We were so excited to get Boden's passport so we could start traveling again! Obviously traveling with 2 kids was a new adventure for us, but we kept it easy and stuck with a country we're familiar with (Japan) and can use our cell phones, etc. It makes it so much easier to get around when google maps does half the work for us ;)
We flew out Friday night after Grant got off work and got into Osaka around 10pm. The flight went well, both kids behaved, it was only 2 hours and Rowan was excited to be on an airplane!
Although somewhat inconvenient, the walk on the runway to our plane was Rowan's favorite part. He kept pointing and screaming "airplane!"
It was Rowan's first flight after turning 2 which forced us to buy a seat for him (but in reality I'm so glad he had his own :)
Since we got in pretty late, we decided to stay at a hotel fairly close to the airport. Unfortunately, most things were booked so we ended up in a hotel with one smaller than queen sized bed...that we all 4 slept in ;) Needless to say, we didn't sleep much that night. We stuck Rowan on the floor for awhile and Grant had to lay with him, then we were all in the bed again, etc. We were excited for morning and to get our adventures going!
Breakfast was included...(lucky us ;) Japanese breakfast is less than desirable. Luckily I found some cereal at the end that was pretty good!
From Osaka, we set off on the bullet train to Hiroshima! Buying tickets is always a bit of a process. We had a question and pushed the help button at which point a person pops out of this little hole in the wall. So awesome.
Rowan was excited for this train adventure!
When we arrived in Hiroshima, we switched trains and traveled down to Miyajima, and then took the ferry over to the island. Rowan was passed out for the entire ferry ride so he missed out, but got to enjoy it on the way back the next day.
View of the Itsukushima Shrine from the ferry. With a little fog in the sky and slightly cooler temps (still not cold at all), it was such a fun and different feel than what we're used to.
The moment we landed on Miyajima, I fell in love with this quaint little town! It was adorable and exactly how you would imagine a little Japanese town. We walked up the little hill to our hotel and checked into this traditional Japanese room. This was my favorite hotel of the trip. Loved the tatami mats and the fact that they came around that evening to set up our futons for bed.
We dropped off our stuff and then headed out to explore! There were deer just roaming the streets (trying to eat any food or trash you had out), but were super friendly and we had fun with them. They would just walk along with us.
Boden got his first real taste of what it feels like to be a blonde baby in Japan :) He gets a lot of attention in Okinawa too, but nothing like mainland Japan. So cute.
We walked down to the shrine to look at the gate, tour the shrine, etc. It was a beautiful walk with lots of rocks and dirt for Rowan to play in :) It was high tide which gives the Torii gate the illusion that its floating.
This is the hallmark photo of this trip. Rowan wasn't being bad, but was in just a little bit of a crazy mood and just kept wanting to play with everything. I feel like this picture epitomizes family vacations (and he's only 2 :) The torii gate we had traveled forever to see was sitting right there in front of us, and Rowan is lying on the ground looking for fish in the water and throwing rocks in :) I really can't complain, he did well overall, but it made me realize there will definitely be more of this kind of thing in our future!
More beautiful views...
Boden was clearly worn out by this time in our adventure. He did amazingly almost all the time. What a good little guy :)
Miyagima is home to a lot of woodworking and is also where the rice scooper paddle originated. This is the largest wooden rice scooper in the world, hand carved in Miyagima. We bought a much smaller, normal sized wooden one to bring home with us :)
We also bought this leaf "food". They had different flavors (shrimp, eels, cheese, etc). I thought it was some sort of bread with those flavors mixed in so we tried a cheese one. Well, it definitely wasn't bread, it was actually fish cake. So, Rowan ate almost this entire fish and cheese chewy thing on a stick :) I took one bite and had had enough.
And of course, the night wouldn't be complete without some ice cream and another viewing of the shrine all lit up.
Although we were technically sleeping on the floor, this was seriously my favorite sleeping arrangement! It was really comfortable and we spread out so far (which was a stark contrast from the night before ;) These are the futons they set up for us...and then we went in the closet and set up another entire one for Rowan and a little mini one next to me for Boden. It was perfect and we all slept in past 7 (unheard of for this 2 year old) and it felt amazing!
What a beautiful place! You guys are adventurous with the food!
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