The bus ride to LAX feels quite a bit different than previous trips Becca and I have taken chiefly because we now have a 3-month old daughter sleeping next to us in her car seat.

Our destination is Japan and the general plan is to spend a few days as a family in Kyoto and then meet up with the same group we traveled to Costa Rica with last year in Tokyo.

Traveling with an infant seems like it has two possible outcomes which are “that wasn’t so bad” and “that was awful”. I’m not sure exactly where the needle will land once we’re home, but managing our expectations and controlling as many variables as possible will likely help make the trip a better experience.

While researching for this trip there were multiple times where not having much knowledge about Japan ended in long periods of time googling for ‘places to go in Japan’ followed immediately by googling for ‘things to do in Kyoto’.

But even if we had planned the trip perfectly there was still the whole part about actually riding in a bus for an hour, getting through airport security, followed by a 13-hour plane ride, customs and a 1-hour, then another 3-hour train trip, plus a short taxi ride which all somehow happened without any serious problems or delays.

Some of the things I am particularly thankful for during that 24-hour stretch of time were all of the elevators for our stroller and luggage, inflight Haagen-Dazs, and the airplane bassinet Linnea slept in for around 7 hours.

Our Kyoto lodging was a traditional townhouse known as a Machiya located in Kyoto’s Northern Higashiyama area. We booked it through Machiya Residence Inn after some serious TripAdvisor, Airbnb, and Hotels.com browsing. It was very clean and gave us a lot of room to spread out, and was definitely not built for clumsy 6’5″ men as my head and its doorways can attest to.

Mornings were necessarily slow and our days are ruled by Linnea’s sleep and feeding schedule. Wake up around 6, nap at 8, breakfast while she sleeps, and then prepare to leave by about 10. That gave us enough time each day to wander a bit and find lunch followed by more wandering, shopping, and dinner. Most days ended around 7pm in time for bath and bedtime.

Becca made a good point about how lame we used to think our parents were for not wanting to stay up late. 3 months into being parents ourselves and we’ll gladly take being lame if it means we get a few extra minutes of sleep.

Eating out at restaurants gave us a wide variety of experiences ranging anywhere from “massive blowout and screaming” to “baby slept the entire time while we spilled ramen broth on the carrier”.  Some favorites were Karako for ramen and Gion Tanto for okonomiyaki, but our ratings are probably proportional to stress levels and how fussy Linnea was feeling more than the food or service quality.

The carrier really was the best option for most of our dining as the stroller we brought was a gigantic monstrosity and many restaurants were tight quarters. That said, having a stroller as an option was important especially when the temperature, humidity, and sweat surpassed our levels of comfort. Even though Linnea went into the trip liking the carrier, extended use meant she was eventually less than thrilled to be in it for longer than a few minutes.

We tried to learn about breastfeeding in Japan before making the trip as to try to be as culturally appropriate in this as possible. It is apparently uncommon for Japanese women to breastfeed in public so with that in mind, we were regularly on the lookout for Nursery or Mother’s Room signs in department stores. Even though it was pretty inconvenient (mostly due to not knowing where they were), Becca found the rooms to be a nice space to rest and relax for a few minutes away from the bustling streets. But there were a few times when Linnea was screaming her head off and covered on a park bench was the only realistic option available.

Kyoto seems to be a hotbed of Japanese tourism as we were stopped by groups of visiting middle school students asking how our trip to Japan was and what food we liked most. Our most touristy activity was to visit Shoren-in Temple, an experience I imagine to be similar to that of a Japanese tourist visiting Colonial Williamsburg. You know it is an important part of history, but it is hard to connect with it personally when you know almost nothing about it.

After four nights in Japan’s old capital things have been going as well as they possibly could, and even better now that we get to ride the Shinkansen during the day on our way back to Tokyo to meet up with the rest of our group.

at the temple

small streets of Kyoto

Ramen

happy baby

browsing the market

Riding the Shinkansen back to Tokyo during the daytime was a much easier than our initial nighttime journey to Kyoto.

Who knew that being well-rested and having some idea of what you’re doing can really add a lot to an experience?

After arriving at Shinjuku Station our main goal was to head directly to our hotel. My idea was to use Uber and it was going a while for the car to arrive. Becca just wanted to get moving so I impatiently just began walking because it didn’t seem like it was very far away, which ended up being a terrible impulse. Especially with a baby, stroller, luggage and when it lightly rains for the entire 25 minute walk.

Taxis definitely became our friends from that point on.

We met up with our friends in the morning (who arrived late the previous night), said our hellos, ate breakfast, and got walking with Harajuku and Shibuya as our main destinations.

Becca and I took turns wearing Linnea in the carrier – which was a much better idea than taking the stroller as the streets were packed and navigating would have been awful.

Other than the heat and general sweatiness factor, carrying ended up being the easiest method of baby transportation in Tokyo. The stroller was comically large and it didn’t fit well in elevators, hallways, restaurants, or stores. It was kind of like driving the largest imaginable old Buick around in an alley or crowded street.

One of our favorite restaurant experiences was in Shibuya at a place called Ichiran (which was literally underground) where you put in your order at a vending machine, make some customizations to the order such as richness, garlic, spiciness, and then sit at a small booth and wait for your food to be given to you through a small window in front of you.

Was it the best and most ramen in existence? No idea, but I’m pretty sure we just searched for ramen shops nearby on TripAdvisor which is the digital equivalent to romantically stumbling across something memorable.

ramen cubicles

yakitori

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We had spent part of a day earlier wandering around Ginza and ended up staying there for a few nights at the end of the trip.

I can’t really remember having any specific activities in mind other than visiting the famous Tsukiji Fish Market.

It was definitely amazing to see how much seafood passes through the market on a daily basis. For some reason I imagined it was going to be something like Pike Place Fish Market (uber-touristy), but it was much more like a big fish warehouse with forklifts buzzing around and people just trying to get their work done.

Our original plan was to get sushi at one of the restaurants at the market, but the long lines made buying prepared foods and snacks at a convenience store much more appealing.

After a bus ride to the airport and a quick skip through security – the benefits of children! – we were on the plane for our last flight which we assumed would be terrible, but Linnea ended up sleeping for 7 of the 9 hours. You might expect that we would have tried to sleep, but we just binge watched movies