Tea Party

Today Tom was invited to Sam and Oliver's birthday party. It was supposed to be held last week, but Sam was ill, meaning that it got postponed which was good for us.

I thought it was just going to be a gathering of the mums and babies, but Rachel and Amanda had organised a proper tea party. There were heart shaped egg sandwiches, homemade chicken and apple balls and salmon balls, homemade cup cakes, jelly and ice cream as well as a cake. Tom was very hungry and scoffed everything put in front of him, in fact he ate more than all the other babies which makes a change.

We also played pass the parcel, during which each baby won a prize (of course), and then we were given party bags with books, more cake, a cookie cutter etc. I felt really guilty as I had come empty handed - I had already sent cards and thought that would be enough, not realising what was in store. I even took food with me for Tom expecting to feed him myself. I hope they don't think I'm mean.

Came home around 3pm, put Tom straight to bed, getting him up in time to take him to the Drs for his MMR and another booster. Tom didn't cry after the first injection - I was so proud of him. He did cry after the second one, but calmed down after not to long and managed a smile for the nurse.

He then had a late dinner (still ate quite a bit), late bath and late bed.

Photo - as well as a real tea party, there was also a toy tea party going on. All the babies loved it, especially the fairy cakes.

Another day

Another fantastic night from Tom, didn't hear a peep from him until 6.30am. We were awake at 5.30, which was better than last night, but still not great!

Not much of note happened today, Tom had an early nap and then we were at Jungleland for Bosom Buddies at 10am. Everyone said how much better I look and how good Tom is looking, so I guess the holiday really did do all of us some good.

Came back, Tom had a good lunch, then nap, playtime, dinner, playtime, bath, bottle and bed. Once again he grabed the bottle and fed himself which was good. Guess this means we can start reading stories to him at night if he is doing the work himself.

Tonight is the girls' meet up to celebrate one year of motherhood. We are off to a Thai, can't wait, will be nice to see them all and actually hold proper conversations without babies interupting.

A bigger boy (but not much)

Another good night for Tom, but I was wide awake at 4.30. Matt was snoring next to me, so I ended up playing on my ipod for over an hour to pass the time. Tom ate a huge breakfast and then had his nap whilst I did yet another load of laundry and tried to get the house in order (why is it sooooo easy to trash, yet so hard to tidy?)

11am saw us at St John's Church in Muxton. Being in Japan has given me the impetus I needed to do something about the extra pounds I'm carrying around (I felt soooooooo fat there). So I have returned to the aerobics class with attached creche that I did about 6 months ago. I was pleasantly surprised in that I wasn't as hugely out of breathe that I thought I would be, although the crunches etc at the end were very painful and I didn't manage the full set without a break.

Next week, once I'm completely over the jet lag I think I might start the Slimming World diet again - it seemed to work last time I did it, just need to find my book, study it, get rid of all the naughty food in the house and buy in some healthy stuff.

Came back, Tom had an enormous lunch and then a play whilst Matt and I ate ours. He then went off to bed, whilst I carried on trying to sort out the house.

The afternoon saw us at baby clinic as I was curious to see how much weight Tom put on in Japan as he ate so well. He is now 21lb 5oz, so he put 5oz. I was a little surprised, I expected more, but then again he has been quite active. Tom is enjoying standing at the moment. He will go into the lounge, pull out his toys, scatter them over the floor, and then spend the rest of the day standing - whether it be by the sofa, the table, using the banisters.

Tom had another very good dinner (last one in his present high chair as it is going back to the Watson's this week, his new one arrived today and looks very smart (nice wooden one which can be adjusted as Tom grows bigger - much smarter than ours anyway)). Then bath, bottle and bed. I gave Tom his bottle this evening, he decided that he was going to feed it to himself and took it off me. He did a good job.

Today's pic - as I said he likes to stand at the moment. It is really hard to get him to sit in the bath!

A new baseball star?

Another good night for Tom, we heard only minor grizzling from him at 9pm and 5am. Matt and I didn't do as well, were wide awake at 5.30am again. Maybe we should take some lessons from Tom?

Didn't really get up to much today. We went to Newport to do some shopping - I was on the look out for some Japanese ingredients. I have been inspired by our trip to Japan and want to eat more Japanese food as it is pretty healthy and fresh. I managed to get some mirin and some vinegar, but no soup base. I guess a trip to Setonikai is on the books when we get a chance.

We had lunch out (cake class tonight so I had dinner) and came home in time for Tom to have his nap. I spent this time cooking for Tom - bolognaise sauce with aubergine, mashed sweet and normal potato and I have cooked up some Japanese rice as he certainly loved it when we were over there and figure I should have a supply ready for him if he starts refusing other things.

The afternoon was pretty much run of the mill, Tom decided that he wanted to sit on my lap for most of it which is pretty nice as he is normally too busy to sit still. He had a good dinner, bath and bed.

I had a good cake class and have now made a posy of sugarcraft flowers. Quite proud of it, once Matt takes a pic of it I will put up on the blog. When I arrived back from cake class, Matt was asleep on the sofa. When he woke up, he thought he was at Dylan's in Japan and therefore very very confused. I sent him to bed as he was making no sense at all!

The outfit Tom is wearing today is from Matt's Japanese baseball team, he couldn't resist when he saw it in a shop.

Oh, I spent last night updating the blog from our holiday with some more photos, so might be worth going back to look at it.

Back to the old routine

Tom was a star last night. He woke up at 1.30, but got himself off. He then woke up again at 2.30, I went in to settle him and that was it until I went to get him at 7am. I did ok as well, woke up at 5.30 bright eyed so finished my book. Matt went downstairs as Tom woke him up at 1.30 and he was worried that it was going to be a bad night and he needed a good sleep as he's got a lot of work on this month and not much time to get it done (we are off to Iceland at the end of the month).

Today dawned beautiful again which I think put all of us in a good mood. Tom ate a good breakfast - he accepted Weetabix which was good, so polished off half a bix, a whole banana and half a hot cross bun. After his morning nap we scooted off to Asda to get some food in. His charm is still working well, about 5 grannies came up for a chat.

He had a big lunch after which I put him down for an early nap prior to driving to Bridgnorth for Gymbabes. He had a good session, he didn't want to climb anything, just wanted crawl around and whizz through the tunnel. He certainly wouldn't focus during the singing, squirming rather than sitting nicely. We went to Costa afterwards during which he was happy to sit still on my lap which was very nice, meant that I had a very relaxing drink and catch up with the girls.

Arrived home, Tom was very snoozy and a little fragile, but I managed to keep him awake, and he had another good dinner before bath and bed. He had a bath with me, during which he more or less refused to sit down. This meant that I saw him wee not once, but twice into the bath water. Fantastic! I had a shower afterwards!

Sorry, forgot to take a photo today.

Back home to sun

We had a much better night than expected. Matt and I were awake at 3.30 and 5am at which stage we gave up. Tom woke up at 5.30 and would not go back down again - so we had an early start to the day, but can't complain.

It was a beautiful day, clear blue skies which made being back home much nicer. After collecting Jodie from kennels we decided to go out for lunch in Ironbridge and then go for a walk with Tom in the pram. We all needed some fresh air and the two of us needed to stretch our legs. We had a lovely afternoon. Ironbridge was looking its best and we were all in high spirits. Tom had a good length nap in his pram.

He woke up when we put him in the car and then spent the afternoon feeling pretty tired. He kept trying to nuzzle into me for a sleep, but we managed to keep him going until 6pm when we gave him his bath. Matt joined him in the bath but soon called out to me as Tom was falling asleep in the water. I quickly dressed him (very floppy, not a wriggling octopus as usual), gave him his bottle and put him down to bed. I checked up on him later at 8.30 when Matt and I retired to bed to find him in exactly the same position as that I left him in - he hadn't moved an inch - must have been exhausted poor thing.

The longest day

So, our last day finally came. Not too much to say about it really. We had a lovely last breakfast with Hiromi. Tom disgraced himself by weeing on her carpet - she caught it on video as well - as you can see below. The naughty thing. Thankfully, Hiromi thought it was funny.

We got the bus down the hill to Rokko Michi station, then the express to Osaka where we said goodbye to Hiromi - we had such a lovely time with her, she, as usual was incredibly hospitable and enjoyed having Tom around. He is very lucky to have such a wonderful Japanese Aunt.

We arrived at Kansai, checked in immediately, found the restaurants (didn't manage to find them last time - note to self, don't go through security until we have eaten). Got through security with no problems, taking baby milk is fine in Japan, seems that it is just the UK that doesn't allow babies to have milk on their journeys (as you can see I am still very angry about that). Kansai also had a soft play area for babies, so we took Tom for a last Hai Hai before the flight.

We had an ok flight, unfortunately it was completely full, but we had a nice Mexican lady sat next to us who was very understanding. Tom fell asleep during take off and stayed asleep for 1.5 hours (his usual afternoon nap). We then tried to put him to sleep at the usual time for his night time sleep, but he wasn't having it. He fought and fought it for 2 hours until he finally nodded off exhausted. He managed 3 hours asleep (mostly in funny positions with bum sticking in the air) which was good. Arrived at Schipol early and had 3.5 hours to kill, so had dinner and then found some comfy loungers to rest in. Tom fell asleep on me here for a good hour.

Got the Birmingham flight out after an argument with security. This time because we had bought a bottle from duty free in Kansai, apparently you can't take a bottle purchased outside of the European Union through Europe. It is supposed to be taken off you and destroyed (Matt offered to open it and taste it, but that wasn't allowed). However, Tom worked his magic again, and the ladies bent the rules and allowed us to check it in using one of our hand luggage bags. Phew! Flight to Brum was fine, probably only about 20% full so very little hassle and our baggage was waiting for us on arrival.

Got the bus back to our car. Tom fell asleep during this time and didn't really wake up again apart from being put in and out of the rucksack and in and out of the car and being stripped, put in his pyjamas (oh he managed to wee on our carpet as well at this stage) and in his cot. He was a very tired boy.

Oh - video takes a while to load, but it is worth it.

Last day in Japan

So, our last blog entry from Japan - boo hoo!

Today we decided to go to Okayama so we could have a ride on the Rail Star (the nicest train we can use with our JR passes - basically a bullet train which is 100% business class). We gave Tom his morning nap in his tent (during which we went to the post office and sent off our box of Japanese goodies). We then walked down the hill and got the bus to Shin Kobe station for our train ride.

We had a very smooth ride, and as usual Tom managed to charm most of the people on the train. On arrival at Okayama, we nipped into Bic Camera for a quick look round (a huge electronics store). I fell in love with the Japanese fridges which are the biggest and tallest I have ever seen. Includes a separate drawer for vegetables. Matt said I wasn't allowed one because it won't fit in the luggage and the electrics are completely different from the UK - he is soooooo good at making excuses!!!!

Next stop was Takashimaya - a huge department store. We went straight to the children's area to find the soft play area for hai hai time for Tom. They didn't have one! How rubbish! They did have a baby rest room, so Tom spent some time crawling up and over all the baby change tables. They did have a cot in the room and the thought did pass our minds to put Tom in there for his afternoon sleep, but we thought better of it in the end. Next stop was lunch. We went to a cafeteria on the top floor: tempura for me and pork katsu for Matt. Tom had his usual rice and topping and polished it all off in no time at all.

We then wandered around Okayama, took us a good hour to find somewhere to buy baby wipes, but we got there in the end. Came across another 100 Yen store, so did our last shopping before heading back to the station. We got another Rail Star back. Tom and I enjoyed the private room so I could feed him - must be the fastest breast feed on record.

We stopped off in Osaka on the way home to pick up some more goodies before heading back to Rokko Michi and Hiromi's. Matt was on cooking duty, so he whipped up a stroganoff whilst I packed everything. We still have room for more - very strange!

Tom had a good playtime and bath, bottle and bed routine which was surprising but nice as he only had a 30 minute sleep this afternoon.

Some more things of note - Tom now has 11 teeth - I found a new one yesterday - a molar in his lower jaw. He has also started to play up when meeting new people and sometimes will go all shy. We have started calling him 'Tom the Tart' as he definitely knows what he is doing and plays up to an audience.

Oh, I've included a pic of our room at Hiromi's today. As you can see Tom has the safest place - under the table.

Baby restaurant!

Just when we thought Japan couldn't amuse us any more, we came across this. Th e Daimaru department store in Kobe has not only a big baby section and a baby changing area (see bare-arsed photo below), but also a baby restaurant where you can take your nipper for lunch. There's a wide choice of meals available, depending on the age of the diner, but Tom decided he'd like Oyakodon (chicken stew on rice), vegetable croquette with mushy peas and then biscuits for pud. A huge portion appeared, to which we all said "he'll never eat all that". He demolished the lot in five minutes flat and could have had more. We were both very impressed (again) by how well kids are looked after here.

He then sat as good as gold as we went to a posh Chinese restaurant for our lunch, after which Hiromi took us to an unusual cafe called Harimaya for a post-prandial coffee and snack. What is unusual about this chain of cafes is that everything is free, snacks and drinks. They make all their money from people buying boxes of their (rather excellent) rice crackers to take away. Interesting concept.

Tom then nodded off in the rucksack, but only managed half an hour's kip before he was woken by a couple of squealing tee nage girls. This would prove costly later on. We visited Sogo, downtown Kobe's other big department store, to see whether their baby facilities matched those at Daimaru. No nippers' dining room, but they did have a very good soft play area, where Tom was befriended and then thumped by two very fat young local lasses. I strolled around for a bit and managed to get him a pair of shinkansen pyjamas at half price. It's been quite a good trip for new clothes for him.

We decided before the trip that we'd buy a load of non-perishable Japanese food here and send it back to ourselves by sea freight, so we braved a big supermarket to stock up with mochi (rice cakes) and a variety of ingredients for Japanese stews, curries and other delights. They'll be dispatched tomorrow morning and should be with us in a couple of months.

We then made the usual train & bus journey back to Hiromi's flat, arriving just in time to give His Nibs his dinner, which he took well enough. His good humour ran out immediately thereafter though, and bath time was a very unpleasant affair, with Tom screaming as if in complete agony for a good 10 minutes. A bottle of milk seemed to placate him, however, and we haven't heard from him since he was put in his tent. Fingers crossed that tonight is as good as last night, when he only woke up once and went straight back to sleep after being re-plugged.

Back to Kobe

So, we've completed our whirlwind trip of central Japan and are now back in Kobe for the last two full days of our holiday. Such a shame it's gone so fast; I really wish we were all here for longer.

We bade farewell to Dylan, who could not have been more hospitable, at Fukui and caught the "Thunderbird" express down to Kyoto. Again, exceptional service on the train. The guard not only told Nik which car had baby-changing facilities, but broke off from his ticket-checking duties to escort them there in person. She couldn't get the toilet door to close as every time she hit the close button the guard bowed or waved, breaking the infrared beam and making the doors re-open! Then, a bit later on, he re-appeared with a special "Thunderbird Express" kiddies ticket especially for Tom as a souvenir of the trip. What a star.

We then toddled two stops up the line to Otsu to meet Barry, an old friend of mine from Kobe, who married a l

ocal girl and is still living in Japan. They fed us a very nice lunch in their lovely 8th floor flat, co mplete with Steinway grand piano, which overlooks Lake Biwa, whilst Tom slept in his tent, and we spent the afternoon just catching up and talking about this and that. We went for a walk along the lake, they live in a lovely location, Sarah, their 6 year old daughter accompanied us on a bike - apparently there is a cycle path right round the lake. Unfortunately Tom didn't really enjoy it, maybe it was too cold, or too windy, or he was tired or hungry, but he grizzled for most of it which was a shame.

On our return, we got a taxi back to the station ready for our trip back to Kobe. By now it was 5pm, so we decided to have dinner at the station - my new favourite dish "nabeyaki udon" for me and "niku udon" for Matt, while Tom had a ready made Japanese baby rice meal followed by an Ella sachet. We then took a deep breath and caught some commuter trains back to Kobe. We were expecting it to be hectic, but were pleasantly surprised as it wasn't that bad.

Also, Tom made a couple of friends on each train which kept him (and them) amused. He was a little bad in that he decided to be sick on me just as we were leaving one train, so we both smelt quite bad for the rest of the trip!

Got to Rokko Michi and the bus up to Hiromi's. She wasn't in so we got everything organised as quickly as possible, gave Tom his cough medicine, a very quick wash with a warm flannel, then bottle and bed. We haven't heard from him yet, but he must have been tired, it was 8pm before he finally got to go in his tent ready for sleep. Let's hope he has a good sleep.

Another onsen!

That's 3 in less than 48 hours for us, but we're very aware that they'll soon become impossible again.

It wasn't a great night last night. Tom was up several times, simply by coughing himself awake. He went back down fairly quickly each time, but it's not nice to see him suffering. Still, as usual, he's been bright and cheerful today, but hasn't eaten so well, probably because of his throat as well. Either that, or he's finally fed up with rice.

Anyway, we decided to head slightly further afield for a day out today, so headed just over the border into Ishikawa Prefecture, to a little hot spring town called Yamashiro. We booked a private onsen suite for just the 3 of us in a very plush hotel, which was extremely pleasant, although Tom was being a bit of Mummy's boy and cried every time Nik gave him to me in the bath. As I said, he's not quite himself at the moment.

Still, after we finally emerged from the hot water, I got chatting to a couple of university professors and Tom had his best ever crawling session up and down the hotel's vast and luxuriously carpeted lobby. This caught the attention of virtually all the hotel staff, who came out to watch. Tom put on a superb display of crawling, standing, grinning, clapping, waving etc., and when we finally got round to leaving, almost all of them were at the front bowing, waving and pleading with us (well, just Tom probably) to come back.

Slow, but uneventful journey back, pausing only for a session at the local 100 yen shop, which wasn't quite as good as the equivalent shopping frenzy last time we were in Japan. We may have another bash in Kobe on Friday. We did stop at a clothes' shop on the way to Yamashiro this morning, where we managed to get 4 outfits for Tom at very good prices.

So, a pretty good day all in all. Back to Kobe tomorrow, via Kyoto to see another old friend of mine. It's been a nice 3 days here in Fukui. Shame we didn't have a bit longer.

Sorry about the lack of a photo today. We forgot to take Nik's camera. We did get some "live" onsen footage in Yamashiro, but I can't upload it from the camcorder here.

Nik here, finally got a chance to get on the computer. Thought I should add that we have had a developmental break through today. Whilst Matt was chatting with the professors in the hotel lobby, Tom decided to play with a coffee table. He pulled himself up at one end and cruised to the other end so he could try to pull the no smoking sticker off it. He did this more than once, so it wasn't a fluke. Since we've been back at Dylan's he's been pulling himself up on the sofa and cruising to the end, dropping down then crawling back to the start to do it all over again. So, I think we can now say that Tom is officially cruising. I would have taken some video evidence, but my camera wasn't to hand and I didn't want to move and potentially disturb him (especially as I was one of the pieces of equipment in his route)

His cough hasn't been too bad today, it was pretty bad last night, he got himself into coughing fits that just wouldn't end a couple of times last night, meaning I had to get up and sort him out (he has his own bedroom here) We are hoping that the onsen today will have helped clear his sinuses. I guess we will find out tonight as it is always worse when he lies down.

Oh, I would also like to add that the onsen last night was complete and utter bliss. Matt and Dylan took Tom on their side, leaving me free for half an hour of complete relaxation. I had the longest shower and then dips in 3 pools before lying down in a strong bubble pool to be pummelled for 5 minutes. I ended up looking like a lobster, but was very very relaxed, in fact I think it was the most relaxing thing I've done since Tom was born. As I don't speak Japanese I didn't have to make small talk to anyone and not being responsible for anyone was lovely. It was pure heaven, just a shame it couldn't have been 30 mins longer and include a massage...

Buddha Tom

We're now back from our trip to Eiheiji, and very enjoyable it was too. Not many people about, so everything was quite serene and, erm, Zen-like. It's a lovely spot up in the mountains, with loads of snow still on the ground; it's been a cold winter here apparently. We did a fairly quick tour of the main buildings of the monastery, some of which were covered with plastic wrappings to protect them from the snow, which can be up to 5 metres deep at times. We had one fascinating episode where we "ran the gauntlet" of at least 50 monks chanting sutras at us; presumably some sort of blessing. It was an amazing noise and rendered a hitherto very shouty Tom completely silent.

I did make a bit of a fool of myself, as I managed to lock our umbrella in a combination lock without remembering the combination. I mentioned this to the slipper-wallah at the exit, who said she'd get someone to sort out the problem. I imagined she'd ask a janitor or someone, but no, it was a Zen monk in all his finery who demonstrated that Buddhists are nothing if not resourceful by (eventually) picking the lock with a match. I was apologizing for rousing him from his sutras, and he was apologizing back for not being able to pick the lock quickly enough. All very surreal and I'm not sure who had the redder face when we finally parted.

We then trundled our way very slowly back to Fukui, stopping at a couple of shops to get stuff for dinner tonight. We're all hoping to hit the onsen again after Tom's dinner and before ours.

By the way, Tom hopes you all like his impression of the Buddha he did at Eiheiji earlier.

New experiences

Sorry for the lack of a post yesterday. We were travelling all day from Tokyo to Fukui, where we are now, and I didn't get a chance to find an Internet connection. The journey, which involved 5 trains, was a fairly trying affair as Tom refused to go down for his morning nap even on the super-smooth bullet train. The afternoon leg was a bit better, but we were mighty relieved when we finally arrived and were chauffeured to our accommodation. We're staying with Dylan, a friend of mine from my days in Kobe, and after we'd settled in and given Tom his dinner, we all ventured out to the local onsen to give Tom his first taste of a hot spring. He was in the ladies' part with Nik while Dylan and I chatted away and caught up, but we'll take him in with us when we next go (probably this evening) as Nik had trouble changing both him and herself with only 1 pair of hands (Tom was doing a very good impression of a Kamikazi, he kept trying to jump off the baby change station (its straps didn't work) which meant she had to grow extra arms to restrain him whilst dressing herself - fun!). Still, he apparently enjoyed the experience very much and charmed all the other bathers with some good splashing.

Tom's cough isn't getting any better, despite his medicine, but he slept very well again last night and seems bright and perky again today, so I don't think he's suffering at all. We're off up into the mountains today to visit Eiheiji, a working Zen monastery, so we'll have to wrap him up warm as it's still quite chilly. Will post again later on.

Rainy season

After another pretty good night's sleep, except for some coughing from Tom, we awoke to thick clouds, rain and almost no visibility from our 21st floor "superior" room. I also noticed a distinct chill in the air when I nipped out to get breakfast, but I suppose it is only February.

Rather than our little corridor bit, we're actually having to hide in the bathroom this morning as Tom has discovered that he can see us in the mirror if he stands up in his cot. Anyone who's stayed in a Japanese hotel will know that 2 people in the bathroom simultaneously is a cosy affair. It might even be easier for one of us to actually have a bath.

Forgot to mention it yesterday, but Nik was particularly delighted with yesterday's dinner, namely nabeyaki udon, a big pot of noodle stew with every type of ingredient imaginable floating round in it. I have a feeling we'll be looking for it again.

This morning we're off to Roppongi to meet Kuroda San, a customer of mine who runs a little shop selling expensive British gardening accessories & apparel. He and his wife are taking us out for lunch, so we need His Nibs to be on his best behaviour.

Well, we're back from lunch and Tom was impeccably behaved, sitting in a high chair for over an hour as we ate our way through 6 courses at a wonderful restaurant just round the corner from the Kurodas' shop. That was Tom's first ever business lunch, and I'd have to give him a perfect 10 really. He was starting to look a bit sleepy though, so we made our excuses and came back to Ikebukuro, just managing to keep Tom awake until we got back to the room. He then apparently took half an hour to drop off in his cot, but by then I'd gone out on a shopping trip to a local electrical hypermarket; a truly extraordinary place that makes anything in the West look dreadfully small and shoddy. I could have spent all day (and my entire bank balance) in there, but was very restrained and only bought a clever screen protector for my iPhone and some hiragana and katakana wallcharts for Tom, as I think I'll teach him a bit of Japanese when he's ready. I came out of the store to a uniquely Japanese sight: about 2 million people between me and the subway entrance I needed to go down. I somehow managed and came back to the room about 10 mins before matey woke up. He probably needs a bit of crawling time now as it may be a slightly late night again as we're meeting up with a British friend of mine at 7:00.



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Location:Tokyo

Another good night

So, a good night's sleep for Tom & me, but not for Nik, who lay awake worrying about Tom's cough. I don't think it's too bad though. We had our usual morning play on the bed before I nipped down to the local konbini (convenience store) to pick up breakfast and an umbrella. The weather forecast doesn't look too good today, which is unfortunate as we do need to walk a bit. As I write this, we're hiding in the bathroom in silence in the hope that Tom drops off for his morning nap in his cot.

Well, we're now sitting in a restaurant at Yokohama station and Tom is wolfing down yet another Japanese meal. He loves the food here. Has he got worms? His first ever business meeting was an unqualified success; charmed everyone in the company. They'll certainly remember him and, therefore, me for a good while, which can only be good for business. Just as well, as they're one of my favourite clients.

We're now back in our hotel room, Tom having done his best to charm my client in Yokohama. Not quite as successful as this morning as we arrived just as he was due his afternoon nap. He played with a plastic cup for a bit, shouted for a few minutes and then fell dead asleep in Nik's arms. Somehow we managed to strap him into his rucksack and walk about 15 minutes back to Kannai station before he woke up. We caught an express train back to Ikebukuro and Nik and I are currently cowering in the doorway of our room in the dark in the (probably misguided) hope he'll go down for another quick nap before dinner.

Still, he's been an absolute star today. Both meetings went very well, better than if I'd gone to meet them on my own. He certainly knows how to turn on the charm.

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Location:Ikebukuro, Tokyo

Tokyo Tom

I'm writing this on my iPhone on the 21st floor of our hotel in Ikebukuro. After a brief argument at reception, the hotel have provided Tom with a huge cot, in which we hope he will sleep as well as he did last night. His schedule is all to pot though, as we'll have to take him out to dinner with us. Still, he's perhaps more flexible than we give him credit for.

The journey up went quite well considering he was cooped up on the bullet train for 3 hours. The old lady sitting next to us took a real shine to Tom (surprise surprise), who let her hold him on her knee for a good 5 minutes. We endured a rather cramped 30 minutes on the Yamanote line in Tokyo, but the hotel is right next to the station and seems to be in an excellent area for eating and shopping. Off to charm my clients with the lad tomorrow...


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He slept!

Wahay! A good night's sleep for all of us. Tom stirred twice but quickly got back to sleep both times. That's a huge relief, and means I might now be able to visit my clients on Friday and Saturday as a functioning human being rather than a dribbling zombie.

Not sure how much blogging we'll be able to do for the next few days. We've been using Hiromi's PC for the past few days. I'm sure we'll manage to do a bit though.

Another castle conquered

Another bad night sleep-wise. Tom was awake before 10.00pm and would not go back down. He screamed as if in agony for a while, so we put him between us on the futons. He stopped screaming, but never really got back to sleep all night, just tossed and turned for hours on end. Jet lag? Hard to say. In any case, he was looking very bright and cheerful at 7:30, and crawled all over the flat laughing and grinning.

We decided to venture further afield today, so Tom had his morning nap on the move, firstly on a packed bus, then on a very noisy platform at Kobe's bullet train station, and then on the bullet train itself, only waking when we got off at Kyoto. I don't know how he didn't wake up before then. We took another "shinkansen" and then a local train to get to Hikone, a famous old town with a nice castle. We bought supplies for a picnic at the local supermarket and lugged them up a steep hill to a grassy bit just below the castle keep. It was another amazingly warm day today; I still can't believe we sat outside and had a picnic and cold beer (see photo) in t-shirts in February. Tom also ate and behaved very well. He seems to like the local food, especially Japanese bread.

After lunch, we climbed right to the top of the keep for an excellent view over the town and nearby Lake Biwa, although it was rather incongruous to see snow-covered mountains close by on such a warm day. Nik carried Tom up some of the steepest stairs I've ever seen (more like ladders) but somehow managed to avoid plunging to a messy death.

We strolled back into town, pausing to spend nearly 1000 yen at a very well-stocked 100 yen store, and then headed back to Kobe, hoping Tom would fall asleep on the bullet train again. He didn't, but did manage to charm an inordinate number of people again. I think he enjoys the attention. He ate a good dinner, cried a lot at bath time (over-tired) and then retired to his tent. We will see what the night brings.... Off to Tokyo tomorrow.

Busy day - Japanese soft play centres are fab.

So last night was slightly better. Tom waited until midnight to wake up and was screaming for about an hour before he fell asleep again. It was a shame as I could hear that he was awake before he started to scream, and could hear him trying to get to sleep again, but something was keeping him awake. In the end he ended up in bed with me with my arm around him to get him to sleep. Matt didn't do too well either, I'm still snoring and that keeps him awake. Not sure what we can do about that - it is impossible to stop myself from snoring.

Today we decided to keep to Tom's normal schedule as much as possible. So we were up at 7am, breakfast at 8 (a whole banana, a adult sized yogurt and most of a slice of toast - greedy thing), nap at 9.30, wake at 10.30 then we left the house. Today's destination was Bornelund in Kobe - a soft play area for children. It w as fantastic, puts the English ones to shame. It had an area especially for babies, a mirror room, a shadow room, dressing up area, pretend house area, the biggest pool pit I've ever seen and a big slide and large foamy play bits, much like you get at Gymbabes. There were also two huge inflatable doughnut things. It was fantastically clean and very empty.

Tom had a fantastic time, he loved the baby area, with all the musical instruments, especially getting them all out and then crawling off for me to put back again. He also loved a big peg board with lots of different coloured pegs which he could pull out. Was fantastic standing practice for him. He did lots of crawling, through tunnels, over wedges, in the blown up doughnuts etc. Certainly ex

pended lots of energy. We left for lunch(Tom's first experience of Japanese baby food which went down well - he ate the whole lot. Interesting the portion size of baby food for a 9 month old Japanese baby is smaller than at home) He also enjoyed my lunch, eating most of my roll (He just loves Japanese bread) and quite a bit of a pumpkin salad that was on my plate.

We returned to Bornelund after lunch for more antics, including spending a lot of time in the girls house playing with dolls and trying to get a new mum through charm - he almost succeeded! He certainly isn't shy in going up to mums and babies to play. The other babies tend to just watch him in bewilderment! We left at 2pm as he was getting tired. We managed to keep him awake for the journey home and put him to bed as soon as we got in. Matt also went for a lie down, so I spent an hour and a half on my own (not done that in a long time). Managed to read a good bit of a magazine which was lovely.

Once Matt was awake I ventured down to the local shop to buy some milk. I took an educated guess as there was no English at all on any of the cartons that looked like they could contain milk. Brought it back to find that my instincts were right - phew. Tom had a happy late afternoon, playing, being hugged by Hiromi (at last he allowed her to do so) and eating - another Japanese meal - tofu burger in sauce with some veg which went down without any coercion. Then it was bath, bottle and bed. Haven't heard from him yet...

Tom visits Dad's old haunts

Quite a nice day, considering we were all horribly sleep-derived. We got Tom up at 7.00 and he had a good crawl round Hiromi's flat before breakfast, which he ate quite well, including most of his Mum's slice of toast. He seems to like Japanese bread. He had about an hour's nap after breakfast (very important) before we headed off down the hill to Rokkomichi on foot, which was a nice walk on such a pleasant morning. A 10 minute train journey got us to Kobe station, whereupon we headed to Harborland for a spot of shopping at Aka-chan Honpo (Baby HQ). We ended up getting some Japanese food and a Hanshin Tigers shirt for Tom, which he will look very smart in.

We had lunch at a tonkatsu restaurant (very nice) and Tom was given (and drank) his first cup of tea. He seemed to really like, much to Nik's surprise/dismay. We had a wander round the boutiques in Mosaic and came across a shop selling masses of Studio Ghibli merchandise, including some huge Totoros for almost 400 quid! If the exchange rate wasn't so awful, I'm sure we wouldn't have come out of there empty-handed.

Tom had about half an hour's sleep as we walked back to the station, and we then caught the train back to meet Hiromi, who introduced us to a friend who has a daughter, Sumireko, almost the same age as Tom. He felt immediately at home and grabbed all, and I mean all, of Sumireko's toys and proceeded to have a fantastic time, while she sat somewhat bewildered on her Mum's knee. We made our excuses and left to come home for Tom's tea. Hiromi prepared him his first tofu, which he did eat, but only after Nik hid it under a veneer of pureed veg. I reckon he'll eat it OK in the future though.

I needed less persuasion to eat my dinner, prawns in chilli sauce with miso soup and rice. Delicious. Here's hoping for a better sleep than last night.