Family Trip to Japan! part 1:Hongkong/hangzhou

 Been a while! 

Way back in January before Keith left, we had started spitballing ideas of where our summer trip should be! A few ideas were thrown around, but eventually we settled on Japan. In June we bought our tickets, made reservations, and I was tasked with the itinerary. 

Originally, we had planned on flying into Tokyo and then flying out of KIX/Osaka, but it ended up being cheaper to go the other way around so we started in Osaka, spent an afternoon in Nara, and a couple days in Kyoto before taking an overnight bus to Tokyo.

We did talk a lot about rules of international travel to the kids, and one of those rules was "no toys outside of the hotel." We did this because we knew at some point we'd lose something. This I knew would be especially hard for Nolan, but there was one incident in Hong Kong that we had to talk about in depth and then mostly just a little grumbling for the rest of the trip, so I say everyone had some personal growth! yay!

Anyway, the first step in our trip was a flight out of Hong Kong to Hangzhou, and then from Hangzhou we'd go to Osaka. We booked sunday night in Hong Kong and it coincidentally was the first weekend of their Harbourchill festival, so there were street performers, snacks, and even fireworks!

Hong kong at night :o











In the morning, we headed out to the airport. They had a playground the kids got to play at that was bird themed, and shaped like a huge egg!



my lil travelers (and the big one up front)




It wasnt long before we were on our flight! This time we flew with Xiamen Airlines, which I believe primarily does mainland China travel, but we also flew with them to get to Osaka. 


Once we landed in Hangzhou, we were driven out to a hotel located in what I imagine is the Chinese suburbs.Taking a stroll around the area,  Keith was able to talk to some locals who called the area their village. If I could speak chinese I very well might live in a place like that. It was so peaceful and nice, and everyone was super friendly towards us. Not to mention, our hotel was pretty cool, too!



hey a tree house!

so pretty




Ollie really liked this treehouse!

Before long, it was time to head back to the airport, which had cute little mascots:


another airport selfie

We landed in Osaka, made it through security, and headed to our hotel. I didnt really take any photos of our hotel in Osaka but it was a cozy number that was a great home for a few days.

There are a ton of photos for this trip, so I wont be able to put them all in the blog, but I did want to include google drive links for the different legs of the trip so Ive put them for HK and hangzhou below:

HongKong : https://photos.app.goo.gl/BipQMPjq6LzQPfAd8 
Hangzhou : https://photos.app.goo.gl/KiQh7gwW9RhptpEC9

Next is Osaka!

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