KYOTO, JAPAN - Day 2 -Fushimi Inari Taisha, Nara Deer Park and Todai-Ji

FUSHIMI INARI TAISHI

After the crowds of Kiyomizu-Dera the previous afternoon, we committed to getting up very early and heading to Fushimi Inari Shrine, another iconic shrine of Kyoto. We were out of the accommodation by 6:30am, which saw us reach the shrine by 7:00am and this turned out to be the perfect time. Thankfully, our accommodation was fairly close to Demachiyanagi Station at the end of the Keihan line, Fushimi Inari train station is a few stops down on the same line so it a nice and easy to reach. 

Fushimi Inari Taishi is a shinto shrine dedicated to the gods of rice and sake, which features many statues of foxes, who are considered to be the messengers of the god of cereal. The girls loved spotting all the stone foxes, I think any animal association, like GotoKuji Temple in Tokyo, makes visiting temples and shrines a little more interesting for kids. 

The vermilion red torii gates are probably the most well known aspect of this shrine complex and it was a really amazing experience to walk through all the torii tunnels that line the path that winds up the mountain. for approximately 4km. However we made it about two third of the way up. It was a very enchanting shrine to experience, definitely one of our favourites. 

There was still a number of other people but it didn’t feel too crowded or hot. As were leaving around 9:00am, we were gobsmacked by the shear amount of people getting ofF the trains that were arriving at Inari Station, and these trains were arriving every 10 or so minutes! So thankfull that we were able to experienced this shrine early in the morning. 

NARA DEER PARK & TODAI-JI

As we still had the rest of the day ahead of us, we continued south on the train towards Nara. Nara is a solid day trip from Kyoto, but it’s well worth the visit. Like Kyoto, Nara was also once the ancient capital of Japan and is home to many fascinating shrine and temples. It’s also well known for the deer in the Nara Koen area. 

The deer have lived in the Nara Koen area for a hundreds of years and are considered to be messengers of the gods, they are protected as National Treasures. Tourist can actually buy shika senbei, ‘deer crackers, to feed the deer which are made out of flour and rice bran. The deer were fairly friendly and the girls were quite keen to see them up close, but we soon realised that the deer love the crackers and can get a little pushy if you have crackers for them. If you don’t, well, the deers won’t give you much time. We even saw some deer pull at peoples shirts and chase people who had crackers. It was kind of amusing. We realised that if you hold up your hands and show the deer that you don’t have any crackers for them, they will leave you alone. 

Nara Park has a number of temples and museums in it, but we wandered over to Todai-ji, Nara’s main attraction. Todai-ji is a sprawling Buddhist temple that contains Daibutsu-den (Hall of the Great Buddha), which is considered to be largest wooden structure in the world. It’s truly awe-inspiring! Inside is the daibutsu (Great Buddha) is one of the largest bronze figures in the world, again truly awe inspiring. 

It was free to enter Nara Park and wander around Todai-ji, however it was 1200 yen per adult to enter the Daiutsu-den, so I went in alone. The deer and rest of the temple grounds was interesting enough for the rest of the family. I wasn’t too knowledgable about the significance of Todai-ji and the Great Buddha inside, but I’m grateful to have had the chance to visit it. It’s a UNESCO World Heritage site and such a magnificent site to behold. 

KYOTO, JAPAN - Day 1 - Kyoto Train Museum & Kiyomiza-Dera Temple

KYOTO RAIL MUSEUM

To carry the theme of trains over from yesterday’s bullet train trip, we decided to start the day with a visit to the Kyoto Train Museum. 

I had read on Trip Adviser that this train museum is the best in the world and I would have to agree. We stayed for 3 hours and even then it was hard to drag the girls away, especially Hallie. 

The museum has so many actual train carriages and driving carriages that you can walk through. They have one of the first ever Shinkansens from the 1960’s that you can sit in the drivers seat and pretend to  drive. 

There are loads of interactive things for kids to do like building model bridges, manoeuvring life sized controls and controlling miniature trains around a miniature city track. And there are lots of displays and information about the history of trains in Japan. There was even an exhibit about how rain tunnels are built which really resonated with Braino. There is minimal English information but you can scan a QR code to get more in English or we often used the translate app, where you can take a photo and the translation appears in over the photo - very handy!

There was a good cafe inside with tables that overlooked the actual train lines near Kyoto Station. It was quite fun to spot all the Shinkansens travel past. 

There was also a kids indoor play area with lots of toy trains and tracks to build with and then outside there was a great playground surrounded by a railway turntable and a dozen old steam trains - just like Tidmouth Sheds, if you know that reference. 

Hallie has always had a thing for trains and the other two girls seem happy enough to get into trains as well, so this was a real win. Even if you’re not that interested in trains but can appreciate Japans next level train technology, I say it’s still worth a visit.

KIYOMIZU - DERA

After the Kyoto Rail Museum, we caught the train to Kiyomizu-dera where we then walked for about 20 mins to reach Kiyomizu-Dera Temple. We wound our way up the narrow streets lined with tradition Japanese architecture until we reached the base of the temple grounds. 

Kiyomizu-dera is a thousand year old buddhist temple dedicated to Kannon, the deity of compassion and great mercy. (The same deity that Senso-Ji in Tokyo is dedicated too). It sits halfway up Mt Otowa, and is set in beautiful lush greenery, overlooking Kyoto. The main hall is a sight to behold, perched on the side of the mountain, supported by traditionally constructed wooden  beams that interlock, no nails have been used. 

Even though we are there at 4:30pm in the afternoon, it was still very busy. Lots of school groups as well as the many other tourists. We were aware that the well known temples and shrines in Kyoto can be very busy, and it was really fascinating to witness the amount of people that dress in traditional kimonos and take photos around the temple.  It was a rather hot but we’re still glad we visited this popular destination in Kyoto. It’s free to enter the temple grounds but 500 yen each to enter the mail hall, so only I walked through the main hall around the mountain side path. 

We walked back to the train stations through the Gion district, which holds a lot of beautiful historic architecture and is traditionally the area where a lot of Geisha work in the teahouses. The area is very popular with tourist but still has a magical air about, in some of the streets it’s very easy to imagine yourself transported back in time.

TRAVEL DAY - from Lake Kawaguchiko to Kyoto - Shinkansen time!

The day of travel from Lake Kawaguchiko to Kyoto was our first ( and maybe only ) experience on a Shinkansen; the famous bullet train of Japan! 

Shinkansen’s have their own train lines and there must better hundreds, if not thousands of Shinkansens zipping around Japan at any given time. While we were waiting on the platform for ours, at least a dozen raced past. They are so fast and so silent. I was trying to record one zoom through the station and every time I glanced way, one would fly through and it would disappear before I even had a chance to get my phone up and recording. 

The girls loved riding on a Shinkansen, especially Hallie! The Bullet Trains are so spacious inside- much more leg room than an aeroplane. 

Howeve, as much as we enjoyed our Shinkansen experience, we may not go on one again. The main reason is so far, we’ve found the highway buses to be very straightforward and much cheaper.  We had to catch a highway bus from Lake Kawaguchiko to a station called Mishima to meet up with the Shinkansen line. That was the second highway bus we took and we really can’t complain about them. They seem like great value for money to us. But I will keep you posted and probably do an overall post about transport towards the end of our trip. 

Once we arrived in Kyoto, we left the main train station in search of another one and I have to say it was the first time we caved in and hailed a taxi. It was very hot and we could see the girls were getting to the end of their tether so we hailed a cab and had it drop us off right at our accommodation. Not the cheapest option but it avoided a potential meltdown. 

I’m writing this after being in Kyoto for 3 days now and I can say that the local trains in Kyoto are nothing like Tokyo with it comes to efficiency. They are are much more challenging to navigate. There is a good chance we all would have had a meltdown if we had tried to catch the local trains to our accommodation from the Shinkansen station on our arrival into Kyoto.

Kyoto has about 6 different train companies all with their own train lines and often a neighbour will have two different train stations for two different train lines and they don’t intersect. So if you want to change to a different train line, you often have to get out and walk to a different train station. It is definitely a difference from the intersecting networks in Tokyo. 

Anyway, that’s just my little rant about Kyoto trains. We do actually see a lot of locals riding bikes, some mums have bikes that have a baby seat on the front and back and they are even semi enclosed in case of rain. Kyoto is really flat and there is a great pathway that runs along the waterway. If you were here with friends or just as a couple, bike riding would be a great option. 

LAKE KAWAGUCHIKO & MT FUJI - Two Day Stay

Lake Kawaguchiko is part of the Fuji Five Lakes area where you can get a glimpse of Mt Fuji up close. When I was researching destinations close to Mt Fuji, Hakone often featured in blogs and tour itineraries as a popular tourist town. However it seems quite expensive and busy compared to the Fuji Five Lakes area. I’m so glad we made the trip out to Lake Kawaguchiko, it was a lovely restful two days after Tokyo.

We were able to catch a highway bus directly from Shinjuku Express Bus Way to Lake Kawaguchiko station, which look around 1hr and 45mins.  We caught a train from Akasaka-Mitsuke to Shinjuku and then navigated our way to the bus area. Shinjuku Station is not for a faint hearted - it’s like a huge maze of platforms and train lines and buses, literally the world’s busiest train stations, but the kids handled it well. 

We stayed in a fantastic two bedroom apartment in a quiet street at the base of the hills. It was within walking distance to Lake Kawaguchiko station and was also walking distance to the Lake.  After the cramped hotel room and busy days in Tokyo, we took the next two days really easy and gave the kids a chance to play around the accommodation

The first day we went down to the lake area and hired the little swan shaped peddle boats. Braino went in with Rooney and I was in one with Farley and Hallie. It was a work out - you essentially have to peddle like a bike to make the boat go and then use the steering wheel to direct it. Within the first five minutes, Braino’s boat broke! There was apparently a big clunk sounds and the peddles stopped working. He shouted to me to paddle over to him and then told me he was stuck. My only option was to peddle all the way to the wharf with Farley and Hallie and use the translate app on my iphone to tell the staff that my husband needed rescuing! The two men manning the little wharf area were really good about it and jumped into their speedboat, zoomed out to Braino and Rooney and then towed them back to shore. The whole thing was pretty funny, the older two got a real kick out of watching Braino and Rooney get rescued and then we all went out again, Braino & Rooney in a different swan this time. 

We also did a short hike up into the hills above the lake and found some Totoro souvenirs at a gift shop. ( The girls have really gotten into Studio Ghibli films in the lead up to the trip ). There was also a cable car that went to the top of the hill but without a clear view of Mt Fuji, we decided not to do it. 

Although we actually had an amazing view of Mt Fuji from our accommodation window, it was hiding behind the clouds for most of the time. Apparently Mt Fuji is very temperamental and is often hidden. The best times to see it is in the early mornings and the late afternoon. We got lucky on the second afternoon when the mountain revealed itself in all its glory! It was truely breathtaking to see Mt Fuji rising above the town! I took the opportunity to race around and take as many photos as possible. I even hiked the trail we discovered earlier in the day which lead to a fantastic lookout point in Tenjoyama Park. I feel like this park is a hidden gem. So many people were swarming around the streets near the train station to get a photo of Mt Fuji, but this hike wasn’t too long and offered such an incredible view over the town. 

On the second day, in my quest to capture the perfect photo of Mt Fuji, we caught the local train a few stops over to Shimoyoshida Station where we then walked up the 400 stairs to the Chureito Pagoda, which is in the Arakura Sengen Shrine area. This lookout area has become very popular as, if you’re lucky, you can capture a photo of the five storey pagoda with Mt Fuji in the background. And if you come at the right time of year, cherry blossoms surround the area, making it a very quintessential Japanese photograph

We were not so lucky. By the time we climbed those 400 steps, Mt Fuji was once again covered in clouds. It was probably one of those occasions where I should have woken up early and gone by myself. The kids were a little whingy about all the steps but it was still a cool view even without Mt Fuji. And we were kind of alarmed but also kind of amused to see signs saying that there were wild bears in the area. Oh My!

On the way we had a quick detour into Fuji Q Highland, a huge amusement park that was on the same train line. It’s free to enter the park, you just pay per ride and some of those rides are the most intense thrill rides I’ve ever seen. It was worth a stop just to marvel at the insane roller coasters but the main reason I thought it would be worthwhile was the Thomas The Tank engine themed land. While our girls haven’t ever expressed any desire to go on rollercoaster, that have gone through a Thomas The Tank engine phase, in particular Hallie. So I figure it was a relativley low cost way to see if the girls would like theme parks. (We haven’t planned on going to any of the major theme parks here in Japan)

They were pretty excited to see the Thomas themed rides and we decided on one small rollercoaster. Farley wasn’t that into it but because Hallie and Rooney are 6 years and under, Braino and I had to accompany them.  We felt a bit silly sitting on the kids ride, haha! It was basically a rollercoaster for toddlers! After a Thomas themed novelty icecream we headed back to the accommodation and rested for the remainder of the afternoon. 

I’m really glad we added these two days at Lake Kawaguchiko, and while there is plenty more to see and do around the Fuji Five Lakes area it was the perfect little rest stop for us after the intensity of Tokyo.

TOKYO, JAPAN - Day 3 - GotoKuji Temple, Meiji Jingu Shrine, Shinjuku at night

GOTOKUJI TEMPLE - ’BECKONING CAT TEMPLE’

We set off quite early in the morning to GotoKuji Temple, where we hoped to find the temple dedicated to Manekineko, the beckoning cat. Based on all the photos I had seen of the cute little cat statues, I thought this would be the perfect temple to keep the girls interested. We caught the train out past Shibuyu to Shimo-Kitazawa Station, where we changed to a local train and headed to Gotokuji Station. We had to stroll through some suburban streets to find the temple, which is actually one of myself and Braino’s favourite thing to do when traveling - see what everyday houses look like, it’s such a fascinating way to catch a glimpse of local life.

GotoKuji is a beautifully serene temple and the little statues of Manekineko did not disappoint. Legend has it that ‘one day, a lord on his way back from falconry was beckoned by a cat at the temple gate and decided to stop by. While spending time at the temple, thunder suddenly rang out and rain began to fall. Having gotten well out of a thundershower with an enjoyable conversation with the temple master, the lord was impressed by this luck that the cat brought. The lord was Naotaka Ii, the lord of Hikone domain. Financially backed up by Naotaka, Gotokuji temple was rebuilt in 1633. Later, Gotokuji temple built the Shofuku-den to enshrine the cat that brought good fortune, naming it as "Manekineko". Ever since, many people visit Shofuku-den continuously to pray for well-being for the family, prosperous business, luck and happiness.’ (This comes directly from the website. https://gotokuji.jp/en/manekineko/ )

We realised that we could purchase a cat statue from the administration office and leave it there with the rest of the collection as an offering, to bring us good fortune . The girls loved this idea and were thrilled to leave one of our own. As I write this blogpost almost a week later, everything we’ve done in Japan so far has been amazing but I think this is one of my highlights.

Afterwards we headed back via Shibuya, the second busiest train station in the world, whihc is also home to the iconic scramble crossing. We decided to check it out for ourselves, but this stage it was very hot and extremely crowded. We were all a bit frazzled, and the amazement of the scramble crossing was a bit lost on us to be honest. We ducked into Uniqlo to buy some socks and then headed back to the apartment were we rested and watched a movie on the laptop until around 4pm. (Braino and Rooney has a little nap).

MEIJI JINGU SHRINE

The rest period was quite strategic as we had plans to head out again in the later afternoon to experience Shinkuju at night. First we headed to Meiji Jingu Shrine, and I’m so glad we did, it was truly breath-taking. Meiji Jingu is a stunning Shinto Shrine that is set amoungst 70 hectares of dense forest. It was so peaceful and enchanting to walk through the winding paths that lead through the forests to the main part of the shrine, it was easy to forget we were right in the middle of Tokyo. While Senso-Ji is a buddhist temple, Meiji Jingu is a Shinto Shrine. Shinto is Japan’s ancient original religion or belief system as there isn’t a founder or religious book.

We walked from the southern entrance at Harajuku, all the way to the northern entrance in Yoyogi. It was a decent distance but the girls enjoyed it. It was late in the afternoon, the temperature was perfect and the low afternoon sun light was glimmering through the trees.

SHINJUKU AT NIGHT

We were planning to go to the Toyko Metropolitan Government Building again as there is a free nightly light projection show that started at 7:30pm and because we had the time, we decided to walk all the way up through Shinjuku. Shinjuku and Shibuya are two destinations where you can see all the iconic neon lights that are synonymous with Toyko and I was keen to see (and photography) it for myself. The streets between Shinjuku Station and the Toyko Metropolitan Government Building felt like a great kid friendly option. We found an acrade full of claw machine that the girls loved have a turn of (although we didn’t win anything) There were lots of restaurants and crowds are still very intense but it didn’t seem too overwhelming for the girls.

The light projection show at the government building was fantastic, it was sort of similar to TeamLabs in a way but the best bit was Godzilla! It went for 15 minutes in total and it started with a short section of Godzilla ‘smashing’ the TMGB. The girls have come mildly obsessed with Godzilla after we watched some videos on youtube of the older Japanese Godzilla movies, the really funny retro Godzilla. While the projection show runs for 15mins, it’s play on a loop until 9:30pm and it’s totally free!

Afterwards, Braino took the girls back to the accommodation via the trains while I headed into a seperate section of Shinjuku, to take more photos. It was Saturday night so it was extremely busy, but I felt quite safe on my own. It’s so mind blowing to see so many people, all on their way somewhere. It’s a very surreal feeling to just be apart of it.

TOKYO, JAPAN - Day 2 - Tokyo Toy Museum, Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building

SENSOI-JI TEMPLE  (Again)

I set an alarm for 4:30am so I could head out on a solo photography mission to Senso-Ji again, as I wanted to take some time to photograph the beautiful temple complex without the crowds.

I was surprised to discover that the trains in Tokyo don’t run between the hours of 1am and 5am so the earliest I could get out there was 5:35am. It was well worth the early start as the crowds had totally disappeared compared to the day before. There was a few other photographers and plenty of people out for a morning stroll with dogs. The sound of monks chanting and smell of incense filled the air. It was an incredibly peaceful way to experience this scared site.

If I were to come again with the rest of the family, I’d aim for 8am - 9am. The stalls along Nakamise-Dori open at 9:00am so if you arrived a little before 9am, you could beat the crowded but still browse all the interesting stalls and shops.

TOKYO TOY MUSEUM

Thanks to all the YouTube videos we watched in the lead up to the trip, I knew about the Tokyo Toy Museum, which looked like just the thing our girls would enjoy.

The Tokyo Toy Museum is set in an old elementary school and features many rooms that display toys from Japan and around the world. The majority are beautifully made wooden toys and the best part is that it is incredibly interactive. Children can play with a huge assortment of toys, puzzles and games.

The Wooden Forest room had a unique ball pit full of wooden balls and the girls especially loved the yellow room which had such a wide variety of wooden fruits and vegetables that the they could pick off the wooden trees and pretend to wash and sort.

The staff were incredible friendly and encouraged the girls to sit and play games with them, which was such a lovely experience. There was even a little craft class set up in what looked like an old art classroom.

We stayed for over two hours and found the whole space so engaging and interactive for the girls. Even Braino and I got carried away trying to out do each other on a particularly fun skill tester type puzzle.

I booked tickets online via the Toy Museums website the night before. It was 800 yen for the girls and 1,100 yen for adults (roughly $8AUD for children and $11AUD for adults)

The Toy Museum is located in Yotsuya, Shinjuku City and we were able to reach it by catching the Marunouchi Line to Yotsuya-Sanchome Station from Akasaka-Mitsuke Station.

TOKYO METROPOLITAN GOVERNMENT BUILDING, SHINJUKU

From the Tokyo Toy Museum we jumped on the train again and headed into Shinjuku, which is the world’s busiest train station! We were headed to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building and were surprised to find that there was a whole underground network of tunnels that lead from Shinjuku Station all the way to the Government Building. The Tokyo metro system is phenomenal.

The Metropolitan Government Building has a free observation deck in Building 1. It was very easy to find the correct elevator and we didn’t have to wait too long. It was amazing to see Tokyo sprawled out beneath us from 200m high. There are apparently many other vantage points where you can see Tokyo from above, but the TMGB is a fantastic free option. The whole level was quite spacious and there was a cafe, gift shop and even someone playing a grand piano.

SHINJUKU CHUO PARK PLAYGROUND

We discovered a fun playground in the beautifully landscaped Shinjuku Chuo Park behind the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building. It had a great obstacle course style playground for older kids and a section dedicated to toddlers as well. The girls had a wonderful time playing for an hour or so. And best of all, it’s a totally free public playground. A great way to finish up the beautiful afternoon.

TOKYO, JAPAN - Day 1 - Senso-Ji Temple, Origami Class & TeamLab Planets

After such a huge travel day we had a slower start to the morning. Braino went out to purchase local SIM cards and food for breakfast. Yoghurt, fruit and croissants were an easy solution from the local Family Mart.

We first travelled from where we were staying in Akasaka-Mitsuke to Asakusa via the metro system. Navigating the underground rail system of Tokyo was surprisingly easy with the help of google maps, there are also english translation on all the signage which was extremely helpful.

Senso-Ji Temple, Asakusa

Senso-Ji Temple was only a short walk from Asakusa Station. This huge Buddhist temple complex is devoted to the deity Kannon and is one of the most significant religious sites in Tokyo. At 11am it was extremely crowded, so we only did a quick walk through.  Nakamise-Dori, the long shopping promenade, was full with interesting stalls, filled with souveniers, crafts and an assortment of different foods. It would have been interesting to linger long at some of the stalls but the crowds were intense. It’s free to enter the grounds of the temple and the stunning architecture was an excellent introduction to Japanese culture.

We found a beautiful little playground a few blocks over from Senso-Ji Temple in Hanakawando Park. The girls had a great time climbing on the fort like structure under a beautiful big tree.

Workshop at Taro’s Origami Studio, Asakusa

We had pre-booked an origami workshop in Asakusa at Taro’s Origami Studio so we continued on to find the quaint little studio gallery. I have fond memories of learning origami when I was around the age of 9, so it was really quite special to introduce the girls to origami, the art of paper folding, whilst in Japan. The little gallery is the home to stunning origami creations by the artist Taro and a workshop table for up to six people. The table had six different small iPads with a variety of different instructional videos. Braino helped Rooney while I helped Hallie and we managed to get through five different beginner origami patterns. Our host was fantastic, he spoke english with a North American accent and he often helped Farley, although she was fairly confident on her own.

TeamLabs Planets

Next we headed towards Toyosu, with a quick stop off in Ginza to change trains, as we had pre-booked tickets for TeamLabs Planets. TeamLab Planets is best described as a huge interactive digital art gallery. It has a number of different galleries that use water, lights, mirrors and colours to create a fully immersive sensory experiences.

I had actually experienced a taste of TeamLabs Borderless when it was at the Sydney Powerhouse museum in 2018, but the girls were just babies and toddlers at that point. It’s certainly one of the most talked about things to do in Tokyo and I’m pleased to say that the girls loved it! Our favourite was the dark room with knee deep water that has digitally projected fish swimming around that actually react to the movement of the people walking through. I also loved the colourful room filled with huge spheres. It was pretty busy but I have a feeling that it’s wasn’t as busy as it could be, judging by how long the line barriers were outside. We only had to wait 10 or so minutes to get in but it looked like lines could get much longer.

Despite the crowds it was still an experience that the whole family enjoyed. Honestly, the kids asked to do it again and we almost considered buying tickets for the other TeamLabs ‘Borderless’ experience that is in Tokyo.

REVIEW: Jetstar’s Brisbane to Tokyo Direct Flight.

The first flight of our journey was Brisbane to Tokyo direct and I’m thrilled to report that everything went smoothly.

There were a few reasons we chose Japan as the first destination of our year long trip. Firstly, neither Braino or myself have been to Japan and we its one place that we’ve both wanted explore. We’ve also heard how family friendly it can be.

Secondly, we wanted to start with a direct flight to a destination we’d like to spend sometime in and Jetstar’s direct flights from Brisbane to Narita Airport were very affordable considering it how far from Australia we were traveling.

When we said we were flying with Jetstar many people jokingly cast doubts about whether the flight would actually leave on time, if even at all. But I’m pleased to report that it was only delayed by 30mins. 30 mins, I can handle, ha!

We were also pretty happy that the flight time was during the day. It was scheduled to depart at 9:30am Brisbane time and set to arrive in Japan at 5:40pm. Sure, we had to awake up before sunrise to get to the airport by 6:30am. But the kids got a real kick out of waking up ‘at night time’. 

How did we get to the airport? Thankfully Braino’s parents were able to drive the girls in their car with their car seats, while Braino and I went in an Uber with all the luggage. 

Speaking of luggage, because be booked with the cheapest tickets we only pre-paid for 2 x 20kg checked in bags. Braino and I had large cabin bags that we right on 7kg and then girls each had their individual backpacks that were around 4kg each.  It was a bit of a challenge fitting everything into the two large suitcases, but I really did my research on packing cubes and found some great one that compress down with an extra zipper. I also have a coloured coded system for each of use and it’s made packing very organised.

This Jetstar flight has the least amount of baggage allowance, many our future flights are much more generous but honestly, if it wasn’t for all the kids toys, pens and notebooks, I think I could have been even more ruthlessly minimalistic. We will need the extra space once we get into the colder climates. 

Because we were also going super budget; we did not get the tickets that include inflight entertainment or meals. The entertainment was no problems as we were stocked up on pens, notebooks, colouring books, sticker books and we had downloaded a number of shows and movies from Netflix onto the iPad and our phones. 

The kids were really good about snacks. We ate a big breakfast at the airport and only purchased minimal snacks onboard which were obviously overpriced. We probably should have BYO’d our own snacks but it would have been one more thing to squeeze into the bags. 

Although the girls have all been on domestic flights in Australia, it was when they were all either babies or toddlers so this was technically the first flight they have been on that they can remember, and they all handled it so well. Even on take off and landing. 

Overall we were stoked at how drama free the flight was and how well the girls handled the long travel day. When it come to airlines, I’ve always just happy to be on a plane, going somewhere exciting, no matter how budget the airline is.

Once we got to Narita Airport, we then had to catch a bus into Tokyo, which was about 2 hours. I had pre-purchased the tickets and while it was very fairly straight forward to find the bus at Terminal 3, the same Terminal we arrived at, this was were exhaustion really started to kick in. The kids had been great on the flight but the bus trip was a bit of a test of our patience. We had considering booking a night at a hotel near Narita Airport, so we could go straight there once the flight arrived but it would have cut into our sightseeing time the next day, so overall I’m glad we did push through and head straight in to our accommodation in Akasaka, Tokyo.

Where To Start: How to Begin Planning Your Family's Epic Gap Year

Embarking on our family gap year is quite literally a dream come true. But it has come with a lot of planning and research. I happen to love these two things and I’ve been thrilled by how much Michael has got involved in the planning process, it’s been a really fun, collaborative process.

The thought of deciding where to go, what to see and how to connect the dots would no doubt seems like a daunting task so in this post I’ll break down some of our decision making process and a few things to consider, if you were to plan your own extended family adventure.

Begin your global journey by envisioning the countries, regions, or landscapes that resonate with your travel dreams. Whether it's the allure of sun-soaked beaches, high altitude alpine adventures or the exploration of diverse cultures and languages, create a comprehensive bucket list that reflects your passions and interests.

We also factored in specific places and experiences that our daughters have a strong interest in, for example one has a fascination with Big Ben in London and bullet trains in Japan, while another daughter loves animals and has along list of animals she would like to see. 

Once your dream destinations and experiences are on paper, the next step is to dive into practical considerations. Investigate the duration of tourist visas for each country on your list. Understand the exchange rates to gauge the purchasing power of your Australian Dollar or your base currency. Factor in the climate; figure out when the weather is most favourable and if any particular season aligns with your preferences or activities.

Furthermore, it’s important to consider the concept of peak season, shoulder season and off-seasons. While peak times may offer ideal weather, they often come with inflated prices and bustling crowds. In contrast, off-seasons may be more budget-friendly but could limit certain activities and tours.

Our strategy involves a shoulder season visit to Greece in October, striking a balance between cost savings and the continued operation of transport around the islands . Conversely, for Ireland, we've opted for the peak summer months, accepting the higher costs for the warmest weather.

With these key considerations in mind, dive into researching the costs associated with each destination. This step will help in crafting a realistic budget, aligning with your travel duration in each location. Also, this knowledge becomes the foundation for mapping out an efficient route, both in terms of international flights and inner-country travel. 

I will go into some aspects in more details in further posts, like planning flights, booking accommodation and creating country specific itineraries. However, below are a few handy websites I’ve used along to way to piece together the overall itinerary for our gap year. 

Flight Connections

This websites allows you to see what direct flights fly in and out of any airport in the world. The free version has been fine for what I’ve needed so far. 

https://www.flightconnections.com/

Numbeo 

Numbeo is a good starting point to compare the costs of two countries, for example Australian vs Italy. This can give you an idea of how much to budget for each destination. 

https://www.numbeo.com/

Best Time to Visit

This website is a very handy way to search the best time to visit a specific country or region or you can search the time of year and your desired holiday style. For example - a beach holiday in August 

https://www.thebesttimetovisit.com/

Lonely Planet

I’ve been a huge fan of Lonely Planet since I first came across my Dad’s Lonely Planet guide to Nepal. Their website offers very easy to digest information on every country you could possibly image and I often used this when researching the travel seasons for each country we were interested in. 

https://www.lonelyplanet.com/

Passport Index

This website allows you to select your passport and then see the visa requirements of other countries around the world.

https://www.passportindex.org/

Below is a rough table I made to help visualise the best itinerary for the year. You can see I’ve made notes for each country and each month in that country, then I colour coded it; green was the optimal time to go, generally the shoulder seasons; yellow was the ok time to ok, generally the high seasons and red indicated the time period to avoid, generally when the weather was not ideal. I’m a very visual person and this really helped in mapping out our route, it was easy to create in word / google docs.

Mapping Our Journey: A Look Into Our Adventures Ahead.

So where are we going exactly? What’s the itinerary, you might ask?

Well, we have been chipping away at our master itinerary for the last couples of months. It’s fairly structured but there are still a lot of gaps to fill in at this stage. Here’s the basic run down:

May / June 2024 - Japan (3 weeks), Singapore (4 days) London (6 days)

June / July / August 2024 - Ireland

August / September 2024 - Spain / Italy / maybe Morocco

October 2024 - Greece / Slovenia / Austria / Germany / France

November 2024 - Scotland / England

December 2024 - Denmark / Norway, maybe Sweden

This is what we’ve been focusing on over the last couple of months; booking flights and accommodation. We have certain sections of this itinerary booked in but other parts are still just a rough idea at this stage.

If everything goes to plan; our budget holds up and we’re all still enjoying our nomadic lifestyle, we then plan to spend the first half of 2025 in Central America, primarily around the Yucatan peninsula of Mexico. And maybe even a bit of South East Asia before coming home to Australia.

Our goal is to be away for a full whole year, from May 2024 - May 2025 but we will see how things unfold beyond our initial European & United Kingdom part of the journey.

Adventure Awaits: An Introduction to Our Family Gap Year

It’s finally ticked over in to 2024 and what has seemed like a distant dream is fast becoming a reality.

We have less than 6 months before we depart on what will no doubt be a trip of a lifetime.

Something that I’ve been dreaming about for many many years, and something that we have been actively planning over the last 6 months. Now that we’re on the other side of Christmas and into the new year the countdown for trip is officially on and it’s beginning to feel so real.

The trip in question is our year-long, around-the-world, family gap year. Sounds huge hey?! I almost can’t believe it myself. Who does this kind of thing!? But now as a I write this blog post I can feel my emotions changing. It’s strange because I’ve almost not let myself get excited about it. But I can feel something inside shifting, a sense of genuine excitement that has been buried deep.

Over the holiday period we finally told all of our family and friends and the responses have ranged from pure excitement for us, to genuine bewilderment and maybe a few hints of scepticism and jealously, which is only natural I guess. It’s not everyday that you hear of a family packing up their lives to go traveling for a year, let alone know people who do it.

This is what has finally prompted me to finally start blogging / journalling / documenting the whole process. I’ve been putting it off for a while now but it’s something I’ve always wanted to do; document and sharing my travels.

I’m sure this blog will change and evolve over the year to come but this is just me making a start.