11-16 Oct 2014
Caution: this is a very LONG post... If u like, u can just skip it and scroll down straight to the "mummy tips" or to the pics ;)
OUR 1st COMPLETE FAMILY trip together (with baby Skyler)...
It was baby Skye first time traveling outside of Singapore (n Malaysia of coz- he was born there) and his first time sitting in an airplane (technically 2nd time since mummy n baby Skye flew from Singapore to Malaysia a few days before our Japan trip)!!!
Baby Si by now should be a pro :) she has on her traveling shoes just like her parents...
She just loves going to the airport, airplanes, hotel just like her mummy!!!
My parents (gong gong n po po), and my brother (Chiu Chiu Jeffrey aka THE MANNY) were with us too...thank God for them...having extra-hands and extra "entertainers"!!!
It has been ages since we last travelled TOGETHER on a long-haul destination (don't count Thailand trips!!!)
Places we covered in summary:
1st day: (sunday) Shinjuku, shibuya, Meiji shrine
2nd day: Metropolitan building, The ROBOT restaurant (this mummy gave this a miss as I babysat both babies in the hotel as we knew before hand that it was loud + crazy lights)
3rd day: Tsukiji fish market (freshest sushi in the world) , Tokyo station (Tokyo street ramen)...rained the whole day due to typhoon
4th day: Mt Fuji, Korean dinner
5th day: Beef bowl, came back to Tokyo station and covered Imperial palace and skybus (due to rain on 3rd day), seafood, grocery shop n pharmacy
Chose a SkyBus route to cover places we weren't able to cover ourselves...
so I chose the "Asakusa course" http://www.skybus.jp/t05.php?lang=en
which covered places like Akihabara, Ueno, Asakusa, tokyo sky tree, etc
Originally wanted to do the "odaiba night course" as I wanted to see Tokyo at night but its only on the weekends...
I just checked their website and now they have a new route to see the "Xmas illumination" and also another one to see the "gingko lined trees"
I decided to skip what Tokyo is MOST famous for....Disney Land and Disney Sea!!! As the kids are too young to enjoy and the "mature ones" are too old to enjoy... Hehehe...and THE MANNY wasn't interested either!
Another reason to come back when the kids are older....YEAY!!!
Apart from me n my dad (we travelled A LOT to Japan for our work) and my mum(tagged along wt my dad once to Japan), its everyone else's 1st time to Japan...but we had never explored the city fo Tokyo before as our jobs only allowed us to stay near the airport for at most 1 night...
But I would say Japan totally feels "alien" if its ur first time here...making it a worthwhile place to visit at least once in ur lifetime!!! U will know what I mean once u step foot here... So GO explore, life is too short!!!
Surprisingly enough, I found this trip to Tokyo was a tad bit disappointing as there weren't many touristy things to see!!! As for me and my family, (and most Asians) we like to see things in the outdoor like the markets, street food...where we can walk while we shop and fuel on non stop snacks along the way... Everything in Japan is done behind "closed door"... Since the train system is condensed, life revolves around it...tiny little shops near the stations... Imagine going thru little shops with 2 strollers? That explains why for the 1st time we DID NOT do any clothes shopping!!!
I couldn't find any BIG grocery supermarket (normally I do a supermarket sweep on my last day of vacation)... So I just settled with buying lots of snacks in their little minimart and pharmacies...the men n babies waited outside while the ladies + THE MANNY shopped quickly!
Mummy tips:
~ this time round we made sure to book a bassinet before hand when taking airasiaX.
~ since baby Skye doesn't take "the pacifier" unlike baby Si (last time), it was quite a bad airplane ride for him... Think he had pressure in his ears the entire flight there!!! And he didn't wanna latched on during take off or landing... Poor baby!!! Was crying a lot...this mummy was exhausted :( what a start to our trip...and baby Si had ear pains too after landing in Japan...we landed midnight...thank God everything was back to normal the next day :) a new start to a new day!!!
~ In Japan, taking the train is the most convenient way...NEVER step foot in a taxi unless u are willing to pay a "bomb"... MOST places DO have escalators or a lift... But unfortunately the ONLY place we encountered STAIRS were the MOST FREQUENT route that we use everyday to START and END our day!!! (At ikebukuro station, going to the "Yamanote" line)
So make sure to bring ur macho men (mr. hubby n gong gong) and MANNY (chiu chiu Jeffrey) to carry the stroller and shopping bags :p and u carry the baby!
~Japan REAL ESTATE is REAL expensive thus having SPACE CONSTRAINTS!!! Imagine navigating in and out of elevators, restaurants, etc with not 1 but 2 strollers??? Well we folded baby Si stroller n left it outside restaurants...baby Skye is a happy camper in his stroller :)
~most restaurants do not have a baby chair due to space issues I assumed
~If u think Singapore has clean toilets, wait till u go to Japan...state of the art!!! Heated seats n auto butt washer :) even mr. Hubby commented that Japanese urine doesn't smell??? TMI... LOLs...
Ok back to mummy's tips- baby changing table are easy to find but as for nursing rooms i didnt see any (due to space issues again?) or I didn't ask due to language barrier... Imagine me doing body language for (.)(.) aka breastfeeding??? I would have been thrown into jail in this modest country!!! It would be embarrassingly yet funny story to tell the kids :p
(On a side note: I breastfed baby Skye "on-the-go"... In the park, in between toilet breaks, in the restaurant while waiting for our food, in the bus during our SkyBus tour, etc... Since we were in a big group, I didn't wanna delay and make everyone wait for me and also I didn't wanna waste precious "ni-hon" time we had in Japan :)
P/s: I did NOT TRY nursing in the train as Asians being ASIANS (our fav pastime is people watching)... Plus baby Skye does "karate" under the cover!!! Heck, I haven't even tried nursing in the MRT in Singapore :p which by the way I just found out recently that its illegal to do so as "food" and drinks are not allowed on trains...u will be FINED for breastfeeding in the MRT!!!
~baby Si (and mummy) had no problems with food coz there's this wonderful 24-7 place called "Family mart"... It's a mini mart which can be found EVERYWHERE!!! Just blink ur eyes, walk a few steps n another one will appear!!! That's where we stop every now and then to get what we needed...banana, yummy sandwiches, Meiji oh-so-yummy fresh milk (that even the NOT milk drinker mr. Hubby liked it), my daily dose of cappuccino and latte, all sorts of drinks, snacks and ICE CREAMS!!! There's also Onigiri aka rice ball made from white rice formed into triangular or oval shapes wrapped in seaweed with various fillings...used to be baby Si favorite when we traveled to South Korea (similar to Korean "Samgak gimbap") but this time she didn't care less thanks to other yummy food like her RAMEN!!!
As for baby Skye, he is still in his purée stage...so I bought various jar purées n rice cereals (from Singapore) for him...easy peasy!!!
japan pics (on mr. Hubby's FB)
Japan goodies... Half gone in our tummies before this pic was taken!
Oh by the way, the FAMOUS TOKYO BANANA is SOOO overrated!!! Not my cup of tea...just so-so...
I guess it's famous as its sold everywhere in the airport, making it a good last minute souvenir to buy back for friends n family :) and the shape of it makes it unique as Japan is very good at making things look super "Kawaii"!!!
Note to self: the Meiji green tea Oreo like biscuit (green box) is super yummy!!! Especially if u like green tea...it's premium rich tasting!!! So the green tea taste is super amplified :) hint to those travelling to Japan...hehehehe...
Trivia question: can any Japanese friends enlighten me as to why there aren't many babies/kids/school kids in Tokyo? We travelled extensively in trains n throughout the city and I can count by hand how many we saw!!! My family also is wondering the same too...been having sleepless nights about this!!! ***O'ooooohhhhh***
