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Someone asked me what the highlight of the trip was and I really struggled to think of something. In the end I said- the flight home, because at that stage the stress was all over. We hadn't missed any flights or trains we'd planned on taking. No one ended up needing the medical insurance I'd booked. No one lost their JR pass and no large accidents happened within any of the places I had booked (nothing broke, all intact).
So despite it being a very uncomfortable overnight flight having two adults side by side and a baby laying across, waking up every time she rolled - everyone woke up, the baby, the adults - and then readjusted -
It was all completed.
Very tired. Seemed worse than doing 3x N12 shifts + overtime 10 hour. But those days for me are a distant memory.
The accomodation
Was a small traditional house right on the train line. You could see the trains - both regular local and shinkansens whizzing past the window.
The shinkansens actually were quieter than the local trains - despite their speed.
The owner said the house was too far from the station to walk and reccomended we take another train to a closer station and then walked. But honestly, with 4 luggages and a kiddo in a pram, its just easier to walk. Looking on the map, its just straight along the street turning only twice and then... more walking and its there.
It was once again the same set up as in Tokyo one : sleeping all upstairs and downstairs was "living" toilet/bathroom/kitchen.
Main complaints: no couch or eating table. And the noise of the trains - butttt --- I could have used ear plugs (I brought some too). The trains seemed to run all damn night but apparently there was a curfew.
The Supermarket
It was hard to find local supermarket nearby. There were the usual cheapo convenience stores but for supermarket we only ended up going to one once - and it was really weird.
Firstly it had a tonne of freezers (about 60% of the shelves in the middle were all freezers) full of convenient asian foods. which i suspected may have been imported from China or other places. Like fish balls, frozen fried tofu, dumplings, seafood etc.
But not fresh seafood - no sashimi.
There were very few vegitables (fresh) or fruits. No nappies. few personal care items. Lots of packaged junk foods, bottles of tea etc. --those were cheap. But it ruins the fun factor of using the vending machines, of which the price wasn't that different. But seeing bottles of tea for 50 cents in the supermarket and paying $1.50 for the same at a vending machine did put it into perspective a little.
We bought some foods for Wendy pooper (the smallest packet of mince I could find) and a few basics.
Lego land
The grandparents didn't wanna go. They said they didn't like theme parks.
Luckily the accomodation was very simple in terms of getting to and from the major shopping section - so I went over it with my mum and she said she was confident going out by herself so I figured, ok. I offered to put internet on her phone but she said she didn't need it. Which made me nervous cause she's absolutely terrible with directions. But the way I put it was like, well your a grown adult. You don't have dementia. You can be responcible for yourself. She had her own spending money. If anywhere is safe - Japan is the best your going to get.
Breakfast before Lego Land
In the morning around 9am - Pete and I and Wendy set out towards the train station to try out a local breakfast place that Tan had reccomended.
It was charcole roasted fish with rice type place. Pete got bacon and eggs (but not like, Western bacon, its more like thinly sliced pork rashes)- and he got a large rice - which was bloody huge -- and for Wendy I just expected to share my food with her. i'd ordered a side of raw, fatty tuna mince. I gave some to Wendy with rice and she liked it so much she ate my whole order so I got another. It wasn't expensive. All up 2 adults and kiddo brekky was $19 AUD and they had an ordering system that used an IPAD so even though we didn't speak English that was not a barrier.
Actual Lego land
to be continued
So despite it being a very uncomfortable overnight flight having two adults side by side and a baby laying across, waking up every time she rolled - everyone woke up, the baby, the adults - and then readjusted -
It was all completed.
Very tired. Seemed worse than doing 3x N12 shifts + overtime 10 hour. But those days for me are a distant memory.
The accomodation
Was a small traditional house right on the train line. You could see the trains - both regular local and shinkansens whizzing past the window.
The shinkansens actually were quieter than the local trains - despite their speed.
The owner said the house was too far from the station to walk and reccomended we take another train to a closer station and then walked. But honestly, with 4 luggages and a kiddo in a pram, its just easier to walk. Looking on the map, its just straight along the street turning only twice and then... more walking and its there.
It was once again the same set up as in Tokyo one : sleeping all upstairs and downstairs was "living" toilet/bathroom/kitchen.
Main complaints: no couch or eating table. And the noise of the trains - butttt --- I could have used ear plugs (I brought some too). The trains seemed to run all damn night but apparently there was a curfew.
The Supermarket
It was hard to find local supermarket nearby. There were the usual cheapo convenience stores but for supermarket we only ended up going to one once - and it was really weird.
Firstly it had a tonne of freezers (about 60% of the shelves in the middle were all freezers) full of convenient asian foods. which i suspected may have been imported from China or other places. Like fish balls, frozen fried tofu, dumplings, seafood etc.
But not fresh seafood - no sashimi.
There were very few vegitables (fresh) or fruits. No nappies. few personal care items. Lots of packaged junk foods, bottles of tea etc. --those were cheap. But it ruins the fun factor of using the vending machines, of which the price wasn't that different. But seeing bottles of tea for 50 cents in the supermarket and paying $1.50 for the same at a vending machine did put it into perspective a little.
We bought some foods for Wendy pooper (the smallest packet of mince I could find) and a few basics.
Lego land
The grandparents didn't wanna go. They said they didn't like theme parks.
Luckily the accomodation was very simple in terms of getting to and from the major shopping section - so I went over it with my mum and she said she was confident going out by herself so I figured, ok. I offered to put internet on her phone but she said she didn't need it. Which made me nervous cause she's absolutely terrible with directions. But the way I put it was like, well your a grown adult. You don't have dementia. You can be responcible for yourself. She had her own spending money. If anywhere is safe - Japan is the best your going to get.
Breakfast before Lego Land
In the morning around 9am - Pete and I and Wendy set out towards the train station to try out a local breakfast place that Tan had reccomended.
It was charcole roasted fish with rice type place. Pete got bacon and eggs (but not like, Western bacon, its more like thinly sliced pork rashes)- and he got a large rice - which was bloody huge -- and for Wendy I just expected to share my food with her. i'd ordered a side of raw, fatty tuna mince. I gave some to Wendy with rice and she liked it so much she ate my whole order so I got another. It wasn't expensive. All up 2 adults and kiddo brekky was $19 AUD and they had an ordering system that used an IPAD so even though we didn't speak English that was not a barrier.
Actual Lego land
to be continued
