29 September 08

We met Bettina at Tamachi. station, but it was raining too much to get much pleasure out of a boat ride, so we carried on to get the Yurikamome over to Aqua City. Jo joined us, with Ollie in attendance, though he carried on a few stops to an interesting sounding onsen where they apparently have fish that nibble off dead skin from your feet.

We had some lunch then went to the jidokan in the mall. However, with much anguish the staff could not let Bettina in as she was not a Minato-ku resident, so we turned away and went down to the carpeted lounge area so that the babies could at least roll/crawl around. I finally got quarter of an hour of retail therapy and managed to buy some jeans and shoes.

As Mum and Bettina had been disappointed to miss the boat ride we returned on the Urban Launch, though it was raining heavily by then. A pity that the views around the bay were almost totally obscured, but I know that Mum always loves a ride on the water regardless.

28 September 08

A rather dull day for our visit to Meiji Jingu and Yoyogi. We first went for lunch at the restaurant near the shrine; Mum unfortunately spilled miso soup all over her trousers when she wrestled the lid off the pot, but luckily it was almost exactly the same colour and dried on invisibly by the time we left.

We watched a wedding ceremony cross the central area inside the shrine. The bride's kimono was black, with gold embroidery, and she wore the traditional white angular hat that is apparently designed to disguise her 'horns of jealousy'.

Next we walked round to Yoyogi so that Mum could see the array of different activities to be found on a Sunday there. First stop was the group of rockers in the park entrance, grooming their huge quiffs and dancing in winklepickers with ridiculously long points. We spotted some young men group-skipping (wonder if they know 'salt, vinegar, mustard, pepper'?)

various musicians practising, including a bag-pipe player, bubble-blowers and men going through fire-juggling moves. There were also plenty of pooches in various costumes, especially at the dog-runs at the top end of the park. One lady had three tiny dogs and stopped for us to photograph them. She brought one over to Emily and it licked her hand, which she seemed to like. There appeared to be a skull and crossbones theme to some of the dog prams and clothing.

On the way out of the park we found a gaggle of onlookers watching an black-clad, skinny young artist creating a piece. We'd seen him before in Yokohama, and his USP is that he dances around manically to music, daubing the canvas now and then. It would be quite cool to buy one of his pieces, crafted publically in this way.

In the evening I took Mum to the Korean restaurant for dinner. She enjoyed the omlette with prawns, okra and pumpkin that Kate had last time.

27 September 08

Mum's visit concides with Nick's old team leader Mark and his partner Rene, so he'd arranged to meet them for lunch in Asakusa. It had been tremendously gusty overnight and the new day dawned refreshingly cool. It was still sunny but apparently a front had passed through, heralding the beginning of autumn.

We met them at Kaminarimon and went straight to the tempura restuarant close by, where I'd been a couple of times. We were shown to a communal tatami room upstairs and sat on the floor (though I'd promised Mum that we'd try to avoid having to do that). She also had to brush up her rusty chopstick skills in order to eat her tempura don. Emily was up on her feet a lot, and banging excitedly on the window that looked out on the crowds and some pigeons flapping about.

Afterwards she eagerly devoured half my plum-flavoured icecream cone as we strolled through the souvenir shop alley towards Sensoji temple. As always there were crowds queuing to pray at the famous temple amid swirling incense smoke. We carried on through the garden and on to track down the travellers' cafe that Nick and I discovered last time, passing many little bars and eateries screening horse-racing. Luckily, the table outside (an old cable drum like a giant cotton reel) was free and we sat for an hour watching the Japanese at play. The cafe seemed even quirkier this time, with its menus scribbled on old cardboard boxes and strange collection of junk - like a sign rammed in a plant pot saying 'Santa, please call here'.

In the evening, Nick played dutiful son-in-law and took Mum out for dinner while I stayed in on babysitting duty.

26 September 08

Emily and I went out to Narita airport to meet Mum. We waited in the drab Terminal 2, where I purchased a bag of carrots at a grocery stall! Even Starbucks was a let down, with 1980s plastic chairs, dry sandwiches and flies buzzing around. I felt as though I could be in a less developed Asian country, not one of the richest economies and most sophisticated cities in the world.

I was quite surprised to find myself welling up momentarily as Mum limped through into Arrivals. Perhaps it was knowing that she'd been brave in flying on her own for the first time to come all this way to see us.

Our journey back to Mita seemed to take ages, and we had to negotiate Tokyo station in rush hour, with the stroller and a heavy bag to manhandle on countless escalators. It must have been bewildering for Mum, who would be jetlagged despite her assertion that she wasn't tired.

25 September 08

We were invited to our first birthday party, by Momo. She was having a few mums and babies over to her apartment in Shibaura for Michele's 1st birthday. He seemed overwhelmed by all the people in their modest home, and took some time to stop being clingy and enjoy himself. He had lots of toys for Emily to try out; she liked the books that made animal sounds, and he had a ride-on toy with lots of buttons and bells that she enjoyed too.

I was glad that the other babies were older than her, mainly around a year old, as she really does watch them and take it all in. The last couple of days she has been practising how to sit back down from standing, and it is impossible to get her to sit for any length of time as she just wants to pull herself up on anything to hand. Unfortunately there aren't many things in our apartment that are stable as most things slide on the hard floor. Bathtime is difficult as she won't sit in the water long enough to be washed properly. Still no sign of any desire to walk though.

24 September 08

There was a TMG lunch date in Shinjuku Gyoen. We met the others at the gates. There were loads of new faces - I couldn't remember half of their names. We ate in the Eco House canteen-style restaurant in the gardens. Emily had her lunch as soon as we sat down, and was too much of a handful after that for me to master a plate of noodles so I went without any food.

Afterwards we walked and talked a while; a pregnant girl was pumping me for info and I was happy to tell her my experiences and recommendations. Hope I didn't put her off. We set up camp on a lawn of newly-mown grass. After tentatively chewing on a small stick, Emily had her first crawl on grass. I had to watch her like a hawk in case she found another leaf to swallow. She seemed a bit fazed at first by the amount of space available, then she was off at quite a fast pace, with me crawling alongside her. Every so often she would stop to watch the crows that were constantly flapping past, and bounce up and down excitedly on her knees.


I've been meaning to write for some time about something that annoys me about Japanese women. There is quite a proportion of young women who walk either knock-kneed or pigeon-toed. This is clearly an affectation, since there are so many of them, and I hardly ever see older women walk that way. I think they imagine it to make them look cute and vulnerable. Personally I think they look deformed. It makes me very cross!

23 September 08

Another public holiday - this time to mark the Equinox. Along with half of Tokyo, it seemed, we jumped on a train for Mount Takao, about an hour west from Shinjuku. It is such a popular destination that they lay on a train every 10 minutes, and maybe that's why they can offer so cheap a fare: Y370 each way (less than £2).

I was a bit nervous about the trip as it would mean Emily missing her first nap at home, and eating on the hop. However, she eventually dropped off on my lap, and encouragingly I didn't have to put her on the breast to get her to sleep, for the first time in months. On arrival we found a nice little town nestling among densely-wooded hills. We walked up the short path from the station beside a brook, stopping to look at the large but quite colourful spiders that seemed to be hanging everywhere.

Though it was still quite warm and humid we decided to walk all the way to the top of the 600 metre peak, rather than take a cable car halfway. There are lots of different trails to the top but we set off on No.1, which is recommended for families, and is 3.8km. Straight away we began climbing steeply on a wide concrete path. The ascent continued for about 2km, in places it was a 1 in 3 gradient and I was glad of the concrete or the footing may have been difficult. We were soon drenched in sweat and only too happy to stop at the first lookout point for a breather and dry off. We could see back towards the city, with the towers of Shinjuku just visible.

Moving on, we had to step up the pace as it was getting late for Emily's lunch, and we were ravenous too. Finally we gained a refreshment area and stopped at the first place we saw for some mountain fare. Noodles featured prominently, as did rice balls on a stick (dango) with sticky sweet/sour sauce. We had a platter of three types of mountain 'vegetable' too - surprisingly good. As we were sitting on a raised tatami platform, Emily could crawl around, which stopped her from getting too bored once she'd eaten, though requiring a pair of eagle eyes at all times.

We continued, the holiday crowds getting ever thicker, until we came to a rather nice temple, which had many images of tengu, the long-nosed goblin creature of the mountains.

Behind the temple the path carried on up some steep stairs and onto a woodland path to the peak. We found it thronging with people milling about and picnicking on the open sandy ground. There was a partial view, and Nick pointed out the very indistinct top of Fuji just peeking out from some clouds.

Mission accomplished, we thought we'd better get on with the descent to make sure we got back to Tokyo in good time for Emily's routine. We took the cable car, which turned out to be more of a funicular railway, from mid-way to the bottom. Feeling quite hungry still, we chanced upon an excellent place to top up our depleted reserves right next to the station, though you'd never guess how good it is from the outside. The chocolate cake was superb, and the help-yourself supply of good coffee only Y400.

Emily was quite crotchety by now, but obligingly went off on the breast most of the way back to Shinjuku. A satisfying day out in only 9 hours total; we'll certainly go there again, though perhaps not on a holiday day next time. It will be good to see Fuji from there in the winter.

22 September 08

Jo, Bettina and I had planned to walk the 5km around the Imperial Palace, but the weather was not on our side so we changed the venue to Bettina's instead. Tracy came later with Brigida and Lottie, so it was the old gang back together after all the summer home trips.


For the third day running, Emily would not nap in the afternoon, so had been awake more than 7 hours by bedtime. This time, she was so tired that she was falling asleep in the high chair. I skipped the bath and took her straight to bed. After she'd been down for half an hour she began crying uncontrollably and it took an hour to soothe her and get her back to bed. We think it was wind as she seemed to imporove after a big fart. Perhaps it was the home-made baked beans I made for her a couple of days ago...

21 September 08

Nick had a bit of a hangover after a work 'away day' in Odawara. While on our regular Skype call to Adlington, there was an earth tremor. It felt about a 3, with a sudden vertical jolt, though it was short-lived. Graham sounded most disappointed to have to experience it by proxy. It was good to see Gail, as she and David were visiting; made me realise even more that Emily resembles her closely and I bet if we compared her with a baby photo of Gail they'd be very similar.

The advantage of Emily not napping from 11am the day before was that she slept more than 12 hours for the first time in ages. It was great not to be disturbed during the night, but as Nick came in at 11 and wanted to tell me about his day, the gain was lost by being up later than usual.

Later, we took the train to Nippori, the place where we first stayed on our big trip two years ago. As then it was raining heavily. We needed to find lunch but there weren't that many options. Then we spotted small sign for a place called 'Couscous' on the 4th floor of grimy block housing a pachinko parlour and an internet cafe. It turned out to be a great choice - the dingy, poky hallway and grotty lift were not representative. It was a nice little Tunisian restaurant with lots of golden brocade and tassles and looked quite new. There were only two other diners, who weren't smoking, thankfully. We took seats on the carpeted area on a dais by the window, with round leather cushions and a low table; ideal for Emily to crawl around.

We had a very tasty north-African lunch. Emily got a freebie pistachio pudding, though after I'd given her a couple of spoons I began to wonder if there might be uncooked egg in it. The man was watching so it was hard to eat it instead without him noticing, and I didn't want him to think us ungrateful.

We wandered round Yanaka cemetery in the rain. It was quite busy as it was some sort of Buddhist festival time. People were renewing flowers on graves and lighting incense. There were loads of crows so Emily was very excited.



Before heading home we went to a strange little cafe. Nick ordered chocolate icecream on a bed of crushed ice with coffee underneath. Nice but difficult for those with sensitive teeth. The owner gave Emily an icecream cornet to eat. It is hard to say 'no' to a fait accompli. If only they would ask if it is OK first.

I had an well overdue run in torrential rain. Never mind cats and dogs - it was lions and wolves! I'd not have been surprised to see Noah's Ark floating past. I got totally drenched and was squelching by the end, but enjoyed it.

18 September 08

I was pleased that Bettina was back from her long trip to Europe, and arranged to meet her and Jo at the jidokan in Shibaura. It made sense as it was a rainy day, and at least the babies can sit on the floor and play, whereas meeting at a restaurant is limiting for them and therefore likely to end in tears.

Afterwards we went over the road to Peacock supermarket and sat in the little coffee shop there for ages, having a very civilised conversation about current affairs. I wish I could meet them more often as it does me a power of good to talk to other adults about something other than sleeping habits, solids and poo.

15 September 8

We'd been meaning to visit an area on the bay called Tsukudashima for ages. The guide book says that it is a small Edo-period enclave worth a wander. We found that there were some traditional old wooden houses

though most had been replaced with modern materials, but it does somehow still feel trapped in time. There is a dinky little red bridge over a narrow waterway, and a lovely shrine hidden away down a side street with fantastic carvings above the well, depicting scenes of the fishermen from Osaka who were given the land back in 1613.

As it was a public holiday (Respect for the Aged Day), lunch choices were very poor and I had to make do with noodles with shredded chicken which I had to painstakingly pick out. I can see why Nick gets fed up with my food pecadillos; indeed, sometimes I do too, when it proves so hard to find something suitable.

With time on our hands, we headed over to Gotanda, where we decided to get a playpen at Akachan Honpo. Needing exercise, we walked the two miles home in gathering gloom. The nights are noticeably drawing in now.

14 September 08

They say you either love it or hate it; well, Emily adores Marmite.

We wanted to go to Hamarikyu so I could look at the sea of cosmos they found there last week. Though it was quite warm, we decided to walk there (mainly to get Emily to nap on the way, though I don't think she realised that this was the idea!).

On our way through Hamamatsucho we saw that there were some street festivals under way, and wandered down a side road to have a gander.

A man gave us a yellow ribbon and requested that we join in their parade. They had a portable shrine, and a smaller gilded one that some children were helping to carry. We set off, in the opposite direction to where we were heading, following the chanting locals for five minutes before making our excuses and turning back. Our reward for handing the ribbon back in was a large bag of goodies (ie. sweet and savoury snacks loaded with sugar and salt).

At the garden we sat at a table in the picnic area and set to, it being already past 2.30. Unfortunately we shared our shady spot with an inordinate number of insects, and had to abandon the picnic as I was being bitten so much. Emily loved chewing on some cucumber and daikon sticks. Goodness knows how she does it without any teeth.

We resolved to go straight to the star attraction, finding a huge area of fantastic cosmos 6 feet high, some cool pink and white, and others vibrant red and orange. There were butterflies and bees galore, and many photographers with serious-looking telephoto lenses.

13 September 08

Emily has quickly progressed to pulling herself up onto her feet, though very wobbly.

We finally made it out for a very late lunch at David's Deli, then walked to Arisugawa Park. Since the seagulls at Jodogahama, Emily has been crazy about birds, and she enjoyed the ducks on the small lake there.

The whole of Hiroo was buzzing with expats, some cruising around in their ridiculously large Hummers and 4WDs. I feel like such an outsider when I go to an area predominantly populated by foreigners. We shunned busy Starbucks in favour of a nice little upstairs Japanese cafe where we could spy on our fellow westerners unobserved, and Emily could sit on a velvet chaise longue!

11 September 08

I was pretty keen to get back into the social arena after a couple of quiet and admittedly somewhat boring days at home, (and to make sure that people didn't forget about us and make new friends). I'd arranged to go to Odaiba with Jo and Momo on the boat from Shibaura. It was rather overcast, and the heavens opened just as we pulled in to the jetty. We got soaked to the skin running round to the Aqua City entrance, but it was quite funny really, and we soon dried out.

At Starbucks I tried in vain to get Emily to take a nap. Though she'd been awake for a long time she didn't actually seem remotely tired. We browsed around the shopping mall there, and I noted a lot of chavs, with big, bleached hair and tattoos (the men, mostly). Just like Lakeside on a work day, even Japan has its unemployed minor criminals and their molls, it seems. Just as I was about to try something on in Next, Emily decided to kick off, and I had to abandon the attempt to raise my dress level above scruff.

I pushed her up and down to try to sooth her, but in the end had to put her on the breast in a lounge area. Jo and Momo stayed with us and Michele crawled up and down very quickly. He is soon a year old, so I suppose you'd expect him to be pretty active now. Isy wasn't far off crawling, though only 7 months.

While walking up and down the mall I'd seen a sign for a kids' playplace upstairs, and we went to check it out. It turned out to be a great little Minato-ku ward-run jidokan (and therefore free). They were the only children there and had a fun time with all the toys, some of which looked brand new. They really enjoyed being pushed around in a box. Emily showed off her new crawling technique.

10 September 08

Today's new thing is saying 'dada' repeatedly. We went to meet Nick for lunch, so he got to hear it. I know she doesn't realise what she's saying, but he must have loved to hear it. I know I did the first time she said 'mama'.

After her nap, I found her up on her knees holding onto the cot rail - high time we dropped it to a lower setting.

9 September 08

No sooner did Nick's family board their plane than Emily crawled for first time, albeit very awkwardly with one knee on the ground and the other off. She'd been so close to it the whole time they were with us. Typical!

8 September 08

Emily and I had a quiet morning at home while Nick took the others to Hamarikyu. They particularly enjoyed the expanse of cosmos flowers along with the butterflies and bees that were attracted to them.

Afterwards, we met them at Shibaura, and got the boat to Odaiba.

It was a beautiful day, so we had lovely views on the way across the water. Alighting with our picnic, we took shelter from the sun in a log hut, to eat while appreciating the panorama. A pity we shared our haven with some mosquitos, which made a bee-line for me as I fed Emily to sleep.

We strolled along the shoreline, stopping at the kids' pirate ship playground to try out the tyre swing, and the slide.

I've always wanted to have a go, but at the weekend there are too many children for me to be able to. Our usual cafe was unfortunately closed, so we carried on to Aqua City for a drink. We made the return trip on the Yurikamome light railway, back across Rainbow Bridge. Walking home, Graham carried Emily the final few hundred yards. She enjoyed playing with his beard.

After our goodbyes and a quick photo shoot,

Nick took the family out for a final meal at the restaurant where we'd enjoyed eating recently.

7 September 08

The journey home began with a drive to Morioka - about 2 hours back west through the winding highway along the valley. I opted to do this, subject to Emily remaining in good spirits. She did grizzle a bit at first then slept for most of the way, after Pam sang lullabies to her. It soon came on to rain quite heavily, making the 50km/ph speed limit seem sensible. The automatic lights function is very useful when going in and out of tunnels.


In Morioka we stopped for petrol; as at most Japanese service stations we just popped the cap and let the attendant do the rest. No wonder the unemployment rate here is low. He even went out into the road afterwards and held up the traffic so we could exit.

Having dropped the car off, we went over to the station and set up camp in Doutor coffee shop, as we had more than two hours to kill before our train. A rather odd woman came over and wanted to hold Emily, trying to pull her out of my arms. Emily kept looking at me for reassurance. Another old lady sat opposite was playing peekaboo behind her hat, and eventually came over, but she seemed harmless enough.

As always, the bullet train was bang on time. We settled into our comfortable seats and sat back for the three hour shinkansen ride to Tokyo. The tracks are mainly elevated, making for good views of the passing countryside. We were on a flat plain but over to the west was a lot of high stuff.

We all feasted on lovely fresh fruit, after feeling deprived of vegetable matter for a week. Emily really liked the fat black grapes that Kate had bought. Of course, she soiled herself, and we had to change her on the floor of the carriage. Hope it didn't put anyone off their bentos! A man a couple of seats forward was not impressed by her repeated banging of anything she could lay her hands on, and sat there jamming his hat down over his ears.



Nick escorted the others to their final hotel in Shinagawa. It was my turn to join them for dinner, and we decided to eat at the nearby TGI Friday! We had a cocktail each and a very un-Japanese meal (though Graham still opted for fish).

6 September 08

Emily and I were up at 4.50, though I was too busy with her to photograph the dawn as Graham did. There was lots of early fishing activity, with a few trawlers pulling out of the harbour. Floating above the water and in wisps on the hills opposite was a layer of white mist. Seagulls and crows flew around the port, with some birds of prey mingling with them too.

After the dinner the night before I was surprised that there was any fish left in the local waters, but we there was some for breakfast, together with more natto, and rice. I had a nap with Emily while the others took a walk around Miyako.

Owing to a misunderstanding in a little grocery shop, Nick came back with a kilo of tofu (instead of a small pack that I'd requested for Emily's lunch).

Passing through town I felt really conspicuous, and wondered how often they saw gaijin, let alone a family of six. Our main objective was to visit nearby Jodogahama Beach; as it was only a mile or so we decided to walk there but this was perhaps a bad choice, because it turned out to be a narrow but busy road with no pavement. The coast here reminded me and Nick of Huangshan: pines, mist and rocks. We first encountered a depressing concrete building that looked half derelict. Why can't the Japanese do attractive architecture when they are such aesthetes where dress, food etc are concerned?

We carried on through some lovely red pines down to a small launch area where we found a gaggle of swan pedalos - a continuing theme in each location we'd been to. A foot tunnel led round the cliff to the famed beach. We were glad to find that it was composed of flat white stones, rather than sand. Kate approved of the limestone slabs just off shore that looked as though they'd been neatly stacked. Some of them had lone stunted pines growing out of them, and a cormorant sat atop one.

We set up camp on the beach and Emily immediately picked up two stones and started sucking them. Nick, as is his wont, wasted no time in changing into his trunks and taking a dip. A Japanese couple with good English struck up conversation with Pam and Graham, and made the assumption that Nick was his brother! Must be because Graham looks so young, of course. After a while, Graham decided to swim too, and used one of Pam's skirts to change under.

There were busloads of tourists coming and going all the time; a couple of hundred seagulls were attracted by someone throwing bread, and Emily was beside herself with excitement watching the birds flapping about. Back at the small jetty we boarded a pleasure boat for a tour along the coast. The gulls' feet on the canopy above was very comical - at first I just thought they were wet leaves stuck on top, but then they started running around in pairs. The trip took in the cliffs and rock formations along about a five mile stretch of coast, and included a stack called Candle Rock and something resembling an elephant's trunk.

Back on dry land Emily was getting very fractious as she was overtired. I was about to feed her to sleep when I realised that she'd done a massive poo, involving a complete change of clothes. I finally managed to get her off for a nap while we had a makeshift lunch at the quayside kiosks, and Nick walked back to the hotel to get the car while we stayed there.

We drove north for 20 minutes or so to a place called Taro, commended to us by the lady at the hotel. It was a good suggestion to finish our day. Entering the little town we saw many references to tsunami defences, and when I looked it up later at home I found out that it was hit by a big wave in 1933 that killed over 5oo people. The main protection was a 10 metre high concrete wall running right round the little bay. On the seaward side, this was decorated in part with a mural. There were lots of huge concrete shapes in a jumble next to the jetty to reduce the force of a tidal wave.

The main attraction here, though, was an impressive rock stack called San Nou Iwa (three kings rock). The three are said to be a man, a woman and a taiko drum. The 'man' rock was topped by vegetation. Kate pointed out what looked like the profile of a face on one side, so perhaps that's where it gets its nickname from.

With a spare hour left, we decided to drive a bit further up the coast before turning for home, and came in a couple of miles to a nice little beach in a combe. The small beach was of fine grey shingle: again, better than sand that gets everywhere, and with the added bonus that it is a great exfoliator. Emily loves watching the white horses breaking, but when we stood her in the path of one she was scared when it rushed and roared up to her. Nick found some beautifully-shaped frilly seaweed on the shore that I was tempted to take home. It was very dark and misty on the way back to Miyako, getting dusky very early.

We sat down to another daunting dinner including squid, octopus, scallops and crab. I just can't face anything with legs or tentacles, I'm afraid. There was a big party staying that night, so we were shifted to an upstairs dining room. As eight o'clock neared we could see the waitress getting edgy, so took pity on her and left on the dot.

5 September 08

Emily seemed to be waking earlier than ever, getting me up at 5am. It was a lovely clear morning and there were superb views of Bandai-san from the others' room. The two peaks were clothed in lenticular clouds. I think we'd all have liked another day so we could make the ascent.

Today was the day of the big drive north-east to Miyako, about 250 miles in all. We were ready soon after breakfast and got away at 8.40. This was crucial to the plan to stop at mini-Mount Fuji on the way. I opted to drive first, taking the deserted Lakeline Road, which quickly started climbing through the tree-covered hills. It was here that we finally saw some wildlife, as a monkey and two young were sitting on the roadside, darting into the undergrowth as we approached.

As we reached the beginning of the Skyline Road we entered thick cloud; given the £8 pricetag this was a disappointment. However, it soon started to break as we zigzagged higher and we had some lovely vistas. Birds of prey were wheeling nearby on the thermals. Worryingly, the barrier was very crumpled in places, with a drop of hundreds of feet on the other side.

Before the hour was out we arrived at Azuma Ko-Fuji. In typical Japanese fashion the inn owner had overestimated the time and distance considerably. We were a bit confused at first as the mountain on the left seemed a more likely candidate to be little Fuji, but in fact it was the much lower slope on the right of the road that was our target. From the huge car park we could see little of the mist-shrouded volcano, the zigzag path disappearing into the gloom, but as soon as we began the climb the cloud started to shred and blow away.

Reaching the rim in less than 10 minutes, we soon decided that we simply must walk round the crater, despite knowing that we had a long way still to travel. It was an amazing volcano, a near-perfect cone. The rim was tilted, so the walk was half uphill, though not too steep.

Away towards the lowlands there was a sea of cloud, but the crater gradually came into complete view and it was quite a sight. Where the sun fell regularly, the inside wall was coated in scrub vegetation; the upper edge was lined with lava stacks and the ground was shades of orange and red.

In the bottom of the cone there was sand and small rocks. We got great views of Mount Isshaikyo opposite (an active volcano that releases noxious fumes). At the top, we noticed an attractive yellow and black butterfly alighting on the rocks and Graham and I rushed to snap it. It seemed to be luring him closer and closer to the edge - a high price to pay for the perfect shot.

Back at the restaurant and retail area, we stopped off to give Emily an early lunch: another horribly bland jar that she refused before the end. I am even more resolute to keep making the effort to cook for her. Carrying on with Nick in the driver's seat, we soon descended a series of switchbacks that brought us to the outskirts of Fukushima on the plain below. The two-lane expressway was quiet and we made good progress. There were several roadworks and at each there was a very lifelike two-dimensional dummy waving a flag that had us all laughing. At the end of the works was a notice with a cartoon picture of a man bowing.

With drizzle falling, it felt almost like a dual carriageway at home, except for the odd clump of bamboo. We stopped at a services for some food then Kate took over. Before long we turned off to start heading east towards the coast. We were in deep valleys, and it got dark long before the end, so Kate did well as she dislikes night driving. I was in the back with Emily, and she had had more than enough of a day confined to the car. Rather than sleep, she started to howl and after a while I was crying too. In the end, I took a risk and got her out of the seat so I could get her to nap on the breast.

We got a bit lost on the final approach to the hotel, but Nick called them and they directed us in. Once we were settled, and Emily asleep on the futon, we sat down in our yukata to a veritable feast of delicacies from the deep. Each place was set with a miniature bridge, complete with imitation bonsai and the contents of a rockpool, or so it seemed. There were lots of weird things in shells that most of us couldn't stomach, and a year's supply of raw seafood. I'm afraid that some of us cooked our sashimi in our individual hotpots, but it tasted lovely when lightly simmered.

We were quite amused to be politely turned out of the dining room at 8.30 (already half an hour beyond the deadline, apparently), so decamped to the spartan lounge in the lobby for a can of beer from the vending machine there. We hadn't been there long before we were informed that the lights would be turned out at nine, which had us tittering like a bunch of schoolkids caught doing something naughty. We wondered if we would be locked into our bedrooms like prisoners.

4 September 08

Emily woke at 5. Nick and I were totally exhausted despite getting at least 6 hours sleep, so after a while we managed to get her back off and we all napped until Pam knocked for us to go down to breakfast. It was a typical Japanese meal with fish, raw egg and natto (smelly fermented soya beans). I had never actually got the courage up to taste natto before, and found them to be tolerable with a good slathering of mustard and soy sauce, washed down with plenty of bland rice.

It was only a five minute walk to the excellent visitor centre (the inn owner had said it was a five minute drive, and that most Japanese people would take the car there!). From there we set off on the Goshikinuma Five Ponds trail. Theh first one was big enough to deserve to be labelled a lake, and was a lovely blue colour.

It was stocked with carp and there were some ducks pottering around the edge.

The path was through woodland all the way, and surpisingly rough under foot for Japan. We saw many fungi and a few frogs. The next pond was green, followed by a red one (possibly caused by oxidisation).

Nick had Emily in the backpack carrier and she dropped off, lolling right over on one side uncomfortably. We stopped to swap her over to Kate for the final part of the trail, and saw one woman touching up her make-up; a most incongruous sight in the middle of a woodland walk.

The modern eating and shopping centre at the end of the route was very good with fabulous changing/nursing facilities. Emily had tasteless powdered fish and veg slop, poor thing. Graham, ever adventurous, washed down his meal with a tomato sorbet: though sweetened it definitely tasted of tomato and had the seeds to prove it.


Across the road we found that we were on the shore of Lake Hibara. We booked onto a short boat trip on a very big pleasure boat where there were only two other customers. We really enjoyed the scenes from the water, especially as a completely clear Bandai-san came into view. The lake was dotted with many small, pictureque islands and surrounded by woodland and hills. It was formed when the mountain erupted and blocked a river, drowning a town with 500 lives lost.


Having gone ashore, Graham was glad to find an opportunity to take his first trip in a speedboat, so they all took a 20 minute ride in one while I fed Emily.

We walked back for an hour to the inn by road. Dinner was another feast. I ate sashimi (raw) tuna and scallops, but baulked at a king prawn. Nick was a bit fed up with all of us being fussy about food, but it is such alien cuisine and I think we are more adventurous than most people. Again, we were happy to go to bed about 9.30, Nick and I having dipped in the communal bath. Though I am not shy about nudity, I was glad to have it to myself. It is easier to be naked in front of strangers than people you know.

3 September 08

Emily woke us at 4.15. I could see that she wasn't going to settle back in her travel cot/tent, so took her into bed with me. Not very comfortable, but I did manage a bit more shuteye.

This was a travel day, as we were moving on to our next destination in Bandai Kogen further north. We would not be fortified by another huge breakfast, sadly; perhaps there weren't enough guests to justify a buffet this time, so we had a fairly meagre meal. After some grizzling Emily thankfully dropped off as Nick navigated the many bends back down to Nikko (the road up to Chuzenji and back down has 48 hairpins, which is the same as the number of Japanese syllables, so it is called the Iroha slope after the name of the alphabet).

The drive northwards was along valleys through endless wooded hills. Emily had woken and was quite upset to be pinned to her chair, so we opted for a very early lunch stop. We struck lucky and enjoyed our meal. I had some great tempura and the others had a salt-encrusted skewered river fish.

It was the sort of place that doesn't see many (if any) foreigners, with a Japanese only menu. They were delighted to see us and Nick interpreted. The place filled up really quickly with regulars and I imagined the owner calling round to tell them to get down there and see the gaijin. They brought out their pet dachshund, a very cute little long-haired one, which Emily got excited about. It was so hot by now that the lady offered to hose us down in the car park as we left.

We made a pitstop an hour later

then I took over the wheel. Almost as soon as I set off the heavens opened and I had a bit of a difficult drive navigating through spray-obscured Aizu Wakamatsu to the accompaniment of flashes and thunderclaps. A pity we didn't see Lake Inawashiro at its best as we passed along the shore. Emily began to get very upset and I found it impossible to drive with her yelling, so we had to make an unscheduled stop for Nick to take over. We found ourselves parked at a little kindergarten strangely located in the middle of nowhere, and I wondered what the helpers made of this gaggle of foreigners loitering where the children were playing inside, though hopefully Emily's presence helped ease their concern. We spotted a cute little tree frog on the sapling by the front door.

It wasn't too much further to the mountain resort of Goshikinuma, nestling below Mount Bandai, though as it was raining and dusky we didn't see much of it. The place seemed to entirely consist of hotels and hostels. We checked into the inn and settled into our spacious tatami rooms. Emily soon went off on her futon and we trooped downstairs for dinner, the only guests eating, it seemed. It was quite a banquet, with a real treat: raw horse. Nick enjoyed his beef dipped in raw egg but only Graham followed suit. We were all done by 8pm, and sat for a while before retiring at 9.30 for an early night.