Dear daughter post #1, Taiwan and Tokyo

Another post for father's day...

Tokyo, May 2018

Dear daughter,

Remember our last trip to Taiwan and Japan? Hopefully yes since it is only about a month ago. I make you look at pictures all the time from our trips hoping it always stays a not so distant memory each time.

You like to point out to the pictures with the strawberries which might indicate that it is your favorite fruit or the most memorable part of your trip to Japan (certainly was for me!).

But first, let's do a really quick recap of Taiwan.
Here are some picture from our day trip to Wulai (about an hour from Taipei) taken by grandpa who tries very hard not to capture people/buildings in his nature shots. Daddy has not seen these so I hope he likes it too.

I want to feed the koi fishes

Jiu Fen was pretty nice too. Daddy has always wanted to visit this place so I'm glad we made it happen. We made a day trip out of it. We took the MRT and bus straight there. You were a trooper on the bus and didn't mind the long ride.

Sometimes you purposely don't look at the camera knowing we are taking a pic

 Right on top of the steps, you spent countless minutes staring at the mist maker.
You were most mystified by this mist maker and didn't want to budge at all. Maybe we should consider buying you this for Christmas or something.

mystified by the mist maker

 I even brought you to eat where grandma always took us to eat when we visited Jiu Fen together. A-Gang Yi Yu Yuan. The taro balls was one of her favorite snacks and I'm sure she would have brought you if she was with us today. You liked the big red beans best. You did not care about the taro balls.

Do you remember this trip to Fuji fishing port just north of Danshui?
You were napping for most of it but when you woke up, we showed you a lot of fishes you can eat except for the blowfish which was for show.

After a week in Taiwan, we flew to Tokyo for a quick 5 days 4 nights trip along with grandpa. We were there during Golden Week which meant that some restaurants/stores were closed but since we stayed in the heart of Ginza, everything was most definitely open. The day we arrived, the street was closed to traffic and we got to walk down Ginza's main shopping road which was neat.

Here you are crying and disturbing the peace because I wouldn't carry you.

Your first meal in Japan. Ikura!

You get your own little plate of Ikura

Here you are, not crying, picking up some pebbles from the gravel path leading to Meiji Shrine.

Visiting the Meiji Jingu shrine 

We did a day tour outside of Tokyo to visit Mount Fiji and its surroundings.

At Shiba Sakura festival near Mount Fuji

You learned about a variation of purple and pink colors that day. 

Lake Kawaguchiko I think  

First sight of Mount Fuji from afar. You kept grandpa quite busy during the two hour long bus rides.

Back to Tokyo, we visited the gardens of the Imperial Palace. We tried to visit the palace on a Tuesday which was the only day the gardens were closed.

The gardens at the Imperial Palaces

You love ramen

One day, we were on our way to the imperial palace and we passed some food truck event at the Tokyo International forum. I got this rice don covered with Hokkaido baby fish and shrimps and you ate up all the fish. You are the ONLY human I do not mind sharing my food with.

We brought you to the Tsujiki fish market and you stared a tunas worth hundreds of dollars. We made sure to visit the market since it is suppose to move for the Tokyo olympics. Therefore, you might never see these sights again in person one day.

Look at those old vintage signs

I have a lot more pictures but I wanted to post the more candid ones which will spark great memories of our trip when we look back at this post.

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You have penned in 6 countries already in your passport which is pretty good for your little age.  We don't bring you to many playdates or pay for kids gym, sports or dance classes but we hope we make up for it by taking you on our travel adventures.

Reasons why we're okay not paying for ballet or music classes:

1. You petted a wild Icelandic pony > Petting zoo animals (both cool)
2. Hearing French speakers in Montreal >  Language classes (actually, you don't even know how to say Bonjour!)
3. Hot spring bath in Iceland > Pool (although you probably prefer the swimming pool).
4. Visiting Paddington station in London > Reading stories about paddington bear being found in paddington station
5. Visiting Mount Fiji > Eating Fiji apples (you really love your apples though)
6. Traveling in a plane, train, bus > Playing with toy cars (You always ask to go on a 'fei ji')
7. Visiting Jiu Fen in Taiwan >Watching Miyazaki movies (We will wait a little while before introducing you to 'Spirited Away')
7. Visiting Taiwan 3 times = Meeting grandpa every time (Worth that 15 hour + flight to Asia)
8. Seeing a beluga in Mystic > Singing baby beluga (although I like that song)
9. Strawberry picking in Japan > Eating Whole Foods organic strawberries
10. Being with mommy and daddy 24/7

Another pic taken by grandpa and we had no idea!

You have been the best travel companion. You don't mind being thrown off your routine (we think) and adjust pretty well to new environments. As long as you have carbs on your plate, you don't tend to skip meals and you're okay with trying new food. You can sleep on the plane, bus, and even sandwiched between mommy and daddy on a tiny double bed in Japan. I mean, you probably hated it which you made clear when you tried to me push me or baba off. Yes there are times you are a monster but we can easily coax you with snacks or distract you with street pigeons. You still love front facing on the carrier which makes traveling with you easy even without a stroller. You're much more vocal now about what you want and where you want to go. So even when you're in the carrier and you are totally controlled by me, you will definitely kick and scream when you want me to 'Go outside' (if I'm looking at something too long) or 'Go off the bus' (if we go on a bus) or 'Get up' (when I sit down to rest)! Every time we travel, we come home very exhausted but the memories we had make up for it.

Yesterday you build a lego plane and said "Zhuo fei ji (Take the plane) to Taiwan" which answers my question about if you remember our travels.

And to daddy, mommy's partner, who makes traveling a lot better by doing the heavy lifting and watching you while I go pee/poop.