mrbrown.com

Things I Learned Travelling with My Mother Through South Island

I'm on a road trip with mom through South Island, New Zealand.

It's not our first trip together. Among other trips, Mom and I have done Mount Bromo and Mount Ijen in Surabaya, trained our way from Tokyo to Hokkaido and trudged through lovely Japanese snow (including our favorite town of Higashikawa) and now we driving though the south of New Zealand.  

From a very young age, my two younger brothers and I have been travelling with my parents and we learned to do it without joining a tour. Pa was airline staff and we got free tickets yearly but hotels and the rest were not free. So the only way to do it affordably was to rent a car and drive the brood through places like the islands of Hawaii (we covered pretty much all the islands) and the Grand Canyon.

And to save more money, we stayed in dodgy motels, or apartments with kitchenettes so that mom could cook, instead of us eating expensive overseas food (the US dollar was three Singapore dollars in the old days, and one Euro was more than SGD2).

There was a no-popcorn rule when we went to Disneyland as kids. We didn't understand why back then but look, a tub of that stuff was USD10. Which was SGD30. Which was a small fortune in the 1970s and 1980s. So, no popcorn. And meals were Mom's fried rice in a Tupperware, freshly cooked that morning in the hotel room with a Sanyo electric hotplate cooker.

This was the time before GPS and the Internet, mind you. So my old man drove, and my mom navigated the American continent or the Australian Outback with paper maps, and a lot of arguing. The entire family all developed the ability to adapt. After all, you can't google your way through your travel problems, or book a flight or a hotel room with your phone in those days.

Travelling solo with my mother in the recent years is still as fun as travelling with my parents and brothers back then. She is 75 years old now, and here are some random things I learned travelling with her.

1. Always be prepared for sudden toilet breaks. Old people need frequent toilet breaks. Myself included.

2. Always pack random food items. I'm an ultralight traveller and refuse to overpack. But I have to say, my mother's stash of 2-in-1 coffee and cup noodles were lifesavers when we were too tired to go out and eat.

3. You are never too old to play with ducks.

4. Destinations are just points between which you stop for New Zealand flat whites.

5. It's not where you go, it's who you go with. I am blessed to have a mother who is an awesome traveller. Traveller, not tourist.

6. Hotels or motels must have a television. No TV? Minus four stars. TVs provide ambient sound as you go about your business. And also become a source of shared entertainment as you both try to answer the questions on quiz shows together. Or laugh at local cop shows showing the mild crimes that highway cops deal with.

7. You can talk to any stranger. Mother has the amazing ability to befriend anyone on the street. Be it singers at the Oamaru Sunday Farmers' Market, baristas in a coffee shop, or an elderly German couple who are on a seven-week camper van road trip through New Zealand. Or birds. I suspect that is where I get it from, because I talk to strangers on Twitter and my Facebook all the time.

8. Always ensure you've downloaded your Oldies Spotify playlist before embarking on your next long road journey, so you can both sing along to Frank Sinatra and Andy Williams. And reminisce about the singers and songs my late father loved.

9. Don't let Mom enter a supermarket. She will buy enough to last you two zombie apocalypses.

10. Do let Mom enter a supermarket. And let her buy what she wants. Because she know how to buy the best fruits, and snacks, and breakfast items at the best price. And you'll be thanking her when you tuck into the ham and cheese sandwich in the morning.

11. Your iPhone 7 Plus may be able to pull down travel and map info on the fly, but Mom's National-Library-borrowed Lonely Planet dead tree edition works without batteries or the internet. And works even when you're out at Milford Sound with no mobile coverage (shame on you, Vodafone).

12. Don’t ask your mother where small jars of jam, small cakes of butter, and the random banana come from. Just eat.

13. You never know when you might need these bottles of branded hotel-sized shampoo, conditioner, body gel and body lotion. Good for the kids when they go swimming back home. Good for the crappy hotels you may stay in, down the road, that may provide lousy unbranded toiletries. You might even want to start a shop with the collection one day.

14. She makes jokes about your snoring drowning out the TV she is watching at night. You make jokes about her morning farts.

15. “This looks like a nice little town on the map.” usually results in a drive through some off-road countryside, across several rivers, that leads to a town with just one building. Or the edge of Paradise.

16. You learn where you picked up the travel habit of washing your underwear and hanging them wherever there is a place to hang something.

17. Just when you think she has filled her one luggage, she whips out a folding bag made of the indestructible China/Thai plastic/cardboard that can take about 45 litres of shopping.

18. Travel with your parents while they are still mobile. They won’t be able to travel forever. Age, and two fractures in the ankle and knee from hiking in Vietnam a few years ago, can slow a mother down. Even the strongest trees grow old.

19. When she decides she really wants to have Indian food in the middle of nowhere in South Island, she will find it. And it will be worth the search somehow. That was some yummy Chicken Madras and Chicken Tikka Masala, man.

20. You can take the Geography and Art teacher out of the school but you can’t take the Geography and Art teacher out of your mother. And you appreciate the geography and beauty of New Zealand even more in her company.

21. It is ok to drive up the steepest road in the world, and acknowledge that your old knees aren't going to take you up Baldwin Street.

22. And above all, stay curious, open and always willing to see and learn new things.

[All images made by me, mostly with a Panasonic Lumix GH5 and Panasonic Leica DG Vario-Elmarit 12-60mm F2.8-4 lens, a Panasonic Lumix G X Vario 35-100mm F2.8 II lens, and an iPhone 7 Plus sometimes.]

mrbrown does the #DareToCare Challenge

I was tagged by Mr Miyagi to do the #DaretoCare Challenge recently. Now, I don’t usually do these tagging things but Miyagi explained that #DaretoCare is about getting people to perform random acts of kindness, or simple acts of care, or spearheading ground-up movements for volunteering.

Essentially, the movement seeks to get us all to pay attention to the needs of those around us.

It does not have to be big and grand gestures (though those are good too). Just asking if someone is ok, or finding out what they need, and acting on it if possible, is a good start.

This reminds me of my mom. My mother has a habit of giving useful things like clothes to foreign workers near our home and to the poor, when we travel (she carries a huge suitcase of stuff to give away very often). She is a big old softie at heart, even though she can be very fierce to us.

So, inspired by my mother and the message, I did the #DaretoCare Challenge too, and this is my video.

You can do the same. Just create a post on your social media platforms, it can be a text post, image post, or a video post, on how you showed kindness or care, or spotted someone who did it, and tag three friends to do the same thing. Use the hashtags #DaretoCare and #SGcares in your posts.

I hereby challenge and tag Leslie Tay of ieatishootipost, Nadia a.k.a. @nadnut, and Dennis of Superadrianme, to #DaretoCare! And let’s see this movement snowball!

mrbrown's quick dictionary of millennial slang

Some of you asked for a translation of the words I used in my convo with my kids in the last post. I thought I'd provide a dictionary of sorts. 

j/k: Just Kidding or Joking.

IKR: I Know Right?

Sensi: Sensitive. (Shoutout to Carissa for teaching me this one.)

Lit: Excellent (sometimes used with AF, as in Lit AF. AF doesn't mean Auto-Focus.). Nothing to do with the Literature subject, which was what I first thought it meant. 

Totes: Totally. The few seconds you save from not saying the last two syllables will help you be more efficient. Somewhat confusing when used to describe an actual tote bag, as in "I totes need a new totes."

Throw Shade: Criticize or condemn. In Singapore, where it is hot, sheltered walkways also throw shade, but it doesn't mean the same thing.

IDK: I don't know.

On Fleek: On point, perfect. Started out describing eyebrows. Don't ask me why.

Triggered: Filled with hate or activated by something that sets you off. Like The Winter Soldier after you read a list of secret words.

I can't even: So overwhelming/funny/frustrating that you can't even finish your sentence. Sometimes without even a full stop. Frequently used with the word "literally", as in "I literally can't even". The use of "literally" triggers me though.

POMO: Post-modern, self-consciously so. 

Sorry not sorry: Not really sorry. Like when the gahmen apologizes.

This convo is lit

It's the March school holidays and the kids have a week to be at home to bug me. Isaac and Joy have their friend, Matt, over for a sleepover. Yes, I have an extra tween in my household but he's a good boy and it's fun to have him over.

As we walked back from Lickers, my fave waffle and ice-cream haunt, after some post-dinner waffle and ice-cream, Joy told me about their day of play.

"Matt trolled me today."

"Ya, I said I wasn't gonna come over but actually I was. j/k lah," Matt said.

"So he was j/k ah?" I asked.

"Eh Pa, you're not a Millennial," Joy replied, with mock horror on her face.

"IKR?" I continued.

"Paaaa…" said my youngest daughter.

"Don't be so sensi can or not?" I said with hurt in my eyes.

"Noooo…" Joy pleaded.

"But I thought my slang is so lit right now. Totes," I said, on a roll now.

"Stahp!" said my hapless daughter, beginning to laugh.

"j/k only, j/k only. Don't need to throw shade at me," I said to her.

"Ugh," Joy said, giggling.

"Actually Papa needs to cut his hair again," I declared, in a moment of digression.

"Ooh! Dye it another color!" Joy suggested.

"IDK, I thought I'd stay with blue. My blue hair is on fleek," I didn't even know what I saying by now. What's a "fleek"?

"Kill me now," said Joy.

"You're so triggered, I can't even-"

By that time, all she could do was chase me at the void deck and to tickle me in retaliation for my slang fest.

Parents, embarrassing our kids with our hipness since forever. Hey, what can I say, I'm POMO. Sorry not sorry.

mrbrown and mrs brown go to Japan (again)

The wife and I just came back from a trip to Japan. I can hear you all saying, “AGAIN?”

I don’t blame you. Last year alone, I think I was there almost every other month. I enjoy visiting Japan too much and never tire of returning.

This time, it was a special trip because we have not traveled together since 2012. And the wife has not been to Japan since 2010. Most of our trips together have been with the family and I thought it was time for some We Time. Also, it is to celebrate twenty years of marriage.

There is a contest at the end of this post where you can win a free trip to Japan! Link: Japan Dreaming Contest

I took charge of the trip and planned it all myself. I normally travel solo, but including the wife this time was not very different. I just had to make sure the itinerary did not include too long a train journey. When I travel solo, I tend to take these long and ridiculous train and ship journeys which I enjoy. But for the wife, I thought I would slow the pace down a little. But my itineary applies to solo travelers too. In fact, if I did the journey myself, this would probably be my path.

I bought us a JR East Tohoku Area Pass, which only costs ¥19,000 (about SGD240) if you buy it in Singapore or ¥20,000 if you buy it in Japan itself. The pass allows you to have unlimited travel on JR Shinkansen and limited express trains, within the Kanto and Tohoku regions, for any five days of your choice within a 14-day period.

Here is what that means. You can use the JR East Tohoku Area Pass for unlimited JR train travel within the region specified for five full days, but the days don’t have to be consecutive. This is unlike a 7-Day JR Pass, where you have seven consecutive days of unlimited travel but throughout Japan.

This means we could use one day to travel long distances, then stay in one city or town for two to three days, then use it again to travel to the next place, up to five times in total within the 14-day period.

It is very good for solo travel or couple travel, especially if you plan your destinations in advance.

Where did we go in our 9 days there? We started by heading straight to Karuizawa when we landed in Tokyo. That is one day of the JR East Tohoku Area Pass used. We spent two nights in Karuizawa, skiing and shopping at the outlet mall, and visiting the sights like Kumoba-ike or Swan Lake Pond.

Then we departed Karuizawa and headed for Nikko. The second day of five-day pass used. We stayed two nights in Nikko too, choosing to visit Chuzenji Lake and Kegon Falls by bus, and then the UNESCO shrines and temples. We tried to go to the Akechidaira Ropeway too, but it was closed due to high winds. Ah well, it was still a nice little visit there and the view from the ropeway station was also lovely.

People tend to make Nikko a day trip from Tokyo but I find it a bit rushed. Spending two to three days just exploring the area is way more pleasant.

Nikko, we used Day 3 of our five-day pass to head to Yamagata Station. Instead of checking into our hotel near Yamagata Station, we went all the way to Oishida Station. It is about four stops from Yamagata Station. Since this is part of our day of unlimited travel, we wanted to maximise our passes. We went to Oishida Station because I wanted to show the wife Ginzan Onsen. It is a lovely little onsen town where the tv drama Oshin was shot. The town used to be a silver mine area, but it is now a very pretty hot spring town in the mountains of Yamagata. In winter, the snow-covered old buildings make you feel like you have gone back in time.

We caught the bus from Ginzan Onsen back to Oishida Station and then back to Yamagata Station by evening. This was one of the longest journeys of our trip: Nikko to Oishida, then Ginzan Onsen by bus, then back from Ginzan Onsen by bus, then Oishida to Yamagata. All in one day. We really made the pass worthwhile.

While in Yamagata, we also spent a full day in Mount Zao, the famous ski and onsen mountain resort. We bought a special pass that covered the bus ride to Mount Zao from Yamagata Station, and the return journey on the ropeway. If the weather is not too snowy, you can see the famous “Snow Monsters” on the slopes. And if you like, you can also ski there. We just enjoyed the scenery this time, since we already skied in Karuizawa.

We did not use the JR East Tohoku Area Pass for our day at Mount Zao. There was no need to.

We departed Yamagata for Sendai with the fourth day of our five-day pass. Again, we did not check into our Sendai hotel first but used our pass to head for Geibikei in Iwate. About a kilometre from Geibikei Station is Geibi Gorge, where you can take a 90-minute boat ride on the waters. The boatman (or boat-woman) even sings folk songs, and you can order a meal to dine onboard during certain seasons.

The Gorge is beautiful in autumn, with the red and orange foliage. But I am also very partial to the winter season, when the trees and ground are covered in snow.

After Geibikei, we only had two days left of our trip. I was saving the last day of our five-day pass to return to Tokyo on the last day from Sendai. So we spend the second-last day of our trip visiting Shiogama Seafood Wholesale Market. We just took a short train ride (using the SUICA, their stored-value card like our ez-link or FlashPay card) to Higashi Shiogama Station from Sendai, and walked about 15 minutes. In the winter, there are way less people visiting, so we thought the market was closed. But it was humming with customers.

You can shop for fresh fish and seafood to cook back home or, in our case, just buy all the sashimi we like from the fishmongers, then go to the dining corner to order a ¥300 set of rice and miso soup. DIY Sashimi Donburi! A meal like that would cost you way more in Tokyo, so I think it is totally worth visiting port where they have one of the largest fresh tuna catches in Japan.

After a hearty meal at Shiogama Seafood Wholesale Market, we took another short train ride to spend the rest of our day at Matsushima Bay. We took a cruise around the bay and also walked to Fukuura Island, which is connected to the mainland by a 252-metre-long bridge.

Our last day in Japan came too soon. We set off from Sendai early so that we could do some shopping in Akihabara, mostly for our kids. And my wife got addicted to gachapon, the machines where you put coins into, and turn the knob for some cute little collectible. The wife wanted to collect the cup-clinging office lady figurine called Koppu no Fuchiko. I ended up changing my notes for many many ¥100 coins to fuel the wife’s gachapon needs.

Our JR East Tohoku Area Pass covered our final day journey from Sendai to Tokyo, and also from Tokyo to Narita airport. So you see, with a little planning, you can really see Japan for quite a reasonable sum of money. And enjoy seeing the views from the Shinkansen and regular trains as they travel through the snow-covered countryside.

Whether you try my itinerary as a solo traveler or as a couple, I think you will enjoy it as much as we did. If you are interested, I have created a simple itinerary at the JAPAN by Japan site.

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Quickly go and submit your entries to win! Gambatte!

Contest details are here: https://japanbyjapan.com/contest?cid=soc_blog_japan-dreaming_14022017_mr-brown

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May you win the contest and visit one of my favorite countries in the world!