Deciding to turn 30 in Japan and travelling as a family... with a new member!

Trying to get a passport photo of a smiley baby isn't easy! They need to have an expressionless face with their mouth shut.

Travelling was not part of our plans this year, 2014. 
We had our second and final baby in March and thought that ruled out travelling anywhere this year and possibly even next year too... which is fine.

BUT then my 30th birthday was looming, and I was having a hard time deciding what to do to celebrate. I am a big believer in BIG birthday celebrations and I was about to turn 30. 
Medical professions had told my parents that I wouldn't live to see my twenties, so I felt like turning 30 was a big deal. (I know that sounds so dramatic, but I have had more than one doctor tell about that amazing RA patient that they had just loved who had died at 16/19/some other really young age, so it happens).

Arch's very first flight! Brisbane to Cairns

Friends had convinced us to go on a cruise, and we were just in the process of booking the cruise when we found out that babies under 12 months cannot go on cruises with that company. The same day that we discovered we couldn't do the cruise one of those same friends shared a Jetstar 2 for 1 tickets to Japan link on Facebook... awesome! and we had a week to decide (until the deal finished). 
I think after 2 days we had decided that yes we would go to Japan IF we could get my mum to come too. I think mum said yes after thinking about it for all of five seconds. I think she could tell how badly we would need someone to come for help with - everything!  We ended up agreeing that mum would get a day off to train it down  to Kyoto.

This was all booked at the end of July, so it wasn't a long wait. All of a sudden it was time to pack. Then the day before we were due to leave we received a text message from JetStar saying that our flight leaving from the Gold Coast was cancelled. We had picked the flight leaving from the Gold Coast because it was direct to Tokyo. After our flight was cancelled we were presented with three choices 1) Leave from Gold coast on the same day fly to Melbourne - FIVE hour stop over in Melbourne and the 10 hour flight to Japan
2) Take the direct Gold Coast to Tokyo flight the next day OR
3) Leave from Brisbane fly to Cairns 5 hour stop over and then 7 hour  flight to Tokyo.

We took option number 3.

In Cairns

I remember our first flight with Imogen, she was seven months old and we were beside ourselves with worry. Will she cry? Will it hurt her ears? Will EVERYONE HATE US? 

Arch's first flight was certainly very different in that regard. We were more relaxed by a mile. 
He had a bit of a feed during take off and landing and during the rest of the flight he was happy to play with the safety instructions. 

The plane that would take us from Cairns to TOKYO

We had about five hours to waste in Cairns. We just sat around and had coffee, ate some terrible airport food. My mum took Imogen for a run around. We checked in to our flight as soon as we could and waited the rest of the time at the gate. Gave Archer a feed of baby food, using me as a human feeding chair. I ended up with baby food all over me, so I got changed just before we got on the plane.

Imogen's first international flight was when we went to Hawaii, when she was 17 months old. So this was our first long flight with a "little" baby, and it wasn't so bad. We passed him around between the three of us. 

We had ended up with six seats on this flight, three next to a window and three in the middle, which we put to good use! It was nice to be able to spread out and it gave Imogen plenty of room to have a rest lying down.

On Nanny's lap

During all of our other travels, before having the kids, I would just sleep during every flight, train ride, bus ride, boat ride/ during pretty much any time I'm on transport. It's a good strategy, you get where you are going faster.
 I think I managed about 15 minutes on this flight then Rhys had to wake me to feed him. 

On Mummy's lap

On Daddy's lap

We did it! We've just landed it Japan

But that's ok. It was a day flight anyway, so sleeping wasn't really necessary.


Imogen was such a good little traveller too. She kept herself busy with pens and pencils, the colouring books I brought and the blank drawing book my mum brought. She used the iPad and watched Rio 2 with Rhys on the in flight entertainment.

When we landed in Tokyo we all hoped on a train to Tokyo station and from there we caught a cab to our air BnB apartment. Our "Tokyo Home", as Immy called it, for the next 8 days.