28 May 08

I spent all morning frantically cleaning and tidying as it was possible that Tracy might be calling in before we went to the Tokyo New Mums event in Arisugawa Park. I also had to squeeze in putting the finishing touches to some stuffed cherry tomatoes that I was taking, having stayed up half an hour the night before, hollowing them out. I'm not sure why I decided to make something so fiddly. Luckily Emily was in a cooperative mood and happy for me to buzz around and leave her to amuse herself. Of course, Tracy called later to say that she wouldn't be going after all; oh well, it needed to be done and it was good to have an incentive.

Though it was clouding over it was still very warm out, and by the time I'd walked up the steep hill to the park I was quite sweaty. Arriving at the park, with some trepidation about how I was going to get myself into the circle, I found that I was first there, along with two women who turned out to be the group coordinators. They were very friendly and we set out our picnic mats and chatted. Other mums and babies soon began rolling up, including Lari, the Aussie who we'd met at Yoyogi. People came and went; there were around 20 attending. Most of the other babies were several months older than Emily and I looked on enviously as they rolled and crawled about. The arrangements had been quite ambiguous, and it seemed that nobody else had brought food to share, so after all the effort I didn't even get the tomatoes out! Later on, another Brit came along (the rest were Aussie, American or Asian) and it turned out that she'd arrived in Tokyo about the same time as us, having come from a job at Nissan in Sunderland. Small world. She seemed really nice, and invited us to a coffee morning at hers next week.

27 May 08

Sharon asked us to go for wander around Roppongi Hills in the afternoon. It was scorching so I had to shade-hop on the walk there. The tower and surrounding complex house a host of high-end boutiques and plenty of cafes and restaurants. On the way in there's a pleasant pond and landscaped garden of rocks, trees and shrubs, with lots of water-lilies in bloom.

We visited a couple of baby shops, where I tried to find anything with a price tag that was within our budget. I think Emily can manage without a Dior bottle or Dolce & Gabanna bib. What is the point in spending so much on clothing that they grow out of so quickly, unless you have a few million yen burning a hole in your pocket?

Bypassing the exclusive shops without prices, we did actually find a Zara branch, which I noted for future reference, not being well-funded enough for a spending spree today. I really must get my own bank account set up, as otherwise I need to ask Nick in advance for some money.

We sat by the pond for a while before leaving, and Sharon confessed that she is not very sociable; of course, I told her I wasn't either, but had to make an effort for Emily's sake. I'm glad that she feels I am a suitable companion, especially given the similarity in age between Emily and Taylor. It's a shame that she is going back to work soon.

22 May 08

Emily is 5 months old today! Her most recent trick is to suck her toes.

At least it means she isn't pulling my hair. Instead of trying to talk she spends a lot of time blowing raspberries. No sign yet of her rolling over; in fact she goes over onto her side less frequently than she used to. I was very pleased to find that she has hit 7kg, and is about 68cm long (usefully, there are proper medical scales and measure in the babycare room at Akachan Honpo babystore). That puts her at 50th centile weight and 98th centile height, so even though she's been feeding poorly this month she's still growing fine.

A bit of a weary day today. Emily woke at 4.20 and would not go back to bed after a feed. I always have a nap with her after she's been up for a couple of hours and lately it has been a welcome 80-90 minutes long. Today, when I really needed it, she only managed 35 minutes. I decided to have another doze at her second nap; it took ages to get her down, and just as she succumbed the workmen next door started hammering and sawing. They've been there 10 days relaying the floor, but up until now I've hardly heard a peep out of them. It took another half an hour to get her off again, and that was only 30 minutes nap as well.

All in all, I wasn't in the best frame of mind for my meeting with Momoko. She is a 20-year old Japanese girl with a half-Italian baby boy of 7 months. She posted a message (in pretty good English) on the Tokyo With Kids website saying that she lives in Minato-ku and needed to make some friends. Waiting at the duly-appointed time and place I was somewhat alarmed to see her approach. She's very slim and was kitted out in black hotpants and vest top and bold zebra-print tights with black and gold patent loafers. Quite different apparel to the photo she'd sent previously. I wasn't sure that we'd hit it off, but actually we spent three hours in the park and appearance aside she was very easy to get on with. I'm not sure whether we should see her regularly though, as I was disappointed to find her feeding Michele sweet biscuits and undiluted juice. Those two teeth of his don't stand a chance.

It was such a hot day that I was thankful for the plethora of drinks vending machines. In Japan there is one on every street, even in country towns. Best of all, they are always in good working order and fully-stocked. I hate to think of the energy wastage in keeping the drinks chilled when standing on glaring sunshine all day though.

18 May 08

We'd decided to attend a mass family picnic in Yoyogi Park, organised by La Leche League. Our intention was to be there at 10.30 as it kicked off with an open air yoga session, but we napped with Emily first, and she slept for over an hour and a half. We weren't complaining!


We located the event easily enough in the big park, as there were about 200 people scattered around in groups on their picnic sheets. We were determined to use the picnic to meet other parents, but felt uncomfortable about just tacking onto a party, so pitched up our mat near a few other lone families. After a few minutes I spied Tracy and she joined us with Lottie (James had just left for a business trip to the UK, unfortunately, so yet again he and Nick failed to meet).



After we'd eaten people started coming by and introducing themselves. One lone Aussie woman called Lari latched onto us and set up camp on our rug with her 3 month old Verona. She was quite down to earth and easy to get on with, though like most Aussies she was a bit full-on. She explained that her first child had died and I didn't quite know what to say. Verona was a lot smaller than Lottie, though the same age. The event organiser, also an Aussie though called Iona McNab, told us about a mother and baby group that she runs fornightly that I would like to go to.


As part of the fundraising they were running a silent auction, and I ended up with a 'natural weaning' book (basically, let your child decide when they will stop breastfeeding, even if they are 10!) and a gaily-coloured Guatemalan Maya sling. These are really popular in Japan, and look like a great way to carry even quite large toddlers, butI fear that I may have left it a bit late to start Emily on it. She's pretty adaptable though, so hope we can get to grips with using it.

17 May 08

On the way to the station, Nick spotted a great new eatery that we should take our visitors to:


Maybe someone should do them a favour and have a quiet word....?

We were on our way around Tokyo Bay to Ikea. The train there goes across a very long bridge which affords great views of the open water and ships going in and out of port. Even though I got seasick last time we took a ferry, I had a strange hankering to get afloat and take a trip somewhere. The massive store is in a very bleak industrial area of warehouses and silos, though that doesn't deter the hordes from trekking out of the city to pick up some cheap flatpack furniture. Us too, of course, though it was a last resort because we hadn't been able to find a suitable bookcase anywhere else.

Later, I went out to dinner with the embassy girls. I felt extremely nervous, especially as Emily has been refusing her late bottle, which Nick would have to give her. However, I was certainly looking forward to an evening off cooking, and perhaps a glass or two of vino. Sharon had booked the four of us a table at a place called Roy's which offers 'Hawaiian fusion' food (Hawaii is big here). It's on the fifth floor of elite shopping mecca Roppongi Hills Tower, and our table had good views across to a lit-up Tokyo Tower. Sharon and Tracy had just arrived before me, and Phillipa turned up as we were sitting down. I was happy to go with the suggestion of a champagne cocktail, and chose a kir royal. If I could only have a couple of drinks then they may as well be damn good ones.

The first hour of the meal was taken up with baby talk, naturally. My starter was an attractive pile of cubes of raw tuna with ginger - not what I'd expected, but it melted in the mouth and while I wouldn't say I loved it, it was manageable. It was inevitable that at some point they would talk shop, but I didn't really mind. Anyway, it was all very convivial, and I enjoyed myself, so my worries that I would feel left out or inferior were unfounded. I should have known, because they've been nothing but welcoming up to now.

We were all done by 10.30, and Tracy and I decided to call it a night, though the other two were going to go on somewhere for a dance. I took the short taxi ride back again (thankfully the taxi driver found it without difficulty, mainly because I'd taken a written note of the address to show him) and arrived just as Nick was changing Emily preparatory to feeding her. Of course, as soon as she saw me there was no way she was going to go straight to a bottle. Who knows if she would have had it if I hadn't been there - I doubt it, myself. So even though I'd had two glasses of wine I had to give her a bit of a feed. I felt really guilty, but relieved that I had allowed for the eventuality and not had any more than that.

16 May 08

Another fine day, so we went to meet Nick at lunchtime. Afterwards I walked over to Shiba Koen park. Outside Tokyo Tower there was a beautiful rose trellis about 300 yards long. Such a lovely assortment of shades, all of them bursting with heady scent. It was very incongruous against the backdrop of the gaudy red steel girders.

At the park there was a bit of a dog-owners love-in going on, with about 10 pooches and their owners all fussing over their pets, and feeding them titbits. They are incredibly spoilt; definitely child-substitutes.

15 May 08

At last we have some blue sky again. After three days of staying at home (apart from food shopping once) I was raring to get out, somewhere, anywhere. I decided to pay a return visit to the National Park for Nature Studies and see what the intervening month had brought.

All the other visitors seemed to be pensioners. Though the pavements were thronging with mothers and babies enjoying the sunshine, there were none in the park, perhaps because the trail is a bit rough for buggies and there are steps in places. Still, it's possible to go round most of the paths, though no doubt it reduced the life of the stroller somewhat. Hope it lasts until Emily is walking.

It was pleasant down by the lakes, and there was a party of old people painting watercolours there. Among the reed beds there were some purple and yellow irises.

Quite a few turtles were treading water in the sun, and there were some pretty large carp prowling about, maybe picking off the water boatmen scooting across the surface.