30 July 08

Nick's American buddy Aidan is in town, and he met us at Izumi Garden Tower for lunch. It didn't seem more than a year since we saw him at his wedding to Sachi in California. I was only 14 weeks pregnant then, and really fed up that I couldn't get all that champagne, red wine and beer down my neck (Aidan is a good drinker - must be the Irish blood - and there was booze aplenty). Nick got fairly well tanked that night and we had a bit of a row - the demon drink, indeed.


Anyway, we had a nice hour with him and ate some passable Indonesian fare. I don't think that he is a big child-lover but luckily Emily behaved very well. I made the mistake of enquiring if he and Sachi were thinking about a baby - as they were here for a family wedding I think he'd had his fill of being quizzed about it.


Afterwards I walked to Aoyama Itchome for a TNMG meeting at Ai-port. The weather was almost bearable for once - maybe the massive thunderstorm we had yesterday evening cleared the air (as well as leaving some train lines suspended and thousands of homes without electricity). I made the 40 minute walk without expiring, and got to see yet another new part of Tokyo to boot: Aoyama cemetery. It's a big green lung, about 1km square. The crisscrossing roads through the memorial area are lined with old cherry trees that must look fabulous at Hanami time.


The meeting was for those of us who had volunteered to be mentors. We are making ourselves available to those new to motherhood or to Tokyo, or both, to show the ropes and generally be a friend. Emily had fun playing with the wooden toys and hopefully picked up a few new things from the other babies, who were all older than her. I hope she and I didn't pass on the cold that we both have at the moment.