We are back in Melbourne after an amazing holiday in Japan.

What an incredible country! Almost everything surpassed our expectations. It is an amazing place to experience, especially for kids, or those who are a bit of a big kid themselves (like me).

This was our first big trip with Rowan, and we were prepared for the style of travelling we’d become accustomed to in the past to be seriously curtailed. It was good to go with this expectation, but I think in the end we were pleasantly surprised.

From my perspective, Japan is a country which really looks after children. I wonder if this stems from a mentality first expressed to me by Kenichi, the owner of our accomodation in Tokyo, Tokyo Ryokan. When I first saw our room and the thin screen walls separating us from our neighbours, I vocalised my concern that Rowan’s early wake-ups might disturb other guests. He replied quite simply, ‘But we were all Rowan’s age once.’

Virtually every restaurant we went to had a highchair and without fail, Rowan was provided an unbreakable bowl, a small knife and fork and a glass of water. Many restaurants offered children’s menus, which often included a toy. Children Rowan’s age were accommodated every place we went, and for free! Every public toilet had spotlessly clean change table. Some even had an ingenious invention of a type of highchair where you can prop your baby or toddler while you go to the toilet yourself.

Rowan was an oddity with his blonde hair. Brad and I thought about ‘charging’ for the attention that he got (100 yen for a stare, 200 yen for a comment, 1000 yen for a photo…) and we figured that we would have paid for our holiday if we had implemented it… But it was a great conversation starter to travel with a child, and we made contact with Japanese people that wouldn’t have happened otherwise.

It wasn’t hard for me to unearth numerous treasures related to kids’ books while we were away, and I have many more photos and stories to share… Just got to get a chance to get them all down…