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So… The first question you may ask is what possessed us into thinking taking a 6 month old baby half way across the world for a holiday was a good idea?
As much as we’ve changed our lives to accommodate Nate (our beautiful son); we also want him to understand that our lives revolve around a passion for travel and his arrival isn’t going to change that. So, that’s our compromise, we pour all our heart and soul into providing a nurturing environment for him to grow up in… he just has to behave on a few long haul flights.
The second question may be “why Japan?”… We have a real love for Asia, its people, its culture, its food… Japan is somewhere we’ve wanted to visit for a while, missing it on our RTW trip as it proved too expensive. We’d been back for a year, worked to save up some cash and decided, let’s laugh in the face of the global economic crisis and visit one of the most expensive countries in the world, in your face credit crunch!!!!
Things did take a turn for the worst though, as after I booked the flights, I sat
and trembled watching the exchange rate tumble from 236 Yen to 121 against the sterling,. This trip just got twice as expensive.
Japan also seemed perfect for our first trip as it’s as developed as any country is going to get and if we had a problem with Nate we could be confident he’ll get the best attention needed.
So how was flying with a baby? I can honestly say it was no problem at all, although this may be due to the fact that Nate was the most perfectly behaved kid you could imagine… On take off and landing when we expected the pressure change to upset him, he just sat and played with his toys… Excellent stuff, I don’t think he knows what he’s let himself in for, there’s no stopping us now.
Tokyo
Although Tokyo is one of those iconic cities, there are no real sights like there are elsewhere. This didn’t stop us enjoying 4 full days enjoying the city though; We stayed in Asakusa, very close to
Senso-ji, one of the cities many temples.
Arriving on a Sunday the first things we did was head over to Harajuku, where all
Squid
Tsukiji Fish Marketthe crazy teenagers in their cos-play outfits hang around, something which is becoming synonymous with Japanese youth culture. Sadly it was raining, and we only managed to catch sight of one girl dressed somewhat like a blue Strawberry Shortcake. Rather dissapointing.
We spent one day exploring the Asakusa and Senso-ji area and headed over to Ueno park as it’s one of the best places to enjoy the spectacle that is
Sakura (Cherry Blossoms). The blooms weren’t quite fully open yet, but the ones that had opened a little early were as beautiful as expected, and the amount of attention these trees were receiving from the Japanese was very interesting. It was on this day that we realised just how much attention we were going to be getting from the locals by having a fair haired, blue eyed and incredibly cute (even if I do say so) little boy with us. Whole groups stop in their tracks and smile and coo over him, and one shop owner was overjoyed to get to hold him and go show her friends what she’d managed to get hold of. Thankfully Nate loves all the attention and took it all in his stride, smiling
Torii Gates
Fushimi Inari Shrine - Kyoto and laughing at all the attention which only served to increase the number of people stopping to have a look.
We also managed to hop over to Odaiba, to check out the waterfront and go up Tokyo tower giving us some fine views over the city at night. Another highlight was the Sony building, which was filled with all the latest technological gadgets which I could only dream of getting my hands on, but sadly it was all way too far out of my budget.
One morning we woke at the crack of dawn, stuffed Nate into a sling so he’d always be close (where he promptly fell asleep, lucky boy), and went to visit
Tsukiji fish market. We arrived early as we wanted to witness the famous tuna auctions, but it turned out to be an absolute circus with hundreds of tourists all trying to cram into the small viewing area, so we decided instead to just wander around all the stalls soaking up the hustle and bustle, dodging the electric carts and trying to guess what half the stuff was. We did see plenty of giant Tuna being carted around and carved up, so we don’t feel like
we missed anything by not managing to get into the tuna auctions. After visiting the market we had every intention of having a fresh sushi breakfast but our stomachs just weren’t up for it that early in the morning, I’m surprised anyone’s is!
One day we went for a trip to
Nikko a couple of hours by train north of Tokyo. Nikko is a world heritage site famous for its many shrines and temples set amongst a beautiful backdrop of forests and mountains. It was really good and we had a great day, so I’d definitely recommend it to anyone visiting.
Fuji
We stayed at Kawaguchiko, in the Fuji area, and arrived by bus from Tokyo to be greeted by clear blue skies and breathtaking views of the mountain (volcano). We quickly stashed our stuff at the hostel and started walking around the lake taking as many pictures as we could as we were told that it’s covered by cloud most of the time, and you’d be lucky to see it. This was proved correct over the next few days as we never got as good a view as on that first afternoon.
We also visited
Blossoms
Ueno Park an
Onsen while in the area and after enquiring about the possibility of taking infants we were told that we could, but it would probably be too hot, so as they’re segregated by gender anyway we visited separately. Turns out that advice was good as it turns out the water is close to the temperature of the sun, not good for babies at all! It was a great experience though, but being a bit of a naturist, wallowing around in a hot pool in beautiful surroundings in my birthday suit is always going to be a great experience. 😊
For our final day we decided to hire a car to explore some of the surrounding area, which turned out to be a good idea as there are some incredible views around the Hakone area, and getting to grips with the Japanese Sat Nav system in the car was fun. Luckily by jabbing randomly at the screen I managed to stick a location marker on the map when we picked up the car, which was then promptly turned into a picture of a dog, with some more random poking at the screen. Turned out good in the end as when
we were finished for the day we just set our course back to the dog!
Kansai
From Kawaguchiko we had to get a couple of buses to Mishima as this was the easiest way of getting to Kyoto using the famous
Shinkansen, which although far from cheap is extremely fast and efficient. We didn’t book any reserved seats and just got tickets when we turned up at the station, which means we weren’t guaranteed any seats, we also just happened to choose a carriage next to one of the smoking carriages so it stunk of cigarette smoke. It never failed to amaze me how a country as developed as Japan still hasn’t banned smoking on public transport or in restaurants, only a matter of time though I suppose. It didn’t take long for a few seats to clear and then we could comfortably enjoy the two hour ride to Kyoto.
In Kyoto, we stayed in the Gion district which was very well located with access to most of the sites in the city and close to stations, which could take you anywhere within Kansai with minimal hassle. We took in all the main sights of the city
while we stayed there and used it as a base for a couple of day trips into the Kansai region. The cherry blossoms were at their best while we were in the city too so we finally got to fully appreciate them, in all their glory.
It was a quick train ride into
Nara from Kyoto which is famous for its deer park and UNESCO world heritage listed temples and shrines. The weather was pretty shocking while we were there, but it was a good day out, and the temples were incredible.
We had a 2 day
Kansai thru pass while we were in Kansai which enabled us to use pretty much any of the transport in the region with the exception of Japan Railways. It was an absolute bargain, by Japanese standards, so we thought we’d use it to go to Himeji which is at the opposite end of the region. This is a quick easy journey on Japan railways from Kyoto, but as were restricted to the private rail network it entailed many changes, but we finally got there and it was totally worth it as
Himeji-Jo is stunning, especially as it was covered in blossoming cherry trees.
Tuna
Tsukiji Fish Market From Kyoto we took the short hop to Osaka for our final day before flying out. We didn’t think much of the city compared to the places we’d been to previously, but it could be a city that grows on you given enough time, sadly we only had a day.
Lasting Impressions of Japan:
Mt Fuji - To be honest I wasn’t expecting much; I’ve seen plenty of mountains before and didn’t expect this one to be much different. I was SO wrong… Fuji, when visible, commands every view… simply breathtaking.
Sakura (Cherry Blossoms) - Not just the blooms themselves, but the deserved attention they get from the Japanese. If there’s a cherry tree nearby, chances are there are some Japanese with their phones out taking pictures of it. So glad we came in Spring, it really made the trip that much more memorable.
Impeccable politeness - The Japanese have this nailed. What an amazing bunch of people.
Incredible efficiency - Once you have the public transport figured out it’s amazing how all those coloured lines suddenly make sense, and if there is a time stated that something will arrive/depart, that’s the exact time
it does… It made such a refreshing change from most of our other travels.
Expense - Sad to say, but if people do ask, I will tell them it’s prohibitively expensive. The guide books claim that it doesn’t have to be, and pre-economic crisis I would have agreed. Sadly, now this is not the case. Although to be fair there are some bargains to be had, if you look for them.
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Jo Trouble
Jo McCarthy
Glad to hear you had a great time here :-) Sounds as though you made good use of the time. I get to see my sister/brother-in-law/ 7 month old niece (coming from the UK) at the weekend - can't wait!