April 13, 2023 • 36 mins
This week on the podcast we're talking about our upcoming trip to Japan! This is our first time taking Lou on a long-haul flight and in this episode, we share the preparation that we've done for both the trip and the flight. We talk about why we're going to Japan, how we planned this trip differently than others, what has gone into our preparation for a 15-hour flight and the jetlag that will follow, and much more. You can expect updates from Japan very soon! Enjoy! In this episode:
- Why we decided to go to Japan for our first long-haul over the ocean trip
- How we have prepared for the Japan trip and our flight
- Planning this trip differently from others
- Dealing with a 15 hour flight and the jetlag that comes along with that
- Planning to go to Japan in 2020 before the pandemic hit, and how our plans have changed with since
- Altering our Japan travel plans now that we have a baby in the picture
- How we’re packing for our trip
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:02):
Hello, and welcome to the Worldwanders Podcast, a proud part of the
wander Barn podcast network. I'm Ryan, I'm Amanda, and we're your host.
We're a traveling couple and digital nomads, taking you on our adventures as
we explore locations, destinations, andcareers. Enjoy the show. Hello everyone,
and welcome back to the World Wandererspodcast. Very excited to have you
(00:25):
here with us again this week andpretty excited to dive into what we're going
to talk about today. Amanda,Welcome to the show. Thanks for having
me. So, yeah, what'sthe theme for today. Yeah, we're
talking a little bit about travel planning, which is something we've talked about over
the years in the podcast for differenttypes of trips, and we want to
(00:47):
talk specifically about planning our first internationaloverseas trip with the baby because it's been
a little bit different, well,it's been a lot different traveling with her
in general. And if you guyshave been following along over the last couple
of months, and you know,we've really just started traveling with her kind
of more extensively this year, andthis is a this is a huge trip
(01:08):
for us. Yeah, and sofor anyone who didn't know or hadn't seen
we are going to Japan. Asyou're listening to this, as this episode's
coming out, we will currently fingerscrossed not on would be in Japan.
And so we'd taken a trip toColombia, which was with the connection through
Panamas. I think that the longestflight was like four hours, yeah,
(01:30):
and then other than that, thelongest flights she's been on have just been
like to the US into Canada,which had been more like four hour or
five hour maybe six hour flights yeah, and so yeah, going to Japan,
it's a fifteen hour flight. Andso we've kind of done a lot
of like asking around getting tips onnot just smashing the flight, but also
(01:51):
planning the trip and also just basedoff our trip to Columbia, I want
to talk a little bit about howwe adapted our plans for Japan. So
I guess a place to start wouldbe like, why are we deciding to
go to Japan? What kind ofmotivated that to be like our first big
over the ocean trip. Yeah,So I think that part of it was
that Japan finally opened up to tourism, and it opened up at a time
(02:13):
where we were kind of just startingto think about twenty twenty three plans where
we wanted to go, when wewanted to go places at this point.
So it would have been October oftwenty twenty two and Japan opened that they
were that they announced that they wereopening for tourism again. We had booked
Colombia and Panama, and we'd beenthinking that maybe we wanted to do something
(02:35):
a little bit bigger, kind ofin between that trip and in between our
yearly trip home to Canada, whichwill happen in the summer. But we
didn't really know where we wanted togo, and so a couple things that
we were considering and tossing around were, you know, time zones. Time
zones are a big thing. You'reworking full time right now, you work
on you know, American North Americantime zones. And so we'd kind of
(02:58):
talked about, you know, maybePortugal or maybe Eastern Europe, you know,
we were planning to go there intwenty twenty hadn't been able to do
that, maybe thinking about going furthersouth kind of Uruguay, Argentina, something
like that. Hadn't really settled onanything, and then yeah, I got
the notification that Japan is open.And I don't remember if we talked about
(03:19):
this on the podcast, but Ryanand I actually had flights to go to
Japan for the spring of twenty twentyone, which obviously those flights got canceled
and refunded because it wasn't open,and so it kind of feels like we're
just continuing this like loop of redoingtrips that got canceled through the pandemic.
And it kind of felt perfect becausealthough you might be thinking, like,
Okay, that time zone's way moreextreme than Europe, it's actually a little
(03:43):
bit easier than Europe. Yeah,and so Japan is I can't remember the
exact number, but five pm Easternis six am in Tokyo, which yeah,
makes it reasonably doable for like eveningoverlap. But yeah, kind of
like you said, we had theidea of going to Japan, and I
think for us too, like oncewe had, you know, a third
(04:06):
member of the family, a smallchild to take care of, it changes
the way you think about like theplaces you want to go. I think
it made us more excited to goback to some places we've been before,
but also excited about going places thatfelt just like places where we could kind
of like feel a bit comfortable andlike know, hey, security and safety
(04:28):
is less of a concern obviously topay attention to that stuff no matter where
you are. But Japan, Ithink is a place where we feel both
like pretty comfortable and pretty excited aboutexploring with a small toddler, as opposed
to some other places that might feelexciting but also give us a little bit
of a feeling of sketchiness. Yeah, for sure. And even though there's
a lot of things that I thinkare uncomfortable in Japan, like we don't
(04:50):
speak much of the language, andyou know, the food is different,
the culture is different. Obviously,those are things that we've done a million
times, and that's one of thereasons we love travel. So yeah,
I guess safety was certainly a factor. And then I think another thing that
when we are traveling places now thatwe're really looking for is like nature.
(05:10):
We nature is a little bit trickierin Mexico. Mexico is not famous for
getting out and taking hikes. Andwhile there are certainly many places you can
go hiking in Mexico and many beautifulthings to explore, I think we're looking
thinking somewhere that's a bit more calm, you know, a little less chaotic,
a little more organized, beautiful airquality, some mountains we could hike
(05:32):
in, that type of thing inJapan definitely checks those boxes. Yeah,
so we went We're like, oh, Japan's up and up. I wonder
how much it costs to fly toJapan from Mexico. Looked it up.
We're, i think pleasantly surprised,not like shocked by amazing deals, but
like, Okay, that's totally likedoable. And so we booked our flights
(05:53):
end of October and then started thinkingabout what we wanted to go do and
kind of we knew during that timeframe part of it would be like finding
more of a settled spot to beable to like comfortably work, and so
we booked our first airbnb kind ofmid November, a beautiful little apartment in
Osaka. But then kind of like, what did it look like for us
(06:14):
to decide like where we wanted togo, what we wanted to do.
How did we kind of like fillin the details of the trip. Yeah,
that's a great question. So weknew we wanted to bookend our trip
with Tokyo, so we knew wewanted to start there. Spend a couple
of days there, you know,just settle there. Tokyo is obviously a
huge city in while we've been therebefore, I think there's a million more
(06:35):
things to explore and obviously many morerestaurants to try, and so we wanted
to just land there, spend thefirst few days getting over jet leg and
just settling in Tokyo, and thenhaving some time at the end of the
trip as well to be there.And then basically it started with doing some
research and the plans that we wantedto do shifted a number of times because
(06:59):
we wanted to go back over towardsMount Fuji, but stay in a different
city than we'd stayed before. Andby the time I got around looking at
it, you know, there wasn'ta lot of accommodation, and the stuff
that was available was very, veryexpensive, and we just felt like,
Okay, this isn't the best bankfor our back. Could we go somewhere
else? And then started doing researchon other places that we could go to,
(07:20):
and particularly, like I mentioned,places that are connected to nature,
places that had you know, gardensor parks or something that we could do
that would be outdoorsy kind of funfor lou and so we ended up landing
on spending the first kind of weekafter Tokyo in which you're not going to
be working. So we're taking alittle vacation, going between a city right
(07:44):
outside of Nagano that's really famous forthe snow monkeys, and then heading to
Kanazawa, which is kind of alittle a little mountain town, and we
found, you know, really affordable. Is it not a mountain town.
I think it's a fairly large city, okay. I feel like it's interesting
when you go to places in Asiabecause places that seem smaller are still really
really large in comparison, especially forUS Canadians. But it seems like a
(08:05):
good jumping off point for nature stuff. Yeah, yeah, definitely, that's
a better way to put it.And then we were planning to spend a
week in Osaka and then kind ofgo a little further south, and we
were looking at some cities like Okayamaand Kiashiki, those have been recommended to
us, and we weren't finding accommodationthat we felt super excited about. So
(08:28):
we decided to actually spend two weeksin Osaka, stay more settled, and
then use that as a jumping offpoint. We have a three week JR
railpass, so we can travel andthe trains unlimited, and this will really
allow us to not be moving aroundquite as much with lu which having read
a bunch of blog posts specific toJapan but also just about traveling overseas with
(08:52):
children, it seems like that wasthe biggest recommendation, Like, don't be
going somewhere every couple of days becauseso much more packing, it's much more
coordinating, You're just going to endup really tired. And so I'm really
excited about this decision because we're goingto have this base, but we there's
so many places to explore by Osaka, and we only spent like one day
there the last time on our tripbecause we mostly based in Kyoto. So
(09:16):
we can go back to Kyoto,we can go to Nara, we can
go to Kobe, we can goto Oka Yama, we can go to
Kiyoshiki. Lots of things to explore, but we're not going to be like
picking up and packing every single nightor every couple of days to do those
things. Yeah, so just kindof hit on a couple points on stuff
you covered. We booked kind ofour first thing and we had the Tokyo
(09:39):
as like our starting end plan inplace, and we kind of like did
the booking of the flight at theend of October, first air of Union
November, and we kind of justlike left out alone. We're kind of
just like playing with the different ideastalking about it now and again. And
I feel like from the time likeOctober November passed to January February when we
started really looking into stuff, theprices accommodation had really gone up a ton,
(10:03):
like double triple. And so Ithink that kind of our initial plan
of like maybe getting going a fewmore places, going to a few like
smaller places, I think changed alittle bit because we were just like seeing
some prices that were honestly just likewhoa kind of crazy high, and so
that changes a little bit. Andthen plus going to Colombia, taking that
(10:26):
trip I think really showed us like, hey, having a strong like base
and then exploring from there is likereally enjoyable and nice, and so especially
with like the trainings and transit inJapan, like just feeling like, hey,
we set up some strong bases,there's tons of stuff to explore.
I think also with a trip,sometimes you start and you have kind of
these unconstrained ideas of like, I'mgonna go everywhere, it's gonna be amazing,
(10:50):
and then you start like getting downto it and looking at it and
you're like, you know what ifwe are in like Osaka, Tokyo kind
as a couple other places, takewe can day trips, like that's a
really healthy amount of stuff to see. And so yeah, we kind of
we settled in. I went withthat plan. Kind of how did the
(11:13):
planning process for us change the factthat we're doing it with lu instead of
it just being us. Yeah,So I think there are a couple things.
I mean, one is what wejust talked about with the not going
as many places. I think onething with a baby that's challenging is the
like checkout at eleven, check inat three pm. You know, she
(11:35):
basically needs to nap during the hoursof eleven and three, and she's not
napping all of them, but ingeneral, her nap is kind of in
between those hours, which makes ita little bit tricky on those days,
and so we wanted to kind ofminimize that type of thing. I think
another takeaway we had from our Panamaslash Columbia trip was just because she does
(11:58):
nap and because she's not up forlike that long of periods of time before
she kind of gets grumpy like needsto go down for a nap or needs
to go down for bed. Wewant to kind of do things that are
kind of close to accommodation, Sowe don't want to be spending an hour
and a half getting somewhere and thentrying to do something for an hour and
then trying to get back and timeto put her to bed and stuff like
(12:22):
that or put her down for anap. And so one of the things
we've done is we are staying intwo different neighborhoods and each time in Tokyo,
and then actually between the first weekand the second week of Osaka,
we're also switching accommodations to a differentlocation. So I think that those will
help us to kind of plan ourstuff to be a little bit closer to
where we are. And of coursethere's going to be times where we explore
(12:45):
a bit further, or bedtime getspushed back or naptime gets pushed back,
and that's okay, but just tryingto kind of stick with her regular routine
and exploring around that, and Ithink that staying in different neighborhoods will allow
us to do that. Yeah,I think if we were just planning,
the two of us probably would havehigher chance of leaving some stuff open.
(13:07):
Like maybe we just would have lefta couple of things open and been like,
oh, we'll figure it out,like let me get close to it,
or maybe even when we're there,like not huge things, but maybe
like a couple of weekends or something. I think we probably would have gone
like a couple more places. Yeah, i'd probably and maybe straight a little
bit further. I think, especiallyyeah, that that first trip learning was
(13:28):
like, yeah, maybe like lowerthe amount of things you want to do.
And also I think from that Columbiatrip, one of the things we
came alar with it was like,oh, it'd have been really cool to
stay in a different neighborhood just becausethe reach you have of a city like
is limited, like you said,when the baby's napping. So because of
that, having like two different neighborhoodsof these cities is almost like exploring two
(13:48):
different cities in a way. It'spretty excited about that. Yeah, definitely
me as well. And I thinkone other thing I'll add to the list
is just when we were looking ataccommodation. One thing we were a little
bit more particular about this time around, I think because of Lou was being
one close to train stations and thentwo ideally close to like a park or
(14:09):
something like that, so we couldget out and have somewhere that we could
be outside with her, especially you'regoing to be working three of the four
weeks that we're there, so somewherewhere I can take her and we can
you know, she can crawl slashtoddle in the grass, or we can
just go, you know, geta coffee, hang out outside, and
that type of thing. So wewere a little bit more particular about the
locations of our accommodation. And wealways are like, we don't just book
(14:33):
just random things or you know,the cheapest thing just because it's the cheapest.
We're always really considered of neighborhoods.But I think for this trip in
particular, we were looking for thosetwo main things, which was parks and
subway stations, like being close tothe metro slash train. Yeah, I
think that that's a really good point. We're like, we don't want the
(14:54):
first time we were in Japan,we had a few times it's like,
oh, we're going for dinner overhere, and it's like an now we're
fifty of walking and busing and trainingto get there, and so yeah,
wanting to have stuff that was reachablewithin like one lose awake windows. And
then the other part was like knowingneeds kind of a spot to work and
a spot to nap loose, sowhether that's like a hotel room that would
(15:16):
likely have space, or something that'snear a cafe, or something that has
a separate room in it, whichdoes like because there was we could have
found cheaper accommodations if we were justlooking for like really small bed in our
room type spaces. Yeah, whichis a lot of what we did our
first time in Asia, Like wewere really in a lot of small spaces,
and then we did things like workingin cafes, working in coworking spaces,
(15:39):
which you can certainly go work fromthose spaces. But I think one
thing we really took away from Columbiaand staying for three and a bit weeks
in a one bedroom apartment is like, yeah, it's totally doable, it's
totally fine, but it's not anideal amount of space for a long time,
just because she does need to nap, and then that puts us in
(16:00):
the same area, and if we'reboth doing calls, or you're doing calls
and I'm trying to do something,or you're doing calls while she's awake,
it just makes it a little trickier. So we did we're only in one
hotel for our I guess we're inone hotel when we start, and then
we have like some more traditional kindof Japanese ryokan hotel experiences while vacation is
(16:22):
happening, and then once you're working, we've gotten apartments or houses with a
couple of different spaces in them tohopefully set ourselves up for success for that.
Yeah. Yeah, and so maybelet's shift a bit towards packing.
I feel like this is one ofthe big things about having a baby or
a child is like all the extraequipment that comes along with it, and
(16:44):
particularly doing a trip like this,you've got to think about like, Okay,
what can I bring on a planein terms of like my baggage allotment,
but also going from like travels inLatin America, where you know Uber
is going to be super affordable,we're just gonna like jump out rent a
car go go go, versus atrip that's more like public transit base.
So we kind of know, yeah, we can take two check bags on
(17:06):
the plane maybe, but we're gonnahave to push lou and her stroller when
we have to get a stroller on, but then do a lot more walking,
carry all over stuff with us forthe first time in a while,
and obviously the first time where wehave a baby. So what was that
kind of like going through your planningfor the packing, the equipment that part
of that. Yeah, I feellike this has been something that I've just
(17:27):
been like thinking and rethinking about anddoing research on for literally months and months
as we've been kind of gearing upfor this, and I think part of
what we've kind of narrowed down tohas been we're taking the Shinkins in,
which is the bullet train, andthe bullet trains have luggage limits so that
you actually have to like measure yourluggage and make sure that your luggage fits
(17:49):
within a limit and you can onlyhave like two pieces per person and stuff
like that. So we've had tomake sure that we can fit within that.
If you don't, you can dolike lug forwarding services. But I
think for us, we decided like, hey, we don't want to do
that. So basically we decided we'lldo one kind of regular size checked bag,
one carry on size bag that we'lljust carry on or maybe check just
(18:14):
depending on the flight, and thenwe'll each have backpacks. We have a
super great travel stroller for her.We have the Yo Yo by baby Zen.
Not sponsored, but if they didwant to spawn on a sponsor as
that would be amazing. I lovethe stroller, so if anyone's traveling with
kids, it's a great one.It folds down super small. And then
we actually even just got like anew smaller diaper bag because we have a
(18:36):
backpack style diaper bag and just thinkingabout like, hey, it doesn't fit
underneath with this smaller stroller that we'vegot. Where are we going to put
it? If we're like walking throughtrain stations, you know, et cetera,
et cetera. How is that goingto work? And that's all we're
taking so for this trip, becausewe're not taking any cars or any taxis
(18:56):
or anything like that, we don'tneed a car seat for her. So
that's going to be really great tonot have that. I think that's going
to cut down on our luggage substantiallybecause she's not doing like the car seat
stroller combo anymore, so excited aboutthat and also just hoping that that ends
up being the right decision for us. And then I think even more so
(19:17):
not sure about if this is theright decision, but we've decided not to
take her travel crib because her travelcrib fits beautifully in a very big piece
of luggage that we have. It'sthe biggest suitcase from away luggage. If
fits in one half and then herand I can share the other half of
it because it's so big. Butthat suitcase is like too big for the
Shinkinson. So we've decided not totake that. And one thing that I
(19:38):
think will work really well is thatmost of the time we're going to be
sleeping on the floor, so she'llhave her own little pad on the floor.
We don't have to worry about herrolling off of a bed, etc.
Etc. And one thing I've donea lot of research on is that
Japan is very kid friendly. Thereare a ton of services for renting anything
that we need. I actually evenread a blog post that somebody suggested,
(19:59):
don't bring us stroller, just rentone when you need. We decided not
to do that. We will havea baby carrier with us, but we
are going to have her strollers.So ideal situation is lou Is in the
stroller. Say, I'm pushing her, her diaper bag is underneath. I've
got my backpack on, You've gotyour backpack on, and then you're you
know, pushing or pulling to piecesof luggage that should both be like reasonable
(20:23):
in size. So that's kind oflike our vision for this is that's all
of our stuff. Yeah, Ifeel like that's maybe this is something that
you get as you travel more.Is like you start thinking about like what
your vision is, and maybe whenyou're like less experienced or thinking about like
what do I want to have whenI'm there and you're imagining going out and
doing things and having like this thingor having this thing. I feel like
(20:45):
for this trip, for me,it was like imagining us like going up
and down escalators within a train station. I mean, like what do we
have and like what is that like? Okay, like exactly like you're picturing
there, Like okay, if we'vegot the stroller, we don't want to
have more than like one big suitcaseand one small suitcase because we just don't
have the hands to make that work. So you kind of got everything.
(21:08):
And so because of that, weliked bought some of the kind of vacuumable
packing suitcases packing bags, sorry,which is something we have used like seven,
eight, nine years ago and thenjust haven't used for a long time
since then. And I think areboth packing pretty light personally, like more
(21:30):
so like yeah, if I'm dirty, like that close and all that,
it'll be worth it to have likemore space and less things to carry around.
I mean, we have access tolaundry. That's just like I checked
everywhere we're going. I think prettymuch everywhere's access to laundry. Of course
there's laundry mats. Like I thinkwe've just kind of figured like, because
(21:51):
of the way we're traveling with thistrip, we really don't want to have
a lot. So I think I'vepacked like seven warm weather outfits for lou
a couple of like light summer pieces, like six pairs of pajamas. That's
all. Yeah, you know,like you have one pair of pants.
I think I have like one pairof jeans, and then like a couple
pairs of leggings, like one sweater, and we've kind of with this trip
(22:14):
been like, if we need morethings, let's buy them while we're over
there. And I know that's noteveryone's speed. I talked with a friend
who said that she really doesn't likebuying things when she's in a place,
especially if they're traveling the lot andit's quick, quick, quick. But
we just felt like for this tripthat let's just pack like, you know,
one sweater each, and if weneed more sweaters, we can buy
sweaters once we get there, asopposed to bringing like three sweaters that take
(22:37):
up a lot of space and thenmaybe not using them. Yeah, And
I think kind of like you said, with the buying stuff thing, I
think we both like one of thethings we enjoyed about Japan is like going
to some of the stores and likeseeing what's there. So I think people
have wanted to leave space. Andalso it's kind of fun to, like,
I K don't know, if youbuy a lou like a nice one
(23:00):
from Japan, that's like a nicelike memory connected to that thing for a
little while. So I think we'rekind of both excited about like doing stuff
like that. If we need somethingextra, like we can find it over
there, as opposed to like bringingsomething we don't need, Yeah, for
sure. And I think that thereare other things that I might want,
like what I love to have aportable high chair for her, Like sure,
(23:22):
yeah, that would probably make thingsat our airbnbs and stuff easier.
But the great thing again about aJapan is that a lot of the places
we're staying have tables on the floor, so perfect, we don't need a
high chair for her. That's somethingthat is heavy, it's inconvenient, it's
going to take up a lot ofspace into suitcase, and so it's like,
if we really need something, we'rejust going to buy it once we
get there and we're Yeah, likeI said, packing really light. And
(23:45):
I feel like there's a lot offreedom that comes with that because I feel
like over the years, as we'vekind of shifted from like backpackers to nomads
to kind of like expats where we'vedone a lot of trips with cars and
stuff, it's like we've had alot of stuff, and I like the
idea of being a little less weightdown. Yeah. I think the other
thing about packing night is just kindof given the given the seasons, like
(24:08):
kind of going from Mexico into springin Japan, where it's a little bit
cooler, Like, honestly, don'treally have the option to pack super heavy
because like I have, like,you know, one coat, one pair
of long pants, So don't reallyhave the options for like cold weather gear.
(24:29):
Anyways. Yeah, for sure,this is true. I think one
thing that for me I wasn't superclear on was just like the reality of
what it's going to be like totake a fifteen hour flight. Especially too,
because when you book a flight inOctober for April and you've got what
did we have at that point inOctober tenth month? You got an eight
(24:49):
month old, and then you goto like a fourteen month old, that's
a lot bigger. It's like you'relike, oh, wow, you've got
to like carry this fourteen month old. Yeah, but yeah, what's kind
of gone into like the prepping forthe flight, for the sleep part of
it and all that type of stuff. I guess. Yeah, another important
data point is that we're flying fromjust after midnight in Mexico and then you're
(25:14):
on the plane fifteen hours. Youget off the plane at six sam in
Tokyo. Yeah, for sure.So I think a little bit of anxiety,
a lot of reaching out to communityand parent friends. I've posted in
some like mom groups that I havehere in Mexico as well as on my
personal Instagram asking friends for their tipsand stuff like that, and people have
(25:36):
been so generous with recommendations. I'vealso read a lot of blog posts just
to try to just prepare ourselves themost, and I feel like, yeah,
an eight month old is so differentfrom a fourteen month old, and
if you've never had a fourteen monthold before, it's like you have no
idea how to compare it. Butjust to give you a quick overview,
like when lou was eight months old, I guess they traveled when herd with
(26:00):
her. When she was nine monthsold, she was starting to get a
little rowdier on planes, but stillvery like would nurse on the way up,
fall asleep for a little bit lookof the window. You know,
she wasn't on the move or anything. That she slept a lot, Yeah,
slept a lot. So those earlyflights were great because she would just
nurse on the way up and she'dsleep a good amount of the flight.
Obviously we were taking like shorter flights, so that's a big difference. But
(26:22):
now she's like crawling everywhere. She'spulling herself to stand. She started to
like cruise between things. So Imean, she would be happiest if she
could just like like crawl down theaisles, pull herself up on chairs,
wave at people, kind of likescoop between people's chairs. And I think
the majority of people probably don't wantthat on the flight. So we're definitely
(26:45):
going to have to keep her inour section of the plane. And so
I think the biggest thing has been, you know, definitely try to get
her to sleep on the plane,it being midnight. Hopefully that should go
well. We're hoping for at leasta couple of hours of sleep. I
mean, her sleeping from like twelveto six thirty like she normally was,
would be an absolute blessing that I'mputting out to the universe, is my
(27:10):
hope, although preparing for the worst. And then obviously we'll just try to
sleep while she sleeps. And thenI have prepared a lot of toys.
I have them all separated in mycarry on bag already packed. I bought
her some new ones, and Ialso, you know, we're going to
be leaving later this week and probablyclose to two weeks ago. Now,
I took everything that we're taking andtucked it away. And the biggest tip
(27:33):
I got was on top of tryingto get them to sleep as much as
you can, is make sure toysare new and fresh, so she hasn't
played with them for a while,so they're exciting. Do one toy at
a time. Got lots of tipson snacks, so we've been stalking up
on snacks, trying new snacks,getting her organized with that so that she
has we can rotate between snacks andtoys. And then we've also downloaded some
(27:56):
kids shows on the iPad as abackup. I think we're not huge on
screen time. Lu doesn't really watchTV because she's so little, but it's
definitely just there is like a bitof a safety blanket in case we just
need a little bit of reprieve fromtaking care of her. And then the
biggest tips I got for arriving arelike, try to keep her day as
normal as possible, so try tokeep her up, don't let her sleep
(28:18):
all day, you know, justget her her normal nap time to the
best of your ability. Do thesame for ourselves. And yeah, kids
are really adaptable. I think peoplehave been really like reminding me, like
babies and little kids are really adaptable, and so it might be like a
couple of hard nights when we getthere, we all might be a little
tired, but it's definitely going tobe worth it. So I feel like
(28:40):
those have been the main things thatI've been preparing for. It's also going
to be interesting for us because it'salmost like six years exactly from the last
time we did a Japan trip,and then a couple months under six years
exactly from the last time you hada big trans ocean adventure. So really
put ourselves in a situation where welike would experience significant jet leg in a
(29:03):
long time, Like we went fromlike Central time to Eastern time's Central time
to Pacific time, and two hourshits you a little bit, but it's
like not a whole day. Ifeel like That's part of what's been making
me anxious too, is like Ifeel a bit rusty with us, Like
we haven't crossed an ocean in solong, we haven't done jet leg for
so long. You know, we'reolder, we're traveling at a slower pace
(29:25):
these days, and so I'm abit like, oh, this is going
to be a bit intense. Pluswe're adding the baby on top of it,
but and also going to a countrywhere we don't speak the language for
the first time in like six yearstoo, Like we've really just been in
north central South America and we speakSpanish and obviously we speak English. So
I feel like there's a little bitof like feeling a bit rusty with this
(29:47):
and then adding the baby to themix, which is like a whole new
ball game for us in terms oflong flight jet leg you know, a
very different culture, etc. Etc. Yeah. Yeah, the other thing
I think when it comes a flyingso I think most people know or maybe
you don't know, but if ababy's under two, they don't have to
play pay for an airplane ticket.We're trying to creates this like it'll be
(30:08):
great to travel before they're two,but especially like with our baby, who's
quite large. By the time youget like past like twelve months, babies
are quite big and like they're wigglyand they want to be places and doing
things. And so I think whenwe booked the tickets to now there's kind
of been this like I mean she'slike doubled in size, feeling of like
(30:30):
what do I value and like Ican't remember what the prices. So we
booked for like the premium economy seats, so like economy seats, but like
a little bit bigger. I don'tremember what like the higher class seats were
at the time, But as weactually get closer to taking the flight,
I'm like, would it have justbeen worth it to buy a third seat?
Would it have been worth it toupgrade? And so we'll see if
(30:52):
we can get an upgrade or not. But the I think the thing for
me is thinking about two like asyou get towards that like two year old
stage, like one of the coolthings you could do is like book one
person into like a first class seatand one person too, like the cheapest
seat possible, and do stuff likethat because like thinking about fifteen hours holding
(31:14):
the baby and they like don't wantyou to put the baby on the floor,
and like if the baby's sleeping here, can't sleeping that's like a pretty
daunting feeling. Yeah, for sure, I think that that's definitely definitely a
factor that's played into our thinking inpreparation. And again I think it was
like, yeah, of course we'renot going to like buy her a seat.
She's like a tiny little baby.And now we've got like more of
(31:34):
a little human and she is atall, big human, and so yeah,
it is a bit daunting to thinklike she doesn't just she's not going
to be able to lie on justone of our laughs, Like she's going
to have to kind of lie acrossboth of us, and so yeah,
we'll just do our best. Ifeel like my mantra this week has been
like I can do hard things forlong periods of time, and especially doing
(31:56):
hard things that are so worth it, right, like worth it to be
able to take this trip, especiallywith her, and while she's a little
like it's a real blessing to dothis. Yeah, And I think the
other real blessing is like being ableto keep work going. So I'm planning
to take a week off work andthen go back into working, and so
that allows us to stay for amonth, which makes it like, yeah,
(32:21):
like hey, if it's a reallyhard day getting over there, then
it's like okay, you can breathefor a while. So that makes it
really really nice. And so we'redefinitely blessed in that regard. Anything else
come to mind and karents of likeplanning for this trip, things you've learned,
things that have been really helpful thatlike, if someone else was thinking
about doing something, like you'd recommendto them. Well, I'm cautious to
(32:43):
give any recommendations when we haven't actuallydone a lot of it yet. So
I am really excited to do afollow up, just sharing what worked,
what didn't work, what we've learnedfrom this trip, because I know that
even taking the learnings from this lasttrip, there's going to be so many
more learnings that we will have alongalong this trip, just because it is
going to be different. But Ithink one other thing that I'll just share
(33:04):
has just been like, it's beeninteresting kind of planning this trip from this
perspective of like more family travel.And I think because Lou is, you
know, more of a toddler thanshe is a baby these days, you
know, she's engaged with things andwe need to do things that are kind
of exciting and interesting for her.So we've been kind of looking at like,
Okay, what are some things thatlike lou might find to be fun,
(33:25):
and that's not necessarily just the thingsthat we we think to be fun.
So it's been kind of interesting tokind of plan and approach the trip
as we get closer from that perspective, so we'll definitely update with all the
things that we do. We stillhave a bit of research to do and
some planning to do in terms ofwhat we actually want to do. And
I think one other thing along thesame lines that I'll add is like we're
(33:47):
talking with a friend who's going tobe there, and she's like, what's
on your list? Like, whatdo you guys want to do like the
first few days you get there whilewe're together, And I was like,
honestly, we don't have very much. You know, we aren't planning a
lot. And I think the firsttime we went to Japan or the you
know, the last time we werein Asia, just in general pre baby,
it was like, you know,I've got my list of like thirty
(34:07):
things I want to do, andit's like, okay, today we're going
to do like XXXXX thing. AndI think one of the things that we've
done is just slowed things down.And I think it's a lot more about
like let's go to a park,Let's like, you know, enjoy some
good food, Let's grab a coffee, Let's explore a little bit. Let's
make sure we like have some downtimeso we're all resting or she's sleeping.
(34:30):
There's a little less doing and Ithink a little more just being perhaps,
Yeah, And I feel like forme, Japan's like the type of place
too where I just like want tolike be in Japan. I don't feel
like the need to like do doodoo doo doo. Like I want to
eat good food, go to somecafes, walk around, go to parks,
take the train. Like there's alot of like those fun experiences of
like kind of everyday normal things thatare like just kind of cool, Like
(34:52):
you had a restaurant, they gotlike the robot conveyor belts, you get
on the train and it goes likea bazillion miles an hour. Especially doing
that stuff with with a Lou,I think it's going to be really fun
to take her on the train andsee what that's like for her, you
know, and take her all thesedifferent places. So yeah, we're definitely
going to fall up on this.We'll kind of yeah, recap and make
(35:13):
sure we like digest and give reallystrong recommendations for like flying on a plane
and all the other stuff from fromour own learnings. But it really excited
for it. If you're listening rightnow and want to go check us out
on social media. You'll probably seesome stuff from our Japan adventure. Yeah,
absolutely, and yeah, we'll keepyou posted on if not buying Louis
Seat was a bad idea or agood a good savings plant. We'll definitely
(35:38):
let you know the verdict. Ones. We've we've done this and if anyone
out there is getting ready to travelwith little ones and needs tips, feel
free to reach out. And ifanyone has ahead of us and has any
other suggestions or tips for us,please also reach out. We're really in
the phase of wanting to learn asmuch as we can, so stay tuned
for our adventures. We're really excitedto share about Japan and we will see
(36:01):
you soon. Thanks for listening tothis episode. If you want more to
make sure to check out the WorldWanders Insider available on Patreon at patreon dot
com, slash the World Wanderers.For show notes, head over to the
world wanders dot com. Find uson social media at the World Wanders podcast,
and join the private Facebook community atWorld Wanders, a community for travelers.
(36:22):
You can always get in touch withus at info at the world wanders
dot com and if you enjoyed theshow, don't forget to subscribe and leave
a review. It really helps usfind new listeners. See you next time.
Hello, and welcome to the Worldwanders Podcast, a proud part of the
wander Barn podcast network. I'm Ryan, I'm Amanda, and we're your host.
We're a traveling couple and digital nomads, taking you on our adventures as
we explore locations, destinations, andcareers. Enjoy the show. Hello everyone,
and welcome back to the World Wandererspodcast. Very excited to have you
(00:25):
here with us again this week andpretty excited to dive into what we're going
to talk about today. Amanda,Welcome to the show. Thanks for having
me. So, yeah, what'sthe theme for today. Yeah, we're
talking a little bit about travel planning, which is something we've talked about over
the years in the podcast for differenttypes of trips, and we want to
(00:47):
talk specifically about planning our first internationaloverseas trip with the baby because it's been
a little bit different, well,it's been a lot different traveling with her
in general. And if you guyshave been following along over the last couple
of months, and you know,we've really just started traveling with her kind
of more extensively this year, andthis is a this is a huge trip
(01:08):
for us. Yeah, and sofor anyone who didn't know or hadn't seen
we are going to Japan. Asyou're listening to this, as this episode's
coming out, we will currently fingerscrossed not on would be in Japan.
And so we'd taken a trip toColombia, which was with the connection through
Panamas. I think that the longestflight was like four hours, yeah,
(01:30):
and then other than that, thelongest flights she's been on have just been
like to the US into Canada,which had been more like four hour or
five hour maybe six hour flights yeah, and so yeah, going to Japan,
it's a fifteen hour flight. Andso we've kind of done a lot
of like asking around getting tips onnot just smashing the flight, but also
(01:51):
planning the trip and also just basedoff our trip to Columbia, I want
to talk a little bit about howwe adapted our plans for Japan. So
I guess a place to start wouldbe like, why are we deciding to
go to Japan? What kind ofmotivated that to be like our first big
over the ocean trip. Yeah,So I think that part of it was
that Japan finally opened up to tourism, and it opened up at a time
(02:13):
where we were kind of just startingto think about twenty twenty three plans where
we wanted to go, when wewanted to go places at this point.
So it would have been October oftwenty twenty two and Japan opened that they
were that they announced that they wereopening for tourism again. We had booked
Colombia and Panama, and we'd beenthinking that maybe we wanted to do something
(02:35):
a little bit bigger, kind ofin between that trip and in between our
yearly trip home to Canada, whichwill happen in the summer. But we
didn't really know where we wanted togo, and so a couple things that
we were considering and tossing around were, you know, time zones. Time
zones are a big thing. You'reworking full time right now, you work
on you know, American North Americantime zones. And so we'd kind of
(02:58):
talked about, you know, maybePortugal or maybe Eastern Europe, you know,
we were planning to go there intwenty twenty hadn't been able to do
that, maybe thinking about going furthersouth kind of Uruguay, Argentina, something
like that. Hadn't really settled onanything, and then yeah, I got
the notification that Japan is open.And I don't remember if we talked about
(03:19):
this on the podcast, but Ryanand I actually had flights to go to
Japan for the spring of twenty twentyone, which obviously those flights got canceled
and refunded because it wasn't open,and so it kind of feels like we're
just continuing this like loop of redoingtrips that got canceled through the pandemic.
And it kind of felt perfect becausealthough you might be thinking, like,
Okay, that time zone's way moreextreme than Europe, it's actually a little
(03:43):
bit easier than Europe. Yeah,and so Japan is I can't remember the
exact number, but five pm Easternis six am in Tokyo, which yeah,
makes it reasonably doable for like eveningoverlap. But yeah, kind of
like you said, we had theidea of going to Japan, and I
think for us too, like oncewe had, you know, a third
(04:06):
member of the family, a smallchild to take care of, it changes
the way you think about like theplaces you want to go. I think
it made us more excited to goback to some places we've been before,
but also excited about going places thatfelt just like places where we could kind
of like feel a bit comfortable andlike know, hey, security and safety
(04:28):
is less of a concern obviously topay attention to that stuff no matter where
you are. But Japan, Ithink is a place where we feel both
like pretty comfortable and pretty excited aboutexploring with a small toddler, as opposed
to some other places that might feelexciting but also give us a little bit
of a feeling of sketchiness. Yeah, for sure. And even though there's
a lot of things that I thinkare uncomfortable in Japan, like we don't
(04:50):
speak much of the language, andyou know, the food is different,
the culture is different. Obviously,those are things that we've done a million
times, and that's one of thereasons we love travel. So yeah,
I guess safety was certainly a factor. And then I think another thing that
when we are traveling places now thatwe're really looking for is like nature.
(05:10):
We nature is a little bit trickierin Mexico. Mexico is not famous for
getting out and taking hikes. Andwhile there are certainly many places you can
go hiking in Mexico and many beautifulthings to explore, I think we're looking
thinking somewhere that's a bit more calm, you know, a little less chaotic,
a little more organized, beautiful airquality, some mountains we could hike
(05:32):
in, that type of thing inJapan definitely checks those boxes. Yeah,
so we went We're like, oh, Japan's up and up. I wonder
how much it costs to fly toJapan from Mexico. Looked it up.
We're, i think pleasantly surprised,not like shocked by amazing deals, but
like, Okay, that's totally likedoable. And so we booked our flights
(05:53):
end of October and then started thinkingabout what we wanted to go do and
kind of we knew during that timeframe part of it would be like finding
more of a settled spot to beable to like comfortably work, and so
we booked our first airbnb kind ofmid November, a beautiful little apartment in
Osaka. But then kind of like, what did it look like for us
(06:14):
to decide like where we wanted togo, what we wanted to do.
How did we kind of like fillin the details of the trip. Yeah,
that's a great question. So weknew we wanted to bookend our trip
with Tokyo, so we knew wewanted to start there. Spend a couple
of days there, you know,just settle there. Tokyo is obviously a
huge city in while we've been therebefore, I think there's a million more
(06:35):
things to explore and obviously many morerestaurants to try, and so we wanted
to just land there, spend thefirst few days getting over jet leg and
just settling in Tokyo, and thenhaving some time at the end of the
trip as well to be there.And then basically it started with doing some
research and the plans that we wantedto do shifted a number of times because
(06:59):
we wanted to go back over towardsMount Fuji, but stay in a different
city than we'd stayed before. Andby the time I got around looking at
it, you know, there wasn'ta lot of accommodation, and the stuff
that was available was very, veryexpensive, and we just felt like,
Okay, this isn't the best bankfor our back. Could we go somewhere
else? And then started doing researchon other places that we could go to,
(07:20):
and particularly, like I mentioned,places that are connected to nature,
places that had you know, gardensor parks or something that we could do
that would be outdoorsy kind of funfor lou and so we ended up landing
on spending the first kind of weekafter Tokyo in which you're not going to
be working. So we're taking alittle vacation, going between a city right
(07:44):
outside of Nagano that's really famous forthe snow monkeys, and then heading to
Kanazawa, which is kind of alittle a little mountain town, and we
found, you know, really affordable. Is it not a mountain town.
I think it's a fairly large city, okay. I feel like it's interesting
when you go to places in Asiabecause places that seem smaller are still really
really large in comparison, especially forUS Canadians. But it seems like a
(08:05):
good jumping off point for nature stuff. Yeah, yeah, definitely, that's
a better way to put it.And then we were planning to spend a
week in Osaka and then kind ofgo a little further south, and we
were looking at some cities like Okayamaand Kiashiki, those have been recommended to
us, and we weren't finding accommodationthat we felt super excited about. So
(08:28):
we decided to actually spend two weeksin Osaka, stay more settled, and
then use that as a jumping offpoint. We have a three week JR
railpass, so we can travel andthe trains unlimited, and this will really
allow us to not be moving aroundquite as much with lu which having read
a bunch of blog posts specific toJapan but also just about traveling overseas with
(08:52):
children, it seems like that wasthe biggest recommendation, Like, don't be
going somewhere every couple of days becauseso much more packing, it's much more
coordinating, You're just going to endup really tired. And so I'm really
excited about this decision because we're goingto have this base, but we there's
so many places to explore by Osaka, and we only spent like one day
there the last time on our tripbecause we mostly based in Kyoto. So
(09:16):
we can go back to Kyoto,we can go to Nara, we can
go to Kobe, we can goto Oka Yama, we can go to
Kiyoshiki. Lots of things to explore, but we're not going to be like
picking up and packing every single nightor every couple of days to do those
things. Yeah, so just kindof hit on a couple points on stuff
you covered. We booked kind ofour first thing and we had the Tokyo
(09:39):
as like our starting end plan inplace, and we kind of like did
the booking of the flight at theend of October, first air of Union
November, and we kind of justlike left out alone. We're kind of
just like playing with the different ideastalking about it now and again. And
I feel like from the time likeOctober November passed to January February when we
started really looking into stuff, theprices accommodation had really gone up a ton,
(10:03):
like double triple. And so Ithink that kind of our initial plan
of like maybe getting going a fewmore places, going to a few like
smaller places, I think changed alittle bit because we were just like seeing
some prices that were honestly just likewhoa kind of crazy high, and so
that changes a little bit. Andthen plus going to Colombia, taking that
(10:26):
trip I think really showed us like, hey, having a strong like base
and then exploring from there is likereally enjoyable and nice, and so especially
with like the trainings and transit inJapan, like just feeling like, hey,
we set up some strong bases,there's tons of stuff to explore.
I think also with a trip,sometimes you start and you have kind of
these unconstrained ideas of like, I'mgonna go everywhere, it's gonna be amazing,
(10:50):
and then you start like getting downto it and looking at it and
you're like, you know what ifwe are in like Osaka, Tokyo kind
as a couple other places, takewe can day trips, like that's a
really healthy amount of stuff to see. And so yeah, we kind of
we settled in. I went withthat plan. Kind of how did the
(11:13):
planning process for us change the factthat we're doing it with lu instead of
it just being us. Yeah,So I think there are a couple things.
I mean, one is what wejust talked about with the not going
as many places. I think onething with a baby that's challenging is the
like checkout at eleven, check inat three pm. You know, she
(11:35):
basically needs to nap during the hoursof eleven and three, and she's not
napping all of them, but ingeneral, her nap is kind of in
between those hours, which makes ita little bit tricky on those days,
and so we wanted to kind ofminimize that type of thing. I think
another takeaway we had from our Panamaslash Columbia trip was just because she does
(11:58):
nap and because she's not up forlike that long of periods of time before
she kind of gets grumpy like needsto go down for a nap or needs
to go down for bed. Wewant to kind of do things that are
kind of close to accommodation, Sowe don't want to be spending an hour
and a half getting somewhere and thentrying to do something for an hour and
then trying to get back and timeto put her to bed and stuff like
(12:22):
that or put her down for anap. And so one of the things
we've done is we are staying intwo different neighborhoods and each time in Tokyo,
and then actually between the first weekand the second week of Osaka,
we're also switching accommodations to a differentlocation. So I think that those will
help us to kind of plan ourstuff to be a little bit closer to
where we are. And of coursethere's going to be times where we explore
(12:45):
a bit further, or bedtime getspushed back or naptime gets pushed back,
and that's okay, but just tryingto kind of stick with her regular routine
and exploring around that, and Ithink that staying in different neighborhoods will allow
us to do that. Yeah,I think if we were just planning,
the two of us probably would havehigher chance of leaving some stuff open.
(13:07):
Like maybe we just would have lefta couple of things open and been like,
oh, we'll figure it out,like let me get close to it,
or maybe even when we're there,like not huge things, but maybe
like a couple of weekends or something. I think we probably would have gone
like a couple more places. Yeah, i'd probably and maybe straight a little
bit further. I think, especiallyyeah, that that first trip learning was
(13:28):
like, yeah, maybe like lowerthe amount of things you want to do.
And also I think from that Columbiatrip, one of the things we
came alar with it was like,oh, it'd have been really cool to
stay in a different neighborhood just becausethe reach you have of a city like
is limited, like you said,when the baby's napping. So because of
that, having like two different neighborhoodsof these cities is almost like exploring two
(13:48):
different cities in a way. It'spretty excited about that. Yeah, definitely
me as well. And I thinkone other thing I'll add to the list
is just when we were looking ataccommodation. One thing we were a little
bit more particular about this time around, I think because of Lou was being
one close to train stations and thentwo ideally close to like a park or
(14:09):
something like that, so we couldget out and have somewhere that we could
be outside with her, especially you'regoing to be working three of the four
weeks that we're there, so somewherewhere I can take her and we can
you know, she can crawl slashtoddle in the grass, or we can
just go, you know, geta coffee, hang out outside, and
that type of thing. So wewere a little bit more particular about the
locations of our accommodation. And wealways are like, we don't just book
(14:33):
just random things or you know,the cheapest thing just because it's the cheapest.
We're always really considered of neighborhoods.But I think for this trip in
particular, we were looking for thosetwo main things, which was parks and
subway stations, like being close tothe metro slash train. Yeah, I
think that that's a really good point. We're like, we don't want the
(14:54):
first time we were in Japan,we had a few times it's like,
oh, we're going for dinner overhere, and it's like an now we're
fifty of walking and busing and trainingto get there, and so yeah,
wanting to have stuff that was reachablewithin like one lose awake windows. And
then the other part was like knowingneeds kind of a spot to work and
a spot to nap loose, sowhether that's like a hotel room that would
(15:16):
likely have space, or something that'snear a cafe, or something that has
a separate room in it, whichdoes like because there was we could have
found cheaper accommodations if we were justlooking for like really small bed in our
room type spaces. Yeah, whichis a lot of what we did our
first time in Asia, Like wewere really in a lot of small spaces,
and then we did things like workingin cafes, working in coworking spaces,
(15:39):
which you can certainly go work fromthose spaces. But I think one
thing we really took away from Columbiaand staying for three and a bit weeks
in a one bedroom apartment is like, yeah, it's totally doable, it's
totally fine, but it's not anideal amount of space for a long time,
just because she does need to nap, and then that puts us in
(16:00):
the same area, and if we'reboth doing calls, or you're doing calls
and I'm trying to do something,or you're doing calls while she's awake,
it just makes it a little trickier. So we did we're only in one
hotel for our I guess we're inone hotel when we start, and then
we have like some more traditional kindof Japanese ryokan hotel experiences while vacation is
(16:22):
happening, and then once you're working, we've gotten apartments or houses with a
couple of different spaces in them tohopefully set ourselves up for success for that.
Yeah. Yeah, and so maybelet's shift a bit towards packing.
I feel like this is one ofthe big things about having a baby or
a child is like all the extraequipment that comes along with it, and
(16:44):
particularly doing a trip like this,you've got to think about like, Okay,
what can I bring on a planein terms of like my baggage allotment,
but also going from like travels inLatin America, where you know Uber
is going to be super affordable,we're just gonna like jump out rent a
car go go go, versus atrip that's more like public transit base.
So we kind of know, yeah, we can take two check bags on
(17:06):
the plane maybe, but we're gonnahave to push lou and her stroller when
we have to get a stroller on, but then do a lot more walking,
carry all over stuff with us forthe first time in a while,
and obviously the first time where wehave a baby. So what was that
kind of like going through your planningfor the packing, the equipment that part
of that. Yeah, I feellike this has been something that I've just
(17:27):
been like thinking and rethinking about anddoing research on for literally months and months
as we've been kind of gearing upfor this, and I think part of
what we've kind of narrowed down tohas been we're taking the Shinkins in,
which is the bullet train, andthe bullet trains have luggage limits so that
you actually have to like measure yourluggage and make sure that your luggage fits
(17:49):
within a limit and you can onlyhave like two pieces per person and stuff
like that. So we've had tomake sure that we can fit within that.
If you don't, you can dolike lug forwarding services. But I
think for us, we decided like, hey, we don't want to do
that. So basically we decided we'lldo one kind of regular size checked bag,
one carry on size bag that we'lljust carry on or maybe check just
(18:14):
depending on the flight, and thenwe'll each have backpacks. We have a
super great travel stroller for her.We have the Yo Yo by baby Zen.
Not sponsored, but if they didwant to spawn on a sponsor as
that would be amazing. I lovethe stroller, so if anyone's traveling with
kids, it's a great one.It folds down super small. And then
we actually even just got like anew smaller diaper bag because we have a
(18:36):
backpack style diaper bag and just thinkingabout like, hey, it doesn't fit
underneath with this smaller stroller that we'vegot. Where are we going to put
it? If we're like walking throughtrain stations, you know, et cetera,
et cetera. How is that goingto work? And that's all we're
taking so for this trip, becausewe're not taking any cars or any taxis
(18:56):
or anything like that, we don'tneed a car seat for her. So
that's going to be really great tonot have that. I think that's going
to cut down on our luggage substantiallybecause she's not doing like the car seat
stroller combo anymore, so excited aboutthat and also just hoping that that ends
up being the right decision for us. And then I think even more so
(19:17):
not sure about if this is theright decision, but we've decided not to
take her travel crib because her travelcrib fits beautifully in a very big piece
of luggage that we have. It'sthe biggest suitcase from away luggage. If
fits in one half and then herand I can share the other half of
it because it's so big. Butthat suitcase is like too big for the
Shinkinson. So we've decided not totake that. And one thing that I
(19:38):
think will work really well is thatmost of the time we're going to be
sleeping on the floor, so she'llhave her own little pad on the floor.
We don't have to worry about herrolling off of a bed, etc.
Etc. And one thing I've donea lot of research on is that
Japan is very kid friendly. Thereare a ton of services for renting anything
that we need. I actually evenread a blog post that somebody suggested,
(19:59):
don't bring us stroller, just rentone when you need. We decided not
to do that. We will havea baby carrier with us, but we
are going to have her strollers.So ideal situation is lou Is in the
stroller. Say, I'm pushing her, her diaper bag is underneath. I've
got my backpack on, You've gotyour backpack on, and then you're you
know, pushing or pulling to piecesof luggage that should both be like reasonable
(20:23):
in size. So that's kind oflike our vision for this is that's all
of our stuff. Yeah, Ifeel like that's maybe this is something that
you get as you travel more.Is like you start thinking about like what
your vision is, and maybe whenyou're like less experienced or thinking about like
what do I want to have whenI'm there and you're imagining going out and
doing things and having like this thingor having this thing. I feel like
(20:45):
for this trip, for me,it was like imagining us like going up
and down escalators within a train station. I mean, like what do we
have and like what is that like? Okay, like exactly like you're picturing
there, Like okay, if we'vegot the stroller, we don't want to
have more than like one big suitcaseand one small suitcase because we just don't
have the hands to make that work. So you kind of got everything.
(21:08):
And so because of that, weliked bought some of the kind of vacuumable
packing suitcases packing bags, sorry,which is something we have used like seven,
eight, nine years ago and thenjust haven't used for a long time
since then. And I think areboth packing pretty light personally, like more
(21:30):
so like yeah, if I'm dirty, like that close and all that,
it'll be worth it to have likemore space and less things to carry around.
I mean, we have access tolaundry. That's just like I checked
everywhere we're going. I think prettymuch everywhere's access to laundry. Of course
there's laundry mats. Like I thinkwe've just kind of figured like, because
(21:51):
of the way we're traveling with thistrip, we really don't want to have
a lot. So I think I'vepacked like seven warm weather outfits for lou
a couple of like light summer pieces, like six pairs of pajamas. That's
all. Yeah, you know,like you have one pair of pants.
I think I have like one pairof jeans, and then like a couple
pairs of leggings, like one sweater, and we've kind of with this trip
(22:14):
been like, if we need morethings, let's buy them while we're over
there. And I know that's noteveryone's speed. I talked with a friend
who said that she really doesn't likebuying things when she's in a place,
especially if they're traveling the lot andit's quick, quick, quick. But
we just felt like for this tripthat let's just pack like, you know,
one sweater each, and if weneed more sweaters, we can buy
sweaters once we get there, asopposed to bringing like three sweaters that take
(22:37):
up a lot of space and thenmaybe not using them. Yeah, And
I think kind of like you said, with the buying stuff thing, I
think we both like one of thethings we enjoyed about Japan is like going
to some of the stores and likeseeing what's there. So I think people
have wanted to leave space. Andalso it's kind of fun to, like,
I K don't know, if youbuy a lou like a nice one
(23:00):
from Japan, that's like a nicelike memory connected to that thing for a
little while. So I think we'rekind of both excited about like doing stuff
like that. If we need somethingextra, like we can find it over
there, as opposed to like bringingsomething we don't need, Yeah, for
sure. And I think that thereare other things that I might want,
like what I love to have aportable high chair for her, Like sure,
(23:22):
yeah, that would probably make thingsat our airbnbs and stuff easier.
But the great thing again about aJapan is that a lot of the places
we're staying have tables on the floor, so perfect, we don't need a
high chair for her. That's somethingthat is heavy, it's inconvenient, it's
going to take up a lot ofspace into suitcase, and so it's like,
if we really need something, we'rejust going to buy it once we
get there and we're Yeah, likeI said, packing really light. And
(23:45):
I feel like there's a lot offreedom that comes with that because I feel
like over the years, as we'vekind of shifted from like backpackers to nomads
to kind of like expats where we'vedone a lot of trips with cars and
stuff, it's like we've had alot of stuff, and I like the
idea of being a little less weightdown. Yeah. I think the other
thing about packing night is just kindof given the given the seasons, like
(24:08):
kind of going from Mexico into springin Japan, where it's a little bit
cooler, Like, honestly, don'treally have the option to pack super heavy
because like I have, like,you know, one coat, one pair
of long pants, So don't reallyhave the options for like cold weather gear.
(24:29):
Anyways. Yeah, for sure,this is true. I think one
thing that for me I wasn't superclear on was just like the reality of
what it's going to be like totake a fifteen hour flight. Especially too,
because when you book a flight inOctober for April and you've got what
did we have at that point inOctober tenth month? You got an eight
(24:49):
month old, and then you goto like a fourteen month old, that's
a lot bigger. It's like you'relike, oh, wow, you've got
to like carry this fourteen month old. Yeah, but yeah, what's kind
of gone into like the prepping forthe flight, for the sleep part of
it and all that type of stuff. I guess. Yeah, another important
data point is that we're flying fromjust after midnight in Mexico and then you're
(25:14):
on the plane fifteen hours. Youget off the plane at six sam in
Tokyo. Yeah, for sure.So I think a little bit of anxiety,
a lot of reaching out to communityand parent friends. I've posted in
some like mom groups that I havehere in Mexico as well as on my
personal Instagram asking friends for their tipsand stuff like that, and people have
(25:36):
been so generous with recommendations. I'vealso read a lot of blog posts just
to try to just prepare ourselves themost, and I feel like, yeah,
an eight month old is so differentfrom a fourteen month old, and
if you've never had a fourteen monthold before, it's like you have no
idea how to compare it. Butjust to give you a quick overview,
like when lou was eight months old, I guess they traveled when herd with
(26:00):
her. When she was nine monthsold, she was starting to get a
little rowdier on planes, but stillvery like would nurse on the way up,
fall asleep for a little bit lookof the window. You know,
she wasn't on the move or anything. That she slept a lot, Yeah,
slept a lot. So those earlyflights were great because she would just
nurse on the way up and she'dsleep a good amount of the flight.
Obviously we were taking like shorter flights, so that's a big difference. But
(26:22):
now she's like crawling everywhere. She'spulling herself to stand. She started to
like cruise between things. So Imean, she would be happiest if she
could just like like crawl down theaisles, pull herself up on chairs,
wave at people, kind of likescoop between people's chairs. And I think
the majority of people probably don't wantthat on the flight. So we're definitely
(26:45):
going to have to keep her inour section of the plane. And so
I think the biggest thing has been, you know, definitely try to get
her to sleep on the plane,it being midnight. Hopefully that should go
well. We're hoping for at leasta couple of hours of sleep. I
mean, her sleeping from like twelveto six thirty like she normally was,
would be an absolute blessing that I'mputting out to the universe, is my
(27:10):
hope, although preparing for the worst. And then obviously we'll just try to
sleep while she sleeps. And thenI have prepared a lot of toys.
I have them all separated in mycarry on bag already packed. I bought
her some new ones, and Ialso, you know, we're going to
be leaving later this week and probablyclose to two weeks ago. Now,
I took everything that we're taking andtucked it away. And the biggest tip
(27:33):
I got was on top of tryingto get them to sleep as much as
you can, is make sure toysare new and fresh, so she hasn't
played with them for a while,so they're exciting. Do one toy at
a time. Got lots of tipson snacks, so we've been stalking up
on snacks, trying new snacks,getting her organized with that so that she
has we can rotate between snacks andtoys. And then we've also downloaded some
(27:56):
kids shows on the iPad as abackup. I think we're not huge on
screen time. Lu doesn't really watchTV because she's so little, but it's
definitely just there is like a bitof a safety blanket in case we just
need a little bit of reprieve fromtaking care of her. And then the
biggest tips I got for arriving arelike, try to keep her day as
normal as possible, so try tokeep her up, don't let her sleep
(28:18):
all day, you know, justget her her normal nap time to the
best of your ability. Do thesame for ourselves. And yeah, kids
are really adaptable. I think peoplehave been really like reminding me, like
babies and little kids are really adaptable, and so it might be like a
couple of hard nights when we getthere, we all might be a little
tired, but it's definitely going tobe worth it. So I feel like
(28:40):
those have been the main things thatI've been preparing for. It's also going
to be interesting for us because it'salmost like six years exactly from the last
time we did a Japan trip,and then a couple months under six years
exactly from the last time you hada big trans ocean adventure. So really
put ourselves in a situation where welike would experience significant jet leg in a
(29:03):
long time, Like we went fromlike Central time to Eastern time's Central time
to Pacific time, and two hourshits you a little bit, but it's
like not a whole day. Ifeel like That's part of what's been making
me anxious too, is like Ifeel a bit rusty with us, Like
we haven't crossed an ocean in solong, we haven't done jet leg for
so long. You know, we'reolder, we're traveling at a slower pace
(29:25):
these days, and so I'm abit like, oh, this is going
to be a bit intense. Pluswe're adding the baby on top of it,
but and also going to a countrywhere we don't speak the language for
the first time in like six yearstoo, Like we've really just been in
north central South America and we speakSpanish and obviously we speak English. So
I feel like there's a little bitof like feeling a bit rusty with this
(29:47):
and then adding the baby to themix, which is like a whole new
ball game for us in terms oflong flight jet leg you know, a
very different culture, etc. Etc. Yeah. Yeah, the other thing
I think when it comes a flyingso I think most people know or maybe
you don't know, but if ababy's under two, they don't have to
play pay for an airplane ticket.We're trying to creates this like it'll be
(30:08):
great to travel before they're two,but especially like with our baby, who's
quite large. By the time youget like past like twelve months, babies
are quite big and like they're wigglyand they want to be places and doing
things. And so I think whenwe booked the tickets to now there's kind
of been this like I mean she'slike doubled in size, feeling of like
(30:30):
what do I value and like Ican't remember what the prices. So we
booked for like the premium economy seats, so like economy seats, but like
a little bit bigger. I don'tremember what like the higher class seats were
at the time, But as weactually get closer to taking the flight,
I'm like, would it have justbeen worth it to buy a third seat?
Would it have been worth it toupgrade? And so we'll see if
(30:52):
we can get an upgrade or not. But the I think the thing for
me is thinking about two like asyou get towards that like two year old
stage, like one of the coolthings you could do is like book one
person into like a first class seatand one person too, like the cheapest
seat possible, and do stuff likethat because like thinking about fifteen hours holding
(31:14):
the baby and they like don't wantyou to put the baby on the floor,
and like if the baby's sleeping here, can't sleeping that's like a pretty
daunting feeling. Yeah, for sure, I think that that's definitely definitely a
factor that's played into our thinking inpreparation. And again I think it was
like, yeah, of course we'renot going to like buy her a seat.
She's like a tiny little baby.And now we've got like more of
(31:34):
a little human and she is atall, big human, and so yeah,
it is a bit daunting to thinklike she doesn't just she's not going
to be able to lie on justone of our laughs, Like she's going
to have to kind of lie acrossboth of us, and so yeah,
we'll just do our best. Ifeel like my mantra this week has been
like I can do hard things forlong periods of time, and especially doing
(31:56):
hard things that are so worth it, right, like worth it to be
able to take this trip, especiallywith her, and while she's a little
like it's a real blessing to dothis. Yeah, And I think the
other real blessing is like being ableto keep work going. So I'm planning
to take a week off work andthen go back into working, and so
that allows us to stay for amonth, which makes it like, yeah,
(32:21):
like hey, if it's a reallyhard day getting over there, then
it's like okay, you can breathefor a while. So that makes it
really really nice. And so we'redefinitely blessed in that regard. Anything else
come to mind and karents of likeplanning for this trip, things you've learned,
things that have been really helpful thatlike, if someone else was thinking
about doing something, like you'd recommendto them. Well, I'm cautious to
(32:43):
give any recommendations when we haven't actuallydone a lot of it yet. So
I am really excited to do afollow up, just sharing what worked,
what didn't work, what we've learnedfrom this trip, because I know that
even taking the learnings from this lasttrip, there's going to be so many
more learnings that we will have alongalong this trip, just because it is
going to be different. But Ithink one other thing that I'll just share
(33:04):
has just been like, it's beeninteresting kind of planning this trip from this
perspective of like more family travel.And I think because Lou is, you
know, more of a toddler thanshe is a baby these days, you
know, she's engaged with things andwe need to do things that are kind
of exciting and interesting for her.So we've been kind of looking at like,
Okay, what are some things thatlike lou might find to be fun,
(33:25):
and that's not necessarily just the thingsthat we we think to be fun.
So it's been kind of interesting tokind of plan and approach the trip
as we get closer from that perspective, so we'll definitely update with all the
things that we do. We stillhave a bit of research to do and
some planning to do in terms ofwhat we actually want to do. And
I think one other thing along thesame lines that I'll add is like we're
(33:47):
talking with a friend who's going tobe there, and she's like, what's
on your list? Like, whatdo you guys want to do like the
first few days you get there whilewe're together, And I was like,
honestly, we don't have very much. You know, we aren't planning a
lot. And I think the firsttime we went to Japan or the you
know, the last time we werein Asia, just in general pre baby,
it was like, you know,I've got my list of like thirty
(34:07):
things I want to do, andit's like, okay, today we're going
to do like XXXXX thing. AndI think one of the things that we've
done is just slowed things down.And I think it's a lot more about
like let's go to a park,Let's like, you know, enjoy some
good food, Let's grab a coffee, Let's explore a little bit. Let's
make sure we like have some downtimeso we're all resting or she's sleeping.
(34:30):
There's a little less doing and Ithink a little more just being perhaps,
Yeah, And I feel like forme, Japan's like the type of place
too where I just like want tolike be in Japan. I don't feel
like the need to like do doodoo doo doo. Like I want to
eat good food, go to somecafes, walk around, go to parks,
take the train. Like there's alot of like those fun experiences of
like kind of everyday normal things thatare like just kind of cool, Like
(34:52):
you had a restaurant, they gotlike the robot conveyor belts, you get
on the train and it goes likea bazillion miles an hour. Especially doing
that stuff with with a Lou,I think it's going to be really fun
to take her on the train andsee what that's like for her, you
know, and take her all thesedifferent places. So yeah, we're definitely
going to fall up on this.We'll kind of yeah, recap and make
(35:13):
sure we like digest and give reallystrong recommendations for like flying on a plane
and all the other stuff from fromour own learnings. But it really excited
for it. If you're listening rightnow and want to go check us out
on social media. You'll probably seesome stuff from our Japan adventure. Yeah,
absolutely, and yeah, we'll keepyou posted on if not buying Louis
Seat was a bad idea or agood a good savings plant. We'll definitely
(35:38):
let you know the verdict. Ones. We've we've done this and if anyone
out there is getting ready to travelwith little ones and needs tips, feel
free to reach out. And ifanyone has ahead of us and has any
other suggestions or tips for us,please also reach out. We're really in
the phase of wanting to learn asmuch as we can, so stay tuned
for our adventures. We're really excitedto share about Japan and we will see
(36:01):
you soon. Thanks for listening tothis episode. If you want more to
make sure to check out the WorldWanders Insider available on Patreon at patreon dot
com, slash the World Wanderers.For show notes, head over to the
world wanders dot com. Find uson social media at the World Wanders podcast,
and join the private Facebook community atWorld Wanders, a community for travelers.
(36:22):
You can always get in touch withus at info at the world wanders
dot com and if you enjoyed theshow, don't forget to subscribe and leave
a review. It really helps usfind new listeners. See you next time.
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