Anyone who worked at VIPKID *before* the 'restructuring' might have noticed how much the company has changed.
In the past, account suspensions were rare (in fact, I never experienced one until 2023), while now, they seem to hand them out like candy for the most trivial of reasons (and almost always due to STUDENT/PARENT-SIDE issues that are blamed on the teacher - even when presented with contravening evidence).
Obviously, such heavy-handed punishments (suspensions seem to last anywhere from a week to a month) help no one when they are (as is almost always the case) the result of 'unrepresentative' petty grievances, misplaced anger, or even acts of God (such as rare and unscheduled internet outages/unforeseeable IT issues).
When teachers are 'punished' for any reason other than negligence, it becomes an 'authoritarian' exercise without constructive lessons to be learned, and with no benefit to either the complaining student/parent, company, student population (and LEAST of all the teacher - who often remains the ONLY injured party).
VIPKID claims that these policy changes are in support of students - but given the arbitrary nature of the complaints, I feel 'indulge' is the better word.
The question is - what is the REAL reason the company culture changed so drastically in devaluing its teachers?
What caused the shift in attitudes from supportive, to abusive and hostile?
As I said earlier, pandering to an unrepresentative sample of toxic complainers can only indulge the *extreme* minority at the expense of the majority (regular students become annoyed when being deprived of their favorite teachers).
So, I don't buy the 'business' angle.
Lastly, are there any ESL/Teaching companies out there who actually *VALUE* teachers while treating them with *DIGNITY* and *RESPECT*, rather than as a piece of toilet paper, fit only to be used and discarded?

I wanted to share what my first month in business has taught me about mobile food vending businesses. Especially wanted to throw this out there for all those who are looking into mobile food businesses or just starting.
Last month I started a food stand, I got permitted, licensed and bought all the equipment plus a hauling trailer. My business partner and I have spent about 18k to start and fund ourselves this first month (food, fees, supplies, equipment, etc.). We both knew that everything would be a loss at first. We also both have full time jobs so this is a side thing and not a primary source of income. We have worked every weekend at markets for the past month. We made about 5k. It's been tough. Here's some stuff we have learned so far.
Food stands are only a way to make money seasonally where we live. We live in WA and the past month showed us how little people go out in a freezing cold rain. Can't blame them tho. So, before thinking about opening one, be realistic about how long you can stay in business in the year.
No matter how good your food is, if you are not at the right location you will not make money!! The location is very important. If you are in a market that is oversaturated with the same food as you, people are less likely to give the new person a try.
You will not make money for sometime. You cannot rely on this for income at the beginning. This is a money pit in the beginning. Focus on building a following.
Get some socials up and logo designs, business cards, ways of connecting with people. Get in fb groups for food trucks and pop ups. You literally have to be a salesperson at first to get people to give you a try. BANNERS with pictures of your food! People eat with their eyes.
If your food is good enough after that one try they will hooked. This is what we have experienced. But we literally had to convince people to just try us. Giving samples etc. Once they tried our food, they came back everyday we were open, sometimes multiple times a day.
Your food matters. It's the representation of you and your business. Don't put mediocre shit out there, they will not come back. Give samples. People love that.
Keep the menu small, especially at first until you have mastered the initial menu.
Do not come into this thinking your gonna be making good money at first because you won't. You will give a lot of time and money for no return for a while.
Lastly, I am sure next month will bring forth more lessons/challenges to learn. I remind myself to stay optimistic because there are times where you question it all. It's gonna take time. More than I had initially anticipated. But that's how it is.

Hello, this is my first post here and I am excited to learn as much as I can in Ableton. I must admit the software is intimidating but I am slowly getting more proficient with practice.
I have a question regarding ways to increase the quality of vocal samples I am creating with AI (Elevenlabs). I have done some searching but I cannot find much other than compression and saturation plug-ins. I would even agree to pay for a lesson if anyone has an option for that?

I have traveled a bit lately and have gotten behind on my thank you post, my deepest apologies, I know how it feels to send something out and not know if it ever got to its destination!
I deeply love this sub and am still amazed at how talented, kind and awesome you all are.
u/_pickupthepieces thanks for the Owl card and exchanging happy mail with me. Yes this week we have had plenty of sunshine!! Although temps are still yo-yoing.
u/amyt13 thank you so much for the Madeira postcard. Sounds like you had an amazing time there. I took my family there for New Year's Eve one year. I book a excursion on a boat with drinks and snacks, I few minutes before midnight they sail out in to the harbor. The fireworks display was truly AMAZING, they were going off in sync 360 degrees all around the boat.
u/articfox_12 thank you for the handmade postcard. Very clever idea to laminate and send. We did and will have a wonderful vacation. I like to travel about every month from March to Nov...
u/babyraspberry x 2 thank you for the Spring mail postcard and all the spring themed ephemera, good for you for taking Mable out for so many walks. I bet she loves it. Thank you too for the Munro's Books postcard, I love the Carl Sagan book quote. I really want to visit Vancouver Island, I hear their gardens are stunning!
u/cake-at-midnight thank you for the thank you postcard, I am glad you liked the birthday card I made for you :) I love my Cricut, I don't use it nearly as much as I should. You can create some amazing things with it!
u/cassius1213 thank you very much for the Awesome Eclipse postmarked postcard. Love that they actually created a specific postmark for the total eclipse.
u/DanerysWon lol love the ballerina hippo postcard, thanks so much, sounds like you had an amazing time at Disney. What a fun place to honeymoon too!
u/DaniGeek what a beautiful hummingbird card you found for me on your treasure hunt! And so fitting as I just saw my first hummingbird yesterday, finally!! Thanks for your book recommendations, it just so happens that I have not read Life of Pi but I just got tickets to see the theater production! I am trying to decide if I should read the book or watch the movie before I see the play. Thoughts? Redwall is a series I read with my son years ago. and the Dresden files is something my son also recently suggested.
u/doughe29 thank you for the Holland MI tulip card. I went to the tulip festival a few years back, very lovely. Yes, Cincy Zoo has a wonderful display of tulips, do come one year. It also has a great Holiday light display in Nov/Dec that is worth seeing.
u/duygusu thank you for the sparkly Awesome thank you card. I am glad you liked the card I sent, wishing you a quick settling in process. Thanks too for the pretty pansy sticker.
u/ez330 thank you for the Ohio Eclipse postcard. Did you not get to see it? We drove up to Dayton to the Air Museum and the clouds parted at just the right time for us to enjoy the majority of the eclipse. Love all the cool space themed stamps you used.
u/Ginger_ninjah thank you for the sunflower mini card and all the fun stickers. Sounds like you have been busy, still loving your Ninja food processor? LOL still shredding cheese?
u/HexagonalRainbow x 2 Thank you for the Legoland postcard. I could see how it would be really easy to spend way more money than intended at the Brick Factory. And a outlet store too - yikes! How many things have you built with what you bought though? I bet a ton of cool things. Secondly, thanks for the Mount Fuji postcard, very pretty! How did you qualification go for work?
u/keqani thanks for the Krieg postcard, love all the cute stickers you adorned the postcard with!
u/libertyprogrammer x 3 thank you for the Cincy OH postcard. Hmmm Leicester UK in 2044? Not sure I would make plans that far ahead lol. Thank you for the Houses of Parliament postcard, I walked around that area so often, I will respond to your update soon. Believe it or not I just today got your postcard you sent from Kruger National Park! It is dated Dec 20th. Can't believe it took so long to find its way to me. Awesome that you saw so many amazing animals!!
u/Mediocre_Radish_7216 thanks for the wonderful and cute snail mail postcard. You should do a scavenger hunt sometime, I had so much fun with it.
u/melhen16 Thank you for the National Postcard Week rainbow postcard, and thanks for the history lesson on the birth of the postcard, wonder what John Charlton would think about the industry he started?!
u/Mysteryvus x 2 thank you for the beautiful lemon thank you card, it is really very pretty. I am glad you liked the bday card I made as I thought about the things you mentioned you liked. Thanks to for the travel postcard, I really do like to travel. I am calling the travel agent my friend used tomorrow to start the planning of our Australia/NZ trip :) wish me luck!
u/ninayjang thank you for the Rome postcard, I love those art type postcards. I will tell you more about my NM trip soon.
u/PinkPengin thank you for the birds and penguin upcycle postcard. Good to hear from you my friend. I too have a pile of things I am supposed to finish up......I keep getting distracted with making travel plans, people visiting, or one of many other things that grabs my attention.
u/princecowboy thank you for the pen and ink dog face postcard. You were absolutely right, by the time I got this you had made it to your 100 flair - Congrats again. And by now you have received my 100 flair congrats card LOL.
u/purpleroots thank you for the CRAVE postcard with all your doodles :)
u/raspberrypoppyseed thank you for the awesome Disney Gang postcard. Did you have an amazing visit? Did you see any of the parades? They are one of my favorite things to do there.
u/rennbrig thank you for the beautiful artwork postcard of "Shaw Island Meadow" it really is so pretty, so glad you reached your sending goal :)
u/TheFeistyFox thank you so much for my sticker bomb scavenger birthday card, it was fun getting something to stretch my bday celebration this far :) thanks for the washi samples too, love the watermelon!!
u/TyeDyeAmish thank you for the bull fighting postcard, I would have to agree, the bulls probably don't like it! It is not something that I would want to see. I have heard how they are done and I just don't think I could watch it.
u/zenshark33 x 2 thank you for the Happy Spring orange flowers postcard, I have moved several times and the think I like the most is getting rid of things so I don't have to move them, so I am right there with you! Thank you for the purple flower Random Happy Mail postcard, always fun to get unexpected happy mail!
u/Zznightzzz thank you for the birthday postcard from my Scavenger hunt! I loved hearing all about your island and the people there. No problem on its delay in getting sent, been there, done that!! I love that you sent it. I still have one other person that I have not received from so if it makes you feel better you aren't the last one :)
u/wabisabi_sf, u/ninajyang and u/littlemermaidxx thank you so much for the Meet Up postcard from the SF stamp show. What a great venue to meet up and get together!!

• Lesson video

INTRO

Today you'll install a common server application - the Apache2 web server - also known as httpd - the "Hyper Text Transport Protocol Daemon"!
If you’re a website professional then you might do things slightly differently, but our focus with this is not on Apache itself, or the website content, but to get a better understanding of:

• application installation
• configuration files
• services
• logs

YOUR TASKS TODAY

• Install and run apache, transforming your server into a web server

INSTRUCTIONS

• Refresh your list of available packages (apps) by: sudo apt update - this takes a moment or two, but ensures that you'll be getting the latest versions.
• Install Apache from the repository with a simple: sudo apt install apache2
• Confirm that it’s running by browsing to http://[external IP of your server] - where you should see a confirmation page.
• Apache is installed as a "service" - a program that starts automatically when the server starts and keeps running whether anyone is logged in or not. Try stopping it with the command: sudo systemctl stop apache2 - check that the webpage goes dead - then re-start it with sudo systemctl start apache2 - and check its status with: systemctl status apache2.
• As with the vast majority of Linux software, configuration is controlled by files under the /etc directory - check the configuration files under /etc/apache2 especially /etc/apache2/apache2.conf - you can use less to simply view them, or the vim editor to view and edit as you wish.
• In /etc/apache2/apache2.conf there's the line with the text: "IncludeOptional conf-enabled/*.conf". This tells Apache that the *.conf files in the subdirectory conf-enabled should be merged in with those from /etc/apache2/apache2.conf at load. This approach of lots of small specific config files is common.
• If you're familiar with configuring web servers, then go crazy, setup some virtual hosts, or add in some mods etc.
• The location of the default webpage is defined by the DocumentRoot parameter in the file /etc/apache2/sites-enabled/000-default.conf.
• Use less or vim to view the code of the default page - normally at /vawww/html/index.html. This uses fairly complex modern web design - so you might like to browse to http://165.227.92.20/sample where you'll see a much simpler page. Use View Source in your browser to see the code of this, copy it, and then, in your ssh session sudo vim /vawww/html/index.html to first delete the existing content, then paste in this simple example - and then edit to your own taste. View the result with your workstation browser by again going to http://[external IP of your server]
• As with most Linux services, Apache keeps its logs under the /valog directory - look at the logs in /valog/apache2 - in the access.log file you should be able to see your session from when you browsed to the test page. Notice that there's an overwhelming amount of detail - this is typical, but in a later lesson you'll learn how to filter out just what you want. Notice the error.log file too - hopefully this one will be empty!

Note for AWS/Azure/GCP users

Don't forget to add port 80 to your instance security group to allow inbound traffic to your server.

• AWS
• Azure
• GCP

POSTING YOUR PROGRESS

Practice your text-editing skills, and allow your "classmates" to judge your progress by editing /vawww/html/index.html with vim and posting the URL to access it to the forum. (It doesn’t have to be pretty!)

SECURITY

• As the sysadmin of this server, responsible for its security, you need to be very aware that you've now increased the "attack surface" of your server. In addition to ssh on port 22, you are now also exposing the apache2 code on port 80. Over time the logs may reveal access from a wide range of visiting search engines, and attackers - and that’s perfectly normal.
• If you run the commands: sudo apt update, then sudo apt upgrade, and accept the suggested upgrades, then you'll have all the latest security updates, and be secure enough for a test environment - but you should re-run this regularly.

EXTENSION

Read up on:

• Using systemctl to manage services

RESOURCES

• HTTPD - Apache2 Web Server
• The Apache HTTP Server

TROUBLESHOOT AND MAKE A SAD SERVER HAPPY!

Practice what you've learned with some challenges at SadServers.com:

• "Cape Town": Borked Nginx

PREVIOUS DAY'S LESSON

• Day 6 - Editing with "vim"

Some rights reserved. Check the license terms here

My name is Ronald Payne and I want to be your next freelance writer. I'm a passionate film watcher and can quote most of the classics. I typically watch movies in the action adventure, sci-fi, fantasy and thriller genres but appreciate most of the big franchises. Serial storytelling is a favorite nut to crack while enjoying developing core essential characters that can flow through multiple installments. I don't discriminate on taste if you have a different genre in mind.
I can research and develop for the story that you want me to tell. I can ghostwrite and format creative pitches into pilots. I can write full length feature film screenplays (for less than wga script rates)(unless you want it very quickly). I can write fictional or non-fictional narrative podcasts or teleplays or web shows.
PAYMENT My screenplay rate can be negotiable but is always done in double payments, with one at the beginning as a retainer and one when it is finished and satisfactory. If you dont want to pay a retainer Im not working for you. Im calling off work for the months and its going to take alot to preplan, start and finish the project so that retainer shows me you can afford to put money into creative story development. It also shows me that you are serious. I will provide a plan of approach and how long it should take and keep a week by week updates from then on.
SCHEDULING/UPDATES I will give daily updates and keep communication clear while keeping you as informed as possible where I am in the process. DISCLAIMER: When it comes to creative development and writing a script don't expect it to happen overnight at a high quality. In story development it is essential to be cautious and patient. I assure you that if you're looking at story development with patience,eventually you will see the story you want as a long term investment than it was worthwhile in the end.
Need a Quick Screenplay In A Month? If you really need a script in a short time you can hire me but don't expect the quality to be extraordinary. 1.The minimum window that I will crunch and push out a script for a two hour long screenplay is 2-3 months. 2. If you need a rough feature length screenplay under an hour long or close to it in a month time. The price is $1650.
Short Stories I can provide short stories in a short amount of time. You can look in the flash fiction section below for examples of what you might be getting. My pay rate for those are 0.10/a word.
SIDE NOTE: Most things you probably love were delayed or rewritten more than you'd like to think. I believe that's a big part of why they succeeded.
Fun Fact: Toy Story, the original finished script story for the movie, based off the critically acclaimed short "Tin Toy" had to get thrown out.
The most important lesson I've learned these past years is that good writing takes time and great writing takes even longer. My focus is to find a price for the both of us AND a time window that is close to what you want but also is realistic to me. We can work together to find a way somehow to give our project its legs.
(work samples below.)
Looking forward to hearing from any of you and taking on the beast of creativity. Sincerely, Ronald Payne.
Portfolio
Recent Commission Novel Chapter Sample:
Red Wolf Running
Format: Novel Sample
Summary: A guilty werewolf fights his own urges while investigating a growing vampire syndicate in a blizzard stricken New Orleans in 1899.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Hasg7Hi1lGZXs4iFBN_4E-Y_uYmpGwtxUfSGqGiKh8E/edit
Screenplay:(Format: Sci-fi, Adventure)
Derrion Marks of The New War Mongers.
Summary: A retired pilot adjusting to probationary life on his home world receives a probe from a war mongering planet that he can't refuse until tragedy strikes.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1YwWy337V_UdrXy-WdZ2Rt-ZSNV-90wJw/view?usp=sharing
Commission: Adult Dark Dystopic/Comedy Sci-fi Pilot:
Age of Terry
Summary: A metal loving IT guy turned apocalypse witness struggles with the destruction of earth while being jettisoned into a new life.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1vlxnJt4ePMwLUeTimWi3-_6ubO0gpdw-/view?usp=sharing
Short Story
James Spade & The Underlings
Summary:A courageous spelunker searching for hope discovers the treacherous corrupting secrets of the ancient South American crypt of Centalama.
https://bythedock.wordpress.com/2021/06/20/james-spade-and-the-underlings/
Novella Work
An except from a 66 page novella I'm publishing soon.
Doubles
Summary: A man believes his wife to be somebody else. She seems different and while he doesn't know why, or who hired her. He also doesn't know why he's feeling compelled to want to see it out till the end.
Novella Chapter: https://bythedock.wordpress.com/2021/06/22/my-wife-is-not-my-wife-doubles-part-1noirthrillersci-fi/?preview=true

Has anyone else noticed a decline in late cancels? I used to complain about them, I had at least 1 every day but this week I’ve only had 1 the entire week. A student mentioned if she late cancels (I can’t remember if it’s less than 12 hours or 24 hours before the class?) she loses her minutes which I believe is a new policy. It looks at least from the small sample of my students that it’s having a positive impact on people showing up for their lessons.

Finally got around sharing our wonderful experience in Kansai (1 Apr 2024 - 10 Apr 2024). We are a family of 4 from Perth, Australia (1 x Toddler turning 4 end of this month and 1 x Infant about 18 months old) joined by my MIL from Malaysia. It was our first time trip to Japan but the second time flying 6 hours long with 2 kids. We chose to travel during this period as it was during Easter holidays and also the most favourable weather for our kids. As we have 4 separate accommodations booked over 9 days, we try to travel as light as possible: 2 x large suitcase, 1 x medium suitcase, 2 x medium bags, 1 x bag pack, 1 x dedicated bag for infant carrier and kids' jumpers + 1 stroller. Our kids still take nap(s) during the day and our plan was having the toddler sleep on the stroller and the infant in the carrier or the stroller if toddler is not using.
After extensive research (mostly from this sub) we still found the first few days to be quite hectic and wish we know some of the things beforehand (listed below the itinerary). I hope this post can help young families who are considering travelling to Japan with kids or those who have travelled to Japan before kids came to the picture to do it again with confidence.

9 Day Itinerary (1 Apr 2024 - 10 Apr 2024)

Day 1 Osaka: Namba (Monday)
Our flight from KUL arrived KIX around 10am and boarded the Nankai Rapid (bought 1 month prior online) to Shin-Imamiya station after getting our luggage. We originally planned to take a taxi from there but failed to find any taxi for 20 mins so we end up walking to our accommodation as the kids were tired of waiting. After offloading our luggage we manage to hail a taxi and head to Namba Parks to rest and unwind. Had a refreshing lunch at Yasaiya Mei (mains + all you can eat side dishes including veg tempura) and went to explore the rooftop parks garden before putting the kids to nap. After the kids woke up we took a taxi back to check in officially. Everyone was quite tired thus we opted to stay in and get dinner from Life supermarket nearby. This was probably the most enjoyable part of the day for the kids wandering around a foreign supermarket as we bought dinner and some light snacks. After putting the kids to bed, we did some laundry and packed our 1st luggage to send away.
Day 2 Osaka: Tennoji (Tuesday)
While everyone was getting ready, I went to the nearby 7-Eleven to forward our 1st luggage to the 4th accommodation via Yamato transport. The shop attendant was helpful and guided me through the process as we communicated via deepL. We walked to the Lawson's at JR Imamiya to get brekkky before taking the Osaka loop Line to JR tennoji. We took quite a while to navigate towards Tennoji Zoo from JR Tennoji but eventually got there after a 15 min detour. It was quite crowded for a Tuesday morning but the kids get to roam around the Tenshiba garden while I queue up for tickets (500 yen per adult). One of the kids fell asleep in the zoo so we decided to just grab food to go at the supermarket outside the zoo for lunch. We then head towards Abeno Q's mall to shop and put the other kid to sleep. There was quite a lot of hot food along the way and we manage to grab some for the kids to snack on after their nap (butaman from Horai 555, mochi donut from Mister Donut, taiyaki etc). There's a fantastic area for kids to play (kid, play, study) at the ground floor with different sensory setup and soft blocks for stacking/ balancing. I spent close to 2 hours there with 2 kids while my wife and MIL went shopping. After that we had dinner at Grand Capital Toyoutei at the Kintetsu mall dining floor before heading to our final activity of the day: Abeno Harukas 300. Tickets were a bit steep (2000 yen per adult) but we end up staying there for quite a bit and the experience was pretty unique even though we missed the sunset timing. The elevator ride to the top though short left quite an impression. The kids enjoyed running around at the sky garden 2 floors below as we rest and enjoy the night view of the city from about 300m above ground. The journey back to our accommodation was pretty straightforward and the kids got knocked out when we got home. All in all Tennoji was a pleasantly great experience and we have a better understanding about JR station layout and navigating underground.
Day 3 Osaka - Kyoto (Wednesday)
This was a rather hectic day as it rained quite a bit and we struggled to get a taxi after checking out, getting turned down by several taxis with "空车". We eventually found one to bring us to JR Osaka station. Navigating at the station wasn't too difficult after yesterday but there were long queues when we arrived at 10am and I made the fatal mistake of leaving my physical credit card back in Perth and spent 45mins trying to redeem limited express tickets I reserved online. The JR staff were friendly and tried their best to help but they can only recommend me cancelling my initial reservation and buying new tickets (cancellation fee was about 2300 yen for 3 adults). As soon as we got our tickets we sprinted to the underground gate about 15 mins walk away. I even carried the stroller and kids through an escalator as we didn't want to waste time finding a lift and risk missing the train. We managed to board the limited express train on time and arrived at JR Kyoto which was even more crowded and larger than most international airports. The kids were quite cranky by now as it has been all rush and long waits since they woke up. I split up with my family with 2 luggage that we initially planned to forward to our Arashiyama accommodation via Sagawa. However I was told same day delivery service is only applicable to limited hotels so I stored the luggage at 2 coin lockers and then head to the Kintetsu line ticket counter to redeem the Kyoto-Nara and Nara-Osaka limited express tickets which fortunately doesn't require my credit card details (just reservation number). By the time I reunite with my family it was still raining and both kids fell asleep so we ditched the plan for Kyoto railway museum and instead went browsing for lunch at Porta and Isetan dining floor. We eventually queued to eat at Ejuan for about 25 minutes while one of the kid was still asleep. The wait was worthwhile as the grilled miso black cod was exceptional as was the kids' grilled chicken. Next we went to the skywalk at level 9 briefly before my family went to the toy section at Isetan while I retrieve our luggage from the coin lockers. We board the Saga line bound for Saga-Arashiyama and rested awhile at the accommodation before heading out for dinner after the rain stopped. We walked to Kijurou and fortunately they have space for us provided we order a main meal per adult. The yakiniku and Wagyu rib loin bowls were pretty good but we find the Hitsumabushi set a bit gimmicky. After dinner we stopped by Kimono Forest on our way back and this was probably the highlight of the kids day.
Day 4 Kyoto: Arashiyama (Thursday)
Had Lawson's for brekky before heading out to Kimono Rental Amuya to hired kimonos for my wife and toddler including hairstyling. The shop was actually a house with the living area turned into a studio and only the owner working by herself so we waited for about half an hour before walking towards the Bamboo Forest and Tenryu-ji gardens (500 yen entry from the north gate but well worth it for the blooming sakura and picturesque lake). It was crowded as expected and everyone was moving slowly so it took us about an hour to complete the loop back to the main tourist strip. We then had Udon for lunch at Ozuru, the chewy noodles were complemented by the broth which was a lot more flavourful than the kitsune Udon we are accustomed to back in Perth. After lunch we head home to put the kids to nap before venturing out in the evening towards Togetsukyo Bridge overlooking the pristine Katsura river flowing gracefully from Mt Arashi in the backdrop. The view was breathtaking and we crossed over to Arashiyama park where the kids had a great time running around free range. As the sun was setting, we head back to the town centre, took a novelty Randen ride and grab some food (Naruse's Unagi, Upit's Burger) en route to our accommodation to eat in before calling it a day.
Day 5 Kyoto (Friday)
After checking out we took the Saga line to JR Kyoto station and forwarded the medium sized luggage to the 4th accommodation in Osaka using Crosta. We then did some light shopping at Yodabashi Camera Kyoto as my MIL shoes had kick the bucket and we needed a replacement. Manage to sneak in the only ramen meal of the trip at Ramen Chabuton located upstairs. It was a fairly small shop but we were lucky to get a table just before the Friday lunch rush hour and our ramen cravings were thoroughly satiated. We put the kids down for a quick nap as we make our way back to JR Kyoto to take the Saga line towards Kyoto railway museum. This is an underrated attraction with so much to do and we could have spent the whole day here if I knew they had coin lockers. There were many interactive and educational displays relating to train components in addition to multiple play areas upstairs as well as an outdoor playground! There's also a mockup ticket gate for kids to learn how to purchase a ticket and pass through the gate. Our kids loved the ball pit, toy train area and large train simulator. We couldn't squeeze enough time to explore the 3rd floor or watch the diorama presentation or board the Steam Locomotive as it was getting late. We took a taxi to check-in at Kamoya Ryokan before taking the bus to Nishiki Market for dinner. It's about 6pm and most of the shops were shutting and the remaining ones that are open had queues building up quickly. We ended up waiting 30 mins to eat sushi at Sushi Say. There's a limited range of cooked food including skewers which we got for our kids while we share a nigiri platter and sashimi. After dinner we went to the basement of Daimaru Kyoto across the road to get some baked goods for brekky before taking the taxi home to crash.
Day 6 Kyoto (Saturday)
My MIL wanted to take it easy and explore the area at her own pace so we had a more spontaneous day. After brekky, we took the bus to Yasaka Shrine and started our trek towards Heian Jingu, stopping along the way to enjoy the blossoming park and munching on food from street vendors. We paid to enter the shrine garden (600 yen per adult) which was very worth it for a 30 minute stroll and escape from the bustling crowd outside. We grab some food to eat from the street vendors as one of the kid slept and then head to the playground across the road (Wagener Square) and spent a good 30 minutes there even though it was a bit basic (Perth is blessed with many great playgrounds). Once both kids are feeling refreshed we felt adventurous and took the bus to attempt the hike up Kiyomizu-dera. Since its a Saturday, the Sannenzaka path was packed with phenomenal crowds with the occasional car coming through and splitting the crowd apart. I carried the infant to sleep while my wife push our toddler on the stroller as we slowly make our way up, stopping by for a nice matcha latte and softserve at Here cafe to recharge. We eventually reached the base of the temple after 30 minutes and decided against entering due to the massive crowds (& stairs!). On the way down we reached the fork that branches into Ninenzaka and thought we try giving it a go. There were a lot more stairs over this side and we had to carry the stroller through the steps while waiting for the crowd to advance before us. As physically draining as it was, we felt a sense of achievement as we manage to snap a photo with the iconic Hokanji temple. We took the bus home after that and had an enjoyable dinner at Okonomiyaki Yoshino next door before an early night to recover.
Day 7 Kyoto - Nara - Osaka (Sunday)
We had some leftover food for brekky before checking out and heading to JR Kyoto via taxi. We head to the Kintetsu line and boarded the Vistacar limited express train to Nara. I've booked for the private room down stairs which was pretty spacious for the 5 of us and our luggage. After arriving at Kintetsu-Nara station, we took the 100 yen tourist bus to the famous Nara Deer Park and started exploring the area. There were plenty of deer roaming throughout/ resting on the ground and several vendors at the entrance selling deer crackers. After the kids were done feeding 2 sets of crackers, we head to Mizuya Chaya for lunch. There were limited seating so we sat by the side and ate with the bowl in our hands while feeding the kids. Probably the best Udon we had in our lives (level above Ozuru in Arashiyama and Hifumiya in Perth). Time for a nap so we put the kids down while making our way to have a closer look at Todaiji temple as there were too many stairs to Kasuga-taisha and we have yet to recover. We had our first Cremia here and it was amazing. After the kids woke up we took the bus back to Kintetsu-Nara station and explored the nearby street while waiting for our train. We then boarded the HINOTORI limited express bound for Osaka. While walking towards the hotel to check in, we were passing by Dotombori and opted to have a quick dinner and call it a day rather than coming out again after checking in and offloading our luggage. We ended up having curry at Hariju Dotombori Curry shop which taste d like a homely nourishing meal. After dinner we took the taxi to the hotel and fortunately our 2 other luggage that we forwarded days before are waiting for us to collect. Did some repacking and also laundry at a nearby laundromat before sleep.
Day 8 Osaka: Osaka Bay Area (Monday)
Started the day with brekky at MOS Burger just outside our hotel before taking the metro train to Osaka Bay Area. There were plenty to see as we approach the Kaiyukan, large LEGO animal displays, the large ferris wheel and Disney characters. The ticketing and entry time is staggered which is a good idea to control the amount of crowds going in and out. I started queueing at 1035am and got entry for 11am which was fair (opted not to book timeslot online as it can be unpredictable with kids and public transit) but we didn't felt like its a long wait as the kids were running around and enjoying the ocean view. The entry also have a photographer stationed to take a family polaroid with a whale shark replica for FREE. We were impressed with the aquarium's efficient layout where some prominent displays (Whale Shark, Seals etc) span across multiple floors so you can still enjoy them later on if you missed it earlier due to the crowds. Apart from sea creatures there are also Arctic mammals and birds (Puffins) from all over the world. The kids were over stimulated by lunch time so we head to the food court at Tempozan Market Place to refuel. After lunch we took the kids for a ferris wheel ride before putting both to sleep while we make our way to Shinsaibashisuji Shopping Street via metro line. As the kids were still asleep, I rested at Daimaru with my MIL while my wife went shopping. This turn out to be a fantastic place with a floor dedicated for kids (Pokemon centre, Pokemon cafe, BorneLund mini play area with many display toys available for sampling). The kids spent the rest of the day here after they woke up and we had dinner at the dining floor. There were queues everywhere and we chose to wait at Aozora Blue as they offer udon made with a higher wheat ratio here. Regrettably the kids didn't enjoy as much and prefer regular ones that we are used to. After dinner we took away cheescake from Rikuro for dessert back at our hotel. I made sure to online check in our flights before I go to bed.
Day 9 Osaka: Dotombori (Tuesday)
Our final day in Japan and we chose to do some shopping and take it easy. Tried Doutor Coffee for brekky (took a while to find as it was underground) before walking to Don Quijote at Dotombori. There's 6 floors crammed with various items: snacks, electronics, clothing, non prescription medication, toys, collectibles as well as a functional ferris wheel (operates after 2pm). That being said the kids got bored after awhile and didn't really enjoy much as there wasn't much space to move around. I brought them out to stroll around the Ebisu-bashi Bridge while my wife and MIL continue their haul. It was certainly a sight to behold: countless amount of large LCD screens with surround sound on full blast from every high rise building, street buskers vying for attention from crowds that were constantly on the move, tourists taking selfies in front of the iconic Glicoman. Sadly it started to drizzle so I quickly entered the Shinsaibashisuji Shopping Street undercover area and look for a place to have lunch. I stumbled across a Yoshinoya & Hanamaru joint food hall which was bustling with both locals and foreigners. You have to order and get your food from the counter before you can occupy a table so I waited for my wife and MIL to arrive before we start queueing up. We had the gyudon and beef Udon with onsen egg along with chicken karaage and tempura. There's also a condiment station with toppings to complement your udon as well as free tea and water. Everything was very affordable and best of all we didn't had to wait long. After lunch my wife continuing shopping while we head to Daimaru for the kids to have a nap and play afterwards. I noticed there's a bridge that connects each floor to the Parco next door and discovered a unique floor full of pop culture themed stores including a studio Ghibli store featuring Totoro and No-Face displays, a 2 ft tall Godzilla, Ultraman, Capcom superstore, Sanrio (Hello Kitty), Snoopy, Rilakkuma and also a LEGO store. The kids had a great time browsing and also playing with LEGO before my wife reunites with us. As it's nearing dinner time, I thought we try our luck getting a table at Ganko Dotombori and make our way towards Ebisu-bashi Bridge. The view here is even more spectacular at night with the contrasting lights as well as numerous LCD displays illuminating the area. Unfortunately there's a lengthy wait at Ganko and our party voted for street food instead which turn out surprising well. Kids devoured a dozen gyozas while we had takoyaki, kobe beef nigiri, yakitori and yakiniku skewers as we strolled along the street. It was still early so we made a detour towards Hozenji before walking back the hotel. Then we stumbled upon an arcade (Amuse Factory AXE) which naturally drawn the kids in, we got popcorn from a vending machine there and it was enough to keep the kids happy on our trek back. Before taking our last sleep in Japan, we organized our luggage and get them ready for check out the next day.
Day 10 Osaka: Sayonara (Wednesday)
Checked out of the hotel and took a private airport taxi to KIX. Had brekky at McD and Lawsons and surprised to find that the food here costs the same as outside (e.g. McD/ Hungry Jacks at Malaysian/ Australian airports cost more than the metro/ suburban outlets). Boarded the flight and bid Japan farewell for now while soaking in the surreal time we had.
List of accommodations for 3 adults and 1 child + 1 infant/ toddler
1. Orange House 701 (22,500 yen for 2 nights) 10/10
Location is not bad in a quiet area South of the bustling Dotombori area with Konbinis and JR Imamiya within walking distance. Washing machine, shower and stove took some time to figure out and my kid accidentally turned on the stove but luckily there's a safety button. Overall a brilliant accommodation at an affordable price and will consider returning if we come back to Osaka with kids.
2. Arashiyama bamboo guest house (55,650 yen for 2 nights + 1200 yen tax) 8/10
Prime location 1 min away from JR station, Lawson and walking distances to the local tourist strip, Bamboo Grove, Tenryu-ji and Togetsukyo Bridge. However the room is located on the 3rd floor with no lift so it can be a challenge for kids and older folk. The owner was kind enough to carry our 2 X 20kg luggage up and speaks a little English. The stay was rather comfortable even with futons to sleep on while my MIL slept on one of the single beds. We are unlikely returning to Arashiyama but would recommend this place if it suits your budget.
3. Kamoya Ryokan (35,400 yen for 2 nights + 2000 yen tax) 7.5/10
Not as central as the other accommodations but still within 10 mins walking distance to JR and bus lines. This is a shared accommodation so fridge, microwave and hot/ cold water is in the common area but we have a private bathroom to use. There are no beds so we all slept side by side on futons in the same room. For some reason kids are also taxed to stay a night here (200 yen) but the host was super friendly, spoke a bit of basic English and helped us with ordering a taxi when we checked out. For the price this is not a bad place for short term stay if cosleeping on futons together as a family is acceptable. Bonus: the okonomiyaki place next door is quite good albeit requiring a bit more effort to communicate but is worth it as plenty of locals seem to frequent there and our kids love the yakisoba.
4. Best Western Hotel Fino Osaka Shinsaibashi (40,450 yen for 3 nights) 8/10
Functional hotel relatively close to Shinsaibashi shopping street and Dotombori. 1 min walk away from Osaka metro station and 7 Eleven. There's also a 24 hour laundromat 5 mins walk away. Facilities are bare minimal but gets the job done as we only needed the place to crash and freshen up since there's a lot of shopping and remaining sightseeing to be done. All reception staff spoke English well and check in/ out was rather smooth. I would consider staying again if the rooms were larger but can't complain at this price point and location.
List of eateries we consider returning

• Yasaiya Mei
• Ejuan
• Kijurou
• Ozuru
• Upit's Burger
• Ramen Chabuton
• Okonomiyaki Yoshino
• Mizuya Chaya
• Yoshinoya & Hanamaru

Highlight of each day for the kids

1. Wandering around Life supermarket and exploring a new accommodation
2. Running around 300m above ground at the Abeno Harukas sky garden while having fruits/ snacks in between
3. Visiting Kimono Forest after dinner, watching the randen pass by at the crossing
4. Running around at Arashiyama park and watching the majestic Katsura river flowing rapidly
5. The outdoor playground at Kyoto railway museum among many other fun things there
6. The playground at Wagener Square across Heian Jingu
7. Interacting with deer and eating udon outdoors
8. Seeing different sea animals up close and ferris wheel ride after
9. Making friends at BorneLund and having imaginary play together despite the language barrier

Lessons learned (not in chronological order)

General tips

• We prepared about 160,000 yen cash before arriving at Japan but also have money via 1 x transfer wise debit card (digital), 1 x Westpac credit card (digital), 1 x ING debit card (physical). We ended up withdrawing a further 200,000 yen worth of cash. We opted not to bring any AUD as the rate is quite poor in Japan since most would prefer foreign exchangers would prefer USD.
• We didn't get to use our digital cards as most places in Kansai (Kanto might be different) that offer card payments still requires a physical card to read the chip.
• Please remember to bring the physical card of the credit card used for any online booking to avoid the stress I endured on day 3.
• We booked all the transit tickets online about a month prior and find it worthwhile rather than spending 15 - 30 mins in queue at the ticket counters. The limited express tickets go crazy fast and I recommend booking them the hour they become available (1 month prior your transit date and as soon as it is open in Japan time).
• We booked all 4 accommodations via booking.com and find the messenger via the app very handy in liaising with the owne receptionist on whether we can offload our luggage earlier or forward our luggage a few days in advance. One of them even told me that I can check in few hours earlier as the room was ready. Regardless of what platform you use, try to communicate with the accommodation prior your arrival if you are considering forwarding luggage or dropping them off before your official check in time.
• Booking multiple accommodations over a short span of time is very tiring as we are needing to worry about getting our luggage from A to B every second day but only able to check in the next place 5 - 6 hours after checking out the previous place (Most checkin starts from 3pm and checkout from 10am). Our transition days are always stressful as we don't get to do much due to the timing while handling multiple baggage so the kids are crankier.
• Rubbish/ garbage cans are mainly found on major train stations or shopping malls as well as konbinis. Most vending machines only have a recycle bin but we have plenty of disposable nappy bags which we use as rubbish bags if needed.
• We had 3 data Sims about 5GB each which was sufficient for the 9 days (navigation, Google translate, WhatsApp voice call). Free wifi is available at most places which we use whenever we need to photo dump on WhatsApp group chats or play YouTube for the kids.
• My eSim stopped working when we arrived at Kyoto from Osaka but luckily I tried rebooting my phone and it connected to the local network after. Another down side of data only Sim is there is no Japanese mobile number which can be handy (make reservations at restaurants or signing up for taxi apps to get taxi).
• We use Google Maps and Japan Travel by NAVITIME App to plan our overall route each day, public transit details is quite clear via Google Maps with several options for different J metro/ bus lines. While Japan Travel App is able to approximate cost of taxi which was useful for comparison.
• For translation, we used DeepL app when we wanted to converse with someone in Japanese and Google Translate for written Japanese translation via the camera.
• In Osaka, getting around via JR and Metro is optimal in terms of time and cost; In Kyoto, buses are more readily available but be prepared to stand shoulder to shoulder as the buses are not big and averages around 30 - 50 people. We recommend a taxi if travelling a short distance (<10 minutes) for a family that can fit into a single car.
• You can forward luggage at your hotel or local 7 eleven via Yamato transport within Osaka.
• The Jikan refreshing legs patch worked well for me but my wife got woken up few times as her feet felt cold due to the cooling effect. We got some heat patches the next day and it worked better for her.
• A few Japanese phrases go along way and perhaps it's why we mostly get friendly responses (arigato gozaimas, ohaiyo, konnichiwa, kore onegaishimas, doitashi mashite, hitotsu onegaishimas, daijorbudes, kodomo).
• The basement level of most department stores/ shopping malls sells a variety of package deserts and often a bakery opened till 8pm where we sometimes go to after dinner to get brekky for the next morning.
• Some malls have an express lift (stops only at 1F and 10F) and it may be quicker to use those in combination with escalators to get to the level you like quickly.
• Coin lockers are found is almost every major attraction and JR station but finding a large one that is available can be challenging so allow extra time. Most coin lockers only take 100 yen coins with the exception of newer ones which also takes IC cards as payment.
• Some food courts have drinkable water for you to refill your bottles but otherwise vending machines and konbinis will quench your hydration needs (the peach drink is pretty addictive).
• Other than Booking.com, Google maps, Google Translate, DeepL and Japan Travel by NAVITIME, we didn't really used the other apps we downloaded before hand but you might find a use for them: Mamamap, NERV, Ecbo cloak, Klook.

Child related tips

• Younger kids take awhile to acclimatize to a foreign environment and our kids were more lethargic than they normally are during the day, sometimes needing 2 naps instead of 1 so be prepared to adjust your plans and skip over some places that were catered specifically for them if needed.
• Google maps only tells you the distance to get you from Point A to Point B horizontally. Unfortunately it doesn't consider the routes involving travelling multiple floors to avoid heavy traffic even with wheelchair access enabled. For instance you can go across Tenshiba Garden from JR Tennoji via the overhead bridge (not ideal as the route is longer with a stroller) or underground (best with a stroller but unfortunately Google Maps doesn't show this route and we stumble across it by chance).
• Google maps navigation over multiple floors is also not very accurate but the local directory maps are very informative so take extra time to study it and find the nearest access (parents room, lift or exit to above ground/ underground).
• The lift (singular as most train station platforms only share one lift unless it's a major one like Osaka/ Kyoto etc), are often located at one end of the platform so allow additional 15 - 20 minutes when travelling with strollers or luggage.
• Most department stores/ shopping malls (Daimaru etc) have a floor suitable for kids with toy samples for playing and sometimes even a free play area (Bornelund).
• Our kids love the Butaman from Horai and we probably purchased from 5 different stores throughout the trip (they are located at almost every major station and department store). Find something that works for your kids that can be found readily (7-11, family mart, Lawson's, daily Yamazaki etc) as back up when they didn't want to eat where you were dining at or if they fell asleep and skipped a meal.
• 100 yen stores (Daiso, 3 coins, Seria, Can*Do, Watts) have plenty of cheap kid activities (e.g. sticker books, puzzles, bubble wand etc) that can entertain them throughout the day/ in restaurants/ in the showe in the accommodation before bed etc.
• Paid Attractions in Kansai that are worthwhile if your kids are under 5 (6 and above may be charged separately): Tennoji Zoo, Abeno Harukas 300, Kyoto Railway Museum, Osaka Kaiyukan, Tempozan Ferris Wheel.
• Other brekky alternatives that we liked apart from konbinis/ bakeries were MOS burgers and Doutor coffee. Gyudons (sukiya, matsuya, yoshinoya) morning menu was a bit too heavy for our kids and other options we would have tried were too far from where we stayed (Tully's, McDonalds, KoHiKan).
• Some places require you order a main meal per adult but we are small eaters so we make sure what we ordered was something our kids might eat (not spicy etc).
• Tabelog is useful to tell you the size of the restaurant and we avoided anywhere that seats less than 20 people to save time.
• We tried to eat at a restaurant for lunch and dinner the first few days but actually realize the kids enjoy munching on small eats from konbinis/ street vendors more than a casual sit down meal so we were a bit more spontaneous the second half of the trip.
• Watch out for deer poo at Nara especially when pushing your stroller! Most of the deer are quite friendly and let you pet them but don't touch their tail area as they can get defensive. If your kids are feeding away the crackers too quickly, break them in half so you have more 'ammunition'.
• Metro and JR Trains (including limited express ones) stop for less than 10 seconds. Please remember to unlock your stroller when you are approaching your next stop and prepare to jump out.

Finally got around sharing our wonderful experience in Kansai (1 Apr 2024 - 10 Apr 2024). We are a family of 4 from Perth, Australia (1 x Toddler turning 4 end of this month and 1 x Infant about 18 months old) joined by my MIL from Malaysia. It was our first time trip to Japan but the second time flying 6 hours long with 2 kids. We chose to travel during this period as it was during Easter holidays and also the most favourable weather for our kids. As we have 4 separate accommodations booked over 9 days, we try to travel as light as possible: 2 x large suitcase, 1 x medium suitcase, 2 x medium bags, 1 x bag pack, 1 x dedicated bag for infant carrier and kids' jumpers + 1 stroller. Our kids still take nap(s) during the day and our plan was having the toddler sleep on the stroller and the infant in the carrier or the stroller if toddler is not using.
After extensive research (mostly from this sub) we still found the first few days to be quite hectic and wish we know some of the things beforehand (listed below the itinerary). I hope this post can help young families who are considering travelling to Japan with kids or those who have travelled to Japan before kids came to the picture to do it again with confidence.

9 Day Itinerary (1 Apr 2024 - 10 Apr 2024)

Day 1 Osaka: Namba (Monday)
Our flight from KUL arrived KIX around 10am and boarded the Nankai Rapid (bought 1 month prior online) to Shin-Imamiya station after getting our luggage. We originally planned to take a taxi from there but failed to find any taxi for 20 mins so we end up walking to our accommodation as the kids were tired of waiting. After offloading our luggage we manage to hail a taxi and head to Namba Parks to rest and unwind. Had a refreshing lunch at Yasaiya Mei (mains + all you can eat side dishes including veg tempura) and went to explore the rooftop parks garden before putting the kids to nap. After the kids woke up we took a taxi back to check in officially. Everyone was quite tired thus we opted to stay in and get dinner from Life supermarket nearby. This was probably the most enjoyable part of the day for the kids wandering around a foreign supermarket as we bought dinner and some light snacks. After putting the kids to bed, we did some laundry and packed our 1st luggage to send away.
Day 2 Osaka: Tennoji (Tuesday)
While everyone was getting ready, I went to the nearby 7-Eleven to forward our 1st luggage to the 4th accommodation via Yamato transport. The shop attendant was helpful and guided me through the process as we communicated via deepL. We walked to the Lawson's at JR Imamiya to get brekkky before taking the Osaka loop Line to JR tennoji. We took quite a while to navigate towards Tennoji Zoo from JR Tennoji but eventually got there after a 15 min detour. It was quite crowded for a Tuesday morning but the kids get to roam around the Tenshiba garden while I queue up for tickets (500 yen per adult). One of the kids fell asleep in the zoo so we decided to just grab food to go at the supermarket outside the zoo for lunch. We then head towards Abeno Q's mall to shop and put the other kid to sleep. There was quite a lot of hot food along the way and we manage to grab some for the kids to snack on after their nap (butaman from Horai 555, mochi donut from Mister Donut, taiyaki etc). There's a fantastic area for kids to play (kid, play, study) at the ground floor with different sensory setup and soft blocks for stacking/ balancing. I spent close to 2 hours there with 2 kids while my wife and MIL went shopping. After that we had dinner at Grand Capital Toyoutei at the Kintetsu mall dining floor before heading to our final activity of the day: Abeno Harukas 300. Tickets were a bit steep (2000 yen per adult) but we end up staying there for quite a bit and the experience was pretty unique even though we missed the sunset timing. The elevator ride to the top though short left quite an impression. The kids enjoyed running around at the sky garden 2 floors below as we rest and enjoy the night view of the city from about 300m above ground. The journey back to our accommodation was pretty straightforward and the kids got knocked out when we got home. All in all Tennoji was a pleasantly great experience and we have a better understanding about JR station layout and navigating underground.
Day 3 Osaka - Kyoto (Wednesday)
This was a rather hectic day as it rained quite a bit and we struggled to get a taxi after checking out, getting turned down by several taxis with "空车". We eventually found one to bring us to JR Osaka station. Navigating at the station wasn't too difficult after yesterday but there were long queues when we arrived at 10am and I made the fatal mistake of leaving my physical credit card back in Perth and spent 45mins trying to redeem limited express tickets I reserved online. The JR staff were friendly and tried their best to help but they can only recommend me cancelling my initial reservation and buying new tickets (cancellation fee was about 2300 yen for 3 adults). As soon as we got our tickets we sprinted to the underground gate about 15 mins walk away. I even carried the stroller and kids through an escalator as we didn't want to waste time finding a lift and risk missing the train. We managed to board the limited express train on time and arrived at JR Kyoto which was even more crowded and larger than most international airports. The kids were quite cranky by now as it has been all rush and long waits since they woke up. I split up with my family with 2 luggage that we initially planned to forward to our Arashiyama accommodation via Sagawa. However I was told same day delivery service is only applicable to limited hotels so I stored the luggage at 2 coin lockers and then head to the Kintetsu line ticket counter to redeem the Kyoto-Nara and Nara-Osaka limited express tickets which fortunately doesn't require my credit card details (just reservation number). By the time I reunite with my family it was still raining and both kids fell asleep so we ditched the plan for Kyoto railway museum and instead went browsing for lunch at Porta and Isetan dining floor. We eventually queued to eat at Ejuan for about 25 minutes while one of the kid was still asleep. The wait was worthwhile as the grilled miso black cod was exceptional as was the kids' grilled chicken. Next we went to the skywalk at level 9 briefly before my family went to the toy section at Isetan while I retrieve our luggage from the coin lockers. We board the Saga line bound for Saga-Arashiyama and rested awhile at the accommodation before heading out for dinner after the rain stopped. We walked to Kijurou and fortunately they have space for us provided we order a main meal per adult. The yakiniku and Wagyu rib loin bowls were pretty good but we find the Hitsumabushi set a bit gimmicky. After dinner we stopped by Kimono Forest on our way back and this was probably the highlight of the kids day.
Day 4 Kyoto: Arashiyama (Thursday)
Had Lawson's for brekky before heading out to Kimono Rental Amuya to hired kimonos for my wife and toddler including hairstyling. The shop was actually a house with the living area turned into a studio and only the owner working by herself so we waited for about half an hour before walking towards the Bamboo Forest and Tenryu-ji gardens (500 yen entry from the north gate but well worth it for the blooming sakura and picturesque lake). It was crowded as expected and everyone was moving slowly so it took us about an hour to complete the loop back to the main tourist strip. We then had Udon for lunch at Ozuru, the chewy noodles were complemented by the broth which was a lot more flavourful than the kitsune Udon we are accustomed to back in Perth. After lunch we head home to put the kids to nap before venturing out in the evening towards Togetsukyo Bridge overlooking the pristine Katsura river flowing gracefully from Mt Arashi in the backdrop. The view was breathtaking and we crossed over to Arashiyama park where the kids had a great time running around free range. As the sun was setting, we head back to the town centre, took a novelty Randen ride and grab some food (Naruse's Unagi, Upit's Burger) en route to our accommodation to eat in before calling it a day.
Day 5 Kyoto (Friday)
After checking out we took the Saga line to JR Kyoto station and forwarded the medium sized luggage to the 4th accommodation in Osaka using Crosta. We then did some light shopping at Yodabashi Camera Kyoto as my MIL shoes had kick the bucket and we needed a replacement. Manage to sneak in the only ramen meal of the trip at Ramen Chabuton located upstairs. It was a fairly small shop but we were lucky to get a table just before the Friday lunch rush hour and our ramen cravings were thoroughly satiated. We put the kids down for a quick nap as we make our way back to JR Kyoto to take the Saga line towards Kyoto railway museum. This is an underrated attraction with so much to do and we could have spent the whole day here if I knew they had coin lockers. There were many interactive and educational displays relating to train components in addition to multiple play areas upstairs as well as an outdoor playground! There's also a mockup ticket gate for kids to learn how to purchase a ticket and pass through the gate. Our kids loved the ball pit, toy train area and large train simulator. We couldn't squeeze enough time to explore the 3rd floor or watch the diorama presentation or board the Steam Locomotive as it was getting late. We took a taxi to check-in at Kamoya Ryokan before taking the bus to Nishiki Market for dinner. It's about 6pm and most of the shops were shutting and the remaining ones that are open had queues building up quickly. We ended up waiting 30 mins to eat sushi at Sushi Say. There's a limited range of cooked food including skewers which we got for our kids while we share a nigiri platter and sashimi. After dinner we went to the basement of Daimaru Kyoto across the road to get some baked goods for brekky before taking the taxi home to crash.
Day 6 Kyoto (Saturday)
My MIL wanted to take it easy and explore the area at her own pace so we had a more spontaneous day. After brekky, we took the bus to Yasaka Shrine and started our trek towards Heian Jingu, stopping along the way to enjoy the blossoming park and munching on food from street vendors. We paid to enter the shrine garden (600 yen per adult) which was very worth it for a 30 minute stroll and escape from the bustling crowd outside. We grab some food to eat from the street vendors as one of the kid slept and then head to the playground across the road (Wagener Square) and spent a good 30 minutes there even though it was a bit basic (Perth is blessed with many great playgrounds). Once both kids are feeling refreshed we felt adventurous and took the bus to attempt the hike up Kiyomizu-dera. Since its a Saturday, the Sannenzaka path was packed with phenomenal crowds with the occasional car coming through and splitting the crowd apart. I carried the infant to sleep while my wife push our toddler on the stroller as we slowly make our way up, stopping by for a nice matcha latte and softserve at Here cafe to recharge. We eventually reached the base of the temple after 30 minutes and decided against entering due to the massive crowds (& stairs!). On the way down we reached the fork that branches into Ninenzaka and thought we try giving it a go. There were a lot more stairs over this side and we had to carry the stroller through the steps while waiting for the crowd to advance before us. As physically draining as it was, we felt a sense of achievement as we manage to snap a photo with the iconic Hokanji temple. We took the bus home after that and had an enjoyable dinner at Okonomiyaki Yoshino next door before an early night to recover.
Day 7 Kyoto - Nara - Osaka (Sunday)
We had some leftover food for brekky before checking out and heading to JR Kyoto via taxi. We head to the Kintetsu line and boarded the Vistacar limited express train to Nara. I've booked for the private room down stairs which was pretty spacious for the 5 of us and our luggage. After arriving at Kintetsu-Nara station, we took the 100 yen tourist bus to the famous Nara Deer Park and started exploring the area. There were plenty of deer roaming throughout/ resting on the ground and several vendors at the entrance selling deer crackers. After the kids were done feeding 2 sets of crackers, we head to Mizuya Chaya for lunch. There were limited seating so we sat by the side and ate with the bowl in our hands while feeding the kids. Probably the best Udon we had in our lives (level above Ozuru in Arashiyama and Hifumiya in Perth). Time for a nap so we put the kids down while making our way to have a closer look at Todaiji temple as there were too many stairs to Kasuga-taisha and we have yet to recover. We had our first Cremia here and it was amazing. After the kids woke up we took the bus back to Kintetsu-Nara station and explored the nearby street while waiting for our train. We then boarded the HINOTORI limited express bound for Osaka. While walking towards the hotel to check in, we were passing by Dotombori and opted to have a quick dinner and call it a day rather than coming out again after checking in and offloading our luggage. We ended up having curry at Hariju Dotombori Curry shop which taste d like a homely nourishing meal. After dinner we took the taxi to the hotel and fortunately our 2 other luggage that we forwarded days before are waiting for us to collect. Did some repacking and also laundry at a nearby laundromat before sleep.
Day 8 Osaka: Osaka Bay Area (Monday)
Started the day with brekky at MOS Burger just outside our hotel before taking the metro train to Osaka Bay Area. There were plenty to see as we approach the Kaiyukan, large LEGO animal displays, the large ferris wheel and Disney characters. The ticketing and entry time is staggered which is a good idea to control the amount of crowds going in and out. I started queueing at 1035am and got entry for 11am which was fair (opted not to book timeslot online as it can be unpredictable with kids and public transit) but we didn't felt like its a long wait as the kids were running around and enjoying the ocean view. The entry also have a photographer stationed to take a family polaroid with a whale shark replica for FREE. We were impressed with the aquarium's efficient layout where some prominent displays (Whale Shark, Seals etc) span across multiple floors so you can still enjoy them later on if you missed it earlier due to the crowds. Apart from sea creatures there are also Arctic mammals and birds (Puffins) from all over the world. The kids were over stimulated by lunch time so we head to the food court at Tempozan Market Place to refuel. After lunch we took the kids for a ferris wheel ride before putting both to sleep while we make our way to Shinsaibashisuji Shopping Street via metro line. As the kids were still asleep, I rested at Daimaru with my MIL while my wife went shopping. This turn out to be a fantastic place with a floor dedicated for kids (Pokemon centre, Pokemon cafe, BorneLund mini play area with many display toys available for sampling). The kids spent the rest of the day here after they woke up and we had dinner at the dining floor. There were queues everywhere and we chose to wait at Aozora Blue as they offer udon made with a higher wheat ratio here. Regrettably the kids didn't enjoy as much and prefer regular ones that we are used to. After dinner we took away cheescake from Rikuro for dessert back at our hotel. I made sure to online check in our flights before I go to bed.
Day 9 Osaka: Dotombori (Tuesday)
Our final day in Japan and we chose to do some shopping and take it easy. Tried Doutor Coffee for brekky (took a while to find as it was underground) before walking to Don Quijote at Dotombori. There's 6 floors crammed with various items: snacks, electronics, clothing, non prescription medication, toys, collectibles as well as a functional ferris wheel (operates after 2pm). That being said the kids got bored after awhile and didn't really enjoy much as there wasn't much space to move around. I brought them out to stroll around the Ebisu-bashi Bridge while my wife and MIL continue their haul. It was certainly a sight to behold: countless amount of large LCD screens with surround sound on full blast from every high rise building, street buskers vying for attention from crowds that were constantly on the move, tourists taking selfies in front of the iconic Glicoman. Sadly it started to drizzle so I quickly entered the Shinsaibashisuji Shopping Street undercover area and look for a place to have lunch. I stumbled across a Yoshinoya & Hanamaru joint food hall which was bustling with both locals and foreigners. You have to order and get your food from the counter before you can occupy a table so I waited for my wife and MIL to arrive before we start queueing up. We had the gyudon and beef Udon with onsen egg along with chicken karaage and tempura. There's also a condiment station with toppings to complement your udon as well as free tea and water. Everything was very affordable and best of all we didn't had to wait long. After lunch my wife continuing shopping while we head to Daimaru for the kids to have a nap and play afterwards. I noticed there's a bridge that connects each floor to the Parco next door and discovered a unique floor full of pop culture themed stores including a studio Ghibli store featuring Totoro and No-Face displays, a 2 ft tall Godzilla, Ultraman, Capcom superstore, Sanrio (Hello Kitty), Snoopy, Rilakkuma and also a LEGO store. The kids had a great time browsing and also playing with LEGO before my wife reunites with us. As it's nearing dinner time, I thought we try our luck getting a table at Ganko Dotombori and make our way towards Ebisu-bashi Bridge. The view here is even more spectacular at night with the contrasting lights as well as numerous LCD displays illuminating the area. Unfortunately there's a lengthy wait at Ganko and our party voted for street food instead which turn out surprising well. Kids devoured a dozen gyozas while we had takoyaki, kobe beef nigiri, yakitori and yakiniku skewers as we strolled along the street. It was still early so we made a detour towards Hozenji before walking back the hotel. Then we stumbled upon an arcade (Amuse Factory AXE) which naturally drawn the kids in, we got popcorn from a vending machine there and it was enough to keep the kids happy on our trek back. Before taking our last sleep in Japan, we organized our luggage and get them ready for check out the next day.
Day 10 Osaka: Sayonara (Wednesday)
Checked out of the hotel and took a private airport taxi to KIX. Had brekky at McD and Lawsons and surprised to find that the food here costs the same as outside (e.g. McD/ Hungry Jacks at Malaysian/ Australian airports cost more than the metro/ suburban outlets). Boarded the flight and bid Japan farewell for now while soaking in the surreal time we had.
List of accommodations for 3 adults and 1 child + 1 infant/ toddler
1. Orange House 701 (22,500 yen for 2 nights) 10/10
Location is not bad in a quiet area South of the bustling Dotombori area with Konbinis and JR Imamiya within walking distance. Washing machine, shower and stove took some time to figure out and my kid accidentally turned on the stove but luckily there's a safety button. Overall a brilliant accommodation at an affordable price and will consider returning if we come back to Osaka with kids.
2. Arashiyama bamboo guest house (55,650 yen for 2 nights + 1200 yen tax) 8/10
Prime location 1 min away from JR station, Lawson and walking distances to the local tourist strip, Bamboo Grove, Tenryu-ji and Togetsukyo Bridge. However the room is located on the 3rd floor with no lift so it can be a challenge for kids and older folk. The owner was kind enough to carry our 2 X 20kg luggage up and speaks a little English. The stay was rather comfortable even with futons to sleep on while my MIL slept on one of the single beds. We are unlikely returning to Arashiyama but would recommend this place if it suits your budget.
3. Kamoya Ryokan (35,400 yen for 2 nights + 2000 yen tax) 7.5/10
Not as central as the other accommodations but still within 10 mins walking distance to JR and bus lines. This is a shared accommodation so fridge, microwave and hot/ cold water is in the common area but we have a private bathroom to use. There are no beds so we all slept side by side on futons in the same room. For some reason kids are also taxed to stay a night here (200 yen) but the host was super friendly, spoke a bit of basic English and helped us with ordering a taxi when we checked out. For the price this is not a bad place for short term stay if cosleeping on futons together as a family is acceptable. Bonus: the okonomiyaki place next door is quite good albeit requiring a bit more effort to communicate but is worth it as plenty of locals seem to frequent there and our kids love the yakisoba.
4. Best Western Hotel Fino Osaka Shinsaibashi (40,450 yen for 3 nights) 8/10
Functional hotel relatively close to Shinsaibashi shopping street and Dotombori. 1 min walk away from Osaka metro station and 7 Eleven. There's also a 24 hour laundromat 5 mins walk away. Facilities are bare minimal but gets the job done as we only needed the place to crash and freshen up since there's a lot of shopping and remaining sightseeing to be done. All reception staff spoke English well and check in/ out was rather smooth. I would consider staying again if the rooms were larger but can't complain at this price point and location.
List of eateries we consider returning

• Yasaiya Mei
• Ejuan
• Kijurou
• Ozuru
• Upit's Burger
• Ramen Chabuton
• Okonomiyaki Yoshino
• Mizuya Chaya
• Yoshinoya & Hanamaru

Highlight of each day for the kids

1. Wandering around Life supermarket and exploring a new accommodation
2. Running around 300m above ground at the Abeno Harukas sky garden while having fruits/ snacks in between
3. Visiting Kimono Forest after dinner, watching the randen pass by at the crossing
4. Running around at Arashiyama park and watching the majestic Katsura river flowing rapidly
5. The outdoor playground at Kyoto railway museum among many other fun things there
6. The playground at Wagener Square across Heian Jingu
7. Interacting with deer and eating udon outdoors
8. Seeing different sea animals up close and ferris wheel ride after
9. Making friends at BorneLund and having imaginary play together despite the language barrier

Lessons learned (not in chronological order)

General tips

• We prepared about 160,000 yen cash before arriving at Japan but also have money via 1 x transfer wise debit card (digital), 1 x Westpac credit card (digital), 1 x ING debit card (physical). We ended up withdrawing a further 200,000 yen worth of cash. We opted not to bring any AUD as the rate is quite poor in Japan since most would prefer foreign exchangers would prefer USD.
• We didn't get to use our digital cards as most places in Kansai (Kanto might be different) that offer card payments still requires a physical card to read the chip.
• Please remember to bring the physical card of the credit card used for any online booking to avoid the stress I endured on day 3.
• We booked all the transit tickets online about a month prior and find it worthwhile rather than spending 15 - 30 mins in queue at the ticket counters. The limited express tickets go crazy fast and I recommend booking them the hour they become available (1 month prior your transit date and as soon as it is open in Japan time).
• We booked all 4 accommodations via booking.com and find the messenger via the app very handy in liaising with the owne receptionist on whether we can offload our luggage earlier or forward our luggage a few days in advance. One of them even told me that I can check in few hours earlier as the room was ready. Regardless of what platform you use, try to communicate with the accommodation prior your arrival if you are considering forwarding luggage or dropping them off before your official check in time.
• Booking multiple accommodations over a short span of time is very tiring as we are needing to worry about getting our luggage from A to B every second day but only able to check in the next place 5 - 6 hours after checking out the previous place (Most checkin starts from 3pm and checkout from 10am). Our transition days are always stressful as we don't get to do much due to the timing while handling multiple baggage so the kids are crankier.
• Rubbish/ garbage cans are mainly found on major train stations or shopping malls as well as konbinis. Most vending machines only have a recycle bin but we have plenty of disposable nappy bags which we use as rubbish bags if needed.
• We had 3 data Sims about 5GB each which was sufficient for the 9 days (navigation, Google translate, WhatsApp voice call). Free wifi is available at most places which we use whenever we need to photo dump on WhatsApp group chats or play YouTube for the kids.
• My eSim stopped working when we arrived at Kyoto from Osaka but luckily I tried rebooting my phone and it connected to the local network after. Another down side of data only Sim is there is no Japanese mobile number which can be handy (make reservations at restaurants or signing up for taxi apps to get taxi).
• We use Google Maps and Japan Travel by NAVITIME App to plan our overall route each day, public transit details is quite clear via Google Maps with several options for different J metro/ bus lines. While Japan Travel App is able to approximate cost of taxi which was useful for comparison.
• For translation, we used DeepL app when we wanted to converse with someone in Japanese and Google Translate for written Japanese translation via the camera.
• In Osaka, getting around via JR and Metro is optimal in terms of time and cost; In Kyoto, buses are more readily available but be prepared to stand shoulder to shoulder as the buses are not big and averages around 30 - 50 people. We recommend a taxi if travelling a short distance (<10 minutes) for a family that can fit into a single car.
• You can forward luggage at your hotel or local 7 eleven via Yamato transport within Osaka.
• The Jikan refreshing legs patch worked well for me but my wife got woken up few times as her feet felt cold due to the cooling effect. We got some heat patches the next day and it worked better for her.
• A few Japanese phrases go along way and perhaps it's why we mostly get friendly responses (arigato gozaimas, ohaiyo, konnichiwa, kore onegaishimas, doitashi mashite, hitotsu onegaishimas, daijorbudes, kodomo).
• The basement level of most department stores/ shopping malls sells a variety of package deserts and often a bakery opened till 8pm where we sometimes go to after dinner to get brekky for the next morning.
• Some malls have an express lift (stops only at 1F and 10F) and it may be quicker to use those in combination with escalators to get to the level you like quickly.
• Coin lockers are found is almost every major attraction and JR station but finding a large one that is available can be challenging so allow extra time. Most coin lockers only take 100 yen coins with the exception of newer ones which also takes IC cards as payment.
• Some food courts have drinkable water for you to refill your bottles but otherwise vending machines and konbinis will quench your hydration needs (the peach drink is pretty addictive).
• Other than Booking.com, Google maps, Google Translate, DeepL and Japan Travel by NAVITIME, we didn't really used the other apps we downloaded before hand but you might find a use for them: Mamamap, NERV, Ecbo cloak, Klook.

Child related tips

• Younger kids take awhile to acclimatize to a foreign environment and our kids were more lethargic than they normally are during the day, sometimes needing 2 naps instead of 1 so be prepared to adjust your plans and skip over some places that were catered specifically for them if needed.
• Google maps only tells you the distance to get you from Point A to Point B horizontally. Unfortunately it doesn't consider the routes involving travelling multiple floors to avoid heavy traffic even with wheelchair access enabled. For instance you can go across Tenshiba Garden from JR Tennoji via the overhead bridge (not ideal as the route is longer with a stroller) or underground (best with a stroller but unfortunately Google Maps doesn't show this route and we stumble across it by chance).
• Google maps navigation over multiple floors is also not very accurate but the local directory maps are very informative so take extra time to study it and find the nearest access (parents room, lift or exit to above ground/ underground).
• The lift (singular as most train station platforms only share one lift unless it's a major one like Osaka/ Kyoto etc), are often located at one end of the platform so allow additional 15 - 20 minutes when travelling with strollers or luggage.
• Most department stores/ shopping malls (Daimaru etc) have a floor suitable for kids with toy samples for playing and sometimes even a free play area (Bornelund).
• Our kids love the Butaman from Horai and we probably purchased from 5 different stores throughout the trip (they are located at almost every major station and department store). Find something that works for your kids that can be found readily (7-11, family mart, Lawson's, daily Yamazaki etc) as back up when they didn't want to eat where you were dining at or if they fell asleep and skipped a meal.
• 100 yen stores (Daiso, 3 coins, Seria, Can*Do, Watts) have plenty of cheap kid activities (e.g. sticker books, puzzles, bubble wand etc) that can entertain them throughout the day/ in restaurants/ in the showe in the accommodation before bed etc.
• Paid Attractions in Kansai that are worthwhile if your kids are under 5 (6 and above may be charged separately): Tennoji Zoo, Abeno Harukas 300, Kyoto Railway Museum, Osaka Kaiyukan, Tempozan Ferris Wheel.
• Other brekky alternatives that we liked apart from konbinis/ bakeries were MOS burgers and Doutor coffee. Gyudons (sukiya, matsuya, yoshinoya) morning menu was a bit too heavy for our kids and other options we would have tried were too far from where we stayed (Tully's, McDonalds, KoHiKan).
• Some places require you order a main meal per adult but we are small eaters so we make sure what we ordered was something our kids might eat (not spicy etc).
• Tabelog is useful to tell you the size of the restaurant and we avoided anywhere that seats less than 20 people to save time.
• We tried to eat at a restaurant for lunch and dinner the first few days but actually realize the kids enjoy munching on small eats from konbinis/ street vendors more than a casual sit down meal so we were a bit more spontaneous the second half of the trip.
• Watch out for deer poo at Nara especially when pushing your stroller! Most of the deer are quite friendly and let you pet them but don't touch their tail area as they can get defensive. If your kids are feeding away the crackers too quickly, break them in half so you have more 'ammunition'.
• Metro and JR Trains (including limited express ones) stop for less than 10 seconds. Please remember to unlock your stroller when you are approaching your next stop and prepare to jump out.

DAY: MAY 8 2024
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From last night... I fell asleep before finishing and posting it.
Early morning: One more text from Doreen. "Don't forget to shave your legs and pits."
I met Doreen at the salon at 8:30. I was early. So was she. We walked in. One step inside and I knew NOT to ask if they do black hair. Shut up and sit. Hair. Eyebrows. Nails. Goodbye advice from hair stylist to me: "You better watch your posture!" Done. One down.
Doreen to me: "This is not girls out shopping. We have very little time and have to be back here by 1:30 for your makeup. I make the decisions, you try on, you pay, your opinion doesn't count. That's that." Rules set. Two down. Off to High-End-Store.
"The most important thing to buy are the shoes. You have to be comfortable--and you can't slip. We are going to try on polished black loafers with a chunk heel." I'm measured and the salesperson brings several styles. "The soles have to be soft. Which one is the most comfortable?" I pick one and we also buy black pantyhose. Three down.
"We are now going to select a business-casual black suit paired with with a white button-down." We selected several to try on. "You are obviously very athletic. I like the one with the short skirt the best on you because it shows your athleticism." We picked out a nice bag as well. Ciao, High-end-Store. Four down.
Cheap Accessories Storefront. "Here is where we are going to highlight that you are a girl. Cheap costume jewelry. A necklace and earrings. Let's get a new bad taste band for your iWatch. Five down.
Contrasting to all the glamor, we only had time for a fast food truck hot dog. It's Manhattan. No one notices, no one cares. Then back to the salon for makeup. I changed there and I will pick up my clothes after school. Off to the 3:00 p.m. meeting.
Doreen dropped me off to school. "You did good today. I look forward to working with you during the internship. Good luck--and remember your posture."
When I walked into the office I did see a couple of heads turn. I can imagine Heidi asking with them, "What had happened to Floppy Lita?"
Luisa soon arrived and looked at me as if this was my accepted and usual appearance. How does she look so coquette in business casual? I snuck her the copies of my resume, modeling portfolio, writing sample, and personal statement and she put them in the packet. The meeting was quite simple and quick. Luisa walked my advisor through the packet. There were pages describing each week's internship and associated learning goals and deliverables.
Once or twice she shot me a "POSTURE!" look. My academic advisor seemed satisfied but lost in thought. "Lita is a responsible and creative student. May and June are what we call 'the dog days' of the school year. Students are tired and just waiting for the summer. Teachers, too, tend to check out and just count the days. We have simply gone through our back of tricks. I think that your plan for the internship is well-planned and highly educational. I wish we could build in similar experiences for all of our high school students at the end of the school year."
Approved, start date changed to Monday. Luisa: "Thank you!" Advisor: "No, thank you!"
As we get up to leave Luisa shoots me her "POSTURE!" look.
I know Heidi is having her lesson with Arturo. I am just going to pick up my clothes from the salon, head home, and knock off homework.
My question to anyone who reads this: Do you think I wore my new clothes on the way home or do you think I changed back and wore my floppy regulars?
[EDIT]: I found this article in the May 10th World Tribune. It's about how a Men's Division member, a musician, from Georgia, who is helping his YMD build a Brass Band. He talks about a quote from an article called “Precepts for Brass Band” in which Ikeda Sensei says:

“I would like to say that your spirit should transcend vanity as well as musical techniques and ability. The sound of the Brass Band should be the rhythm of faith. It must roar with the sound of passion, as if to crush the angry waves of the ocean.”

I am going to take the spirit here and apply it to my internship. I will "transcend vanity as well as technique and ability," my work will express "the rhythm of faith," my attitude and "POSTURE!" will "roar with the sound of passion, as if to crush the angry waves of the ocean.”

Recently, I had to migrate our WordPress Site from WP Engine to Siteground Webhosting. Upon researching how to do this, there was never a single resource that showed exactly how to do this successfully, at least in my case.
I did find an obvious solution though, which I’ll share below at the end.
Some Background:
Before starting, I researched backup plugins like Duplicator, etc. Unfortunately, that won’t run on WP Engine, and all other attempts to use a backup plug-in were a major failure because of how WP Engine is set up to run.
So the only option that looked somewhat reasonable is a manual migration.
Let me briefly explain what I did.
Basic description of my business WordPress Site:

• WordPress 6.5.3 with Elementor.
• Around 8 Plugins Installed (nothing too complex.)
• The total size of the site when exported is roughly 250MB in size (75MB MySql DB.)
• About 5 published pages and 10 published blog posts.
• Roughly around 200 image files in our media directory.

After doing various research on how to manually migrate Wordpress from WP Engine To Siteground, I found the following steps:

1. On the old site (WP-Engine), export your entire “Public_Html” folder via FTP to a local directory on your desktop.
2. On the old site (WP-Engine) go into PHPMyAdmin and select your database, then do a minimal export of your database to a SQL file.
3. Then (on your new web-hosting provider) you upload the “Public_Html” folder via FTP from your local desktop.
4. Then (on your new web-hosting provider) you create a new MySQL DB and configure a new DB Username with a Password.
5. After the new Wordpress DB is set up, go to PHPMyAdmin and import your SQL file.
6. Configure a new wp-config.php file with the new DB Name, DB Username, and DB Password. Update the encryption keys. I used a fresh wp-config.php file by renaming a copy of the wp-config_sample.php file.
7. At this point, you update (search and replace) the string values for your domain name if moving to a different domain or leave that alone. Since I migrated to a staging environment I updated the name accordingly.
8. Lastly, you redirect your DNS.

NOTE: In my migration I never actually cut over the DNS, instead I set up a staging environment on Siteground so we could make sure everything would load properly, before actually cutting over the DNS.
Optional Export for WP Engine, Besides FTP
Also, for WP Engine, you can download a Zip file of your entire WordPress Site and DB from your backup checkpoints.
In my several failed attempts, I did both the FTP download and tried the exported backup file. The outcome was the same, which I describe below.
Last Detail Relating to Wp Engine
Because I was moving from WPEngine, I also followed these steps to remove the additional files specific to WPEngine’s environment like MU Plugins, etc.
https://wpengine.com/support/best-practices-uploading-wp-engine-site-another-environment/
The End Result:
Using the basic steps above to manually migrate, I made several attempts at migrating my business website from WP Engine to Siteground, and the following was true for each outcome.

1. I could log in to a running WordPress Site but all the reference points from WP Admin to my Pages, Posts, Images, and WP Theme were NOT showing up. Even though they show up in the database under PHPMYADMIN.
2. All the plugins were inactive, but did show up OK in WP Admin under Plugins.
3. I would assume there are probably other issues going on as well, that were not observable through WP Admin.

Overall, the WordPress site ran like a new site, not a migrated one.
The End Solution: The Siteground Migration Plug-In
After further research, I discovered that Siteground has a migration plug-in. After following the steps for installing the migration plug-in on my WordPress Site with WP Engine, it automatically completed the migration and everything is 100% up and running with no issues!
In all of my research online, I did not come across the Siteground Migrator Plug-in as an obvious option when doing various Google searches with my intended keywords, ‘Migrate WP Engine Wordpress site to SiteGround”.
So I wanted to share my experience here, in case anyone else has these issues which I mentioned above.
Some Additional Findings:

1. I did some further testing for the manual migration of WordPress and found that the steps above do work, if you are doing it just on WP Engine or SiteGround. To test this I just used a staging environment.
2. It does not seem to work when going from WP Engine to SiteGround. This tells me that either though WordPress is running on each of these web hosting solutions, the underlying server environments must be very different. Or the Database structures are very different.
3. WP Engine is clearly different because it’s a Managed WordPress platform, but SiteGround?
4. Also, I did another test where I manually had to migrate a single-page WordPress site from SiteGround to Orange Web Hosting which uses CPanel as the backend, and I had the same exact problem where my theme, images, pages, or posts would not show up, but WordPress was running. And you could see the pages and posts in the database.

So I’m just curious, what’s the deal with doing a manual WordPress Migration?
Why does it work on the same platform but not across different web-hosting platforms?
If someone with developer experience could chime in, I’d be extremely grateful.
I’m sure anybody else looking to migrate WordPress from their existing platform, whether it be WP-Engine, SiteGround, etc, would be extremely grateful too.
Thanks, and going forward I guess the lesson here is always to use your web hosting platform’s migration tool, if they have one. This would have saved me a lot of time!

First Previous
Captain Semnik sat in the electrocart as it whirred down the paved pathway to the rocket launch site in the distance. He pulled at his environmental suit, disliking how the fabric would catch on his fur when it shifted over his body. He took a deep breath, trying to calm his heartbeat that fluttered from the nerves.

“Nervous, Sir?” Navigator Fasili said. “It’s hard to imagine that the first Meer in space has anything to fear.”

Semnik frowned. He didn’t like the smarmy grin on Fasili’s face. Sure, he had been the first Meer in space. He was, in fact, the only Meer to ever be in space. His only mission involved circling the planet a few times before instructing his conical capsule to crash through the atmosphere and parachute into the ocean.

The entire ordeal was terrifying. The gravitational pressure as the rocket shoved him back in his chair on the ascent felt like he was going to be squeezed into jelly. The odd feeling as the blue sky vanished into a field of black, only the stars and Skyfire above along with Meeria below to keep him company. The worry that his equipment wouldn’t work and he would be stuck up there. The fear he would burn up in the atmosphere upon reentry. The terror that the parachute would fail and he would pancake in the ocean. The unease at wondering if the recovery ship would even find him.

He didn’t want to ever go through that again. Yet here he was, enjoying a chauffer service to something that could spell his doom.

In that moment, Semnik decided to get a little revenge on the arrogant Navigator. “Six out of ten of these things have exploded going up. I have good reason to be nervous.”

Fasili’s ears folded down as her eyes went wide and her whiskers pulled back against her snout. Her realization of how dangerous this task was plastered all over her face.

“It’s not that bad, Captain,” Engineer Zandis rejoined, his finger wagging. “Remember, most of those explosions were early in the program before we sent anything valuable up. We’re a lot better at it now.”

Fasili let out a breath she was holding in relief. “See, sir? Nothing to worry about. We’ll be fine.”

“That’s right,” Zandis replied. Then a wry grin came over his face. “After all, we improved the safety to only one in five exploding.”

Of course, all three were perfectly aware of the risks they were taking. They shared a laugh from the black humor, a brief moment of mirth before they had to get down to business.

The last few decades had been rough on Meerkind. Now 20 years removed from a massive war that devastated the planet and pushed the Meers nearly to extinction, they had come together in the aftermath. There was something about nearly seeing your civilization end that snapped everyone out of their old grudges.

After the end of the war, only the Northern Alliance remained as a functional state. Their efforts had switched to consolidating the few remaining refugees from the other three continents, which had suffered catastrophic damage.

The Northern Alliance, in a bid to improve morale, decided to turn to the stars. The Meer people needed something positive, a small victory to hold onto. They needed to know that their civilization was more than conflict and strife, that it had capacity to do something better.

It started with the rocket program. Repurposing the old weapons that had devastated the world, they removed the warheads and aimed them to the heavens. Realizing sending a rocket into space was much harder than lobbing them across an ocean, the Meer imagination kicked into gear.

After a few years of effort, and a number of lost rockets, they finally managed to get one to successfully leave the planet. The next step was sending up an artificial satellite. They intended to send up a small sphere, put it into orbit and have it transmit a simple radio signal down to the world below.

After three more lost rockets, the newly established Meer Aeronautics and Space Agency, MASA, put one up there.

Scheduled to make a full circumnavigation of Meeria, the small metal sphere was released and on the planned trajectory. Then something peculiar happened. About halfway through its journey, the orbit suddenly shifted 30 degrees south at a sharp angle, slowed and eventually burnt up in the atmosphere.

MASA engineers were perplexed. The capsule was little more than a radio beacon and a battery, so it didn’t have a propulsion system. It was a well-known principle that nothing spontaneously changed momentum. Something had to act upon the satellite.

It took some time to prepare an observation telescope. The satellite was deflected over a region of the Eastern Continent, which had bad pockets of radioactivity from the war. MASA struggled to get approval from the Northern Alliance to redirect funding to the construction of a new telescope, commandeering a vessel that was still used for refugee relief and the associated funding and personnel to command the expedition.

MASA was able to get over one hurdle when it pointed out that they could get a ride on one of the ships already bound for the continent to ferry more refugees. Then the funding was provided by a series of small fundraising efforts. MASA created merchandise, requested donations and the MASA Director even sold his personal luxury conveyance to finance the expedition.

It wasn’t looking good until a wealthy industrialist, someone working on a global communication network to link all the computers together, something today know as the Interburrow, provided a substantial donation.

The expedition was on and Semnik was one of the young interns that received the honor of joining. Setting up the telescope, they scanned the skies in the region the satellite had changed course. After a few weeks of painstakingly scanning every ceem of the heavens, they found it.

And no one could believe their eyes. There, hovering over Meeria, was a metal tube with blue rectangular protrusions coming from each side. This caused a massive stir in the scientific community. Then it got out and a few odd conspiracy theorists, taking old religious texts, started claiming the Meers were visited by prehistoric extrameerestrials. There was even a Meer with shifty eyes and wild hair that managed to get a viewscreen program where he claimed that most, of not all, Meer achievements were a result of these old aliens.

Semnik scoffed at the idea. It was absurd to think that some alien species decided to orbit Meeria just to watch them. If they did, they’d be disgusted at the violent, warlike behavior. No, Semnik was convinced this was some secret device the Eastern Imperials had concocted and the information was lost with the collapse of their government.

Weeks went by studying the object. The only thing breaking up the solid shining metal exterior were small black squares that engineers decided were viewports. Whatever might be behind the windows was a mystery.

They also determined that the shining blue material was some kind of power generation device. There were some working hypotheses that the energy produced by Skyfire could be harnessed for the benefit of Meerkind. The problem is, no one knew how to go about doing it. It was when the blue material would pivot to maintain maximum exposure to Skyfirelight did they realize it wasn’t some fictional dream.

There was no an ongoing battle between the engineers wanting to explore capturing Skyfirelight for power and the ones focused on converting the energy from their weapons warheads to useful power. They posited that if they can control the energy released by the yellow death rock, it could be used to generate limitless power. There was even a faction saying that if they created a small explosion with the yellow death rock, they’d be able to fuse the first gas element and produce even greater power.

Semnik didn’t particularly care one way or the other. That was for the engineers to fight over. What interested him was that not only was this satellite up there, it was also in a perfect Meersynchronous orbit over the planet. He was proud to be the one to identify this peculiarity, since it would have taken a tremendous amount of precision and mathematical calculation to get an object to sit perfectly over one spot on a rotating planet.

Semnik posited whatever it was orbiting over must be important and was permitted a small research team to explore the area. After some calculations, Semnik discovered the object was orbiting over the most unassuming chunk of land on all of Meeria.

Arriving at the location, the team found a small valley nestled between a ring of mountains. At the edge of the valley was a forest and, at its center, was a grassland that measured approximately 2 kilos long and a half kilo wide. Down the center of the valley, a small river flowed. It reminded him of a Northern Alliance Gleekball. The proper kind of Gleekball, in Semnik’s opinion.

Guessing the center of the meadow was the best place to start, the team transitioned there. There, under a small copse of trees, Semnik’s team made a discovery that would rock all of Meerkind. Under the ground were the remains of burrows.

The burrows were supported by ancient, rudimentary stone work and were just large enough for an adult Meer to squeeze through. Many of the tunnels had collapsed since their construction and they discovered primitive stone tools spread in the various rooms. According to an archaeologist on the team, they had a high likelihood of discovering the origin of the Meer species.

This was confirmed when they found ancient fossilized remains of a species that looked Meer-like yet were old enough to be considered a precursor species. It sparked off interesting discussions on evolution.

This alone was a monumental discovery. Yet it was overshadowed by something even more incredible. In one of the rooms, in a small hole covered by a rock, the team discovered something that shouldn’t belong there.

In the hole was a black box. Five of the box sides were made of a black polymer while the sixth was made of glass and had the appearance of a viewscreen. Polymers were only recently invented during the war, meaning this object didn’t belong here.

Assuming it was some forgotten prank, Semnik had the box sent in for the new radiation dating process that scientists had come up with. They’d test the half-life of the materials in the box to determine roughly how old it was.

The results were troubling. The material was old. Very old. Over 200,000 years old. The interior, unfortunately, was so corroded by time that no one could determine what the device was used for. All anyone could ascertain was the glass screen would present visual information.

MASA determined to keep the discovery of the box secret. The authorities had successfully contained the prehistoric alien conspiracy nuts by explaining the orbiting structure was a forgotten Eastern Imperial test. They were happy to let the public enjoy the discovery of their origins.

The box remained under wraps and was what led to this mission. Semnik became obsessed with the orbiting station and the box so much that he worked his way to becoming the first Spacemeer. It had taken two decades to reach the point where they knew enough about the hostile conditions of the region beyond the planet and how to protect from them.

Now, they were ready to send a Meered expedition to the floating object. Semnik would finally find out what was hovering over the world and if it had any relation to the black box discovered in a long forgotten prehistoric burrow.

The three brave explorers ascended the lift onto the walkway and entered the rocket. They took their seats in the cockpit and strapped themselves in.

Even with the training and doing this once before, Semnik found it disorienting. He was sitting with his back facing toward the ground many meets below. Everything was oriented correctly in his vision but his body was screaming things were wrong as he stared out into the vast blue sky.

“All ready for liftoff, Captain,” Zandis announced.

“Good,” Semnik replied. “Fasili? Prelaunch check.”

The Navigator checked her station and flipped various switches. “Ready for launch.”

This mission was, formally, to test the new navigation systems. The rocket that Semnik previously flew on was little more than a jumped-up missile. It flew up into space, spit him into orbit and fell down again. It was just there to see if a Meer could survive going up and coming back.

This rocket had multiple stages. The third stage would allow for maneuvering in orbit and a more controlled return. Of course, that was cover for their other mission – explore the floating station. MASA needed to know if it was a threat or not.

“Ready for launch,” Semnik announced. A voice over the radio announced it was go. Semnik flipped some switches on his console and a loud roar rose up around the rocket.

There was something fundamentally insane about the Meers in the rocket. They were sitting upon a tremendous amount of controlled liquid explosives and using it to overcome their planetary gravity. Semnik vowed to press for research into a method a little less ridiculous to go into space in the future. Even if they could reduce the risk, he didn’t like the idea of taking the chance of turning into a glowing fireball in the sky.

The rocket began to shake as it slowly lifted off the pad. A plume of smoke rose around them, which the rocket quickly left behind as it gained speed. Semnik could hear the tandem pressured breathing of his Navigator and Engineer over the open radio. It was a combination of the growing pressure pushing them into their seats and the fear generated from the roar and shudder.

Semnik couldn’t blame them. Even though he knew this was normal and experienced it before, he was also terrified. If Meer was meant to move this fast, the Ancestors would have constructed fuel ports in place of their bums.

The roar and shaking only lasted a few minutes. Even then, it felt like an eternity. Soon, the shaking began to subside and the roar quieted as the air thinned. Then, like a switch, the roaring ceased along with the rumble. They had entered the boundaries of space. Fasili and Zandis now entered the tiny population of Meers who had the pleasure of leaving their home.

“Stage 1 release,” Fasili announced as she flipped a few switches. Semnik was proud of the Navigator. She had overcome her initial fears and professionally handled her duties.

The pressure briefly let up before returning once more, signifying the start of the next phase of their journey. This stage would put them into the same orbital distance as the object before they used the third stage to navigate toward it.

Using her instrumentation, Fasili adjusted the trajectory of the rocket. Without an atmosphere to hinder it, the rocket would move at tremendous speeds. It would take nearly a day of travel from the MASA launch center to the site of the first Meers. In space, it would take them around 30 minutes to reach the object.

The time went by quickly. Semnik reported back to MASA Ground Control as scheduled to report the data on the navigation system. The results bode well for their satellite communication plans. It would be relatively simple to maneuver satellites into their proper position with manned crews.

As they approached the floating object, they took in its size. From the ground, observers had no point of reference to determine how big the object was. In orbit, the object was massive. It was easily longer than two full size rockets and many times wider.

Fasili carefully matched the orbit of the object. To Semnik, it looked like they weren’t moving at all. The object remained still and he could see the forgotten valley down below, sitting perfectly still underneath. Of course, he knew they were moving at incredible speeds since they had to match the rotation of Meeria to be able to remain still.

Semnik radioed back to MASA with an update and added some babbling about how beautiful the world was from above. At least the part he saw. The sections he could see elsewhere that were ravaged by war were left out of the comment. Everyone below knew how bad the war was, they didn’t need reminding it was visible from space.

Little did Semnik know, his embarrassing ramblings were recorded and released. They’d be taught in schools for generations to come.

Carefully maneuvering around the exterior of the station, they took images of it for later study.

“Sir, I see something. It looks like a portal,” Zandis said, pointing a gloved finger out of the window. Ahead, in the otherwise perfectly smooth exterior, was a line in the shape of a circle.

Maneuvering close to it, Semnik ordered they extend the tube to allow entry to the object. The engineers designing the capsule had anticipated the potential need to board the object and created an extending metallic sheet tube. The hope was the object was magnetic and they could connect the ship and crawl over.

Using a camera mounted to the center of the exterior hatch, Zandis maneuvered the extended tube toward the object.

“This is strange,” Zandis commented as he peered through the viewfinder. “The outer hatch is huge. It’s easily triple the diameter of our boarding tube. There is a clear handle that looks like a means of entry inside and it has symbols painted on it. I’ve never seen symbols like those before.”

Semnik hummed. He wanted into that object and he was wondering if it would be safe to exit the rocket without the tube. Maybe walk in space. “Is this going to be a problem?”

“No, sir,” Zandis continued. “What’s stranger is there is a smaller hatch with another handle dead center in the larger one. And I can read the writing. It’s in an archaic dialect, yet the words are clearly instructions on how to open the hatch.”

All three occupants sat in stunned silence. Semnik didn’t quite believe Zandis and took a look for himself. Sure enough, the scene was exactly as Zandis described. A large hatch with a smaller hatch built in and ancient Meeran text stamped on the surface.

Fasili was the first to break the long silence. “Are you sure this is wise, sir? Everything about this feels wrong.”

Semnik peered out of the window at the large orbiting structure. While it was indeed strange to have an object in orbit labeled in ancient Meeran text along with indecipherable runes, nothing about the object triggered his instincts. It didn’t feel hostile. In fact, he thought it was more inviting.

Taking a breath, Semnik announced, “I’m going over. Neither of you are obligated to take this risk if you don’t wish to go.”

Fasili and Zandis looked at each other. They then nodded in tandem, both agreeing to go.

Zandis maneuvered the passage across the distance. Luckily, the surface was magnetic and allowed the tube to connect. Oddly, whoever or whatever had built the object planned on this since the tube subtly shifted to align perfectly with the hatch. The creators had anticipated a magnetic docking mechanism and created magnetic seat points.

Semnik took the lead and, after cycling the airlock, moved slowly through the opening. It was eerily quiet, the only sound his breathing in his helmet and the breathing over the radio from his two companions. Space was frighteningly silent.

Reaching over, he read the proto-language instructions. Make Turn. Right Tight. Left Loose.

Turning the handle leftward, the door silently released a puff of gas before opening. A white light from a strange bulb that looked like it was made of plastic turned on and led the three Meers into a much larger space. Instructions near what they thought of was the floor told them which buttons to hit in what order after closing the outer door.

Following the instructions, Semnik heard the growing hiss of air as the space filled with gas.

Floating lazily in the middle, Zandis looked at some gages on his wrist. “Seems like the air is breathable. The mixture and pressure is a perfect copy of Meeria.”

“Are you certain about those readings?” Semnik asked, secretly wishing to remove his helmet and get the first taste of the object’s air.

“Yes, sir. Unless there’s a catastrophic failure in the device that just happened to perfectly match Meeria, it’s fine,” Zandis replied.

Reaching up, Semnik released the seals around his neck. His Navigator and Engineer shouted in horror. Yet nothing happened. There wasn’t a telltale hiss from a differential in pressure. Semnik took a deep breath and took in the cleanest air he had ever experienced. Not clean like in the remote valley. Clean like the air had nothing but its component gases.

When Semnik didn’t pass out after a few minutes, Fasili took her helmet off followed by Zandis.

“This is incredible,” Fasili said. “I’m starting to think that weird guy on the Prehistoric Extrameerestrials show is correct.”

Semnik didn’t want to admit that and replied, “There’s still the possibility that this is an Eastern Imperial project.”

Zandis looked like he wanted to argue yet decided to keep his mouth shut. He knew that Semnik didn’t believe his own words and didn’t need to state the obvious.

Opening a Meer size hatch cut into a larger one, the trio were led to a huge central shaft as more lights came on to illuminate the space. A ladder with rungs too far apart to make sense moved from the bottom to the top. At various landings, which were odd given the lack of gravity, were a series of doors opposite the ladder. There were 20 of these doors in all.

As they ascended, they found each of the doors, also three times too large than necessary, closed and locked. None of the doors had a convenient set of instructions on how to open them nor did they have Meer size portals cut into them.

Reaching the top, they found another hatch with a Meer sized entryway and opening instructions.

Entering, they found a small hallway with a number of side rooms in them, also illuminating as they entered. The rooms, save for one that looked like the remains of an immense kitchen, were bare. The kitchen only had a sink that didn’t operate. Zandis commented why anyone would put a sink up here when the water would float all over the room in this setup.

The final door opened up to a bizarre room. In the room was a single gigantic viewscreen on a desk. In front of it was a chair. The desk and chair, like everything else, was about three times bigger than it needed to be.

The three Meers propelled themselves up to float waist high to the top of the desk. On the bottom corner of the giant viewscreen was a big red button.

The three stared at it for a long while. They weren’t sure what it would do if pressed.

“Should we press it?” Semnik asked.

The other two shrugged.

“Zandis, what do you think?” Semnik requested, hoping his Engineer had some insight.

Zandis looked over the object. “Strangely, the device seems remarkably simple. Apart from the panel being as flat as paper, it looks like a basic viewscreen. Nothing unusual is connected to it. I think we can turn it on.”

Semnik slowly reached his finger out and gingerly touched it to the surface of the red button. He still had his gloves on, so he didn’t know what it felt like. It looked like a sort of polymer material.

Taking a deep breath, Semnik applied pressure. With a soft click, the button pressed into the screen and it activated.

On the screen was an ugly face. With the exception of a tuft on the top of the round head, it was completely bald. The face had a nub for a nose and eyes had a green ring around the central black pupil. The skin was pale like a Methis flower.

Semnik noted that the figure sat in the gigantic chair behind the three Meers and made it look normal. The creature, the alien Semnik finally realized, was positively gigantic.

“You sure this thing’s on?” the figure said in a deep, booming voice. The Meeran it spoke was just as old as the text written on the portals.

Out of view, a different voice shouted. “Why are you asking me? Is the light on?”

“I’m just the anthropologist. You’re the engineer,” the figure shouted back.

The other voice off-screen yelled back. “Figures a Hillbilly can’t figure out this new-fangled technothingy.”

“That’s Redneck, ya pencil neck!” the pale figure yelled. Semnik didn’t comprehend the odd behavior yet, somehow, knew that there was no hostility in the words.

“Sorry about that,” the pale figure commented. “Heya little buddies. If you’re seeing this, that means you managed to get past one of the big civilization filters. Congratulations! My name is Frank Martin and I’m what is called a Human.”

The three Meers looked at each other. Unless the Eastern Imperials decided to play a giant prank, it was becoming more and more obvious that the Meer with the weird hair and crazy eyes was right.

The face on the screen suddenly put on an expression that Semnik took as dark. “Before I get to it, I have a warning. All that warring you guys are doing? I suggest you find peace with yourselves. When you start getting up into space, it means weapons are getting real bad. You’ll end up killing yourselves off if you don’t. We lost count of how many other civilizations out there ended themselves over it.”

Sadness entered Semnik’s features. The kindly species observing the Meers had predicted the big war and the Meers were too late to get the warning.

The thought was mirrored in the figure on the screen. “And if you’re here after that? Sorry that you had to go through it. We know what that’s like. The upside is, if you learned your lesson, things will get better.”

Frank leaned back in his chair and crossed his appendages over his chest area. “As for what we’re doing up here and why you’re hearing this? Well, it’s a long story. We, Darryl and I, are researchers. We discovered your people a while back and decided to study your development.”

“We found your people in an early part of their evolutionary period. Their lifespans were roughly 1/5^th of what they were when we headed off, more on that later, and we watched you grow and evolve over a long period of time.”

Frank took a deep breath of air and slowly released it. “Normally, civilizations like yours never even leave their point of origin. It’s a concept called the Dark Forest Hypothesis. To put it simply, the unknown is dangerous so it’s safer not to go there. My people went in there and ended up in space. Yours, at least until something happened, was perfectly content hiding out in their burrows.”

“Unfortunately, something happened that upended your development. A species, extinct at the time of this recording, was in its early space development phase. They discovered your planet and, for reasons we don’t know, decided to send a weaponized predator to destroy your world. We didn’t know it was coming and, by the time we figured out something was there, it had already landed.”

“We did our best to kill it off, but not before we were witnessed by one of the locals. We have a rule not to interfere, yet we made exceptions if something off-world showed up and threatened you. If that happened, we had protocols to try and scare your people back into their old ways. It also doubled as an emergency in-case that off-world threat came around again.”

“You see, directly below us is the origin of your people. If you haven’t found it by now, you should find the remains of your ancient ancestors. Along with it will be a black box. It ran out of power ages ago, so it should be an inert brick. Still, it’ll be obvious since it’s made out of materials not possible from the era.”

Semnik found his mouth starting to hang open in surprise. Everything this Frank alien was saying continued to be prophetic.

“A while after our first encounter, we discovered that the critter that we thought we exterminated had already multiplied. It then threatened to wipe out your ancestors. One of your ancestors, a guy called a Storyteller, called for help. We showed up and took care of business. While we didn’t get them all that day, Darryl did come up with a scanner and we ended up wiping out the rest of the buggers over the next year or so.”

Frank leaned in close to the screen. “Unfortunately, we opened up something we like to refer to as a Pandora’s Box. There’s more details behind it, but the common usage is for something that, once done, can’t be undone. While your Storyteller wished to keep what happened a secret, just too many of your ancestors had witness what happened. It changed behaviors.”

“Emboldened by the assumption that we would show up and protect them from any threats, your people started to venture into the forest for the first time. Once this behavior was cemented and we were forgotten, your ancestors started to develop tools to help deal with the threats of your world. Time passed, you evolved and became more sophisticated.”

The figure let out a deep gust of air once again. “I have a bit of an apology to make. While it is protocol to leave you alone, and we did a good job of that, some things did make their way into your society. The big ones are a number of your units of measurements as well as your names. I’m the one that called you Meers. You guys just referred to yourselves as People before.”

“This happened because I kinda forgot to turn off the transponder signal after giving it down to the scout. It took a while for me to figure out it was on.”

“You?” the other voice shouted with what sounded like indignity. “I’m the one who found it. After you put your damned boots up on the console again and got dirt in the board.”

The figure let out what sounded like a cough. “Yup. With my judicious use of your planet’s surface, I had discovered my error. In any case, I turned it off and at least stopped polluting your culture. For the most part, everything you created up you did so on your own. So if you have any weird fellas down there claiming we helped you build giant triangles out of stone, you have it from my authority that we didn’t.”

Semnik smirked. If this image was ever recorded, returned and declassified, this section would be the very first he would want aired.

“In any case, you’re probably wondering why we’re doing this at all after telling you how careful we have been about interfering. Well, think of this is as a big gift. In addition to the warning, we have 20 floors of data and archives to give you.”

Semnik notice the sudden wave of excitement emanating from Zandis. Which was immediately quashed with the next words.

“No, we aren’t gifting you technology. Sorry, you gotta figure that out for yourselves. Anything left here to keep the station functioning isn’t at a level that you probably already haven’t figured out or won’t soon. If you’re seeing this, and haven’t blown yourselves up, you’ll figure it out the rest eventually. No, it’s an even bigger gift. Something that not even we Humans have at our disposal. It’s your history.”

Semnik blinked. A sudden wave of euphoria rose in his chest. Was it what he was thinking?

“Yup, all those locked doors down below? Archives. In both digital and printed form, you’ll find the history of your people dating back to the very moments we arrived. Your proto-Meer ancestors and on. One of the big sadness of Humanity is we really don’t know much about anything before we started writing stuff down. Even when we did, we didn’t always have the best storage methods. Art, culture, language, everything prior to the written word is lost forever to us.”

Frank lifted up the corners of his mouth. Semnik assumed it must be happiness, something he was now feeling full-blast. This was an incredible gift, far more valuable than technology.

“Before I unlock the doors, I need to give you a small warning. Within each archive cabinet you’ll find a lead box. This is to protect you from the contents. If you’re up here, I’m assuming you know what radioactivity is. The reason for this is, since we don’t know how you guys use your calendars or how long it’s been since when we left, I can’t use things like years to communicate with you. To get around that problem, we put a sample of a dozen different radioactive isotopes in each box. At the time of the archive, the isotopes were fresh. All you gotta do is measure how much is left and you’ll know when the events in that cabinet happened.”

When the sentence ended, Semnik heard a series of clicks echo from down the hall. Twenty of them.

“So, anyway, enjoy the gift. We’re gonna head out now. There’s another interesting species on a different planet we’re going to study for a while. You guys have just developed simple telescopes and we really don’t want to be up here flashing lights when one of ya’ll looks up. Humanity will pull back a few star systems. When you figure out how to travel to the next one, you’ll be certain to get the welcome wagon. We’re really looking forward to the second race to figure out faster than light travel. I really hope it’s you guys.”

“Anyway, good luck. We’ll be out here waiting for you. And when you do make your way outside of your system? Ask for the Prees named Frank and Darryl. They’ll know who you’re talking about. And don’t worry, we’ll probably still be around. We live a really long time. I’d like to get some drinks, formally welcome you to the galaxy and have a nice chat with the people I got to know for a good part of my life.”

The vision gave out and the three Meers stared at the blank screen in stunned silence. Then a smile crept over Semnik’s mouth. Here was a hyper-advanced species that came across the galaxy, studied them and gave them the most precious gift imaginable. Their history.

In that moment, Semnik knew he liked these Humans. He couldn’t wait until the Meers figured out how to go meet them. He would gladly have a drink with the ones named Frank and Darryl.
Once again, thanks for reading. While this story didn't pop off as much as Intragalactic Pet and Garden Show, I think I needed a little exercise in writing something a bit more serious. I hope the introspection and hopeful end worked well.
That said, the stories are coming to an end for a while. I procrastinated enough with what I should be writing at the moment. That said, like I mentioned in IPGS, I plan on coming back with something more novel length that I think everyone will enjoy.
Take care!