More new friends

Bathing our feet

Another poo in the toilet this morning - yahoo! Although it was under duress: I refused to put on Mr Tumble (his favourite tv show) until he did one - third time lucky we finally got there.

Today we had arranged to meet up with some old friends of Matt from his time in Kobe: Michiko and Colin with their 4 year old twins Ewan and Miya. Last time we saw them was in 2005 in Victoria (Canada - where they live) how all our lives have changed since then. We hadn't changed though - just found it difficult to finish conversations with the little ones around. Ewan and Miya are over a year older than Tom but are tiny for their age meaning they were all the same height and weight which was great. They also seemed to have similar temperaments to Tom meaning they got on well.

We got the white train to Shin Kobe then walked to the rope way where we met them all. We got a cable car up to Mt Rokko which looks down over the city. This was Tom's first experience of a cable car and he enjoyed it - it seems to be that being in the sky looking down is always fun.

Washing hands / collecting stones?

We got to the top where Tom had a bit of a moment but once he calmed down he was fine and before too long he was giggling as we started down the hill on foot. We had been told that there was a hot foot bath on the descent - the other 3 who can all speak and read Japanese all missed the sign, I think that because I can't read or speak the language my senses are heightened and I notice more - if there is an image I immediately look at it and try to work out what any words will be saying. Anyway I called them all back and we decided the foot bath was nearby and to investigate. It was really lucky we did because it clouded over and started to rain. The foot bath was located at the back of some greenhouses and had a roof over it. So we soaked our feet and watched the rain come down.

What is under that bridge?

Once the children became too fidgety and all of us a bit wet from splashing etc we went into a cafe for a drink and a bun. By the time we had finished the clouds had disappeared and we had bright sunshine again. In the cafe Ewan had got some toys out - guess what he had - a number of Shinkansens which he happily shared with Tom.  The children definitely bonded during this time and went off to explore the inside of the greenhouse by themselves - it had a little stream running through it with lots of bridges and stepping stones to play on. It was a delight to watch them. At some stage Tom and Miya decided each other were OK and were holding hands - how sweet.

Tom's been adopted

When we left to carry on the descent Ewan, Tom and Miya were holding hands - it really was very cute. We found a patch of level green further down the hill so got the ball out for a spot of footie / catch / a new ball in hat game. Without realising it lunchtime had come and gone - it was 1.30 so instead of continuing on down on foot (the original plan) we got the cable car from the midway station back down to the start.

Tom and Miya - young love?

We found ourselves a Kushikatsu restaurant (fried things on sticks) Matt had a tonkatsu whilst I had a plate of things on sticks - a magical mystery tour of food because as they all had batter and sauces on them I didn't know what any of them were. I gave Tom first dibs - he went for a piece of salmon - lucky boy. I also had a tiny sausage - that went to Tom, a piece of pumpkin (also went to Tom) an ebi (managed to keep that to myself this time), some more fish, an asparagus, a piece of beef, some boiled eggs, some konnyaku (devil's tongue - a very hard speckled jelly), and some other things which I couldn't identify.

A motley crew including 3 tired children after a happy day

Once we finished lunch the kids went mad for a little while which ended when Tom fell over and bumped his head. He then lost his sense of humour and came over tired. This meant we said our goodbyes. We hastily went to Daiei (a supermarket) to pick up the ingredients for a curry tonight and got the next Shinkansen back to Aioi. During this time the clouds gathered and when we arrived in Aioi we were greeted with torrential rain. We hung back until it eased up a little (we didn't have any coats or umbrellas with us) and then ran home. Tom went straight to bed - at his request, giving us time to process photos etc. Once Tom was awake again the storm had ended and we had clear blue skies again. So the boys went to play football whilst I made curry.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Kobe