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.
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