10 February 2009

As it was his birthday, I took Emily to have lunch with Nick: lacking originality, we ate at Paul again. Emily polished off salmon quiche, potato wedges and copious amounts of crusty bread. I'd arranged to meet Bettina and Jo in the afternoon, and as it was such a lovely day we convened in Shiba Koen park. Tim immediately demonstrated his newfound walking prowess

He is not yet 11 months, so doing very well. Emily loved the water fountain and kept clambering up onto the stone pedestal, to my horror.

She was a bit tearful at times but a quick ride down the slide on my lap soon dried up the waterworks. On the way out we walked through a grove of pink and white plum blossom, which was exquisite and delicately scented.

Erna came over to babysit in the evening, so Nick and I had dinner at the little Okinawan restaurant a few hundred yards from home that he'd taken Mum to when she was over. We had some warm sake that had strong hints of cypress wood, reminding us of the scent of the wood onsen bath in Asahidake. The food was mostly excellent; I especially enjoyed the extremely spicy green papaya salad - not very Japanese, as they don't tend to use much chili in their cuisine. Mind you, wasabi (green horseradish) packs quite a punch, of a different kind.