31 December 2009

The streets were very quiet. Nick was off work, as were most of the population. We popped up to Atago Hills shrine, one we hadn't been to before, though very easy to get to from home.

At 26m above sea level, it is amazingly the highest point in the 23 wards of Greater Tokyo. On the east side of the hill was a set of vertiginous steps; ascending them is said to imbue success, so we walked down and then back up again. Emily just about made it up the sheer flight, with a lot of help, so hopefully that will give her a chance of a promising future!


Later we went to Aoyama Cemetery, arriving just as it started to get dark. A full moon was rising out of a bank of cloud, but with the city backdrop it wasn't all that eerie.

Feeling rather unprepared for the bitterness of the air, which had chilled substantially since a quite mild morning, we stopped off at Roppongi Hills on the way home for a hot drink. Here it was still buzzing though all else was very quiet.

For our New Years Eve meal I splashed out and made Delia's sage and parsnip roulade. It cost more than 20 pounds to make (less than a pound of parsnips cost ten quid!) but was as delicious as I remembered it being and well worth the effort.

We settled in for the evening and watched Lethal Weapon, which did feel dated but was still a great movie. Unfortunately, Nick had been feeling somewhat off colour all day and as the evening went on he developed a bit of a fever, running a temperature around 38.5C. We did stay up to see the new decade in though. I put my head out of the window a little after midnight and could have heard a pin drop. Not that they don't celebrate New Year in Japan - in fact it is very important and a cause for several days holiday and family gatherings - but they save their fireworks for summertime and instead gather at shrines and temples to hear the bells and gongs there bring in the year.

30 December 2009

As feared, Nick didn't pass the exam. He immediately discussed it with his boss who asked him to look into the coaching courses available. Emily was being very tiresome when I took her out to the park. She said she wanted to walk not ride when I gave her the choice, but then just stood around picking leaves and making no attempt to walk. In the afternoon, I decided to stay close to home and just let her do what she wanted to do, but after 10 minutes in our car park prodding the hedge with a stick I had to chivvy her along a bit! Eventually, with a lot of cajoling, we made it a few hundred metres away to the playground, but it was a very boring day for me.

29 December 2009

With Emily in nursery, I met Nick to view the apartment in Higashi Azaba, but it was immediately obvious it was no good as all the doorways and ceilings were too low. In any case, seeing it now after looking at the one in our building made me realise it didn't feel quite right for us. Nick told me that the landlords of the larger one in Mita City House had agreed to no key money and a slightly reduced rent, so we decided to go ahead and say we would like it. I am trying not to get too excited about moving in case something goes wrong.

28 December 2009

Nick had his second attempt at the regulatory exam. I've got everything crossed as I am fed up with the studying interfering with family time at the weekends.

In the afternoon I went over to the embassy to see Tracey and have a look at 5 day-old Rudy. He is certainly a good size!

Emily played nicely with Lottie and they had tea together before we left for home.

26 December 2009

We had a welcome date at Jo's for Boxing Day brunch, along with Bettina and family. She had made bread and brought Gruyere, Jo made a tortilla and some yummy bircher muesli. My goat's cheese parcels were a bit of a disaster, however. They say never to work with children and animals, but I would add filo pastry to the list! The kids were all very full of beans and had gallons of apple juice and lots of bread. We had a few glasses of bubbly to mark the festive season.

In the afternoon, with his exam looming Nick set to studying, while I took Emily out to play for a while, though it was nearly dark by the time we left as she was very late having her nap after the get-together.

25 December 2009

After checking out, the owner asked Nick to move the car down the road to another space. As it was a one-way road, he would have preferred to go round the block, but she was gesturing to him to reverse. A couple of other vehicles came up behind as he was manoevering and my directions weren't much help either. Before we knew it the car was perilously close to a fence and he was stuck right across the narrow road with several cars waiting. Things quickly got worse as a guy in a van that was waiting got out and said he would try. He ended up getting the car door scratched and when he tried to go back the other way he also began to dent it. At this point Nick told me to go and wait for him in Starbucks, so I took Emily off down the road in much trepidation and close to tears. Nick was being very brave and managing to keep his cool under such awful circumstances, and I hoped he would be able to handle the situation without losing it.

He joined us quite quickly afterwards and I didn't dare mention it. He seemed fairly sanguine about it but it must have been very traumatic. Once fuelled for the morning we quickly got on our way. Just north of the city the highway runs directly along the coast, where the empty sands stretch for miles so we found a rest stop and got out for a wander on the beach. The sand was littered with washed up detritus; naturally the plastic flotsam and jetsam was of immense interest to Emily.

We played there a while before continuing on our drive back towards the airport. The satnav let us down a bit and we found ourselves buying a very poor lunch from a convenience store in a town that has the dubious honour of being UFO capital of Japan. Emily fell asleep after that and we carried on until we could draw up in a layby next to the sea near the airport and eat our unhealthy haul. The view from there was wonderful, with the snowy mountains of the Alps just visible across the water, but we had to eat quickly, knowing that Nick would be tied up a while explaining what had happened at the car rental place.

The return flight was near-empty, so we had a choice of seats and were able to shift over to see the vivid sunset as we approached Tokyo.

We were soon home and talking to the folks back home on Skype as they began their Christmas Day.

24 December 2009

Emily slept in, finally stirring at 7.40. It was really cold in our room and as breakfast was not provided we got out as soon as possible and went to the Starbucks on the main street for a good nosh up to fortify ourselves for a day out in the winter sun. Our main plan was to visit Kenrokuen, the park up the road that is one of the top three gardens in Japan, and especially renowned for its beauty in snowy conditions. Once there, Emily was very difficult and wanted to be carried at first, before capitulating and staying on her feet to explore. Even three days after the last snowfall there was still plenty around to make the wonderful garden even more heavenly. The white helped pick out the best features exquisitely.



Unfortunately Emily's mood deteriorated again, leading to half an hour of angst on all our parts before she calmed down again, and then only because Nick agreed to carry her. There was a gang of old ladies dressed in conical hats shovelling the densely packed snow off the paths, who were glad to pose for a picture with Emily.



A pair of wagtails were prancing around sweetly on the rocks by a water course. Further on some crows were bathing raucously in a shallow stream, which I'd never witnessed before. In an extensive plum orchard was a wooden shelter with meltwater dripping off its snowy mantle, and Emily was cracking up as Nick tipped his head back and let the drops fall into his mouth. We found a notice explaining that some trees were scarred after being tapped for turpentine in June 1945 to fuel military aircraft missions.

After a very unhealthy lunch in a German bakery, which reminded us of Greggs but had a fancy toilet with its own dressing table, we walked back past Kenrokuen and on to the Higashi Chaya area: an old geisha 'pleasure quarter'. The houses were the traditional slatted wood type and very picturesque.

The city is home to Japan's gold leaf industry and 99% of the country's leaf is made there. We found a gift shop that even sold leaf-coated cakes and boiled sweets with flecks of gold in them. While we were there Tracey called to announce the arrival of baby Rudy the day before; at 10lb 6oz he was apparently the heaviest baby to be born in the hospital in 2009. Had to have smarted a bit!

Emily woke up after a short doze in the baby carrier, and again she was tetchy and reluctant to walk. Nick ascertained that there was a playground in the vicinity so we went along there. Unfortunately it was slushy and the equipment wet and dirty. She enjoyed decorating another snowman with sticks and stones though.

While we were doing that a class of children came along and gathered for an earthquke drill, each equipped with special cushioned headgear.


We caught the period charabanc bus back into town as the sun set and dived back into Starbucks again for more sustenance and a chance to warm up. We didn't want to go back to the minshuku, so with no other way of killing time until dinner we took Emily across the road to a department store. She was happy as Larry playing with the many sample toys there and we stayed for more than an hour. It was stultifyingly hot in there but we felt it was the least we could do after pleasing ourselves. She was clearly very hungry but we still had our work cut out to tear her away.


We couldn't justify a second night of pizza so went to a Japanese 'casual dining' restaurant, all dim lighting and alcoves. It turned out to be an excellent choice. Nick ordered dish after dish and we had quite a feast. Emily had fun extracting edamame (green beans served in the pod) and wolfed butter sweetcorn, washed down with a huge pitcher of apple juice. She was very cute and genki. On our return to the accommodation the old lady showered Emily with gifts. All day she had been saying 'Emily doing poo' and now, finally, after a couple of false starts she produced some. She has gone from denying when she does one to talking about it incessantly. She dropped off quite quickly this time, as I lay next to her and regaled her with tales of Santa bringing presents for good girls who go to sleep.