Growing.....

The boys have had the opportunity to see many different aspects of life as we have travelled. They have seen the very poor, the very rich.  They have seen unsafe drinking water, and varieties of living standards.  I think they realize how lucky they are to live where they do, and have access to the luxuries of their lives.

They have been witness to how others are treated, and how hard it might be to make a days living.  They have witnessed how fair things can be, and how unfair things can be.  They have witnessed how kind people are, and how money does not buy happiness.  I think they realize that our standard of living is pretty high, but that it is hard to compare one to another, when the scales are so vastly tipping in our favour.

The boys have been party to corruption....they have seen the effects of communist governments, filtering what is available as general knowledge to the public.  They watched our taxi driver bribe a police officer, so as not to be ticketed a full amount.  Their eyes have been opened to the greed and, perhaps, even the desperation of some....

They have played with children who speak a different language, communicating with open minds and welcoming smiles.  They have been ambassadors for our country, proudly wearing Canadian pins and offering warm hellos.

These are the character building blocks our boys are accumulating....these are the futures we are shaping....

We're still traveling....

Sorry for the absence of posts, but I have not had decent access to wifi in a very long time!  I guess that is one of the many things I have taken for granted!!!

We are currently in New Zealand, where we have been joined by my mom, dad and sister. We are having a fabulous time!  We are really enjoying the green, open spaces, and access to clean drinking water!  It's so nice to be able to brush your teeth using the tap water--something we haven't been able to do since we left Japan!!!

New Zealand certainly reminds us of home, at least the areas we have seen. We are on the North Island, traveling a circular loop, including Auckland, Hamilton, Taupo, Rotorua, and Tauranga. Not very extensive, but enough to let us know we want to come back!!!

The 2 older boys and I joined a Scout troop in Taupo, which was great!  The boys got to get some insider tips from kids their age, some new badges for their campfire blankets, and shared some of their knowledge of Canada!!! It was a fantastic experience!!!

We also took time out to enjoy an early Christmas dinner with Grandma, Grandpa and Auntie!  We had chicken, lamb, mashed potatoes, and a pavlova for dessert!  Almost like Christmas back home, except we were able to eat outside!!!  

Joshua proudly wearing his new Blue Jays hat with the maple leaf!!!

Ok, gotta run...Auntie's got a super fun filled afternoon planned with the boys, making Christmas goodies, while Grandma, Grandpa, Mom and Dad  go check out a few wineries in the Hawke's Bay area!!!

50 days! 5 Countries!

It's hard to believe we've already been travelling for 50 days.  It really doesn't feel like we've been gone that long, and I guess 50 days really isn't that long.... Everything has gone relatively smooth so far, no one has been super sick, or had a big bout of homesickness (it's usually me, but I've made it 50 day so far!!!).  I think our relaxing trip to Bali came at just the right time--time with friends, and just taking it easy!  I am finding all the big cities are just like one another--although I know they are not!--big building, busy streets, a hike to see the city from a view point!!!

Right now, we are relaxing on a beach, on a small island in the Philippines.  Again, I think it is perfectly timed!  And, in just a few short (long) weeks, we get to see my mom, dad and sister in New Zealand!  We are all very excited about that!!!  I've warned Grandma, Grandpa and Auntie to rest up now!!!!

We are continuing to slowly plug away at school work, making adjustments as we go!  The boys are pros at converting currencies, and their world geography is amazing!!  We have been learning about how different types of government affect people, and economics.

I have learned that my kids (probably all kids), have to learn space relations.  My boys are terrible at walking in crowded spaces--they just haven't figured out how to manage their steps to avoid bumping into someone, or stepping on our feet when we are standing still.  We are also working on keeping dinner time conversations at just our table, not talking so loud that everyone in the entire restaurant hears us!!

My boys have continued to surprise me by trying new dishes, with minimal whining.  I am also proud to say, that out in public, they are some of the most polite, well-behaved kids around!!  In the apartments/villas, a different story, but that's kids!!!

To those not on Facebook, I apologize, as most of the pictures go up on there!  It is quick and easy!!!

Please let me know what you want to hear about!!  I always struggle with what to write!!  I've updated the statistics at the side.  50 days, 5 countries!  We have made several stops in Manila, as that has been our transfer hub!!

Next up on our trip, after our week on Panglao Island; 2 days in Cebu City, Philippines, 1 day in Manila, 4 days in Jakarta, Indonesia, then 3 weeks in New Zealand with family!  That takes us to Dec 11. Christmas in Australia, New Years in Kuala Lumpur!

A single grain of rice.....

After seeing many fields of rice harvested, I will never again leave a single grain on my plate! We had the chance to see fields of rice being harvested in Japan, China, and Indonesia.  As we stayed at a home in a rice field in Ubud, Bali, Indonesia, we really got to see how much work it really is, and that was just the harvest!!!

The stalks of rice resemble a stalk of wheat.  In Bali, they were hand cut with a scythe like tool, laid in bundles, and then gathered and hit hard against a wooden, slanted board.  This process caused the individual grains of rice to fall from the stalks, and slide down the board onto a tarp.  From the tarp, someone gathered the grains in a large wicker sieve, and shook to remove the chaff.  This cleaned rice was then put into sacks, which were then carried out on shoulder.  They were big bags of rice, probably at least 25 kg.  Not only is is very labour intensive work, but it was done in very warm temperatures in Bali!!

I'm sure there are farms dedicated to producing rice to the world, and are not done in the traditional methods I just explained, but it was absolutely amazing to see what people did to harvest rice for their families.

When we were staying in Munduk, Bali, we had a guide take us on a walking tour.  Again, this accommodation was located with in the rice fields.  He explained that when he was a child, he came from a very poor family, and he would beg to work in the rice fields, doing the very hard and tiring work.  As this was the main source of work at the time, there was a lot of competition for the work.  He told us now though, nobody wanted to work in the rice fields, and the owners were out begging people to work in the rice fields.  Tourism is now a very big part of Bali.

Our guide also told us, that as a child, they would usually not have enough to eat, so he would be sent out to live on the land.  As we walked through the natural areas surrounding the hotel, we saw banana, papaya, guava, passion fruit, jack fruit, snake fruit, nutmeg, clove, cacao, coffee and avocado trees.  So much was growing in the wild!

Pineapple

Avocado

Cacao

Cacao

Peanuts

Cloves drying

Numbers

My counter tells me we've been travelling for 34 days.  In those 34 days, we have had 2 kids vomit 8 times, 1in the customs line for entering Bali, Indonesia, and 1 on a very crowded metro train in Shanghai, China.  We have also had 5 nosebleeds, again, 2 on very crowded metro trains.  Everyone was very helpful with the nosebleeds; I had 4 packs of kleenex within seconds, and seats were given up for Noah to lie down.
I'm sure we'll have many more to add to this number, but I didn't expect it to add up so soon!!!

Sick little boy taking a nap!

1.36 billion people in China......

....and it felt like they were all out with us as we toured Shanghai!  It was exhausting every single time we left the hotel.  Crowds of people on the sidewalks, packed metro stations, super crowded markets! Everywhere you turned, crowds of people.  It's our fault, we chose to travel in China during National Day, or Golden Week! Seriously, pure craziness!

I'll admit, this soured my view of Shanghai, and I honestly couldn't wait to leave.   The architecture of Shanghai was amazing though!  In the downtown area, there are some amazingly tall buildings, and at night, with the lights on, they were beautiful!

We all noticed a huge difference in cultures between Japan and China.  Even though Tokyo is one of the most densely populated cities, with 38 million residents, they had such respect for one another that everything flowed smoothly and felt quiet.  When we arrived in Shanghai, they people were much louder, a lot pushier, and the environment a lot dirtier.  People rushed onto trains, pushing others out of the way to get a seat--no allowing others to get off before you get on.  It just seemed so chaotic and unacceptable to us to see this!

We were also constantly looked at and stopped, for the 4 boys grabbed a lot of attention! In China, although there has been a slight easing on the 1 child per family policy, we are a strange phenomenon! We couldn't barely stop to take a picture of the boys, for as soon as we did, there were others doing the same.   The boys are fairly tolerable of this, other than Noah, who really doesn't like to be touched by people, so I usually have to rescue him pretty quick!

We left Shanghai through an incredibly crowded train station, and arrived in Beijing to the thick cover of smog.  You couldn't see the tops of buildings and you could taste the pollution in your mouth!  At this point, I really was ready to ask Todd to just get us out of this country!   

But, we stuck it out, a colder weather front approached that night, and cleared the air!  We visited the Great Wall of China, at Mutianyu, and it was amazing! The crowds had died right off, and the wall had almost no one there!  The sky was a clear blue, and the Wall was far more beautiful, rugged, fantastic than we could have imagined!  

So, in the end, I think China will have been worth the visit, and I would recommend it to anyone, but its not a place I would rush to for a relaxing weekend!

Sayōnara Japan...

We are sitting at the airport in Hiroshima, waiting to board our flight to Shanghai, China. One country down, 39 more to go!

Some of the highlights:

1) Toilets!  Being a mom of 4 boys, clean toilets are always a treat!!! Every single bathroom we used, especially the public toilets (even subway stations) was impeccably clean and deluxe! The toilets are all automated, even with warm seats! They offer bidet (female bottom washing option), shower (bottom washing), odour blocking, and sound boost (to keep your own bodily sounds covered!). The boys spent a lot of time figuring things out in the bathroom at the first apartment. You could hear giggles from the bathroom as they turned on the bottom washing option!!!

The boys found this hilarious!!  They wanted to know who would try and use a toilet like that!!!

2) Sushi!  The sushi was always delicious, and so reasonably priced, usually around $1-$2 for 2 pieces. It was a great opportunity for everyone to try new food, and discover new favorites! My favourite ended up being salmon, topped with a thinly sliced onion and drizzled with a mayo type sauce!

Not sushi, but a delicious noodle salad!

3) People!  Everyone was so respectful and courteous to one another. If you asked for help, they were very eager to assist. The boys got a few hugs from random people, but not too many! Everyone bowed to each other, like we would wave.

4) Temples!  So many to see, so little time!!  We made day trips to both Nikko and Kyoto, and they were both fantastic!

Rough day.....

Actually, it was yesterday.....

We decided to take a day trip out to Nikko to visit the World Heritage site....a beautiful site!  But, we had to change apartments that day, so decided to put our bags in locker storage at one of the metro stations we were passing through, and would pass again on the way home.   It was a long train trip, just under 2 hours, and we would arrive around 12:30.  Well, we got on the train, without grabbing any food....oops, especially for those of you that know our Joshua!!  He was starving by the time we arrived!!

We had a great afternoon in Nikko, definitely worth the visit; beautiful, tall trees and temples. One of the temples was under restoration, but it was still really neat to see!  We decided to head home around 4:30 in the afternoon, on the local train, which made about a thousand stops!!!!  It took us just about 2.5 hours, but we had stocked up with snacks, so no problem!!!

We arrived back at the station to retrieve our bags, with our claim slips in hand, but......we couldn't locate where we had stored the bags!!!  The station was huge, connecting several lines!  We wandered around for about 10 minutes, thinking we were getting close, but realizing we really weren't!  We then decided to retrace our steps, from the morning, backwards!  It was really interesting to see what each of us remembered from our walk through the station earlier that day!  Noah remembered a juice bar; Jacob recalled some pillars that were lit, and had a cool design to them; I remembered a coffee shop attached to a book store; Josh recalled climbing stairs.  Once we started on our path, we found the bags within a few minutes.

After retrieving the bags from the locker, we bought tickets and headed to the metro.  We got on the train, only to realize we were headed in the wrong direction, so off we got and caught the train back the opposite way!

When we arrived at our stop, in search of our new apartment, everyone was ready for a meal and to relax.  According to our map, we had a 10 minute walk to the apartment.

We started our hike to the apartment, with very tired kids in tow, each carrying their packs, which we officially weighed today as we headed to Osaka via plane, each of their bags weighs just under 7 kgs!  We arrived at the address Google maps led us to, only to find that it was not an apartment building, but a school!  Todd looked back in his emails, to find that he had a couple different addresses, some of them more complete than others! We had tried contacting the apartment owner a few times earlier on in the week, with no response, but thought we had everything we needed.

So, we enter another address, and follow it, only a few minutes walk away.  We ask several people for help, and they are very gracious in bringing us to the address listed, only for us to find out that it was not the correct address!

After one hour of wandering around a 10 block radius, we decide to take a break, and end up at the nearest McDonalds.  We do some more looking into Todd's emails, and on Airbnb itself, to see if we can find a different address.  We finally end up with something new, and decide we are going to give it one last try, and if it doesn't work, we'll grab a hotel!

So, we head to a completely different area of town, and feel like we are so close, but still can't find the building.  We had thought of taking a cab, but with six people, we really didn't want to split up, in case we ended up in different locations, as we have no way of contacting each other.  Anyways, we walked the 20 minutes to this new area, and feeling like we couldn't find the place, we hired a taxi.  He drove us 1 minute down the road, and pointed us to the left.  We had been right at that spot, but had gone right instead!  We ventured down the little side road to the left, and sure enough, there was the apartment--3 hrs later than planned!


Same address, in 3 different formats!  I think we have it figured out (kinda??) now!

〒100-8994

東京都中央区八重洲一丁目5番3号

東京中央郵便局

5-3, Yaesu 1-Chome

Chuo-ku, Tokyo 100-8994

1-5-3 Yaesu, Chuo-ku

Tokyo 100-8994

In the end, it all worked out great, but we are all tired today and have very sore feet!  We learned a lot about addresses in Tokyo.  We had incomplete addresses for the first area we were in, and therefore were in the wrong area of town.  The exact same addresses exists all over town, all that really differentiates them is their area!

I'm sure we'll have many more days like this, but I really hope they are well spread out!!!

Toyko

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We have had a great start to our trip!  Tokyo has been amazing, a place we could easily envision returning to.  The things I noticed the most; how clean things were, how nice everyone was dressed, no homeless people, and the people are very respectful of one another.

The streets are kept immaculately clean.  You will see workers out sweeping outside store fronts.  There are very few garbage cans, and yet no litter is left laying around.  We didn't notice people smoking in the streets, this seemed contained to restaurants (a change for us!) and smoking rooms (a room where you can buy cigarettes, sit and smoke).

Everyone seems to be well dressed here.  Most men were in business suits, and ladies in suits or very nicely dressed as well.  Some outfits were more "traditional" Japanese, with frilly skirts, bows on socks, etc.  And we have definitely seen people in the very traditional kimono, mostly around temples.

We have not seen a single homeless person.

Given that Tokyo has a population of 38 million, more people than the entirety of Canada, everything flows seamlessly!  Everyone has such respect for everyone else, it is fantastic.  Everyone follows in line, no pushing through crowds, and generally just polite to one another.  They do not worry about locking up bikes, or leaving personal items outside a door; it is just a given that is will be fine.

Todd and I have been amazed with the kids!  We have walked, on average, around 17 km a day.  They do this without whining, but are definitely tired at the end of the day!  At this rate, we'll need new shoes every month!!

The boys have also tried a variety of new foods, and found some new favourites!  We have been to Sushi Bars, Noodle Restaurants, and Japanese Curry Houses.  The favourite has become the Japanese curry!!  It certainly doesn't look appetizing, but even Jacob loves it!  A favourite quick snack is ramen (cup of noodles) from the Lawson, a store similar to 7-11.  You buy the noodles, and they have a canister of hot water to cook them up!

Big bowl of sashimi for me...which is not my fav!

tsukiji fish market

Trying to use google translate to figure out what we were ordering!

Homework time!

Subway Map

Noah enjoying Japanese beef curry--doesn't look too appetizing.....

Off to Osaka

First of many train rides (this doesn't include subway trains!).  Day trip out to Nikko. 

Rice Fields

In Nikko at the World Heritage Site.  So many interesting temples. 

A very tall pagoda

Jacob enjoying (that's right, picky eater right here, eating it up and loving it!!!) pork curry!