Dear Matthew and Toby,
After months of preparation, we finally left for our Japan
trip early this month! This was our first international trip as a family of
four, and our first where we didn’t have any grandparents helping us out. Matt,
you got to leave school a day and a half before the school holidays officially
started. We headed to the airport and off we flew, through the night via Kuala
Lumpur, to Tokyo. We arrived around 8am and after picking up our rail passes,
getting some local currency and picking up our portable wifi, we headed by bus
to our hotel in Asakusa. Tobes you were so excited as our hotel looked straight
out onto a construction site. We headed straight out to go exploring our local
neighbourhood and visited Senso-ji Temple which was a few blocks from our
hotel. It was a beautiful temple with an amazing pagoda, and had an awesome
shopping arcade nearby that we strolled through. Afterwards we headed back to the
hotel and collapsed quickly into bed.
On our first full day we visited Akihabara, where we explored a ten story toy shop. Matt, you loved this and we bought you a transformer toy that you loved and played with throughout the trip. Afterwards we visited Ueno Park in Ueno and got to see the beautiful cherry blossoms, known as sakura, despite it being near the end of their season. In the afternoon we were very fortunate to attend a baseball game, despite getting the very back seats in the stadium! It was great to see and hear the cheers of the local fans and tick this cool sporting experience off our bucket list.
The next day we visited Gala-Yuzawa, which is a snow resort about 80 minutes from Tokyo by shinkansen, or bullet train. We were fortunate to have a quick play given the resort closed at 1pm due to strong winds. Matt you got to use the sleds and go down the mountain’s course. Tobes you enjoyed playing in the ‘cold sand’ as you put it. It was wonderful to be able to do look at the breathtaking view going up the mountain in the gondolas. Afterwards we hung around the resort as they had a few kids activities happening before heading back to Tokyo.
On the third day we headed to Shinjuku and firstly went to the Ninja Trick House where we learnt how to be real ninjas, including getting the chance to throw ninja stars! Afterwards we headed to the Samurai Museum and learnt a lot about samurai history in Japan. Afterwards we walked around Shinjuku and spotted Godzilla’s head on top of one of the hotels. Afterwards we headed back to the hotel for some rest, before heading out again in the evening so that your dad could go go-karting around Tokyo (called mari-karting). Matt you chose for him to dress up as Spiderman and he had a great time zooming around Tokyo while we three stayed nice and warm inside!
The following day was the day I had been waiting for – our day at Disneyland! I have always wanted to take my kids to Disney given it’s what my parents did when I was a little bit older than you are now Matt, and I loved the experience so much. We had to take three different train lines (over an hour of travel) but eventually made it to the happiest place on earth. We had a photo in front of the castle, went on heaps of rides (even Toby and I got to go on a few although I think we pushed you a bit too far Tobes on a couple of ones that went through darkness as you cracked it at that point) and enjoyed eating Mickey-Mouse themed food. Matt your favourite ride was the Buzz Lightyear ride and you were so good to go and get autographs from some of the seven dwarfs using the same autograph book that I got signatures in as a kid. We stayed until dark before heading home for our last night in Tokyo. I hope you both remember this magical day, or at least can be reminded of the fun from the many photos we took! The next day we headed to Kyoto!
Love you my little travelers,
On our first full day we visited Akihabara, where we explored a ten story toy shop. Matt, you loved this and we bought you a transformer toy that you loved and played with throughout the trip. Afterwards we visited Ueno Park in Ueno and got to see the beautiful cherry blossoms, known as sakura, despite it being near the end of their season. In the afternoon we were very fortunate to attend a baseball game, despite getting the very back seats in the stadium! It was great to see and hear the cheers of the local fans and tick this cool sporting experience off our bucket list.
The next day we visited Gala-Yuzawa, which is a snow resort about 80 minutes from Tokyo by shinkansen, or bullet train. We were fortunate to have a quick play given the resort closed at 1pm due to strong winds. Matt you got to use the sleds and go down the mountain’s course. Tobes you enjoyed playing in the ‘cold sand’ as you put it. It was wonderful to be able to do look at the breathtaking view going up the mountain in the gondolas. Afterwards we hung around the resort as they had a few kids activities happening before heading back to Tokyo.
On the third day we headed to Shinjuku and firstly went to the Ninja Trick House where we learnt how to be real ninjas, including getting the chance to throw ninja stars! Afterwards we headed to the Samurai Museum and learnt a lot about samurai history in Japan. Afterwards we walked around Shinjuku and spotted Godzilla’s head on top of one of the hotels. Afterwards we headed back to the hotel for some rest, before heading out again in the evening so that your dad could go go-karting around Tokyo (called mari-karting). Matt you chose for him to dress up as Spiderman and he had a great time zooming around Tokyo while we three stayed nice and warm inside!
The following day was the day I had been waiting for – our day at Disneyland! I have always wanted to take my kids to Disney given it’s what my parents did when I was a little bit older than you are now Matt, and I loved the experience so much. We had to take three different train lines (over an hour of travel) but eventually made it to the happiest place on earth. We had a photo in front of the castle, went on heaps of rides (even Toby and I got to go on a few although I think we pushed you a bit too far Tobes on a couple of ones that went through darkness as you cracked it at that point) and enjoyed eating Mickey-Mouse themed food. Matt your favourite ride was the Buzz Lightyear ride and you were so good to go and get autographs from some of the seven dwarfs using the same autograph book that I got signatures in as a kid. We stayed until dark before heading home for our last night in Tokyo. I hope you both remember this magical day, or at least can be reminded of the fun from the many photos we took! The next day we headed to Kyoto!
Love you my little travelers,
Mum xxx
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