Unfortunately Emily's mood deteriorated again, leading to half an hour of angst on all our parts before she calmed down again, and then only because Nick agreed to carry her. There was a gang of old ladies dressed in conical hats shovelling the densely packed snow off the paths, who were glad to pose for a picture with Emily.
A pair of wagtails were prancing around sweetly on the rocks by a water course. Further on some crows were bathing raucously in a shallow stream, which I'd never witnessed before. In an extensive plum orchard was a wooden shelter with meltwater dripping off its snowy mantle, and Emily was cracking up as Nick tipped his head back and let the drops fall into his mouth. We found a notice explaining that some trees were scarred after being tapped for turpentine in June 1945 to fuel military aircraft missions.
After a very unhealthy lunch in a German bakery, which reminded us of Greggs but had a fancy toilet with its own dressing table, we walked back past Kenrokuen and on to the Higashi Chaya area: an old geisha 'pleasure quarter'. The houses were the traditional slatted wood type and very picturesque.
The city is home to Japan's gold leaf industry and 99% of the country's leaf is made there. We found a gift shop that even sold leaf-coated cakes and boiled sweets with flecks of gold in them. While we were there Tracey called to announce the arrival of baby Rudy the day before; at 10lb 6oz he was apparently the heaviest baby to be born in the hospital in 2009. Had to have smarted a bit!
Emily woke up after a short doze in the baby carrier, and again she was tetchy and reluctant to walk. Nick ascertained that there was a playground in the vicinity so we went along there. Unfortunately it was slushy and the equipment wet and dirty. She enjoyed decorating another snowman with sticks and stones though.
While we were doing that a class of children came along and gathered for an earthquke drill, each equipped with special cushioned headgear.
We caught the period charabanc bus back into town as the sun set and dived back into Starbucks again for more sustenance and a chance to warm up. We didn't want to go back to the minshuku, so with no other way of killing time until dinner we took Emily across the road to a department store. She was happy as Larry playing with the many sample toys there and we stayed for more than an hour. It was stultifyingly hot in there but we felt it was the least we could do after pleasing ourselves. She was clearly very hungry but we still had our work cut out to tear her away.
We couldn't justify a second night of pizza so went to a Japanese 'casual dining' restaurant, all dim lighting and alcoves. It turned out to be an excellent choice. Nick ordered dish after dish and we had quite a feast. Emily had fun extracting edamame (green beans served in the pod) and wolfed butter sweetcorn, washed down with a huge pitcher of apple juice. She was very cute and genki. On our return to the accommodation the old lady showered Emily with gifts. All day she had been saying 'Emily doing poo' and now, finally, after a couple of false starts she produced some. She has gone from denying when she does one to talking about it incessantly. She dropped off quite quickly this time, as I lay next to her and regaled her with tales of Santa bringing presents for good girls who go to sleep.
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