Adventures of Wilkinsons

Author: bhwilk

  • A Full Day in Madrid

    Before getting to the fun of a day in Madrid, we sadly have to share the Kieran would NOT sleep much in the night. Jordan did shockingly well, though she did wake up once at about 1am before going back to sleep until 9am. Kieran, on the other hand, would not settle at all and woke up every thirty minutes or so until 1am when he finally (mostly) got to sleep after I took him for a 45 minute carrier tour of Madrid at 11:30pm. It was shockingly busy still at the late hour, with people in restaurants and in the squares.

    Oh well, we weren’t going to let a little thing like jet lag and bad sleep stop us from enjoying Madrid to the fullest. First stop was the Royal Palace, where Jordan flexed her photography muscles and took about 1000 pictures on her little camera she got for her birthday. Right next door is the Cathedral, where we went in to see their museum. No pictures were allowed in here, but I do have two fun facts about it to share.

    1. Madrid didn’t have its own bishop until the mid 1800s, as it was previously just lumped in with Toledo.
    2. Real Madrid (the soccer team) donate a replica of each trophy they win to the cathedral. I did manage a sneaky shot of the trophy cabinet.

    The church itself was, of course, magnificent. It had very cool coloring on the roof and plenty of side conclaves with beautiful statues and paintings. Even the pews were extremely well built and polished compared to other churches I have been in. It was nearing noon and none of us had eaten anything, so we didn’t linger too long in the church and made our way back towards Plaza Mayor where restaurants are a plenty.

    We ended up eating at a cute place on a plaza in front of the Mercado de San Miguel. My calamari sandwich was okay, but the bread was a little crusty and it fell apart after a few bits; still tasty though. Emily’s chorizo de navar sandwich was excellent and the potatoes bravas were delicious. Even Kieran enjoyed them!

    After lunch, we wandered through the Mercado de San Miguel and noted some places that we definitely want to hit up for food while we still have a few days left here. From there, it was a short walk back to the apartment to cool down and get some drinks that didn’t cost €3.80 for a can of coke (or €3.50 for a lovely but tiny lemon slush).

    It wasn’t time for a nap yet, so we headed out again, walking towards the Parque de la Retiro, a massive park in the heart of the city. On the way we passed the Spanish Congress, a big roundabout with a statue of Neptune and finally the Museo Del Prado. Not today, fancy museum; we will probably fill our quota in that category with the Guggenheim in Bilbao. The first thing we ran into in the park itself was a playground, so we parked the sleeping Kieran in the shade while Jordan ran around in the (fortunately shaded) playground.

    We passed a cute area with flower formations and made our way to the central feature of the park, a lake with a huge statue on the far side. We got some ice cream and found a place on the lawn with the sounds of a trumpet performer and a group behind us playing a ukulele and doing some acrobatic dancing. For the record, Kieran likes ice cream, which I am sure comes as a massive shock to everyone.

    Instead of walking up the hill 2.5km, we took the metro from the park (which has a direct access to the station!) back to our apartment. This time, it was actually nap time. Except for Jordan, who refused. We did find out that some previous person had not signed out of Netflix on the tv, so Jordan watched a bit of the Super Mario Bros movie and then read on the iPad. Sorry for wrecking your algorithm, previous guest!

    By this point, we still haven’t heard anything about our bags, though the online tracker indicated that they were shipped on the evening flight. So hopefully progress. We did want to actually call the, for a real update, but our Airalo sims are data only. So we wandered to the vodaphone store, but needed our passports. That sounds like an after-dinner problem, so we went to find a place to eat with the goal of filling the Downie rule of eating the national dish of Paella.

    The place turned out to be on the little plaza that our apartment is, just off the Plaza Mayor. The patio had fans and misters, which greatly entertained Jordan. Emily was more entertained by the giant jug of Samgria we got, which was fabulous. Asparagus and Iberico ham was the appetizer (delicious!) followed by their amazing salad of tomato, eggplant, goat’s cheese, Iberico ham and balsamic vinegar. That salad stack was the star of the show, but the mixed meat and seafood paella was very good also.

    Even though it was late following our slow paced Spanish dinner, we got Emily’s passport to finish the sim car set up. We then sat in the Plaza de la Sol and listened to the same violin and cello duo I found last night, though this time they were doing ABBA covers to go with the Coldplay cover. Our call to the airline was not nearly as useful as the string duo, as they told us that the bags are actually still in Dublin, scheduled to come in on an Aer Lingus flight tomorrow morning in direct contradiction to the status of the website.

    With that knowledge in hand, we wandered around the extremely busy pedestrian area a bit more and headed back to the apartment for the final time. Bed time tonight has actually been very smooth for both kids (fingers crossed). We are celebrating by drinking a €3 bottle of rose and confusing the Netflix algorithm further by watching a random episode of Friends. Tomorrow is our day trip to Toledo.

    Another fun note is that we got emails about a train strike on Friday that may affect our train to Bilbao. So that should be fun to investigate!

    p.s. – No photos today, as the blog site won’t take the size of pictures my phone generally takes. Not sure why, but I will try fixing it or find a workaround for the future.

  • Travel Chaos Continues

    As was to be expected after Day 0, Day 1 of Eurotrip 2026 mostly continued the chaotic trend set by the previous day’s setup. Today’s overarching theme is called “foreshadowing,” so follow along and see if you can piece it together better than we could.

    The flight to Dublin was entirely uneveventful, which is the best thing you can say about a flight with a 7 year old and a baby. Kieran got the bassinet seat we were hoping for and slept for the vast majority of the 7 hour flight. And when he was awake, he was his usual happy self making friends with everyone around. Jordan watched a movie (Super Mario Bros) and then slept for about 3 hours, though could have used longer for sure.

    At any rate, we arrived to Dublin and got to all use the lightning fast EU line to get through customs. In keeping with the “Make them walk as far as is literally possible in the airport” example from Montreal, Dublin made sure to up the ante. We had to fully exit security in order to talk to the Iberia rep to get our boarding passes. Did I mention that Iberia is in a different terminal to where we landed? And the worst part is that I am pushing Kieran and the stuff piled on to the stroller, so I am not even getting credit for my steps from my watch!

    The very Irish woman getting us our boarding pass made it clear what she thought of Iberia’s baggage handling expertise and told us in no uncertain terms that we had to triple confirm with the ground crew and flight attendants that we want the stroller delivered plane side instead of to the carousel (because maybe they’ll just be feeling too Spanish to walk it up the stairs to the bridge). With that dire warning received, we head through security and to our gate (the furthest one, of course). I did stop for the free Irish Whiskey sample, despite it being 8am.

    Whej you are finding your gate at the airport, it is never a good thing if that gate is on a lower level than the rest of the gates. Seeing the shuttle bus in our future, I grabbed some muffins from the tiny Starbucks at our basement gate which took forever stuck behind a gaggle of student age kids on some trip.

    We had to take a shuttle bus from that gate not to our plane, but to a little extra annex with gates A through F. No extra credit for guessing which of those gates were ours. And once we got checked in, there was an additional outdoors walk to do before getting to the actual plane, complete with a crossing guard looking out for the vehicle traffic. As the check in agent had guessed, the ground crew had to be cajoled into getting the special tag from the flight attendants to get us the stroller plane side in Madrid.

    Entering the plane itself was an assault on the senses. Those same kids ahead of me in Starbucks were on this flight with about 100 of their closest friends. Did I mention that the air conditioning was not working at full power? It was equal parts hot and loud. Boarding on this flight was from both ends, which led to stalemates between people who boarded from the wrong side. Also of note is that I don’t think any of the teenagers had felt the touch of deodorant in their life. So add “extremely stinky” to the list of stuff happening on the flight.

    And the chaos didn’t end with the hot and stinky soup of people flying to Madrid. The second the seatbelt sign disappeared, it was a full changeup as people moved around (with all of their stuff) to different seats. Plus, the classic teenager games of yelling stupid things and being generally disrespectful. I somehow managed to get some sleep, mostly at Emily’s expense (though she did get some as well). Jordan only fell asleep for the final 10 minutes of thee whole flight and despite Kieran having two naps, we finally found the reach if his patience. At least for 10 minutes or so, after which he was his usual chipper self.

    Getting off the plane was an adventure all it’s own. Fortunately, the multiple reminders worked for getting the stroller delivered to me on the gangway. Then it was ramps and ramps and ramps which eventually opened out to a beautiful flowing wood ceiling. Then it was many twists, turns and a train to get to customs and then bagage claim. And we wait at baggage claim, and wait some more and then it is clear that our bags are not coming. So it is over to yet another line to file a missing bags claim. Fortunately, my credit card has coverage for this exact situation. But that was a problem for “several hours in the future” us after we got to the Airbnb.

    One broken ticket machine and two trains later (which went a total of 5 stops), we emerged on Playa del Sol in downtown Madrid. From there, it was a short walk towards Plaza Mayor along pedestrian-only areas to our Airbnb. The place itself is quite nice, with balconies that Jordan is obsessed with. But we didn’t have long to spare, so after a quick shower each, we headed out to Emily’s favourite shop in the world. Primark. Though first, ice cream (three huge scoops for €5.50? Epic value!) to tide us over and give Jordan a sugar boost.

    The Primark in Madrid downtown is insane. That’s the only word for it. 5 floors of shopping and it was packed from top to bottom. The elevators for getting Kieran from floor to floor took forever to manage (including elevators right next to each other that don’t share a request button, so have to be called individually). I will attach some pictures to try to give the scale, but this place was truly insane. They even had screens and speakers doing this crazy sparkle drop every few minutes.

    We ended up getting a couple of outfits each and somehow spent over €100. This is a major achievement given that most of the items were under €5. By this point, Kieran had fallen asleep, Emily and Jordan were both done for (and Emily had something painful in her eye the whole time that she couldn’t figure out), so we headed back to the Airbnb to crash for the night. 7.:45pm is pretty close to a proper time to go to bed, so I will chalk this up as a win. We even picked up some great iberico han sandwiches which were quite tasty.

    As for me, I am going to head out again to get some provisions from the store and take in some of our area which is lovely. Hopefully a good night’s sleep has everyone fuelled up for tomorrow’s adventures. Not sure what that will be, but it should be something cool!

    P.S. from my trip to get supplies. There was a string duo (violin plus cello) playing pop songs in the Plaza del Sol and also an anti-Peruvisn government protest. Very fun! Also many (so very many) street vendors selling football jerseys.

  • Itinerary Roulette

    It is quite the start to our trip. After spending much of Sunday packing and Monday morning building a pool table, we set off towards the Ottawa airport with plenty of time to spare to catch our flight.

    After a lengthy check in process where Emily’s seat got removed somehow and resulted in her both having a seat and being on standby for the flight to Montreal,it got sorted and we were on our way through the most dead security line I have ever seen at Ottawa.

    Alas, Montreal airport and mother nature teamed up to thwart our perfectly timed itinerary. Because of Montreal airt traffic control being behind in their processing, we were delayed by 30 then 60 minutes; not a problem for our layover, luckily. After boarding, Kieran fell asleep for his afternoon nap.

    Then came the lightning strike which forced Ottawa ground crew inside. 60 minute delay became a 90 minute delay, putting our layover from “comfortable” to “right, but doable.”

    But just as the lightning in Ottawa started to lighten up, Montreal got the same storm. They responded to that by SHUTTING THEIR WHOLE AIRPIRT FOR AT LEAST AN HOUR. So now our 90 minute delayed is two and a half hours. There goes our connection. We had hoped that it would just cause everything to be backed up and our flight to Madrid would be similarly delayed, but we got the dreaded “Your flight has been changed” notification.

    Great. So now we are rebooked with a connection in both Montreal and Munich. And instead of arriving at 6:30am and having a full day in Madrid, we would have 10 hours (!) in Munich. Now Munich is a lovely place for a long layover, which Emily and I discovered in 2018 coming home from Egypt and Dubai, so it wouldn’t have been too terrible. Except that we would land in Madrid at 10:30pm *and* lose the bassinet seat we had procured for Kieran to sleep best on the overnight flight.

    At this point, we were encouraged by the Captain to get off the plane. This is something I don’t think has ever happened to me in my entire history of travelling. Once off board, I called Air Canada customer service to see what could be done, either rebooking to a better itinerary (would have loved to be on AC888 to London instead of a multi-stop adventure) or obtaining a bassinet seat for the overnight flight.

    Ultimately, we were able to be rebooked to a shorter connection in Dublin with the bassinet, arriving to Madrid at 1:45pm. Much better than a late night traipse from the airport to downtown Madrid. Two hours in Dublin won’t be enough to get out of the airport and take in the sights like would have been possible in Munich. That is also a lovely long layover, as we experienced in 2019 with an 8-month old Jordan on our way to Liverpool. But still worth the trade off.

    Unfortunately, Kieran had exhausted much of his patience and cried a bit on the takeoff, but settled shortly after. He ended up falling asleep on the short hop flight to Montreal, which may work well for the 8:50pm flight out. The original flight was perfect timing, leaving at 6:00pm, which would have lined up nicely with his bed time once we were in the air and got the bassinet set up. Oh well. Hopefully it still works out with the flight!

    Montreal airport went about as smoothly as possible. We didn’t have to sprint, fortunately, but we did hoof it about as far as is possible in the airport. Luckily, the Dublin flight didn’t have any outrageous delays, and Jordan has a free seat next to her which should bode well for sleeping.

    We have now pulled back from the gate! Wish us luck on the long haul!

  • Eurotrip 2026

    Hub for all of our posts of our 3 week trip to Europe. Enjoy the stories of Brad, Emily, Jordan (7 years old) and Kieran (6 months old)!

    Day 0: Itinerary Roulette

    Day 1: Travel Chaos Continues

    Day 2: A Full Day in Madrid

    Day 3: Hola, Toldeo

    Day 4: Chillest Day in Madrid

    Day 5: Kaixo, Bilbao

    Day 6: Sunday in Bilbao

    Day 7: Beach, Beach, Let’s Go Get Away

    Day 8: Repositioning

    Day 9: Hello, Athens

    Day 10: Day Trip to Aegina

    Day 11: Ancient Athens

    Day 12: Hiking and Finding Grandad

    Day 13: My Big Fat Crete 3rd Birthday Party

    Day 14: Minoan Pottery and Puppy Plaza

    Day 15: Relaxing (aka naps) at the Villa

    Day 16: Birthday Beach Bash

    Day 17: Arhanes and Olive Oil

    Day 18: The Last European Repositioning

    Day 19: Finally, The Acropolis

    Day 20: The Last Full Day in Europe

    Day 21: Homeward Bound

  • Reflections on our Japan Trip

    So it has been four months since we have returned from our trip to Japan. I still feel very strongly that this is one of the absolute best trips I have been on. In this post, I will reflect on what it was that struck me about Japan, what we would have done differently and what it all means for future trips.

    Basically every aspect of our trip to Japan was truly delightful. Every single meal we ate, regardless of the cost, was high quality and delicious. For the entire trip, we did not set foot in a car; it was extremely easy to get around on public transport. Similarly, amenities and attractions were located within walking distance of anywhere you happen to be.

    There were some things that we did extremely well. While Emily certainly poked fun at me for it, we had a spreadsheet with a light plan for each day. While I definitely have the tendency of over-planning trips, Japan is a place that basically demands it. There is just so much to see and do that playing it too much by ear will lead to missing things. In fact, there were a couple of times that we could have done with a more detailed plan, especially around some of our inter-city travels.

    Another thing that worked out perfectly was our packing strategy. We managed the whole trip in just two carry-on sized bags. My clothes, some of Jordan’s clothes, our tech/charging kit, toiletries and some souvenirs all fit in my Tom Bihn Aeronaut 30. The rest of Jordan’s clothes, along with Emily’s clothes and hair products plus many of the souvenirs we picked up were packed in her Taylormade 40 Litre bag. The big secret to making this work is the same thing you do at home every week or two, which is doing laundry. Our AirBnB in Kyoto had a washing machine in our unit. Because we were going to be home in the evenings due to the sleep demands of a 6 year old (and Emily), it was not taking any additional time out of our day to throw on a load of laundry.

    The benefits of this Onebag approach were massive. First of all, it made it super easy to take the trains without disturbing everyone around us. Even better was the experience at the various train stations. Especially at our first stop in Tokyo, Asakusa station, we had to take multiple flights of stairs to get from the train platform to street level and there were no escalators (there was an elevator at a less convenient exit that we needed, but it would not have been ideal). We saw multiple people struggling with full-sized and carry-on wheelie bags. Our bags both had backpack modes that made carrying them up these stairs easy and painless. Another common feature of train stations in Japan are bag lockers. With our smaller bags, we were able to fit everything into a single medium-sized locker without any difficulty compared to people we saw barely fitting into the smaller number of large lockers.

    Travelling around, both within cities and between cities, was incredibly simple and convenient. Of course, it’s very stereotypical to praise the speed, comfort, quality, frequency and network of the Japanese trains and that’s all very true in practice. A specific goal for the trip was to do the entire 10 days without setting foot in a car. This is fundamentally something that is nearly impossible to conceive of for a trip most places in North America and isn’t even simple in other transit-friendly places like Europe. However, this wasn’t true utopia as it might seem. Because of the privatized ownership model of the many, many different transit networks, it was never fully clear how stations, routing, fares and more would actually interact with each other. Fortunately, this was able to be mostly be papered over by the advanced capabilities of Google Maps, which would display different routes with the estimated costs and the fact that all fares can be paid by the same SUICA card.

    But there were a couple of times that we were let down by this, especially in Kyoto, where we learned several small lessons in the effectiveness of buying a day pass to cover transit usage. We actually learned that lesson the wrong way in both directions! One day, we didn’t realize that our schedule (which was mildly in flux) would lead us to paying several one-way fares on the bus network and bypassing the cost of the full-day pass. We also then opted to do our night time activities by walking, which was great for the experience but contributed to the highest step count day we had which left a few sore legs the following day. That next day, we did get the full-day pass, but it actually didn’t cover the line that we took to go to the Onsen to help the aforementioned sore legs, so we ended up paying the surcharge.

    At any rate, the quibbles of slightly confusing networks and opportunities for fare optimization (seriously, why wouldn’t the system just track your spend through the day and cap you at the full-day pass), it was still amazing to be able to do the entire trip without a car. This also let us avoid lugging around a Booster Seat for Jordan. Even with the small size of the Mini Booster that we have for her, this saved a lot of weight and space in our travel kit.

    I am not exaggerating when I say that nearly every meal we had in Japan was great. Even if Emily and Jordan didn’t really like the food at the Onsen Hotel in Hakone, it was all very high quality and tasty. Having to eat out for basically every meal was unfortunate, but it ended up not being nearly as expensive as we thought it was going to be.

    Many of our breakfasts ended up being from the Conbinis (convenience stores), and that various pastries we got were cheap and fine. Nothing compared to a proper bakery, but easily obtained and enough to get our days going. This was especially true when combined with great iced and hot coffees from bottles. Given my preferred styles of breakfasts, I would say that the breakfasts where we ended up eating out were some of the lower bang-for-your-buck meals we ended up getting.

    Lunches and snacks were universally tasty and good value. I enjoyed getting Onigiri from the conbinis, to the point that Emily rolled her eyes every time I suggested it. There was also a little sushi roll I got one time that was not cut, so you just ate it like a hot dog and it was great. But we also found great food at small restaurants all over the place, and I think we successfully avoided all types of Western fast food the whole time we were there. Of note was the little restaurant we found after visiting the Kyoto Castle run by old ladies where we had the most delightful meal. We also loved most of the bento box meals we got from the train stations to eat on the Shinkansens.

    Even for bigger and nicer dinner meals, we found the cost totally reasonable and were satisfied with everything. This is one area we could have certainly spent more, but I don’t think we missed out on anything by not spending more. The teppanyaki places we did (one grill your own in Kyoto and one from the chef in Tokyo) were both great, and the experience by spending more money wouldn’t have been that much more. Naturally, we also got a ton of sushi. Jordan’s favourite food is Salmon Nigiri, so we ended up getting a lot of it. And much like everything else, it was inexpensive and high quality, even at the cheap conveyor belt sushi shops. And legitimately, real wasabi is amazing compared to the horseradish we get in Canada.

    Of course, travelling alone with Jordan meant that we never drank too much at any given time, but the alcohol situation was about as good as the food. Given my preference for IPAs, I didn’t really find any beers that I liked, but the whisky more than made up for it. The highlight was the Freedom Bar in Osaka and the shop that he sent me to the next day, but The Whisky Library in Kyoto was also super solid. We also enjoyed our experiences with sake, though Emily preferred to mix hers with fruit drinks.

    Every person that we came across was extremely polite and welcoming. Of course, we mostly were interacting with service type people, but the culture of people wanting to be helpful was everywhere. Even with a language barrier, everyone was able to get through interactions with a combination of pointing and Google Translate. Most notable here was the old man outside of the Asakusa Temple who wanted to practice his English by having a conversation.

    All in all, it was the best experience travelling that I have ever had. And I’ve travelled a lot, so that’s saying something. Even comparing to Edinburgh in 2019 during Fringe Fest right before Covid which probably held the top spot (maybe I’ll write a post about that some time, as that was a great trip with Emily, Jordan and my friend Susana from high school), Japan was just a next-level experience. As I said to Emily as we were leaving and everyone who asked me about it afterwards, I’m already mentally planning the next trip there. It was hard to even put this all into words, even though this post ended up being pretty long and probably could have been split up. No single aspect of the trip made it what it was, but it all came together into something amazing.

  • Jet Lag (not The Game) and Protest Sightseeing

    Theme of the day was jet lag hitting so very, very hard. It started when Jordan woke up at 2am. We got a tiny bit of sleep after that, but not significant. This hotel is weirdly shaped, such that we got very lost trying to go next door for breakfast.

    After breakfast, we got the airport shuttle to go to the metro station that is at the airport. Unfortunately, there is track maintenance challenging along the way, so we had to get a bus shuttle between some of the station. Stepping out of Smithsonian Station at the National Mall was like going into a hurricane it was so windy. Tried hitting up Dunkin so that Emily could get her latte she wanted, but it was inside a closed federal building (closed because of the holiday today, not because of Dogs and Elon). Finally did find an open Starbucks, but it was a bit of a struggle.

    From there, it was a 20 minute walk to the US Capitol Building. We didn’t know it at the time, but there was a big protest scheduled for it. We saw lots of people and lots of signs. We tried to get into the Smithsonian Air and Space museum, but it was so busy that 4pm was the first entry available. Jordan really wanted to go to a museum, so we went next door to the Museum of the American Indian. This turned out to be a welcome reprieve from the busy streets, with easily accessible washrooms and water fountains. Plus, Jordan played tag with some kids in the massive rotunda (she did also get some education about of it, especially learning about the Code Talkers of WW1 and WW2).

    We went back to the protest and it was even larger than when we were first there. Took a full lap around the Capital Reflecting Pond to take it in. One person saw Jordan and hid her sign to avoid awkward questions, but Jordan was getting into the protest spirit. She especially liked joining in with the chants of “Hey! Ho! Elon Musk has got to go!”

    It was almost 2pm and despite the takeout croissant from Starbucks, we were starting to get hungry. So we found a place that was open and hit the metro to get there. It was called Immigrant Food at the White House, serving a variety of ethnic foods just in front of Trump’s house. The slogan was “Immigrants have made America great again and again and again” which was an extra fun bonus. The food was actually amazing. Tamarind BBQ ribs, Falafel pita wrap and a Bahn Mi sandwich.

    The White House itself was still behind a bunch of construction from the inauguration, so we couldn’t get a good look at it. Trump was in Daytona anyways, so between that and the fences, we managed to avoid getting Emily on a list. Then it was metro, shuttle bus, metro and airport shuttle back to the hotel. By this time, Jordan had passed out hard on the shuttle and metro (20,000 steps will do that to a 6 year old) so we had to carry her between some of the modes of transport. We did manage to wake her and get her through to 7pm and then we fell asleep at 8. Hopefully that is enough to kick the jet lag!

    Turns out it was not, and we were all up pretty early. Emily and I had to work from our phones before our flight out at 12:50pm. Luckily, both of our bosses were understanding of the situation and we didn’t have to burn another vacation day. We both can do the majority of our jobs from a phone, but it is a little trickier when it is clearing out over a week of vacation backlog! We fortunately made it back home without any further difficulties, with Ryan and Sinead driving to the airport with Egan so that we could get straight home. We paid a guy from Facebook Marketplace to take his snowblower to the driveway in advance of our return, which might just be the best $75 spent by anyone in the history of spending money.

  • Akihabara Electric City and Flight to Washington DC

    Final day meant a final konbini (convenience store) breakfast. We also finally found a playground that looks like it was constructed after the 1970s, so we stopped there for a few minutes on the way to the train station.

    Our flight was taking off at 5pm, so we had most of a day to enjoy in Tokyo. Original plan was to go to Tokyo station to see the Imperial Palace Gardens that we almost did on the Monday that we left Tokyo. But it was closed again! So we called a quick audible on the train and rode two extra stops to Akihabara Electric City.

    This is the primary anime area of Tokyo with lots of discount shops and Gacha + Claw Machine places. We got handed some free coupons for claw games, but didn’t win anything (shocker). Given that Jordan’s record on claw machines in the trip was 1 for 1 before this, she was legitimately shocked we didn’t win anything at this one. We did find the coolest retro game shop that had old games and systems set up. We also managed to get a knife and some other souvenirs that had been eluding us. Don Quixote was actually perfect for this.

    After our final conveyer belt sushi, it was to the train station to head to the airport. Totally breezed through exit customs and security, but couldn’t get duty free because transiting through the states wouldn’t work for that. We did manage to perfectly drain our SUICA cards by transit and coin lockers, and Emily spent the last 500 Yen of it at 7/11 in the airport for some iced coffees.

    The only stress remaining was the impending blizzard that was in the process of hitting Ottawa and dumping over 30 cm of snow on Sunday. Sure enough, we got the news part way through the flight that our connection from Washington DC to Ottawa was cancelled. Luckily, Ryan was standing by in Ottawa to book us a hotel so that we didn’t have to deal with that after landing. The flight itself was otherwise alright, with Jordan sleeping for 7 of the 13 hours. Don’t tell Donald Trump, but United Airlines still refers to Denali as Denali instead of the re-re-named Mount McKinley.

    We did have a touchy moment where they stopped accepting landings at Dulles because of some emergency landing that had just happened. We were minutes away from the gas contingencies and getting re directed to Pittsburgh! Luckily, we were able to land successfully despite the crazy wind storm happening. Unfortunately, the unique set up of the Washington Dulles Airport meant that our bags would be a while because they had to get re routed away from the connections area. We decided to just leave them for now and get to the hotel because as fine as the flight was, a 13 hour flight is still a 13 hour flight. Hotel restaurant for a burger and fries (no rice!) and then bed time for Jordan.

    I did have to take the shuttle to the airport to get the bags, which resulted in standing in the windstorm for 25 minutes as I had to wait for the next shuttle back. It will be a couple of days in Washington, as the Saturday night flight was also cancelled. This meant that the Monday flights were full already. So we are stuck in Washington until Tuesday and there will be a bonus trip report!

  • Pirate Ship, Odawara and Shibuya Scramble

    Super early morning for me, having woken up at 4am. Jordan and Emily made it to the alarm at 7 for our scheduled 7:30am breakfast. This breakfast was even less appetizing to Emily than the dinner the prior night. Weird mixture of salad, pickled vegetables, boiled tofu (the worst tofu), fried tofu, soup (with tofu), egg, yogurt and of course, rice. Meanwhile, Jordan got bacon and eggs with a bun, croissant and fruit. Was tasty, but very weird for breakfast.

    Then it was onwards to set the record for the most types of transportation taken in a single day. First was a cable car part way up the mountain, a portion of which I hiked up the prior night in search of drinks. Then it was the Rope Way Gondola, which was sadly closed for two of the portions, including the one that includes the possible view of Mount Fuji. We were treated to a very cool view over the valley and mountain, including the mountain that has the Chinese character for “Large” literally burned into it.

    Even better was the insane plumes of sulphuric steam that revealed itself after we crossed a ridge line. It was immediately smelly in the gondola. Also got a bit of a Mount Fuji view from here, but it was pretty overcast. The specialty of this station is Black Fried Eggs, which get cooked first in the sulphuric water, then for 15 minutes in regular water. Tastes just like any regular boiled egg, though. From here, it was a bit off the rails, both literally and figuratively.

    Because the Rope Way was down for maintenance, we took the replacement bus to Lake Ashi. Instead of amazing views, it was just trees on the side of the road. Then it was on to the Pirate Ship(!) ferry across the lake, but we were unlucky on the timing and had to wait 50 minutes just standing in the boarding pier. We also had the misfortune of ending up sat next to a giant school group which got old pretty fast on the 30 minute ride across the lake. The boat was very, very full and many people had to stand, including on the stairs which didn’t seem super safe.

    We got off at the first stop and on to a long bus ride towards Odawara. This was a weird area and it was weird figuring out what the actual routing should be. Luckily, we ended up getting to the train station and made the connection with a few minutes to spare. Convenience store lunch (which is consistently great and inexpensive in Japan), as our lengthy journey meant we had to get something in all of us quickly, lest we descend into the depths of hanger.

    We took the long route to Odawara Castle to get the proper entry route through the pretty gates. Odawara Castle is originally from the 15th century, though it was reconstructed a few times due to natural disasters and World War 2. Here, Jordan became a ninja, learning about lots of techniques of the spies that were (allegedly) created by the Lords of this area. Further up the hill was Odawara Castle itself and the Samurai Museum. This was featured in Season 6 of Jet Lag The Game, so it was cool to be in the same place! It was solid value, with only 200 Yen entry into the Samurai museum. Some great information and displays of armor and helmets. Also a very cool projector show that did some neat interplay between the screens and a statue of Samurai.

    Downstairs from there was the actual highlight of the trip, which was the Samurai dress up that Jordan did. We all had the biggest smiles on our faces while we traipsed around the courtyard with Jordan threatening us with her newfound sword and armor. She even made a friend with a random Japanese person who wanted Jordan to crash her picture. Only got to do that for about 15 of the 30 minutes we could have, as we had to catch the once-an-hour train to Shibuya (and pull more cash from the ATM to refill our SUICA train cards). This was one of the highlights of the entire trip. I think we had a smile on our face the whole time, except when Jordan was doing her menacing intimidation face.

    The plan was to take the 75 minute train and drop our bags at a coin locker at Shibuya station to most easily navigate around the very busy area. This was actually an audible call as we were on the bus towards Odawara, as we had originally plotted a route to our hotel, then Shibuya. Turns out that the lines made it make much more sense to go to Shibuya first. It did mean that we had our bags with us, which we figured would not be a problem. Despite being one of the biggest and busiest stations in Japan, there was not a coin locker to be found! This was probably because of the extensive construction, but we had to go to the conference center next door and go up to the 11th floor. Took quite a while to figure this all out, but it all worked out in the end.

    Shibuya as an area is absolutely crazy. Most notably the Scramble crossing, where everyone crosses in all directions at the same time in a wild mass of people. Somehow, we made it across in one piece and headed towards a tepanyaki restaurant Emily had found in her searches. It was a total hole in the wall with maybe 15 total seats, but it was seriously excellent (and inexpensive compared to other places we had found). Highlight was the Wagyu steak, avocado-kimchi-creamcheese bites and sashimi (with the good wasabi again).

    It wouldn’t be a day in Tokyo without hitting up the Pokemon Center, so it was a short walk over there. Jordan drained the last dregs of her souvenir budget (77 Yen left of 7,000 Yen). This one had a very cold Mewtwo display, but it was otherwise similar to the others we visited. I also hit up the Nintendo Store right across the hall. We also drained (nearly) the last of our cash to hit up the exclusive Nintendo Gacha Machine with some cool prizes of game controller buttons from. Nintendo’s history. Stopped for dessert on the way back to the train station (cheesecake bites for Emily and I, fruit custard for Jordan).

    Two more metros and a short walk and we finally got to call it a night in the hotel. Broke the record for latest night for Jordan, as we arrived at 9:20pm and she was messing about until she finally fell asleep at 10. Luckily, this hotel has a comparatively late checkout of 11am, so hopefully we can get some rest before the flight at 5pm tomorrow.

  • Valentine’s Day in Hakone

    A bit of a lie in at the hotel in Osaka, with Jordan and Emily waking up only at 8:30. Left the hotel at 10 to get breakfast at the weirdest cafe experience ever. We ordered our drinks and light breakfast and then everything came out at different times in a bizarre order. For instance, my hard boiled eggs came out first, before our drinks. Emily’s curry and cheese on toast (which was excellent) came next, followed by the buttered toast Jordan and I both got. All before our drinks. And then Jordan’s orange juice came after our coffees and the yogurt was last. Just truly unusual.

    From there, we walked to the best store in the world. No, not a Pokemon Center! We actually managed to go to a city which has a Pokemon Center and not go there, though I’m not sure Jordan realizes this. Please no one inform her of this.The actual shop we went to was Kingram Liquor, which was just a tiny room filled wall to wall with every conceivable Scotch and Japanese Whisky. Sorry Liam, but I don’t think I saw any Irish. Including a bottle that was 600,000 Yen ($6,000 CAD). I contented myself with a 4,400 Yen ($44 CAD) small bottle and a Sample shot (which they pour into a little plastic bottle) of a higher end bottle.

    Then it was to the metro to get to Shin-Osaka Station (which is different than regular Osaka Station we were at the prior day) to head to Hakone. A very odd thing about Japan is that lots of different companies manage the railways and metros, even having competing metros in the same area; trying to find the right line that would take us to Shin-Osaka was difficult, as the signage was not very useful. At least the payment systems are all unified and all transit except for the Shinkansens happened with our SUICA Cards. First train was a bullet train, and we got the coolest bento box ever. Just put it on the table, pull the yellow string, wait 7 minutes and it is steaming hot. And it was a tasty beef and rice too! The other one was pork, chicken and rice, but was only okay.

    Second of three trains to get to Hakone was boring, being just a short hop from Odawara to Hakone-Yumoto. But the third train to get us to Gora Station was crazy. Despite the as-the-crow-flies distance being just 5.3 kilometres, it took 40 minutes at a max speed of 30 km/h with most of it at 20 km/h. Most interesting was the fact that it was going up a mountain, so there were 3 switchbacks where the train started going the other direction!  It also went through 13 tunnels, each of which were constructed 100 years ago. Unfortunately, there were not a ton of great viewpoints from the train due to the trees; makes sense, as the trees were probably there to avoid soil erosion.

    Our hotel, Tensui Saryo, was just a one minute walk from Gora Station. The hotel looked even nicer in person than in the pictures from their website. It was a big room, though some oddities with the layout, especially the closets with multiple extra mattresses. The living/dining room with very soft tatami mats was separated from the bedroom and with sliding doors to the small area with the TV. Most importantly, it has a spring-fed Onsen tub on the balcony with a beautiful view of the mountains. We went to the other private spa on the top floor before dinner, complete in our kimonos and lounge wear. The water was legitimately very hot, even confirmed by Emily who loves a very hot hot tub.

    Dinner itself was quite the affair with so very many courses (and a plate of kids food for Jordan that would make Elayne blush). Jordan did also dip her elbow in the ketchup, so off went the cardigan lol. Some of the food was… Not up Emily’s alley. For instance, the appetizer included liver. It was all quite delicious, though we have definitely had nicer food elsewhere on the trip.

    Last but not least was a trip to the foot bath bar to get our free champagne (apple juice for Jordan). Emily is now of the opinion that all bars need this and it is hard to disagree. Ultimately, the day was a bit train heavy but an otherwise lovely Valentine’s day. Definitely our lowest step count day by far. I only broke 9,000 when I hiked up a hill to get sake and fruit mixer while Jordan got ready for bed.

  • Osaka Castle, Tea Ceremony, Dotonbori and Whisky

    Slow start to the day, as we departed Kyoto for Osaka, starting with a 1km walk to Kyoto Station. Slight hiccup on the train, as we ended up on the Thunderbird, which is the train a step down from the Shinkansen bullet train. Sadly, needed an extra ticket purchase which we only knew about approximately one minute before getting on. Probably could/should have just gone to another one, but took the risk. Had to pay for the extra ticket on board when the guy came around. Only 1000 Yen each for Emily and I, but could have been avoided. Oh well. It split the difference nicely between the more expensive but fast Shinkansen and cheap but slow local line.

    Arrived in Osaka and went right to Osaka Castle. Conveniently, there are cheap storage lockers at the train station, and because of our small-in-comparison bag compared to the average traveller, we can fit both our bags into the medium locker. Hiked up to the castle, but decided against going in while we were in line since we had gone to Kyoto Castle just the day before. They had a cool little souvenir area. Most notably, Emily and I threw actual (though fairly blunt) ninja stars. So that was a ton of fun. Some pretty good views as we hiked back down towards the station also. Stopped at a cafe to get their triple layer souffle pancake, the bottom one of which had an entire egg embedded in it. This paired very oddly with the ones above that had fruit + whipped cream and chocolate.

    Dropped the bags at the hotel (which was on a little square with some sort of monument and a sumo statue) and went to a Japanese Tea Ceremony. We learned about the history of it, which started in Osaka (though there is apparently controversy about this and both Kyoto and Osaka claim to be the true origin). We got served mochi sweets and tea, which was very good. Macha tea is quite bitter, so fit right in for me but less so with Emily and Jordan. Jordan did try hers, and was very respectful about her dislike of it. Then we got to make our own, which was very cool. It is quite the procedure, and unchanged in the 400+ years since the creator perfected it after 40 years of iterations.

    After a couple hours chill at our very tiny hotel room, we headed out to the Dotonbori market. Tons and tons of food stalls, restaurants, shops and entertainment areas. I got some takoyaki (Octopus balls with mayo) and a fried squid skewer. Shockingly, neither Emily nor Jordan decided to partake in that. Emily got an incredibly good chicken skewer that Jordan stole a significant amount of. Meanwhile, Jordan had a candied fruit skewer. The wagyu beef skewer was a bit overcooked, but Emily’s Gyoza pork dumplings were great. Also of note is the fact that the streets of Dotonbori have tons of neon signs along with crazy sculptures and signage. Animatronic crabs, giant faces, dragons, chickens and wild faces. Bowling alleys, karaoke bars, slots and pachinko halls were all over the place. One had a one hour All-you-can-dart-throw and all-you-can-drink special for 2,000 Yen (about $20 CAD). I really want to sick Mark and his friends on them, as the establishment wouldn’t know what hit them. Most famous of the lot is the Running Man, in front of which hordes of people were getting pictures mimicking the pose. So of course we had to get Jordan in on the fun.

    Many of the child-friendly entertainment options were limited to gacha machine rooms and claw machines. Jordan wanted to do… All of them. We eventually relented to let her do a PokeBall claw machine, ready to say “I told you so” when she would inevitably lose. But she didn’t. She got a Master Ball, which is the rarest ball of all. So much for that lesson, but ultimately a good grab for just 100 Yen. Jordan was still hungry, so we hit up the conveyor belt sushi restaurant since the street sushi was wildly more expensive.

    Last food stall was the Strawberry Mania stand which certainly lived up to its name. Jordan had a strawberry smoothie with strawberry and milk ice cream on top. First time in the whole trip she proactively and willingly put her gloves on without us having to cajole her into it. Emily got a strawberry and chocolate crepe while mine was a creme brulee crepe. Both were served in a cone, and mine got blowtorched on top. It was a little heavy after all of the street food, but reasonably tasty.

    Highlight of the night for sure was the Freedom Bar. A bar that serves no cocktails, no beer and no sake. Only Japanese Whisky. It is an Omakase place, where you put the full trust in the bartender (the owner conveniently speaks perfect English as he has lived in Canada before). I told him that my favourite Japanese Whisky was the Nikka Yoichi and that I like peaty scotch and he designed a custom flight of four pours for me. He also gave a history lesson about Japanese Whisky, which you now get some highlights of.

    There are 154 distilleries doing whisky in Japan, but only 40 or so who have an offering currently. Most of them are sake (fermented rice wine) and shoju (distilled barley and/or sweet potato, similar to vodka) that are expanding. Also, because of the big environmental differences in Japan between the north, central and south, the characteristics are massively influenced by the ranges of temperatures and humidities that impact the amount of whisky that gets lost. Each of the four drinks were absolutely amazing, and he suggested a few shops where it is possible to find some (perhaps the Nikka Yoichi 10 year edition). Most of the whisky from the distilleries that are not one of the top two (Suntory and Nikka) are for domestic consumption because of the competitive pressure from the big ones. Two of the bottles were 50%, so I was feeling pretty great afterwards. Absolutely amazing experience, down to the soundproofing of the bar from the party outside and the great decor. And that’s before he slides the cabinets open to show the rows and rows of bottles to evaluate drinks for the flight.

    Legitimately could have stayed there all night, but it was back to the hotel. Jordan down for bed at 9:30, which is the latest of the trip. Despite protests of just getting a few pages of her book, she fell asleep hard and fast because it was another day of over 20,000 steps.