Japan Trip & Disappointment

I just returned from a business trip to Tokyo. This was a last minute arrangement and I had 1.5 weeks notice prior to the trip. I got to plan it in such a way that it is back to back to H’s US trip so that we don’t have to seek for childcare for Phoebe. However, 1 week prior to the trip, I received an email from my director that the trip had to pull in by one week in order to meet the financial and budgetary requirements. So, now it turned out for me to be away together with H. Everything was so last minute, have to get childcare sorted out, passport renewed, Japan visa processed, packing for both Phoebe and myself, etc etc.

This was unlike previous business trips where I only had to figure out just my clothes and necessity. Now, since I am still breastfeeding, I need to continue to pump in order to maintain the supply. So, that’s the pump, the cooler bag, the ice pack, the bottles, the cleanser, the location to pump – checked out the location of nursing room in both HKIA and Narita, how to store milk.. etc.. I’ve got all that figured out and pack before I leave. My hand luggage was my laptop and my pump.

For the 5 days I was in Tokyo and on the way there, I pumped in the toilet of the airplane, and the toilet in the office. Our Tokyo office didn’t have a Mother’s Room. I had to use batteries to operate my pump. I continue to pump 4 times a day and get the hotel to store it in the freezer for me. Whenever I need to store milk, I call them, they will send someone to my room to collect it. I am pretty happy with the service they provide. The first day I called them to say that I had something to freeze, they asked what it was. I said milk, breast milk. They said, OK, we will send someone right away. When I opened the door to greet the person at my room door, I saw him holding a huge paper bag in his hand. I handed him a 4oz bottle and he asked, is that all? Yes, just a bottle of milk. Hahaha. LOL. He must be thinking what I am going to store in the freezer and got himself prepared with a large paper bag. I continued calling several times a day to get them to store milk in the freezer for me throughout the trip.

So, now I am about to leave and needed to pack my milk into the cooler bag to check in. I called them 10 minutes before I checked out for them to bring my milk so that I can stuff them into the cooler bag the last minute before I close my big luggage. So, they came with all the bottles I stored with them… however, to my horror, the milk was in liquid form, the ice pack was still soft. How could that be? It was a freezer and I mentioned it everytime when they collect milk, I needed it to be stored in the “Freezer” and not the Fridge. There was only 1 bottle with some ice in it. It looked as it was thawed an hour ago.

I was rushing for time to catch the bus to the airport; I rushed down to the lobby to check out. I needed to find out what happened to my milk. If it is not stored well, I will need to throw them away.

Me: How long before did you take the milk out from the freezer before I called you to do so?

Hotel staff: <gave me a blank look>

Me: How long before did you take the milk out from the freezer before I called you to do so? I called you at 6AM, and I saw that the milk was already in liquid form.

Hotel staff:

Me: Did you take out the milk at like 4AM or when I called you

Hotel staff: when you call

Me: How come it was in liquid form as if it was out since 2 hours ago?

Hotel staff:

Me: Do you know the difference between a Freezer and a Fridge? If it is in a freezer, it had to look like ice and not look like water. (Needed to explain that because I was really not sure if the Japanese could understand me well)

Hotel staff: . Hi hi.. we know that.

Me: Then how come when you put in freezer it can be in liquid form? Is your freezer working well?

Hotel staff: . Ya Ya… maybe our freezer wasn’t working well. (Duh!!!! Don’t observe that when you need to open it several times a day?)

Ok. End of story. It wasn’t stored well all these days. I needed to discard most of it. I can only keep the milk from the day before.. Still cannot believe this happened to me. This is not a 3-star hotel or some motel. It is a 5-star hotel in the heart of Tokyo.

I was really disappointed and sad. I haven’t been that disappointed for a very long time. Although that’s not many bottles, some over supply mothers can produce that in a day or two, to me, the effort of pumping, and every drop of breastmilk is precious to me. I really can’t see it go down the drain.

So, this encounter taught me one thing when I needed to store things in the freezer of any hotels. Audit the freezer the next day. If it doesn’t freeze well, at least you can salvage the later part of it.