**I started a YouTube Channel for our videos that are too big to put on the blog. First of all, I don't have a clue about video editing, compiling etc. so take it easy on me. Second of all: here is the link for Lego!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6MvDsA499A
GUYS! We made the crazy (but totally worth it) decision to jaunt up to Nagoya to go to Legoland over the weekend. But there's SOOOO much more that goes into it!
1. Because we are "SOFA" status employees (essentially, people that work on the base and employed by the U.S. government) we are required to follow all of the rules of MCAS (Marine Corps Air Station) Iwakuni. Due to COVID-19 the Air Station has had areas of Japan that are considered the RED zone, meaning there were too many COVID cases and so we were not allowed to travel there. Recently, much of the previous RED zone was turned to GREEN, and people went berserk. Within a day people were traveling all over the place.
2. I saw several people post pictures of Legoland in Nagoya, which was previously RED for us. In their pictures it seemed like there were hardly any people there! And for a weekend in Japan that seemed strange. I did some more looking and it turns out that in March, because it is the end of the Japanese school year, it is considered "off season" at many amusement parks because students are taking tests and focusing on school work. Wellll....NOT US apparently. On Monday we decided that on Friday we would drive up!
In pink you will see where we live. In purple is what our destination was. It was a 6.5 hour trip on toll ways. It's only a 3 hour trip by bullet train. Seems simple enough..take the train...right?? NOT SO FAST. Turns out the train would be nearly $900 USD round trip for our family...for a 2 night stay. Ok but what about tolls? Tolls would be about $300 round trip. And gas? about $100. And Parking? About $45 for the weekend. But...LOOPHOLE! If we rent a car (which would be $180 for 2 days) the car rental agency pays for our tolls! That saves us $120. SOOOO after lots of math, and then deciding if it was still worth it, we decided to go ahead and drive because honestly, the idea of trying to wrangle Indie on a train for 3 hours, and trying to navigate subways with 4 tired kids in a big city seemed less desirable than having them all strapped into their seats in the car for 6 hours.
By the end of the trip it's possible that my opinion changed just a titch.
SOOOOO we drove. Friday evening, we left about 4:45pm. Which means after a rest stop and a potty break we rolled into Nagoya to our AirBNB just before midnight. We were exhausted, but excited.
Fast forward to the following morning...did I mention the kids had NO IDEA what we were doing? We told them we were just going on a little trip. They had never been to any sort of theme park. The carnival is the closest thing. So we were excited.
We hopped in the car about 8:45, park opened at 10, we figured it'd take 30 min to get there, and we'd probably get lost so..better safe than sorry.
When we arrived it was raining a little bit. They saw the giant LEGOLAND sign and I could see by the look on Keane's face that he was HOPING with all his heart that this was the surprise, but he hesitated because he didn't want to be disappointed and also didn't want to hurt our feelings if it was NOT the surprise. It took us awhile to convince him that LEGOLAND was indeed how we would be spending the day. He nearly wet himself.
And the day was fabulous! We went on rides, we admired all the LEGO figures, we bought overpriced items from the giftshop, and we don't regret any of it.
**Sidenote: in Japan, most people have what I like to call "Mary Poppins Unbrellas". The big ones that don't fold up. The kids are required to have them at school so it's what we have as well. They don't fold compact, they aren't convenient to bring with you, and they make me look like the crazy umbrella lady when they aren't being used.
The kids' favorite ride was the kids cars. It was also the ride we had to wait in line the longest for. But they all got to drive little cars all on their own. Well...Cache kept driving his into the poor girl in front of him, whom eventually stopped her car and just started crying. *le sigh* 3 year olds.
Cache's big dream of the day was to get a picture with the "LEGO people". So we did.
Mine and Andrew's favorite part (because we are old and boring, apparently) was the mini Japan land that was all made out of LEGO. It was truly amazing, and HUGE.
Because of COVID-19 the park opened later than usual (10am) and closed early as well (4pm). We would have loved to stay longer, but we felt lucky to be able to go there at all. This trip was definitely the least culturally deep trip we have taken so far. Also the priciest (especially considering how short of a time we were gone! Up on Friday, back on Sunday). But I think it was something we all needed. The kids talked about it all the way home, and Cache asked (50 times an hour) when we were going to make our house look like LEGOLAND.
Oh! And on the way home? We left our AirBNB just after 9am. It was quiet and peaceful as we drove the streets to the toll way. Until it wasn't. APPARENTLY there was a marathon going on in Nagoya that weekend that we didn't know about. It took us 2 hours to figure out how to get around the race. So our 6.5 hour trip home turned into a much longer trip. Again, rethinking not taking the train. But we survived!
Cost breakdown for those interested:
Car rental (tolls included): $180
Gas: ~$100
AirBNB: $200 total for 2 nights
LEGOLAND tickets: $200 for 2 adults and 3 kids single day passes
Food: We brought food for breakfasts and Saturday's lunch and snacks. Probably about $50 for the food we brought
We bought meals on the road and dinner on Saturday: $80 total
Total: $810
A pricey 2 days, but it could have been MUCH pricier!
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