9 August 08

After the usual much-needed Saturday lie-in for Nick, we fancied going on the water again, so we took the boat across to Odaiba. It's fast becoming my favourite trip out; though the bay is ringed with high-rises and is partially industrialised, that makes it more interesting, and Rainbow Bridge is pleasing to the eye. Aqua City is quite futuristic.


Odaiba has a wooded waterfront walk with good views, where you can very quickly get away from the crowds and have it almost to yourself.

Mind you, it is the start of Obon, the mid-August festival period when people traditionally go back to their home town for a few days, so perhaps a lot of Tokyoites had left the city.

Actually, it was comfortable outside for once, owing to a strong breeze, so we were able to walk along the shore without perspiring too much. Two young women were very taken with Emily, saying she looked like a pretty doll, and took each other's photo with her. We finished our visit with refreshments at a seaside cafe reminiscent of those at home. Nick ordered chips (or 'French fly' as the menu had it) and they were decent English chunky chips for once, with proper malt vinegar to boot. I resisted the urge to order 'porched egg'.

For dinner I used the new oven for the first time and produced a passable fish pie and a plum crumble. Now all I need is a bit of time to rustle up a cake or two...

8 August 08

Nothing much to report, but I wanted to mark the start of the Beijing Olympics. A very auspicious date: 080808.

Emily has been doing lots of standing practice this week and seems quite steady holding onto a surface. Of course she can't get up herself yet, so no need to start worrying about her navigating the room destructively yet.

We had an earth tremor at lunchtime; it started with quite a lurch but didn't last long. Apparently it was a 3, right below Tokyo at 40km deep.

After lunch I popped to Roppongi and then on to the supermarket. It's always like a trolley dash when I go to Nissin; Emily invariably gets grizzly, perhaps because I dawdle looking longingly at western foodstuffs. Walking back, I was just passing the Korean cuture centre when a nationalist rally came by in their sinister khaki vans blaring loudly. An old row about some disputed islands has flared up recently. Emily was upset anyway, being totally overheated from too long a stint in the buggy without coming out for an airing. They'd popped some dry ice in my shopping to keep it cold for the walk home, and I put some around the back of the pram to help cool her down. Unfortunately a bag slipped down and was touching her arm, and gave her an ice burn. Thankfully it didn't blister, though it was red for quite a while.

7 August 08

Tracy had invited Bettina, Jo and me to take the babies to the Embassy for a dip in the pool. Certainly a big improvement on our earlier plan to go to the paddling pools at Nandemo.

By the time we got in at around 3.30, half of the pool was in shade; a good thing too, as I could only stand on tiptoe up the deep end and needed to be in the shallower end. Tracy's new nanny Brihida (not sure of the spelling - she's a Philipino), who was really nice and spoke good English, helped by passing the babies in to us.

We stayed in for about quarter of an hour, and all four seemed to like it. It was a perfect temperature for them and helped cool us all down on such a blisteringly hot day. They were all rather tired by the time we got out, though Emily just would not take a nap as I'd foolishly hoped she'd do.

Brihida is keen to take on a little supplementary cleaning job, and I must say it will be a great weight off me to take her on. I just can't find enough time to keep our flat to the standard I like. It's always so dusty with the hard flooring. Mind you, it does make you realise just how much dirt a carpet can hold. I'll be able to devote more time to ours and Emily's meals as I can't find time to planning menus at the moment.

4 August 08

Can it really get any more humid? Ugghh.

I'd arranged with Bettina, Tracy and Jo to go to Asakusa for lunch and a trawl through the souvenir shops at Sensoji temple. Tracy had to cry off as Lottie was a bit tetchy, but the three of us had a nice lunch. I'd suggested the tempura retstaurant that Nick and I went to a while back, and was pleased because when they saw that we had three babies they ushered us upstairs to a private tatami room. We were able to lay Emily, Tim and Issie down, which made it so much easier.The serving ladies went potty over them, of course.

Emily sat on a cushion and played with anything I could find that wasn't dangerous or breakable: chopstick, lids, towelette. She gets bored so quickly otherwise.

We could only tolerate about half an hour of shopping before we had to go in search of respite in a cafe. I'm getting quite bored with Starbucks (sorry Kate!) but at least you know that there won't be smoking inside, unlike most other chains here.

After Emily went down we had yet another thunderstorm - hardly surprising given the level of humidity. The lightning was quite pink this time. I love watching a good storm from the front of the flat because we have such a fantastic view from out there, but it means I don't make the most of valuable evening time to do chores.

3 August 08

Emily (and Mummy and Daddy) had fun playing with her new xylophone.


We had planned to go back over on the boat to Odaiba, but mid-morning James called to ask if we'd like to go over to their place and have a swim in the Embassy pool. Too good to resist, and I wanted to have a look at their new place on the compound.

We walked from Nagatacho along deserted roads round the diplomatic district on the south west side of the Imperial Palace. Their house, apparently the smallest at the site, seems pretty sizable to me and very nice too, with high ceilings and blue shutters outside. Of course, we were a shade green with envy. Lottie looked very sweet and had grown again, mainly lengthwise, since I last saw her about a month ago.

The pool was about 12m long so it was possible to swim properly, though we took it in turns to supervise Emily on a lounger under a parasol. We decided to try her in the water, and after a minute or two of looking peturbed she seemed to enjoy it, especially when Nick threw her up in the air.

Luckily part of the pool was in shade or we couldn't really have contemplated it (and Nick would have been burnt too). Emily was rather tired after being awake several hours, so she eventually got upset and I had to take her for a nap.

James and Tracy then took Lottie in too, and she loved it. We hope to go back and swim next week, as we've been invited to Tracy's birthday BBQ.

2 August 08

We decided to spend our afternoon at BIC Camera, a massive electricals emporium at Yurakucho. At least it was cool in there, though heaving, as ever. For once we managed to get everything we went for, and without too much stress. At last I shall have an oven, albeit a miniature one. Nick is relishing the prospect of a crumble and roast pork despite the season, though he may have to take second place behind Emily's dietary requirements.

Today's Jap-lish T-shirt said 'off with the seniors' '. Note the possessive apostrophe, leading me to speculate what part of the anatomy was to be lopped off. Women here can be such fashion victims, and just like at home the trend is for huge round sunglasses, which I think makes them look like bugs and is a bit silly.

Returning home we found that our road was closed to traffic for a street party. It's nice to see some community life, with local people drinking cans of beer and eating food from stalls, sitting at temporary benches under paper lanterns in the quadrangle across the way. Perhaps we'll go next year. We didn't make it home until 6.15, but I am becoming a lot more relaxed about Emily's routine now, though if we are late back it eats into our evening.

1 August 08

We were all disappointed when Nick called to say that he couldn't get out of the office for lunch. It's particularly hard as he's seeing less of Emily now because she sometimes sleeps through until after he's left and is increasingly difficult to rouse for the late evening feed.

I decided to go over to Roppongi Hills instead, and pick up a few small birthday gifts for various people. It may only have been 30C, but it was awfully humid and within a few minutes I was making good use of my sweatcloth. For once I got lucky and found a great place for reasonably-priced gifts (a tough call in such a mecca for the seriously-loaded).

Afterwards I walked some more, to Sharon's apartment, as one of the gifts was for her recent birthday. It wasn't far but I had to walk around the streets for quite a while as I needed Emily to take a nap. Investigating a quiet sidestreet I didn't know, I was taken aback to see a snake on the road. It was easily a metre long and a golden-brown colour. I hurried past but I'm sure it was more scared than I was as it slithered for cover under someone's front steps. Glad I don't live round there! Sharon insisted on us going in, though it was an unannounced visit, so we swapped progress reports and let Emily and Taylor play for a while. They got back from a UK trip a week ago and have just about got over the jetlag. I was glad that I'd got her a small gift as she had brought something back for Emily.

I'd walked quite a way, was drenched in sweat, and hadn't had lunch, so decided to skip food shopping and get Emily home to the cool to play. As I sometimes do, I let her watch a bit of the Disney channel before tea. It's crazy but the bit she likes best is the AXA insurance advert that they always show in the interval. It's about the most brain-numbingly boring ad (though there's a lot of competition here), yet she always whips round to look when she hears it, no matter what she's doing.