“Most of the time we read that we should adjust to the clock of the country straight away, but even after travelling to Japan for a decade, I don’t know how to do it. Especially with young children”
A lot has been said and written about jet lag, especially when we travel with children. Most of the time we read that we should adjust to the clock of the country straight away, but even after travelling to Japan for a decade, I don’t know how to do it. Especially with young children.
I can hardly take Ima through Tokyo on four hours of sleep. It would be torture for her. Taking Lila out on little sleep would be torture for her and for everyone around her. She gets loud and almost aggressive on little sleep.
So generally we just go with the flow.
Tokyo is fun at night, even with children
Travelling from West, you (and your kids) will be awake at night, while sleeping through the morning. However, Tokyo is a good place for this kind of jet-lag. Everything starts late. The shops open at 11:00 in the commercial centres. And restaurants open until deep in the night. Give yourself a break, and start late if needed. You can still enjoy a full day, but with a better rested team.
If you can’t sleep at night, you can go to karaoke or you can go bowling. You can go out to eat an ice cream, at any time of the day, or you can visit one of the sento (bath houses) that close late, as mentioned in the guide.
Jetlags are just awful, for kids and adults
Jetlags are just awful. My biggest support was knowing that we are all suffering from exactly the same. We all can’t sleep, because we are jet-lagged. We all wake up late, because we are jet lagged and at some point you automatically adjust to the true time zone. Accepting that jetlag might ruin a night, or part of a day, will make it more tolarable. And no worries, next thing you know your kids wake up at 7:00 again.
One trick that helped me: if your baby/child needs a nap in the late afternoon, say, after 5pm, let them have that extra nap, but keep it short. 30 minutes.
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