Kids-friendly Japan trip - Tokyo toy exhibition for a big kid!

While I was doing some research for our Japan trip, I found some information about the "Tokyo toy exhibition" held during our stay. I talked about it to Paul and he was so excited. Some of you might already know, he loves toys! When we got married and he moved into my little apartment in St Kilda East, he was allowed to bring only 3 toys with him and he struggled;-)

It was open to the public just on 11 and 12 of June, and our option was just the 11th, which was the next day after our Hakone trip. I thought it might be difficult for Nico, but we decided to go there. Personally I wanted to see Paul's happy face:-)

Going to central Tokyo with a toddler is quite tiring. My parents live about 30km away from central Tokyo. To get to Shinjuku, which is one of the biggest stations in Tokyo, it takes about 30 mins by train, and to get Tokyo station or Tokyo Bay Area where the exhibition was held, it takes more than 1 hour.

To avoid the rush hour we left my parents' home around 10am and aimed to come back before 5pm. It actually worked very well for us, because Nico had a morning sleep all the way to our destination in his pram and had an afternoon sleep all the way back home. We didn't have to struggle with a noisy kid in a quiet train - Japanese trains are really quiet!

 We arrived at Toyosu Station, which we had transit around 11.30am, so we decided to have lunch at Toyosu shopping centre. We wanted to go to a Chinese restaurant, but the restaurant was very small and we couldn't go in without folding our pram - Nico was still sleeping - so we decided to go to a bakery and have lunch outside. It was actually very good choice and we really enjoyed it!

Nico slept really well so we could actually enjoy shopping there too.

look at this shop name;-)

 After lunch and shopping, we got on the Yurikamome Line. I always thought this was a monorail but when I actually read about it, I found it's different. It runs on an elevated path all the way so there's no traffic lights, crossings or jams and with the special techniques they use, there's no vibration or sound and it's very quiet. It's all automated so there's no conductors or drivers too! It's a bit like a future train:-) If your kids love trains, they will love the Yurikamome line!

the view from Yurikamome

 When we arrived at Tokyo Big Sight, there were many families and toy-loving adults. The queue looked long but the venue was massive so we could enter smoothly. (It was free event so we didn't have to queue to buy tickets!)

 There were so many booths with the newest toys. Nico and Paul were excited trying all the different toys, but it was really hard for us to take him to the next booth - he didn't want to leave the toys he was playing with! Small companies were selling toys at the booths with special exhibition price but big companies like TOMY were just showing the newest ones coming in September. We didn't buy any toys there -which was very good for us;-) - but got some ideas for Nico's birthday and Christmas.

It was quite tiring with the massive venue and crowds, but we all had a wonderful time. I really loved seeing Paul and Nico's happy faces.

At Tokyo Big Sight, they have interesting exhibitions all the time, so if you're going to Tokyo, it worth checking what's on there. Even if there's nothing, traveling around this Tokyo Bay Area is quite interesting. The big fish market will move to this area (Toyosu) in November too. You will see a futuristic side of Tokyo there:-)

With love,
Allie

Kids-friendly Japan Trip -Hakone trip 2

June is the rainy season in Japan, so we thought we could do some indoor activities if it was raining in Hakone.  "Yunessan" is an indoor spa theme park where kids with nappies can also enjoy themselves - most of the Japanese water theme park usually don't accept babies - so we thought it's an good option. But the night before we went to Hakone, Nico had a high temperature, so we changed our plan and decided to go to Choukokunomori Museum.

 We arrived in Hakone around 10.30am. The ryokan check-in time was 2pm so we left our bags in a locker at Hakone Yumoto station. From the station, we got on the "Hakone tozan railway". This is a special train I really love. You know my love of trams. It's a little bit similar to a tram experience!

 This is the only mountain railway in Japan using a "switchback system". The driver and the conductor change shifts and the train switches to reverse travel directions halfway up the line. The view from the train is really wonderful. In June you can enjoy colorful hydrangeas both sides of the railway and it's really beautiful too.

 When we arrived at the museum, it wasn't raining but quite foggy. This was my first time to visit Chokokunomori (means forest of sculpture) museum and I was really impressed.

Most of the artworks were outdoors and you can walk around the lovely gardens while you see great sculptures collected from all over the world. Unlike other art galleries, you don't have to worry about your kids running around or making loud noises.

footbath in the museum!!!

cafe

they have very good Picasso collection

our boy enjoyed this museum too!

 We enjoyed a pleasant morning there and had a buffet lunch and then after lunch Nico had a little playtime at the museum kids space where he enjoyed Isamu Noguchi's (my favourite artist!) "Octetra".

 After that, we went back to Hakone Yumoto and went to our ryokan and had a lovely evening there.

On the second day, we had breakie at the ryokan and checked out at 10am, then left our bags in a locker at Hakone Yumoto station again. We caught a bus to Tougendai where you can get on a gondola and see lovely views of the mountains, Mt Fuji if the weather's good, and Lake Ashi.

 When we went there, a part of the gondola line was closed due to the active volcano. Usually you can get on Hakone tozan railway to Goura and get on a cable car from there and then get on a gondola to Togendai. This is the most popular route, but we couldn't do that, so we decided to get on a gondola from Togendai and see Owakudani, where you can see smoky mountains from the window and go back to Togendai. The weather was good, but we couldn't see Mt Fuji unfortunately.

Owakudani-smoky mountains

We saw Mt Fuji at Owakudani in 2012 (we were a bit younger..)

 At Togendai, we bought some take-away lunch and got on a pirate ship ( ! ) to cross Lake Ashi. I really like that we can enjoy all sorts of transport like gondolas, ships, cable cars and the views in Hakone.

This photo is from 2012 with Mt Fuji and younger Paul

 After that, we went to Yasuragi no mori which was a little bit of an odd choice for us. It's a national park and you can go for a bush walk. I thought there would be some kids play area (obviously I didn't do good research) so when we arrived and found nothing much there, I was a bit disappointed, but in the end we enjoyed the nature and the walk:-)

 After this, we went back to Hakone Yumoto Station and got some souvenirs from shops around the station and then caught the Romance car home.

sleeping in the Romance car

 It was just a one night trip, but Hakone take you to a completely different world in Japan. I know people enjoy the mixture of traditional and new things in Tokyo but if you feel a bit tired of walking around the busy crowds, this is a great escape from the hustle and bustle ;-)

With love,
Allie

Kids-friendly Japan Trip - Hakone trip 1 Ryokan

When we planned this Japan trip, we thought we wanted to go on a little trip. A "little trip during your trip" might sound strange, but it's like visiting Phillip Island while you're visiting Melbourne.

 For people living in Tokyo, the easiest one night trip option is always Hakone. Hakone is in Kanagawa prefecture, which is south of Tokyo prefecture. From central Tokyo, there are express trains called "Romance Cars" to take you there and just within an hour, you get to a place where you can enjoy all the lovely mountains, rivers, a big lake with Mt Fuji view and soothing onsen (hot springs) .

view from our ryokan

 My dad wanted to go there with us, so my mum and I did a lot of research for ryokan (Japanese style hotel). We didn't want to spend too much money but wanted somewhere that offered good food and a kid-friendly environment. Ryokans usually offer two meals - dinner and breakfast - so when you choose a hotel with good rooms but bad food, it affects your whole trip! After some research, we booked "Aura Tachibana". They have two types of rooms, western style room with a bed and Japanese style room with Tatami mat and futon - we booked the Japanese style rooms which were much cheaper.

 Usually in a Japanese style room, they keep futon in a cupboard, so kids can run around in a big space. The only thing you need to be careful with kids is shouji and fusuma - washi paper screen sliding doors. But even if your kids accidentally run into them and tear them, it doesn't cost much for hotels to fix them (because they are paper! ) and also harmless for your kids compared with glass doors.

While you're having dinner in a common dining room (some ryokans let you have dinner in your room), staff come to your room and put your futon out, ready for you to sleep. With a futon, we didn't have to worry about Nico falling from a bed!

 Aura Tachibana was in Hakone Yumoto where the Romance cars arrive. It's a bit busier than other parts of Hakone, but the volcano around Mt Fuji has become more active from last year and some parts are closed for tourists, so my dad wanted to stay somewhere easy to evacuate in case of emergency. It's 15 mins walk from the station, but they'll come to pick you up from the station by a little bus.

we walked around the ryokan and fond a nice temple

 They had a lovely lounge where you can read cool books and magazines and have coffee/alcohol. With Nico, we couldn't really use that place, but they also have a lovely balcony space, so we took Nico there.

 We went there on a weekday, so there weren't that many guests. When we went to their public hot spring bath after dinner, no one was there in both ladies bath and gentleman's bath (well Paul told me about gentleman's bath ) so we enjoyed a huge bath just by ourselves. Paul worried that he might have had to have a bath with my dad, but my dad went to the bath before dinner, so it was ok;-)

Dinner and breakfast were very lovely. Dinner was course-style and took a while so Nico got bored (his meal came soon but he had to wait for us) so one of us had to take him out to a balcony and play with him in turns, but it was good that there was a space for that.

common dining area

lovely dinner- wagyu beef!!

we liked all the presentation
 

breakfast

Some people go to the bath in the morning too to make the most of it - a trip to Hakone usually has the whole of relaxing in the hot springs, but Paul and I chose to relax in our room. Our stay at the ryokan was really great and even with a busy little boy we could have a relaxing time. Japan trips with kids wouldn't be easy, but if you want to have some relaxing time, I do recommend this little Hakone trip.

Paul having a relaxing time

 Next time I will write about what we did in Hakone.

With love,
Allie

Kids-friendly Japan Trip - Tama Zoo

I wrote before that my parents bought us tickets for this trip. My dad had a little surgery this year. When people are ill, they usually find out what they really want to do. My dad found that he wanted to see his grandson.

my dad and Nico at Tama Zoo

 Soon after we bought the tickets, my mum started planning things that she (and dad) wanted to do with Nico, like going to the zoo, theme park, little trips and more. All we wanted was for my parents and Nico to have wonderful time together.

Tama zoo was one of the first places we visited together. June is the rainy season, so we couldn't really choose the best day to go, but it was pleasant day with a few showers. In Japan, when the weather's good, people are everywhere, so maybe it was good that we could enjoy a quiet zoo without much of a crowd.

Nico in his rain coat

 I visited this zoo so many times when I was little. The entry fee was about 50c for school kids in those days (now it's free and for adults about $7) so I used to go there with friends.

Since I came to Australia, I often heard Japanese people talking about Japanese zoos negatively compared with Australian zoos..they felt sorry for animals in Japanese zoos having not much space and always seemed to be in cages.

 I don't know which zoo they used to go to, but those discussion became so common, so I kind of forgot what Tama zoo was like and just believed that it was worse than Australian zoos. Then this time, I actually really enjoyed this zoo all over again - Paul was really impressed with this zoo too, especially the huge spaces for the animals. We also saw some interesting animals that we'd never heard of before.

 This zoo is in the middle of the mountains, so you can enjoy hiking at the same time - you can catch a bus to go up the top and walk down the hill too. The animals were close in their enclosures, so it was easy for Nico to find them and really enjoyable for him too.

 Tokyo has many interesting things to see, so you might not be interested in going to a zoo, but if you plan a trip with kids, I think this is a great option to enjoy Japanese style zoo and nature at the same time.

With love,
Allie

Tokyo icon plate

Now we're back from Japan. The two weeks we spent there seems like a dream now. Just a couple of days ago, we were sweating in humid 30-degree weather and now we're shivering! I can't live without my ugg boots at home...

I'm going to write the details of our trip in this blog soon, but before I start, I'd like to show you this cute plate I got from Japan.

 

 I always had a strong attachment with Melbourne and Sydney ever since I lived in these cities and I love having some Melbourne/Sydney memorabilia like tea towels, posters and so on. But I was never interested in Tokyo goods. It's probably like Paul not being interested in Mount Waverley goods (if they exist...) I like Tokyo and my hometown but wasn't really proud of it. When someone asks me where I'm from and answer "Tokyo", it's handy because I don't have to explain anything about it, but it doesn't sound special to me.

 

 So I guess now you can imagine how strange it is for me to buy this plate. During this trip, I had a wonderful time in Tokyo (and a little bit outside of Tokyo ). I loved sharing things I enjoyed when I was little with Paul and Nico and now these new memories changed my whole impression on this city. It's been about 10 years since I left Tokyo and now it became somewhere I simply enjoy my holidays without thinking about my work, daily stuff, relationships with people. Tokyo truly became my favorite city.

This plate is full of our memories with some icons of the places we visited together. We'd love to visit some other places of these icons next time too!

With love,

Allie

 

購読を解除できます

What do you do when earthquake happens?

We're going to Japan soon - yay! We thought we couldn't go this year after the big renovation, but my parents bought tickets for us to see Nico. We're lucky...  Because my parents are buying the tickets, we'll try to focus on more family time this year, so we might not be able to show you some exciting spots in Tokyo in this blog! But I will try to update our trip here.

Whenever we go to Japan, like other tourists, we have to worry about earthquakes (and Mt Fuji eruption). Especially after the big earthquake in Kumamoto in April, people are talking more about a big earthquake around the Tokyo area. I wish Japan didn't have earthquakes or volcanos, but because of that we can also enjoy lovely hot springs. Japanese people can't avoid those natural disasters, so they know how to live with them very well I think. We had lots of earthquake evacuation training at school.

I'll write some basic tips for an earthquake situation here... 

1. When you go to bed, prepare your slippers or shoes next to you. If a big earthquake comes while you're sleeping, sometimes you have to evacuate with your barefeet. If there is broken glass on the floor, it makes it difficult for you to evacuate.
2. If an earthquake happens when you're indoors, open the window or door first and then go under the desk or table. An earthquake might change the shape of the door or window frame and you might not be able to open those later. If a fire stars, you won't be able to get out!
3. If you're at outdoors, stay away from shop signs or something big because they might fall on you. Once the tremor stops, go to a wide space like a square, park, or vacant land because there might be aftershocks.

We worry about these things, but we still want to go. That's funny how much we love Japan;-)

From June 4th to 20th, nuno and stitch shipping will stop. We'll still accept orders, but please note that the shipping will be after June 21. If you need us to ship soon, I recommend you to order before June 2.

With love,Allie

Our new cupboard!

Our storage space is finally ready and now I'm keeping all nuno and stitch products here :-) I got so much stuff for markets to display, so some of them are still in our little study/bedroom, but it looks much better now.

As you know already, our home is very small, but we've got quite a lot of storage. I think this is the key to live neatly in a small space.

As I was organizing this space, I made an inventory and feel a bit more organized. When I sell my products online, it's easy to track of my stock, but when I sell at markets, sometimes I forget to keep records and lose track. The worst nightmare for shop owners might be having no stock when you receive an order..well at least for me, so it's good to know how much stuff I've got. I think I'm stocking too much at the moment, so I might be able to do some stocktake sale soon. Stay tuned!

Now we also started using our cupboard door to record Nico's height. This was Paul's idea originally. At his parents place, one of the doors have heaps of height records for all members of the family (and sometimes friends too!). We wanted to do something similar, but we didn't have the courage to write something on our new doors! Now see what we did. We're using washi tapes. It's easy to peel off, it's colorful, neat and cute! We're looking forward to recording more and more heights for Nico in the future.