4 October 2009

It was a lovely warm early autumn day so in the morning we walked up to Shiba Koen park. We had a nice family time there for an hour or so. Nick and I also managed to squeeze in a fair amount of discussion about our future, given that we get so little time during the week now.

Emily blessed us with a whole two hours' nap at lunchtime, then we went across town to Kiyosumi garden, which we had only discovered in July. This park has a large central lake surrounded by the ubiquitous pine trees trained to within an inch of their lives, and also has lots of large stepping stones around the edge. I thought Emily would like these as she sometimes mentions them, but she got quite upset as we made our way around the path, even with Nick helping her step across. She eventually calmed down and then had a lot of fun. There was one grassy bank which she insisted on exploring though it was out of bounds.

The park was home to several herons, and two males were having an aerial fight at one point, ponderously flapping their massive wings as they turned this way and that while a female sat on top of a pine tree and paid them no attention whatsoever.

Perhaps as a result of the coffee and cake we indulged in on the way home, my evening run went well again and I did 50 minutes at a decent speed for me. I was doing my three circuits of Shibaura Island, and just as I was flagging a bit a runner dropped in behind me and that spurred me on to keep ahead of him, which I just managed to do. Eventually he pulled over and as I turned a corner I saw him began some ostentatious stretching; I admit I took my foot off the gas a bit after that, but I had been going at my absolute best rate until then.