I haven’t posted [again] for a few couple of weeks, mainly as I’ve been away, and in fact, that’s what I wanted to post about.
This is a little slice of my recent UK trip, but from the vantage point of travel tips and those products which worked, and those which didn’t. It’ll read a bit strangely I suspect, partly as I’m not go on too much about the sheer fun we had (it was a lot of fun) so it’ll sound a bit impersonal.
Also, this is about a trip to my old hometown where I grew up – Grimsby – and with the requirement of a parent travelling with young, pre-school offspring – from Tokyo, to the north of England, with a change of plane for good measure – this time without the help of my significant other.
First was getting to the airport; we’re fortunate that we can take a Narita Express train from Ofuna, with a travel time of just under two hours – it’s a nice train, in-arm power and a drinks trolley. It’s an easy start, especially as it doesn’t result in any drained batteries for gadgets this early in the trip, and the child can get some sleep (not that she took the option). I bought a couple of tickets in advance, though remember – you can buy a child’s seat for a bit of a discount – state that when you buy them. They’ll ask if you just want to sit the child on your knee; we tried this once and it really wasn’t worth the saved money to be honest. As ever, have a couple of drinks and snacks available. You can buy on the train, but there’s no guarantee it’ll be what you want.
Though perhaps a niche issue, I just wanted to touch on leaving Japan with a child on different nationality passport. I’ve heard of some people being pretty strictly questioned if they’re a foreign national married to a Japanese and trying to leave the country with their child without the Japanese parent. There’s long and fairly scary legal and historical reasons for these incidents. However, I can say I had not even a question as we went through or came back, with me on my UK passport, and my child on a Japanese passport. Just thought I’d mention that.
Next, and probably most important factor, is the flight. Over the last few years, we’ve tended to fly KLM so we can fly into Schiphol (Amstedam), and then take a KLM CityHopper flight to Humberside, which is much closer to my parents house.
We used to just fly to London, but unless you’re spending some time there, getting from Heathrow to King’s Cross, then up to Grimsby takes a long time and isn’t easy – especially with a couple of suitcases and a child. The Schiphol route involves spending 2.5-3 hours wait in the airport, but is otherwise much less trouble, and since Schphol has lots of good cafes, childrens play areas, baby areas and restaurants, it’s tolerable.
For KLM, as most airlines, you can check in online, and I do, if only so I can select seats; I try to get aisle seats in the centre section, near a toilet bulkhead so when needed, we can get there quickly! When our child was smaller, we’d get the seats up to the bulkhead for extra room, though nowadays, these seats are in demand and can cost extra.
I also should have selected a child’s meal for my child, but I forgot to – it’s buried under the special dietary requirement meal options and not in the main check-in area – you have to come out of that and go back in. Personally, I thought this was odd – why does a child ticket for an under 5 not default to a child meal? Anyway, between the two adult meal selections, I managed to find enough food she’d eat.
KLM flights are acceptable; the in-flight entertainment has something for everyone, and the kids selection is fine, though non Japanese biased, though the cheap and nasty headphones were clip-ons which don’t fit on small childrens ears, and since they have the old dual-plug design (in case you really wanted to steal them I suppose) using your own can be tricky. Service is OK, and the food is usually quite decent for economy in-flight food.
For our return flight I did make a point of ordering the children’s meal, but for some reason it wasn’t on their list, so she had bits she liked from the one adult choice left by the time they got to our seat. Also, KLM are supposed to give kids simple toys and colouring pencils, and we’ve received these on previous flights, but this time, although asking a few times, we didn’t get any. That in some ways does sum up KLM – very variable.
A good investment we made was getting a Trunki, a small suitcase for children with wheels which they can ride on – it was well worth it as it’s small enough for carry on and means they can have books , crayons and a change of clothes etc. with them, and when they get tired they can sit down on it. On our flight, it even managed to fit under the seat in front, meaning I didn’t have to get into the overhead during the flight. Pulling them around on it also made it much simpler to get from gate to gate, and even just wandering around the airport. It does get a lot of looks too from other passengers and you have to be a little careful when it’s crowded, but generally this is far, far better than trying to negotiate one or two bits of baggage and a child in an airport, and holding them all the time when they’re tired.
On the subject of entertainment, I printed out quite a few colouring sheets from various sources and got a fresh pack of crayons – all of which went in the Trunki also. I selected a few small books – both for her to practice reading on, and one for me to read to her to take with us too, along with her current 2nd favourite toys (she didn’t want to risk losing her favourite ones). She also had two changes of clothes, a fleece, a bib and some other bits in there.
On the digital side I put some of the Tom and Jerry and Spongebob Squarepants episodes on my iPhone for her to watch in the departure lounges and the first train. I also put them on my laptop just in case. Ripping DVDs is legal in most places, but YMMV. An iPhone is a great tool on a trip, not just as it’s small and the child can use it, but because of the apps. Mine has a few childrens games, a paint app and a hiragana/katakana study game for her to use, which she seems to like a lot more than I do! If you don’t have one, you can pick one up cheap sometimes (and not use as a phone, just pull the SIM, and use it as an iPod Touch) and you can pick up iPod Touches quite cheap after a new version comes out.
When actually in the UK I needed a phone – my Japanese iPhone is locked to the carrier, so I decided to go with a local Pay As You Go this time. I went for Tesco Mobile, and got a Samsung S3100 unit, and 10GBP of credit, which actually got me 30GBP on offer. It had everything I needed (a phone, basic web browser and such which did Twitter). It also did email, and rather well, though the way to config it wasn’t in the instructions, and the Tesco ‘Tech Expert’ didn’t seem to know how to make it work either since the templates for Gmail don’t work.
So that is that then, and that was just the trip – no notes on the swimming, the climbing places, feeding the birds and all that. Any other children travel tips?
