31 July 2009

Tokyo's weird summer weather continued with a max of only around 27C and grey skies. I for one am certainly not complaining, though had to change the afternoon's planned visit to the pool with Jill and Victoria to a stint at Skip Kids instead.

Emily was great fun again today, apart from an unexpected outburst at lunchtime. I really feel privileged to be able to spend all this time with her, and I think it is paying off as she seems to be building on her communication skills manyfold. The BBC has a new report out about the importance of parental input in early life as the science says that the brain is hardwired to particularly pick up on what parents say and do.

30 July 2009

A foray into the searing morning heat to Appi Azabu bore fruit as I met a nice British mum, Anna, who has two children. She's been here since January but I haven't bumped into her before. We exchanged numbers and I hope I can show her Meguro pool and maybe some other jidokan.

After lunch I took Emily to the pool again, to meet Bettina and Jo. This time the water was a very comfortable temperature as it had been warmed by the sun all day. There were at least thirty kids there, up to about 5 years old; Emily was happy with all their laughing and shouting to keep her excitement level up. Thanks to their example she was also keen to use the water slide this time, and went down repeatedly with me holding one hand. She was also more confident in the water and took her feet off the bottom lots of times, relying on the flotation of the armbands. She must have been worn out after an hour: I know I was!

29 July 2009

It was decidedly hotter at around 32C, and still humid. I didn't want to go out but Emily was going mad stuck indoors with all the doors shut due to the aircon being on. I decided to leave the stroller at home and just walk round the block to the playground. On the way I had a go with the reins Jill had lent me for a trial, but Emily got very upset as soon as I pulled her from her collision path with a bicycle, so I ended up carrying her the rest of the way. Even though plastic, the slides were too hot to sit on, but Emily went down the chute (she calls it a tunnel) lots of times, climbing up the staggered steps well each time. I feel that I can relax my guard a bit these days and not hover quite so protectively, though there is still the odd mishap. Unfortunately, she managed to pick up a piece of cat poo. In Japan you hardly ever see dogs' mess as owners are very conscientious, but the cats are no different here and do as they please. The fine gravel floors and the sand pits you get in kids' playgrounds are perfect litter trays.


After naptime I took Emily to Meguro pool, as it still seemed hot enough despite plentiful cloud cover. I was very surprised to find only two other mums and their kids there, though like last time the water temperature was a trifle cool. Emily had a lot of fun until she slipped and her face was submerged. She seemed to have swallowed some water, so she got upset. Unfortunately, after that she pulled off her armbands and would not spend much time in the deeper water. She also bottled it on the slide, though I didn't blame her as the water being sprayed down it was decidedly cold. The other children left and we were on our own; she was more subdued once they weren't around for her to spark off, but we stayed another half an hour.


Walking away from the sports centre she fell and grazed her knee. It wasn't too bad but this was the first time it had happened, because I rarely dress her in anything that doesn't cover the legs. She has some nice dresses but unless we are only going to be playing indoors I don't use them. Carrying on, some spare seats outside Starbucks tempted me to stop off for a green tea frappucino and a roll, though gratuitous eating is hardly the best way to conduct a diet. On the way to the station I saw a T-shirt with the slogan 'Get Undead. A Girl's Feelings'. Usually you can figure out what they were trying to say, but not this time!


It doesn't sound much, but Emily can now count to two. She has done it several times in the last day or two. She also seems to recognise the numeral one, and sometimes says 'ichi', which is Japanese for one.

28 July 2009

First up we went over to Nursery Ui, for another quick reccie before Emily starts there next week. I really dislike the route I had taken so far, but now I got my bearings I realised I could get there by another route, albeit taking about the same time, but less hassle with lifts. Emily clung to my leg when we went in, though she was curious to look at what the kids were doing and Sophia was there too. For the first month Sophia will be there on Tuesdays, which should help Emily settle in a bit. Still, I am envisaging many episodes of heart-rending crying.


As it was 'only' high 20s with cloud cover, afterwards I decided it would be OK to play outdoors so we went to the playground in Akabanebashi. There was only one other child there, a boy of about three, but he did interact with her quite a bit, causing her to squeal happily a few times as they climbed up and slid down. Given the example of his agility, Emily was a lot more confident than usual on the equipment. As we left she blew a kiss to him, though he didn't notice, or respond to her wave either.

We continued on to Roppongi Itchome for lunch with Nick, where Emily wolfed down everything we gave her. On parting she volunteered 'I love Daddy', which must have sent him back to work with a spring in his step.

After a very late nap we didn't have time to go far afield, but popped over to Hon Shiba park, where we found that the fountain had stopped and two of the three pools had been drained. I hope that is only a temporary state of affairs. Nevertheless we had a full hour of fun, starting with a paddle then onto the pirate boat. There was one other child, a boy of two, there with his Chinese nanny, and we talked quite a bit. She was telling me about life in a Chinese village for a girl (awful), especially when she was one of seven girls and had only one brother. Apparently the family was bullied as a result. We anguish about the second class status of Muslim women, but forget that they are also despised in other cultures.


Emily was very confident again, and looked strong playing on the pirate boat. She was hanging from the bar above the top of the slide like a monkey. I'm afraid that I got complacent and she fell twice; the same Japanese mum caught her both times, though the second time Emily caught her jaw on the side of the slide and ended up with a bruise. Goodness knows what the other mum thought of me.

27 July 2009

In the morning we played in Azabu but despite factor 50 suncream Emily's arms still turned a bit red after only half an hour of intermittent sunshine. We had great fun going on the long roller-bar slide together; it gets up to quite a speed and she was laughing all the way down. She is taking steps in her stride now, if you pardon the pun, though can still only manage very small ones downwards.

After a bit of a trying morning (for once nothing to do with Emily, who was good as gold), the discovery of a bouquet outside the apartment door on our return was lovely. Nick can be very thoughtful at times.


We'd planned to play outside with Jo and Isy and Jill and Sophia, but on the way to Hon Shiba it went very cloudy and started raining, so we diverted to the Shibaura jidokan for an hour's play. While we were there we saw a few lightning flashes and heard some rolls of thunder, though nothing on the scale of last summer's storms.

As I was about to put Emily in the bath I noticed a gorgeous rainbow made by the setting sun. Only the bottom third was visible at each end, but the colours were amazingly vivid. The northern end looked like it was coming straight out of the top of the NEC building. No pot of gold there, though: the company has been very hard hit by the recession.

Our evening dessert was courtesy of our nice next door neighbours, who rang the bell and handed over 3 huge white peaches, which are a seasonal delicacy. I'm not sure if that is customary, but we had better think of something traditional to do for them sometime, though I did give a couple of trinkets from the UK to thank her for watering my plants.

26 July 2009

We spent a very hot, but luckily very windy, day in Yokohama with Jill, Jim and Sophia. Steph and her family were also supposed to be there but she hurt her back and couldn't make it.

First up was a visit to Bornelund's Kid-O-Kid playland. Nick and Jim took the girls in for an hour of quality time while Jill and I went for a coffee and a natter at nearby Starbucks.

Afterwards we looked around for somewhere to grab some lunch, and found a heaving pizza and pasta place in the next mall. We didn't have to wait long, thankfully, as Emily and Sophia were ravenous, and so were we! Emily picked at a sachet of food and then pieces of my gorgonzola pizza, but I think there was too much activity and other children to watch, and it was already past her normal naptime, so I wasn't surprised at her lack of enthusiasm.

Jill and I left the men to finish eating and pushed the girls along in their buggies. In less than two minutes they were both out for the count, and we continued on quickly from the blowdrier heat to the shelter of the huge mall beneath Landmark Tower. After half an hour we decided to take the weight off our feet, and stopped at yet another Starbucks (if only they had loyalty cards), where Emily surprised me by staying asleep for another thirty minutes; normally she wakes as soon as the stroller stops moving.

On enquiry as to their whereabouts we discovered that instead of going for a coffee, Nick and Jim were to be found at the Kirin Beer Hall. After a night of indulgence on both their parts they had plumped for hair of the dog. On the way to meet them Emily said 'Emily poo', which I wrote off as she says it quite often. But Nick immediately detected a tell-tale whiff, so she really was trying to tell me this time. It's still way too soon to think about toilet training as far as I'm concerned though. Given the sun's strength we didn't want to go outdoors, and we had all had enough refreshments, so I suggested that we make our way home and relax for the remainder of the afternoon.

In the evening I left Nick and Emily in the bath and set off for my night out with Jo and Bettina at TY Harbor. After a year of playdates, this was the first time the three of us had been out together. We had a reservation for the terrace and got lucky with a table looking out onto the waterfront, the restaurant being located on one of the many waterways separating all the manmade islands around the area. Though humdrum by day, it looked quite pretty after dark with the lights on. We chatted nonstop for three hours, and had some fantastic food (and in my case, three glasses of wine). It's so nice to talk without the constant interruptions of our toddlers, lovely though they are. Looking at the photo afterwards I realised that it is high time I started eating more sensibly, since I am unable to exercise adequately. I look larger than pregnant Jo!

25 July 2009

It hardly seems a year, but we found ourselves back over at Odaiba for Nick's department's BBQ again. Thankfully it was a bit cooler and a lot fresher than last time, though I still ended the day saturated in sweat. We took the boat over, with Emily excitedly pointing out trains, boats, aircraft, and lorries on Rainbow Bridge. We parted company after we disembarked, so that I could give her some lunch in the mall, as I thought that if we went straight to the BBQ site she would prefer to be running around and exploring under the trees. However, Aquacity was busier than I've ever seen it, which may explain why she hardly ate anything. I tried in vain not to get cross with her as she toyed with her food and then attempted to climb out of the baby chair.

We rejoined Nick, and found that only a handful of his colleagues had so far materialised. It felt a bit awkward, and I was glad to have the excuse to play with Emily and then push her off in the stroller so she could nap. I found the only shady stretch of path available and walked up and down the 200 metre stretch for half an hour, before returning to the BBQ area. While we were away a number of others had shown up, including cute Max, the golden retriever who was there last year, and 7 month old Oliver, who was just a small bump last time. Poor Ollie was passed from pillar to post, but took it all in his stride and didn't cry at all. Nick got a turn at holding him, and did look quite at ease though he worried (unnecessarily!) that Emily would be jealous.




Emily happily tucked into fried noodles and then sank her teeth into a huge slab of watermelon. At least it helped with her poor fluid intake, which has reached worrying proportions.



After packing up the BBQ we said goodbye and headed indoors to the hell that was Toys R Us on a Saturday in sale season. I bought yet another drink bottle, in an effort to tempt her to drink more, and a doll pram, which I had been meaning to get ever since she had such fun with Tom's and Fern's on holiday.




At Mita we split from Nick yet again, as he had an invite to meet an acquaintance for the Sumida river fireworks. He seemed relatively comfortable with the prospect, despite it being an evening with a group of gay guys whose invite was entitled 'A lot of banging'! Emily and I whizzed home and she was ecstatic when I unwrapped the pram.