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| Sakura fever! Hanami in Ueno Park, Tokyo |
Ahh... Back to the hot and humid weather after 10 days. This trip was tiring (pity our legs) but we had a great family time! Our LO surely enjoyed herself very much, partly because of the nice cold weather and her appetite even increased when we were there :D
We flew with AirAsia again. The flight time was just right. Why? We left for Tokyo on a 2.30pm flight, reaching there at 9.40pm (Japan time) and came back on a night flight (11.30pm), reaching KL at about 6am. On the way there, she took her afternoon snack not long after we boarded, watched a bit of the nursery rhyme video, took an hour plus nap, got up, had her porridge dinner, played/sang for a while and it was about time we landed. We reached the Airbnb about 11 plus pm, just in time to clean her up, change into pajamas and put her to bed. On the way back, she was already half asleep when we fed her milk and slept all the way til we were nearly an hour away from landing.
Here are some of the things/tips I would like to share from our trip:
Airbnb accommodation
The main reason we chose to book from Airbnb was because we wanted a kitchen to prepare food for our LO. Guess our choice was right! The moment we checked into those apartments/house (except in Hakone where we booked a ryokan), she totally made herself at home, walking in and out the rooms and living room. Lol. All kitchens came with basic cooking facilities, utensils, pot/pans and knife/kitchen scissors. With the kitchen, we also bought veggies back to blanch and eat at night as late dinner or supper after eating too much meat/seafood during the day. Another benefit was the washing machine! All the Airbnbs we booked came with washing machines, so we didn't need to pack to many clothes since we could wash them during our stay there. Lesser clothes = lesser weight! The other reason was I'm hooked to the Airbnb idea after watching this video (hehe):
The house that we got in Kyoto was a typical traditional home for a small family like what I saw in dramas and animes! With a kotatsu!!
Sling carrier and no stroller
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| Baby carrier vs Stroller |
It was definitely more convenient with the baby carrier; the trains and streets were packed most of the time, most roads to sightseeing places or temples were going uphill, uneven, steep or with lotsa steps/staircases and many of the restaurants/eateries were tiny, unless those in shopping malls. Plus, if you are looking to shop in malls like Takashimaya and Keio Mall, they do provide free strollers for customers' use. So, there really isn't a need to bring one. How I see it? Don't need to carry an extra weight on top of the already heavy luggage bags. ^^
Meals for LO
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| We did let her try some of our food. |
Well, she did have her fair share of rice, udon/soba/ramen (without any soup), chawanmushi and tiny bits of BBQ seafood. Overall, I find the food kinda salty for her, but I didn't wanna 'offend' anyone by washing the noodles in plain water before feeding, so we still prepared most of her meals ourselves. I brought over some rice, oats, raisins, whitebaits and chia seeds (*Tips: I labelled them in Japanese also, in case of Customs check). Buying veggies and fruits there - no problem at all. Almost all the veggies and fruits that we bought were cheap, very fresh, sweet and delicious, especially the asparagus, sweet potatoes, avocados and strawberries. Too bad my LO didn't like eating the strawberries, so mommy finished them all!
Always bring extra jacket/beanie/scarf out
Bad experience in Hakone. The day pass that we bought in Hakone included a boat ride across Lake Ashi. Beautiful place but we were kinda 'stranded' when it was time to head back. We were not informed that the bus would only come every 30 mins or so (maybe they did mention but it was all in Japanese and no explanation in English was given even when the majority of the people were foreigners, so most of us did not understand). There were so many of us in queue and obviously all of us couldn't fit into ONE bus, therefore we had to wait for the next round. Temperature started to drop to 10°C. It was freezing, people got impatient and started questioning the efficiency of the bus drivers/company. Yet the staffs still went on making announcements in Japanese. It gave a bad impression as I felt that they just ignored us tourists. Luckily I brought a thicker jacket, beanie and scarf along for my LO, otherwise she could have caught a cold or fallen sick. A lot of the adults I saw weren't wearing thick clothing. It wasn't that cold when we reached in the afternoon... So, lesson learnt: Always be prepared and bring extra clothing.
Last but not least, have lotsa patience!
She didn't seem to like traveling in trains and buses. Not sure if it was because of the noise, because she couldn't move around or the fact that they were always packed with people. She made so much noise and screamed almost everytime we got into the train. We had to distract her by singing, playing or letting her watch videos, while ignoring the 'evil looks' from some bystanders. -_-
There were times she screamed the moment she stepped on the cold tiles during bath times, so bathing her became quite a struggle. There weren't many public toilets that came with a changing room/table. Luckily we brought pant diapers for this trip. But in case if you didn't bring enough, it's pretty easy to get diapers from Family Marts/Lawson marts/pharmacies/drug stores).
We didn't encounter many child friendly places or people (Unlucky, perhaps). Some smaller eateries just rejected us upfront when they saw us carrying a toddler. Not many restaurants have baby seats either, unless the bigger ones in malls. She will either sit on the seat next to us or on our laps when it looked like she will fall off from those chairs with a big hole on the back. However, we did come across a small ramen shop with a very nice lady owner in Shibuya. She even gave my LO cake and snacks to munch on while we were happily eating our noodles :D
It was definitely exhausting carrying her together with the diapers bag and chasing her around once we put her down. Oh well, good cardiac and weightlifting training, I guess. Haha. But seeing her all smiley, so excited seeing new things, saying hi to everyone, calling all kids 'Baby' and hearing many people telling us she's 'kawaii' made all the fatigue disappear :)
*Will upload on the full trip after I'm done sorting out the photos (we took like thousands of them... Haha!), so stay tuned!! :D
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