed kids in a state of wonder, there's nothing quite like it.

There are restrictions, we spent so much time looking for lifts, bins and seats. Nat's biggest gripe became the regular event of finally finding a lift in a labyrinth of a train station or attraction, only to find a queue of 20 perfectly able young individuals clogging it and making it inaccessible. By that virtue, we actually did end up carrying the pram up and down several flights of stairs. So many times it looked like just 10 or 12 steps, but it then repeated 4 of 5 times..
The other most major restriction was eating. Ryland is fairly good at trying new things, and we picked up a whole bunch of weird and wacky things over the trip, but they often want their nuggets, their chips, their kids junk. It's one thing forcing them to try things, and we did, its another to waste your money, as they actually don't eat it, and then they're hungry, and grumpy. Fitting in restaurants was the other thing, especially in Tokyo where so many places were tiny single tables, bar stools, narrow little eateries. Personally, I love these, but they just don't really work with three kids 7 and under and a pram.. we were often turned away outright.. and a couple times we awkwardly forced the issue and felt we were too loud or difficult for the other occupants. Our hotels were all pretty good, but tighter than usual. Generally it was just a heap of beds in a tight space, the first two had cots but the last didn't making it hard for Zander to sleep. There wasn't really any couch or lounge or room to relax or unwind. In the past as an individual or with Nat, writing these blogs often became such a chore or so hard to do at the end of a busy day, with 3 kids it was even harder, and as a result I'm not sure the quality of writing or detail in here has been up to scratch with previous trips!

Sure the kids were difficult on Nat and I a LOT of the time, I'm not sure how many times we had to repeat the same instructions and discipline attempts - 'Stand up, don't heckle the baby, mind your surroundings, don't touch'. Seeing it through their eyes though isn't just all the good stuff and wonderment, but also appreciating how challenging it was for them. For the most part, they met that challenge remarkably well. Especially Ryland and Zander by far exceeded my expectations with their mood, behaviour and resilience. Axel had a shocking start to the trip, sobbing for alot of the first few days before improving. He's going through a tricky, moody, stubborn, stroppy, regular tantrum pre-school phase right now. He is also overflowing with energy and literally can not sit still. Axel has a way bigger tank than Ryland, but when he gets down to 80%, he starts to whinge, he's tired, he's hungry. Ryland always tries to put his best foot forward and never complains he's tired until his battery is at 1%. Zander just took it all in his stride, his routine thrown to ribbons. He spent a lot of time in the pram, but often rode along on the edge of his seat, pointing, laughing and looking on with awe. He drew a LOT of attention from the locals, especially the ladies, and developed an amusing shy reaction to the attention, often burying his head in the pram.

When travelling, I like to be busy, I generally plan things with a reasonable amount of precision but try leave flexibility for weather, energy etc. For this trip, with the kids, I tried to leave a little more than usual wiggle room, but it ended up being more fast paced and exhausting than I thought. Mainly due to the fact we only had 16 days. We covered a lot. We were generally on our feet, walking from 8am on average to probably 8pm. We tried to get food in whenever it fit, but often it was difficult to find or fit in places, and that went out the window. We spent a lot of time at Lawsons and Family Marts (7-11 equivalents) to stop up on snacks. We did have a few McDonalds breakfasts, just to get the kids full and going (and it was cheaper than a local place with eggs and toast), but don't feel we got the best overall food experience, as we weren't able to always get to the best option. We did get at least one or more serves of Tonkatsu, Curry, Ramen, Rice, Teppinyaki, Wagyu and Steaks.

Man the weather wasn't part of the plan. The first 12 days or so, it was 30-35C every day, with often 80+% humidity. That sapped us. The last few days were a little cooler, and provided some relief. We generally dodged rain entirely, except for one downpour at Disneyland for an hour and a couple light showers.

Our experience with the people of Japan was overall positive. Most smiled our way and gushed over the kids. Zander got the most goo-goo eyes. People were generally friendly, polite, kind and always trying to help. Many speak a little English, but I found it was overall less than I remembered last time. You can still always manage to get by. Locals often went out of their way to help us and I really appreciated that.

Not that we needed a lot of help, for the most part nearly everything went according to plan, even when those plans were on the fly or changed on short notice. We never felt unsafe, out of our depth or lost, in part of course because of me, but more because its largely quite easy in Japan. The local trains in both Osaka and Tokyo are just exceptional, always running on time, and super regularly. Finding lifts and juggling kids added to the complexity, and immense crowds can be a little distracting on the senses, but its always fun getting around on the interchangeable coloured lines. You can just about walk anywhere and not worry about getting lost as there will be a train somewhere to get you back in any city. The bullet trains were a great experience for everyone.

So all in all, what were the standouts for everyone? I thought I'd ask everyone and revisit my own memories to consider which were the best. Here's the result -

Kristofor
1. Disneyland. Having visited many of these, I always relished the prospect of doing it with kids and seeing the majesty of these parks though my kids eyes. This was awesome and the day went so well.
2. Osaka Aquarium. A big win. Probably the best aquarium I've been to anywhere in the world and there's been plenty. Seeing whale sharks was pretty special.
3. Universal Studios. Extremely hot day, huge crowds, but what a great place. Wasn't particularly friendly for Nat and Zander, but Ryland Axel and I went on many things and had a fantastic time.
4. TeamLabs Space. Pretty unique, I'm not sure I've been anywhere quite like it. The light effects, water effects, a full experience for the senses. The kids loved it (but forget to include it in their top 5 haha).
5. Tōdai-ji. It wasn't part of the plan for the tour I had booked, and I think this place stood out as the best cultural building of the trip for me. Huge and imposing, with the massive Buddha statue inside, this was special
6. Sumo Wrestling. Was a great father son experience for Ryland and I. We timed it just right, staying right next to the arena when a tournament was on. Watched about 50 bouts, pretty unique!
7. The Samurai Museum. Wasn't part of the plan either, but was a good find. The guide was absolutely brilliant and made it interesting for everyone.
8. Disney Sea. It was still pretty good, a great way to start the trip. Queues were overwhelmingly long for some rides, restricting what we could do. Still got a lot done.
9. Scrambling at Shibuya. Been before, but again its such a crazy place. Lights, ads and music everywhere. It was most memorable in the evening. Taking the boys one by one on my back or shoulders, including Zander, running back and forth over the world's busiest pedestrian crossing.
10. A few memorable evening activities - The Tokyo Skytree offered a great view for us all in daylight, at dusk and in the dark, I loved my random solo trip to watch the J League soccer game in Osaka, and our best (and most expensive) family meal was definitely in Tokyo at Base.
+ I loved the food, culture and people of Japan. Seeing my kids get their first taste of something culturally different was very special. Wasn't a lot of opportunity to drink, go to bars or breweries or the best restaurants but I did pick up a fair few quality can craft brews. Alcohol is so cheap. Things are efficient, respect, common sense and discipline are important.
- The heat for the first 10 days or so was a constant negative influence. Was a little underwhelmed by shopping options for a family. Lack of green space and anywhere to relax in the city.

Natalie
1. Osaka Aquarium
2. Disneyland
3. Tokyo SkyTree
4. Team Labs Space
5. Hilton Pool (Minus the fees!)
6. Samurai and Ninja Museum
7. Osaka Children's Museum
+ Its clean, safe. People are generally kind and try to help.
- Crowds. The Heat. With family especially noted nowhere to sit, no bins, no green space, no parks in cities. Not super family friendly.

Ryland
1. Super Nintendo World at Universal Studios because it looked so real
2. Samurai Museum because you could dress up as a Samurai.
3. Disney Land because it had really amazing rides.
4. Sumo Wrestling because they were using great skills to fight
5. Disney Sea because of the water theme like the log ride
+ Ryland liked how Japanese people were really nice and friendly
- Didn't like how busy it could be, especially all the queues we had to stand in (even for a Panda)

Axel
1. Aquarium because there were Whale Sharks
2. Disney Sea because it had sea things
3. Disney Land because of the Disney Castle
4. The Samurai Museum because you can throw ninja stars
5. The Bullet Train ride because it had tables you could do on the plane
+ The Japanese Toilets because they make you super clean
- I didn't like the second hotel because all the beds were in a line and there was no bunk bed

Zander
1. Shibuya Crossing. Woooo. Ah. Ah! AH! (Pointing). Ooooo Dadad.
2. Disneyland. He actually got on 5 or 6 rides here. Lots of crazy colours and noises and shiny things. Also resulted in overstimulation.
3. Aquarium. Excited waving and smiling at the penguins and awe gaze at the big fishies.
4. The toilet at Universal Studios because it talked and made 'exploding' noises. It's about the closest thing for a ride for 1 year old there.
5. TeamLabs. Abababab! Pointing! Ah! It's all so shiny.
+ Everyone talks to me but it makes me shy. Everything is so shiny and sparkly.
- It's hot. I have to be in the pram all the time. I'm fat and hungry.

Well that's it, we counted the trip down for a year, and as expected, it passed by in the blink of an eye. I love that we got our foot in the door travelling as a family. If you've got young kids and want a challenge you'll relish and remember for ever, dive in and do it. It's exposed everyone to so much and created so many memories and so much experience. Next time it'll (probably) be easier for everyone. Possibly a small domestic trip next year, and who knows what will after that for our next family overseas adventure.もっと詳しく