168 cm

Thankgod weekend is almost here. The kid tends to wake up way too early. When he wakes up I have to wake up too. There are no other options, unless I want to take my chances to see what happens, if I let him express himself freely without my supervising. I am not tempted. So, I tend to wake up way too early as well, except on either saturday or sunday.

Lately I have been obsessed with how tall actors are. They seem to be a tall bunch. Even a short guy like Tom 'Yuck' Cruise is taller than me and I am not that short myself, especially not here in Japan. Would I like to be taller? Not really. I just would like to be the queen on the world, who has a nanny, a cook, a secretary, and, a butler. Nothing wrong with my 168 centimeters.

A Cold Day

I tried to install the Google Earth on my computer, but it just didn't work. If I recall correctly M has it on his laptop and that way I can play with the program sometimes.I would have wanted to play with it all the time and on my own laptop! It isn't the first time that I have no idea what's going on with my computer. To be honest, I am not very good with computers to begin with and I have no patience to read any 'help'-pages or instructions. I'm doomed.

It's a cold day. I hate cold days that as a rule follow lovely warm days. Vimme & me went to a cherry blossom picknic this morning and I haven't melted yet, though we've been home for few hours already.

Above the Ground

Yesterday we rode the 115 meters high ferris wheel of Odaiba. At the top I thought how scary it would be if there was an earthquake right then. At the ground level I was extreamly grateful that the ever so possible earthquake stayed away this time. I get these earthquake thoughts every time when I am above the 2nd floor. Fortunately that's the floor we live on.

An Old Dog

Here's a picture of another Tokyo dog. Our 15 years old dog in Finland is still going strong, though he is half blind and his hind legs are very weak. He is living with my mother-in-law and takes her for an hour's walk every day or she takes him, depending on a point of view.

Chances are that we won't see our old dog again. We'll be back in Europe next November and a 15 years old dog can get into a very bad shape anytime. It's sad. But he is in a good care and when I saw him before christmas, he seemed to be content with the fact that he finally gets spoiled by his owner - my mother-in-law has announced that the dog is hers now. The dog agrees.

Music for Running

The best music for treadmill moments so far:

The Ramones: I want to be sedated
The Flaming Sideburns: Street Survivor
Foo Fighters: Everlong
Stray Cats: Runaway Boys
The Who: Won't get fooled again

Other than that: we took kids to an aquarium yesterday. They seemed to like it a lot and even we adults thought it was a nice place to visit. I could have sat there for hours watching tunas swimming around in their huge tank.

Once in Three Years

Last time we went to see a film together with M, was 28th of February 2003. The water broke that night and since then there hasn't been that many (read: zero) opportunities to see films together at a cinema. On thursday we went to see the Narnia film - thanks to our wonderful guest who volunteered baby sitting V.

I read Narnia books when I was a child (a hundred years ago that is) and I loved those books. Stories were magical and I couldn't get enough of them. I would have been thrilled if I had a chance to see the film then. It wasn't bad now either, but I knew seeing it would have been out-of-this-world experince as a child.

Monday at Kamakura

We went to see Kamakura's Great Buddha and the Hasedera Temple again. It was a fun trip - even with two three years old.

Don't Disturb a Dancing Elvis

I saw again those fantastic dancing Elvises of Tokyo today. Three Europen looking young girls took pictures of each others jiving among Elvises. They kept on giggling and taking pictures until one of Elvises pushed them out of their holy ring of the dance. You better let E-men dance alone if you don't want to end up with a curse of Elvis on you.

Other than that: it has been a very windy day. I half expected a free ride to Oz, but it didn't happen.

Morning Sushi

We are having guests from Finland at the moment. I went to Tsukiji this morning with our adult guest and we ate at the same sushi place as we ate with M last summer. Boy, it was delicious again and luckily my friend didn't like sushi that much, so I ate half of her portion too. Yummy. There's never too much sushi in my life.

Sweat Instead of Sweets

I have never really liked eating anything sweet, since I got over every healthy child's candy obsession. And that was decades ago. After Vimme came in to my life there has been an exception: chocolate and especially Finnish Fazer's Blue. Guess who's got her dose of that stuff today. Yummy.

Yesterday I had fantastic moments at the gym with my new best friend: the running machine (godknows what it is called for real in english). Running went smoothly and I felt like the king - or queen - of the world, running indoors, watching the night scene of Odaiba. I eagerly wait for our next meeting. It'll be a sweaty one.

Unisex Shoes

I know there must be a shop in Tokyo selling women's shoes that even a bit big boned drag queen could wear, so I shouldn't be worried, but I have to say it bugs me that an average shoe shop doesn't sell bigger shoes for women than size 38 (US 7.8). As a lazy person I propably end up buying another pair of unisex sneakers.

A Film and Black Beer

Yesterday I saw Ang Lee's 'Brokeback Mountain'. I really liked the film (I have never seen anything from Ang Lee that I haven't liked). The story was very touching. I cried. But that's no news.

After the film I had a pleasure to drink as much as I could just for 1000 yen. And I did drink. It was fun. I met new people, drank 'Black Beer', and I managed to wake up 6 o'clock this morning with the kid without a headache. I would call that a wonder.

Good Day, Sun Shine

What a nice day! I slept until 8:30. Vimme spent few hours at friend's and me & M were on our own at Shinjuku. That was the first time we did anything without the kid since fall 2004. I booked a time to get a new tattoo (yay - I'll get a Tokyo tattoo). After the luxury time on our own, we had a nice walk at Yoyogi Park with the friend and kids (hers and ours). There were some bands playing at the park and Vimme performed some spontaneous dancing to music. That made him very popular among young women passing by. Now V is sleeping and we're going to watch a film.

I'll order more days like this.

Thursday

Yesterday we went to see our japanese friends in Yokohama. Vimme and I both enjoyed the visit: good company and delicious food. Kids seemed to like each other's company, though they didn't have a common language. My friend's 4 year old daughter is the cutest little girl I've ever seen. I would voluteer baby-sitting her 24/7, if I could speak japanese.

M is trying to sneak-teach Vimme the periodic table: he'd shown this site to him and Vimme seems to like it alright. And he is saying things like: "All this contains carbon!", while browsing the site. I bet he'll be a ballet dancer or a truck driver instead of a scientist, but with good knowledge in chemistry for sure.

Finally!

Finally: a warm spring day! Have I been waiting for this! It's like half of my stress is gone once sun starts shining and overcoat isn't needed outdoors. I am sure there'll be some cold days left before the real thing, but today was a promise of the coming warmth, the coming summer.

A Party Sunday

We had a housewarming party and Vimme's birthday party on sunday. It was fun to have guests. I would arrange parties all the time, if I wasn't so pre-occupied with house-wifing/parenting.

Happy Birthday Vimme!

Today Vimme become 3 years old. We gave him an icecream breakfast- which he liked - and later I took him to National Children's Castle. He seemed to enjoy himself there.

Now we are at home and he is having an icecream again and so am I. Like I didn't freeze already.

All the same: Happy birthday my lovely boy.

A Pope at Home

The kid is telling me that M is a pope. I do have my doubts. He is not catholic and he happens to be married. If the kid is right, then M is a pope with super powers - other wise he couldn't make it home every night from Vatican - and major poker face - all that money in his back pocket and me not wearing Prada.

Other than that, my friends are gone and I am having a laundry day.