27 July 08

After a slow start to the day we thought we'd better get out for a while, so we decided to go for a walk around the Imperial Palace gardens. My idea to get lunch in Otemachi first was a bad one: this is a business district and the Sunday streets were deserted and restaurants all closed. Eventually we found a building that was open and had a number of places to eat, though from the outside it just looked another office block.

By the time we emerged and went to the bridge over the moat it had clouded over and looked quite threatening. We had to employ umbrellas for a while and it reminded us of the day we were there almost exactly two years ago on our trip, when we caught the tail end of the rainy season and it rained torrentially for the whole day. The Palace is a great green heart in the centre of the city, though parts are off limits, reserved for the imperial family.

I don't think it is as nice as some of the parks but pleasant enough. We walked around for half an hour but I was being bitten a lot and Emily was grizzling with heat and tiredness.

After we'd put Emily to bed there was a beautiful sunset

followed by a magnificent thunder storm to the north, with some awesome lightning bolts that seemed to last for seconds. There appeared to be a lot of building strikes. It caused such a strong wind to blow that we turned off the aircon and opened windows front and back to get a through-draught as it gets so stuffy after days of being cooped up. One gust was so strong that some of the hall doors slammed violently, yet Emily didn't stir.

26 July 08

A bit of a quiet Saturday, apart from a quick trip to a new garden I'd founbd about about, Kyuu Shibarikyu at nearby Hamamatsucho. It is very much in the style of Hamarikyu, which is close by. There's a central lake with an island, several manmade hillocks studded with volcanic rocks and the ever-present (but always attractive) trained pine trees.

It was a nice place to stroll for half an hour and a good option for walks with Emily once the weather cools down. She enjoyed sitting in the grass (and trying to eat it).

25 July 08

Emily has started saying 'mumumum'. Of course she has no idea what it means, but it's good to hear after weeks of 'a-goo' and 'a-ba'. I'll have to encourage her to say 'dadadad' or Nick will be jealous!


It's hard to believe it could be any hotter, but it certainly felt it when we went to meet Nick at lunchtime. I think we'll have to meet indoors for the next month or so. I was reflecting that I've spent most of my summers desperately trying to get a tan, and this time I've achieved one without even trying. In fact, I actively avoid being in the sun whenever possible for Emily's sake.
After we parted from Nick I had to detour into a Starbucks to cool down and to feed Emily. It was lunchtime and therefore very busy with office workers. I felt like a fish out of water among those drones, and it's hard to remember that I used to be one of them. I wonder if I ever will be again? My brain is so muddled that I can't believe I will ever be able to hold down a job. It's definitely something that's happened to my mind since I became pregnant. I keep saying the wrong words; turning into Mrs Malaprop.

We carried on a few streets away to Nandemo, the children's playplace in Akasaka. It's good for Emily to play with different toys and see other children, but I also wanted to go there because they had paddling pools out for the summer. I got Emily into a swimming nappy and put her in the smallest, warmest pool. It only had two inches of water in it so she could sit up OK. She seemed happy enough and it was a good way to cool her down. In the next pool up it was quite a bit cooler but she tolerated it. The next one up was too much though, and she started crying, so it was end of session for the day.

24 July 08

We were shaken awake at 12.30am by a quake that turned out to be a 6+ up in Iwate prefecture. That's the second one in a month in the area we are going with Graham, Pam and Kate in September! Unlike last month this one was very deep though, so there was only mild structural damagea nd a few minor injuries. They use a different scale here, so I'm not sure what a 6+ in Japan equates to in Richter scale terms.

23 July 08

After a day at home hiding from the heat, I was glad to get out and go to the new mums group despite it being another scorcher. This time it was in a different place again - Tokyo Metroplitan Childrens Hall at Shibuya. Considering so many are away on vacation it was a good turn out with about 20 mums attending. The Hall is a fantastic resource for kids with 5 floors of activities and I can see it will be a good place to take Emily when she is a bit older. The play area for babies was not as well equipped as some of the other jidokan we've been to, with mainly soft toys, but there was a large crate of plastic shapes and I sat Emily down at one corner so she could dip in and play with them. Several people commented on how well she was sitting compared with the last meeting a fortnight ago. I was able to withdraw a little way and chat as she was very stable and happily absorbed in what she was doing.




Afterwards a few of us went for a drink and Emily insisted on sipping my mango frappuchino (you try and stop her!). She didn't seem to mind it being so ice-cold and got a big orange moustache that I had to lick off, to the amusement of other people around us at the cafe.

21 July 08

It was rather lovely waking up next to Emily. She was on a futon between ours, and made it through to about 5am before she stirred. I can see the attraction for those who do have their baby in bed with them, and it's easier wth futons.


We took her down to breakfast with us as there was no way she was going to nap, and when we got to our table we found that they'd made up an impromptu sort of bed for her by pushing two wicker chairs together and padding it with towels. So thoughtful, and it made it easier for us to eat as she could sit up in there unaided. We had lots of little dishes, mostly savoury, and even a miniature stove each to cook our own omlette on. As always Emily showed a lot of interest in what we were eating and tried my yogurt and a boysenberry. She wasn't impressed with a strip of seaweed though. Our table was in the window of the dining room and had a great panoramic view of the garden and river.

After checking out we walked up through town in the hot sunshine for a kilometre to the cable station that whisks you up to Mount Hodo.

It's only about 700 metres high but on a good day it has fine views. Today was too hazy to see much but we enjoyed the short ride up in the 1950s car. At the top (wooded, as most of Japans hills are), there were lots of plum trees that must look fantastic in springtime. Everywhere there was a soundtrack of cicadas chirruping. I thought I saw one but it was just an empty skin that had been shed on a leaf. We walked back down the mountainside to the town; the track was very quiet and tranquil, with lots of butterflies and wild flowers.

In need of shelter and cool air we dived into a little family noodle restaurant and ordered homemade soba noodles with mountain vegetables. Very tasty. We tarried a while so that we could give Emily her lunch, an extremely bland dried cod and vegetable mixture. Waiting for our train back it was unbelievably hot, yet I saw a woman wearing thick black elbow gloves. It is common to see ladies wearing these to keep their arms white, but these were exceptionally thick and it made me shudder to think of wearing such a thing. We were surprised to only see a handful of gaijin in such a lovely place, but then Nagatoro isn't in the guide books, amazingly. It's funny how I feel put out whenever I see a foreigner, as if they don't have as much right to be there as I do.

On the train, I observed a particularly good example of the Japanese love affair with all things Western: a young guy had a key fob that said 'Bump of Chicken'. What is that about?! They like to have seemingly random English writing on their clothes. People's T-shirts often have a string of words that make no sense at all. I shall have to note some of the odder ones.

20 July 08

Having seen to Emily's requirements, we set off for our night away in Chichibu, north of Tokyo. Ths was also by way of being a reccy for when Nick's family come, as there is a steam train that runs on the second leg of the route from Kumagaya to Nagatoro which Graham would like to ride.

We made our way to Ueno in the searing midday heat, to pick up the first of two trains. When we got there, as we were stood deliberating about which platform to go to, a woman fell onto me. At first I thought that she'd fainted and was concerned for her. Then I suspected that she was feigning illness in order to rob me as she was all over me, and tried to push her off. Finally we decided that she must be very drunk (although I couldn't actually smell alcohol on her). Much later it occurred to me that she might be having a diabetic hypo and I felt guilty. Every time I pushed her off she started to fall and I had to steady her. I began to get very hot and flustered and people were stopping to look; I was worrying that they might think an evil gaijin was trying to attack her, but luckily an onlooker had gone to fetch a member of staff. Mind you, he was young and seemed unsure what to do either. The drunk then latched into Nick's arm and would not let him go, though he had the buggy with Emily. Finally we managed to prise her off and make our escape, though not before hearing that she was bound for the same place as us.

Boarding the train later, sure enough, she was on the first carriage we tried, lying on the floor. We swiftly moved down the platform. The first leg seemed to take ages as it was a local train, though it was actually only an hour. It mainly passed through urban areas before finally getting out into villages dotted among rice fields. At Kumagaya we switched onto another local train for a further 50 minute journey into the wooded hills of the national park. The tracks ran alongside the attractive Aragawa river near our destination, Nagatoro, with lovely bamboo nodding beside it.

Disembarking we found our way easily to the nearby ryokan we'd booked: Chouseikan. At 20,000 yen (£100) each per night it was bound to be nice and we weren't disappointed. It was situated right on the banks of the river just where it emerges from a limestone gorge, and our spacious tatami room had a balcony looking out over the beautiful garden onto the water.

It would have been easy to stay in the cool room and drink in the view, but we decided to make the most of the afternoon remaining and go down to the river. It was extremely busy on the stony beach below, it being a holiday weekend, and boat trips departed from there so there were queues for that. Also, it was the finish point for white water dinghy trips and those aboard were jumping off to bob in the fast-moving current. Some groups were leaping about 10 feet off the rocks opposite. A few lads, probably locals, were tombstoning off higher rocks further up too.

Nick, always keen to go in any river or sea almost regardless of season, changed and got straight in. Unfortunately it was only a few feet deep just there, and where it was deeper further out, it was running too swiftly to bathe safely. He took Emily down to 'paddle' and she seemed to like it once she got used to the cold water.

Then it was my turn and I was determined not to chicken out. I felt a bit self-conscious with so many people around, especially as I have quite a tummy still, but somehow it didn't seem to matter as much because they weren't westerners. Lord knows why that should be. I was busting out of my bikini top, if you pardon the pun, and on emerging I felt a bit like Ursula Andress (in my dreams!). Anyway, the river wasn't as chilly as I'd feared, and because the air temperature was above 30 degrees with no breeze I didn't get cold once I'd got out again. I stayed in for a few minutes and even ventured out into the faster water as far as I dared.

They had provided a cute little chair for Emily so we used it to feed her (first time using packet food).

Afterwards she settled down immediately on her futon without any fuss. We went downstairs and were ushered along to our very own private dining room (each room eats in a separate booth). It felt almost like we were on a honeymoon somehow. Luckily the traditional tatami room had a footwell under the table, as I always get pins and needles if I have to sit on the floor. The large table was already set with several small dishes each, and the serving girl brought a small glass of complimentary chilled umeshu (plum liqueur).

She kept on bringing more and more food and in all we must have had about a dozen dishes each, plus a large salmon hotpot which cooks on a hotplate in the centre of the table (it would normally be meat but Nick had told them I am a pescatarian in advance). It's great to eat in ryokan, but it's never a la carte. A local speciality is a fish caught in the river, crusted with salt and cooked on a wooden spear over charcoal, and served skewered on a little straw bale.

I baulked at eating the poor thing with its teeth bared in a rictus grin. Even Nick couldn't eat all of it; the internal organs looked very unappetising. This was the first time that I'd felt so full in Japan: the dishes are always so small that even with many of them you don't usually feel stuffed.

We bided our time until 10 when we could wake Emily, sitting drowsily out in the hall with a small bottle of sake. It's odd staying at a ryokan with all the guests wandering around in their yukata (cotton robe) and slippers, even for dinner. It was way too hot to take advantage of the onsen bath, but we'd made up our minds already to come again in a cooler season.