My Top Travel Tips From Our Trip To Japan
Many readers already know that Tim, Nolan, and I recently returned from a very special trip to Japan. As small business owners who also very much operate our business on a daily basis, carving out time for a trip like this is never easy – let alone the complexity of traveling to a new country with a six-year-old in tow! Here's how I made it happen and achieved a virtually stress-free trip with tons of excitement (and no tears)...
1) Make sure you have a good community to hold down the fort while you're away.
Fortunately for us, we have amazing people both at work and in our personal lives who kept things in order while we were largely out of touch (and 14 hours ahead). At Alx&Co. and Seedling, Laurie and Antra did fantastic work keeping jobs moving forward and clients attended to in our absence, and our beloved dog Bill was lovingly cared for by our dear neighbors who were happy for the opportunity to have a dog in the house for a bit. Frankly, we have never really been in a position at the store to be so cut off and still feel confident that things would turn out fine, so it meant the world to be able to take a true break and just enjoy the trip.
2) Create a spreadsheet of all your travel plans, and PRINT IT
Honestly, I didn't think to do this until the day before we left, when it occurred to me that while I had everything saved in emails and files on my phone, I would have no backup if my wifi didn't work or we were somewhere with incompatible service. I know that for certain readers, having a physical printout of your travel plans would be second nature but as someone who exclusively relies on my email to locate confirmation numbers and addresses, this needed to be reiterated. I included our travel insurance information, confirmation numbers, physical addresses of each hotel, whether we had meals or tours booked each day, and what our transportation would be within the country each day. By mapping it out by date, I was able to confirm that we didn't have a gap and that each step was accurately covered. I reached for this printout time and time again throughout the trip and it was extremely reassuring to have it tucked in my notebook for reference.
3) When traveling with kids, give them a few days to just be kids. And be adaptable!
This was, admittedly, a very mature trip for our son to take. A 14-hour flight combined with new foods and unfamiliar settings is a recipe for chaos but Nolan truly did a great job. I felt sorry for him about six days into the trip, though, when we were exploring the northern city of Hakodate on foot. There was so much amazing snow! So much to play with! All he wanted to do was run and play and all we wanted to do was eat in restaurants and explore museums – very restrained activities for a six-year-old. We were all kind of feeling exhausted from constantly reminding him to chill. I ended up making the executive decision to leave Hakodate a day early and take the train to Niseko, where we would be skiing for four days. I booked a last-minute private lodge where I knew Nolan could play outside in the 4-foot-deep snow while Tim and I watched from inside. This gave Nolan a full day of complete, unscheduled freedom to just be a kid while Tim and I could relax. After that, Nolan had three days of ski camp with other kids which helped too. In retrospect, we should have mapped out some playgrounds for him in advance and planned our exploring around those. This would have given him something to look forward to and get some restless energy out. Next time!
4) Bring plenty for kids to work on at the table and in the mornings
Nolan picked up a Pokemon Nanoblock set on our first day in Tokyo and proceeded to spend multiple mealtimes and mornings putting it together and taking it apart. He also amazingly got really into practicing Japanese script, spending our sometimes long waits for gorgeous cuisine copying whatever Kanji sentences he could find. So, the pens and papers I brought did come into ample use. My advice: be flexible, but always be prepared. Take out the games/writing materials immediately upon sitting down or leave them out overnight where your kids can easily spy them. Don't mention them (this is key!) and I promise they will reach for them instead of whining about how hungry or bored they are.
5) Book as many food tours as you can
I stumbled across the company Arigato Japan which connects local Japanese guides with tourists like yours truly. You can pick tours specific to neighborhoods you want to explore and there are breakfast tours, day tours, and evening dinner tours available to choose from. While in Tokyo, we did three tours and each was fantastic in its own right. We explored the Harajuku neighborhood with Michie, Ginza with Hayato, and the Tsukiji Market with Kay. Each guide gave us a wealth of information and context for each neighborhood and handily ordered fabulous options at a handful of personally selected restaurants, food stands, and cafes along the way. Without these amazing guides, we surely would have been overwhelmed by the sheer wealth of options in Tokyo and unable to really appreciate how special these neighborhoods are. English is definitely not common on signage and while many Japanese speak some English, having someone fluent and familiar with the scene was key. In the future, I will always book food guides where I don't speak the language.
(Bonus) Put the Dramamine in your carry-on!
This is key! Do not repeat my mistake! Nolan gets car sick, as do I. He has flown on planes before without issue, so I thoughtlessly packed the Dramamine in our checked luggage along with the veritable pharmacy of cold and flu medicine I brought (just in case). As it turns out, a 14-hour flight is exactly the situation where a child who is prone to motion sickness will have issues: being overly tired, a bit hungry, and unable to get fresh air…you know what happens next. Without the Dramamine, all we could do was help keep him tidy using little handbags (recommended by Laurie) which saved our butts. Let's just say I packed 8 of these bags in my carry-on thinking "no way will we use all of these" and I departed that plane relieved of all bags. On the flight home I religiously gave Nolan a Dramamine every four hours and we had no problems. I will never make this mistake again!
