Daddy!

So on Monday after a frantic day of tidying, cleaning and cooking I picked Tom up from school and suffered excited verbal diarrhoea all the way to Manchester airport.  Matt's plane arrived on time and he walked into arrivals looking quite fresh.  We then both suffered Tom's verbal diarrhoea all the way home.  But anyway, he is back safe and sound.

Hayfever weekend

Hay fever eyes

So Saturday came our way and Tom woke up with huge puffy eyes, poor thing.  Over the week Tom has been sneezing and snuffling quite a bit - there's no denying it, it is definitely hay fever and I am the one to blame!  I took him straight to the pharmacist and got some anti histamines for him.  Bless him he didn't complain, but he knew they were bad as he said: "Mummy my eyes are all wet, but I haven't been crying!"  We decided to have an easy day.  So we dropped off jumble, cakes and biscuits to the school jumble sale in the morning and then met up with Fred and Frank in the park in the morning.

In the afternoon we went to the jumble sale (quite underwhelming - not much there.  I had heard that Ingleton jumble sales are a sight to behold, but really it was quite dull).  We sat to watch the cricket on the way home, but Tom decided enough was enough and we went back inside and watched some telly to get away from all the pollen.  Not great, as it was a lovely sunny day, but what else can you do?

Sunday, Tom's eyes were back to normal (hurray) so I decided to go to Morecambe, in the hope there would be less pollen there.  We were going to go for a bike ride, but Tom's front tyre has a puncture, so instead we went on foot.  I had read on Twitter that there was a kite festival on, so we walked down the promenade searching for it.  The plan was to have lunch at the Stone Jetty, but it wasn't open?  I guess it must have permanently closed which is a real shame.  Anyway, we then discovered the kite festival by the Midland Hotel which was fab.  There were loads of very different looking kites: kites in the shape of dogs, cows, ladybirds, divers, jelly fish, rays, a huge lobster.  Basically everything you can imagine and they made a real spectacle on the beach.

Frilly kites

Ladybird land kites

Kites filling the sky

Thumbs up

Big lobster thingy

Once we had had our fill of kites, we returned to the car and headed to Hest Bank for lunch and a play on the beach.

I must say Tom was just brilliant company today, not a cross word was spoken, we both had a fab, fun and relaxed day.

Friday Assembly

Tom's class had their assembly on Friday.  We were invited and got to learn all about their trip on Tuesday.  Tom had 2 speaking parts:

"We have been learning about sea creatures"
and
"We went to the inquarium"

He also did some drumming on a handmade shaker thingy and showed us his picture of the inquarium.

He did actually tell me that one of his lines was "We went to the inquarium" so I spent Thursday evening and Friday morning teaching him a, a, a, aquarium - it was to no avail!

It was a cute assembly, everyone got to say something and show some work.  We also saw photos of the trip.  Unfortunately most of the babies were in full throttle meaning that quite a lot of the words got lost amongst amongst the cries, but even so it was lovely to watch and experience.

Sports Day

Ready, steady, GO!

As I said, it was a busy week.  On Wednesday Tom had his sports day.  All children were split into teams which are spread across the school.  Tom was in the blue team.  He was in two races:  running race (against all the other boys) - he came third behind Lucas and Finn, which is pretty good going.

The next race was the scuttle race - where you have 3 bean bags and hoops on the floor.  You have to drop the bean bags in the hoops and then sprint to the end.  I have this one on film (sorry after preparing my camera for the afternoon I forgot to take it with me so this has all been done with my phone).  Tom is second to the end in blue.  He is last during the bean bag drop bit and then sprints to the end to arrive in second place - I guess he's got quite a pace on him.

Scuttle Race: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PoJWCe6RODs&feature=youtu.be

It was a lovely afternoon -  around 26 / 27 degrees which pretty hot for Yorkshire.  There wasn't any shade for us Mummies and as a result all of us got burnt.  But we had fun and the blue team won overall by a couple of points, so Tom's victories really did count for the team.  Well done blues and well done Tom x

First school trip

Ready for the off

So Tom had his first school trip on Tuesday.  They got a Bibby's Coach (Bibby's coaches are famous here) to the Lake District.  They went to the Lakes Aquarium (or Inquarium as Tom calls it), then the coach to Bowness.  A ferry from Bowness to Brockhole, then picnic and play at Brockhole before returning home.

They all had a ball, Tom came home absolutely buzzing with excitement about it all.

Some of the mums went as well and all came back saying how beautifully behaved all the children were and what a wonderful day it was.  There were no 'incidents' no whinging, no playing up - everyone just had fun.  Really nice to hear that from a Mum, so maybe the teachers haven't been exaggerating about it being a good class. (You never know what 'truth' you are being told?!)

Oh, and if you are wondering the smaller children didn't go on the trip - just that they wanted to pack a rucksack and pretend they were going too!

Weekend of Jetlag

So, I managed 2 blocks of 2 hour sleeps.  Tom faired better, but at 4am I gave up and at 5am Tom came into my room and we lazed in bed for a while.  I had done an Asda order from Japan to be delivered this morning.  I had a malt loaf in for breakfast which we ate in seconds, we were both very happy - poor Tom missed both lunch and dinner yesterday as he was asleep for one and we had no food in the house when we got home.  By 7am we were both very very hungry again but had to wait for the Asda man to come.  I had arranged for him to come between 8 and 10.  Why?  Next time I need to book him in for 6 to 8am!  I was literally pacing up and down waiting for him.  Of course he arrived at 9.58!  We both dived on the food and made ourselves some lunch (it felt like lunch by then).

Playing in a real life size toy!

Once fed, we were happy and put the rest of the food away.  Then we headed to Fred and Frank's for a play.  Caroline had invited us around to help with the jet lag.  It was a godsend, we both kept busy playing with our friends.  The sun was shining, Rob got his tank out and ran it up and down a hill which was fun.  The boys were allowed to play on a digger, so they were happy.  They went collecting eggs, played in the sandpit, played on bikes, ran a lot, had lunch etc etc.







Playing with tanks: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tg780Nd0Pgo

Tilly Mai

Tom got tired at 3pm: his eyes suddenly went heavy (his eyes always give him away), so we said our thank yous and left.  We had dinner at 4pm and Tom was in bed at 5pm.  I promptly fell asleep at 7pm and was woken by the phone which was good.  I then dragged myself to bed at 9pm.

Tractor

Caroline had mentioned that there was a steam fair on in Scorton (near Garstang) over the weekend and that they were taking the boys on Sunday, they were more than happy for us to join them.  I thought about it for a while (steam fairs were never my thing when I was a child - having been dragged round them many times).  However, I have a small boy that needed entertaining and it wasn't raining, so not being able to think of anything better to do, along we went.

Farm vehicle of some sort

It was actually more fun than I was
expecting.  One of the first things we noticed was a Blue Line Truck called Tilly Mai.  This is the truck I had to make a sugar model of for the owner.  We lined up the boys and took a pic - if I get asked to make it again, at least now I have a good photo of it.

Horses and knights

We looked around all the vehicles, all the miniature steam pumps (I have never understood the draw of these, but the boys seemed to enjoy them) and then we found the tractors.  Fred managed to charm one of the exhibitors and managed to gain a massive poster of a combine, poor Caroline then had to carry it around with her for the rest of the day!

We then split up.  Tom and I went in search for lunch (the others had had theirs in the car on the way over).  We found a cafe run by a farm shop so I had a sandwich and Tom a sausage roll.  We then met up again at the big show field where we saw a jousting competition which was quite fun.

Driving his own truck

Fair swings

We then let the boys have a go on some fair rides.  Then one last look around the vehicles before heading home.  Another good day.  By the time we got home it was past 5pm, so we had a quick tea and then to bed.  School tomorrow - it's going to be a very busy week!

Home

Well that was a bit of a break wasn't it?  I could have updated the blog on Matt's home computer if I really wanted to, but to be honest, it would have been too much of a hassle - so I thought it better to wait until I got my computer back

Sleepy head

So, Tom and I came home together.  It was a very long day.  It took us about 22 hours door to door, but the flights were all on time, the transfer worked well, we didn't have to wait long at Heathrow (mainly because we had to walk so far).  Tom was very well behaved on the flight - he managed to charm the cabin crew - being the only child of his age on the flight.  He slept for about 3 hours (he would have gone longer, but we were landing at Heathrow and I had to wake him up).  He went to the toilet about 15 times - it got so bad that I banned him from drinking any more!  He only had one incident which was when we landed at Heathrow.  We came to a sudden stop at the end of the runway because the airplane's nose steering wasn't working, meaning we had to wait for someone to come out to us to tow us to the terminal.  It was at this point that Tom needed a wee - great timing (but to be fair to him he had just woken up!).  Even the cabin crew were still strapped in, so there was no way we would be able to do so!  I told him that - he cried, still there was nothing I could do.  He seemed to understand in the end and stopped.  When we finally got to the terminal I ran to find some cabin crew who let us in the toilet.  Phew - accident averted (just).

Luckily the motorways were free flowing (very strange for Manchester on a Friday evening) so we got home quickly.  Tom went straight to bed, whilst I stayed up till 10pm - I was wired from the drive home, making sure I didn't fall asleep etc.

I found Ingleton very strange to start with, so so so quiet, my ears were buzzing from the quietness.  No Yurikamome, no expressway, no people only birds and sheep.

Last day - best time for a relax!

So this morning it was grizzly and grey - yuck!  Our plan was to go to Enoshima which is near Kamakura and famous for its seaside resort.  Our initial plan was to have a day out on the beach there, but the weather put paid to that, so after some more research we discovered there was an onsen there and an aquarium, so we carried on with our plans and hopped on the train to Ofuna carrying swimming costumes and umbrellas.


From Ofuna we got the Shonan Monorail to Enoshima.  This was the first monorail in the country and not only that a hanging monorail, the only one in the country.  How cool was that?  Tom thought it was pretty good.

We got to Enoshima just in time for lunch and popped into a local Chinese restaurant.  A Japanese version of a Chinese restaurant is something very very very different to a British Chinese restaurant.  In fact I can't think of one thing that looked familiar to home.  I had a big bowl of noodles in soup with bits and bobs on and Matt fried rice.  Tom had a bit of both and of course we had to have some gyoza!

Hanging monorail

And again

Feeling fortified we headed towards the road and pedestrian bridge that links Enoshima island to the mainland.  Now if it had a been a nice day we would have walked around the island, taken in the gardens, shrines etc and ended up on the observatory at the top.  However, it wasn't so we headed for the onsen.

This was even posher than the other two.  It was mainly mixed bathing meaning that for once we had to wear swimsuits (very strange!).  Now an onsen is supposed to be a relaxing place, and this place advertises itself in English to attract tourists, but I got hugely stressed out to start with.  First of all Tom went to the toilet, did some big number 2's.  Could I find the flush?  Not a chance!  I tried putting my hand in front of things, I pressed a big red button (always a risk that that could be an emergency button!), nothing.  I looked for knobs, I looked on the bidet button panel, but I couldn't find anything resembling a flush!  I couldn't leave it as it was.  In the end I had to find a well meaning person, drag them into the loo, do manic flushing waving symbols for them to understand my problem.  I chose the right lady, she laughed and then showed me a hidden button on the top of the bidet panel. The most unobvious flush I've ever seen.  So that was the first emergency.

Enoshima - must be lovely on a nice day!

Then the next question - do we wash ourselves before going to the pool?  Do we take our towels and robes to the poolside with us or leave them in the locker room?  No signs in English and I couldn't find any showers - very strange for an onsen.  We got dressed in our swim suits, grappled with the lockers (trying to work out how to close and lock them with a wristband).  We then got the elevator down to the poolside, taking our robes and towels with us.  There was a notice to take a shower before entering.  Great, so then we had to go back in the elevators to the locker room to get Tom's ear plugs, then back down again.  OK.  Now, how do I turn the showers on?  There was no obvious button, dial etc.  I tried walking in front of the them - nope!  Then I saw a big button with lots of notices in Japanese round it.  Once again: is it the emergency button or the button for the shower?  I got my courage together and pressed it.  Hurray water came out of the showers.  We were now ready to go to the poolside.  By this time of course Matt was wondering where on earth we were, not quite understanding the predicaments we were getting ourselves into!

And relax.  There were quite a few pools, some with bubbles, some without.  Some outside overlooking the sea, one even had a gym in it (underwater cycling, weightlifting etc).  I then noticed something saying 'To the Cave', so we got in an elevator which took us further down to a faux cave system full of more pools, bubbles sauna etc.  All good fun.  Tom enjoyed them too.

Matt had noticed that there was a segregated onsen upstairs, so we both decided to try that out.  Tom went with me.  We discovered the onsen proper - ie with showers, shampoo etc etc.  So we both had hair and body washes and then soaked in the onsen pool, before getting out to meet Matt back downstairs in the mixed bathing.  Meant putting a cold wet swimming suit back on - not much fun.  We had a couple more soaks and then put on our robes and had an alcohol free beer each (Tom had a calpiss) before another soak.  By now it was getting late so we headed back to the changing rooms, got dry and dressed.

Cheers!

We then headed back to Hamamatsu-Cho on the same trains, and headed to the chicken restaurant we went to last week for more very lovely food.  Then I brought a very tired Tom home whilst Matt went on the hunt for tomorrow's breakfast.  Then, final packing (will it all fit?), Miki came up with a lovely dessert to say thanks (mainly for putting up with the evil woman downstairs) and goodbye.  Baseball on the telly (as usual) and then bed.  It will be a mega long day tomorrow.

Boys' day out

We had our normal, happy Tom back today - yahoooo!  Such a shame he timed his off day for the day with Hiromi!

So we have rain again - in fact as i am writing this it is absolutely hammering it down.  One good thing is that it has cooled down.  Today was unbearably sticky and humid - basically spent the whole day sweating - even in air conditioned shops and trains it was that bad!

So today Matt and I split up.  I wanted to do some last minute shopping without the boys (much easier) and as Matt is about to spend 10 days away from Tom he decided to take him out.  More on that later.

Once the boys had gone, I had a shower and then headed over to Daiba to do some last minute shopping.  I got the Yurikamome to Daiba and got off at the central point, headed to the first shopping centre, Aqua to find it was closed.  Didn't open until 11am.  It was 9.50am!  I then headed to Decks - which has lots of child friendly places, it didn't open until 11am!  Poo!!!! Last shot was Diver City, hurray, it was open.  Now I remember there being a Daisō here, so had a look at the shop plan, but there was nothing on it saying Daisō.  That doesn't mean it wasn't there, about 50% of the shops were named just in Japanese (which is funny because nearly every shop front has their name only using Roman letters on it!  (Another one of those querky things you get here like every menu in the country saying 'menu' but then every other word on it being in Japanese.  I get excited and caught out by it all the time!).

Anyway, that meant that I had to walk up and down every floor to find it.  I missed out the top floor as that was all restaurants, and walked all the other floors.  It wasn't to be found, maybe my memory was wrong.  I was just about to leave the place in a huff when I noticed a poster in the doorway with lots of English on it.  Guess what Daisō was there - on the top floor - of course!!!  So, I went back up and found it immediately, exactly where I remembered it (just the wrong floor).  In I went and another number of 100 Yen purchases were made - this time for parties: fans, origami sets etc.  All things that hopefully the children back home will enjoy, as well as some other things that I couldn't possibly leave Japan without.

Cheers

By now I was bored with the whole thing (ie shopping) it had taken way too long to find an open shop, and then a shop I wanted, so my browsing was over.  I went to get another set of photos printed for the scrapbook and then headed back home.

Once home my job was to start the packing.  As you know, this holiday has been mainly about shopping and trains, so there was a lot of shopping to pack.  Luckily we came over with half empty suitcases and an emergency bag to check in.  It all fitted in fine.  In fact I think we have space to spare, and Matt will quite easily be able to pack his things without cramming.

edamame boy

At 2pm I headed off to Hamamatsu-chō to meet up with the boys.  We went for tea and a bun and then headed home for a session of scrapbooking and work.  As the heavens had opened we decided to head somewhere close for dinner and went to the food court at the foot of the Toshiba building which is opposite us.  There we found an izakaya and had another wonderful dinner:

+ okonomiyaki (at last)
+ jumbo ebi katsu
+ edamane
+ gyōza
+ deep fried fishy things (satsuma-age)
+ potato salad
+ 5 minced chicken skewer things (tsukune) with 5 different toppings

All very very yummy and washed down with some huge ice cold beers - very oishii, especially after a day like today.  Tom ate as if he had a hole in his tummy - everything evaporated in front of him!

Matt here.

Super Azusa (not my photo)

Yes, as Tom and I were going to be spending the day together, I asked him what he'd like to do. Guess what? Ride on an express train. So, after a quick look at the JR website to see which of the few lines we hadn't yet been down, I decided we'd head to Kōfu on the Super Azusa Limited Express. This involved getting the Yamanote Line (Tokyo's equivalent of the Circle Line) round to Shinjuku, the world's busiest railway station (between 3 and 4 million passengers per DAY). To be honest, I was slightly dreading herding the lad through the crowds but (a) the morning rush hour had more or less dissipated and (b) we only had to move a couple of platforms to get to our express.

Train sleep

It left bang on 10.00am and spent a good half hour speeding through the vast spread of Tokyo suburbs, and then BANG! At Hachiōji, the sprawl ends and the mountains begin. It's incredibly abrupt. For the remaining hour or so to Kōfu, the scenery is delightful - steep tree-covered mountains and raging rivers. The railway line is really curvy, and you could feel the train tilting round the bends. The horribly wet weather meant that the view wasn't as good as it might have been, which was especially disappointing given Kōfu's proximity to Mount Fuji, which we still haven't seen on this trip.

We only had about 40 minutes there before our train back (the day out was really just the train ride), so I rushed Tom up to the top floor of the station building and forced half a large portion of pork cutlet curry down him, which he seemed to greatly enjoy. The waitress took a real shine to him (this has happened umpteen times on this trip) and gave him a big glass of orange juice for free. Once I'd paid the bill, we had 8 minutes to get our train back to Shinjuku, so it was straight back to the platform.

No, I didn't wet myself

Once on board, Tom announced he needed a sleep. I wasn't going to complain after yesterday's antics, so I nabbed the window seat, he took the (thankfully) vacant seat next to me, put his head on my lap and was soon out like a light. He slept all the way to Shinjuku nearly 90 minutes). I didn't feel it at the time, but when he lifted his head off my lap, there was a huge wet patch on my trousers that looked for all the world as if I'd wet myself in a big way - just what you don't need when walking through the world's busiest station. Thank God I was wearing a fairly long T-shirt. Still, when the humidity is about5 500%, as it was today, it can't be helped. He woke up in a good mood, and we got the train back round to Hamamatsu-chō to meet Nik, who was greeted by a huge running hug from the boy.

Day with Hiromi in Kyoto

A long but good day.

Today we went to Kyoto to meet up with Hiromi.  She graciously accepted to come to Kyoto to shorten our travel time to see her.  We got the 8.30 train from Tokyo to Kyoto, it was surprisingly empty so we spread out.  Tom and I did scrapbooking whilst Matt did some work on the laptop.

Unfortunately this wasn’t to be Tom’s best day.  He can’t still be tired, he’s had a couple of quiet days and been in bed early, but today he was in one of those moods.  It didn’t really matter what we did, what we said to him, he continued to be aggravating.  Not great when you are meeting with a dear friend for a limited time!  The scrapbooking was the first part of this, he asked me to get it all out which I did, but then he was just silly the whole time, writing letters back to front, missing out lines, not cutting things out properly etc etc.  We did get it done, but it was hard work and quite frustrating!  I asked him if he was tired, he said yes so I gave him the opportunity for a cuddle and a sleep, but he just fidgeted.  Not a great start!

Oishii

Tom and Hiromi

We got to Kyoto dead on time (of course), it is much hotter here than in Tokyo – an extra 5 degrees or so.  We then got the bus to our meeting place – just outside the posh department store Takashimaya.  Obviously a popular meeting point as there were lots of people hanging around.  Within a minute or two Hiromi arrived.  Tom gave her a big hug – she was looking well and as stylish as ever.  Tell me why: Hiromi has 2 shopping bags and looks very very stylish wearing a t-shirt, a hat and a scarf with some converse boots and a flaring skirt.  I make an effort with flowery big top and leggings and look very very scruffy.  I guess she has ‘it’ (as in style) and I don’t!!!!  She asked us if we had made any plans for lunch – we hadn’t, so she recommended us a negi restaurant nearby (negi is something between a leek and a spring onion).  The restaurant was proper Japanese – ie sliding doors and wood, the food was amazing.  The menu was all in Japanese and there were no pictures on the menu or models of food, so I let Matt order for me.  He ordered chicken karage for himself and mixed tempura for me.  All this with brown rice, miso soup, pickles etc etc.   I ended up with the tempura – it was amazing: 2 big ebi, white fish, mushroom, sweet potato, pumpkin, aubergine, okra, seaweed and of course negi.  It was very very fresh – a taste sensation.  Matt’s karage was pretty good too.  Hiromi had pork tonkatsu with egg which looked lovely too.  Tom, of course got a bit of everything – not a shred was left, so I figure he enjoyed it too.

Learning to wash with temple water

What's down there?

We then went for a walk around Kyoto, taking in some of the sights.  First on the list was Yasaka Jinja Shrine (Shrine = Shinto), a big complex which got us out of the heaving throngs of people in Kyoto (even more foreigners here than in Tokyo!)  I quite like the temples of Kyoto, I enjoyed coming here 14 years ago by myself (once I had found the YHA which was a bit of a trauma).  

Shaking a prayer rattle

With Hiromi with us we were able to move from one sight to another without meeting the crowds again.  We then headed to Chion’in Temple (Temple=Buddhist) – this is famous for its large wooden entrance gate which you can climb to view Kyoto below you.  Unfortunately it was closed for maintainance.  In fact the main temple building was also closed, it had had another building built around it (as per Himeji Castle last time we came) so that it could be worked on regardless of weather.  We had a much needed sit down (it was very very humid meaning we were constantly thirsty).  A local man came up to practice his English on us – we all sat down in an air conditioned rest room to drink and recover.

Beautiful covered bridge

Shrine Gate

Japanese Garden

On the bridge

Next stop was the Heian Jingu Shrine.  Now this one I remember from 14 years ago as having lovely gardens.  By now Hiromi’s legs were tired, so she had a sit down whilst we went for a look around the gardens.  

14 years ago it was raining hard and I had a film camera so I didn’t take many photos.  I made up for it this time.  The gardens were as lovely as I remember (even more so).  Tom perked up here, went running off by himself and went splat over a protruding root.  We had tears and crying – spoiling the tranquility of the gardens for a while, a sweet put him back on track and soon he was skipping around again.  There were lots of ponds, lots of lily pads, we saw a heron and the irises were in bloom making the place look lovely.  There were also some stepping stones (Tom did the first set with his Dad, but was brave enough to do the second set by himself), a beautiful covered bridge, a tea ceremony tea room and just lots of beautiful plants and trees making for a beautiful garden.  I could quite easily have spent a couple of hours in there, however, Hiromi was waiting for us and anyway we were getting thirsty and tired again.

Carefully stepping stones

We found Hiromi on the shrine’s steps when we exited the garden (she had made friends with a school child) and decided to find a café to refresh ourselves.  It was just a short walk before we found one (expensive but then we are in Kyoto!)  We then got the bus back into the city and decided to walk around the basement of Takashimaya.  It was a foodie’s heaven – if we were staying in Japan a little longer I would have bought lots – the ebis and scallops especially took my fancy.  In the end we bought a selection of buns from a bakery to munch on the train – we were still full from lunch – I thought that more rice and stuff that you get in a bento box would be too much.  We ended up with 2x edamame and cheese batons, a bun with curry in it, a bun with pork stew in it, a cheese, spinach and ham roll, a bun with a sausage in it and a slice of pizza.  All very nice.  Very strange though, when Matt paid for it he got given a free half slice of bread.  Not sure why? 

We then said goodbye to Hiromi and then got a very crowded bus to Kyoto station.  Then the shinkansen back home.  I thought that Tom would be asleep in minutes on the train as he had been showing signs of tiredness all day, but no, he fidgeted and fidgeted driving me mad, but no sleep came.  We gave up, had our buns, tried again, but still no.  As I said he is having a difficult day today.

Anyway, thanks to Hiromi we had a lovely day, she didn’t seem to mind that Tom wasn’t at his best, she played with him and defended him against our curt words when he was doing wrong.  He almost got tickled to death at one point.  In Hiromi’s eyes Tom can do no wrong – very cute!

DR YEEEEELLLLLLLOOOOOOOOOW!

We had plans to go either to the beach or to the mountains today, but Tom was still very tired yesterday so we decided to have another quiet day in Tokyo (if that is at all possible?!).  Today the weather has got warmer - about 24 to 26 degrees, but heavy with moisture (although not raining) so very humid.  Not the easiest of climates to walk around in.

Matt had been doing his research on Dr Yellow timings and was pretty sure he would be in Tokyo station around 11.30 (JR don't advertise his whereabouts, but nerds put up websites with predicted timings).  We were up and ready quite early today so we headed to Loft on the way to Tokyo station for a look around (just in case there was something we couldn't possibly live without - there wasn't) and then headed onto the shinkansen platforms waiting to see if the elusive Dr Yellow would make an appearance.

The first platform we tried had two 'out of service' trains between 11.25 and 11.40 so we thought it might be one of those, however, two other trains filled the platform so he wasn't going to be there.  We thought we would try another platform, there was an absence of young boys around which made us nervous that we might have got it wrong.  However, I did spot a gentleman with no luggage and a camera, so I was hopeful.

Big nose 

Excited boy!

I was right to be hopeful, as a couple of minutes later we spotted a yellow flash, yes it was Dr Yellow.  We got our video functions ready and shot away.  As happened in Aioi, Dr Yellow flashed right past us and to the end of the platform.  We were pretty sure he would be there for about 10 minutes, so we walked down and there we found lots and lots of small boys with their mothers - ah-ha!  We took photos, saw the 'men in black' get aboard, the driver get locked out of his cab (quite funny) and then got ourselves ready for his departure.  With a couple of hoots he glided past us.  We had one very excited boy with us.  He just kept saying "I can't believe we saw Dr Yellow" over and over again.

By now it was lunchtime.  We had noticed an okinomiyaki restaurant in the basement of Tokyo Station and decided to head there.  Bit of a mistake, we got horrifically lost in the place, at one point I thought we were never going to find a way out - we couldn't even find the train tracks, let alone an exit - Tokyo Station is enormous, think of Clapham Junction for number of tracks but times by 5, add an underground city and an overground city to it and you are getting a little of what Tokyo Station is like.  After what seemed an eternity we finally found the tracks and retraced our steps to an area we recognised and tried again.  Of course this restaurant was as far away as could be and then when we got there we found out they weren't making okinomiyaki - TYPICAL!  We chose another restaurant and had chicken in a number of different ways.

We then needed to plan the rest of the day.  Tom wanted to go to the Tokyo Edo Museum, but it was closed today, so he settled for a quick ride on some shinkansens he hasn't tried yet.  We headed to Omiya (not exactly out of Tokyo - but certainly towards the outskirts) a trip that takes about 25 minutes.  It was that or head a long way out!  

We went out on Max - the double decker shinkansen - great for looking down on people but the inside was a bit old, you couldn't even recline the seats?!  We then did a little shopping in Omiya (tea tonight etc) and headed back in on the Super Komachi (the bright red train) super super smooth and luxurious inside, although narrower than the other shinkansen, with it having a 2 + 2 seat arrangement rather than a 2 + 3 arrangment.

We then came home, to find a note from the resident directly below us telling us that we were stressing her out through our noise!  We have received complaints earlier during our stay, and have literally been tip toeing through the flat and have put blankets under all the chairs etc to help buffer the noise.  Poor Tom gets told off if he does anything other than tip toe.  It is very hard for a 5 year old not to jump about, but that's what Tom has been doing.  He's a good kid and I feel for him not being able to be himself for the sake of 'the devil woman downstairs'.  Matt was furious and went to see our hosts (who live next door to her).  She has complained about noise before with other residents and they can't understand it, so she and Matt went to ask the lady.  Apparently we have been jumping up and down in the lounge at 6.30 in the morning which has been stressing her out.  Anyone who knows me will know that isn't my behaviour.  1) We are on holiday so why oh why would we be getting up so early.  2) I'm not exactly mad about exercise and certainly don't do it at home, I have to be in the gym surrounded by people to do it.  3) I am not a morning person, there is no way I would exercise so early in the morning.  Matt told her that the noise certainly isn't coming from us: no-one is in the lounge that early.  Miki (our host) was very apologetic and says that the woman is a bit strange and that she believes us not her.  Phew, could be a case of not liking foreigners, or a case of the building behaving in a strange way so that noise from elsewhere ends up in her apartment.  Anyhow, we aren't going to lose any sleep over it!

Matt came back upstairs and we made tea.  Oh during this time I felt the building move.  I was sure of it, it happened twice.  It was an earthquake.  Very minor but an earthquake for sure.  Neither Matt nor Tom felt it,  and it certainly wouldn't make the news over here, but it happened.

Oh a typical story from a gaijin in Japan:  Yesterday when I was in a supermarket, I got excited because I found single eggs packaged up next to the packs of 6, 12, 24 etc.  I thought great, I can have dippy egg for breakfast (we have egg cups at the flat).  So bought it.  This morning I boiled my water added the egg carefully (thinking the egg was quite heavy) and gave it 4.5 minutes as it was quite big.  I put it in the egg cup, knocked it's head off and found a hard boiled egg inside.  I initially thought I had miscalculated the time to boil it, but then I had a mouthful of it.  It was salty!!!!!!  I got out the packaging and Matt read it: it was a pre-boiled egg which had been lightly salted.  Doh!!!!!!!  Not quite the breakfast I was expecting - I was thirsty all morning!

Yurikamome

Train spotting from the balcony

So we have been living in this apartment for two weeks now.  Tom loves it - it is on Tokyo Bay with a good view of the Rainbow Bridge, Daiba and the boats that come and go, but the main reason he loves it is because there is a light railway just below us.  This is called the Yurikamome and takes people from Shimbashi over to Daiba.  Basically it is a Docklands railway, in that it is run by driverless trains.

Mummy guess what number it is

Daddy it's your turn to guess!

The best thing about it is that every train has a number so every day we play the guessing game.  Tom goes on the balcony and asks us what number train will be next, we guess and we are invariably wrong.

In fact, the only time we have been right is when we have cheated.  Numbers go from 01 to 36.  They go very frequently, every 4 minutes or so, which means there is a train in front of our apartment every 2 minutes.

We thought the novelty of the railway might rub off, but no, he is as excited about it today as he was the day we arrived.

Technology with friends

Today we had arranged to meet up with Wendy and her two boys Ryū and Ryōki (we met them in Bradley last year on a visit to the UK).  They live in Yokohama and we suggested we meet up with them in Daiba.  As it was raining she suggested the Miraikan museum of science and the future as she had been meaning to take the boys there for a while.  She suggested to meet a little before the museum opened as there was a 3d film about the birth of the earth that she thought we would all like with limited spaces.

Asimo

We got there as planned before the museum opened, but there was a long queue, we were very surprised indeed when we got to the front that there were still some spaces left.  We headed in, first of all we came across a children's play area with lots of things to play with, so the boys had fun there, rolling different objects down a fake lawn to see the difference in motion etc.  We then headed into the museum proper to see Asimo (a very human looking robot).  I have seen Asimo on the telly before, he didn't disappoint, he was very cute and truly does move like a human.  Even though I couldn't understand much I enjoyed it very much.  Matt thought he was creepy!

We then headed to look at some more displays until Tom announced he was tired and hungry, so we headed off in search for lunch.  Took us a while to find the cafe, but once we did we were very happy.  Tom had what was known as a Frunk Sausage - sausage in a hollowed out baguette, I had tandoori chicken and rice (really really nice) and Matt some stewed belly pork and an onigiri which turned out to have mushrooms in it - meaning I ate it and he had some of my tandoori chicken!

We then went back into the museum to look at more of the displays.  As is normally the case, the museum was excellent, with lots of displays, lots of interactive things and perfect English explaining pretty much everything.  It was incredibly well done.  Only problem was that it was a level a bit above Tom, in fact some of it was a bit above me.  It's the sort of place I would have to concentrate alone to get anything from, having a 5 year old in tow stops that and the fact he had 2 collaborators in Ryū and Ryōki meant that it was pretty much impossible to learn anything.  Oh hum, maybe next time, or even when he is 10 years older!

Ryū, Ryōki and Tom

At 1.30 we went to see the 3d film.  It was the most amazing 3d film I have ever seen - all about the universe, galaxies, how we all have the same birthday (the big bang), etc etc.  Mainly the film was beautiful and very well done, it really did feel like things were floating in front of you.  Unfortunately it was too much for Tom - he started crying and a lady appeared asking for him to leave!  Matt went with him (We did try to explain to him what to expect, but I think the 3d was just too 3d for him, and he is still tired from all the trips we have done).

Running, running, running!

Oh well, when we came out Ryōki said he wanted to play in the park, we thought it was a good idea so went out: Ryū and Tom went completely nuts running around (Tom got wet through with sweat - yuck!) and Ryōki joined in where he could (he's only 3, Ryū is 7).  Tom just wouldn't stop running, so we let him run free - he hasn't had a whole load of exercise this holiday.

We then stopped off at a supermarket to buy some provisions for tea tonight (2 trays of fat juicy prawns) and headed home.  Tom was in bed before 7, so hopefully he'll be less tired tomorrow.