5 July 2009

We had arranged to go to the Embassy to see Tracey, James and Lottie, as it had been several months since we were there. An Aussie couple, Megan and Hugh, and their two daughters were there as well. All the children played nicely inside and out in the garden. Before eating we went across to the pool. Nick took Emily in but she got very upset, probably because she had already been up for 5 hours, and was very hungry, but also because the water was actually quite cold.

As Emily scoffed her food, Tracey kindly knocked up lunch for us adults - a good thing too as we hadn't given thought to where we'd eat. We finally left at 2.30 so that we could get Emily asleep in the buggy, but we saw Ryan, Sharon and Taylor in the pool so stopped for 10 minutes to chat to them. We made our excuses and were about to leave when we realised Emily had done a poo.

In the end she only napped for half an hour, but that was enough for us to get the tube to Kiyosumi. It was the first time I had risked Emily napping on a train, but she was oblivious to the noise, although after nearly 7 hours and lots of play she must have been exhausted.
We were pleased with our discovery of yet another great garden, and this one right next to a park and only a few hundred yards from the Sumida river. Kiyosumi is really lovely; it has similar features to Rikugien, Korakuen and Kyu Shiba Rikyu (lake, trained pine trees, maples and cherries), but they are all subtly different and have their own charm. Inside there was a big arrangement of bamboo branches festooned with colourful wishes, for Tanabata festival. I added one to the collection.

Emily was raring to go though we had to restrain her while we traversed the many stepping stones around the lake edge. She loved the huge koi and turtles.

My evening run was a lot better than last week's, though it was very humid so I as glad I had taken a wet flannel to cool myself off with.