Natural science museum, Tokyo.

The other day rainy day we took Pi to the Museaum of Nature and Science in Ueno, Tokyo.
It is super easy to get to from Ueno station; just take the park exit and walk through the lovely park.



Entry was 6.10yen per adult, and children under 18 (yes, 18!) are free. It was super cheap!

There are elevators but it isn't super stroller friendly. It is much easier to access things through the escalators. However, if you don't mind waiting for the elevators then it isn't much of a problem. The layout of the museum was super confusing. You enter in B1, and then work your way up or down, and there are kind of two buildings (most of the exhibits are in the back building).

I was actually a little disappointed by the museum. I have been to some of the bigger ones around the world, and was expecting something much better than it actually was. I think the museum in Brisbane (my home town) is actually bigger, and better.

They have a small dinosaur exhibit, and some taxidermied animals. They have some science-y type exhibits that are mostly Japan related (like an earthquake simulator). They have a few other exhibits too, but nothing that made me go 'wow!'.

On the third floor, there is a kid's playroom called "Compass", which is free to get into, but needs to be booked ahead through their ticketing system. We got into the 12:00-12:45 timeslot. Pi had fun in there, which is mainly a big junglegym with taxidermied animals hidden in there, and some activites. There is a T-Rex statue in there too. You get the ticket for Compass on the first floor near the information desk (not to be confused with the B1 floor information desk). I believe it is for kids up until age 13. Children who cannot walk/climb will probably not enjoy it. Best ages for kids is 4-6. Pi enjoyed the run around though.

They have a cafe with some free space where you can bring and eat your own lunch near the B1 entrance. There is a restaurant there too (I think on the 1st floor), but we only had a glance at the menu. The prices were okay, but I can't comment on the taste. We ended up leaving at about lunch time and getting something from Ueno station that was most to our liking.

There is a gift shop too with some really cool things, and a theater with some sort of movie showing- but we didn't watch it.

Even though I was disappointed in it (because of my high expectations), for the price I definitely recommend it. It was a nice way to spend a family day. I hear it can get super packed on public holidays, and rainy weekends though. I thought it was busy enough on a Friday with all the school groups.

More information can be found in English via their website:

http://www.kahaku.go.jp/english/#

Rice pictures

It has been raining almost non stop for the last two weeks, which means we have been going slightly stir-crazy and running out of activities to do in the house. Luckily, I remembered some of my old artwork from preschool and thought we could make some rice pictures.

What are rice pictures? Essentially, they are just pieces of paper with rice stuck to them but they killed an hour or so, and gave him some different stimulation. Best of all, I already had all the ingredients at home.

You'll need:
rice
food colouring,
paper (for the picutures)
paper towels
glue (liquid glue)
a large container or bowl.

The first thing to do it color the rice. If you have different colours, you can make as many as you like. Put rice in a bowl with a little bit of  cold water (just enough to cover) and add food colouring. I suggest adding A LOT of food colouring, as it doesn't all get in there. Soak for about 5-10 minutes.  Drain and rinse the colouring off the rice, then pat dry with a paper towel. leave until it is dry. I cheated by spreading the rice on a plate and putting it the rice in the microwave and nuked it until the rice was dried out. You really need dry rice.

Next. take you paper and glue (the runny kind) and draw a picture with the glue on the paper (liberally apply the glue). Next, put the glue paper in a large container, add the rice on top and shake it back and forth until the rice covers all the glue.

Next, lift up the paper and leave to dry. Viola! Magic artwork.

Pi enjoyed doing it, and all up with the washing, drying, gluing and ricing took about an hour of fun. You can also do it without coloring the rice, but I think coloured rice is more interesting.

The food colouring that I used is a powder that should be found in the baking section of most supermakets. This colour was red, which turned the rice pinkish as I didn't soak it for too long.

Here are some other people's pictures for inspiration:

Pi's first haircut

We were planning on getting Pi's haircut in Australia- mainly because we were worried about being able to communicate about the kind of hair style we wanted, and because of the possibility of a lack of experience Japanese hairdressers might have cutting curly (ringlet curly) hair.

We had no idea how much of a chop we wanted so the ability to explain what kind of haircut we wanted was kinda moot. In the end, because we wanted to make a paintbrush (see related post when the brush arrives) with his first locks, we decided to get his haircut in Japan.



We heard of a great salon in Yokohama from the mother's group, that specialises in kids hair called Hana Kids- located near Motomachi shopping street in Yokohama. www.hana-kids.net

While no-one spoke to me in English, they had English forms and lots of pictures to point at to show what kind of cut you are looking for. They had a great waiting area for the kids with lots of toys (for both boys and girls). You can then choose which movie to play on the kids of personal tv screen while they get their haircut. There was a great selection of Western movies/shows. We chose Thomas the Tank Engine, but there was literally an A4 page of English options, and about 2 or 3 A4 pages of Japanese options.

The kids sit in a car to have their haircut, and having the screen on means that there is little head movement.

Luckily, Pi has seen me and Husband get out haircut countless times, so there were no problems from him. He didn't like to have his head shampooed (though it's optional, I believe) but it is easier for them to style with clean, wet hair. He was so great through it all, and only minor tear shed from his parents.



I am so sad to see those beautiful curls go. I never realised how much I would miss them. As for his new haircut- it is so much cooler (temperature) and doesn't get in his eyes anymore but I think it makes him look like Florence Henderson, or Julie Andrews from the Sound of Music.  >-<

Either way, the haircut experience was a good one, and for only 3240yen, it was great value.

Day flight with a toddler

Soon enough, our holiday was over with and time to get back on that plane. The flight departed at 10:45 Brisbane time, and arrived 7:00pm Japan time- which are very, very resonable times for both getting to/from the airport. We left at about 7:15am to get to the airport, and got home in Japan at about 10pm (11pm Brisbane time), so it was a very long day for a two year old.

The inflight entertainment didn't go as well as planned as the two shows he was really interested in were only 30 minutes each- which means by the time he watched it twice, he didn't really want to watch it again and again for 9 hours. He is also a bit young to sit through most movies- or sit with his earphones on (he kept taking them off to eat them). So when he did watch TV it was usually without sound.

Qantas served lunch at a reasonable time- but this time the vegetarian meal plan backfired. It was a vegetarian green curry- and while nice enough, Pi didn't like it. I ate that and gave him what he would eat of my meal. Maybe a kids meal would have had more appetizing things (He likes Indian and Japanese curries, but not Thai).

After lunch he was getting really crazy. Mainly due to being tired and sitting in one spot for too long. But it was hard to walk him up and down the aisles as Qantas took so long to get through with the carts (not usually a bad thing, expect when you want to take the toddler for a stroll). Another hour later and he was getting really crazy so I strapped him into the ergo to get him to sleep. It didn't work though, he just screamed and screamed. Eventually I took him off and laid him down in his seat, covered him with my body (in a hugging way) and shushed him to sleep. I couldn't believe it worked! It was lucky that he was tired, and I tried getting him to sleep at about 3pm Brisbane time which is about 2 hours later than usual. It made me so happy hat he slept as it meant I didn't get a sore neck sitting with him strapped to me.

Pi had a blissful hour and 20 minutes before he woke and could stand a bit of T.V again. When he got bored of that, we got out Husbands laptop and put on Peppa Pig and Playschool.

Dinner was a panini- ours was chicken and salsa (or something- I was too motion sick to eat it and Husband hates those sorts of things), and Pi's was a vegetarian chilli panini- which he did like and eat, even with the spice.

Thankfully, when we all thought that we couldn't take any more of the flight- it was over with. All 9, slow, tiring, bouncy hours.

Despite the late time, Pi didn't sleep on the way back home. I suppose there were too many transportation changes but he was fairly well behaved for an over tired boy.  He was so happy to be home. The look on his face when he saw our house and all of his things was absolutely beautiful, and priceless.

If I had to do it again, here is what I would do differently:

Bring an ipad- (not that we have one) because it was hard for him to look up at the screen in the back of the chair infront. I would also put more of the shows he likes (9 hours worth of them) on it. Maybe some games or something too (not that he has ever played them).

Order the children's meal. Yes, I like to make sure he has healthy food, but I think it is more important that he has a full belly than healthy but hungry. I would like to see what the children's meal would be....

If it were a longer flight, I would get one of these inflatable flight cushions- as he was constantly trying to rest his feet on the back of the chair in front:



and maybe one of these Travelsnugs:



but, at the end of the day, I don't know if spending the money on those things would make the much difference...

Night flight with a toddler

I am actually getting a cheeky moment to write this while on holiday in Australia. But I figured as Husband has taken Pichan on an adventure into the city, I might as well catch up on emails.

Pichan is now 2 years and 3 and a bit months and can definitely understand what is going on (mostly). Last year I made him a special book for his Australia trip (see here), but as my parents have moved house (so the pictures of their house/his room etc) are different and I didn't make another one, we didn't use a book this year. I did mark our trip clearly on our big calendar with pictures of aeroplanes (one for going to Oz, and one for coming back to Japan) and coloured in all the dates so he knew when we were going to Nanna and Poppy's house, and when we go back to Pichan's house.

I did prep him before hand that he would need to sleep on the plane and all sorts of other things like: the things we would pack in his suitcase, how we would get to/from the airport and what we would do in oz.

We flew Qantas this time into Brisbane instead of Jetstar. Unless you get a super sale with Jetstar, the price of the sale Qantas tickets were almost the same price as regular Jetstar tickets. Pi had to pay almost full price now that he is over 2 years old. I think my tickets were 75000yen return, a Pi's were 55000yen return. That included meals and 30kgs of baggage each.

Originally I ordered the kids meal for Pi, but then got worried it would be chicken nuggets and chips (I am kind of strict with his eating), so I changed it to a vegetarian meal. I was so impressed with his meal. Nice and healthy (though a little salty). It was a spinach pasta with vegetables in a tomato and parmesan sauce, and fresh fruit salad for dessert. It was super yummy. The only problem with the Brisbane flight is it takes off at 8:45pm, which means it was about 10pm by the time the meals were served. Naturally we ate at the airport before the flight, so we only picked at our dinner.

*side note- if you are travelling out of Termimal 2 of Narita- I highly recommend "Miso kitchen" (or something like that). It has so many options- both Japanese and some western options like minestrone soup.

By the time they cleaned the meal up it was about 11pm, and turned out the lights shortly after. I was disappointed we didn't received an amenities pack- one that has a toothbrush and eyemask, etc. I tried to get Pi to sleep lying down in his seat with his head on me but that just wasn't working. I ended up giving up and putting him in the ergo, and rocking and singing to him. An hour later- shortly after midnight- he was finally asleep. Though having the extra 14kgs pulling at my front meant that I couldn't sleep on the flight- unlike the last two trips where he was small enough to go in the bassinet on the plane.

By about 4am I thought I was going to throw up (too tired, too heavy, and I get motion sickness), so I unstrapped him to give him to Husband. He woke up and started screaming so I took him back and then was able to lie him down across the two seats (mine and his) and then cuddle him while laying down and curled up so that I could protect him from rolling off. Ofcourse, it meant that I was propped on the edge all night, but I actually managed to get 20 minutes of sleep that way, and he slept right through- even through breakfast and the lights coming on. It was only that we had to wake him before landing that he woke. I was so surprised, as he can be such a light sleeper. Obviously he was exhausted (he usually goes to bed at 7pm) and the flight landed at 5:30 brisbane time- so all up he only had 5 hours of sleep- thankfully we had a big nap together during the day.

I was dreading the flight, and it was pretty horrible, but Pi was really good in terms of not screaming too much. It helped having the TV in front of him so he was pretty mesmorised. The other great thing about Qantas was the screens in the seats in front were playing the whole time (except when there was an announcement)- before takeoff, durning, and even when we landed- so it meant he was entertained the whole time and could keep the screaming down to a minimum.

Now we just have to get through the flight back- which is a day flight- but still 9 hours of entertaining a toddler in a small space...

Blackout curtains

Summer is a bit of a pain. Between the heat and the long daylight hours it can be hard for children to sleep. At our last house in Ninomiya, we had storm shutters on the doors and windows upstairs, so Pi's room has always been pitch black. The biggest problem with that is it made it really hard for him to sleep in a room that wasn't pitch black (sleep aids are great...and terrible).

When we moved last year to a house with no storm shutters upstairs, we came up with a simple and most importantly cheap solution to get Pi's room nice and dark. Cardboard...

We bought lots of black construction cardboard from the hundred yen store (this time Seria), and stuck it up all over his doors and windows with packing tape. It was great! It looked fine from the outside too, as all you could see were black doors and windows. The only problem was if you wanted to open the door, then you are also letting in unobstructed light. To solve that problem we saftey pinned a black blanket in front of the door, but it only worked so so.

It was a fairly good, but not great solution. My husband also grew concerned after a year if the photo-degrading cardboard would cause any health problems.

So this year we decided to splurge and buy some blackout curtains. I looked at a few different shops- Ikea have both blackout blinds and curtains. Nitori have blackout curtains too. I ended up buying mine from Amazon because they were a little cheaper and had good reviews.

These do an amazing job of keeping out the light (that is the flash that makes the curtains look light in the photo). I actually took the lace curtain off and hung this curtain behind the original curtain. It works even better that way as it create more of a seal around the door frame.

This is what I bought:

1級遮光カーテン プラネット ネイビーブルー 幅100cm×丈200cm 2枚入 全2色8サイズ

Shakō kāten is the word for blackout curtains. 

The 100x200cm size was 4246yen including shipping. 

They are good quality curtains and said they would block out 99.9% of the light. I think they do. 

They also claim to help keep they heat out (which is good) and are washable (also good).

Do be careful if you are buying things online though. Some of the cheaper blackout curtains had some really bad reviews and let's face it, if they are not going to block out the light then there isn't really a point. 

Toy storage

Pi's toy collection is forever growing. Most of it is junk, but even junk needs to be stored somewhere (if not in the bin).

My best solution (besides throwing it into a cupboard and closing the door *really* fast), is to get some bookshelves. We bought ours from Nittori, for about 1000yen each. They sell them at all sorts of places- furniture stores like Nitori and Ikea, Large Aeon stores, and home improvement stores- like Daiyu8 or Beaver Tozan. They all seem to be priced at about the 1000yen mark- give or take a few hundred yen.

From Nitori we bought some really cheap boxes to go inside, they are kind of fabric covered cardboard, and were 999yen for the set of three (including tax). Nicer wicker ones are about  500-700yen each. We have some nicer ones for upstairs but Pi's toys these are fine.

It is really easy to sort Pi's toys into sections with these boxes. At first they were sorted perfectly, but he loves pulling out several boxes at a time and mixing up the contents, so except for the PLARAIL (which we make sure stays in one box) they rest got a bit mixed up. Pi can reach into all the boxes which is good, yet the boxes they can be tidied and contents concealed easily. 

From Daiso you can get boxes for 108yen that make good mini storage boxes. You can see the blue bus box and the red truck below that were bought from Daiso and are used for his Mama Goto (playing house) toys. 

The big police box in the back is awesome. It is hard enough that kids can sit on the lid (the lid is not shown in this picture), and can be neatly stacked or tucked away. We put the little Daiso boxes in the big box to keep things tidy. The big police box was about 2000yen. We bought ours from a small variety store, but I have seen similar at Akachan Honpo.