In a post
before we left I spoke about how this trip was going to be a trip of
firsts, and the most significant first was travelling as a Family for the very
first time - namely our 1 year old Daughter was accompanying us.
So how did that go?
Before I get into that I'll preface by saying this wasn't
one of my favourite trips. You win some and you lose some, and this trip gets a
a mark in the latter column because of terrible luck with illnesses. I need to
vent this somewhere and here seems like a good spot...
In the first week I caught a cold, bad enough to make me a
bit grouchy and miserable with the resulting cough staying with me until after
we got back. In the second week, Tomomi caught a stomach bug and that made her
not just a bit miserable but unwell enough to not be able to do a number of
things so some plans got cancelled. And to top it all off, within two days of
being back in New Zealand, instead of enjoying a long Easter weekend before I
return to work, Tomomi came down with the Flu, with Me and Baby inevitably
coming down with it a few days later. Instead of feeling good about having a
holiday, we were stuck at home feeling like death for a whole week. Just
marvelous. I'll try not to mention any of this ever again lest it conjures the
feelings of abject misery but I had to get this off my chest.
Now that is out of the way, It wasn't all bad of course,
quite the contrary as going to Japan, being away from home, work and life is
always great, as is visiting the Family.
 |
| Sakura at Tachioka Park, Kumamoto |
I always said I would never travel with a Baby
I've been saying it for years. Mainly because of the
travelling part. I've been on too many forms of public transportation with
screaming children, whilst the parents look on helplessly trying to avoid eye
contact with all the disgruntled recipients of the noise barrage. I was
convinced that I was not going to be that person.
Also in case it needs to be pointed out, travelling with a Baby is not simply bringing the Baby along like an extra piece of luggage. There are a tonne of things to think about and it changes how you travel, but it's not that complicated either, just how popping out to the supermarket or a day at the beach with a Baby is different, you just have to plan and think what you'll need and when you'll need it.
This post is my account of our experience travelling with a
Baby on this trip. Some of it may sound negative, and that's simply because
travelling with a Baby is challenging. Hopefully this helps prepare you a bit,
at least mentally.
Getting to the Airport
In a moment of realisation, how we were going to get to the
airport was suddenly a problem. Usually we would just jump in an Uber, but
having never seen one with a Child Seat, a quick Google search found it was not
an option. Taxi's by arrangement (and cost) can provide a child seat, but since
the age of Ubers and their cheap fares I have not been able to stomach even a
normal Taxi fare, so that was never going to happen. Airport parking was
another option, as we would have our own child seat to use and it would be
waiting for us when we get back but that option was around $400 for the length
of time we were away. So I went cap-in-hand to my Parents (whom I go to great
lengths to never to ask anything of) to ask if they can be our Taxi and they
obliged. We were able to easily fit our Car seat to their Car, get dropped off
to the airport and picked up again stress free. Moral of the story is that if
you need to use a car seat, don't overlook something as simple as getting to
and from the airport!
 |
| The new and improved Drop-off and Pickup area at Auckland Airport |
Flying to Japan
I hate flying, I really do. I suffer from motion sickness
along with anxiety that we are all going to die at any jarring turbulence, or
worse, those sudden lateral movements during takeoff or landing which makes me
think the plane is going to flip over and turn into a fireball. My coping
mechanisms involve clinging to my armrests as my palms start sweating, cranking
my music up and fixating on details on the forward bulkhead. Basically I'm not
really fit to look after anyone else on a flight. I've also just realised that
living on an island (New Zealand) and often travelling to another island
(Japan) is not ideal for someone who would rather avoid air travel. A bonus of
moving to Japan is that flying will become a rarity to the point I might
actually forget how much I hate it.
Auckland to Narita is around 11 hours, leaving mid-morning
NZ time and arriving early evening Japan time. For the outgoing flights we
booked seats in a Basinet row. For those who have never noticed them, they are
the seats at the front of Economy Cabin facing the bulkhead, as little Basinets
attach to the bulkhead for Baby's to sleep in during the flight. By booking 2
seats in a 3 seat outer row we took a calculated risk of 'who on earth would
book a single seat in a basinet row with a baby and boxed in by the window',
well somebody did just that, probably unaware of what situation they were potentially walking into. If you can get a empty seat next to you it is 100%
worth it - check your flight the day before and pay the extra to move your
seats if the flight isn't full. Having that empty seat next to you so you have
some working space is invaluable. You will have a rather large baby supplies
bag with you most likely, and getting anything done is just that much harder
when you have no room to move and unpack. The Basinet row is better than a
normal row as you have more space in front of you to put stuff on the
ground.
I thought I scored the jackpot with my particular seat - the
aisle seat on the basinet row. The aisle actually dog-legged around me so that
I had nothing but air in front of me and unlimited legroom. In reality it felt
like I was sitting in the aisle itself due to the amount of foot traffic
constantly walking around me, including the groups of people standing around
waiting for the toilet being right there. This made it impossible
to relax. To add to that, we have a strict no-screens policy for our little
girl, so we had to endure an 11 hour daytime flight, awake and doing absolutely
nothing.
The flight in reality wasn't that bad. Just long and boring.
Our Baby didn't go to sleep until half way through the flight and even then it
was a standard 1 hour-ish nap so not much of a reprieve. That meant plenty of
time of having an awake baby sitting on our laps, bored and wriggling around
for what felt like eternity. Tomomi does most of the work and my job is to be
the spare pair of hands when needed. Our daughter was impeccably behaved the
entire flight and I even had someone tell me as such later on in the airport
after recognizing me.
 |
| There are decent restaurants when flying into Narita if you aren't in a hurry to leave |
Airports
Nothing much changes with regards to navigating airports
with a baby except you have more stuff, and that meant for the first time in my
life I was grabbing a luggage trolley at every opportunity like it was a life
support machine. A
compact stroller is a godsend also and highly recommended. Ours is
small enough that it qualifies as carry-on, but we opted to get a special tag
at check-in which meant we can take the stroller right to the gate and the crew
would then put it in the hold. It's then supposed to come out and be waiting
for us after disembarking but that never really happened and we had to wait to
get it at baggage claim, which meant walking those long and never ending
corridors that arrivals have to travel down whilst carrying an 8kg Baby.
Narita Airport is great most of the time, but when it's not,
it's horrific. Upon getting off the plane and starting the long walk down the
aforementioned corridors we suddenly came upon a mass of people half way along.
A queue with everyone looking around puzzled with no idea what was going on. A
staff member then came along asking for Japanese passport holders and residents
to go with him and Tomomi and Baby ditched me without a second thought. I would
not see them again for at least an hour. What had happened was that a number of
flights of foreigners had arrived at the same time and overloaded immigration
and as such they were trying to stem the flow into immigration.
After an 11 hour flight the last thing I ever want is a
delay getting out of an airport. Last time I travelled we waited 2 hours for
our bags at Auckland airport because of a machinery malfunction and this time
flying into Narita was a similar delay. I don't know why they couldn't handle
so many foreigners all at once but it was absolutely carnage. The entire
immigration hall had cordons snaking backwards and forwards and it was
absolutely heaving with tired and irritable people in a never-ending queue. Just when I though I was
approaching the end, the cordon would take us out of the area entirely and around a
corner just to snake back again at double the distance. Depressing. I also was
carrying the heavy baby supplies bag that possesses a shoulder strap no-where
near supportive enough for the weight I was carrying. Eventually I made
it through and met Tomomi and Baby waiting with the baggage. Customs was fast
and out we went to look for our bus stop for the short ride to our Hotel. I'm
going to write a post about the hotel later as I find them quite interesting.
For now the day is over, Home to Hotel: 17 hours.
 |
| Kumamoto Airport |
Flying Domestically in Japan
One flight down, one to go. Terminal 3 at Narita is the
domestic terminal though the bus doesn't always stop there, so you often have a
decent walk particularly if from terminal 2. It's a pretty boring terminal
much like you would expect from a domestic one as it's more people getting from
A to B rather than going on holiday.
Narita to Kumamoto is around 2 hours. I would prefer to
travel via Shinkansen, but that is 7 hours with multiple changes, and having
done Narita to Kyoto via train straight after getting off the plane previously I would
rather take the faster method of transportation as that was exhausting.
When catching a domestic flight from Narita, if you are
lucky you will walk down the steps from the gate and up another set of steps to
your plane. There are no sky bridges here for flights like this. If you are
unlucky (as we were this time), you have to pile onto a bus like Sardines to then drive over to where
the plane is parked. Ironically these buses have the gall to have 'Airport
Limousine' emblazoned all over them.
I dislike domestic flights more so than the international
ones. Firstly the planes are small A320's that don't help my anxiety - when
they bounce around they bounce around more. Then they are cramped. The cabins
on a Japanese domestic route are simply not designed for 6 foot plus Europeans.
The seat back angle literally has me leaning forward making it just impossible
to have any modicum of comfort. Then my anxiety went through the roof by the crew
telling us that due to severe weather and thunderstorms in Kumamoto we may end
up turning around and heading back to Narita. Luckily this wasn't the case, the
flight wasn't too bad and Baby (who was sat on Mum's lap the entire time)
behaved well. She may have even slept, I can't recall. I'm just glad at this
point I can forget about flying for 3 weeks.
 |
| The Misumi line passing through Oda, Uto City, Kumamoto. |
Cars and Baby seats
After settling in at the In-laws, a few days later we had to
go and collect the rental car from Kumamoto City. We caught the train from Oda
Station and took the Misumi Line to Kumamoto Station. It's a small local line
running Diesel trains. The trip was cheap and takes around 35 minutes. Tomomi
held our daughter whom decided to take a nap due to the rhythmic rocking and
sounds of the train, and she pretty much did that every time we took the train. Trains are good.
A short walk from the station at the rental car place, our
car was ready and we had booked for a child seat. They fitted it to the 'wrong' side. Just about everywhere I know, you would fit a single child seat to the
back left. Not only is this more convenient for turning around to check when
stopped, but safer as it is further away from the centre line. Japan also
drives on the left, and apparently by Law, the child seat must go behind the
driver. The In-laws fitted the seat in their car on the 'normal' side so I'm
confused. We left it as-is because that law is correct, though I doubt it is
enforced (what if you have multiple car seats?)
Anyway, Japan does not seem to have heard of Isofix. I find
it strange that every Japanese car I've been in for the last decade has Isofix
attachment points, so someone somewhere in Japan is aware of it. However, none
of the seats we used including the few we tried with the rental company had Isofix and
all needed to be secured by belts. In 2025 it seems most odd.
A tip for those renting a car with a baby seat, go to Daiso
and buy a mirror as they are not supplied with the car and the last thing you
want is to be driving in a foreign country whilst being tempted to turn around to check on your child every time they make a noise. Safety first.
 |
| The baby friendly car we ordered (left) vs what we got given (right) |
Our rental car itself was awful. On our last trip we rented
a Suzuki Solio, which was a very spacious mini MPV with a high ceiling and
sliding doors. The rear legroom was also impossibly generous. We knew we wanted
this class of car for travelling with a baby. If you've rented a car anywhere
before you'll probably know you choose a car by class or 'like a XXXX', so we
chose the category that said 'Like a Suzuki Solio'. So when we got a brand new
Nissan Note instead (a small hatchback with very little rear space, a low roof
and no sliding doors) we were confused. The roof was so low that to load our
Girl in, I had to have my face above the roof line whilst I placed her into the
seat blindly, and because the seat was secured with a seat belt, the belt was
blocking the entry of the seat making it a blind limbo every time getting her
in and out - having to lift her over the belt but not bang her head. Another
tip here - make sure you get the correct type of car.
Flying home
Flying home was less eventful. Flying out of Kumamoto airport is actually quite pleasant. It's a small airport with a single terminal mainly servicing domestic routes and a handful of international ones such as Busan and Taipei. It has also been renovated in recent years and it's just a nice place to wait for your flight - all of the restaurants and shops are right next to the gate waiting areas so you can essentially eat Ajisen Ramen right up until boarding without a worry as the gate is 20 meters away. Bonus points for having one of those cushioned play areas right near the gate too, and our girl made some friends whilst we waited for the flight.
The flight back to Narita was a morning flight with our subsequent International flight not until 8pm the next day. We stayed at the same hotel as before and had a relaxing afternoon. The following day we had an entire day to burn and stuck in the relative wilderness of the Narita airport area. Airport aside there is nothing but business supporting the airport. Originally we planned to go to Aeon mall at Narita City, but the buses were risky in terms of making our flight with only 2 per day, so instead we decided to do a 'day trip' to the airport,
exploring the shops at Terminal 1 and Terminal 2 and then grabbing lunch. We
then headed back to the hotel for final preparations before returning back to
Terminal 1 laden with more luggage than we arrived with.
 |
| Check-in floor - Narita Airport Terminal 2 |
Airside at Narita Terminal 1 is not a bad place at all. The shop selection is not great, unless you are in the habit of casually picking up extremely expensive alcohol, make up, jewelry or fashion clothing on a whim. It's spacious though off the beaten path with many quiet corners to relax in. Our gate was close to the end of an arm, but at the very end of that arm it was deserted and much to our delight found a very good and large cushioned play area, perfect for a baby to tear around and burn off some energy before the flight.
Narita to Auckland is a trip where your plane will always take a drive around the Chiba countryside for at least half an hour before taking off. Every time. I think the longest we have taxied flying out of there was over an hour.
For as long as I can remember this flight has departed
around 6pm. Now it is 8pm. That may not sound like an issue for an overnight
flight but I can assure you, it is incredibly annoying. Allow me to explain.
Regardless of the time of day, Airlines insist on serving meals and these meals
are always served around 2 hours into the flight. If you are in an airport from
5-8pm, which you must be for this particular flight, with a plethora of restaurants airside to eat at and
no-where else to go, tell me, who on earth needs dinner at 10pm? The issue with
this is that once dinner is served, it is around the same length of time, every
time, before the trays are cleared away, more drinks served, rubbish collected
again and finally an age after that, the lights are dimmed and you can think
about sleep. At this point we are already well past midnight Japan time.
Sometime from this point they decide to try and get you on local time by
turning the lights on and serving breakfast. New Zealand is 4 hours ahead this
time of year, so that means it is 4am NZ time when they dimmed the lights
meaning just 2-3 hours later they want you to wake up and eat some unpalatable
breakfast. Why?!
 |
| Narita airport - this restaurant had the largest fake food display I have ever seen. |
We did not get Basinet row seats this time, we opted for half of a middle row. This works out better, as we don't have to move for any strangers and they don't have to move for us. We had an empty seat next to Tomomi as well despite the app showing it was booked so that was fortunate for us. The good thing about night flights is that your Baby will be on their normal night sleep routine, and ours slept most of the flight. We actually declined all meals and tried to sleep ourselves. For me its the same old experience of sitting back and closing my eyes and afterward never really know if I slept or not as it never feels like I did. The crew still disturbed me for meals though to raise my seat back for the person behind me (I don't even fully recline). For the love of god just leave me alone, it's night time!
There was a Cyclone warning and bad weather over Auckland coming in, and thanks to taking motion sickness medication and being less stressed than normal, handling the bumps was much less of an event for me, and it was good to be home. Upon landing though our little girl had a code brown incident and it smelled incredibly bad. We did not want to wait to get off the plane, and of course the moment you land everyone stands up and blocks the aisle. So we had to wait for the whole plane to empty before changing her, and much to my amazement, all 3 of us fit into the plane bathroom, so team effort diaper changes mid-flight are possible people!
 |
| Making friends in the play area at Kumamoto Airport |
People are helpful
Just be aware that plenty of people want to help but they do not know how, simply because they don't have the experience or knowledge of what a baby of X age needs or is capable of. Restaurants are probably the places you will frequent most that you'll have need of assistance, usually with seating. We had a number of places who weren't sure what seat to use or even what else you need - often providing us with things like child's cutlery and menus, so don't be afraid to ask for what you know you need.
We also found public toilets very good. In some places I even found changing tables in the men's bathroom, a surprise given Japan's conversative views on gender roles. Some toilets had fold out beds instead of changing tables, and I suppose given these toilets serve double duty as disabled toilets that they are for the disabled. Be warned though they make terrible and dangerous changing tables, you'll definitely want a second pair of hands to make sure your baby doesn't end up on the floor when confronted with one.
There was actually holiday in between
Indeed there was and I've got hundreds of photos and a long
list of articles to write. This post was mainly around the travel experience
and hopefully it has given you some insight if it's something that is in your
future. Feel free to ask any questions or share your experiences!
Earlier in this post I including a link to a Compact
stroller similar to ours which is perfect for air travel and fits in
overhead lockers as Carry on Luggage. I have to mention that it is an Amazon
affiliate link. If you happen to purchase after using a link I may receive
a commission to help support this site, and it does not cost you anything
extra!
