018 - 12:17:25, 23.32

[00:00:00] Ever dream of going to Japan, not just once, but every year. Me too. I'm John. And that dream became my mission, which is why I started rewarding routes. A podcast about making Japan travel possible. Year after year, I learned how to leverage credit cards to earn points and miles turning everyday spending into flights and hotel stays across Japan.

Each episode I'll share what I've learned from booking award travel to building meaningful itineraries and deep diving into regions, traditions, and experiences that make this country so special. Let's build your rewarding route. One trip at a time. Hello, and welcome back to another episode, and this episode's gonna be a little bit different.

Normally I'll either be talking about points or I'll be talking about some aspect of Japan, and I did make one episode previously about the most rewarding route [00:01:00] yet, which is becoming a dad, and this episode is going to expand a little bit more on that. The more episodes I do of this podcast, the more I realize.

You know, using Points of Miles is fantastic and, and learning more about Japan's with the goal of visiting all 47 Prefectures. It's so exciting. , But I, I wanna also share my experiences and my journey. To those goals. And I think right now we're going through such a, a big change in our lives, expanding our family from two to three, and this is going to change the way we travel forever.

So I wanted to take the opportunity to. Express my thoughts of everything before all of these changes happen and my mindset going into this. I also love the idea of having an [00:02:00] episode recorded of what was going on in this very moment, and. Going back and, and hearing the journey of when things first started and before us having a child to, you know, in the future where we figure things out and, and we've learned and we've grown, , as a family and as we travel more and experience things.

I just love the idea to have this episode to reflect back on. So let's get right into it. Right now I'm recording on December 17th, and we're about a month away from meeting our baby boy. And yeah, he could come earlier. He could come later. I think his expected date is January 18th or 19th. But the closer we get, the more I can feel my nerves creeping in and the excitement is there as well.

But it's just whenever you're going to experience something. That [00:03:00] you've never done before, like getting a new job or learning a new skill. There's that factor of the unknown. And you know, this is our very first child, so of course there's that feeling of, I don't feel ready, I don't feel prepared.

But it's one of those situations where you'll. Get that confidence once you're in the moment. Uh, I assume, but with it being a month away, I, I wanted to talk about how travel will change for us in the future, or what I, what are my thoughts initially? Right. And the top thing that comes to mind, um, of what I expect will change when we travel with a child is the slower pace.

We have to really just learn to adapt and do things all at a slower pace. Maybe we'll just book one [00:04:00] activity or just have one priority per day and just let the rest of the day flow and it's something we're not completely used to. We we're used to just us too. Um, moving throughout the cities or throughout any place that we visit and seeing a lot of different spots and doing whatever catches our eyes.

But once our child is here, we definitely understand that, , this will mean that our travel will go at a much slower pace, and we're okay with that. We're okay with. Maybe seeing fewer cities during a trip and maybe having, uh, longer stays in a specific place instead of hopping from hotel to hotel or city to city.

The child will really determine the pace of our travels, and we're okay with this. We're okay with still being able to travel, but at a slower pace. It's fine for us. [00:05:00] Uh, we say that now. Um, but I really do think that this will be good. This will be okay. And, and we'll be completely fine with this. And you know, , as we get older, I, I've seen that our pace has slowed down as we traveled.

We don't move as fast as we used to. And I think that's okay. I mean, if there's areas that you really enjoy, I think you should just take your time and enjoy that area. , And you could have a, a full itinerary of so many places to see. But being able to slow down and really grasp the, um, the areas that you're in, and being able to cherish those moments and not feel rushed and, and to feel at peace.

Um. We do cherish those slower moments, and I know, I expect at times the child won't create that piece. Uh, it might be a challenge at times, [00:06:00] but , that's something that will work together and, we understand that the slower pace is coming for us. I can definitely see moments where we backtrack to the hotel too.

Kind of manage our energy, uh, I'm sure. Our child will need naps. We will need naps. We'll need to find a way to preserve our energy and to spread out our days and not just be on the go, go, go. But to be able to have moments to rest and, and to. I could see this being a factor whenever , we're booking hotels or, or staying in places that maybe finding an area that's more convenient that we're able to go back to the hotel is something that.

Needs to be a little bit more prioritized. So whenever it comes to planning in the future, uh, with a child, maybe I'll look at specific hotels that are easier and more convenient to get to. [00:07:00] Now, some things that I'm willing to kind of say out loud are, are some fears that I have and. Some things that, that do cross my mind when it comes to traveling with a child.

And some of those things are like, well traveling, feel actually worth it, um, with such a challenge ahead. An an unknown challenge for us because it's our first one. Do we think it'll feel worth it? And I think it will feel worth it, but there are challenges that I'm not currently thinking about that will present itself when the time comes.

Um, but these are some things that, you know, that do cross my mind right now and like how exhausted will I feel? Compared to like how happy we will feel in the moment. And I'm sure these memories that , we create , with our child will be just so [00:08:00] rewarding. But like, how exhausted will we actually feel during these travel moments?

Um, these are things I think about and I'm sure Cas thinks about too. You know, travel is such a big part of our lives and it's a piece of happiness that, , we always go back to because we enjoy it so much and we enjoy just seeing different cultures, experiencing different foods, visiting different places, and of course.

We, we fell in love with Japan and, and Asia. And, you know, our, our plan is to go back to Japan every year and our, our ultimate goal is just to travel every year. And if it's Japan, that's amazing. That's our goal. Um, and if we get travel multiple times a year, then yes, we will visit different places. So

a fear of mine is like not being able to travel at all and, and kind of losing [00:09:00] that part of us. But I really do think with the help of points and miles and just , our goals to, to travel every year, um, definitely. Definitely be able to travel with our child. And, and of course we don't know the challenges that are ahead, but, we are looking forward to just taking them head on.

We love travel and we want to continue that as we have a child and, and continue to travel as a family. And that becomes our identity of, that's what we do. We, we, we travel together and we. Enjoy these moments that we have together and these memories and you know, that's what this is about. And we don't have to abandon the things we love because we're bringing a child into this world.

No, we can embrace that and we can still do it. So yeah, those are some fears that [00:10:00] just kind of, um, go through my mind by. What I've heard a lot is it's the mindset that you go into it with and if you're positive, if you believe in yourself and you have a great teammate in your spouse and, and work together.

You know, traveling with a child, it's very possible. I mean, it is possible. It's just all about the mindset. So it's me tweaking my mindset, , 'cause it is a fear going into it because it's so new to us. But we just have to go into it positive with a positive mindset, and I know that it'll be so rewarding once we're able to find our rhythm.

Of traveling with a child. This now leads me to something I've heard a few times already and it's say goodbye to travel for a while. Right? You're having a child and that's basically it. You're done. Uh, you're not going anywhere, buddy. [00:11:00] And, you know, I let this, when I first heard it, um. I, I let it be true for a little bit and I thought, you know, we're not going anywhere for a very long time.

, But the more I've thought about it and, you know, I've listened to other podcasts of, of families traveling, uh, I definitely was able to, to shift my mindset a little bit more and, and me speaking to my wife about it. And it's something that. We know parenting is going to be difficult. We understand that it's going to present challenges that we weren't expecting.

At times, you're gonna be fatigue. We're gonna be overwhelmed. Straight up survival mode. But this doesn't mean that travel has to disappear, it just means that it's going to take a different shape of what it used to be. So this is just a mindset shift for the , both of us going into this new chapter.

[00:12:00] And really when it comes down to it, we have each other. It's teamwork, it's communication, and it's the intention to know that things are going to be different, things are going to be challenging, but we are going to continue to do the things that we love and we're going to do those things together and we're going to adapt.

And I believe once we get into that mindset. And , we adapt to those challenges and we, learn the rhythm and, and we find our flow. Um, this won't be as bad as what people make it out. To seem like traveling or the things that you love have to disappear. We realized a challenge and we realized that, you know, we're willing to accept it and to push forward and to do whatever it takes to make sure that passion and love that we [00:13:00] have for travel doesn't disappear and we can embrace it and really, uh, shape it into what we do as a family and.

And, you know, being able to teach our child, um, travel and learning different cultures and, and trying different foods in time, maybe playing at playgrounds with kids from different parts of the world. Like, these things I truly think are going to be valuable in the long run. And, and we're just excited to

 adapt to this change. And, and of course it's, it's scary too, and, and there's fear behind it. Like I mentioned, there's things that, you know, are always going to pop up in our minds and, there are going to be moments of, feeling overwhelmed and fatigued and, learning new challenges, running into new situations.

Um, it's all about adapting. It's all about mindset for us. So. That's what I [00:14:00] expect. , And um, that's just kind of where I'm at in my mind right now when it comes to, , taking on travel with a child , and we're just excited that, you know, points of miles, it will help allow us to at least travel every year and hopefully multiple times a year.

It would be great if we can do that. I know we just bought a house so. Maybe next year it's, it's one big trip, , that we're able to manage. But maybe after that we can do multiple trips throughout the year and, , only time will tell, , how everything pans out. And of course, I can't wait to make an episode a year from now.

Talking about our experiences, uh, being new parents and, and traveling with our child. And I think it'll be really fun to look back on this episode, maybe things that I said or things I had expected or, challenges that I had no idea about. Um. This will be exciting and I think this could also be valuable to any [00:15:00] new parents in the future listening to this podcast.

They can maybe listen to this episode and hear, , a new dad, what's going through his mind and how we plan to travel as a family in the future. And then listen to the episode of us talking about how traveling actually. It has become a part of our lives as a family and, and our actual experiences of traveling with a child and, you know, taking these long haul flights that are like 11 plus hours.

Like how does that go with a child who's maybe under one or maybe closer to two or, or maybe just a few months old, like. Once we experience these things, I, love to share 'em because I could see value in this. I, really enjoyed listening to episodes recently about, people who use points of miles, but travel with a family, a family of four, a family of six, and hearing their experiences, and I haven't found a podcast [00:16:00] yet of.

Somebody transitioning over from not being a parent to a parent and then their experiences as they grow. Uh, so that's why I feel like this is, . May be valuable in the future to new parents and somebody who's just starting to really grasp the idea of being able to use points of miles to travel to the place they love.

And that's Japan and surrounding neighboring countries as well. And this is something that we're very passionate about and we're excited to share with you , and our experiences along the way. Now a good thing I think that we have an advantage of is how much we've traveled in the past together.

So I believe that we are, pretty well traveled. We understand how traveling is. And we have each other. And we've been together for, I believe, a little over [00:17:00] 11 years. And we basically started off traveling right off the bat and I believed we moved to Australia within a year of dating. So, yeah. Um, we do have some experience of traveling and, you know, as long as we communicate, um.

We're very flexible with each other. We understand each other. We support each other during hard moments. So I believe these experiences that, you know, we have together, um, will definitely benefit us. Once, you know, we include a child into travel and. And when we have those challenging moments, we talk to each other, uh, we understand each other and we can move past those moments.

And of course, not every moment's gonna be perfect. , But not every moment has to be perfect to to be, uh, a great memory for us. And I'm sure. People might wonder like, well, your child's not gonna remember any of this travel, but for us, [00:18:00] you know, these are the memories that we will have and I'll make sure to record and take photos as much as I can along the way and just have that for our memories to look back on.

And I'm just looking forward for those, um, for those memories. Really, really am. So what might travel look like at first, like I mentioned before, I believe. These trips will be at a much slower pace. The way I'll plan it, and of course I'll go through, you know, once I start planning our trip, I'm kind of waiting maybe for the first month or or two, once our baby is here to maybe start planning a trip for later on in 2026.

But definitely planning on slower days. So maybe I'll look at like one. Top priority, which is maybe just one neighborhood we want to explore more, or like one activity we wanted to do in that one area. I'm also debating if we should go to [00:19:00] familiar places and just like maybe go back to Tokyo again since.

You know, we've been twice already, so there's really no rush to see as much as we can since we've already seen Tokyo. Of course, it's, I mean, it's nowhere near covering the entire city. There's just so much to do and, , maybe visiting places that we really enjoyed, like revisiting the neighborhood of Kechi Georgi, or.

You know, I, I know we briefly passed by Shimo awa, and that's an area that we would like to explore more. We could just walk around that area. So it's something we'll talk about, but we can just visit familiar places, places we've been, or places that, you know, we can just explore a little bit deeper and just walk around, go at a slow place, visit more parks.

Maybe visit some museums or, there's a lot of ways we can go about it, but definitely slower, slower days, more familiar places. Maybe just to ease the mind of, we've already been here, so [00:20:00] we're just exploring a little bit more. Eating foods that we missed out on our previous trips as well. There's, there's a list of foods I still haven't had that I'm craving to have.

And, , that's something we can do. We can, you know, just focus on foods. We can walk throughout neighborhoods, have some meals. Um, if anything, if the, if the baby is not up for it, we could bring the food back over to the hotel, maybe do some kini runs. It's just going with the flow really, and just being able to at least be in the place that makes us happy.

And that's what really matters to us. You know, we get to travel, we get to be in a place that, that really makes us happy and we're doing it as a family. So that, that's all, that's, it's all worth it to us. I'm glad I get to share these thoughts out loud , and be able to speak these, um, thoughts on my mind out loud and, and record it because normally these things are, are things I, I [00:21:00] normally keep to myself or, or my wife knows.

Um, I'm, I'm quite a quiet person. I'm, I'm very introverted and I don't usually say what's on my mind too often, so this is a way to really let my mind a little bit loose and, spill my thoughts , of what's going through my mind, especially for travel and what we expect for the future. And, I'm looking so forward to.

This new chapter for us and the curiosity it brings, um, I'm sure the challenges that also come with those curiosities and, and the experiences that we'll all have together, which will make every single thing worth it. I, I know that for a fact. , And. I am just so excited to have those experiences and, and I'm just grateful to have this conversation and to be able to have learned, , about points and miles [00:22:00] to, to make these trips and to really make travel.

More possible, more frequently, more affordable for us. Um, something that we can do and visit places again and again without feeling rushed. Because I know for a lot of people, you know, big trips are like once in a lifetime, but the beauty of points and miles, it allows you to do things on repeat. You can take a trip and once you're done with that trip.

You can just earn more points and, and say to yourself, alright, we'll be back. And that's that, that really is such an opportunity and that's why, you know, I'm sharing this with you, with you all. I think this is just the beauty of it. And of course, following your passions and, and doing what makes you [00:23:00] happy.

That's what it's about, following your happiness. Because happiness is what really matters in life. And you know, that's how travel makes us feel and. I'm so excited to, to share that with my family, with my wife, but of course with my child, and to introduce my child to travel and to things that make us happy and to do these things together and to share these experiences together.

I can imagine, there's no words to describe it, so yeah, these are my initial thoughts of traveling with a child and how everything is going to be different from now on and how we're nervous, we're excited, and honestly, we're.

Going to stay positive. We're going to go into this with the right mindset and we're gonna do this together. So I hope you found some value [00:24:00] in this episode and, you're able to take a peek into my mind of how things are before our child gets here, and my thoughts on traveling with a child., Of course I'm gonna share all of these experiences once we do experience these things of traveling with a child and, of course you'll get more episodes about points and miles.

You'll learn how to book. Lap infant and travel with the child with points of mouth. 'cause honestly, I don't know much about those things. So I'm gonna be learning as you learn and we'll be learning this all together, so it'll be exciting. Can't wait to see you on the next episode. Take care.