11 October 2010

It was a gorgeous day: almost a return to summer. Too hot, actually. I misjudged my clothing as I thought would be cooler and breezier by the bay. We took a one hour boat trip from Hamarikyu via Odaiba to Kasai Rinkai Koen. As ever, there was much to see and point out to Emily. She had lots of fun trying to catch shadows on the deck.

On arrival we found the park quite busy as it was a holiday (National Sports Day) so it took a while to find a free picnic spot in the shade. Emily announced that she needed a wee so I took her off to some bushes. She was about to get on with it when she said there was a spider, and indeed there was: a whopping great big thing in a huge web. Japanese spiders are not completely black and hairy like ours but it was still alarming to see one so close. Inspection of the surrounding bushes and trees revealed many more so we had to trek to the toilet block after all.

Once we had eaten we walked through the park to the Ferris wheel, the biggest in Japan at 117 metres. Nick and Emily had been on it a few months back but this time I decided I ought to join them and it was a lovely clear day so I wanted to see the view all the way across the city to the mountains. We had to queue for nearly half an hour, during which Emily got very upset and was inconsolable for ages, much to my embarrassment with so many onlookers. I think she was just a bit tired as she sometimes gets like that around 2pm before getting a second wind. Each gondola was just big enough to seat four people, and the glass came right down to the benches. We hadn't got far at all before vertigo set in and I had to sit down on the floor between the seats and cling onto the bars either side. I stayed that way until we were nearly down again, though I did eventually venture to gaze into the distance (looking straight down brought instant giddiness). I can't understand how I can be such a wimp now, having abseiled, paraglided and sky-dived.

We finished our visit with icecreams from the handy vending machine, Emily predictably getting very messy with her chocolate cone.

After a quick chuck around of the frisbee we had to make tracks, though Emily had another mini-meltdown when I couldn't find her any acorns to replace one she'd had earlier and lost.

Passing through the restaurant alley on the way back from Tamachi station, we stopped to look at some newly-trimmed daikon (giant white radish). We also noticed a small tank with a very sorry-looking eel and some flat fish lurking in it ready for evening service.

In the evening I reluctantly went out for a run, but it was awful, and I realised that I hadn't eaten anything other than a small icecream for seven hours before setting out. Eating first then running later in the evening is definitely the way forward. To cap it all, the scales put me at 65.7kg, which, if correct, meant more than a kilo back on in a week.