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.
No comments:
Post a Comment