30 April 2009

The WHO has increased their advisory warning for the swine flu outbreak to stage 5, which means that they consider it to be a pandemic. This thing has come out of nowhere in just a week or so (though there were apparently cases in Mexico, where it began, as far back as March) and now it feels like a real threat. I was especially worried when I heard that an American toddler had died.

People in Japan are always paranoid about health matters and don a surgical face mask at the first hint of pollen or sniff of a cold, so we are at least well placed to protect ourselves as there should be a good supply. However, I don't think that Emily will countenance one at all, which is a big worry. I can't imagine how she and I would be if we couldn't go out to play with other mums and babies most days either. Also, the thought of being on a flight next month, trapped with all those passengers for so long, is a cause of concern.

29 April 2009

It was a very welcome national holiday: Showa day, which is the name given to Emperor Hirohito after he died. Emperors are always given a different name when deceased and the period of their reign is referred to by that name during their tenure and afterwards. Although they also use the western system, the Japanese usually count their years according to the era eg. Showa 42 is the year of my birth, 1967. We are currently in Heisei 21.

We met Nick's friend Wako and her family at the Imperial Palace gardens for a stroll in the sunshine, along with hordes of tourists. We assumed that Emily would play with their 21 month old Yuta, but she ended up buddying up with 4 year old Haruto.

Unusually for an older boy, he was really taken with her, took her hand several times, gave her little gifts of pinecones and such like and said later 'Emilychan dai suki desu', which means he really likes her. She is a bit young for a boyfriend, perhaps! They found their way into an azalea shrubbery and she had a bit of trouble extracting herself.

The gardens were looking very attractive and the reflection on the pool caught my eye. Nick spotted a large black butterfly on a pretty peach-coloured azalea.

In the rest house Nick got a bottle of cold green tea to drink and once Emily got hold of it she was determined not to give it back, and drank quite a bit too, to my surprise, as I thought she'd find it too bitter. Maybe it was because the boys were drinking it. I was worried about the caffeine keeping her awake later, but she had been so active playing all afternoon that there was no danger of that.

26 April 2009

Even after more than a year here we are still discovering new places to visit. We had been meaning to check out the Tamagawa river area to the west of Tokyo for a while, but had not realised just how accessible it is for us: in a little over half an hour door to door we were walking up the steep slope into Tamagawadai park. This is set on a ridge with the Tama river shimmering directly beneath and having unobstructed views over Kawasaki to the mountains of Hakone. Great Fuji itself was just visible though clothed in a cone of cloud, just revealing the odd flash of a shapely flank now and again (just behind the large building middle-left).

The paths through primarily broad-leaved woodland resembled a country park back home and it also sported some tumuli that Nick said were late 6th century.

We came across a large recreation area as well, with lots of swings and slides and a hippo that Emily enjoyed hiding in.

Though sunny weather had returned, our whole visit was to the accompaniment of a really strong wind from the northwest that kept it fresh and almost cool.

Before going home we went in search of a coffee shop. The area was apparently developed as a garden suburb in the 90s and seemed really green and pleasant and a million miles from central Tokyo. We enviously drooled over some detached houses on the hill that were abnormally spacious for Japan and wondered how far beyond our financial reach they were. Instead of a cafe chain, we happened across a bo-ho type establishment that was doing a roaring trade and where no two tables had the same chairs. They did a mean line in homemade desserts, which Emily happily tucked into, though thankfully not denting her recently poor appetite for her three meals a day.

25 April 2009

I knew the forecast was for rain, but what a deluge we got. It didn't let up all day, making it difficult for family fun. While I went to my language lesson Nick took Emily round to the jidokan at the end of our road. We had a different teacher - quite strict - and I came away aware of my limitations in spoken Japanese. It's all very well having some grammar but you have to be able to converse with it. Hopefully the thrust of future classes will be towards more dialogue. I feel pressured when I have to talk in class but it is the only way to consolidate what I've learned.

After lunch we took Emily to the jidokan in Hamamatsucho. The rain had put people off venturing out and we were the only ones playing there. Emily spent time in the ball pit and liked pushing Mickey Mouse around in a doll's buggy. She loved a photo book about Japanese bullet trains.

It was Nick's turn for an evening out: an MBA get-together meal, but he was fretting because he didn't have many business cards to hand out as he'd left the majority at work. Not the best preparation for a networking event! I spent the evening hunched over the PC and catching up with the ironing (Erna, hurry up and come back!).

24 April 2009

My role as a coordinator is starting to pick up steam a bit. In the morning I went to meet a photographer who had expressed interest in TMG. She was a bubbly Aussie whose work was extremely good, so I had no hesitation in taking things forward. She hopes to have a group studio shoot day soon, and we will certainly be taking advantage of it because we have been meaning to get some decent family pictures done for such a long time and somehow there is always something else to do at the weekends. Some people I know have some gorgeous photos of their newborns and I regret no doing the same with Emily, but then, we had a lot on our plate in the first few months.

The afternoon saw her fourth foray into daycare at Pokke. No sign of improvement: she still bawled her head off when we parted company and again when I returned to collect her. I had a good aerobics class followed by a brief but intense workout on the toning equipment. I wish I could go there for just half an hour a day as it would really make a big difference to my muscle tone. Oh well, wherever we are when Emily goes to school, I should be able to get more exercise then and will just have to be patient. I spent a chilled out hour afterwards in the cafe, catching up on my current affairs with The Economist, and doing my Japanese homework before class next day.

23 April 2009

We finally made it to the baby store in the afternoon. Not without reason, I have been putting it off for weeks, and the case was proved when I had to spend most of the time there chasing Emily up and down the aisles and relieving her of various toys she liked the look of. When I put her in the buggy all hell broke out and I had to curtail my visit. Worse still, I bought her silence on the way home with a few rice crackers too. Terrible parenting, but this is the real world!


Every evening between nine and ten there is an English language version of the Japanese news and it is often quite amusing. For a country with more than 120 million population there seems to be very little to report, and the items they give airtime to seem laughable sometimes. This time, the headline was about a celebrity singer/actor who was found drunk and naked in the park at Midtown. They spent more than 20 minutes on this one item, interviewing experts on the effects of a certain amount of alcohol on a person's actions, and pondering on why he took off his clothes. Apparently the police are even raiding his apartment to find evidence to corroborate his version of what he was doing before he went out that evening, as if that is relevant.

22 April 2009

At the supermarket for my daily shop, I thought that it will be bit of a shock to go back to the UK way of grocery shopping. Here there is no conveyor belt at the checkout. You hand over your basket (never a trolley, though you can put your basket in a special trolley to save you carrying it) and as the items are swiped they are carefully packed in another basket. Then you have to take it to a packing area and put it in bags. People here shop every day; a lot don't have a car and therefore have to carry it home, limiting the amount that can be bought. Prices vary quite widely even in the same area so people seem to spread their purchases around.

We went to Korakuen after lunch and met Bettina and Jo. Neither of them had been before and they seemed to like it as much as I do. The kids had a great time wandering around and the garden was looking very fresh and vibrant.

21 April 2009

Emily is really suffering with her teeth. She now has six, with at least two more erupting. It makes up for lost time after five months with just four. She woke crying before 5am and when finally up at eight I had to administer Calprofen as she was really upset. She didn't seem very hungry and hardly ate any breakfast.


We had lunch with Nick. It was threatening rain all morning but there was nothing falling so we ate outside. Emily was charming lots of ladies with her antics. It's very sweet when she does a little head nod for a bow. I am trying to teach her to say 'arigato' (thank you) and bow as well. She does a good approximation of 'oishii' (delicious), especially when Nick encourages her in a really exaggerated voice, just like the hundreds of daft cookery programmes on TV. They are all the same, featuring Z-list celebs tasting dishes and exclaiming 'oishii' as the camera zooms in indecently close to a spoonful of glistening (with MSG) noodles or such like. Honestly, television here is so infantile, and the acting so appalling, compared with the UK. We should be very grateful indeed for the BBC.


Emily got upset again after her nap and I had to give more medicine. I abandoned my plan to shop at a baby store and we went to Pokke instead. Actually it was not a bad idea as it is important to go there and play together so that she is not scared to be there in daycare without me. To illustrate that, when we arrived she kept saying 'mummy' and holding onto my leg. It took five minutes or more before she felt reassured that I wasn't about to leave. The staff all know her and she responds well to them. She was marching around with a big grin and her hands in the air when they did the singing session at the end.

Again she was upset at teatime and hardly ate a thing. It is very wearing when she refuses food repeatedly and I just don't know what to do, except hope it is a phase that will run its course.

19 April 2009

Once all the logistics were in place (a military expedition is no better planned), we went to Yokohama. By the time we got there it was 11.30 and Emily was desperately hungry and tired. We quickly chose a restaurant and fed her and ourselves. In the mall we stopped briefly to watch a display of belly dancing - quite popular in Japan I believe. Unlike most Japanese women they had very generous curves, and danced sinuously and gracefully in their beautiful, jewel-bedecked costumes. Quite a few men in the audience had their zoom lenses trained on them! There were lots of street entertainments around the area; maybe due to the celebration of it being 150 years since Yokohama opened up to foreign ships and Japan began to trade after 250 years being all-but closed up to the outside world.

We walked on to bay-side Pacifico Park and strolled up and down while Emily napped in the buggy. Yet again she only managed half an hour. The sun felt really strong though there was a good breeze from off the water. The park was very busy with families playing. Emily was trying to get involved in a footie game with some older boys, who did not appreciate her interference.


We didn't stay long because the main purpose of the day out was to take Emily to Bornelund's recreation centre, Kid- O- Kid. I'd been once before with Jill and wanted Nick to experience it too. Like me, he enjoyed the bouncy castle, though we were both flushed and sweaty after five minutes in there with Emily. I left them to it and got a whole half an hour to do some whirlwind shopping. It is a small mall with predominantly outdoor gear stores, so I was in shopping paradise.

As always, we were later home than planned. Though I was very weary after my night out and a full day, I went out for a quick run, which was better than I'd expected, perhaps due to the very comfortable conditions.

18 April 2009

The next stage of my Japanese studies started; it was mostly the students from the previous class but tere were a few new faces. Two middle-aged guys, one Singaporean and one Swedish, were both terrible pedants who kept interjecting to ask the teacher questions. It's fine to check if you don't understand, but perhaps they ought to take it 'offline' to avoid disturbing the flow of the lesson. The rest of us were rolling our eyes skyward, and the teacher seemed a bit wrongfooted by the barrage of questions. It was not such a convenient location as before, so I was apart from Nick and Emily for nearly four hours, but they had a nice time at Arisugawa Park and it was good to be doing my own thing fr a second day in a row.

In the afternoon we went to Hamarikyu. On the weather forecast they had mentioned that peonies were now flowering, and I remembered from last year that Hamarikyu had a peony garden.

As well as checking out the gorgeous blooms we watched an outdoor demonstration of aikido, which made us yearn for martial arts again. Emily had a whale of a time running around under the cherry boughs.

I was trying to find a beetle to show her, as she says the word so often; an earwig was the closest I got, plus lots of big black ants. Setting off for home, Nick noticed an odd sight: some rays and lots of jellyfish in the sea-fed moat around Hamarikyu, coming in on the incoming tide.


I left Nick and Emily in the bath while I went out for a TMG mums' night out in Shibuya.

Jill had organised a booth at a theme bar called Lock Up. It took a while to find it, but when we did eventally locate it we had to enter down dimly-lit flights of stairs set in fake rock. Now and again we passed a monster. It all seemed fairly tame, but that was deceiving. The whole place was a maze of corridors with a jail cell booth for each group. We were shown into our cave-like chamber, where we had to sit Japanese-style on the floor round a low table. The drinks menu featured lots of horror concoctions served in test-tubes and the like. Jill and Halipa (a Kazakhstanian brought up in China who has excellent English and is married to a German!) had non-alcoholic cocktails in triangular lab beakers, and I took pot-luck and had a cocktail called Shock, which came in a very tall measuring tube and did indeed shock me by its strength.

We were warned that the lights would soon be going out and that there would be monsters on the loose, but we were still taken aback when it abruptly turned pitch black and there was a sound of chains jangling nearby. A small fluorescent strip made our eyes and teeth glow white amusingly and provided a little dim light: just enough to see the first ghoul who came lurching up the steps to our booth. I was surprised by how scared I felt, and screamed when he lunged at Halipa. Just when we'd dropped our guard a few minutes later a second visitor frightened all of us with its sudden appearance. Soon after, the lights came back on and we could relax again. I tried a second random cocktail but it was sickly sweet. The third came in a big plastic syringe which I had to squirt over crushed ice. We were subjected to a second bout of the monsters in the dark later, and I was petrified. I clambered over Cindy and clung onto her arm tightly, wondering what would come calling this time. Though it turned out to be a repeat of the first time we still all screamed.

Before we knew it, it was 11 o'clock. Jill was tired and Halipa had to go home, but Cindy and I weren't ready to call it a day just yet. While looking for Lock Up we had come across a British pub called The Aldgate. It really was a very authentic-feeling London pub. They had even adopted the no smoking rules from home, which made it even more appealing. Better still, they had a decent selection of ales on tap, and I had a pint of Abbot Ale while Cindy sportingly tried the Old Speckled Hen (she gamely drank half a pint but I could tell it wasn't quite to her liking). In the background they were showing live football, and I snuck the odd peek, though our conversation was far to absorbing for it to distract me overmuch. It is a terrible shame that Cindy is leaving Japan in a few weeks as I do like talking to her, and would gladly have stayed half the night chatting if it wasn't for knowing that Emily would not allow me a lie-in. We shared a cab home and I managed to get the driver to understand where to take me, even using some of what I'd learned in class. I was in by 1.30, glad that I was only tiddly and therefore unlikely to be hungover.

17 April 2009

Emily tried my patience in the morning, though I think I overreacted due to PMT, as really she was just being a toddler. After several weeks, we saw Julia and Charlize. She has the combined stress of a father who has just had a stroke, jetlag from a 4 day lightning visit back home to see him, and a house move. She seemed quite cheerful in the face of such adversity. There was a sudden drop in temperature and we were back in layers of clothes after a couple of weeks of just T-shirts.


Emily was in Pokke daycare after lunch. It was the fourth time, and she was still very upset when I left. I had trouble peeling her off me to hand her over as she was clinging on so tight. They said she was OK except she cried every time another mother came to collect her child. As before, I felt very guilty when I left her, but did enjoy my freedom immensely. The aerobics class seemed similar to the first time but for some reason I struggled to follow at times. Afterwards I tried out some of the toning machines as well. The pool looked very nice, but at the time I might want to go in - after the class - it was packed with children and the two lanes set aside for adult length swimming were too busy.

16 April 2009

The sunny weather continues, though a cool breeze makes it comfortable. Still, I am getting through two T-shirts a day already, and wondering whether my severely limited wardrobe can cope with the long, steamy summer ahead.

Another Japlish example on a T-shirt today: 'I Unconcern'. I suppose the designer meant 'I don't care', but the electronic translator let them down.

After lunch we went to meet Jo, newly-returned from Aus, and Bettina at Kyu Shiba Rikyu. The garden was looking lovely, with the neat, round azalea bushes providing splashes of red, white and pink, and random scatterings of violets and yellow pimpernel on the grassy areas. We didn't get much further than a hundred metres of the entrance as the kids were happy pottering around among the bushes and trees and watching the lazy carp swim slowly by. Emily quickly ate her snack and then tucked into Isy's as well. I suppose it is not fair to expect her to go from 11.30 to 5.30 with only a handful of fruit.

14 April 2009

We went to have lunch with Nick - our now regular Tuesday date so that he at least gets to see Emily once between Sunday afternoon and Saturday morning. She was very vocal in the restaurant, and I remembered how I used to be irritated by small children making a racket, so was a bit worried she would disturb the other diners. Following the meal I whisked her back home for her nap. I am determined that wherever possible she should get a good rest at home as she never naps well out and about.

On waking she was quite upset, which I assume was due to teething. So it took a while to calm her down and the opportunity to go shopping for some summer clothes and shoes for her as planned was lost, as we'd have so little time once we got to the store. As it had been raining a park was out, so we went to the jidokan in Shibaura to play. The weather meant that it was very busy there. Some of the kids were over three years old and once or twice they pushed Emily when she got too close and interfered with their play. She watched one girl play at putting the baby to bed and later went over and kissed the little doll, then picked it up and wandered around with it for ages. Then she decided that she wanted to wear one of the dressing up skirts they have there and looked very pleased with herself when I helped her put it on.

12 April 2009

We got lucky with the weather for our TMG fundraising picnic in Shinjuku Gyoen, joining crowds flocking there for the final days of cherry blossom viewing. I got there early so that I could let Emily have a play and eat her lunch. She was quite a handful and every time I sat down on our mat she'd disappear off into the undergrowth. Nick was off buying himself a new guitar, but arrived in time to push her around for a nap in the stroller, which enabled me to help meet and greet the trickle of TMG members arriving. Steph, Jill and I were pleased with the eventual turnout, there being around 15 families.

As always, though there were big signs saying 'no alcohol in the garden', every group of merrymakers appeared to be imbibing with impunity. When one of the mums put up a small playtent though, the park police soon came over to explain that tents are not allowed. We protested and they went away to consult a higher authority about it, so it didn't come down in the end.

After the picnic I went round with Steph as she collected donations. I had prepared a guess the eggs competition but would have found it very awkward asking for money if we hadn't gone together. I am just not pushy enough - I could never do any kind of a sales job (actually, I can't see how I could ever do a proper job of any kind again, though one of these days that issue will have to be addressed). Nick did a sterling job of playing with Emily while I did my TMG coordinator bit. Given the strength of the sun, it was lucky that she seemed drawn to playing under a huge low-hanging cedar tree, though from time to time she would take off at quite a lick across the grass and into the open.

With all that childcare followed by the socialising effort of the event, I felt totally drained by evening; I did get out for a run but it felt quite a plod despite the new running shoes I'd finally got round to buying.

10 April 2009

I am starting to really worry about my ability to cope with the summer ahead. It was about 25C today and I felt very uncomfortable when not in the shade, despite a decent breeze. Maybe it's a hormonal change? Emily's sunsafe rompersuit, sunhat and baby shades arrived in the nick of time. Now all I have to do is stop her from taking the hat off. She is not a lover of headgear of any kind - I always speculate that it may be due to the ventouse delivery.

Emily had her third sojourn in daycare for the afternoon. For my part, I went to the nearby sports centre to check out the afternoon aerobics class. It wasn't long enough or hard enough for my liking, but boy it felt good to be in the exercise groove again. There were about 40 participants, and I was one of the few non-pensioners, though to give them their dues they were certainly very sprightly. Although the instructor was only speaking in Japanese, the language of aerobics is the same the world over: 'grapevine' featured prominently, and I knew all the steps from classes back in the pre-Emily past, so I didn't embarrass myself as I'd imagined I would. I have Emily booked in for the next few weeks, so can go to the class regularly. It's better than nothing - the harder ones are unfortunately all evenings or weekends.

After class I killed time in Starbucks, undoing all my good work. I noticed that here, instead of the usual extremely servile greeting 'irrashaimase', they say 'konnichiwa' (hello). Perhaps it's because they are a western company, or maybe it heralds a change in the humble attitude adopted by serving staff throughout Japan.

9 April 2009

A bit of a rough night as Emily had me up twice; she's been sleeping well for ages so I have got used to an unbroken 7 hours or so. I think she is teething, and the new ones are visible through the gums now. I hope they hurry up, but wonder how it will affect her smile. I've got quite used to her big pair of 'rabbit' teeth as she's had only them for so many months now.

For the first time in ages we had no plans to meet anyone morning or afternoon, and I admit I felt at a bit of a loss. We just hung out at the local playground in the morning. The cherry petals were falling like a blizzard with every breath of air, and Emily squealed with delight as I toted her around on my hip and lunged to catch them as they fluttered down. There is a group of preschool kids that goes there most mornings, and they all know her name and call out to her now. Some even like to pet her, stroking her hair and patting her on the head. She loves to watch them play and to mingle with them, but is a bit nonplussed by their close attention.

The thermometer hit about 25C today. Early April, and already I feel uncomfortable! After just one taste I am hooked on a new pannacotta and raspberry icecream wafer sandwich. Not much chance of regaining my waistline with such treats available everywhere. We walked up to Shiba Koen park where Emily was a bit hit. A young couple were playing badminton and came over to see her. They were trying to show her how to hit the shuttlecock, though she preferred to put it on my head. A group of picnickers offered her some of their kids' rice crackers and I couldn't find the words to explain that it was too close to her teatime. However, she did actually eat all her meal despite the snack, thankfully. There was a riot of wild flowers near the temple, with vetch, speedwell and clover abounding. It did get me yearning for a country walk at home though.

8 April 2009

Emily has added 'key' to her repertoire today.

We had a morning playdate with Victoria and Soraya. They just came to Tokyo at the start of the year, so I was happy to introduce her to little-known Kyu Shiba Rikyu garden at Hamamatsucho. We were blessed with warm sunshine and the garden was very tranquil. Soraya can't quite walk yet, but seemed happy crawling around on the grass. Emily pottered about while we chatted. Victoria is really nice. She is half-Persian and her husband is Ethiopian. Coincidentally, they both moved first to the UK and then to the US. Soraya will be lucky to learn English, Farsi and Amharic, and maybe some Japanese too if they stay long enough, which I hope they will.

After Emily's nap I returned to Hamamatsucho and walked a bit further to the much larger Hamarikyu garden, where there was a TMG get-together. There were about 10 of us, a nice manageable number; the babies ranged from 6 months to two and a half. We set up camp on the picnic meadow, close to a grove of cherries that were dropping petals like confetti every time the breeze stirred them. Emily immediately got filthy playing with some gravel, and tucked into Bettina's punnet of strawberries without so much as a by your leave, resulting in red stains all over her T-shirt.

7 April 2009

We met Nick for an early lunch, and were then due to go on to the embassy to visit Tracey and Lottie. This involved a challenge: since the change in routine this would be the first time Emily was not at home for her nap. I hoped she would sleep while I walked to Hanzomon, and as it was a lovely day I was quite happy to keep strolling for as long as she would nap. But as I suspected, she did not sleep long in the buggy - just 40 mins. I had to keep moving as she showed signs of stirring when I tried to stop at a bench, so I could not recharge as I usually do at home while she sleeps.


The sides of the Imperial Palace moat were lined with wildflowers that wouldn't look out of place in an English hedgerow: vetch, ladies smock, clover, rape. A very uplifting sight.


Both Tracey and Lottie were poorly, but we played for an hour then walked along the edge of the moat to nearby Chidorigafuchi, a very famous spot for hanami. There was a mass of ephemeral cherries, already shedding their delicate blooms after only a few days. People were boating in the moat and it was very busy, even mid-afternoon. Not all were pensioners and young mothers: the newly-unemployed perhaps?

6 April 2009

Emily has been saying Mummy and Daddy a lot this last week. It's sometimes random and sometimes correctly aimed at us! She has also added 'nana' (banana), 'ball' , 'pea', 'bean' and 'beeble' (beetle). She loves Pooh Bear, and as he appears on her nappies, she has started saying 'bobby' whenever she sees him.

At Kspace I got exasperated by the fact that most of the so-called walkers in our Walkers class can't actually do so. So I asked if she could switch to the Runners class from next week. It is an hour later, so it will be a bit of a rush to get her home afterwards in time for tea. On the upside, several of our friends are in that class.

5 April 2009

In T-shirt weather, we took Emily for a morning play at Hon Shiba park. Having climbed up onto the pirate ship she was happy watching the many trains go by, along with a little boy who was equally enthralled by them.



After her long nap, we just had time to go and investigate Musashi Koyama, somewhere new for us. It's a lovely area that feels more like a provincial town than a central Tokyo ward. The park was set in woodland and was a decent size. Some people were picnicking under cherry trees, but most were just enjoying a Sunday with the kids: footie, baseball and badminton being the main activities. Nick and I played frisbee while Emily systematically worked her way through a bed of pansies. On our way out of the park we were surprised to see a real live rabbit. Not sure if it was a pet or a tame wild one. There were also three cats napping in the shrubs that got Emily very excited. The park is rather hard to find as there is a maze of small haphazard streets between there and the station, so we walked twice as far as we needed to and therefore had no time to relax over coffee and cake as planned.

My evening run was very difficult. I absolutely have to get new trainers before I go again as I was in agony due to the lack of shock absorption in my ancient footwear.

4 April 2009

After breakfast we all went to the playground. Emily went down the chute a couple of times on her own, with encouragement from Nick and he also swung her quite a lot more vigorously than I do.

I try not to be too protective, but am so clumsy and absentminded that I am worried I'll inadvertently let her come to harm. We also went to the small playground I discovered the other day to show Nick.

The pair of tabby cats was there and Emily and I stroked them (or in her case, grabbed a handful of fur). She seems convinced that they like to eat leaves as she offered a handful again.

Although there is such a choice of parks and gardens to visit, we always have trouble deciding where to go, but finally settled on Korakuen for the afternoon's outing. It was very busy with crowds admiring the blossom and fresh green maple leaves.

There was also a large plot of irises in flower, and one of my favourite blooms, keria japonica.

In a tree hanging over the lake we saw a couple of white crested egrets nesting, oblivious to the throng admiring them. Everywhere, amateur photographers were training their cameras, with powerful zooms that would put the average paparazzi to shame.

On the way home I spotted a DHC cosmetics poster advertising 'Olive virgin oil'. I wonder if it restores ones purity?

After three months, we finally made time to dump all the files from my old laptop onto our new portable hard drive. I came across an old download of Kevin Turvey from 1982 and watched it. It was not as funny as I remembered, but it was good to see Rik Mayall, Ade Edmondson and Robbie Coltrane in their early comedy outing as sub-normal layabouts in Redditch .

3 April 2009

After breakfast we played at Hon Shiba park in bright sunshine. This time the trains running right next to the park lost their fascination after the first ten or so had gone by. It must be hard to maintain the excitement in the face of so many. I think it is high time I dug out Emily's sunhat as it felt really strong even at 10am. She wasn't so keen on the pirate ship this time but was very adventurous, wandering off exploring. She kept trying to open the door to the hoikuen (nursery) opposite the park, as she could see the small children inside. She loved leaning over the side of the fountain pool fishing out leaves and getting wet arms.

Back at home she was only too happy to come out on the balcony and 'help' me with the gardening. I'd bought a miniature flowering tree (not sure if it is a cherry as there is no mention of sakura on the attached label) from an itinerant seller outside Zojoji and she thoughtfully relieved it of some of its heavy burden of blossom!

After lunch I took her to a kids modelling agency in Hiroo, called Sugar & Spice. Lots of expats have their kids registered there. They have a very pokey office (real estate prices must be sky high in this exclusive part of the city) crammed with desks and people. Emily failed to smile for the sample photos despite plenty of enticement from the staff, so I hope her fun personality shines through when prospective photographers are scanning their gallery of hopefuls. We'll see. It may be fun, and will hopefully make us a few quid over the years, which we'll ringfence to go towards something for Emily.

After we'd finished there we joined hordes of kids in nearby Arisugawa park and shared an icecream. The upper section of the park, especially the playground, was heaving with children along with their immaculately-groomed mums or Philipino nannies. Emily wouldn't have had a look in on the swings and slides with so many bigger children around anyway, so I stayed away and took her to the water feature, which I knew she'd be fascinated by. The grassy knoll in the clearing next to it was covered in plastic picnic mats and people chilling out under the pretty sakura trees, and seeing them knocking back beer or wine in the sunshine had me looking forward to a tipple later.

2 April 2009

Emily has discovered that she can fit into the cupboard under the hob (if she takes all the saucepans out first)!

There was a powerful wind blowing most of the day, carrying away lots of the newly-opened cherry blossoms, but the sun was strong so it felt a decent temperature. After lunch we went to Shiba Koen park, where I had arranged to meet my new TMG mentee (is that a proper word?), Jennifer. She is a Chinese American with a month-old baby girl. Ellie was in a sling, so tiny and quite cute for a newborn. Looking at her I found no urge to go back to that stage again though.

Emily was being really adventurous and doing her own thing as we chatted. She always gravitates towards older kids and I left her to pester them, though now and again I had to run over if she looked like she was getting into a dangerous situation on the play equipment. Without me hovering round her like a mother hen, she takes a lot more risks, which is a good thing to a certain extent. At one point an old guy in a mac was taking photos of the children, and at that stage I thought that perhaps I should be a bit more vigilant and went over. Japan feels so much safer than home that you let your guard down more than is prudent. He was probably the grandfather of one of the kids but you never know.

We walked home via the avenue of cherry trees alongside Zojoji temple, predicatably packed with Japanese and foreign tourists, as it is one of the favoured blossom-viewing spots in the city. The toy windmills were spinning furiously in front of the Jizo statues with their red knitted hats and bibs (Jizo is the god who protects dead children from demons). A huge crow was irreverently perched on the head of one of them.

1 April 2009

After a visit to our local playground, awash with cherry flowers,

I found yet another little one close to home - this one also only 5 minutes walk. I suppose that as so few kids in Tokyo have a garden the authorities provide lots of neighbourhood places for them to play outside. As we were about to leave, a pair of tabby cats wandered in. Usually the cats here are very nervous, but these tolerated us getting close enough to stroke them. Perhaps it was because they were so fat that they couldn't be bothered to move, although when Emily's attentions became too much they eventually had to. I'm not sure where she got the idea, but she offered one a handful of leaves to eat - maybe from feeding grass to the cow recently.

After yet another curtailed nap (what's the alternative? no afternoon plans?), we rushed over to Shibaura as we were very late for Teo's birthday party. Kara had planned a picnic, but as it was wet she held it at her apartment-cum-gallery. It is a very sparse room 5 metres high, with bare concrete walls on which contemporarty artists hang their works. I don't know how she manages, being a single mum with her own business (and a very unreliable source of income at that), and sharing their living space with the odd exhibition. There were about ten mums and babies at the party, most Japanese and one from Kazakhstan (but with perfect English and married to a German). Emily was most taken with the view she had of Rainbow Bridge, and got excited every time she saw a monorail train go across.