The last big vacation we took was in 2001 when we went to China and Hong Kong. We’ve been talking about going to Japan for the last 2 years. I really thank God that we were able to go this summer.
The best part of any vacation for me is the time spent with my husband and kids. The place is secondary. But if I was to choose any place to spend with my family, Japan would definitely be in the top 10.
While I was making arrangements for this vacation, it occurred to me that I didn’t have to plan and pack everything for everyone. My son and daughter are adults at 21 and 20, and my 13-year-old doesn’t need much from me either. I can actually go on this trip not as a mom, but as a … person, a traveler who does not need to watch out for the kids getting lost, or getting in trouble, or getting hurt. I get to be the kid and enjoy the vacation with no worries.
Yet my kids are young enough and nice enough to love traveling with the family. In fact, my son just went to Japan with his friends in March. “Do you want to go again?” I asked him. He said yes, because it would be a different experience traveling with us. That made me very happy.
There is just too much to tell about this trip. Just some highlights:
1. My kids and I broke from the tour group and took a 40 minutes train ride to Puroland – an indoor Hello Kitty theme park! Everything in that place is decorated with Sanrio characters. Every single bathroom is decorated with a different theme, even the ceilings of the bathrooms are decorated. Now that’s better than Disneyland.
We saw Hello Kitty’s house, I took a picture with Hello Kitty, and enjoyed several rides and shows featuring all our favorite Sanrio characters.
In case I haven’t told you, I am the one who brought Hello Kitty to America.
When I was about 20, I traveled to Japan by myself for a few days enroute to Hong Kong to visit my sister. (She worked in HK for a year.) In Japan, I saw Hello Kitty in a store, fell in love with her, and hand carried home a plushie of Hello Kitty. It was the most expensive thing I bought on that trip. This was before the days of Sanrio stores. That was the first time I met Hello Kitty.
That was 30 years ago. Hello Kitty just celebrated her 35th birthday, so you see, she was not very popular yet when I brought her to the US. I remain a Hello Kitty fan with a large collection of Hello Kitty paraphernalia, from pens and wallets to towels and of course, plushies of various sizes and outfits. The only reason why I don’t wear my Hello Kitty t-shirt other than at home is that I think I’m too old for pink.
If I had been smarter, I would’ve bought a Sanrio store early on. Wouldn’t that have been fun!!
August 16th, 2009 at 11:08 pm
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January 1st, 2010 at 10:32 pm
[…] – We took a family vacation to Japan! It’s very expensive for a family of 5 to go on a big vacation so we don’t get out much. But there isn’t much time left before my kids will be on their own. We so decided to scrape and spend the money while we still can. It was a fantastic trip of both family time and new experiences. I blogged about it previously. […]