we knew today was going to be a rough one. almost the entire day would be taken up by long car rides and trains. so, my body made sure to be up at 3am. everyone else was snoozing away…
i had also made the mistake of doing some laundry that didn’t dry in time to be sent ahead with most of our luggage, so we had a LOT of shit to carry for this leg of the trip. next time i’ll remember: clean underwear be damned.
right after breakfast (which is getting close to impossible to coax the airplane to) we got in the first of our cars. an hour later we boarded our first train. the scenery was spectacular.
we had exactly, like, EXACTLY, one minute to board or de-board these trains. the japanese do not fuck around with train schedules. or timeliness in general. with the combo of derek’s japanese heritage and my german heritage it’s no wonder we both itch when things aren’t on time.
onto the next train and the kiddos are, predictably, freaking out. mouse happens to be teething right now as well so i’m really grateful that the japanese are enamored with him thus far. snacks are also playing a big part in keeping the dirty ambulance (this one had better not stick) mollified.
the plan was to have three hours in kanazawa before getting into the car for another hour, where our ryokan is located. turns out this just delayed/fucked their naps. whilst dwreck and i are playing sherpa to two backpacks, a diaper bag, an extra clothes bag, a food bag, a camera bag, ian’s backpack, an extra baby carrier, and a stroller the train/wolf is throwing an epic tantrum in the middle of the train station. thing-two is so over-tired he’s slapping my face and pulling my hair. and that’s when the adults break. i think we started fighting over counting yen coins? who was snippier? who was calmer than who? which one of us was being a child? if you guessed all four, you win!
we all kinda pulled it together, found lockers for our superfluous shit, and headed out to explore/ go to a park. the train station debacle (as it will henceforth be known) ate up over an hour so the kids only had about 30 minutes to play. we stopped at a 711 before catching our car to the ryokan and i was very disappointed that i couldn’t find the spaghetti sandwiches the internet promised me. i’m now on a mission. 
after the incredibly stressful day we were elated to get to our ryokan. but the was no time to relax before eating. we dressed for dinner in our provided yukatas and i quite literally couldn’t stand how cute the kids were. i may have squealed.
i had no idea that dinner was a nine course meal, served over two and a half hours. i can’t even describe the horror of trying to keep two kids from dismantling the room and the tableware while trying to respectfully eat the immaculately prepared meal. after the 207th tantrum, i threw a tantrum myself and took the kids back to the room so derek could eat in peace and i could fume about how massively stupid it was to ask so much out of our tiny humans.
time for bed. after all, tomorrow is another day.
Travels with Larson and Co 