Time it was all about time. The final seal went on a box the night before the truck arrived to take the boxes away to the port for their journey over sea to Melbourne. Then we left Japan about a week later.

The process after then was to land in Sydney say hello to the family about the place, then make a move for the southern capital. It was a quick journey to see as many people as possible before heading off on a day of constant rain.

By the time we arrived in Melbourne two days later, traveling down the Hume highway with two kids is not something that we really wanted to do in a rush. We found a host of parks after every two or so hours in the car where the Rina and Emma could let out a bit of steam and the folks could relax a bit as well.

Once arriving in Melbourne, we had booked a hotel online. It was one of those ones that you would learn to regret – it was too cheap to be true. The site mentioned that it catered for families, though we arrived on a Friday night and were also booked to stay on the Saturday. The catering to families should have had a warning that there would be a disco that runs to 2.00am both Friday and Saturday nights – okay for the kids but the folks had a bit of a hard time sleeping. THEN the kids playground that they mentioned was only available after 10am… the kids wanted to go there at 7:30am as they had seen it the day before. Unfortunately it wasn’t to be. Though it did have a decent size fridge and kitchen – something that we would come to wish for the next week.

Our next stop was a place on the main drag of St. Kilda’s restaurant strip. Just a stones throw away from the Espy, the famed Melbourne venue overlooking Port Phillip Bay. The atmosphere was much more suitable than the other hotel.

So while we missed the kitchen of the previous place, the atmosphere more than made up for the change. Being able to step on a tram and make it into the city, go for a walk along the shores of Port Phillip and generally look about the place was a far better introduction to the place that we intended to call home for the next phase of our lives.

Rina and Emma were having a ball walking around in the snow and then trying to roll a snowball from the layer that was on the ground. The cold and the wet snow was a really new experience for the both of them – and an experience for Dad in making a snowman in the city.

It was good to get away for a few days away from Japan and to enjoy some sun, ocean and outside life. We managed to spend quite a lot of the few days there in the hotel pool/water park area – even through a huge downpour that lasted about 1/2 an hour. It was hard to drag Rina out of the pool and she even managed to get in a few quick swims at night.

It was a bit surreal and almost like twighlight zone – English signs and language everywhere, cars moving on the “wrong” side of the road, cold green tea in bottles with sugar, all the food in super sizes, walking down a shopping isle with thousands of choices of breakfast cereal. Those a just a few things for starters.

All in all it is an island with an interesting history and one with a kind of notoriety in Japan for the Japanese solider, Shoichi Yokoi, who lived on a small hand made cave on the island for about 28 years after the war. I don’t know how he did it as the mosquitoes are the worst that I have ever encountered – I managed to swat 6 in one go.

It was the first move into an outdoor adventure for both Rina and Emma. They enjoyed the tent and the idea of being in a tent, on the first night. By the time that night two had rolled around – Rina was asking to be back in the big smoke. She had enough of the outdoor life.

Emma had reached the same point as Rina as well – she was packing her bags and heading off on her own. Though the opposite always occurs if mum or dad are out of Emma’s sight – she cries until they arrive back in her view.

Both Rina and Emma seemed to enjoy the time – and the novelty of being outside (apart from their desire to be out of the camp ground on the first morning).

Getting away from Tokyo was good as always – and staying near Fuji san… well it could have been anywhere really. The views of the mountain were not visible from the camp ground.

We may have found a new hobby to enjoy on the weekends and when there is some time off.

While they are doing things every day the pair of them seem to go through a mix of up and down – just like any siblings… but the point where they take off is when they start to feed off each other. Rina being the older of the two makes Emma “do things” to either laugh, cause mischeif of mayhem, and generally have a good time.

Their temperment, their demeanour, their thoughts all seem to be align too close sometimes – well too close for their parents who are with them on a daily basis.

There is one major difference in that Rina does not really worry who she is with, if it is not Mum or Dad then all the better, whereas Emma is a bit more of a clingy one and the waterworks often begin when Mum is out of sight.

Chichibu is a small Japanese city located in the beautiful mountainous area 70 km Northwest of Tokyo.

The goal was to go there, pick and also eat some strawberries. Then make our way back to Tokyo. The only problem for us is that we arrived at 1:00pm, just after lunch and all the strawberry patches were closed…. YES closed. Apparently it is the local way – closed up shop on a the National Foundation Day – a national holiday for celebrating the day in the year 660BC when the first Japanese Emperor was crowned – at 11:00am….

Rina managed to ask someone at the strawberry patch that we visited for a strawberry and was given one. So what do you do when you go somewhere to do something and the thing that you wanted to do was shut up shop for the day – at 1:00pm…. well if you have kids you head to the nearest park and that’s where we went, Muse Park – apparently where Martin, Medeski & Wood performed a couple of shows back in 2004.

It is a great park on the hills overlooking Chichibu City and has a great slide – which really needs to have some mats handed out at the top on your way down.

Rina had to be literally dragged away from the place kicking and screaming…. along with screaming each time that she slid down the roller slide. The words no pain no gain are really apt for these things. You speed down the slide – gaining speed all the time and warming your rear-end in the process… the speed is good, the massaged rear is not bad… the pain after maybe not so.

But Rina found some cardboard and we had a hard time stopping her.

Rina commented on arriving back in Tokyo that she wanted to stay at the white house. No not the one in the US, but the one she knew down the coast. Apparently the red house where we live does not quite match up to the white one.

We also managed to venture down to the southern tip of the Izu peninsula on New Years day. A small place called Irozaki. There is an interesting little shrine hanging on to the cliff near the furtherest point that one is allowed to walk “safely“. It was good to see and walk about the place…. a thing that we can not seem to stop Emma from doing now. Once she is on her legs and moving about, she does not want anyone to interfer with her progress. All well and good for a kid who is not even one year old just yet.

The girls and the parents enjoyed the time away – though the resounding feeling as we headed back into Tokyo in the 30km long traffic jam…. if only it were a few more days.

Enjoy it while it lasts…

considered Japan’s most beautiful gorge. It is part of the Chichibu-Tama-Kai National Park, which covers more than 1250 square kilometers of forested mountains, valleys and some rural towns in the prefectures of Yamanashi, Saitama, Nagano and Tokyo.

As usual it was good to get away from Tokyo for a short time and see somewhere else. Everyone seemed to enjoy the time away, though not the very very cool/cold autumn weather. It did help that the heater in the cabin we stayed in worked in a sporadic beat. It was on and off all the time… Rina enjoyed keeping us warm with her concert performances after dinner.

Apparently the day before we arrived there were fierce thunderstorms all around the area – causing a lot of problems. But what that did for us was clear the day of all the weekenders from eastern Japan. We were able to enjoy the autumnal color changes with gaggle of thousands, rather than the throngs of millions – well not quite like that but close enough.

Leaving Fuji in the distance

After leaving the warm morning clouds of an early autumn Tokyo, we arrive in Memanbetsu to an overcast and quite cool mid-morning. Once we collected our bags, got the rent-a-car, it was off to the World Heritage Shiretoko area situated in the North East of the Island. It was great to be heading to see some mountains, though the weather was leaving a lot to be desired. The closer we got to the Shiretoko peninsula, the heavier the rain became. Not a good sign for the few days we had on Hokkaido. It was interesting to see the Hokkaido farm houses and the large open fields of green, just a little different from the Tokyo urbanscape.

After arriving srounf Shiretoko, the rain onslaught began. When ever we attempted to venture out of the car, the heavens opened up with an even fiercer downpour. The three days that we were to spend there were looking fairly glum.

Awaking to the sight of blue skies from the hotels fourth floor was a welcome relief. So after tucking into as many of the breakfast buffet croissants it was time to head off to Shiretoko. We went to the area around the Nature Center, grabbed some information and then headed off for a short 1.5km trek from the center to the coast. It was an easy walk along some well trodded path… though made a little challenging by the fact that we had Emma in the pram.

After passing group after group of senior citizens making their way back along the trail we arrived at the coast. It was great to see the place where the cliffs met the sea. We didn’t see any wildlife, but just after we leisurely arrived back at the nature center around two hours later the walking track was closed due to the sighting of a bear in the vicinity. It would have been good to see.

To Continue with Part II… later