7 October 08

I took Mum to Muji in Yurakucho, planning to have lunch there, but there was already a queue so we left. We took seats on the decking outside the Italian restaurant next door and began to feed Emily. In the end we were there at least 20 minutes and no-one came to serve us - all the other diners were inside; at the time I was cross, but in retrospect, the food there is not particularly nice, or good value, and we achieved the first objective in getting Emily fed anyway.


We decided to take a picnic to Hibiya Park instead. It took ages to find a kombini, trudging up and down the nearby streets for at least quarter of an hour. Usually there are more SevenElevens and Lawsons than you can shake a stick at. While searching, we came across several of the sculptures making up the Marunouchi Cow Parade that is held every year.

In the park we took it in turns to eat while supervising Emily, who was crawling around and getting thoroughly filthy. It seems mean to confine her to the pushchair for long now that she is mobile.

Taking a turn around the gardens we saw some people foraging for something under the trees. It turned out to be fruit from the ginkgo, which is extremely foul smelling. I checked it out later on the net, and people really do eat them, even though they contain the same acid that is found in vomit! We crossed the road and had a quick decko at the picturesque Nijubashi corner of the Imperial Palace: the bridge close to the pines on the Plaza lawns. Emily finally got a chance to crawl on the grass (and try to eat the leaves) near the statue of Masushige,we set off for home.