My Best Friend

My best friend!

First things first, today Tom pooed in the toilet - yahoooooo!

Another OK-ish night - Tom woke up crying at midnight, I failed to settle him so moved in again. It was 2.30 before he fell asleep again but he didn't disturb me and I managed a couple more hours.
Right then, today we arranged to go to Kobe to meet up with one of Matt's translator friends. So we set off on the local train - took 1hr 15mins (this time will be reduced to 25 mins once our rail passes start and we can use the Shinkansen - yahoo)

We met Richard in the Muji restaurant just above Bornelund - a soft play area (we didn't go in today as it is very expensive and we had other things to do today). However next to the restaurant was a kids shop with lots of sample toys for children to play with so after some shyness Tom got stuck in. We then went for lunch which wasn't great as Tom was more intent on going back to the shop to play and was a little stubborn eating things, although we got there in the end. We of course then had to go back to the shop for more playing before we said goodbye to Richard and set off to Harbourland in the Port area of Kobe.

Still a bit jet-lagged

Luckily we came across a free bus half way there which we scrambled on. Our main reason for going to Harbourland was to visit a certain little shop - Donguri Garden which has lots of Totoro and Jiji Kiki (Studio Ghibli) items. Some items were a good £100, but we found the odd thing we liked and came away not too poor! We then went for a sit overlooking the sea watching boats come and go. Next stop was supposed to be Daiei, a favourite department store, but it had gone so we went to its replacement - not as good, but we managed to do some shopping - mainly for dinner tonight: regular sushi, inari sushi (rice coverd in sweeten tofu) and maki sushi (Californian rolls) with some cold soba noodles which we swiftly took home on the train.

Now on the train Tom had to sit on me as it was full. He played, then he wriggled and fidgeted beyond belief. I asked him if he was tired "my not twyred" came back the reply - a minute later he was zonked out! He was so tired that he didn't wake up when we got off the train, walked down and up steps up onto another platform, sat in the waiting room and boarded another train! He only woke up an hour later when we arrived back in Aioi - very sweaty and a little disorientated!

After some time to come to, we went for a game of football at the local park - met another 3 year old boy called Tomoki who had also gone with his football. We tried to get them to play with each other but Tomoki seemed quite suspicious of us and refused (makes a change for it not to be Tom being the awkward one)

Then a quick walk to the convenience store for dinner drinks: milk for Tom and beer for us, then dinner, SHOWER (Tom's first without protest) and bath before bed for Tom, work for Matt and blogging for me. Going to try to stay up till 10 today - we will see...

Today's purchase: Dr Yellow plasters for Tom's poorly heel

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Location:Kobe