31 January 2010

With Emily on the path to stardom it was our turn to be models. Minako and her husband are in the advertising business and had asked for volunteers for a campaign for a popular pot noodle, and both mine and Nick's photos had been picked. At Y15,000 (100 pounds) each for a morning's work, we thought we would give it a shot, along with Julia, Steph and Helen. The studio, once we found it, was in a plush neighbourhood near Shibuya. Like the place where Emily modelled, it is set up in the style of a European house and garden. That is obviously what appeals to Japanese tastes. We each took our turn with the photography team while the rest hung out upstairs. Luckily there were some toys in one room to occupy Emily, and Haru, Minako's boy, was also there. I felt very self-conscious as I posed on a high stool with the noodle pot. I managed to smile quite a lot despite, or perhaps because of, my nervousness. The photographer seemed to be happy with the results, in any case, so now I shall just have to wait until March to see if I appear on the final ad, which is going to feature 50 smiling people (all foreigners, I believe). It is going out in all the main daily newspapers so I must make sure to get a copy for posterity.

On our way back to the station we found ourselves in a very affluent street and there were several designer houses. One had a double-width garage with a gold door. On the street outside were some parking cones, but not just any old cones: these were white with a gold band and a Chanel logo!

After Emily's nap, we just about managed to get out at 3.45 and hopped on a train to Tamagawa river. Here we just played along the wide riverside green space. Emily was quite adventurous with the climbing frames.

There are several rail bridges near there and one has shinkansen trins going across every couple of minutes, to her delight.

We finished up stopping for light refreshment at the hippy cafe near the station and found that they were holding an 'open mic' session. The cafe owner seems quite taken with Emily and took a small bongo drum over to her. He got her banging out a rhythm of sorts and then moved her over to sit in front of the guitar players. She seemed a bit bemused but carried on playing the drum.

27 January 2010

It was another sunny day so we had a playdate at Kyu Shiba Rikyu garden with Julia and Charlize. The girls were crazy together, as always. They do get on extraordinarily well.

By the time Emily woke from her nap it was very late, so we only had time to pop over to Hon Shiba park. It is always hard to persuade her to leave the gravel and bushes outside the small shrine there and carry on to the playground. I don't know any other toddlers who are as obsessed with stones, leaves and sticks as she is. Her language skills have really leapt forward in the last week or so. At the park she was watching out for her favourite train decorated with animation characters, and piped up with 'it's not the Pikachu monorail, it's a normal one'. I wish she would pick up better on the use of 'please' and 'thank you' though; I still have to prompt her nearly every time.

26 January 2010

After my usual nursery day swim with Jo, we met Bettina for lunch at TY Harbor; a late celebration of her recent birthday. We ended up staying there three hours, enjoying the chance to chat freely (Cooper obligingly slept through most of it). I think we covered just about everything in our wide-ranging discussion: it was long enough to get kid talk out of the way and mull over some real-world issues like the global downturn. The staff had to gently persuade us to leave as we had stayed beyond dining-room hours. Life here would be very boring and lonely without the good friends I have made; it is always sobering to know that the nature of our situations means that one day we will only be able to stay in touch over the net.

24 January 2010

Amazingly, Emily slept in until 7.20. It was a bright day with a little new powder overnight. We had a bit of a scramble after breakfast as the minibus came earlier than expected and it takes a long time to get so many layers and accessories on. Wimp that I am, I had decided I would not partake of any more skiing. My legs were aching a lot, but I'm sure that if I really wanted to do it I could have just about risen above the pain, though if required to snowplough a lot I'm not sure my muscles would have been strong enough to stay in control of my speed.

Though I was only in the cafe next door I put Emily in daycare again, so that she would have toys and friends to play with. (Nick managed to book himself onto a lesson for the morning and had a good time out on the slopes.


Unlike Saturday, this time Emily was subdued and got upset when I tried to leave. I suppose she realised this time that I was leaving her for a while. There was no-one else in the cafe and I felt totally lame sitting watching skiers and snowboarders pass before the window. I was utterly despondent and also worried what Nick was thinking about my lack of staying power. I marvel less at my inability than the fact that so many people can ski so well, as it is such a dangerous, demanding and physical sport. I suppose that there is a point where you suddenly 'get it' and it really can become quite comfortable and enjoyable. I'm sure after a decent amount of time has elapsed I will be tempted to try again and subject myself to more humiliation! There has to be a worthwhile sport out there that I can master, but I am running out of options to try, having exhausted surfing, scuba, climbing , skydiving over the years.

Around 11.30 the guilt got the better of me (and, if I am honest, I was bored with reading in the cafe and had exceeded my caffeine quota for the day) so I went into the daycare. They were just about to go out into the snow with the toboggans, so I said I would go too. Emily and Charlize had great fun sliding with me down the side of the piste on the small plastic sleds. The walk back up was tough though,because Charlize's boots kept falling off so I had to carry her, and Emily got jealous and refused to walk.

Nick returned from a successful lesson and we all wolfed a quick lunch before the minibus came to take us back to the hotel.

There we finished our hastily-packed meal then took Emily back up to the room for a nap (they had been extremely helpful and said we could use the room as it was not needed for the next night). It took such a long time to get her off to sleep that she only got half an hour before we had to wake her and prepare her for the journey home. Nick was wiped out too, and the two of them kipped together while I packed around them.


Arriving at the bus-stop we found the service to Nagano station was about to leave, 10 minutes earlier than the timetable I had researched on the web, so we piled aboard quickly. As we left the city the sun was setting behind the surrounding mountains.

The three kids managed the ride very well and we were soon at Nagano and on the shinkansen home. Luckily, it was again not full at first so we could spread out.

Once we got to Karuizawa all seats were taken, but Julia got the DVD player out and that occupied the girls most of the way back to Tokyo. All-in-all, a satisfying weekend in the beautiful Japanese Alps, despite my unsatisfactory skiing experience.

23 January 2010

Emily woke at 6.30, maybe due to the usual problem with shoji screens: the white paper squares don't exactly keep out the light. There was lots of fresh snow outside and everything looked really pretty. We ate very well, being able to have continental AND cooked. The coffee was strong enough to stand a spoon up in - just what you need to kickstart a busy day in the great outdoors. Once ready, the children played in the powder snow outside



while we waited for the minibus to take us to Evergreen, which offers lessons and daycare plus an organic veggie cafe, all right next to the slopes at Happo One resort. I was pleased that Emily went into the playroom without making a fuss, though the others didn't get off so lightly.


Outside in the white stuff, I found that I had forgotten everything, even down to how to don the skis correctly. The others in our group (bar one, Rachel) were all competent skiers, so there was lots of good advice. Fearing that I would make a fool of myself using the chairlift, Donna offered to ride with me. There was no restraining bar like those I've used before on this one, so I was a bit scared at first, but she kept my mind off it by giving me a pep talk in readiness for the next part of the ordeal when I would actually have to try to ski. The views from the area at the top of the lift were superb.

Once off the lift, they all decided that we ought to ride up another shorter one to the top of what looked to me a very steep slope (pictured) but which I was assured was only a green run. It did turn out later to be a green, but a level two rather than level one.



Luckily for me, Julia and Andrew said that they would get me down the hill. Andrew even said that he would quite like to become a teacher and would be more than happy to give me some instruction. I'm afraid that he and Julia must have regretted their offer as I whinged and whined my way down painfully slowly; despite their good technical advice and encouragement I was totally lacking in confidence and full of fear. It took the best part of an hour for me to make it down a few hundred metres and by the time I go to the bottom I had cried once and used most swear words in my vocabulary. Every muscle in my legs was aching after the huge effort it took me to make all those tight turns, and I fervently wished I could be magically transported to the bottom (which I could be, in a manner of speaking, since the Kokusai lift would have taken me back the way I had come with Donna).


Julia insisted that I ski the rest of the way down, and I felt it was the least I could do. There was a gentle level one route that looked as though it meandered back to Evergreen at a shallow angle, so we took that way. Although the views were fantastic



I still didn't enjoy it as the narrowness of the roadlike track meant I could not make wide traverses and had to go straight and hold a snow plough a lot of the time. My legs were soon trembling and I was full of frustration at my inability; I just can't understand why I am so poor at skiing when everyone else looked as though they were born on skis. Most others looked so effortless and elegant, not to mention fast. I felt humiliated every time someone passed me and saw my pathetic efforts. I couldn't wait to get off the mountain and out of the horribly uncomfortable boots, and was adamant that I would never ski again. Finally, after another hour, Julia and I made it to the daycare, almost exactly on the dot of noon.

Emily was very glad to see me; I think she had been OK during the morning but was really clingy for a while. We trooped into the adjoining cafe for some sustenance. The menu was all veggie and it was hard to choose from the awesome selection of imaginative food on offer. Emily didn't eat much at all, but was overtired by then. The hotel sent the minibus to take us back to Double Black, and poor Marianne, who is recovering from stomach flu, puked everywhere. The smell of it had me very close to throwing up myself. Nick was waiting in reception when we arrived, having just got off the bus. Despite our harsh words the night before I was really glad to see him. Another family also joined our ever-expanding group at this point: Anna and Roland with their two small children.

Like me, Nick had only skied twice before and I felt bad that he would have to go off and ski on his own for the afternoon with no-one to help him go over the basics. I hurriedly passed on a few good pointers gleaned from my erstwhile instructors, then took Emily off for a nap. As she slept I gazed out at the wintry scene. Big lumps of snow were regularly sliding off the steep rooves and would do a lot of harm if they hit someone. The sky was heavy with a fresh burden of snow, though we had only had light flurries all day. After my exertions, it was hard to stay awake while Emily slept, but my mind was busy with reflections on the morning: the world seems divided into those who ski and those who don't/can't and I don't want to be in the latter camp. I wondered if good skiers felt contempt for the likes of me.

In the end I had to wake Emily from deep slumber as time was getting on and I foresaw difficulties later in getting her down for the night otherwise. She and Charlize played around the hotel as we didn't feel like putting on all the layers of gear and going out in the snow again. Nick was back from the slopes at 5.30 and said that after a difficult start he had just about got the hang of it. I left him to watch Emily while I went to soak my aching leg muscles in the communal bath, but it was too hot to stay in long enough to loosen them up much. Nick went off up the road with the other dads to a hotel with a fancy onsen while I fed Emily then took her to the bath with Charlize and Ashling. He got back just in time to help settle her in the room. Our dinner was pre-ordered for 8.30 and Nick and I left the room bang on then, after 40 minutes of waiting for Emily to drop off.

It was another top-notch dinner, and all the better for being eaten at a civilised time. As we were last to sit down we were at one end of the long table so it was harder to participate in the conversations. Also, I found myself next to Roland, and was worried about making a fool of myself as he is obviously a very intelligent and well-travelled guy, being a BBC correspondent. However, the wine loosened my tongue and I ventured a few forays into Japanese current affairs. The meal was all over by 10.30 and Nick and I were gratefully sinking into our huge and comfy bed by eleven.

22 January 2010

Our journey to Hakuba, in Nagano prefecture, was much easier than I expected. Emily and I were travelling for our skiing weekend with Julia, Cliff and Charlize, and Rachel and Ashling (with Nick following next morning). We all gathered on the Joetsu shinkansen platform at Tokyo station and boarded the Asama service. Luckily for us, the train was nowhere near full and we were able to spread out across 10 seats, instead of being confined to the four adult fare seats we had purchased. The 90 minute ride was over really quickly and with no real upset on any of the three girls' parts. I was surprised by how little snow there seemed to be in the immediate environs of Nagano city, but once we began our hour-long bus ride to Hakuba that soon changed; by the time we disembarked in the sprawling resort it was piled up metres high along the roads and beneath the sloping eaves, and before nightfall it had begun falling again.

Emily and bus travel do not go well together, and she was very close to throwing up, especially as it was stiflingly hot in the bus. When she went pale and began saying 'tummy', I decided to throw consideration for other passengers to the wind and open the window a bit, which thankfully staved off the nausea. The hotel, Double Black, had sent a minibus to take us the final couple of minutes up from the bus stop to their place, which was a wooden lodge style affair set in a wood.

We let the kids run amok along the long corridor and clamber on the comfy chairs in the cosy lounge, but as Emily and Charlize had not slept yet we had to take them up to their rooms and get them to have a nap. The hotel were very flexible throughout our stay, and had allowed us to check in early for that reason. I had to hold Emily for ages and sing lullabies to her to get her off, before laying her in the travel cot (which was a very snug fit as it was only a few centimetres longer than her). After an hour's sleep she woke and bawled uncontrollably for about an hour. I kept calm at first and tried to talk her out of it but eventually lost my cool somewhat and ended up yelling at her, practically in tears myself. Unable to think what to do I took her down to the lounge and Julia and Charlize helped snap her out of it. Roly, the barman, did his bit by juggling some oranges for her. I think it must have been a combination of waking in a strange place and teething: she is cutting a molar at the moment.

After the girls had eaten we dressed them up in their winter gear and took them for a short foray into the snow outside the hotel.

We didn't stay out long as it was a little slippery under foot and the snow had also frozen quite hard so we couldn't make a snowman. In any case, we had to go off in the minibus again to arrange our equipment hire for the next day. In the meantime Donna, Andrew and Marianne had arrived so it was a big group of us to kit out; the four children were a bit fed up waiting around at the hire shop for so long and there was too much dangerous gear there for them to roam freely. I managed to elicit the fact that Donna's husband Andrew was a huge Arsenal fan, so hoped he and Nick would have time to chat next day. By the time we returned to Double Black it was snowing hard and new powder was building up fast, boding well for Saturday.

After the kids had their dinner at 6.30, Julia and I took Emily and Charlize into the hotel's communal hot bath. The girls had fun playing with the showers and wooden bowls and then we took them in the bath. The water was almost scalding, but we sat next to the cold water tap and let it gush, finally getting the temperature down enough so that we could immerse our legs. Upstairs they watched some DVD stories on Julia's portable DVD player before we brushed their teeth and split them up for bedtime.

It took Emily an hour and a half to go off to sleep, by the end of which time I had reached what I call the 'screaming inside' stage. Unfortunately all I had managed to eat in 12 hours was a raisin bun so I was shaking with hunger when I finally made it down to the rest of the group in the dining room at 9.15. Our big order took a long time to prepare, so it was about 10.30 before it made it to the table, by when I had quaffed a fair amount of red wine and become rather loquacious, to put it mildly! Poor Donna and Julia, both pregnant and sober, were on the receiving end of a lot of drivel, and I also had a phone call with Nick that ended up in a row as we had both had a drink and were feeling raw for one reason or another. My meal, when it came, was superb: a massive tuna steak, meltingly tender, and with delicious accompaniments of red wine risotto and herby wild mushrooms. As soon as the food was finished everyone else went off to bed, but in my drunken state I decided to hang out at the bar and ended up staying until past midnight. The hotel is run by Aussies and a lot of the clientele are also from there (Japan is a big winter sport destination for Antipodeans); the barman Roly was very entertaining and I got talking to him and a girl of about 20 about piercings and tattoos. I remember discussing how hard it must be for young people to shock their parents these days. I'm sure that by the time Emily is in her teens there will be new ways for her to do so, but fervently hope she is more level-headed than I was. As I retired for the night the snow was still coming down hard.

20 January 2009

A quiet day, with the first TMG meeting of the year at Nandemo kids hall, followed by lunch with Nick.

The day was notable for the extremely mild weather, which felt positively springlike. I think it topped out at about 16C, with a balmy breeze from the south.