Tomorrow

I'll be off to Ishinomaki with my little monster. I told the kid that we'll ride on a Shinkansen tomorrow and stay away for two nights. He seemed to be excited. He wanted to know if we could take the Shinkansen already today. I said 'No'. I find myself saying 'No' to him all the time. Three years old's ideas aren't the most functional ones from a mother point of view.

Reason for us going to Ishinomaki is a friend of mine who invited us to join her and her family while they are having a holiday week there. I am looking forward to see another kind of Japan than just Tokyo, socializing with my friends, and breathing some fresher air - without the usual diesel flavour.

Tomorrow is also my last 30+ birthday. You can send your luxurious gifts in cash to my Finnish bank account!

Over The Bridge

Last night we crossed the Rainbow Bridge with kids. We hoped to see Asakusa's fireworks from there, but the bridge wasn't high enough to give a view that far away. And it was foggy. So no fireworks this time.

Our guests are on their way back home to Finland. Vimme is better, still coughing though. It has been a lovely, sunny day which I've mostly spent at home, indoors, just because I could.

A Report

Monday: At Asakusa, Kappa Bashi and Ueno. It was a rainy day, but the rain didn't slow us down. We took a boat from Odaiba to Asakusa, which could have been nice and relaxing - I just happened to be busy with a 3 years old's tantrum. Asakusa was an excellent place to visit on a rainy day: number of streets are covered with roof or rain shelter.

Tuesday: at Sumo Museum, Children's Hall and Akachan Honpo shop. The Museum wasn't that extraordinary, but they had a nice little shop in the same building selling Sumo items. Kids were wild at Children's Hall and 50% of them slept when we were at the shop.

Wednesday: at Shinjuku Central Park. It was a nice and sunny day. Kids played in a pool and at the play ground for a long time.

Thursday: at Kodomo-no-kuni. Same procedure as the previous day but in a bigger place. It is a great place to spend a day with a kid and worth the long train ride there and back.

Friday - today that is: I was supposed to have a lunch with my neighbour and baby sit friend's boys, but Vimme isn't well, so I cancelled everything. Now he is sleeping and I had this moment to write a report.

Geriatric Sandals

I used to think only geriatrics wear Ecco sandals. Now I own a pair of that sort. And it is actually a second pair of Eccos I have. Previous pair is dying. Pieces of their soles are grumbling all over Tokyo. They lived a full life for four years and served me well. I expect the new pair to serve me as long as the old did.

Anyway, if you (female) have been blessed with big feet and live in this city of midget feet (Tokyo), here's some good news: Ecco's Store in Ebisu sells women's shoes up to size 40.

Conclusion

The kid is better, our guests arrived safely and M is back home.

Visitors, Fever and Vandals

We'll have visitors from Finland tomorrow! I received a call last week from my friend, asking if they could come to Tokyo 'next week'! I said 'yes of course!'.

I wish people would call me more frequently asking that same question. I haven't got my full guest-dose during our stay in Japan.

M's away for his job and the kid got ache in his tummy and high fever this evening, which equals with me getting worried. But he seems to be better already, so I suppose it isn't anything serious.

Until now there has never been any problems with thiefs or vandalism here in Japan. (I mean, in our life). Yesterday I went to our bicycle cellar and saw that someone had ripped off Vimme's seat's cover and got rid of it for good. We couldn't use the bike: Vimme wasn't able to sit on the seat without the cover. I got pretty pissed off. My guess is that it was a wild kid of our fellow foreigner (most people in our house are gaijins) expressing his/her frustration on our property. Damn, why don't people look after their kids?

Lost Keys

M solved my problem with dying keys on my laptop's keyboard and bought me a separate, cheap, Japanese keyboard. Now I have an access to all the alphapets again. Thank you M.

Hakone

I am exhausted after a relaxing weekend in Hakone.

M's job had their annual Summer Camp there: we stayed over night at a hotel, had nice bath in hotel's onsen and a good Japanese meal and breakfast (dry fish and rice - I like that). Vimme too seemed to like his Japanese meal (sashimi and such) & he did enjoy having a bath at the onsen. If he could choose, we propably would live in a Japanese hotel.

Today we went to see Hakone Open-air Museum. It was half fun half duty - Vimme was there with us after all and he announced that he wanted to break all the sculptures!

It's a great museum: a good collection of modern art - mainly scupltures - spreaded around in a park surrounded by mountains. They even had some climbable scupltures for kids - but not as many as Vimme thought there should have been.

It took us five hours by train to get home. I dragged a stubborn back pain through all this. It's still with me and I am wishing it away.

Star Trekking

Now we (me & M) are watching the 4th season of 'Star Trek Enterprise'. The 3rd season has been the best so far, but I am eager to see what happens during this last season of the series.

I mentioned before, that the theme song was plain impossible to listen - it was so annoying. They managed to make a new less irritating version of it for the 3rd season, but that was too late: the song had scared watchers away (my theory why the series didn't become popular). Another improvement is that sub-commander T'pol (the babe in the red catsuit) isn't wearing her 'giant fake boobs'-out fit anymore.

Cultural Nourishment

I had a pleasure to see a Kabuki play, The Seagod's Villa, at Kabuki-za theater in Ginza. I was there with few friends. We bought the cheapest tickets to the 4th floor and rented ourselves earphones - without those the whole spectacle would have been much less giving especially for a person who doesn't undestand Japanese - so gaijin, if you go there, don't forget the earphones.

The play was slow and every now and then even a bit boring, but that wasn't a problem: I was fully entertained by watching every carefully designed beautiful scene on the stage.

Male head role was played by one of Kabuki's hottest names today, Ebizo Ichikawa. After checking him out on Google I realized that I had seen his face before. I am not totally clueless - only 98,5%.

Kitchen

A lovely Japanese neighbour of mine prepared a lunch for me the other day. It was delicious and something that I had never tasted before. I wanted to try if I could cook that myself and bought picture's products from a food store. It wasn't bad, but the original version was so much better. I have to ask my neighbour to reveal her cooking secrets.

The First Search

The kid made his first Google search on his own: he turned on my computer, clicked 'Firefox' open, and wrote 'PMMP' (a Finnish group) on Google and hit the enter button. Quite good from a three years old.

Off Housewifing

It's one of those phases again: I am missing being something else than just a Tokyo housewife. I know that I am actually doing what I want to do: being with the kid now that he is still small. But I can see that this period coming to an end and I am getting ready to go on with my on life, to do things just for me.

I did have a little time off from housewifing on saturday. I met with Jo and Tim, had a dinner and few drinks. Boy, they are fun to be with!

Tokyo Elvis and a Day's Trip to Yokohama

I wonder if we'll be seeing Japan's Prime minister Koizumi at Yoyogi Park after September dancing with all the other Tokyo Elvises. He should be there if he is half as big Elvis fan as they say he is.

Yesterday I took the kid to Children's Land at Yokohama (Kodomono-kuni). There he rode a pony for the first time in his life. He liked that. And I liked the nice warm weather and the fact that the kid waisted his energy on something else (running, climbing, playing with a friend) than screaming at me. I am definitely taking him there again this summer.