Which Way to the Airport?

{a travel story}

Trains in Japan are known for their ease and reliability. For the most part that was true. The system was easy to figure out, especially with the help of apps and Google Translate. Overall they were reliable, except for a handful of times there were a few minutes of delay going into Tokyo. The longer we were there, the less I relied on apps and was able to figure it out more from signage. Except for once.

I was taking the train to Haneda airport to go to Dubai. S was on my back, I had two roller bags, and a very full diaper bag. Thankfully, the trains were fairly empty. When I reached the station I needed to change trains at, I got out of the train and looked around. On the other side of the platform was a train that had an airplane on it, and passengers with luggage. I assumed it would continue taking me to the airport. Except it didn’t.

I realized pretty quickly that my stop should have already come, so tried to figure out where I was and what the best thing to do was. To my relief, an English-speaking Japanese man saw that I was perplexed and told me to stay on the current train until it got into Tokyo and then change to a train to Haneda that would stop less frequently. I calculated the time it would take and immediately got worried: I would arrive about 15 minutes before the check-in desk closed; my mistake would cost me close to an hour!

When our train arrived at Shinagawa in Tokyo I rushed off the train, found the elevator, and scrambled (as well as you can while 12 weeks pregnant, babywearing, and laden with luggage) to the proper platform. The train arrived and the doors opened, and for a minute I thought I wouldn’t make it. It was a Friday night at 10 PM, and the train was PACKED with businessmen (to this day I don’t know why there were so many businessmen on the train at that time!). I pushed my way in and pulled my luggage as close to me as possible, making sure I wasn’t so close to people that S couldn’t breathe in the carrier. I looked around, and all the handholds were in use. I braced myself as the train started, only to find that I didn’t need to worry. The train was so tightly packed that there was no way I could lose my balance.

We arrived at Haneda and I rushed off, up the escalators, and speed walked to the check in desk with ten minutes until it closed. I made it to the gate with time for S to play at a play area… and then once we boarded we sat at the gate for two hours for unknown reasons. But after that I always double-checked before I got onto a train.

Where is the Fish Festival?

“Sakana matsuri wa doko de arimasu ka?” “Where is the fish festival?”
It was our second week in Japan, and my first time going out alone. I had popped my blonde baby in the carrier and walked down the main drag to the train station, keenly aware that for the first time in my life I was in a place completely foreign: unlike my time in the Middle East, I knew only a few words of the local language, and unlike my time in Europe, I didn’t look anything like those around me.

When I couldn’t find the bus that was supposed to be transport to the fish festival (whatever a fish festival was), I stood for a few moments eyeing the security guard, rehearsing the proper Japanese words in my mind. Then I decided if I didn’t ask someone for help, my only other option was to go home, so I marched up to him and blurted out my question. I was so pleased I had remembered the correct phrase, but my bubble burst as soon as he replied: because while I’d learned to ask for directions, I had no clue what his answer meant.

I assumed this meant I’d have to go home without finding the fish festival. But as I was figuring out what to do, three elderly Japanese ladies walked up to the same security guard and asked him the same question – but understood his answer. I followed them and found the bus stop. The bus took us to a warehouse with a courtyard, and there was fish for sale everywhere, lines for food, and small pools set up with sea creatures for children to handle. A fish festival. I got in line for food, and have no idea what I ate, but whatever it was, it wasn’t fish.

Tokyo Attraction

inspired by reading “Kissed on Arrival” by Rob Holmes, we’ve started writing down some of our own stories from our travels.

I had been in Japan less than a month and Ezra less than a day when my family came to visit. We were all relatively clueless when it came to deciding what to see and do while they were there. Much research and deliberation later, we were on our way into Tokyo for two days. Asakusa, the Imperial Palace gardens, a tea ceremony, skyline views from the Tokyo Government Building, and lots of delicious food were on our agenda.
As we stood on the thirtieth floor of the Tokyo Government Building looking out the windows and noticing all sorts of unique buildings, road patterns, and gardens, a gathering crowd had noticed us. More specifically, they had noticed our white-blonde, blue eyed, fair-skinned eleven month old who was charming them with her extroversion. Her grins and waves were met with squeals of “Kawaii!!!” (cute) and phones began coming out of pockets and purses. I looked at Ezra and whispered, “We may not post her picture on Facebook but I guess we can’t keep it from being all over Japan.”
After a while we extricated ourselves from the scene and headed towards the Imperial Palace Gardens, where we found ourselves in a similar situation – only this time S was out of the stroller and soon was being passed around a circle of Japanese women. “If we had a dollar for every ‘kawaii’ it would pay for our travels in Japan,” Ezra told me.
But soon even our social toddler had had enough and snuggled back down in the baby carrier as we continued our time in Tokyo.
Over the next year, many varieties of those incidents were repeated, making us thankful that S was so friendly and not bothered by the strangers who loved her so much. She was often the recipient of snacks and sometimes even small gifts – like the time she was crying, cold, and starving and an elderly couple we were afraid we had scared away handed her a plush ornament with Aflack ducks that sang the theme song in Japanese (we still have the ornament but thankfully it no longer sings).
Friends asked Ezra and I if it bothered us, and for the most part, it didn’t – and it even reminded both of us of our childhood. As a blonde, blue-eyed toddler in Amman, Jordan, my hair was frequently touched (to the point where I walked around with my hands on my head) my cheeks squeezed, and once I was whisked inside a house and shown to a stranger’s family. Likewise Ezra, also blonde and blue-eyed, was followed around grocery stores in Micronesia.
We and our families may have been seeing the world, but sometimes still ended up the main attraction.

Food in Japan, 5

Making the octopus crackers

In line for them!

The best okonomiyaki – we went out of the train station while transferring to the subway in Tokyo and walked down the street looking for a place and found this one.

Finally found more kitkat flavors than just green tea. I wouldn’t have known it was sake if it wasn’t for the label. It tasted fruity like sake, but not alcoholic.

MosBurger, Japan’s fast food chain like McDonalds. Better quality for sure.

Yakitori stand

bean paste filled pancake-type stuff.

Convenience store breakfast

YUMMY.

trying natto again, with leeks, since that’s how my Japanese friends said they like it. Still not a fan.

one last time at our favorite sushi place

food from the playgroup Christmas party. I feel bad for Ezra that he never really got to experience what I got through playgroup and English Class – homemade Japanese food!

had to stop at the bakery again… we were hoping for curry bread but there was none. And then on our walk home we got some dried persimmons that were SO tasty.

pastries at last English Class – two days before we moved and probably the saddest part of leaving.

we brought back a box of goodies for both sides of the family, and these are just some.

Japan: What we didn’t do + resources

I still have a few more posts coming about our excursions and exploring in Japan, but with only a small amount of time left it’s pretty safe to say this stuff won’t get done – but if we had another year here we would have done it!

Kyoto
Quick Travel Guide
Ninja House
Gion
Golden Pavilion
Ninja Museum (their website).

Hiroshima
Peace park
Castle
Miyajima

We had planned to do Kyoto and Hiroshima with this package.

Nikko
Top 10 Must See Places in Nikko

Closer to Tokyo
Yunessan (mostly from curiosity, and I would have liked to have gone to Hakone)
Ofuna POW Camp (this is where Louie Zamperini was held). We never did it because there’s not much to see and it’s not that easy to access. More info, and the actual location.

Tokyo
6 Places to Escape the Elements (we wanted to try Kid-o-kid but never made it).
Kabuki
Tokyo has tons of crazy restaurants and themed cafes. We usually stuck with Japanese food, though.

Resource for travel in Japan
– Google Translate App
– Hyperdia App (or website, for trains)
– If you’re coming from outside Japan and not living her, get the Japan Rail Pass if you plan on taking the train a lot, especially the Shinkansen.
– stuff to do in Japan for Free
– Japan on a budget
– booking a ryokan (not budget friendly but well worth the cost!)
– Japan guide
– Tokyo Urban baby
– Japanican (we actually booked our ryokan through Japanican)
– Some more links for booking Shinkansen and tours: one, two, three
– we used TripAdvisor a lot, mostly because they’re linked with GoogleMaps so we could find a place to go or eat on TripAdvisor and then get directions to make sure we ended up at the right place.

(This ends my scheduled posts, so I’m not sure when I’ll be posting again. We’ve been with family for the holidays and then will head to our new area to look for a house, but I have some half-written posts, including at least one more on Japan, and by then will probably have some other thoughts to share as well).

Tokyo: Ueno Park

We wanted to do something over Thanksgiving weekend since Ezra did get most of it off and our house is pretty empty right now. But we didn’t want to take too big of a trip and end up exhausted, so we picked Ueno Park and don’t regret it! We went to the zoo and science museum, and spent a while walking and sitting enjoying the leaves and nice weather after the previous day’s snow.

S’s first zoo trip was when she was E’s age. It was so much fun to take her now that she’s old enough to interact with the animals: the elephants and polar bears were her favorite, she roared at the lion and tiger, was scared of the gorilla, was underwhelmed by the long anticipated porcupine, and thought the noises the emu and hippo made were them pooping.

S was an attraction…

Science Museum. We enjoyed it more than S, but she loved seeing the “bisaurs” (dinosaurs).
We actually hadn’t planned to go to the science museum. I had heard about a Ninja thing in Ueno Park, so had planned to go to that, but when I pulled it up on TripAdvisor when we were in Ueno it said it was 271 miles away! Apparently there’s another Ueno park near Kyoto, which would explain why none of the Tokyo Ueno Park info had had anything on the Ninja museum. So we decided to check out the science museum.

Periodic Table of the Elements WITH the elements

Enjoying lunch in the park before heading home

Tokyo: Studio Ghibli Museum

When we heard there was a Studio Ghibli Museum in Tokyo we decided we had to go. Tickets go on sale the 10th of every month and sell out fast, but we managed to get some thanks to my mom and Candace staying with the girls so I could make a quick trip to Lawson to get our tickets, and to the man working there who helped me with the machine that was entirely in Japanese. Apparently you can book online, but I didn’t want to risk that not working since we only had one shot at it before we moved.

Signs walking from the train station

We had the last time slot and it was plenty of time, although if it hadn’t been closing (and we hadn’t been hungry) we might have waited out the line in the gift shop and taken S to play in the Catbus one more time, since she had a blast climbing all over it and then sitting inside it with soot gremlins in her lap and a huge grin on her face.

One of the downsides to the museum is that you can’t take photos inside. I wish I could have captured S’s joy at the Catbus. But other than that I can see why Miyazaki doesn’t want photos inside, since it takes away from the wonder. There truly is a sense of wonder as you wander through the rooms and find all sorts of nooks and crannies with little details among the gorgeous wood trimmings.

You also get to see a short film that only plays at the museum and changes every so often. That was S’s first movie and she loved it and wouldn’t stop talking about it or the Catbus. I was afraid she’d be too young for most of the museum but she really enjoyed it and so did we. There’s no question it’s worth the price (only about $10/adult), and even the trip across Tokyo (though trains cost more than our tickets…).

Here are a few photos of the interior of the museum.

 This was probably one of our favorite things in Tokyo and all of Japan. It would be enjoyable even if you aren’t a Ghibli fan, especially if you love animation in general.
I will say, though, that most of the lesser-known Ghibli films are lesser known for a reason. But we love Ponyo, Totoro, Howl’s Moving Castle, Spirited Away, and The Wind Rises. And even when the storyline falls flat in some of the other movies, the animation is always beautiful and enjoyable (and if you want to cry, watch Grave of the Fireflies).

November

I took the photos off her photo string and had left them on the floor. She found them while falling asleep for her nap and fell asleep on them.

playing around while the movers were here

S was dressing E up while she nursed

And dressing herself up

cupcakes for S’s birthday! She was thrilled with her cupcakes, crackers, balloons, boxes to color on and play in, and her favorite friends at her ‘happy be party.’

E’s first time on the train, going to the Studio Ghibli Museum (coming in another post!)

The first time I’d seen carts like this here

Taking a shopping break to watch the puppies

She asked to eat breakfast outside

Got to play 3 times this month! 🙂

2 year photo shoot… she’s not very cooperative anymore though!

Went to the 100 yen store. Spent 7,000 yen. Got lots of looks from everyone because of how much I was buying…. but it was our last trip.

S’s thankful tree

My favorite Engrish.

YUMMY pizza.

Snow on Thanksgiving.

And a beautiful day the next day, which we were thankful for since we were going into Tokyo.

S was an attraction at Ueno Zoo.

enjoying onigiri in Ueno Park.

We turned in our train cards, which made leaving Japan feel a lot more real.

She refused to wear her coat but wanted her mittens.

our chopsticks. We took a long time to buy any because we wanted to look around and pick our favorites.

miso soup at home

>>>Updated my post about what we will and won’t miss about Japan<<<

favorite recipes// pumpkin breakfast cookies // butternut apple salad // honey sweetened frosting // daikon apple slaw // pumpkin corn chowder // thai peanut chicken (minus cornstarch) // apple bacon blue cheese pizza // bbq sauce (would use half molasses half syrup next time, and a tad less spice) // pumpkin scones // slow cooker Mexican lasagna //
It’s been nice to be in the kitchen again, and thankfully cooking again has gone rather smoothly, though some days it feels like I’m cooking all day since I start prepping early on in case E doesn’t nap in the late afternoon (she hates that nap).

best of online//  finished E’s Christmas stocking // doing this for Advent // this too // exercises you can do holding baby // vitamin N //

reading of late// War and Peace, for midnight feedings

thinking about// what’s “best” for baby methods is what works for you // Christ as intercessor

what brings joy// actually going Christmas shopping (not just online)// baby giggles // oboe, especially with Charlotte // S’s love for E // Japanese food

The Munchkins//
S gets her own birthday post coming soon!
E. 2 months || 10 lbs 11 oz || sucks her fist and her lip || amazing us with how well she naps, but still a night owl || happy as can be || loves Sophie the Giraffe, and as of the end of November (2.5 months) is giggling

writing// ha.

Things We Will (and Won’t) miss about Japan

We only have about a month left in Japan. While we’re excited to be closer to family again we have mixed feelings about leaving.

We won’t miss…

Japanese sized portions… we often need to eat more when we get home or order an extra entree!
Not being able to park without help – there are often men directing traffic in or leaving parking lots.
Crowds!
Tiny water cups at meals, often without refills
Using Google Translate at the grocery store
Feeling like S is always so loud and so outgoing
Wondering if we’re breaking an unwritten rule
Hot, humid summers with cold, dry winters
there not being soap in public restrooms
houses without heat!

kicking S while getting groceries.

We will miss…

Child seats in bathroom stalls.
Walking down the street being an adventure
Having so many things to explore only a short train ride away
So much yummy food!
Kids’ silverware and bowls even when we didn’t order a kids’ meal
How polite everyone is and how much of a novelty S is with her blonde hair and blue eyes
CURRY FLAVORED EVERYTHING.
How safe it is
heated toilets, tables, and carpets

Puppies in the store

Playing at Toys R Us after shopping for groceries.

Japan: Enoshima Island

Ezra and I had been to Enoshima last fall to see the illuminations there, but I took Hannah there for the day when she was visiting and it was fun to see it in the light.

Not stroller friendly, though.

View of the island from the train

In case you don’t have someone to take a photo for you

Street performers

We also got the fresh octopus crackers this time.

Because I was so pregnant and because it was still pretty hot out, we paid to take the escalators up. Definitely worth it, especially since you still see most of the island walking back down.

While we aren’t big fans of going to shrines and temples, and that’s the main attraction on Enoshima, we love the feel of the shopping street and it’s such a beautiful place to walk around and see some of Japan.