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May 2007
Another photo-prompted post.
Not far from our home is a play area for kids. It's known as "The 100 Yen Park" because that's how much it costs to get in (in May 2007 that's about forty pence).
I don't know its official name but it's a magical place.
Children here are treated very differently from those in the UK. They are actively encouraged to "do their own thing". For a start, they have to make their own way to school from the age of six.
The park is set out like an adventure area in a natural setting. Woodland to explore, rope webs to negotiate, hills to climb, very long slides wind down a steep hill and there are sculptures to clamber over. Zip lines for older children and dedicated areas for the little ones.
Children are persuaded to work out problems on their own, to be independent from a very young age and to experiment - even if this may mean hurting themselves ever so slightly in the process. The odd bump and scraped knee isn't the end of the world and nobody would ever think of suing. I heartily approve of this. But Health and Safety UK style would have an absolute fit here!!!
Tables and benches surround the play area where parents can sit and chat while their offspring run off a heap of energy without Mum or Dad helicoptering around them all the time. Heaven! I take my work there to do while Rhiannon makes friends with whoever she can find. At her age, there is no language barrier. If / when she falls over, the gate-keeper comes trotting out with a plaster before I can reach her. No fuss, just a matter of fact "There you are. All sorted; now go back and play".
Refreshments come from the ubiquitous Japanese vending machines. Depending on the time of year you can have tins of hot coffee, tea, hot chocolate and every possible cold drink you can imagine - and many you can't. Cucumber flavoured Coca Cola? Not for me!
Sometime during May, the machines change to only serving cold drinks. If you fancy hot coffee… tough. It's not available. But iced coffee isn't too bad.
Just outside the park is an entire bank of vending machines as you can see. Some sell ice creams and another dispenses hot food.
I have no idea how the hot food one works - microwaves, I guess - but I haven't dared try it yet.
There are limits to my Health and Safety embargo…
Saturday 5th May 2007
Rhiannon's been invited to a birthday party at TAC - the Tokyo American Club.
Tim and I drop her off and explore the surrounding area a little.
Up one little alleyway we spotted this stunning house. I couldn't resist standing on tiptoes to lean over the wall for a photo.
Now isn't that the shortest blog entry I've done so far?!
Still May 2007 but I'm going by photos now, rather than my diary as I think it's more interesting...
My days usually go like this:
Am rudely awakened at silly o'clock by my daughter who has no concept of time. If she's awake, then everyone else must be woken up too.
I am not good in the mornings.
Get dressed and drag myself downstairs for a cup of imported tea. And am somewhat revived but still extremely unsociable. Anyone in their right mind should avoid me in the mornings.
Provide breakfast for child. Chivvy child along in order to eat breakfast in less than 2 hours.
Start shouting at child to get ready for school. Why this takes so long, I'll never know. If she gets up at 5am, why is it always last minute out the door? Super dawdler when it comes to getting her out.
School run. Stress out finding a place to park in the overcrowded carpark. Car got scraped one day in there - most parents drive huge people carriers, even if they have just one child. (Please ignore the previous post about Landrovers - I don't drive it).
If it's a Tuesday, then I get a super caffeine hit at Starbucks and a lovely, calming gossip with my friends before returning home to a lovely clean house, courtesy of my delightful helper. Tuesdays are nice days.
On every other day, I come home and work, work, work before repeating the school run / car parking fiasco again. I'm a freelance writer and also do a lot of editing, proofreading, formatting, uploading on to the website and heaps of miscellaneous business stuff. I often work very late into the night, especially around deadline time once a month.
While working I listen to British radio through the PC, sometimes on Listen Again which is odd when I hear old news stories; sometimes live so I hear shows I'd not hear in the UK due to the time difference.
So it's easy to forget where I am in the world.
Until I walk outside and see something like this on a bush.
It's a stunning butterfly and about the size of my hand! If anyone can tell me what it's called, I'd be very grateful.
Sometime in May 2007
Oh dear. We have a new member of the family. Of the vehicular species.
Tim is a Landrover obsessive. For the entire year before we moved here he spent most of his time in his best friend's shed rebuilding a Landrover that is older than me. He adores tinkering with them while constantly swearing at the illogical way they are built. But it's an absorbing hobby for him. And he left it all behind when we moved, which also means his special supply of Landrover specific tools were put into storage.
Until now, he's been getting the Metro to work, which is a long, and involved journey, even though his workplace is certainly within cycling distance - if he had a bike.
But someone from work is leaving and is donating his rather rickety old Landrover to Tim, who is naturally over the moon! No longer does he have to brave the rush hour Metro horrors AND he has a new toy to play with.
The first thing he did was to find a massive car supplies warehouse called SuperAutobacs. Think MegaSuperHyperMarket, but for car stuff.
It truly is an incredible store full of everything a car enthusiast could need, and much one doesn't need. There are diamante crystals to decorate your car, both inside and out: 101 different types of ashtrays, 201 different in-car dustbins, two entire aisles of car fragrance thingies and much much more. There was even a nail salon to keep the ladies occupied while their men lost themselves in the auto-heaven.
Ah well, he's happy, so I'm happy. Plus he gets home earlier and in a much more cheerful mood now he drives.
