Saturday, October 6th. Singapore-Osaka.

It has been 4 months since we came back to Singapore and we are now off to Japan.

Arthur is 9 months old, is on the bottle and solids, and he needs to be more stimulated compared to the last time we traveled. Sean and I are excited, but at the same time nervous. We’ve traveled quite extensively but somehow we felt out of touch because we haven’t done this in a while, especially traveling with Arthur on the bottle.

Yesterday, we got a call from the infant care in the middle of the afternoon. Arthur had a fever. They wanted us to pick him up and bring him home. We were hoping he could sleep it off so that we could have a sick-free child when we board the plane. Unfortunately, when we woke up this morning, he still had a temperature. So we went to the doctor at 9am and told him about Arthur’s persistent cough and this surprising fever. Two hours later, we came out of the doctor’s office with 5 different types of medication. So much!

When we got home from the doctor, we quickly got ourselves ready. Sean’s parents had been waiting for us in order to take us to the airport. Good thing we already had most of our stuff packed. All we needed to do was to pack the last minute things such as Arthur’s good night book, his sloth soft toy that he sleeps with at night, and the last few milk bottles and snacks.

And then we were off to the airport. Arthur slept on the way there, but for only about 20 minutes. He did not go back to sleep until we were about to take off, which was probably around 3 hours after he last slept.

Checking in process was straightforward as usual. We only had one big backpack this time to check-in. Our carry-on was the diaper bag and my large purse. And once again, we checked the stroller and car seat at the gate.

When I booked our seats online, I chose Sean’s seat to be 41A which was the bassinet seat, and I took 41C. As of last night, 41B looked to be open. When we got to the airport, however, the lady at the counter said that 41B was taken. I asked if it was a full flight and she said it was about 90% full. She said that maybe the person on 41B would want to move somewhere else, which would allow us to have the whole row for ourselves.

As soon as we got to the gate, I checked with the person at the gate to see if 41B was still taken. She said it was but when the person arrives at the gate, she would ask if he/she would like to be moved elsewhere. I was crossing my fingers all the way, hoping that we would be able to get the whole row for ourselves.

We boarded the plane first. All went well. We waited and waited and waited. And then the doors closed.

We were once again very lucky to have the whole row to ourselves.

Thankfully, we had a good flight all the way to Osaka. Arthur took multiple naps, even though they were short. He did not throw up once, which was so good considering that he had been throwing up quite a lot yesterday. He took his medicine well (we only gave him the fever medicine and not the other 4 additional medicine the doctor gave us). And he was in good spirit such that he was able to play, laugh, and clap his hands.

It was good to have the extra space. I had to stand up a couple of times to rock him to sleep. On descent, we fed Arthur some snacks. It worked out well. He was willing to eat a couple of bites of the rice rusk, and he didn’t cry on the way down. We assumed he was able to equalize well.

Once we arrived in Kansai Airport, we made our way to the immigration, and then we grabbed our checked bag. The whole process was straightforward. Upon exiting the airport, we headed straight to the train station. Along the way, we noticed the taxi line. We decided to take the taxi instead. There was only one person in front of us, and the whole process took no more than 5 minutes. A guy at the taxi stand asked us where we were going, then called up a taxi for us.

The taxi journey took about 15 minutes but it cost us about 4600 yen. If we had taken the train, it would have cost us 980 yen instead. Anyway, lesson learnt. Nevertheless, we got to the hotel at 11:30. Good thing the check in process was quick.

By the time we got to our room, Arthur was already super cranky. Even changing him into his pajamas was difficult. We have Arthur some medicine. Then we waited for about 10 minutes before we fed him milk. And the throwing up began. It seemed Arthur couldn’t keep anything in. I felt so bad for him.

We tried to put him to sleep. So difficult. He kept crying. And when he finally quieted down, he could only sleep for 5-10 minutes before he woke himself up. Anyway, the battle continued. We decided that tomorrow might be a stay-in-the-hotel type of day if Arthur doesn’t get any better. We shall see. I wonder if we should have gotten on the plane. I hope we made the right decision.

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Monday, October 8th. Izumisano, Osaka, Himeji, Kurayoshi.

We got into Kansai Airport Saturday night. It was a difficult night for us. Arthur was crying a whole lot. He kept waking up throughout the night, and we just had to make sure he went back to sleep. We finally got out of bed to start our day at 11:00 on Sunday. Arthur had vomited multiple times throughout the night and he had gone through all three pajamas that we brought for him. I changed my shirt at least twice and my pajama bottom was semi-soaked part of the night. I was glad Arthur was able to get back to sleep even though our room was filled with sunlight streaming through the curtains.

When we finally got out of bed, we gave Arthur some fever medicine and tried to give him some milk. He drank some but not the whole 180mL as per usual. He was filled with energy, though. He crawled around the bed, played with some of his toys, and interacted with us. Even though he still had some temperature, he seemed like he was having a good time.

Sean decided to put the clothes to wash. We were so glad that the hotel had laundry machines that were available for guest use. When he came back to the room, he started getting ready to go out. I continued to entertain Arthur. Then, it was my turn to get ready. We thought we would just go out, look for something quick to eat around the area. However, Arthur looked sleepy again.

We put Arthur down for a nap. An hour and a half later, he woke up, and his fever had gone down. It seemed like he was fine. We decided to head to Osaka, even only for a short amount of time.

The train ride from Izumisano to Osaka took about 30 minutes. It was a pretty straightforward system. We purchased two 590-yen tickets, then got on the train until we got to Namba station. I carried Arthur on the carrier, facing me. When we were in Europe, he used to hate being carried facing me. He always wanted to face out. This time, however, he didn’t mind. As a matter of fact, he even fell asleep on the carrier in the 30 minutes that it took us to get to Namba station. This was the first time! It might be because he wasn’t feeling well, or it might be that he had grown up a bit so he was able to understand a bit more? Whatever the reason, I was glad to have him sleep on the carrier.

We only had one destination: Dotonbori. Apparently, it was a walking distance away from Namba train station. And it was. The way there was quite exciting. Lots of people, lots of stores, lots of street food.

Arthur didn’t mind sitting on the stroller part of the time. We stopped by a couple of times to get some snacks and drinks. We fed Arthur some milk at one of the cafes. Thankfully, he did not throw up.

We finally got to the river, and you could tell that it was definitely a touristy place.

The Main Street could get a bit too crowded at times. So we took some side streets. And they were lovely.

We even got some takoyaki from a little shop that had a really cool vibe.

After some more wandering around, the sky got darker. We actually liked the quieter streets. They felt a lot calmer and they had a lot more character than the crowded streets.

We made our way back across the river and headed back to the train station. We had planned to do a whole lot more than what we accomplished today. But, we had a sick kid. So, the only thing we could do was to adapt to the situation.

It was still a really good day. We could have had a day where we stayed at the hotel the whole time. Or worse, Arthur could have been even worse. But we were lucky. Arthur was feeling better and we were able to go out even for just a little bit.

On the way back to Izumisano, Arthur fell asleep again on the train. When we got home, we gave Arthur a bath and put him to sleep.

For the first 7 hours, he was not sleeping well. His body temperature went up again, and this time, I got really worried. He was doing so well in the afternoon. Maybe we pushed him way too hard? I couldn’t really sleep well at all. At about 3am, I was awake and I couldn’t go back to sleep for a good hour. I prayed that he would get better soon. If we could at least treat his fever, we could then treat his cough and phlegm issue. There was nothing I could at that time other than wait for the medicine to take effect.

I fell asleep and was woken up by Sean. It was 6:30 and I had to get ready. We were supposed to leave the hotel by 7. Arthur was still sound asleep. I got ready while Sean packed our stuff. Only when we were about ready to leave that we gently woke Arthur to change his diaper and clothes.

No fever. I rejoiced. His body temperature was back to normal. He was smiling at us. All good.

We quickly got him ready and made our way to the train station. We got ourselves some baked goods from the bakery by the train station and got on the train to the airport.

We arrived at the airport train station around 7:30. The Toyota car rental was nearby and we got the car and were ready to drive by 8:10. It was quick!

We fed Arthur some milk before we set off. And… another milestone: Arthur fell asleep in the car seat by himself. Amazing! And he slept for a good hour!

The drive from Kansai Airport to Himeji Castle took longer than we expected. There was a bit of traffic along the way. When we got to the castle, there were already a whole lot of people, but apparently, we got there at the right time. The carpark was still less than 50% full and the weather wasn’t too hot yet. I was, of course, worried that Arthur might get sick again. But so far so good.

We put Arthur in the stroller from the car park to the castle entrance. Since the stroller wasn’t allowed inside the castle, we moved Arthur to the carrier. This time, facing out so that he could see his surroundings.

The walk up to the castle was quite a work out. As we entered the first floor, we were asked to take off our shoes. Apparently, it was to help preserve the floors. I didn’t really know what to expect of the castle. It was very different from European castles, for sure, but it reminded me of some of the temples that I visited in the Himalayas.

When we got to the fourth floor, there was a place where we could sit for a while. We decided to take Arthur out of the carrier and give him the opportunity to crawl around. He happily took the opportunity to explore. Seeing his level of energy, I was no longer worried about his fever. He was still coughing a storm at times, but that was all right.

After we made our way to the top, we climbed back down and took pictures around the area.

And we got some snacks and drinks at the shop by the castle exit. It was a really hot day. We placed Arthur back in the stroller and gave him his milk. No throwing up. Yay!

Then we headed back to the car, places Arthur in the car seat, and made our way to Kurayoshi.

Once again, the trip took us longer than we expected. Arthur slept in the car yet again. Then woke up, had some snacks, then slept again. And again.

We finally arrived in Kurayoshi around 4:30. We parked the car and walked to the white wall warehouses. The town seemed to be asleep.

There were very very very few people around. It was nice. Just a bit eery, though.

While walking around the area, we kept our eyes peeled for a place to eat. There weren’t many restaurants around. There were several cafes but we were really looking for substantial food for dinner.

We finally found a place. It was a traditional food place. I thought it was cool because then Arthur could crawl around.

I was wrong. He could and did crawl around, but that wasn’t really the best thing for him to do. He wanted to touch everything and it was all within his reach.

So Sean and I had to take turns eating. And little did we know that we had ordered four complete meals instead of four (what we thought were) appetizers. The meals came complete with their own miso soups, rice bowls, two desserts, and small plates of miscellaneous things like ginger and seaweed, etc. We ordered from the picture because we don’t speak Japanese (and the servers don’t speak English) and the pictures didn’t suggest that the food came with a full meal! We tried our best in finishing up the food, but we miserably failed. We felt so bad wasting the food, but there was nothing we could do. We ate as much of the “main” items as possible.

It was only 6:30 when we left the restaurant but it was already super dark outside. The lack of street lights, people, and traffic made the whole place look so creepy.

There was one shop at the corner that looked like it had little knickknacks and vintage stuff. It was the only place that was bright in that whole street. We went in and got some stuff. The owner spoke no English so there were a lot of body language communications.

We continued our walk towards where we parked the car. Crickets chirping quite loudly to fill the otherwise super quiet neighborhood.

It was a nice walk around a really nice neighborhood. It was way too quiet and dark for my liking. But then again, I grew up in the city. So I was used to a very noise-polluted neighborhoods.

We made our way to the Airbnb afterwards. It wasn’t far from Kurayoshi. It was also located in a super quiet neighborhood but it was more of a country side feel than a small town.

The house is big and it is traditional style with paper-door partitions. I’m glad we had the opportunity to stay here. This definitely is a better place compared to a hotel or even a traditional guest house.

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Wednesday, October 10th. Hokuei, Tottori, Uradome.

The main reason why we chose to come to Japan this week was to visit Conan Town. Sean and I have seen 960 episodes of Detective Conan and when we found out there was a “Conan Town” in Japan, we were extremely eager to visit it.

Conan Town is actually located on Hokuei town, in the Tottori Prefecture. The manga artist who first introduced Detective Conan to the world was born in this town. In honor of his work, the city council decided to build Conan statues and scavenger hunt and Gosho Aoyama museum.

I was super excited to visit this town. So, yesterday, we only had Conan Town planned for the day. We woke up later than we expected. Perhaps this was due to our lack of sleep a couple of nights in a row. Nevertheless, we took our time getting ready. Arthur had his first nap while I went to take a shower. Then when he woke up, we changed him, and got out of the house.

Conan Town was only 30 minute drive from our Airbnb. As we entered the town, we followed the signs toward the Gosho Aoyama Museum. I was super excited when I started seeing Conan statues everywhere! We crossed the Conan bridge and found a parking lot with all kinds of Conan posters. As it turned out, the parking lot was part of the “Beika Street shopping area.” We decided to start our adventure here.

We put on our gear and headed towards Cafe Poirot. We were hungry and that was the closest restaurant around where we were, and, of course, it was a cafe from the series. We ordered, sat down, and took out some baby food for Arthur. While we waited for our food, we fed Arthur. It was nice that the restaurant had a high chair for babies. It made things easier for us.

After lunch, we walked across to the gelato place. Sean got himself a chocolate ice cream.

Then we attempted to wander around the souvenir store, but Arthur was getting fussy. So, we walked out of the store and tried to put Arthur to sleep in the patio next to the river. It was so peaceful and quiet. Arthur wasn’t having it. He didn’t want to be rocked nor held. We decided to put him in the stroller, placing him in bassinet mode. He complained for a bit, but he gave in. He was fine being pushed in the stroller. We decided to walk across the river to Conan train station, hoping Arthur would fall asleep.

Sure enough, he drifted off to sleep quite easily.

On the way to train station, we took a picture with some characters. I was so excited. I couldn’t really understand why. And yet, I was.

Once we got to the station, we went to the information counter and they gave us a stamp scavenger hunt. There were six stamps we had to get. At the end, we could claim a prize if we got all six stamps. All we had to do was to visit different buildings to get the stamp. Let the games begin.

It wasn’t really difficult. The train station was one of the locations for the stamp. And then, we walked to the post office and then the bookstore and then back Beika Street shopping area.

As we crossed the river again, Arthur woke up. So we sat at a nearby bench to feed him. Then we continued on walking and made our way to the Gosho Aoyama Museum where Professor Agasa’s car was parked. Along the way, we also came across Sleeping Kogoro.

No pictures were allowed in the museum. We got to learn a little bit more about the manga artist who dreamed up Detective Conan. We saw some of his early drawings and work, and there were even some games and the mysteries done in the anime. I had a blast. I didn’t realize I was so into Detective Conan until I stepped into that museum and got really excited about all the things relating to the manga/anime. It was awesome.

When we left, we made our way back to the car. We totally had forgotten to stop by the gas station. We needed the stamp at the gas station to complete our stamp hunt. Besides, we need to top off gas anyhow.

At the gas station, the old man who helped us fill up gas asked in broken English what we were doing there. We told him we really loved Detective Conan. He was surprised but then he asked us to wait as he got something from the store.

He came back with two copies of autographed pictures. He made it clear that these were copies, not the original, but he would like to give them to us anyway. How lucky!!! In hindsight, we should have taken a picture with the man. That would have been nice. Opportunity missed.

Once we got all six stamps, we drove to the train station, and got the gift. It was only a card. Not as cool as the pictures above.

Nevertheless, it was an awesome day. We got to visit Conan Town and it was such a beautiful, sunny day for a nice walk down Conan Street.

We went home from there and bought ourselves take away food.

Then, we gave Arthur a bath, put him in his pajamas, gave him an extra layer of warm jacket and pants, and he was ready to go to sleep. He slept very well last night, actually. Better than all the other nights.

This morning, we woke up later than we expected but we didn’t have too many things on the agenda, so it was fine.

We got up, took our time getting ready, gave Arthur a nap, and once he woke up, we headed towards Tottori Sand Dunes. It was raining. The weather was much better yesterday. Today, everything seemed so gloomy.

It took about 45 minutes to get to the Sand Dunes. We took the side streets to see more of the country side. It was a good choice. What a beautiful place!

Even in the rain, the drive was quite enjoyable.

When we got to the Sand Dunes, we decided to have lunch first. Udon noodles this time. It was good, but to me, Japanese food can get quite salty.

Anyway, after lunch, we walked across the street to the Sand Dunes. It was drizzling and we didn’t think we needed umbrella. We got some free rental sand shoes, and made our way to the dunes.

I don’t know if our pictures can do justice to the incredible view.

It was quite surreal. The dark orange sand that seemed to go on for miles.

We started walking towards the beach. The wind started blowing hard. Arthur buried his face on me. I covered him with my jacket. Poor thing. He was getting tired. And somehow, he fell asleep.

We were only 10 steps away from the top of the sand dunes by the beach when it started to rain stronger. Maybe we should have brought an umbrella. We quickly marveled at the beach, and how far vertically we were from it. If anyone goes down to the beach, he/she would have a really good exercise going back up the dunes!

After a quick picture, we made our way down and then up again to the other side. It was quite a trek! Or maybe I am just out of shape.

Once we got back to the parking lot, we cleaned our feet, returned the sandals, and went back to the car.

Then we made our way to Uradome Coast.

Maybe if it wasn’t so overcast, the view would have been nicer. It was still a nice walk by the beach, but I didn’t think it was anything special. Anyway, we got to walk around with Arthur and he seemed to enjoy looking at the seagulls and multiple hawks flying around.

From here we made our way to Amedaki Falls. Unfortunately, all the roads leading to the Falls were closed. We tried multiple ways, and various detours, but they were all closed. We were feeling a bit sad about that, but I suppose it was all right.

On the way back to the Airbnb, I attempted to drive, but I was only able to drive for about 20 minutes before Arthur objected. He wanted me to sit in the backseat, not Sean. Somehow, he got so attached to me in this trip. He didn’t want to hang out with Sean for a long period of time. He was always looking for me.

So Sean took over the driving again, and we went back to the Airbnb. We thought of stopping at Misasa town to grab some dinner, but the restaurants weren’t open until 5:30. We would have had to wait for an hour.

We didn’t wait. We drove back home instead and had some meal at home.

And tomorrow, we head to Kyoto.