7 September 2010

At Tamachi pool, I saw a woman of about seventy with a punky hairdo. What drew my attention though, was her tankini costume, which was plastered with the following exhortation: 'enjoy releasing in the water'!


Afterwards I returned home for more Ikea flatpack joy. My back was killing me by the end, but now all the toys can pack away out of sight at the end of Emily's day and be categorised into different drawers (I know, very OCD). Emily seems to like the new arrangement too, though she bemoaned the loss of the scabby old rug which I should have ditched months ago. Check out those bunches!



When Emily returned from nursery I learned that she had managed several hours without a nappy. She had two accidents, otherwise all wees were in a potty. I think I need to increase her wardrobe or I shall be scrubbing lower half garments every night.


The wind is getting up ahead of the tropical storm that is supposed to be hitting Tokyo mid-week, though the added moisure in the air makes the humidity even worse.


In the evening I had time to reflect on my morning visit to the doctors. I really should have found an opportunity to go while in the UK, but somehow I ran out of time. This little visit cost Y60,000 (at today's rates, more than, gulp, 450 pounds). However, as I had no fewer than five ailments to discuss at least I made the most of it. Actually, most of the cost was for blood tests, as I mentioned that I sometimes experience sudden fatigue. My instinct is that I may have mild diabetes, which would not be surprising after yo-yo dieting most of my adult life. Well, we shall see in a few days. I had my ear syringed and immediately the world of sound was improved drastically. One thing I didn't actually have on my list was menopause, but it came out in discussions anyway. The doctor said that with gaps of 70 days between periods it is highly unlikely that I am still ovulating. That came as a bitter blow, as I suppose I had been holding out hope until now, based on the fact that I have the odd bleed. It makes me feel quite bleak right now, knowing that I will never feel life moving within me again. As always, I know I should be very grateful to have our lovely Emily, and of course, I am, but it doesn't stop me being green-eyed whenever I see a pregnant woman.

6 September 2010

We stayed in all morning as the Ikea delivery was due. If I had known they would not come until after 2pm I would have gone out. However, as it was D-Day (or should that be P-Day?) it was probably better to stay close to home anyway. After breakfast, Emily had two hours in big girls' pants and managed to do three wees in the potty and had no accidents (I put a rubber-backed bath mat on the sofa just in case though). The only reason she stopped with the experiment, I think, was because she has a bit of an issue with washing her hands at the moment and I insisted she wash them each time she wee'd. The last time she asked me to wipe her and I think that was so that she could refuse to wash her hands again, as I'd said we must wash after wiping. Then she would not put the pants back on and that was it for Day One. A good start, but how to get around this hand-washing issue? Do I just agree to wipe her myself for now or stick with the correct approach of teaching her to wipe and wash from the word go?

When the delivery finally arrived, Emily insisted on me assembling the two childrens' chairs before we went out, making us late for our playdate at Julia's. The girls dressed in tutus and 'danced' around the living room, as Charlize was watching Barbie and the 12 Princesses when we arrived. Yuk. Saccharine junk.

Back at home I had to put the table together and Emily and Goki sat at it for tea.

5 September 2010

After a tough week, Nick really needed to get out of town for the day, so we went to Inamuragasaki. The black sand there was dangerously hot and Emily yelled when she burnt her feet. I too scalded the soles of my feet. It was just about bearable on the sand that had recently been wetted by the waves, so we set up camp there.


Nick and Emily wasted no time in getting into the surf. They had a good time and Emily loved 'swimming', but Nick got stung on the torso - he thought by sea lice. It left a small red weal that stayed the rest of the day. After he told me I only went in to my hips. The water was very turbulent anyway, due to a sudden sand shelf close to shore.





We had lunch in an unpromising place on the main road that runs right behind the beach, which had sea views and turned out to be wonderful. As it is a bakery as well, for 350 Yen (2.50 pounds) Nick had open access to their interesting selection of home-made breads, which looked delicious (as I am trying to make small concessions in the hope of dropping the 5kg or so I put on in the UK, I gave it a miss though was very envious). Emily, too, filled up on bread, so by the time her pizza came she only picked at it. In any case, she was acting really oddly. She was very quiet and flopping around on my lap looking like she was about to fall asleep, before finally springing back to life as we left the restaurant for another stint on the beach.



We made a sandcastle and scavenged a while



then Nick could not resist the lure of the sea and went in again for a short dip, accompanied by an eager Emily.



Our journey home began with the kitsch little Enoden line. While we waited at the tiny station we noticed a poster which Nick said was for a mens' prostate and urinary clinic; typically Japanese, it was dumbed down to cute level.



Though obviously flagging, we managed to get Emily home without a nap, so she went to bed at 7.30 and we were again able to retire at a semi-reasonable hour.

4 September 2010

It is still searingly hot but the humidity has at least dropped, to 30%.

The day heralded my return to my Japanese class. It was not as bad as I feared, after more than three months off. As always, I was fine on points of grammar but very lacking in vocabulary. Luckily it was a small class, with only two of the old hands plus a couple of newbies.

We stayed at home in the afternoon as Nick and Emily had already exhausted the Hon Shiba water option while I was studying. Nick went out to study, as another exam is looming. Emily and I got out the Playdough and she asked if we could make fruit and veg. She stopped me from opening one pot, saying 'We don't need the blue for vegetables, Mummy'.

We all ate dinner together, which meant that we had a clear couple of hours in the evening, then got off to bed relatively early.

3 September 2010

My return to aerobics was enjoyable, though my Achilles gave me trouble, as ever, once we began the high impact stage. I was also reminded of the weakness of my pelvic floor!


After working out I hightailed it out of the city to Ikea. With a limited amount of time I remained focused and tracked down all my previously listed items and got out of there, having left the majority of it for delivery at a later date.

I realised that my mouth condition is now better, thankfully, though I shall still mention it to the doctor anyway.

One of my take-away prizes from Ikea was a full single bed-sized duvet cover for Emily, which I installed without delay. It is so big on her cotbed that it wraps all the way round with loads to spare, so I'm hoping that will reduce the number of times I get disturbed at night, when she dislodges the cover and gets cold under the aircon. We shall see...

2 September 2010

At breakfast, Emily commented unprompted on cloud shapes she could see from the table: she identified a bat, a seal and a dinosaur, showing a good deal of imagination.


Lydia and Mia came round for a playdate. The girls hadn't seen each other for more than seven weeks and were definitely pleased to see each other, but they really only played alongside each other rather than together, and Emily was oddly clingy, almost as though she were the visitor in someone else's house.


After they left, we took ourselves off to Roppongi Itchome for lunch with Nick. In the restaurant, she got several comments of kawaii (cute); the number of people saying it has increased again lately.

1 September 2010

Though the thermostat was still hovering around 35C, today felt hotter, though perhaps a little less humid. Still, it's enough to make me crotchety and drove us back home earlier than I would normally have returned.

We met Jo and Bettina and the kids in Ebisu. Again, the weather affected plans as I would normally have taken Emily on the bus, but as that involves a five minute uphill walk I knew I would end up carrying her and all our things, so that was ruled out and the buggy was deployed.
After a quick smoothie we moved on to the small park and playground a few minutes away along the tracks, which has a water feature to keep us all cool. The three children had fun splashing, and Emily collected various flora and fauna (empty cicada skins) in her bucket. We had a picnic on the decking afterwards, though none of them ate very well. They wanted to go in the adjacent playground afterwards, but the slide and rocker had been in the scorching heat all day and would have scalded them. We called it a day soon after and went our separate ways.

Having decided to stay at home for the afternoon, I had to entertain Emily. I hit upon getting her to assist me in the kitchen and thereby get ahead with dinner as well. She really enjoyed helping me to make a quiche and was involved in all stages so felt very proud of the end result. At last, after six days, she finally did a large poo, and in the potty to boot. The Movicol is making it a lot softer but that doesn't seem to have an effect on the frequency, alas.

Any good vibes I felt from her turn on the potty were cancelled out when she would not eat the bean casserole I gave her; she went to bed with only a few reluctant spoonfuls of rice and beans and no pre-bath Youtube clips. I haven't tried her with any new dishes for ages so was really hoping she would like the casserole as there is so little we can eat together, her main meals often being meat based.

From the evening news I learned that this has been the hottest summer in Tokyo in more than 100 years, so we definitely did the right thing in avoiding most of it, though it looks like the misery is set to continue for a while yet.