Tag Archives: christmas

Day 1 – London to Tokyo 

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Japan is notorious for its high attention to detail and design, and it’s logical and well thought out efficiency and it definitely delivers on that. 

Arriving in Tokyo my experience couldn’t have been more pleasant from the word go. From being greeted off the plane with a chorus of “Konichiwa, arragatou” and when asking for directions, being chaperoned politely to my destination. 
I picked up my JR rail pass, a week long pass which can be used on any JR train across Japan and I hopped onto the train to the centre of Tokyo. It had been a long journey and little sleep on the plane due to a screaming baby for 9 of the 12 hours on my flight made it worse but the journey was made better by a Japanese couple who persevered to converse with me eager to learn more about me and where I came from. They invited me to lunch and if I hadn’t being so tired and planning to meet my family, I most certainly would have accepted but I thanked them well and when it came to say goodbye we bowed and left. 

I walked from the Tokyo station to the hotel and dumped my bags down. The rooms weren’t ready yet and my family weren’t there so changed my clothes and picked up my SIM card I had had delivered to the hotel. I called my brother and parents who coincidentally were at the Tokyo station (where I had just come from) so I planned to meet them back there. 

Before I left, I used the facilities and had my first experience of a Japanese toilet. I know it’s not normal to talk about toilets but when it comes to Japan, they toilets are definitely a point for talking about. The heated seat was a welcome surprise along with a trickle which comes on as soon as you sit down to mask the sound of any business you may be doing personally. And of course there is a bidet and shower part which you can adjust the temperature and pressure of. And finally when it comes to flush, you close the lid and the toilet flushes, cleans itself and the lid reopens ready for the next person. 

I left the hotel but before I could get anywhere, I needed some money. It hadn’t occurred to me until this point to get any as it hadn’t cost me a cent to get to where I was now. So I went for a wander in search for a bank which turned out harder than I expected and when I finally found it, it didn’t accept foreign cards. I searched google and apparently this is a common problem in Japan. I was getting to the point of delirium and tiredness and all I wanted was to see my family so I called them, told the my dilemma and I planned to jump in a taxi and get them to pay for me when I arrived. 

I finally met the family and we went for a short walk around the Imperial Palace Gardens. The palace, unfortunately, was closed for the day so we just took in the serenity of the gardens and wandered back to our hotel. 

My room was quaint, about the size of a double bed with a small aisle and I was glad I wasn’t sharing with anyone else. I had a quick, much needed, shower and nap before meeting back with everyone for dinner. We didn’t wander far but found a cute little restaurant which served skewers tapas style and we ate well. My first taste of proper Japanese food and I’m already In my element. 

We didn’t stay up long after dinner. It was most definitely time for bed!  

Japanese Christmas 2016

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Merry Christmas from Japan


If any of you know, I don’t see my family much despite being very close to them. It’s been 4 years since we last were all together so this year for Christmas is a special one. 
We decided to all meet in Japan. With my parents coming from the Caribbean, my brothers coming from Australia and myself and another brother coming from the UK, there wasn’t any really logical place to go and Japan seemed as good as any. 

We will be travelling round the south and travelling up the north to go skiing so keep an eye out for my updates on Christmas in Japan 2016! 

Day Twenty-Six – Ocean Grove – Boxing Day

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Thankfully today was a bit more productive.  Still rising late we quickly chowed down some brunch then organised to go meet Flo, Andy, Ben, Louise, Joanna and the Kids at the beach.

In true Watts family tradition, we over indulged and took everything we could think of to the beach to entertain us. From boogie boards to frisbees, to shovels, to balls and bats; we had it all.  The surf was pretty big if not breaking a long way out so we attempted to paddle out quite far but it became quite exhausting so we resulting in shallow paddling where we could push off and we managed a good few rides into shore.

After the attempts at boogie-boarding I managed to convince Ed to dig a hole with me.  We started to attempt the ultimate goal of hole digging; digging two holes with a tunnel big enough that you can crawl through.  Dangerous work, and structurally difficult.  After about half and hour of the initial hard work, everyone else seemed to want in on the action and didn’t hesitate to give us their ideas and plans while Ed and I still did all the manual labour! Anyway, this is quite a big build up to the fact that we managed two holes and a tunnel but when it came to crawling though, there was a collapse.  This is very sad because we never know when the next sand tunnelling attempt may be.

So with two big holes and a collapsed tunnel the only thing we could do is make a beach hot tub! So we did and enjoyed it for about 5 minutes before we started getting bitten by sandmites.  So that sent me back into the water to enjoy some more boogie boarding.  By the time we got home we were all pretty sunburnt from the time out in the sun and the wind had deceived us into not fully understanding the strength of the sun.

After we returned from the beach, Flo, Andy and Ben came over to say their final goodbyes to us. So we had a few drinks and some snacks and spent the last time together in Australia.

Day Twenty-Five – Ocean Grove – Christmas Day

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I woke up feel pretty sick today.  This is a common feature in my Christmas Days as I always eat way too much food and we just had to go and do it all again.  So after a huge family breakfast, opening of a few small gifts from one another, we headed over to the other family’s house for a Christmas lunch of roast pork, my favourite.

We spent some time playing with the kids and their new toys they had received for Christmas before doing our own Secret Santa’s.  I got a big bag of presents to unwrap which all turned out to be bags of Australian sweets and snacks.  I loved it.  Something I didn’t have to worry about taking in my backpack with me travelling and it introduced me to some great new snacks.  The best of all, Red Skins, you should try them when you can.

We all enjoyed a nice family meal and a lovely Christmas playing games of charades, articulate and all of the Christmas classics before walking back to our house a little inebriated.