Reflections on our 12-day trip to Australia

I did a lot of this: just sitting with
our granddaughter.

Three days ago we arrived back from our short trip to Australia to meet our new granddaughter and spend time with our kids. As you might imagine, it was a very special trip. Most of our international travel in the last 30 years has been for work, not leisure, so this uptick in family-related flights to Australia in the last few years has felt a bit extravagant. We're thankful that God has provided for our needs and that we've been able to walk a little closer to our kids through the challenging years as they transition into independent living in a country that they haven't grown up in.

The timing was perfect: we got to meet our granddaughter when she was only two weeks old, and also to have Christmas with all our kids as well. It's the first time that we've had only a "nuclear family" celebration in Australia for Christmas, i.e. not with our parents and siblings, only our kids.

Train window view: it was quite rainy
and we saw many sugar-cane fields.

It did feel like we had a double Christmas, though, a strange combo of the two types of Christmases that have become normal for us: a winter Japanese one, and a hot Australian one. Someone asked me which I preferred and I couldn't say. There are good things about both and memories associated with both.

Our journey there was a bit of a long slog. It took 25 hours door-to-door, including a two-hour car trip to the airport here, then about seven hours in the air, a taxi trip from the airport to the train station in Cairns, then a long and slow journey south to Townsville on the train that felt like it took forever (only about eight hours, twice as long as driving it would have taken). It's the first time I've taken an intercity train in Queensland. Overall the train was a good choice. It was cheaper than renting a car and, after an overnight flight, it was safer. The journey home took longer, because of train and plane schedules we had to spend the night in Cairns, so it was close to 36 hours to get back to our place in Tokyo.

Beautiful Townsville waterfront,
with Magnetic Island in the background.

Most of our 12 days in Townsville was spent hanging out with our eldest son and his wife and daughter at their place. The temperature and humidity this time of year aren't super inviting for going outside, especially with a newborn. But we did spend a little bit of time on the beachfront (though not in the sea...that's a bit dangerous with jellyfish and crocs), we went to church with them twice, and also to the Christian Christmas celebration called "The Stable" that featured not just carols and food, but live animals and actors walking around as Christmas Bible characters.

We got to housesit a beautiful water-front
apartment for free.

The apartment complex had a pool, and yes, we did have a swim one evening.

This is one reason you don't swim at this time of the year in the sea in north Queensland.

One day when we went to exit the apartment building
we found this shopping trolley taking a solo trip up and down
in the lift!

Beautiful tree in downtown Townsville. It has
a population of around 190,000, the 7th largest
non-state-capital city in Australia. Tiny compared
to Tokyo, but feels good for us who grew up in
rural Queensland.

It was a growing experience as we tried to fit in and adapt to what was going on for them, which meant not planning ahead, a lot of small grocery trips, and trying to discern how best to help out, without taking over. Like the rest of the parenting journey there's no instruction book on how to be a parent to your adult kids. But after years of raising them, I have to say that it's satisfying to sit back and watch them operating as responsible adults. Though, just like when they are younger, it's also hard to watch when they are struggling and in pain: you just want to fix it all for them and it hurts when you can't. I can easily see how challenging it would be to set boundaries if you lived close to your adult kids when they're raising their own kids. Good communication would be very important.

People have asked how it felt to be a grandmother...there's no clear answer to that either. I feel quite young at 52 to be a grandma! There is a detachment that you don't have with your own babies, when you're too tired and busy to really enjoy them. As a grandma just dropping in for a few days I had the luxury to sit back and enjoy the cuddles, while also helping out with meals, nappy changes, and a little bit of cleaning, without the long-term responsibilities and anxieties that come with parenting, especially the first time you do it. It also felt like picking up an old skill—holding a baby felt very natural and it was very special to know, as grandparents, that she's "ours".

Having our two youngest sons also visit for Christmas was like icing on the cake. The days surrounding Christmas Day when we just got to hang out together were very precious. The four guys (David and three sons) spent a lot of time playing two boardgames and I got to hang out with the girls. As I said, precious time. The last two times we came to visit this year we didn't have a solid "home base" of our own and there was a lot of other things going on, and therefore it was hard to get together and just "hang out", but that was different this time and it was lovely.

It's also been good to get home a week before school started again, we've been able to get extra sleep and relaxing time, as well as catch up with a handful of friends over meals.

Today I had the goal of starting our prayer letter, but also writing my reflection blog post looking back at 2025. I fear that I've got too many ambitions for my day!