The second day of our trip to Oarai with kids. A story about the huge gap between expectations and reality (but we made it home safely)
*Click here for the report on Day 1👇
https://note.com/shojikisugiko/n/n684cacbc955b
The morning of the second day of our trip.
Breakfast at 7:00.
All-you-can-eat egg over rice.
I thought, 'This is amazing,' but—
We couldn't eat a thing.
Why does my stomach decide to go on strike only at times like this?
The kids only ate rice with seasoning sprinkles.
They completely ignored the stewed hamburger steak and sausages, even though they were right there.
There was even soft-serve ice cream, strawberries, and melon,
but they had the audacity to eat nothing at all.
As a parent, you just want them to 'please, just eat something here.'
■ The problem of not being able to relax at all before checkout
Checkout is at 10:00.
Choosing a Japanese-style room was a great decision, but
as a trade-off,
the room got incredibly messy.
・Clothes we took off
・Souvenirs we bought
・Bags
・A survey form that somehow went missing
The table was chaos, too.
It was supposed to be relaxing, but we were just busy cleaning up.
■ Facing reality at the roadside station
After checking out, we drove a bit further to a roadside station.
The first thing I thought upon arrival was,
'Can we even get in here?'
・Parking lot → Couldn't find a spot
・Inside the store → Just walking was a struggle
It was not a place where you could shop with small children.
The delicious-looking seafood bowls and the attractive souvenirs,
everything was 'visible but out of reach.'
The kids pointed and said, 'Strawberries!', but
honestly, stopping in this crowd was too high-risk.
■ The theory that 'it's empty if you go upstairs' collapses
It looked like there was a dining area on the second floor, so
I had a faint hope that 'maybe it's empty upstairs?'
The result👇
A line as long as one at Disneyland.
The queue snaked all the way out to the terrace.
No wonder there was no one on the stairs.
■ We settled on this in the end
I met up with my husband while watching the kids run around on the terrace.
It was just about lunchtime.
The result👇
・Husband → Kebab from a food truck
・Kids → Yakisoba from a food truck (their favorite)
The kind of food you can eat anywhere.
I mean, it's fine.
It's fine, but you do wonder a little, don't you?
'Did we come all this way just for this?'
■ But my final thoughts
Honestly, more things didn't go as planned than did.
・It was crowded
・They didn't eat
・We couldn't take it slow
But
No one got hurt, no one got lost,
and we made it home safely.
Maybe that's enough.
After getting home, we had our usual
ceremony of opening and sorting the souvenirs.
With that, this trip is officially over.
It wasn't perfect, but
including these 'slightly off' moments,
I still think traveling is great.