9 October 2010

While I attended class, Nick and Emily went to a damp Hibiya park, where there was a railway festival on. She got to ride on a miniature Thomas.

Later, I took Emily to Sharon's apartment for a playdate with Taylor and Lottie. We hadn't seen them since February, but they were very welcoming and Taylor is a sweet little boy. Sharon had just landed a transfer to Mauritius, though they will not leave Tokyo until the spring. What a posting! It was dreary all afternoon, and at 5pm it absolutely pelted down so Ryan kindly gave us a ride home.

Nick and I went out after getting Emily to bed. We had a reservation in Nishi Azabu. First we had a swift couple of rather nice bottles of beer at a small wood-lined bar beneath the expressway, then went across the road to Gonpachi restaurant. We ate some truly delicious Japanese food though the predominance of other gaijin somehow felt wrong, and, oddly, I disliked being addressed by the staff in English. This establishment supposedly provided the inspiration for the venue of the massacre of the Crazy 88s in the film Kill Bill (my favourite flick ever), and though less cavernous and swish than the film version there was a certain likeness. We ducked across the road for one last cheeky beer before jumping into a taxi to get home and relieve Erna from duty.