Japan, day one. Settling into Chiba.

Upon arrival at Narita Airport at about 8am, we proceeded to wash the kids up. Jake chose to do a big dump and we had to wash him up in the toilet sink. It served as a mini bath tub for him. We also helped Kate wash up so that she's fresher and not in her pyjamas. Adults all did a harried wash up so that we didn't smell like overnight laundry. 

We spent about 2 hours at the airport while we passed time for the scheduled bus that'd bring us to our choice of accommodation, the Sheraton Grande at Tokyo Bay. 

During this time, we tried (and failed) to put the kids to nap, had a quick bite at a local restaurant, grabbed some coffee from Starbucks… then boarded the bus and set off to the Chiba area. 

We all managed to nap on the bus ride which was about an hour, and when we arrived, it felt magical! Okay, wasn't exactly magical but the cool winds made it so much more exciting and surreal. While waiting for the husband to check us in, I brought the kids about the lobby to orientate ourselves. 

Ohayo! Meet my Mickey children!

Upon checking into our rooms, we all washed up and did a good job of messing the room up and headed out for lunch. 

The super-cute Mickey train. Check out the Mickey handles!

Our hotel is conveniently located along the monorail that routes around the Disney area so we headed to Ikspiari. It's like a mini mall which we popped in rather frequently because there was a mini supermarket we could shop at. We could also browse the shops and I think we probably had some of our best meals there too. Our choice of food was pretty much always Japanese.

While the afternoon kids (& the husband) napped, we sat in this quiet little cafe to well, veg. 

When the kids woke up, we brought them around to explore and chanced upon this little toy store.

Junior Master Chef Kate

Jake, just going about destroying things.

This two pictures of the kids demonstrate clearly how different they are. While Kate zoned in immediately on the kitchen area to play cook, Jake was not interested at all. While he toddled in once to just check out the kitchen corner, he much preferred to venture the rest of the store - touching and looking at everything else. Ah, the natural differences between my boy and girl.

After the walkabout, we hit the supermarket to purchase our beers and snacks for the night, bought take-out dinner and headed back to the hotel. Everytime we headed anywhere, we'd take the shuttle Mickey bus and train and that on its own was such a treat for the kids, especially Jake who thoroughly enjoyed running up and down the train, pointing at the Mickey details in the train and bus enthusiastically.

Our hotel had a view of DisneySea, and you can kinda make out a "volcano" from the below picture. The kids spent a lot of time looking out of our room to catch the volcano erupting. The weather was nice and cool so we occasionally left the balcony door slightly open to enjoy the natural cool winds.

Enjoying the breeze, and watching the volcano erupt. At 830pm, there's this magical fireworks display and they managed to catch it that first night!

While the mother helped put the kids to sleep, the husband and I headed out for a run. It was a last-minute decision but we ended up running on the roads. It was quite an experience and (sadly) the only time we exercised in Japan that whole week (discounting the extreme walking we did all day while shopping or the weight-lifting we experienced while carrying our barang and the kids). The run took us about half an hour and we probably covered about 6km, and it felt heavenly busting my lungs and making my body sweat in the cool weather. It was also time with the husband alone and it felt great. 

The night ended with the mom, the husband and I sitting around our dining table snacking while sipping on beers and talking into the night. 

It was a nice, easy day.