Our First Vaca to Japan!

And so, it seems befitting that I start our travel diary with our first overseas vaca to Japan.

Our ambitious plan in a nutshell reads - First time parents from Singapore bring their one-year young baby on her first flight out of the country (7+1 hours no less!) during autumn, and plan their itinerary by rail.

To top it off, we travelled to Osaka, Nara and Kyoto over the period of 5 days.

We flew by ANA and, I must say, I'm quite impressed by their excellent service! :) It was the first time I've travelled by the airline and they are super baby friendly. Well, first up, they let those with young children board first (no biggie since other carriers do that too). They provide special meals for children even though we didn't pay for a seat, and boy, do those meal boxes look good! To entertain the kiddos, they let them choose toys from their airline selection too. Their tiny toilets even have a stowaway bracket that we can pull down to make a diaper changing station. Getting the crew to fix up the bassinet took a while longer than expected but it was fine (they probably had to unearth it from the depths of the cargo loot or something) and was sturdy enough for Heidi despite the 10kg limit. The stewardesses were very accommodating and helped us with our requests in every way - hot water, cold water, letting me stand in the food preparation area to rock Heidi, smiled despite my frazzled hair and smelly airplane breath and screaming baby, etc. Thumbs up!

All smiles ~ Heidi looking mighty pleased in her makeshift stroller, with Papa!

Snack pack of egg sandwiches to fill Heidi's tum-tum just after takeoff, the large portion of which went into ZX's tummy instead.

Uber cute meal box packaging :)

Breakfast for the little one - Carrot & Potato Pot, Heinz Vanilla Custard, Heinz Pumpkin & Sweet Corn and Heidi's fave ~ banana :)

Japanese meal boxes for our flight home

Heidi all snug in her bassinet

The 10kg bassinet limit *phew* good thing Heidi isn't as heavy as we thought

Anyway, since we're on the topic of babies, let's talk about Heidi's favourite place in Japan ~ imo that is ;) ~ Osaka Aquarium Kaiyukan.

The Kaiyukan is an amazingly huge aquarium with schools and schools of fish and other marine creatures. The experience is truly one-of-a-kind (Underwater World, what?!). Large tanks allow the creatures to dive about 7-8 stories deep, or more, and let the visitors roam around freely with the various marine life whizzing all around. With the aquarium housed in a eight-storey complex, we discovered new creatures with each level (although basically we were looking at the same tank), and got to view each creature from every angle as we walked down. It really is such a cool concept and lets you feel like you are under water in the very same tank as the magnificent marine life. The stingrays were so big and intimidating that they literally sent shivers down whoever was standing next to the tank when they slithered past. The penguins were all gawking at the sky with their fins outstretched, and I figured they were waiting for it to snow (there was some snow-ish stuff flaking down). The dolphins wowed with every dive and every splash. There were also sea otters, sea lions, every imaginable jellyfish, etc. I've also learnt of a semi-aquatic mammal, capybara. Really, I can't imagine anyone not being awed by this place. And I don't even like fish.

Heidi, on the other hand, is fascinated by fish and can spend hours on end staring at the little fishes in my dad's and bro's fish tanks. At the Kaiyukan, she shrieked in delight at the ginormous fish houses with every imaginable fish swimming around!

The wire mesh display of sea creatures welcoming visitors to the aquarium

The huge complex which is home to an amazing myriad of marine life

Cute - them sea otters all cozying up

The said penguins waiting for snow ~ see that white stuff in the middle?

A giant tank of fishes!

Heidi all hyped up and peering at the colourful fishes through the glass window

I like! Squiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiid

This ain't very clear because the stingray swam so fast ~ but there's actually a fish 'hanging' on to the stingray. I reckon the ray was going at breakneck speed to fling the fish off!

Funny ~ this fish has 4 fins! Up down left right.

Apparently, one of the highlights of the Kaikuyan is the surprise appearance by their Santa. Here, the Santa is surrounded by the playful dolphins.

I find this collage of jellyfish pretty amazing

Kawaii!

With our Kansai Rail Pass, we got 100 yen off the admission fee so it was 1,900 yen each for ZX and myself. That works out to be about S$32. That is about double the fee for Underwater World but I felt it was worth every penny, or yen, although you don't get to swim with the dolphins (but anyway at UWW, you have to pay extra to do that anyway unless you're Mariah Carey then don't say). There are diaper changing facilities at the loos, as well as a nursing room. Funny thing is that in Japan, the baby rooms don't provide hot water so bring your own! Or find out what's the term for hot water - we were literally in hot water because we didn't know it. Lots of gesturing and silly actions just to get water to heat Heidi's food up at meal times. In the end, I just went to their kitchen and took the bowl to pour the water. Only works if it's a small eatery and the staff are friendly. Heck, there's everywhere in Japan. But trust me on this, just get the term for hot water. According to Babel Fish, it's 熱湯. Make sure you know how to say it too! Bottom line, I would give Kaikuyan 5 out of 5 stars, because if it's Heidi's favourite I like it too! ;)

Yay! One for the album :)

WHW

Grey wool cardigan with burgundy and white pattern from Esprit, Blue PJs with Japanese doll prints and grey socks from Cotton On Kids

WBW 

Black and grey colour-block cardigan from Magenta Monday, Black oversized tee from H&M, blue tights from Topshop, brown boots from a kiosk in Toa Payoh