29 October 2009

Jo was under the weather and unable to come out to play, but I arranged with Bettina to meet at Midtown anyway. On the way there, passing through Azabu Juban, I noticed a Chinese restaurant called 'Harden Tighten'. Why that sounds rude, I'm not sure, but more to the point, what an odd name.

Where the hot air balloon had been the previous week, there was now a balloon 'installation'. Well, they weren't actually balloons, which would be too tempting for a vandal to pop, but inflatable balls really. Emily and Tim loved them, and ran among them in a state of high excitement. While we were there, I noted a golden retreiver being pushed around in a huge dog stroller. Unless it is disabled and unable to walk then surely that is tantamount to cruelty?

Today, as on previous occasions, I noticed that there was a station set up to entertain children after school - a couple of ward employees were there with boxes of bats, balls, frisbees etc that the kids can borrow while they are in the park. Of course, if they tried that in London with latch-key kids the gear would all be stolen. They had also set up some old-fashioned spinning tops, so naturally we had to have a try. It was devilishly difficult to wind the string around correctly, but the lady offered me one she had already wound, and after a botched attempt I did manage to get it spinning on the board.