Week 3 - Osaka, Japan to Bangkok, Thailand

Osaka, Japan to Bangkok, Thailand

I can’t believe I am already summarizing our third week away! Twenty-one more weeks to go!

We began the week in Osaka, which honestly was a bust. Theo got really sick and spent most of the time in bed, and Raffi wasn’t much better. I don’t know what they had exactly, but they were feverish, nauseated with diarrhea, unable to eat for a few days, and sick with sneezes and coughs. It wasn’t good! They were never so ill that we needed medical care, but it came close. It also didn’t help that we stayed in a grungy Airbnb in Osaka. Japan hotels are so small and expensive, so we found what we could within a budget. Our place here had three bedrooms (win!) but it lacked in other ways, including natural light. Theo described his room lighting as having an “insane asylum vibe.”

Since Steve, Eloise, and I were all healthy at this point, we took turns going out and seeing the sights. Steve spent a day with the two younger ones enjoying the aquarium and a ferris wheel. I took Eloise on a visit to the Osaka castle, the nearby playground, and out for lunch. It was one of the first times navigating around the city all alone without my personal geographer and I did it! It was empowering to be the leader and guide for a change. Google maps is very useful for navigating in Japan, even specifying which train platform you need and which subway car is the best for your route.

Finally everyone was well enough to go out and explore on the last day we had in Osaka. So we went to a place Steve had his eye one - Spa World! It’s a huge spa with a floor dedicated to swimming and waterslides, and women’s and men’s floors for spa baths and saunas. Maybe you’re familiar with the Asian bath experience, but in case you’re not, just know that it’s very normal to be very (completely) naked. When I lived in South Korea, D’Arcy and I had what felt like such an embarrassing and yet liberating naked experience at one of these places. I was sure the kids would find this challenging, but they were absolutely fine! Eloise and I had a great time trying out the various tubs, rubbing salt onto our skin, and cold plunging, and the nudity was a non-issue. She was dancing around naked just as she does anywhere else. The boys were cool with it too. Who knew? I myself felt so much less self conscious than I did back as a 20 year old. Maybe, as D’Arcy said, it’s because I’m now an “old lady” but I think it’s also because people seem to care much less about foreigners now than they did 20 years ago when I was there. I was sure people would comment on how tall we are, or draw attention to us in some way. It wasn’t the case at all in Japan. Nobody noticed us! So I’m sure we blended right in at the naked spa…

On our last day, we also visited Dotonbori, finally did some karaoke, and ate a last cook your own meat dinner.

We decided to fly from Osaka to Tokyo and stayed one night at an airport hotel, making one last Japan stop at Theo’s museum of choice, the Cup Noodles Museum. Here the kids got to make their own cup noodles and we learned the history of Momofuku and the building of the business.

And with that, our 18 days in Japan came to an end. We packed all our jackets and other warm clothes into a big box and shipped it home to Toronto. So long, winter weather! (I was actually so cold in Japan that I went to Uniqlo and bought a whole set of warm things to supplement what I thought I’d need.)

Overall, Japan was awesome! We all enjoyed how easy and clean it was, despite how very different it is from home. I found the culture to be so very polite and patient. For example, even though transit is crowded, people aren’t angry or rushing around, instead they wait patiently to get on and off without panicking, and stand still on the escalators instead of hurrying along.

Our packing strategy has been working okay so far. We’ve taken four flights now, and I’ve been very glad not to deal with checked bags. Raffi and Lulu aren’t so good at pulling their cases, so typically Steve and I take two each, and Theo takes one. Lulu puts her backpack on a suitcase handle. It would have been good to get backpacks with luggage strap things but too late for that. The packing cubes are a lifesaver and I recommend them to all of you, even if you’re just taking a weekend trip. Buy them now!

We haven’t done much official learning activities at all. We are soooo behind on the journaling, haven’t done any math workbook time, and hardly even have time to read, although the kobo’s we got the boys have been great. But we are enjoying lots of learning and get a kick out of our family joke, where we shout “world school!” anytime we learn anything new, even the most miniscule factoid. And I haven’t been able to do any of my regular exercise routine, which is kind of disappointing. Oh well, I plan to go full fitness goddess when we land in Bali in a couple months!!

On the 18th we flew five hours to Hong Kong, then under three hours on to Bangkok. And now I’m writing to you from our second day in Bangkok! Holy moly, what a change!

Does an hour in the airport count as visiting Hong Kong?

First of all, it is so HOT here! Right now it is nearly 5pm and it feels like 36 degrees. It is seriously intense and we are slowly adjusting. The first day we took a taxi to the grand palace. While it was nice sitting in a cool car after hundreds of subways and trains in Japan, the gridlock was terrible. We finally arrived but the kids were already so hot, hungry, and needing a bathroom that we had many competing needs and it was hard to enjoy the temple. We persevered through that part until we made it to lunch. Yum! My first pad thai of the trip. It is so good and so cheap. I love Thailand. We are staying near a night market so aside from our temple visit we spent a lot of our time yesterday eating.

There are lots of other beautiful temples and sights like that to visit here in Bangkok, but it’s difficult to drag the kids to these kinds of sights in this intense heat. I’m not sure if we can make it to the others.

We saw a group of tourists doing a complicated group pose, so Steve asked for a lesson!

Today we visited Chatujak weekend market, an enormous market selling everything you can imagine. We wandered for hours among the stalls, stopping to buy fruit smoothies, elephant pants for the kids, and best of all, we got foot massages! The kids were so hilarious experiencing the first massages of their lives! I don’t know who laughed more, the kids or the ladies massaging them. Guess how much five 30-minute foot massages cost us? 900 bhat which is worth $34 Canadian dollars. Like I said, I love Thailand.

I need to tell you the story of Raffi’s souvenir choice. He didn’t need or want elephant pants so he was on the hunt for a souvenir of his own. At some point along the way he found a stall selling stuffies. They weren’t good stuffies. They were cheap-o looking ones that you might see at a carnival or something, and they had nothing to do with Thailand. We discouraged him from choosing one, and carried on with the day. He was sooo sad, he cried for over an hour, wishing he could have taken home that damn stuffy. Thankfully, somehow Steve managed to locate the approximate area of this stall (I’m telling you, this place is massive!) and Raffi’s day was made. I have to admit, the new toy bought us at least 30 minutes of peace while the kids all played with it. Worth it. Worldschool!

We have two more full days in Bangkok, one where we have a daytrip planned to nearby Ayutthaya, and another free day that isn’t planned. Anyone have tips? Should we go to Chinatown or Khao San Road? Or should we visit a floating market? Maybe we should find a museum, or take the kids to this kid place called Kidzania? Maybe we should suck it up and visit more wats and Buddhas. Let me know what you would do in the comments below!

After that we fly to Chiang Mai where we will spend an entire week.

A few last things before I go.

A travelling truth: If Raffi or Lulu are holding food, they will drop at least some of it on the ground.

Another truth: If Theo is hungry he loses all ability to function, especially in the heat, and he CANNOT and WILL NOT tolerate his younger siblings.

Final truth: the five second rule is no longer valid.

Things said on repeat this week:

• Don’t touch your eye/nose/face/the floor

• Don’t run your hand along that wall/ledge/garbage pile

• Get off the ground

• Did you wash your hands?

• Wash your hands.

• World school!!!

Have a great week! See you in Chiang Mai!