Our departure for Japan went fairly smoothly all things
considered. 3 bags, 1 travel cot, and a stroller for 3 months, not bad. Despite
Hopper only sleeping for about 45 min during our 11-hour flight, we got by
thanks to technological support in the way of in-flight movies and the iPad.
Really, how did parents cope before? It was also a great help that he had his
own seat with buttons to push and a tray table to kick. (And thankfully no one
in the seat in front of him.)
We arrived into Osaka, sent our bags ahead to Kamiyama where Nik’s residency in located on Shikoku island… yet another reason why I love Japan: at the airport, as is commonly
done, you can ship your bags anywhere in the country, usually within 48 hours,
for a nominal cost = flippin genius… and gladly
paid for early check-in. The heat had kicked in and we finally had a sleeping boy, which gave us time to change
into more weather appropriate attire and decide to eat underground at one of
the many shopping center eateries. And I’m not talking some dodgy sub
sandwich place or the Golden Arches, the Japanese have scores of restaurants
within labyrinthine corridors under streets, department stores, subway stations. I’m sure
there are some duds but they’re mostly fantastic noodles, sushi, and the like
and a welcome reprieve from the 39C/102F.
We wandered around America town (America-mura) looking for sunglasses (which I stupidly forgot in Amsterdam) and popped into a kiddy park where I promptly got chowed by aggressive mozzies. They're tiny here. And quite stealthy. This was followed by a stop into a bar food joint where Hopper happily noshed on seaweed and squid but got mad about the fried chicken. Toddlers and jetlag.
When we booked our hotel, there were photos of an outdoorsy
area that we thought would be great for toddler energy expenditure, but it
turned out to be an indoor atrium containing a “chapel” used for weddings. Tricky tricky. We did however find a small lush garden patio attached to the reception hall on the 23rd floor that we snuck into
for an evening fountain peek. Naughty us, climbing over the velvet ropes.
We only had one night before catching a train the next day
for Kyoto so I'll continue with our adventures in Kyoto and again back to
Osaka before we arrived in Kamiyama, paradise on Earth.
And being that this whole blogging thing is totally new to
me, please cut me some slack, I promise it’ll get better.
For now, sayonara!
PS. Getting a better camera... I realize these kinda suck.
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