This post has been written by Guest Blogger, Carla Middleton.
She is an architect and her husband is a Qantas pilot and they have lived in Tamarama, Sydney with their two children for over 7 years.
They love to travel and submerge their kids within different cultures, foods and experiences. Their favourite things to do as a family are to go to the beach, be outdoors and drink good coffee and wine.
Carla started my own practice when her daughter was born and really loves her job, designing beautiful homes for her special clients.
Check out Carla Middleton’s website here.
Our AirBnb experience in Japan
My husband and I love travel but, since having two kids, we have been hesitant to give it a go.
My husband is a Qantas Pilot and I’m an Architect who just loves Japanese design and architecture. So, when my son Toby was born earlier this year and he got to 4 months we thought “Ok! Lets take an adventure!”
Chris had flow to Japan many times for work and I had been when I was 16 years old with my mum as a cultural / art trip and then we returned together (pre kids) on a skiing trip.
We just love Japan, the culture, food, architecture, design but mostly the people.
In Tokyo we weighed up a hotel room vs a two bedroom apartment (airbnb) because we are the type of parents where we like to have a big day out and about and then get home for the kids to have dinner, bath and bed by 7pm. We then like to have some parents only time for a wine and wind down so I just couldn’t get my head around doing the hotel room because it would mean a 7pm bedtime for us parents too.
(It was all about the wine, or the beer whilst we were in Japan!)
So, we decided that we’d opt for Air BnB for the places we stayed at the longest (5 nights) and this allowed for separate bedrooms, kitchen, washer/dryer because we all know the collection of drooly bibs you collect throughout the day with a newborn!
Packing and choosing where to stay
I also needed a way to sterilize items for the baby so I packed the Medella sterilizer microwave bag and this was super compact and handy.
I read Jo’s posts about accommodation so I was very aware of picking a good location and some of the difficulties with doing AirBnB.
I spent hours searching Airbnb and my hot tip was to filter ‘super host’ and ‘family friendly’, two bedrooms as opposed to two ‘beds’ and I used Jo’s wonderful blog to try to find a good area.
We were happy to stay further out from the centre of Tokyo to allow for a place to suit our family sleeping arrangements.
It is ALL about a good night’s sleep in my opinion.
We OVERPACKED and learnt that we wished we’d bought a large four wheeled suitcase to fit everyone’s clothes inside, one travel pram and the portacot. You could do without the portacot if you have a good sleeping baby but because my son was so little, I wanted to give him the comfort of the same cot everywhere we went because we moved around so much!
The pram was so handy and I was hesitant to buy a travel pram but my golly gosh it was amazing. I also swear by the cozigo block out shade cover as this was a lifesaver in terms of my son sleeping during the day when we were running around. My kids need darkness to sleep!!!
It also came in handy on the basinette on the aeroplane and it fitted on top of the Bjorne portacot. I also found the narrow travel pram useful on the shinkensan as we could fit in between the rows of seats and the slight rocking of the train was a little sleep haven whilst we sped across the country on the train. How amazing is the shinkansen??! If only we had that in Australia!
Our Airbnb in Sangenjaya
We chose this wonderful apartment in Sangenjaya which had two spacious bedrooms, a tatami room, lounge room, full kitchen, laundry and bathroom.
I really liked this AirBnB because the owner Suyeon (so lovely) lives upstairs with her two kids and in the reviews I read she had been amazing for guests when they were sick.
This was very important for me as I know this is a big bonus for staying in a hotel, the concierge service can call for an ambulance or doctor is your kids are sick.
In our case, I actually got sick with tonsillitis and a horrible fever. I over packed Australian OTC medication paradol and nurofen for the kids but packed minimal amounts for us adult so, after a day of fevers, I ran out of nurofen pretty quickly and resorted in the middle of the night to having to drink three syringes of kids nurofen! (Yuk! …. now I know why my kids hate taking medicine).
I messaged Suyeon and she popped down and dropped off some panadol within 5 minutes. It was so comforting to know she was just upstairs.
Our Airbnb in Kyoto
Our next stop in Kyoto was one of my favourite AirBnB stays.
It was a great location and we really felt like we were experiencing old Kyoto.
The hosts were wonderful and provided us with a portacot and high chair.
We ended up all sleeping in the large big bedroom upstairs so that my husband and I would put the kids to bed and a have a beer and dinner together downstairs.
We used the futon bed for the tatami room downstairs and placed it upstairs on the floor next to my sons portacot and our king bed. So comfortable!
THIS IS THE WEBSITE FOR OUR AIRBNB IN KYOTO
Our accommodation on Naoshima Island
Naoshima Island was a wonderful experience but it is a long journey for little kids.
We splurged and stayed at Benesse House in a Beach Suite which was large enough for all four of us. They had a fold out sofa bed for my little girl, two king single beds for my husband and I and my son slept in his portacot in the wardrobe.
It was all open plan with a beautiful balcony overlooking the beach.
This was our first attempt at a hotel room and it just meant we put our son to bed first and whilst our 3.5yo was going to sleep we would either sit in the dark room or out on the balcony. The first night we had dinner included so my son slept in the pram and my daughter managed to stay up late and went to sleep as soon as we got back to the room.
The second night, we got cold ramen from the seven eleven and ate on our balcony. We put both kids to sleep and took turns at enjoying the Benesse Gallery which is opened until late and we could just walk there from our hotel room. It was so nice to enjoy a gallery without kids firstly, but also, without the crowds.
The sculptures in the park were so much fun for my daughter to run around and explore the beaches.
The pumpkins were a huge highlight for her.
My son loved his purée dinner beach side too.
THIS IS THE WEBSITE OF OUR HOTEL ON NAOSHIMA ISLAND
Our Airbnb in Hiroshima
Hiroshima was our next stop and we stayed in another great AirBnB close to all the sights.
We booked two bedrooms – my daughter slept with my husband in one room and I slept on my own with my son in the portacot in the other room. The rooms didn’t have very good blockout but I used some of the blankets in the linen closet to darken the room to avoid the kids getting up too early.
There were some really great local parks nearby which, at the tail end of the holiday, we found our daughter really needing some playtime at parks rather than being dragged on trains and seeing sights.
Taxis + Kids in Japan
We often got taxis to and from our accommodation to the main train station to get on the shinkansen. The lack of children’s seats in taxis was very nerve racking and we held them tight!
Our accommodation in Osaka
Our last stop before flying home was Osaka and we braved another hotel.
We stayed at HOTEL THE FLAG Shinsaibashi, which was lovely and in a great location.
We booked two standard rooms next to each other. My husband stayed in one with my daughter and I squeezed a portacot in the other room with my son. It wasn’t very fun after 7pm but we each had an iPad to watch Netflix in the dark and enjoyed a beer whilst texting each other and throwing things to each other from the hallway with one foot in the door.
This was the last leg of our trip so we didn’t really need a washing machine and or sterilising facilities. We a had a great big bag of dirty washing to drag home.
THIS IS THE WEBSITE FOR THE OSAKA HOTEL
Baby Food in Japan
We found purée food tricky to find.
I packed so many Bellamys organic purée pouches and thought purée food would be super easy to come by in Japan but it was actually quite difficult. We found only drug stores sell jars of purée but these drug stores had little stock and they were difficult to find. I also used the app ‘Payke’ to scan the barcodes of the purée and check the ingredients.
Breastfeeding in Japan
I did a lot of reading about breastfeeding in Japan and really wanted to respect their culture so I used the Mamamap to find feeding rooms in department stores. When we were in locations where I couldn’t find a feeding room I fed in a respectful spot, very covered up with a feeding cloth. Sometimes I went into disabled bathrooms and fed. I just also knew, if I felt nervous, then my son would pick up on it and wouldn’t feed.
We had such a wonderful trip. It was tiring, at times, but these were only short lived as we were onto the next place to go or eating up delicious food.
This post has been written by Guest Blogger, Carla Middleton.
She is an architect and her husband is a Qantas pilot and they have lived in Tamarama, Sydney with their two children for over 7 years.
They love to travel and submerge their kids within different cultures, foods and experiences. Their favourite things to do as a family are to go to the beach, be outdoors and drink good coffee and wine.
Carla started my own practice when her daughter was born and really loves her job, designing beautiful homes for her special clients.
Check out Carla Middleton’s website here.
If you’ve enjoyed reading this post I’m sure that you will also be interested in the following posts:
Naoshima with Kids
Kyoto with Kids
Osaka with Kids
I ( Jo, aka The Tokyo Chapter) wrote this post too re: things to consider and check before booking with Airbnb in Japan.
