Night at Japanese Ryokan

Ryokan is a type of Japanese accommodation and are very traditional in lots of ways. Each unit has tatami matted rooms. Often the bath are filled with some hot spring water. Guests can be dressed in Yukatas and have beautifully presented Japanese meals.

The ryokan Kei's parents booked for us was just amazing! We drove around Kumamoto for the whole day and got here just before dinner time. It was far out in the countryside.
The main building:

Each room was a separate cabin:

When we walked in we found a private bath in our unit. It is often the case that ryokan has a communal bath where you share with other guests (male and female separated). Having three little kids this was awesome!

Washing themselves before getting in the bath:

Whenever we visit onsen the bath water is too hot for our kids but this time we could add lots of water to make it the perfect temperature for them :) The water was so soft and made all of our skin feel very smooth.

Then into yukatas!

This ryokan had lots of different designed yukatas to choose from. How do we look? Very Japanese??

Time for traditional Japanese dinner - Yep obviously we had way too much food!

The kids table:

When we returned to our unit they had laid out some futons. Sleeping on the floor is so exciting for the kids who are used to sleeping on beds.

I just loooooved the bath in this ryokan. Everything about it. Being private/en-suite, the scenery from the big windows, the smell of the wooden bath tab, the fresh hot water running into the bath and the size of the bath - it was a very big bath tub! I had to say good night to everyone and have another bath. It was so soooo good!

And guess what? The next day when we got up, the kids and I had another bath :)
It was by far the best onsen I have been to in a long time. What an amazing place it was. I felt so lucky to have this culture to share with Matthew and our kids.

Trip around Mt. Aso

Kei's father had kindly arranged a big van for us all to visit several sightseeing spots in Kumamoto.

We couldn't drive right to Mt. Aso this time as it had some volcanic activity in the last few months. The mountain is the largest active volcano in Japan and is among the largest in the world. We could see some smoke coming out of the crater while we were driving.

First pit stop - the monkey show and monkey park - we weren't allowed to take photos during the show  :( The monkeys were very clever and did lots of fantastic tricks. I think ours and Kei's kids were laughing the most in the crowd. The kids also got to feed the monkeys outside.

Quick stop at Bear Park. We had lunch and ice cream but ran out of time to see the actual bears... We had such a tight schedule!

Everywhere we went we enjoyed cherry blossoms in full bloom. 

We all had fun at this fishing pond. There were so many hungry fish in there, every time you put the fishing rod in you catch fish! Cannot be any more fun for the kids!  

They cooked the fish we caught. It was delicious!

 

It was a perfect place to have a good break from the long driving.

Before we arrived at our destination we made another pit stop. A park on top of a hill.  It was so much fun the kids never wanted to leave! The slide was great, nice and long and so fast at the end. Even us adults had a go. Only problem? It was such a climb coming back up!

We did so much in a day but it still wan't the end of our exciting day. Let me blog about this amazing place we stayed the night in the next post. 

Reunion day

Us being in NZ for the first part of March and the Komine family back in Japan from mid March meant we didn't see each other for almost a month. It felt so strange as we see each other at least 5 days a week in Singapore. Having Oliver and Ayaka at the same age (their birthdays are only two weeks apart) and both our husbands work funny hours, Kei and I became very close friends. Being in the same tower made it too easy to visit each others apartments - my kids are very comfortable with Kei and Tetsuo and vice-versa.

The kids were so excited to see each other. It felt quite strange to be somewhere new but felt so comfortable. We were welcomed by Kei's parents who prepared us a delicious BBQ. Who said Japanese people live in a rabbit house? Their place was huge! Very spacious and so many bedrooms!!

Ayaka and Oliver:

Kei's parents record the heights of the grandchildren. Our kids happily joined in :)

Start of our exciting holiday together!

It is so nice to have your family living in the countryside. My parents now live in our house in Osaka and my grandma moved to the city a while ago. When I was a kid I really enjoyed visiting my grandparents place each school holiday. I really wish our kids have places like Kei's family to visit in Japan. I am so jealous!!

Trip to Kumamoto

This was our first holiday within Japan. We must spend more time visiting various parts of Japan! This time we took a short plane ride to Kumamoto to see the Komine family who live in the same condo/tower in Singapore.

Kumamoto is marked in red. The flight was only 1 hour 15min - nice and easy!

Cherry blossoms

We couldn't pick any better day for this year's cherry blossom viewing in Osaka. They were soon to be in full bloom (I think 70% bloom on this day) and the weather was just beautiful! We were planning to visit friends down in Kyushu (Southern Island of Japan) from the next day and the weather forecast for the coming weekend was rain, rain, rain...

Matthew arrived so he could come along with us to meet my old workmate Jin and his family in the central city. They moved into a new apartment last year, which is at this amazing location - 2 min walk to this gorgeous riverside park.

They prepared a delicious gourmet picnic for us. We had sushi, BBQ meat and nice chilled beer for lunch under sakura trees! You cannot beat this, MUST DO in Japan if you are visiting in the spring.

Jin and Tomo have two boys exactly the same age as ours.  They visited us earlier this year in Singapore so the boys were comfortable with each other. They played soccer together most of the afternoon. There was also a magic show in the park which they enjoyed very much. 

So many different kinds of cherry blossoms. 

A family holiday photo - unfortunately the sun was slightly too strong...

Oh I love my country - so beautiful!

We had such an amazing day. Thank you Jin & Tomo for having us. See you next time!

Cousins day out

It is always nice to take them out together. Having older cousins are the best thing ever, they look after mine very well :)

Ashley and Rua - both extremely cheeky!

2nd part of our spring holiday

No doubt our kids travel a LOT! We had to leave daddy behind (someone has to work sometimes you know?) this time to spend a week & a half in Japan.

Oliver's inflight entertainment - pretty much all the way to Japan. NZ national anthem and All Black haka videos.

I used to prefer night time flights when I traveled alone with 3 kids. Now I think day time ones are much easier. All the kids tend to have a good sleep the previous night and start the day fresh. Arriving in Japan just in time for a quick dinner and bed is great (only 1 hour time difference helps too). We are all very excited to be in Japan at this time of the year. Spring is always my favourite time :)

Go Luca go!

Getting the trophy the other day made Luca very motivated at rugby practice this week. He is the one with the huge smile at the front of the pack wearing his All Black cap.