Traveling to Japan with Kids: Our Ultimate Guide to the Land of the Rising Sun

In this Can We Start Over podcast episode, Lindsey & Britt share their experiences traveling with their three kids through Japan. From the incredible architecture to the fashion & attention to detail in everything from food preparation to playground design, the couple discusses the many things that stood out to them during their three-week adventure through Osaka, Kyoto, and Tokyo.

Get insider tips on why Japan is a fantastic choice for a family adventure. They also share information on traveling in Japan, including the importance of starting with a soft landing and using the JR Rail Pass to get around. And don't forget about the stylish fashion and the incredible Starbucks, & 7-11s.

Japan is perfect for a family vacation or a more extended travel experience.

Tune in to hear more about their journey and get inspired to plan your trip to Japan.

You can read the Japan blog post HERE for links to the places mentioned in the episode.

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Transcript

Britt: 0:15

Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of the Can We Start Over podcast.

Lindsey: 0:18

My name is Brit. And I'm Lindsay. And if this is your first time listening, welcome. We're so glad you're here. We are a married couple from Texas that last year decided to sell our home, sell most of our belongings, and go on an around the world adventure with our three kids to find a new home. When we decided this and put it into motion, everything started happening really fast from idea to leaving on a plane was four months. So we decided to start a podcast and talk about how this journey happened so fast. The places we were going to and to talk to amazing people that we meet along the way that have also started over. And this

Britt: 1:02

week, we're talking about Japan,

Lindsey: 1:04

baby. We were there for three weeks. It was an incredible experience. It was incredible with kids. I will always recommend if you have kids and you want to travel out of the country, go to Japan because you'll have an amazing time. We sure did. And so we're here to share it with you today. Okay. Everything we did. And all the fun we had, and all the noodles we ate. One thing that so many people ask us about is, how do you communicate? How do you like stay connected when you're traveling, when you're with your kids all the time, when you're starting over? And man, we've been married for 16 years and it has been a ride. Like we started as completely, honestly, unconscious partnership, wouldn't you say, Brit? Like we got married young. And we didn't know. A lot of tools and along the 16 years, somewhere along the way we committed to, we have to change and we have to communicate. And that's when we decided to completely shift into a conscious partnership. That decision is what helped us start over so easily because when we were ready. We already knew how to talk, we already knew how to hold space for each other, and so we created a completely free guide, the three steps that we use in our own relationship to stay connected. If you want to grab that guide, if you're in a relationship or you're relationship curious and you just want to know what do people do after they've been married a long ass time to still feel like they're a unit. Get the free guide. You can find the link in the show notes. We hope it's helpful for you. Let's get into the show. All right, let's do it.

Britt: 2:47

I miss Japan.

Lindsey: 2:51

You do? I do. I kind of miss it too, actually. It feels like we were there a million years ago and it was really just a few months ago and it was so much experience packed into three weeks, a relatively short amount of time that It's like you really need to be away from it to process it all. Yeah. And just be like, whoa, look at all this stuff that we did. Yeah.

Britt: 3:17

We experienced so much, but in the grand scheme of things, it was so little compared to what you could do

Lindsey: 3:22

there, I think. Right, right. So that's important to say that this isn't, this is our ultimate Japan guide, not the ultimate Japan guide, because. We went there as tourists for three weeks, not as people who live there, so we just were sharing what our experience was as a family of five traveling in Japan for three weeks. There's so much to love. Yeah. What are like the main overall vibes of what's stood out to you as special about Japan?

Britt: 3:54

Hmm. Well, the first thing that I noticed was the architecture. The second you walk out into the world there, everything looks totally different than the U. S. Even the most simple buildings. We're completely different than what we're used to. And from there, it goes into these really intricate buildings, just like crazy technology. There's video screens on the, like the whole size of the side of a building that looks 3d. It looks like there's, you know, like a Panda. Stepping out of a building. It's bonkers. Uh, from there to like the historic buildings to the old shrine stuff, that's like thousands of years old. It was amazing. Immediately you see all that stuff and you're like,

Lindsey: 4:36

wow. Every city that we went to, it was this. real mix of new, modern, and then, like, old tradition, historic. And it really made me realize how, even though I didn't think I was, that I'm, like, pretty Americanized. To go somewhere else and, and just notice, Oh, look, look at these millions of people, like, living. In this world that I just had no idea existed, you know, and how like small our worldview can be even as people who identify as like open minded and open to cultures, you just really have to go somewhere to feel that you are just a microscopic speck on the world. Yeah,

Britt: 5:30

it really does shine a light on how little we experience, can experience in our lives, and never, and just think about like You know, our parents that, you know, never left home, mind blowing to think about everything that you haven't seen.

Lindsey: 5:43

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, so like visually outside, you're right, Japan, what we saw was amazing. Huge buildings, huge cities, and then this really historic, special, preserved piece of Japan. That also coming from America, we can be like, this house was built in 1790. And like, that's wow, that's really old to us. And then you go somewhere that was built like in... Twelve. Yeah, something like that. Uh, I also really loved that every one is stylish. Yeah. And everything is stylish, but not in a unapproachable way. Just there's style everywhere. Like everyone is oozing style, but also really covered up. Not that you need to like expose your skin to be stylish, but it's just a really. Interesting way to see fashion, and I loved it. Yeah,

Britt: 6:41

even the children and the elders were all, like, super fashionable. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And there weren't, like, a lot of brands. It wasn't, like, graphic tees or anything. Like, here it can be pretty loud, you know? And there it was all very simple. Muted colors. And just very chic, it

Lindsey: 6:58

was. Yeah, very chic, you're right, yeah. I think there were a lot of brands, but that might have been more stores. And accessories, a lot of it was accessories. Yeah, I've never been to a place where I noticed, like, how many, uh, Chanel stores there were, or like, Dolce stores, until I was in Japan and I was like, Oh my gosh, there's, uh, luxury brand stores in every city we went to. There was multiple. Yeah. Luxury brand stores and being from Fort Worth, Texas, where they like, just got their first luxury store two years ago or something, um, again, it just shines a light on like the world is going around you. Yeah.

Britt: 7:40

Yeah. Another cool thing that I noticed was all the playgrounds were amazing. And I don't know if it's just that they're different from what I'm used to, but just the design that goes into the playgrounds there, a lot of them were older. And, you know, a slide that looked like Godzilla, or just these crazy pipes everywhere. It's like, hard to even explain how cool these playgrounds

Lindsey: 8:04

were. It looks way different, you're right, than the playgrounds we see here, which are like a lot of plastic here. In Japan, what I saw was that the playgrounds were like, made of metal, or wood, and the slides would be like... A story high, all of them, you know, and there was all those rollers, there's tons of roller slides. Yeah. Just really fun. I liked all the slides. Yeah, they don't fuck around with

Britt: 8:26

kiddie slides. Yeah, yeah. These are like slides an adult could possibly get scared to go down. I remember shooting out of one and landing three feet in front of it.

Lindsey: 8:35

Yeah, that would make you think that, like, this is a little off topic but on topic, but, like, kids are so well cared for there to say that, like, oh, the playgrounds looked like the slides were two stories tall or one story tall might make you think, like, Oh, that's dangerous, but it's not because the kids are even so much more cared for there than here.

Britt: 8:59

Yeah, that, you know, I think that's kind of a theme there that reminds me also with like the food, like everything is really fresh and really nice. There's lots of raw meats. And so anytime you're walking past like a. a store on the street, all the, the faces of the store completely open, and there's just meat sitting out, like not cooled. And in the United States, you'd get shut down immediately for just having meat out of a refrigerator. It was like most places there.

Lindsey: 9:28

And it's still like really clean. Yeah. So, man, this could be a whole other episode, but what I am noticing just in us talking about this is like there's presence, so there doesn't need to necessarily be like hyper safety on a playground. Right. Because kids are playing with their parents or they're playing with other kids, there's like more presence. I think that's probably true with food preparation there too, is like, they're paying attention. Right. And with a level of attention, you're going to serve better things and you're, Not gonna be serving spoiled meat. And also, that

Britt: 10:04

also reminds me of yet another lair. People weren't on their phones as much as they are here. I went to a punk rock show, right? And not a single person, like it started exactly at 7. The band that I wanted to see came out on the dot at 7. The crowd, it was like sold out. It was just, everyone was up against each other. Not a single person had a phone out or a camera, except for me, because I wanted to take pictures. And it didn't bother anybody that I had a camera. But not a single person pulled out a cell phone. No one was taking a video, no one was checking their Facebook, or any of that. Everyone was really polite, and clapped at the end, and then the show was over exactly at 8. And everyone filed out. It was wild. It's like, just, yeah. The amount of attention people pay there to

Lindsey: 10:53

everyday things. Right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And, and there's still obviously, like, technology is everywhere, and there's places that you order your food on a screen, and, but there's still this quality of presence. It's just ingrained in people so they don't need to go on their phones as much.

Britt: 11:10

Right. Just in general, everyone seemed like very quiet and reserved there. There wasn't a whole lot of eye contact unless you were speaking directly to somebody, which was something I had to get used to a little bit, especially being from the South where everybody's like, Hey, how you doing? Oh my, what, you know. Nodding their head at you and stuff. It wasn't like that there, but when you are engaged with someone, they're super polite and to the point. Yeah, and totally down to help you with whatever

Lindsey: 11:37

you need. Right. Everyone was incredibly kind. Yeah, it just seemed well cared for. Even the kids, I'm remembering the kids all having these like little purses. Or they're like little packets, kind of like, looks like a purse. Every kid has one, and it'll have like, a handkerchief in it. And that's how they dry their hands. And after they wash their hands, it's just like, proper. Yeah. Proper. But not in a stuffy way, not in a way where it felt overbearing. I don't

Britt: 12:10

remember the name of this crosswalk, but there's a crosswalk in Tokyo that's like, Where all of, it's called the, something Scramble, right? Yeah. And it's like the biggest crosswalk in the world, and it's like five streets coming together and people walking in every direction, Cadillac Corner, and it's almost silent. Yeah. So there's like a thousand people in one crosswalk, walking in different directions, everyone knows exactly which way to go and not fall into the flow of another direction. And it, it was crazy. Yeah. It was like a, a movie or something. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's hard, it's hard to wrap my brain around.

Lindsey: 12:48

Yeah, yeah. Controlled chaos. I also loved, this is so specific and feels very American of me, that I really loved the Starbucks. I had the 7 Elevens there, and let me preface that by saying that, like, Starbucks isn't necessarily my jam here. I'll go sometimes. I don't need to go. Same with 7 Eleven. Never need to go there unless I'm getting gasoline or something. But there was something, it's just because it was, it's like American, so you feel like, okay, I know what to expect here. And then it was a level of service, cleanliness, attention. that was so far beyond what you would get here. Like the Starbucks, every Starbucks we went to in Japan, and we would kind of seek them out. Also, our kids loved the Starbucks there, um, because of donuts. It was like what you think The business plan for Starbucks was when they started it like a coffee shop in Seattle That people want to actually spend time at and here now. It's just like KFC or something There's KFC there too, and I didn't go to one but it's probably great. It's very

Britt: 13:59

big. They love KFC there But yeah the Starbucks and they had lots of options. The menus were huge And for me, there were, I think, four vegan sandwiches at any given time, there were vegan doughnuts. That stuff we don't get here. I think they tried vegan breakfast sandwiches for like a month and then they were out Yeah So

Lindsey: 14:20

it really just shows the difference between between like the fast pace here versus fast pace there Right what that means to people because fast pace here means like all your food comes in a bag and like you eat it in Your car while you're doing something else And there, even at Starbucks, your donut comes on a real plate with a real fork and a wet nap. And like, you do not walk around with it. You sit down, you eat your donut, you drink your coffee, and then you go. Another

Britt: 14:51

interesting part of the whole experience was you do not tip in Japan. It is rude to tip. Honestly, until recently, I didn't realize what the history of tipping was in the United States. And it's to, I guess, ensure that you're going to get better service next time you go there, right? Oh, I don't exactly know. See, there we go. There's something we don't know. Over there it's rude because it's like, well of course I'm doing the best that I can. Right. And they're getting, they're getting paid better over there as well. Right. And they're doing it all out of pride of doing a good job. Yeah. And so if you screw up and try to tip, they're not going to like that. It's a very interesting culture. Yeah. And I love that they are making enough to do what they do. Without getting

Lindsey: 15:38

tips, right? Yeah, it was really another interesting thing to come as an American and see especially coming from food and you know, it's like Um, and because we know that's what it takes to survive as someone in food service, but it made Me, just really think about the way that even companies, especially in America, like you, the way that money is distributed, again, that can be a whole other episode, but because everyone has like a really high quality of life in Japan, and I'm sure all the corporations are still making a ton of money there, but the people are making a lot of money too. But there's like 300 homeless people in all of Japan in the biggest cities in the world.

Britt: 16:32

Even the smallest cities in the U. S. have more than

Lindsey: 16:36

that. Those are the kind of like rabbit holes I start going down after I visit a place where I'm like, wait, what are the like the dynamics of how this place works? And how can a place still really care for people and all the food is affordable and you don't tip? Which was another thing is it was a lot more affordable than we really thought it was going to be. We, every meal we were like, Oh my gosh, that was great meal and it was 30 for five of us. For five of us. That would be a fancy meal

Britt: 17:05

there. Right, and we're used to paying probably between 75 and 100. Yeah. Anywhere, just to get five of us fed. So that was a real treat.

Lindsey: 17:16

Yeah. So there's a lot to love in Japan, and those are honestly just our like general bird's eye view of what we loved. And now we want to get into like what we loved in each city that we went to. What I do want to talk about first is getting there and just funny story that we came from Hawaii to Japan. So we essentially went from the last time in the time zone slot in Hawaii to the first. So we lost, I don't, I don't even know if that makes sense to people. Really, we traveled into the future. Straight up. In a DeLorean 1985, we traveled to the future. It's a 19 hour time difference, so it's just especially huge to go through that time difference, especially if you're like a sensitive wuss like me. I felt it. Anyway, the whole reason I'm really saying that at the top is that No, when you're getting there, because we booked our Airbnb for an entire day before we needed it. Yeah. And that was really funny when they sent me a message and they were like, what time will you be checking in? And I was like, oh, the next day is when I'll be checking in. There's obviously a million different ways you can see Japan. Um, we went to three cities that we really wanted to go to, Osaka, Kyoto, and Tokyo. And we started in Osaka almost on accident. I think the ticket price was just better, but I'm so glad that we didn't start in Tokyo. And we'll get into why as we kind of describe in the episode, but Tokyo is just so beautiful. Huge, and I've heard this from other, from friends that went to Japan after we went that it was so overwhelming that it kind of put a damper on their trip. It could be also different if you're traveling solo or you're like just going with one person, but when you're going with a family, like you need to have kind of a smooth and soft landing. So I'm so glad we started in Osaka. By the time we landed, went through customs, all of that, and then we're ready to leave the airport, of course, there's fantastic transportation everywhere, like, there's a train everywhere, but with five of us, three being kids, and three suitcases, and three carry ons, we were like, Let's just get a cab. And I'm so glad we did. Because it's like an, even the drive to where, from the airport in Osaka to where we stayed in the Kita ward was like an hour. So if we had done all of that maneuvering by train, it might have taken less time to get there, but it wouldn't, would not be worth it after. A really long travel day, going 19 hours in the future, and now it's night and you're with three

Britt: 19:57

kids. And actually that taxi ride to where we were staying at nighttime was my first glimpse into seeing like how big cities are. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like New York City is big here, but it's small. It's very dense. And it's huge, but you get to cities and other countries, and even Osaka was enormous, which I wasn't expecting. We're driving for an hour through thick city, through a whole city, and that's on a highway. That's not even like city traffic. You're just driving on a highway right next to the giant city for an hour. So, taxis are a good way to travel there. Another good way to travel is by train, like we said. And, there's a pass, you can get the JR Rail Pass. And this is, if you start looking it up, this is what's gonna come up every time. Cause the JR line owns a lot of the different railways. Not all of them, but... You can get around in pretty much any major city there on a J. R. rail plan pass. You just have to I guess the best way to do it is to download an app that tells you which lines of the J. R. lines so you know where to go and the J. R. rail pass will cover anything for the whole amount of time that you're there. I think we did a. Maybe a 27 day or a 30 day 21 day 21 day pass, right and for us It was great because that also covers the sink engine Bullet train from each of those cities to the next so on its own that would have cost you Probably half the price you're gonna pay for the the rail pass So for five people since we knew we were going all around Japan, that was the best way to go And there were some, some points where it would, it was a lot quicker to take a different line. So we paid a few bucks a person to take a different line where we were going and probably saved 20 or 30

Lindsey: 21:47

minutes. One thing that I remember about it, well, it was very easy for me because you did all the research and you planned it and you told me what line to get on, so thank you for that. But I remember that it was a challenge to get it. this pass while we were there.

Britt: 22:05

That's true. You do have to, or well, you don't have to, but the best way to do it is to buy the pass before you travel to Japan. And it's kind of strange the way it works. You buy it online, they send you a voucher in the mail, like overnight. Usually, or within a couple days, and so when you get to Japan, you take it to the, I guess, the guest services, and they give you your actual pass there, and you're set, you're ready to go. That was something I overlooked. So, because I think the whole time I was like, is it, should we get this pass, should we not, and we had so much to worry about, I was just like, ah, we'll get it when we get there, right? So, when we got there, we did get it, but we had to go to a specific rail station. Stand in a long line to get it. Yeah. So that was a drawback. I should have been a little more prepared. Another time that it got a little hard was to get on that bullet train from Kyoto. To Tokyo, we had Otis who doesn't need a ticket, right, but for that train, it goes by seats. So us having the JR Rail Pass in everyday life was fine. We didn't need anything extra. But to get on that bullet train, which is covered, we did have to buy an extra seat for Otis the baby.

Lindsey: 23:18

So we had to go back to a second train station, go to a second office. Brit had to wait in an even longer line while me and Eli and Otis and Jack just cruised around the train station, which was honestly super fun. I must say that was an amazing train station. Even the train stations are amazing and we'll get into that a little bit more. Let's talk about what we loved in Osaka. So we stayed in the Kita Ward and it was awesome. I loved that it was, it was still really welcoming, but it's definitely. a local's kind of place.

Britt: 23:54

Right. We didn't run into that many tourists when we were there. And the, kind of the vibe that I got from Kita is it's kind of in the middle of, say, Kyoto that's very traditional and Tokyo that is very futuristic. Osaka's kind of in the middle there. It has a little bit of both of those things. And in the Kita ward, where we stayed, When you think about Japan and you think about an alley with a bunch of bright lights and little shops and stuff, that's the spot. Yeah. It was amazing. You could get lost in those alleys and I tried multiple times and I would just always end up back somewhere where I knew, somewhere that I had passed, but I had seen a million new things. It was, it was like magic. It was crazy.

Lindsey: 24:39

Yeah, I loved exactly what you just said. There's every, it's not even an alley, they're streets. It just feels like alleys. Some of them are only for pedestrians, but a lot of it is streets. They're just very narrow.

Britt: 24:52

You could usually only fit one car down a lot of them. And

Lindsey: 24:55

there's just tiny restaurant, tiny restaurant, tiny shop, tiny restaurant. Over and over and over again, but they're all so unique that it feels like a completely different world that we never, we have never experienced. Right, and I'm not

Britt: 25:10

exaggerating when I say this, but the house we were staying in... Within a 5 minute walk in any direction, you would see literally about 200 different places you could eat. It's true. And some of them are tiny, could fit two people in, some of them are just a window where you grab something, and some of them were big, where you could have a party. Yeah, yeah. And they're all coexisting there together. None of it was a chain, and especially in that part of town. Except for the KFC. Except for the KFC. They do love the KFC. It was phenomenal. And each night, not each night, but a few nights after the kids went to bed, I would go out and take pictures at night. And I would just go in any place that felt like maybe somebody might want to talk to me there. And I walked into a bar and I was like, Hey, let me have a, uh, Sapporo or whatever. And I look around and I realize, Oh, there's like reggae colors everywhere. What's going on? And the owner started talking to me and let me, I'll say everyone in Japan knows more English than we know Japanese. So even when people speak very little English, it's way more Japanese than I would have ever heard. So even though there was a language barrier there, we were communicating really well and, you know, sometimes we would type into our phones and translate and show each other, but it turns out he was really into reggae music and ska music, particularly. And I love reggae music. So we immediately like hit it off. And then everyone that came in that whole first night that I was there was like his best friend, you know Like they came in every night. So I met like a master sushi chef. I met a college professor Artists all these people that are just in there in their home And they were all so nice and we had a great time and everyone was buying everybody drinks and having the time of their life. And so I went back there four or five times. It was awesome. That's just the kind of place it is. You just could find a tiny spot that maybe n Another person could be there for five years and never even see. That's how many spots there are. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And every spot, even the bars, they all serve food. Like, they'll be making sushi on just a tiny table. Like, you can't even fit four people in there, but they're making sushi while they're serving drinks. Like a

Lindsey: 27:27

real meal, yeah,

Britt: 27:28

yeah. It was amazing. Yeah. The hospitality there. Phenomenal.

Lindsey: 27:33

Yeah, that reminds me that Eli and Jack's favorite restaurant in Nikita Ward is called Goofy's Pizza, which is very funny. It's like the Japanese take on like, this is an American place. So there was like Simpsons on the wall. all of this stuff, but they loved the pizza there. We went there a lot, and everyone that worked there was so nice. One time, I was picking up a pizza for the boys, and I think I had Otis with me. This place was probably like a three minute walk from our house, and instead of when the pizza was ready, you know, I was gonna like carry it and like... Hold Otis, I don't really know, but the person that works there was like, no, I'll carry it for you. Actually, they didn't say that because I don't think they spoke English, but we, I understood that they're going to carry it for me. So this guy just followed me with my pizza. It was like delivery times a thousand because he walked it to our door. And then it was so nice, you know, just the level of care that people give there.

Britt: 28:32

Another cool thing that I noticed, and I guess this was really all over Japan, like the little toy machines, little quarter machines that you see outside of a grocery store, they were everywhere. There were even stores that were just those. It was like an arcade, but just for those quarter machines. They were everywhere. And they had the craziest toys. And I'm sure you probably know that if you know anything about Japan, there are lots of toys. They love their toys. So

Lindsey: 28:58

cool. The kids loved those. There's also just vending machines everywhere. So that's like, there's one style cause there's the coin machines, but also we were like everywhere you could get a water, get a coffee, get. Food out of vending machines, which everyone already says that about Japan, and it really actually is true. Out of our non des right downstairs in our non descript apartment, there was a vending machine just literally

Britt: 29:24

in an alley. With like 20 or 30 options, too. It wasn't just like the four major Coke, uh, you know. Coke Sprite, whatever. That was really cool. Yeah. And you know what we did? We touched on Starbucks, but we didn't really get into 7 Eleven. I will say 7 Eleven was great, especially for me. The 7 Elevens there have so much food. It was insane. Again, meals. Whole meals. Fresh meals. And

Lindsey: 29:50

so meals, you guys, I'm not talking about like the hot dog that has the cheese baked into it. I'm talking about rice, vegetables and a protein that someone made that morning, not six months ago, they made it that morning. And now it's in 7 11. And again, you like you said, it's not even refrigerated. Because you're expected that then you just take it and then you eat it.

Britt: 30:13

Right. And it was easy for me. So if I was in a spot where it was getting late, and I needed some food, I just needed it to be quick. And I couldn't just pop into a place and find out if something was vegan, I could dang sure find a 7 Eleven on any street corner. And I knew if it's labeled there, I know it was vegan and there was plenty for me to eat at that time. Yeah.

Lindsey: 30:34

One of my favorite foods in Osaka, or just a memory, a really vivid memory I'm having is drinking coffee in our apartment and eating those almond cookies from 7 Eleven. Oh yeah. It's just a package with just the right amount of cookies, so it's not a giant package, it's just the right amount of cookies for your coffee. And I loved it. It was like one of those, it's a core memory now. Yeah.

Britt: 30:58

Beautiful. There was another great restaurant in that neighborhood that we went to as well called Aju. And it was a vegan, traditional Japanese spot with like two tables. And we got stuff to go from there. One person working there, you go in, order it. Hey, and you're gone, just like a restaurant, because that's how restaurants work. But, uh, Yeah. There was also a sushi spot that was super tiny, what, we fit, I think, four people at the bar, and then one tiny two

Lindsey: 31:27

seat table there. Yeah, so our family being five people. Eating there, there was enough room for one other person to eat. That's what happened while we were

Britt: 31:35

there. Right. And we went to this spot because I read they had vegan options, right? So we go in, ask the guy for the vegan options, and he is the nicest guy. Chats us up, asks like, what degree of vegan we want this stuff, you know? Um, do you eat this? Do you eat that? How can I, and he made it all right there for us while we watched and chatted us up. It

Lindsey: 31:57

was phenomenal. So fun. And the one other person we met was from Australia. Yeah.

Britt: 32:02

Where we ended up going at that point, we didn't even know we were going to Australia. That's

Lindsey: 32:07

true.

Britt: 32:08

Yeah. But the, the name of that place was Double Quotation Icky. Yeah. Spelled out double quotation.

Lindsey: 32:17

Thank you. Our kids loved, loved, loved this huge play place that's there called Kids Plaza Osaka, which is, was like a kids, like a children's museum, but four times as big. It was like four stories and the whole entire top story was all science and then history and culture. And then there was the, I'm sure parents are familiar with the part of the kids museum that's. Where kids pretend to, like, work in a grocery store. There was all of that. It was really fun. The kids loved it so much. Outside of there, there was an awesome playground. Go to Kids Plaza Osaka. We also, of course, went to Osaka Castle, which is probably Everyone goes, if they go to Osaka. Osaka Castle is obviously an enormous castle and it's amazing. We act, we didn't go inside. A lot of people say don't go inside, but the park around it is like the size of Central Park. It's enormous.

Britt: 33:18

Yeah. And this is in the middle of the big city too. Yeah. And it's cool to see such a piece of history right there in the middle

Lindsey: 33:24

of the city where then they put a giant park around it. Yeah, we, we ate food from the street vendors there. We rode a mini train. We went to the playground. We ate at a restaurant. I think the boys got snow cones. Like, we did so much there and actually didn't go in Osaka Castle, but we did take some pictures of it. I don't think our kids would have liked it. That's like a little too museum y for them. Right.

Britt: 33:47

Yeah, they're 8 and 2, so. Another part of town that we went to was called Americamura. Right? America mura. I'm pretty sure that's right. America mura. Yeah, that feels right when I say it. And it is kind of their version of a Little America city. Yeah,

Lindsey: 34:06

but like,

Britt: 34:06

cool. Yeah, it's cool. There's like, music shops and

Lindsey: 34:10

all the vintage is. Yeah, vintage clothes. And all the vintage was like, t shirts, you know? Lots of hip hop t shirts. Yeah, so many hip hop t shirts, so many shoe stores that were like, sneakers. Where cool kids shop. Yeah,

Britt: 34:23

it was rad. Um, the day that we went there... We went a little early, so we didn't, I don't think we experienced it as fully as we could have, but it was pretty

Lindsey: 34:33

awesome. Yeah, yeah, and it's really close to Dotonbori, which is like the major shopping tourist part of Osaka. It's huge. It's a little, it was a little overwhelming for me, especially with kids who are over it pretty fast. But, it was incredible to see just the level of shopping. Yeah. That exists. The level of shopping was so crazy. And, you can find anything there. I remember though that we did go to a really fun, uh, Kauai restaurant. Oh, yeah. One of the cute restaurants. And, the boys loved it. It was so fun. They like, Eight weird colored mayonnaise. I don't even remember what we did

Britt: 35:22

there. Rainbow mayonnaise, yeah.

Lindsey: 35:24

But the people were so nice. Did we maybe get a latte or something? No, lattes. Oh, where they

Britt: 35:30

print a picture on top in foam. Yeah.

Lindsey: 35:34

It was very cute and very kawaii. And it's on a

Britt: 35:37

river, too. It was beautiful. Very cool. A lot of people, though, and it was raining a lot while we were there, so that put a damper on it.

Lindsey: 35:46

Yeah. You will need an umbrella if you're going to Japan, and actually, umbrellas will be provided for you, so you don't actually need to bring one, but, like, you need to bring it with you. Yeah. Because you're, it's probably going to rain most days.

Britt: 35:57

Yeah, or it's going to be real sunny, and maybe you want it for sun. Yeah. Lots of people do. There's all, you'll always see an umbrella everywhere you

Lindsey: 36:04

go, right? Kind of the last major thing that we did in Osaka was we went to Universal studios because again, we're traveling with eight year old boys and that's the thing they want to do. And it was so fun. Um, Universal is less expensive in Japan than it is in the U S kind of going back to that, how everything was more affordable than we thought it was going to be, and we'd never been to Universal. So we got to go to Harry Potter world. and see all of this stuff, but in Japan, and it was so fun. What was the funniest, not the funniest, what was interesting to me there, it was funny, was like the American part of Universal Studios in Japan is really funny. Like the Jaw Waterworld. Waterworld and the Jaws ride, it's fun to ride rides. That are based on these American iconic things and you like have no idea what anyone's saying, but you get it. The shark's coming. You get it. Water world shit is happening. I don't even know what water world is about. Flames and backflips. Yeah. You get it. It's a jet ski. Yeah.

Britt: 37:12

That was good. And, uh, I guess that kind of wraps up our time in Osaka.

Lindsey: 37:17

Loved it. Osaka was amazing. Yeah. I think we were there a week and we easily could have probably doubled that. There's still probably a bunch we didn't see. Not probably. There was

Britt: 37:27

definitely a bunch we didn't see.

Lindsey: 37:28

Yeah. So, that's Osaka, baby. Baby. From there, we took a train. Not a bullet train, but a train train to Kyoto.

Britt: 37:39

Which is a very quick, what,

Lindsey: 37:40

was it 30 minutes? I think it was 30 minutes. Yeah. It was easy. But

Britt: 37:44

when you hop out of that train into Kyoto, you're in a different

Lindsey: 37:48

world. It's a completely different world. But in Kyoto, we were like, we're doing this right. We got like the best looking one with like the most incredible bath. Over a hundred years old. Beautiful outdoor space. And it was in the Higashiyama Ward, which is like The cultural, historic part of Kyoto. The house, like Britt said, it was over a hundred years old.

Britt: 38:12

It had like the screens everywhere, like bamboo floor in some places. It's exactly what you would think of out of like An old Japanese movie like from the 1800s or something or even

Lindsey: 38:25

ancient what was the instrument that was there?

Britt: 38:27

Oh my gosh I don't remember what it was called, but it was like six feet long a stringed instrument And I think you I don't know if you pluck it or it's like maybe like a dulcimer that you hit with something But it was old too. Like it had these like beautiful pearl inlays Amazing. The whole place, it was definitely the coolest place I've ever stayed.

Lindsey: 38:48

Yeah, and the bathtub. Both bathtubs, but especially the one bathtub. Both bathtubs were amazing in this Airbnb, but the main one had a garden view in the bathtub. You just look in these full floor to ceiling windows of this beautiful Japanese garden. And we'll post

Britt: 39:06

some, uh, pictures of this, too, so y'all

Lindsey: 39:09

can see. Definitely. It was lovely. And from the balcony, we could see, like, all the pagodas, just everything around. We fully felt immersed in Kyoto.

Britt: 39:20

And while everything was easy walking distance, it wasn't as packed in as it was in Osaka. Mm hmm. So we could walk to so many different shrines, temples, restaurants, but it felt... Very easy to breathe. There was lots of

Lindsey: 39:36

space. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It has a definitely much more element of nature included in the city, and I'll probably say that's true for the entire city of Kyoto. Like, nature is integrated. In Higashiyama, where we stayed, you can step right out your door and stumble upon the biggest temples, shrines everywhere, go to a tea service, like, it's all right there, and I'm so glad that we were there because we didn't have to go back and forth between things that we wanted to do, and we didn't even really, like, need a guidebook that much. We're like, let's just walk outside and see what we want to see. And, um, One thing that was walking distance was Yasaka Street. Yasaka Street is where Hokanji Temple is, which is a very famous, huge pagoda. And then you walk up this little hill on this walking street that, again, is just lined with shops, with Treats, any kind of dessert you could want, but everything is so immaculate.

Britt: 40:47

It looked like Diagon Alley from, uh, Harry Potter, but an ancient Japanese version. Yeah,

Lindsey: 40:53

yeah. And clean. I, I just loved that we were there. Because, again, if we wanted to go, you or I, we're gonna go by ourselves in the evening, we would go walk to the closest temple, or in the morning, go for a walk and you're just like seeing history surrounding you. And I'm really glad that our boys got to see it too. This

Britt: 41:15

reminds me of another, a little off topic, but something we noticed all over Japan is people wake up a lot later there. So if you were going to a coffee shop, it's probably not going to be open until... Maybe 10 a. m. or noon.

Lindsey: 41:30

Nah, I saw, I saw 9, but yeah, 10. Yeah.

Britt: 41:34

Starbucks, however, is open by 8. 8, which is very early there. So be prepared for that. If you're an early riser, if you like coffee... Make it. That's

Lindsey: 41:43

actually funny that I kind of didn't put those two and two together right now because I did mention that I'm not really like a super Starbucks head, but I did go to Starbucks a lot in Japan and it's probably just because like we're up early. Yeah. So we're already out of the house and then it's like, Oh, what do we do? I guess we'll go to Starbucks and the boys can have a donut and then we'll decide what to do. So, if you

Britt: 42:04

want to see everything and have it all to yourself, I suggest getting up early in the morning to go see all of it.

Lindsey: 42:10

Yeah. And for, especially good for photos.

Britt: 42:13

Yeah. Pro tip. Go in the morning. The only people you'll see out are other photographers. Yeah. Yeah. And they'll stay out of your way because you're trying to stay out of their way, too. And it'll, it'll be easy.

Lindsey: 42:22

Yeah, again, it was just, was so perfect where we were staying that we could do that because you're right by Gion district, right by where the geishas come out. Britt, did you see a geisha? I never saw a real geisha. I

Britt: 42:35

saw maybe two of them right over there and let me backtrack a little bit. Once you get to Kyoto, Everyone, all the tourists dress like geishas. The coolest thing to do there is to go to a shop, get a, uh, geisha outfit, paint your face, and walk around. But you can tell who those people are. They still have a Chanel bag, you know? Or, or they're, they're walking funny, you know? Cause they're not used to the, the clothes. When you see a real geisha, it's like your, your jaw kinda drops. Because they're just the most proper... I don't know if proper is even the word. They just have a, a feel about them that is just magical. And you should look it up. There's a, a amazing history of what geishas even are that I can't even tap into for you. It's,

Lindsey: 43:21

yeah, it's incredibly... Specific and like a highly, highly trained art form beyond just any, whatever anyone's idea might be, like that it's dressing up and serving tea. It's a highly regarded art form that people study for years. Yeah.

Britt: 43:40

There's even different levels of it. Amazing. But there is a certain part of town that you go to where the geishas come out like at a certain time each night to go off to do wherever they're going to work. And that is called Hanami Koji Dori, is the neighborhood there, and it is situated between two larger streets, so I would suggest looking it up when you get there, because it could be kind of hard to find, but it's a whole beautiful part of town, there's a little river. Running through it, smaller than, I guess it's more of a stream, but it crisscrosses throughout the streets. It is beautiful, and that's where the geishas come out, like right before sunset. And there's lots of bars, nightlife, food

Lindsey: 44:23

there. That, so that's in the Gion district, which is basically next door to the district we were in. It was all very walkable for us. And the main river that runs through that part of Kyoto is the Kamo River that has these little streams that come off into the city. And they'll just be surrounded by, there's just a little bridge going, a little footbridge going over them with, again, just restaurants, bars. Everything you could ever want surrounded by this little river. The difference between what the river looks like there, though, is that the water is crystal clear everywhere. All the little streams and the main river, the water is crystal clear. It was so beautiful. There's not trash floating in it. No trash anywhere.

Britt: 45:12

Huge, uh, beautiful koi fish just out in the stream. Yeah. And people would line up there every night to watch the sun go down and there would just be people sitting

Lindsey: 45:21

on the bank of the river. Yeah. So we were there in May. Yeah. And I think that's important because it does like snow there in the winter and probably not people lining the river. But when we were there every single night, yeah, hundreds of people just lining the river, eating their dinner, hanging out with their friends. The jasmine, the smell of the jasmine growing on this river would like overtake me every time I walked over this bridge. I wanted to record the smell and send it to my friends because it was so amazing. And then you walk over this bridge, and then you're still in the Guyon district, but it's like more like a city, more modern. And

Britt: 45:59

from there, that was kind of a gateway to the other side of town. So there was the side of town that we were on that was very historic, and then You go through the middle of town, which is all modern and it's where the big Kyoto station is and larger hotels and more chain restaurants and things like that. Then you get to the complete other side of town right before the mountains. This is, it's almost kind of like a valley. There are mountains or hills on our side. And you go through and on the other side of town, there's more hills. And on that side, that's where the bamboo forest is and more historic stuff.

Lindsey: 46:33

Yeah. We didn't explore that much other than going to the bamboo forest and I kind of wish we had had the time to go over there because there was another beautiful part of the river where one of our cab drivers said, like, oh, people. And then there's and they do whatever they do in the water. I guess they don't go swimming really, but something. But the Bamboo Forest is probably another, it's like another iconic Japanese thing and there's bamboo forests everywhere. The one in Kyoto, when we went there, it was just really busy. That was kind of like the, my least favorite thing about Kyoto. We could have just gone at another time and it would have been perfect. And

Britt: 47:16

here's a tip, it's always open. It's not like something you pay and go through a gate to see. It's just off the road. So it's easy to get to and if you go early in the morning, there's not going to be anyone out there and you can enjoy the whole thing. all by yourself. And I'm sure it'd be a lot different there. Now, something that was really cool there, there were lots of little cafes and ice cream shops. And we found this really cool pond and we heard what sounded like a bull moaning, like, like a cow, so loud. And we were like, what is that? I don't see it anywhere. Is something going to run at us? What is this? And we realized it was the bull frogs. In this pond, the loudest, deepest sound came out of these bullfrogs. It was

Lindsey: 48:02

bonkers. Yeah, that was probably the best part of that little excursion for any of us. The bamboo forest was beautiful, and it was just a little crowded. Yeah. A really fun thing that we did. was we each took rickshaw rides with one of the older boys because it was a little too crowded for little one to go on. So I did, I think, 60 minute rickshaw ride with Jack and we, it was a lot of the same streets we'd already been walking down, but to do it in a rickshaw and our rickshaw driver was a woman and she was amazing. That's she's very strong.

Britt: 48:41

And if you don't know what a rickshaw is, it's like a horse drawn carriage drawn by a single person, not a

Lindsey: 48:47

horse. So you're just sitting back there in your little carriage while a person runs you through the streets of Kyoto. And that's

Britt: 48:56

like. Seeing it made me nervous before we got on. I was like, Oh my God, why would you do that to somebody? And then when we did it, I realized that these people are in like peak performance mode and they love doing it Like this is like their lifestyle. It's like cyclists here, but they're carrying people Yeah, and they all of their calves were enormous like Yeah, I know when, when we went on it, they were going, the driver was going backwards up the side of a mountain while talking to us, telling us what was over here and what was over there. That's the mansion that the guy that started Sapporo Beer owned, and now it's a hotel. And

Lindsey: 49:36

it's a beautiful place, too.

Britt: 49:39

Yeah. It was wild. You should definitely do

Lindsey: 49:41

a rickshaw ride. Yeah. We mentioned earlier that we had to go to the main train station in Kyoto to get a ticket for Otis before we went to Tokyo. That was like an entire day experience, because the train station has everything you could think of. It's like ten shopping malls that also just happens to have trains. There was one level of it that was like, like the makeup section of a Macy's, except it was sweets. So there was a hundred different counters. And they all had a different kind of sweet. It was insane.

Britt: 50:20

Yeah. And all stuff you've never seen before. Yeah. They took the most care to make these, these food pieces.

Lindsey: 50:27

Yeah. And then the top level of the train station was 50 restaurants. And then you could ride up a, an escalator, which is one of our boys favorite thing to do. That was, Four stories tall. Oh much higher than that fifty thousand stories tall y'all guaranteed look it up on Wikipedia Yeah,

Britt: 50:47

it was you could ride for 15 minutes and not be at the top It was

Lindsey: 50:52

beautiful but so the train station even if for some reason you don't go to or from anywhere on the Any of the bullet trains, check out the Kyoto train station because it is a sight to behold.

Britt: 51:05

One thing about the train station was that we were hungry, it was time to eat, and we're used to just being able to pop in somewhere, know what the food is, get it, and go. At the train station, at lunchtime, There were very long waits for food. It was also kind of hard to tell what was on each menu and how to get to each of these restaurants if you were to look them up, which we did. So, there was, there was some hanger going

Lindsey: 51:33

on. Some hanger. It turned in, it was like, Whoa, look at this train station. This is amazing. Very quickly, not very quickly, but relatively quickly was like, Where the fuck is this place?

Britt: 51:45

Yeah. And also, the boys can be, uh. A little hard to please with food, especially, yeah, yeah, tofu is one of their favorite meals, but if it's cooked in a different way that they're not used to, they're probably not going to touch it. So, finding one of these places and then just hoping that the food comes out in a form that they will eat was a little tough. Luckily, they love

Lindsey: 52:09

rice, so. Specifically there, it felt, this was probably level, layers and layers of hanger, long lines, all of this. And then it was difficult to know if there was anything that was vegan. Right. So when we finally did find a vegan friendly place, it was this very cute coffee shop. It was so cute. It actually was the only place I saw that did have a tip jar. Mm, right. That's right. And it wasn't really like lunch food. Yeah. Yeah. So that was an interesting experience. Started out amazing and the train station is amazing. Eat before you go. Now, actually y'all just go eat there because you can just pick anywhere. But my favorite restaurant that we went to in All of Japan is actually in Kyoto and it's called Chow Chow. I'm pretty sure it might be like legendary in Kyoto or people that are visiting Japan because every time we went, there was a super long line for people waiting to get inside. That again is small. It's basically the size of a waffle house. Everyone, whenever, when we say everyone is nice in Japan, it's so true. And then everyone at Chow Chow is like a hundred levels up. Like when you pay, they're like, yay. Every

Britt: 53:27

person working in the restaurant says yay

Lindsey: 53:30

and When you leave, they're like, hey. When you get there, they're like, hello. And when you get a beer or any kind of drink, they're like, come by. And then, and everyone says it that works there. Which is cheers. Cheers. It really, I loved it because it tasted amazing and the people were so nice and being from a food service background, like, you know, the feeling of that kind of working in food service where you're having fun. And we went there three times, I think, because we were just like, this place is fun and amazing. And it was, And the boys liked it too. And

Britt: 54:08

magically, we always got there right before the lines got super long. Yeah. So we, we were hitting it

Lindsey: 54:14

perfectly. Probably because we eat at like 5 p. m. Yeah. But, chow chow, it made me so happy. It like, tickled all of my old, uh, food service receptors. Like, all the good things of food service.

Britt: 54:32

So that brings us back to Kyoto Station, where we took the, uh, Shinkansen, believe I'm saying that right, bullet train, to Tokyo. That train was awesome. It was like, plane seats, basically. It was very comfortable. It was very fast and you got to see the whole countryside. We actually went right by Mount Fuji, but it was a little too

Lindsey: 54:54

cloudy to see the mountain. Really fun, easy experience. The kids liked it. Otis took a nap. It was like for a three hour train ride or two hours. Two or three. It wasn't bad. Really couldn't have been easier. Once we got to the station in Tokyo, that's when we were like, Oh, we have to like get Out of here, and that's what was challenging because once you traveling with five people and a lot of stuff since we were traveling for a long time, getting into and out of the train station was a lot. Yeah, this

Britt: 55:27

is three big suitcases. At least five backpacks. Some other cases. There's a lot. Yeah. It was a lot. And I will say, there is a big shock there because you're going from two cities that are polar opposite. Right. You're going to, like, the most technologically advanced city in the world, maybe, from A place that looks like you're in the past. Yeah,

Lindsey: 55:51

in a great way. Yeah. Tokyo is big. Y'all Like I didn't know. I had no idea that it was the largest city in the world. And I know that's gonna sound like so white person, stupid, but I just didn't know. But it's the largest city in the world. When you haven't been everywhere in the world, you might think, Oh, largest city in the world, like New York? No, like the largest city in the world. To have no idea, to have only a little understanding of truly, like, that Asia is huge and so advanced and there's so much of it, it's hard to wrap your head around. And you're just in one city. It made New York

Britt: 56:34

City look like Branson. It's true! Sorry, I love you, New York City. I love you.

Lindsey: 56:41

I love you, New York. But size wise. But size wise, you might as well be Branson. Yeah. So getting to Tokyo, by that time in the trip, I think we're also, I was a little tired. And so that part in Tokyo, I could have used a little more downtime, personally. And, since Tokyo is, It's a huge city. It's the biggest city in the world. The Airbnbs, I mean, I'm sure they're just vastly different. I'm sure you can get any kind of style that you want, but basically we were in a two bedroom apartment that was pretty small, like New York. So not a lot of space to kind of relax. And

Britt: 57:18

something that I've failed to mention in all of this is that the kitchen situations. I mean, there's probably some big ones, but they're pretty much all small, so if you're the kind of family that cooks a lot, I don't know, be prepared. They might not be totally equipped. There might be one pan and a rice cooker, you know, on a hot

Lindsey: 57:43

plate. Right. We saw that even in the place in Kyoto, which was a really, really nice house that was big. The kitchen was small and there was two pans. Yeah. Yeah, so that's just the way it's, it's done. You're not going to like stock up on a week's worth of groceries. You can't because your refrigerator is a dorm refrigerator. Where are you going to put it? Yeah. But Tokyo was, Tokyo was fun and that's exactly why I'm glad we ended there. Even though we were tired.

Britt: 58:15

And we had some decision fatigue by that time, too. We could have looked up more, I think we could have navigated it better than we did, um, in a different situation. Yeah.

Lindsey: 58:25

We also were only there for five minutes. Five? Six days? Five days? I think five. But one of those days was Disney. So once you factor that in, it's like that's a whole entire day taken by Disney. Yeah. Some things that we did in Tokyo, so we stayed in the Shinjuku area. And even Shinjuku is huge. The part of Shinjuku we stayed in is like the adult part. It's where there's love hotels and nightclubs. Everywhere. And that was really funny, only because we were with kids. I don't even care. But it was just funny. Yeah. It doesn't, didn't mean anything. Nothing, there's nothing bad. Also, there can be love hotels. There can be nightclubs for people to pay people to look at their feet or whatever. I don't know what kind of stuff is happening. And it was just a funny place to be like, I'm on vacation with my kids here, hi! Yeah. Cause everyone That also means There weren't a lot of

Britt: 59:21

families around. That also means that there's less amenities for kids. There's not playgrounds. Right. And toy shops and stuff like that. Kids

Lindsey: 59:29

museums. Right. Right. Good point. Really good point. It was

Britt: 59:33

the fuck palace. And you don't, you don't want to take your kids into the fuck palace, but you can walk past it. Yeah. It's not a

Lindsey: 59:38

big deal. And also you don't want to like, fight. Fear it, right? Because you don't wanna make them have a hangup about the fuck palace. You just want them to like be like, okay, that's a cool thing that can happen. Mm-hmm.

Britt: 59:48

look over there, there's a God giant Godzilla head on that building. It was more like that.

Lindsey: 59:54

So that's where we stayed. That's the part of town

Britt: 59:56

we stayed in And let, let me throw this in there. All the boys. Looked like dolls. They just were like the most perfect looking specimens of people. Do you say boys? I don't know. I couldn't tell. They all looked like kids. Because they're just like, have perfect skin. And are just like, yeah. It was, it was crazy. It was cool.

Lindsey: 1:00:15

Yeah. Yeah. It was crazy sexy cool. Crazy sexy cool. Yeah. Yeah. That was the vibe of the part of town we, the part of Tokyo that we stayed in. Right.

Britt: 1:00:25

Like, I don't think any of them would want to be called men. That's how, like, you know what I mean? Like, they were just, yeah, like, uh, like, like BTS, you know, like, no one ever called them men, I don't think. Maybe, I don't know. I'm going down a weird hole here. Anyway, I'm going

Lindsey: 1:00:44

Going down their weird hole. Respectfully. Can we just, we don't need to edit it out. We just need to say respect. Respectfully,

Britt: 1:00:52

the boys were great looking.

Lindsey: 1:00:54

Next. We went to a cat cafe, as some people do in Japan, and it was just like a pet store. There's really fancy cat cafes that they don't allow kids in. We didn't go to those because we have kids, so we went to one that does allow kids, and it was kind of just like a pet store. Smelled like

Britt: 1:01:12

pee. On the way out, you see the cats for sale, and it was kind of sad because they were like designer cats, like the ones that are bred to have tiny legs and googly eyes and their tongue sticking out all the time. It was like they were trying as hard as they could to breed cats to look like Lil Bub, and that made me very sad. That is sad. Yeah, and they were like... Three to five grand for these, like, poor little cats. Yeah. But I must say they were very cute. They were very cute. But, uh, I felt very bad for even just being there looking at them.

Lindsey: 1:01:41

Yeah. There's other throughout Japan, that was the only, like, animal experience we had. Oh, and

Britt: 1:01:48

Otis got bit by one of the cats, and he still talks about it. Oh,

Lindsey: 1:01:52

yeah! The cat bit him. I forgot. Fuck

Britt: 1:01:55

that cat. I mean, hey, I like I like animals,

Lindsey: 1:01:59

but fuck that cat. But there's a lot of just kind of, like Not cool animal stuff you can do in Japan. Not cool to me. Like, you can go to an owl museum, or not museum, an owl cafe, a snake cafe, a

Britt: 1:02:15

bug cafe. Let me say about the snake cafe, you can pet the snakes and also eat the snakes on a skewer.

Lindsey: 1:02:22

It was fucked up. It's just weird. We shouldn't, maybe we shouldn't say fucked up because it's like, that's their cultural... It's just not for me. Yeah. And actually, I don't even think it's part of their culture, I think it's just a tourist trap. Right.

Britt: 1:02:35

I think that's what it is. Yeah. Yeah. But I don't want to pet a snake and then eat it off a stick. Right. Right. Bottom line. Right. I'm gonna go a little Morrissey there, not too, not too Morrissey, but I'm not gonna eat the snake off the stick, okay?

Lindsey: 1:02:49

We did, of course, go to Harajuku, which is pretty much exactly what I thought it would be. There's neon and pink and... Shit was cotton candy. It was kawaii like how many crepe places there are In a three block radius that you can get, I don't know, peeps in or just any kind of like candy or anything. Every

Britt: 1:03:14

KitKat that was ever made. Every KitKat that was ever made. Catfish, KitKats, I mean, just like any weird shit you'd ever want. Not weird, new. Not

Lindsey: 1:03:23

even new, just, uh... New

Britt: 1:03:25

to me. New to me. I've never seen catfish flavored KitKats.

Lindsey: 1:03:30

But it was really, the boys really liked Harajuku. The fashion there was just kind of... Also, I didn't see anything that was like, Oh my gosh, that was amazing.

Britt: 1:03:39

Yeah, we weren't there on a Sunday. Sunday is when that happens, where everybody goes out dressed in like anime. Dang, we should have done that. Yeah. But I did go into like an urban streetwear store and talked to the shopkeeper and had the best time. He was really into hip hop, so he asked me like every hip hop group that I've ever seen, every rapper I've ever seen. And still to this day, I keep thinking of new ones that I wasn't, that I'd forgotten about. And I just want to like, call them and be like, Oh no, no, no, no, I did, you know, I did see most deaf this time, or whatever, you know. Yeah, yeah. I wish I was back. I wish I was still there so I could go back and talk more to the guy. I'm cool. I'm cool. Yeah,

Lindsey: 1:04:18

about hip hop. I'm cool. I saw most stuff, like, probably before you even knew who he was. Probably before you were even born. That's probably true. It probably is true. And around Harajuku, similar to Osaka, Every kind of luxury store, like, times a thousand. There's just shopping. People be shopping. Mm hmm. Times a million thousand percent. That got a That got a little where it was like, okay, I get it. This is the part of town where people buy shit they don't need. Right. And it's fun to see. And then I'm quickly, don't care, might be a different experience if you weren't traveling for three months and didn't really have room for anything in your suitcase. If you're just going, then you'll probably be like, look at all this stuff I can put in my house. Yeah. Or my closet. Even the Disney day for us was our highlight. I'm sure for everyone in our family. For Tokyo. For Tokyo. Yes. Because it was amazing. It's a little bit out of town. It took like 45 minutes in a cab. I don't know if you can get there by train. You probably can, but we weren't trying to do that. So we took a cab and it was so fun. We are all huge Disney fans, like to a dorky degree.

Britt: 1:05:38

Our kids can tell you every. single thing about the Haunted Mansion, who, which person designed what, how each illusion is done. It's insane. They

Lindsey: 1:05:48

love Disney, and I also love Disney, but definitely their love of Disney has rubbed off on me. Specifically Disney Parks is what we're talking about. Yeah. So we knew when we were going to Tokyo that we would definitely go to Disneyland. And we did, it was super fun, the tickets are way less than Disneyland here, like I think it was maybe 50 or 60 bucks a person, maybe 60 for adults and 50 for kids, even though it's just a full regular ass Disneyland. Yeah. And not only is

Britt: 1:06:20

it a full regular ass Disneyland, all the rides that we went on were better. The tech was awesome. Bonkers. There was projection mapping that looked so real, there were holograms, like, everything, the jungle, okay, the jungle cruise, I gotta say, that might be the most, it's a great ride, but it might be the most boring ride, it's just these old ass animatronics, right? But... In Japan, you go into a cave where there's this, like, hologram of fire that shoots just, like, bonkers shit that is nothing like the one here. There's the small

Lindsey: 1:06:58

things. Yeah, yeah. Anyone who's ever been to Disney, probably, maybe you've used the app to, like, get on the rides and stuff, and we did that a little bit. I think it was a little harder to navigate through their app, but one thing we did do is we paid the extra money to go on the beauty and to do the fast pass for the Beauty and the Beast ride. And 1000% worth it because the line was probably like two hours long. We paid for the fast pass. Absolutely. It was so worth it because it was the most incredible ride I've ever been on.

Britt: 1:07:33

Yeah. And I don't really even care about Beauty and the Beast. Persay, right. But that ride was bonkers. It was a trackless ride. So you're in these teacups that are just all over the place Dancing around with other teacups not on a track just out in the yeah It's hard to even explain the line going up to at the preshow was insane. There's, like, 3D, these holographic, uh, characters dancing around. It's It was so good. You can probably I'm sure you can look at a video if you want to spoil it. Or you can just go to Japan and see it for yourself, okay? Yeah.

Lindsey: 1:08:08

That even though that line was long, all the other lines we were in weren't it wasn't as packed as Disneyland here. And maybe we just got lucky on a good day. Also, the weather was great. All day. And that's really good because obviously, like we said, it can rain a lot and it rains there and they have some places that are covered just because it does rain a lot there, but man, it was fun. It was fun. And we went on the Haunted Mansion twice, which is our boy's favorite. It was Brit's favorite Disney. He's, he said, absolutely. And. I can't wait till we go to all the other Disneys in the whole world. We have to go to the two in China at some point. We're going to do it. We'll get there. Go just to go to Disney because it was a great, it was a great day. If anybody wants to

Britt: 1:08:53

hit our tip jar and get us to China. Hit the tip jar. Hit the tip jar. On our website we have a tip jar. Get us to China or Disney.

Lindsey: 1:09:00

We have plans to do an episode entirely about Disney parks and how we do it with three kids and like how we actually enjoy it every time because sometimes you hear from people that going to amusement parks sucks with their family. It might just be our family style, but we love it. We have fun every time and I think there's like a very specific way that we do it that makes it fun. Absolutely. That was it. That was Disney, baby. As far as food in Tokyo, we really just kind of ate whatever was nearby. We didn't, like, seek out a lot of great food. We didn't have a lot of great food experiences, but we did have a bad food experience. Tell me about it, Karen. It was us looking for a pizza place for our children. It wasn't bad in the way a Karen would say it was bad. It was just surreal. It was a surreal experience. We found a pizza place. In the lower level of a mall that was called Shakey's Pizza. That I think should have been a red flag. It should have been a red flag. And you, and we went in and it was like if CeCe's Pizza was owned by a weird clown, kind of. Or something. Again, it was just like this weird, like, this is what the Midwest is. Anyway, all the pizza looked very weird. There was like shrimp on it and, and it just looked very weird. Our kids, I think they enjoyed it. I ate some salad. Did you even eat anything there, Brett? Not a thing. It was just one of those, another one of those times similar to the Kyoto experience where we were like, I think we got into town, we put our stuff down. We're like, okay, now we gotta get these kids some food. We walk out, we're like, pizza. Okay, this place has pizza. And then it was Shakey's Pizza. And it was shaky AF. Oh yeah. It was a weird experience. Would not do again. Would not do again. I never want to go back to Shakey's Pizza, but it's burned into my memory as a weird fever dream of a place. Like, I think there was even, like, brick wallpaper. Mm hmm. Like, fake brick. It's obviously wallpaper. I feel like the guy was wearing a clown tie. I could be making all of this up. Did the people have spinny top things on their head? I don't think they did. I don't think they did. And there's, like, shrimp on the pizza. There was soup. No, there was Curry. Curry. Curry. Yeah. Um, it was just very Pizza

Britt: 1:11:29

and curry, all you can eat, baby.

Lindsey: 1:11:31

And the boys got soda. Why did we let them get soda? Oh, and it was nasty. It was green, like, the brightest, most neon green I've ever seen. When I saw it, I thought, there, that's a disease on down the line for them. It's something that's coming back to haunt them 20 years

Britt: 1:11:51

from now. It was also kind of flat and tasted like it had dirty lines, too. It was gross. Yeah.

Lindsey: 1:11:57

Shakey's Pizza. Five stars. The one other thing I want to say about, uh, leaving Tokyo or kind of like tying up our trip is we flew out of Narita, as far as hell, from Tokyo, and we had no idea. Or

Britt: 1:12:11

far from where we were staying.

Lindsey: 1:12:13

Yeah. That might, I think it's all far. It was. Yeah. Almost. It was at least an hour and a half in a cab. It might have been two hours. I think it was more like two hours. Oh, and let

Britt: 1:12:22

me throw in there too. I didn't think that we were gonna get a cab because they're not trying to drive us out that far. So I, I was, I was nefarious here. I hid the family behind some trees, like some little shrubs and all our bags. And I just went out by the street and threw my hand up when I saw a cab big enough for all of us. And then he stopped and we all just ran out and started throwing our shit in the cab because I knew he wasn't. and pick us up to take us out there. Yeah.

Lindsey: 1:12:48

Uh, yeah. I, in Tokyo, we did experience like people just kind of cabs kind of driving by us. Yeah. They weren't trying to deal with five of us with three kids. Even he was so nice and he was like, Oh, you're going to Narita. Okay. And at the end, he was like, thank you so much.

Britt: 1:13:04

Right. And all the cab drivers, they pick up your stuff and put it in the cab. Like your, your huge bags, everything. They are the nicest.

Lindsey: 1:13:12

I think you did tip him. Oh yeah. I think you gave him extra even though it's like not customary. Right. But he drove us a long way. He deserved it. Yeah, he deserved it. If you're going to fly in and out of Tokyo, just know which, which one you're going to fly in and out of. There, of course, is a train or a Subway or bullet train that will take you from Narita to, to Tokyo. And again, we just had too many moving parts to do that with. Kiddos. Right.

Britt: 1:13:39

Alright, so here is our rapid fire version of, um, things that we noticed, okay? Random things that we noticed. Number one, very few trash cans for such a clean country. It's hard to find a place to put your trash.

Lindsey: 1:13:54

Number two, the grocery stores are small. Like we said, you can get a great meal in a 7 Eleven and in the grocery store, but all the grocery stores are small. There's not a Sam's Club. There's not an HEB.

Britt: 1:14:09

Number three. There were very few napkins. Sometimes you would find a box of Kleenex to use as napkins, but a lot of times there just weren't napkins. Like we were saying earlier, some of the kids have little purses where they carry their own little handkerchief to use as a napkin.

Lindsey: 1:14:23

We already mentioned this, but nothing really opens early. Even the coffee shop sh Special by our apartment in Osaka. It opened at 10 a. m. So at that point, we're like going for a second cup of coffee.

Britt: 1:14:39

Everything there runs really well. The train lines, the restaurants, we even didn't see traffic. There were no dents in cars. Everyone's car looked totally great.

Lindsey: 1:14:51

I will say some restaurants are not into kids. And we had a couple experiences where it was pretty obvious, like, we should go somewhere else. Yeah,

Britt: 1:14:59

no one wears sleeveless shirts and everyone wears

Lindsey: 1:15:02

socks. And we did the same while we were there. We wore sleeves, we wore socks. It's a thing. Even the mannequins in the fanciest department stores that are wearing dresses, that has a t shirt on underneath it. So Britt, would you go back to Japan? Absolutely.

Britt: 1:15:19

I would go back tomorrow if I had

Lindsey: 1:15:20

the chance. Me too. I will go back. I think we all will go back. For sure. What will you do differently next time you go to Japan?

Britt: 1:15:30

Okay. I will stay in a different part of Tokyo

Lindsey: 1:15:33

for sure. Yeah. The Love Hotel. We'll find a different area. Yeah. I also, there are so many amazing hotels in Tokyo that I would, if I was going to be in Tokyo specific, I would probably stay in a hotel because there's like some fancy, fancy bangers there.

Britt: 1:15:49

Right. And I would generally just. explore Tokyo more. Yeah. We didn't really see that much. Yeah. We saw a lot, but like we said, it's the biggest city in the world. There's a lot to see there. Another thing is Mount Fuji. We went by it on a train, but we didn't stop. You can pretty easily get there from Tokyo. It's just a few hour drive. And what we didn't know when we were there is that it's actually, from what we've read now, a pretty easy hike up. And there's like little food stands on the way up, and even kids could go up there. Yeah. It's Mount Fuji. We're doing it next time. We're doing it next time. Yeah. Geez. We should have done it. Yeah, I'd also like to see more of the smaller towns and beach towns. Okinawa, that would have been cool to see what beach life is in

Lindsey: 1:16:34

Japan. Yeah, we didn't see any beach and I definitely want to. I even think that we got a couple signs to go to Okinawa and we didn't go and that's okay. We'll go, we'll go next time. The other thing that I would do differently. And not everyone has the opportunity to do this, but I would stay longer. We were there for three weeks. That's kind of a long time for someone to be on vacation. And we could easily spend a month there or six weeks and really have the time to explore it more and build in more rest days, which I think is what made Tokyo feel like a drain at that point. We were like drained.

Britt: 1:17:15

Absolutely. And this was a weird. Thing that I hadn't felt while traveling before but after we were out of Japan Maybe a week or two. I was like that was fucking amazing Like everything about Japan was amazing, and I wish I was still there and I loved it while I was there But I think once I had time to decompress and I wasn't just like looking around like what do I do now? How do I get on this train? What do you know? Is this okay to do whatever? When I'm not thinking about that, I'm just thinking fondly of all the cool shit that I did. So next time we go, we know what we're getting into. And I think we're gonna be able to be more present and be able to enjoy it more than ever.

Lindsey: 1:17:56

Right. And there's something to be said about traveling to a place a second time because the places that we have fallen in love with, some of them have been the second time around. Like the parts of Mexico that we like really love. It was like the second time that we were there. Where were you like, Oh, this is magical. That's true. Because there's this, yeah, it's just like a touch more comfortable, but it's still so different that your mind is open and you can love it even more. Yeah. We hope this episode helped you. We want to hear if you want to go to Japan now. We want to hear if you went to Japan and there was something that you loved. We didn't mention, we wanna hear if you went to Japan and you didn't like it.

Britt: 1:18:41

Do you have any questions for us that we didn't cover? Is there anything shoulda have covered? I'd love to talk more about it. I love thinking about Japan, so help me think about

Lindsey: 1:18:48

it more. Yeah, again, we went there with three kids and that's our experience going there as a family.

Britt: 1:18:55

Yeah. Alright, hit us up on Instagram at, can we start over pod or email us at Hello At, can we start over? podcast.com.

Lindsey: 1:19:05

See you later.