23 November 2010

Yet another day off for Nick, this time Labour Thanksgiving Day. After a bit of wrangling over where to go, as it was wet and cloudy to begin with, we followed my suggestion and went to Minato Mirai. Emily had failed to finish her breakfast in the allotted half an hour for the umpteenth time, so she had no morning snack. Therefore, by the time we arrived at noon we had to go straight for lunch. Being busy there were queues at most restaurants already, and we ended up waiting half an hour to get into the Sizzler all-you-can-eat establishment. I am going to have to put that place on my blacklist; despite most of the fare on offer being very healthy, I always overeat, and even though full I always end up eating icecream and making a couple of trips to the chocolate fountain.


Stuffed, we wandered down to Rinkai park, by the bay. By now it was bright and clear, though there was still a chilly wind. We pottered around there for an hour or so then meandered back towards the station, past the funfair. I hadn't realised that it is possible to freely wander around there without paying an entrance fee. We hoped we might all be able to ride the log flume but the height minimum was 110cm. We all enjoyed watching the rollercoaster plunge past our eyes down a 20m drop into a hole in the ground, and I egged Nick on to give it a try, which he did. Emily was happy because she got a ride on a Thomas train. We will have to go back again because there were several rides on the other side of the inlet that looked suitable for Emily (and that I could cope with!).


By the time we got on the train home it was getting dark. Emily was flagging but made it home awake. While Nick gave her tea I went out and did a run, going strong for exactly an hour. On runs like that I do begin to think about trying a full marathon but could never find enough time to train so will settle for a half marathon next year (hopefully we will be back in the UK and I can do Macclesfield in the autumn).