It was finally, here our 7 week European ‘white Christmas’ trip, with family and friends was about to begin. It had been a long time in the planning and the excitement levels were very high, and sleep levels rather low, with all the last minute things that needed to be done.
…….. and that’s a wrap for school!
The kids finished up school on the 29th of November, 2.5 weeks early, so we could get over to Europe with plenty of time for Christmas markets. The last day of years 8, 5 and Kindergarten came around very fast!
To make the slide into holidays super busy we had our annual ballroom and Latin dancing ‘medal tests’ on the 30th of November. We’d known about this for awhile and decided we should still participate, because surely everything would be organised by then, right?
Some early morning swimming squads and a piano lesson for Astrid and then we were all off to dancing in our finery for our various test times. We took it in turns to run home for last minute floor mopping and alpaca walking between our exams. Zinnia also had a friends birthday party she wanted to squeeze in between her exam and the presentations. Nothing like a frantic run into the holiday…..
….but not time to relax yet, it’s medal time!
Medal tests generally go all day and are followed by presentations. They were running a bit behind schedule this year and Presentations finished around 8.30pm. By now we were all exhausted and had a 6am flight out of Canberra.
….. and just when we thought everything was organised!
We got the kids Maccas for dinner to make life easier and all tired, they barely touched it. We tried to bundle them off to bed after an attempt to wash out all the hair gel, before international travel. With the kids finally in bed, Anto and I were finally sitting down and eating dinner at 9.30pm when Anto got a message that our 6am Canberra to Sydney flight had been delayed by 2 hours. This meant that there was no way we would make our Tokyo connection. Cue panic.
In a ‘what on earth do we do now’ moment, we tried to hire a car we could drive to Sydney as we didn’t want to pay 7 weeks of parking for our car at Sydney airport. Anto made a mad dash out to the Canberra airport to try and collect the car but didn’t make it in time before they closed. Luckily my mum was still up and offered to drive us to Sydney. The only problem is that we needed a bigger car to fit 6 of us and all the luggage. Anto’s mum, Lorraine, had already gone to bed as she had an early start with a swimming carnival the next morning so us organising to abscond with her 7 seat car rather than her driving it to a Goulburn swim meet was rather difficult. In the end we decided she’d be fine with our plan and Anto’s brother, Mikl went to let himself into the house and collect the 7 seat car and replace it with one of ours, while I left a message to call me when she woke up! By the time we had that plan sorted and the car packed it was almost 1am and we both dozed for maybe 10 minutes before a 2.30am alarm.
Astrid had been up and heard about the flight issue so didn’t have much sleep but Soren and Zinnia had been sleeping peacefully and had no idea that we were no longer heading to the airport. Di (Granny) arrived before 3am, ready to help us out, and we were on the road at 3am, in the dark, but thankfully not cold, as it was officially the first day of Summer here in Australia.
Unfortunately our drive involved lots of fog, which wasn’t ideal on no sleep. Soren and Zinnia were having a great time in the back row, but Astrid and Di were more tired in the middle row after a long night. Astrid had some excellent luggage to lean on….
We drove straight through to Sydney airport arriving just on 6am. At about 5.45am Lorraine had seen my message and called me where I surprised her with the fact that her car was most of the way to Sydney and she would be driving our Skoda to Goulburn that day. She hadn’t woken up in any of the car swapping over night!
Di deposited us at International departures and turned around and headed back to Canberra. It was her final day of packing and organising before her and Max were heading back to Sydney on the Monday via the train for their flights to Tokyo. It definitely wasn’t the ideal start to the trip for either of us…..
Yay for Sydney!
All feeling a little bit calmer now we were actually in Sydney, the holiday vibes were almost ready to kick in. Once check in opened we were through bag drop and immigration in about 10 minutes and off to the Qantas lounge for much needed coffee, food and even an early morning gin (it was 10pm in Paris and we hadn’t slept at all so it felt justified). By the end of our 2 hours in the lounge we were all ready to board that plane and get this holiday well and truly under way!
You would never know we hadn’t really slept at all……
Our very excited group shot before the 7 weeks of adventure. Would we not kill each other in that time, and how much gin did the adults need to survive all the countries and luggage moving?
Off to Tokyo we go…..
Despite the fact that our JAL flight to Tokyo took off just a little late at 9.30am but we definitely wouldn’t have made it with the domestic connection delay. The last minute driving plan was far from ideal and a layer of stress we didn’t need, but once on board thoughts turned to Tokyo and beyond.
We were all exhausted but pleased we’d sprung for premium economy flights when booking. The JAL premium cabin was small, and half empty on this leg. We settled in with some extra legroom, our fluffy slippers and plenty of snacks for the 9 hours to Tokyo.
It was bye-bye Sydney and time for the first of many movies and food. Zinnia was rather impressed at how much edamame she could have. Everyone who knows Zinnia, knows about her edamame obsession!
Once the first meal was done and everyone had feasted we all crashed and napped for a couple of hours This was unheard of in a daytime flight for us, usually, but we were exhausted.
At about 1.30pm Canberra time we were all feeling more awake and the kids commenced their never ending trips to the skybar to try out the selection of snacks.
The rest of the flight was blissfuly uneventful. We all watched movies and passed the time, enjoying our legroom and extra reclining seats. Our hosties brought around some self-heating eye masks. They had taken one look at me and exclaimed ‘oh you must be exhausted, you need one of these’…. how to know I wasn’t exactly looking my best! The eye masks were a hit though and definitely good on tired eyes, even if we did look ridiculous….
Hello Tokyo…..
As we approached Japan we got lovely views of the coastline and then some fly bys of Mt Fuji from both sides, including Fuji silhouetted at sunset. With only 2 days in Tokyo we had not anticipated getting any views of Mt Fuji at all, so it was definitely a bonus!
There is Mt Fuji, poking over our wing, a spectacular way to first experience Japan.
Our landing at Haneda airport was equally spectacular, with a beautiful sunset and the city lights of Tokyo laid out below us.
We were on the ground in Tokyo but Soren had managed to lose one of his earbuds into the seat during the flight, so the crew descended to try and find them. I’d gotten off the flight with the girls while Anto and Soren attempted to find the missing earbud. After 20 minutes and Soren’s section of the plane being partially dismantled, they told us to go and get our bags and they’d contact us. Meanwhile Astrid, Zinnia and I had gone off to wait and visit the bathroom. Zinnia declared she ‘loved Tokyo because they have fancy toilets’. As long as we were making her day! She then proceeded to lay down on her bags and attempt to nap. It had been a long day!
Anto and Soren appeared, minus the headphones. We went off to collect our luggage, and were through immigration fairly swiftly before spending what seemed like an eternity to find the luggage storage to drop one of our suitcases off, so we didn’t have to drag all our bags into the city.
The earbud was not to be found. This was item one of Soren’s large count of lost items for the holiday! We obtained our transport cards and found our way onto the correct (but busy) train. By now it was 6.30pm local or 8.30pm Canberra time and we were all getting sleepy. The 40 minute train into Chiyoda City seemed longer. Once we got off the train our supposed 700m walk with bags to our apartment seemed to take forever, probably because we walked further somehow…..
We did eventually find our apartment and there was a rather steep staircase to drag the bags up even after the lift to the 7th floor. The first of many stairs with bags, this one was somewhat unexpected though. The kids were not impressed with their floor beds, but we told them they would appreciate them by the time it was bedtime.
Despite endless plane grazing, we were all hungry so grabbed our jumpers, as it wasn’t Summer here, and found a nearby Soba noodle restaurant that rated well and involved virtually no walking.
The told us there was a bit of a wait but we were just happy to have somewhere to sit down, as it was now after 8.30pm local.
The restaurant hand made all their noodles and was extremely popular. We ordered hot soba, cold soba, fried soba and egg rolls. Astrid got to practice her Japanese which made her happy. There was a bit of a wait for food but we watched the chefs make soba noodles while we waited which was fascinating. Once the food arrived it was delicious! We still talk about this meal 🙂
Now with full bellies we eventually got back to apartment around 10pm Tokyo time or 22 hours after we left Canberra. The kids were asleep super quick, floor beds and all, and the adults soon followed.
The first day of our trip was far from ideal and definitely not what we planned but hopefully the next 7 weeks would run much smoother…… and they did, for the most part!
Up next….
Our first day in Tokyo, convenience store breakfasts, One Piece heaven for Soren, Ueno Park, Ichiran lunches, the amazing Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building and it’s views and Shibuya crossing.
