12 June 2010

A return to Kasai Rinkai Koen, the large park on the north side of Tokyo Bay. It was a scorcher of a day, but by the waterfront it was very blowy so felt tolerable, though the wind made it harder to remember to take care against burning. As we had missed out on the big wheel last time, we made straight for it on arrival. My poor head for heights got the better of me, so I used the buggy as an excuse to stay below while Nick took Emily up for a ride, though I'm sure it would have been safe to leave it for a while. Apparently it is 117m high, and the tallest in Japan. Surely it can't be much lower than the London Eye? It certainly loomed large overhead, as I watched the two of them ascend in one of the 68 gondolas. I have attached a couple of the photos Nick took to record the ride.

We sought out some shade in a nearby shelter to eat an early lunch, but the whole time Emily had her eye on an ice cream vending machine (great invention, but I dread to think of the electricity needed to keep so many ices frozen in 30C+ temperatures) and after picking at a few bits of sandwich and some of our bento boxes, she wasted no time in slurping one down.

Afterwards we took a ride on the land train as we had likewise had to skip that the first time we were there. This was made up like a little steam train with carriages, but actually ran on a road round the park. I think Emily was feeling a bit sleepy, as she often does after lunch now she doesn't nap, so she didn't display the required amount of enthusiasm, though when we rode along next to the water she perked up and commented on the boats and overhead planes.


Finally we made our way to the man-made beach, where the onshore wind was very strong and took the edge off the ferocious heat. Emily and I went in first for a paddle in the bath-warm water

then Nick and I changed places. She decided to lie down in the shallows and had great fun.

We spent an hour or so there before packing up and heading for home, with Emily very cranky by now.