I have a week between Vietnam and Japan which is rapidly drawing to a close. It’s been a strange mix of relaxing and lots of activity with my parents. I’m beginning to suspect that Dad’s modus operandi is going to be that he saves his health dramas for when I’m home…
Yesterday was a case in point. Out of nowhere, he was suddenly carted off to hospital with a suspected heart attack. Twelve hours later, he was brought back to Bonbeach because the hospital couldn’t find anything wrong with him. Obviously, that’s the best result and we’re all glad.
His health has deteriorated so quickly, and so everyone is conscious that we need to keep on top of anything that might be happening with him. Only two months ago, he was considered the healthy one and we were more concerned about Mum.
How things can change!
I took my Hoi An embroidery straight to the framers and it’s now there waiting to be done. It’s going to look fantastic. I wonder if I’ll see anything for my walls in Japan?
Miss Scout has learned the rules for me going away. She pined for weeks until I got home from the Crazy Road Trip in November, but Georgia said that when I left for Vietnam, Scout turned and followed Georgia back to her room and was with her all the time until I arrived back home.
That little traitor!
Actually, I’m glad she’s taking my travel in her stride. It takes a weight of worry from me.
Wanda is still with me and she’ll be coming with me to Japan.
I’m travelling with TripADeal for this trip, and there are a lot more additional expenses that I have to take care of. Vietnam was with Wendy Wu, which was a higher upfront cost but all meals and most excursions were included. Not the case for Japan.
With TripADeal, only breakfasts are included. I’ve heard that convenience stores like 7-11 are great to get bento boxes of food from, so I’m anticipating that most of my meals will be bought from here, and I’ll pay using a card.
There are optional excursions that I have to pay by cash, so I made sure I had the exact amount in Japanese yen for each of them that I want to do. They’re in 3 separate envelopes. Tips are 10AUS a day, so I’ve got 14 X $10 notes – apparently they are fine with Aussie money so that’s what they’re getting from me.
I only have around $30 in extra yen, but that should be fine for any little purchases I might like to make. I’m anticipating that most places in Japan will be like here, where a card is preferred.
In Vietnam I used an esim for the first time and it was great, so I’ve purchased another one to use in Japan. I went with Airalo, as that’s the one that Morgan from Antarctica said he uses. I had to watch a couple of youtube clips to work out how they worked, but I managed to switch it on ok and it was good being able to message the kids whenever I wanted, instead of waiting for the wifi in the hotels at the end of each day. They were surprisingly cheap too – I think I paid $11 for Vietnam and $14 (for more GBs) in Japan.
Here’s Dad back at the house, starting up one of the vintage cars to make sure that the battery doesn’t go flat.
Today (Saturday) is a packing day. Japan is freezing cold at the moment, but I’ve decided to still take just my carryon case. I’m using today to pack, and to iron the rest of my clothes. I only have 6 days between Japan and Africa, so it makes sense to iron my ‘nice weather’ clothes now. Who knows what shenanigans my parents may pull?
See you in a few days!
Dad joke of the day:
We went to Japan in May last year. We did 15 days but not an organised tour. Surprisingly, cash is used a lot in Japan so we took 3000 AUD in cash. We travelled a lot although we did not leave Honshu. We bought a Suica card at the airport which you can use on a lot of trains but not the Shinkansen but you probably have pre arranged train travel?? Suica cards can be used at the convenience stores for all purchases and you can also top them up and cash them out there. The food at the convenience stores is amazing and they are everywhere. Be sure to try the strawberry and custard cream sandwiches at the 711 – sounds disgusting but they are incredible and not soggy. Tipping is not expected and we did not tip. If you get sick of convenience stores, the food court food in shopping malls is really good and food is much cheaper than Australia apart from fruit which is very expensive. Loved Japan and would love to go back.
I had dinner with Megan last night and she said the same thing about cash and the convenience stres – though she didn’t mention those sandwiches! I might have to go back to the money place and get more yen.
Katie’s comments are dead on…..you need more cash than you think. Putting money on the Suica card makes life easy – it’s Japan’s debit card.
Tea and coffee in cans from vending machines is also surprisingly good. You just need to drink it there – no eating and drinking while walking around.
Enjoy!!
Looks like I need one of those Suica cards.
Have so much fun! I hope you share little nuggets of learned wisdom like Josie and Katie did!
It’ll be interesting to hear your take on the time you allotted between trips. I imagine it’s just how the calendar worked out and you wouldn’t do it on purpose- but maybe you like the tight turnaround?
It certainly makes likfe exciting! The next turnaround between Japan and Africa is only 6 days, then it’s a few weeks between trips.