Sun 31 - They're on their Way...

Well, I just got off skype - talking to Maria, Zoe & Grant.

They were about to walk out the door for their final time on this trip.

The plan appears to be to drop around Mari's with their luggage. Then head down to Innokashira Koen (famous local park) for a last paddle-boat ride for the kids. Then back to Mari's and lunch (there or maybe in Kichijoji?) with Mari, Jun, & Keiko. Then, if I recall correctly its off to Nekko (cat) Cafe 2 [am I going to get an allergic reaction when they get home after they have impregnated themselves with cat fur so diligently across the last month?].

At 4pm its the bus from Kichijoji station out to Narita with the flight departing at 8pm (10pm Aust. Eastern Summer Time). They'll arrive into Sydney tomorrow morning at 7:30; then have an 11:30 flight down here to Canberra - arriving in a quarter after noon.

The tinkering typhoon saturday 30 November

By Grant

So the day started like a day usually would if you had to come back to Australia, waking up early and rushing around except for me Grant, who woke up later than Zoe and Maria. When I did finally wake up I lazed around for half an hour talking to dad on Skype. Once I hopped of the computer I went up got changed and packed a little more. Meanwhile mum was calling Qantas down stairs because she got a text earlier to say to call them. After about 3 or 4 phone calls to people we found out that our flight had been cancelled due to the typhoon that was about to hit Tokyo, and our plane wasnt going until 8:00 am on Sunday morning, so we could not get there because we could not get to the apirport early enough. So we would have to stay a night at a hotel there. So we had to call Qantas another time to move our flight to the 8:00 pm flight tomorrow and it caused more trouble, but in the end it fixed more things than it caused because they moved Zoe on the same flight as mum and I (if you did not know Zoe was flying by herself back to Canberra from Sydney because of flight centre but that is a story for another day.) After that mum went to change the limonene tickets for the bus and I wrote this blog.

29 Oct - Korakuen revisited

Korakuen revisited with Mari
Scrumptious Chinese
Tipsy in Tokyo
Skinny Dip!

Visiting Ome and Mrs Aibara - 28 Oct

Today we visited my very special host Mum, Keiko's Mum, Mrs Aibara. At the moment Keiko is extremely busy with her PhD which should all be submitted by March next year, Yay! She says. It has been hard for her being so busy and having us here as a distraction at this time in her life. We've been so grateful that we've been able to spend as much time as we have with her, but remember fondly the days when we were living here and just round the corner to boot, when we could just pop in for the morning or afternoon to have a cuppa and a chat.

So we made arrangements with Jun, who had some free time today and was more than happy to accompany us on the long trip to see Mrs Aibara. We had seen Mrs Aibara at the Cowra Seikei Exchange dinner but only chatted briefly, so I was looking forward to spending more time with her. Mrs Aibara was my Mum for about 8 months and let me tell you it was no easy task when I was 17 going on 18. We came from worlds apart, and I'm not talking about countries here. She is a strong, very clever and well educated lady from a traditional Japanese family, and as such quite strict and formal. So a simple country girl like myself, with few airs and graces, was quite a shock I'm sure. She did manage to teach me many things though and over the year and subsequent years we became very close. She suffered a stroke several years ago, which has effected her sight and physicaly she is now quite frail, but her mind seems to be improving each year rather than deteriorating! She is an amazing woman. Oh, I forgot to mention that she was a concert pianist and one of the terrible effects of the stroke has meant that she is unable to play the piano anymore, which is a real shame and must be extremely difficult for her.

We wiled away the few hours we had together chatting and reminiscing about the years past and I have to say, somewhat embarassedly, she was reminding me of several incidents from the past that my mind had long forgotten! It was a wonderful time.

27 Oct - Lunch with Yoriko and Soccer

Lunch with Yoriko, Keiko and Jun








Last soccer training at Hachioji :-(






Day three at Hachioji soccer - by Grant

So it went a little something like this. This time Zoe was coming to Hachioji soccer to watch, when we got there and put on my boots it was time to start, so we got right into it with some warm ups then games. I wasn’t on one of my good friends teams, actually they were all my friends but I wasn’t on my best friends team Senri. My team was the best team winning all their games bar 1, so we got to the final and won convincingly. After the training when I was handing stuff out, my best friend Senri came up to me a and gave me a letter I opened the letter and it said -

“Dear Gran,

I enjoyed playing soccer with you!! When will you come here again? Will you keep playing soccer when you will be a junior high school student? I am going to playing all the time (meant to be I am going to be playing all the time). Let’s play a game together at the World Cup in the future!! Exchange letters with me please, if you may. Good luck, Senri Kobayashi.



He also gave me his address card to write letters to. Mum asked Seri’s Mum how long it took him to write the letterr and she said 3 hours. She also said that Senri has never met a foreigner before. On the way home Zoe, Mum and I could not believe it that he spent three hours to write a letter to me out of his own time. When we got home it was strait into bed.

26 Oct - Lunch with the Yoshida's and Soccer in the sky

Craft shopping with Mari
Lunch with the Yoshida's
Home sweet old home
Soccer on top of the world (well an 8 storey building anyway)

Day of Contrasts - 25 Oct

Gardens and Theme Parks

Today turned out to be as the kids put it "the best day ever!". Started out with Jun coming over and us finally finishing the last chapter of the textbook I've been reading for him. It's been a real eyeopen to read the theory of music chapter, so complex, I'd have thought it was a science textbook! He says it's been a great help to him, so I'm very happy to know that I've been contributing to his learning.

I should point out that the ‘best day ever’, as far as the kids were concerned, hadn’t quite begun.

I had arranged to meet Yoko one of my closest friends from when I was a student at Seikei for lunch today, close to where she lives and works near Suidobashi. She’s an author and editor and used to write articles for a dive magazine, now focusing on health books, booming here in Japan. She has a son in highschool and works from home so we were lucky that she could spend some time with us during the day.

When she rang that morning to confirm our lunch date, she said that there was a lovely garden near where she lived and we could meet there and have lunch, as long as the rain held off. We were praying it would because earlier in the week when I spoke to Zoe about this being our last week, and asked her what one thing she’d like to before we left Tokyo, she said she’d like to see a Japanese Garden. When I told Yoko this, she said she’d been worried that it wouldn’t interest the kids, so she was really happy.

When we arrived there we decided it would be better to eat lunch before we started the long walk round the gardens. So we waited for a table at the popular Japanese restaurant at the entrance of the gardens and the kids got to try a very traditional ‘bento’ (lunch box) which of course had certain foods that after they tried them, the kids couldn’t eat, but also contain quite a bit of what they could, so it was a good mix for them.

Yoko and I sat chatting and reminiscing for some time and couldn’t believe how time flies. We promised to see each other again soon, and keep in touch more than once a year. Then, as I’ve been feeling more confident using my Japanese during this trip, I’ve been making sure all our friends have my skype address to be able to keep in touch more regularly.

It turned out to be a beautiful garden hidden away in the centre of the city, built by the Tokugawa family and is now kept by the city, so we’re lucky enough to be able to see it. A couple of interesting points regarding the garden were, the number of Koi (carp) in the ponds which Grant and Zoe ended up not only feeding, but since they are so desperate for food, they come very close which makes it easy to pat them. Also there is a huge carved stone shrine there dedicated to what I thought must have been the shoguns wife or someone special, but when we got close we and some other Japanese had a bit of a giggle when we read it was dedicated to his falcon! One other interesting point was that it has a small working rice paddy located in the grounds and children from the local schools come and learn all about rice farming and have the chance to get their hands and feet dirty.

The garden was beautifully green and had some lovely ‘bonsai’ styled trees, but when we saw photos at the rest area at the end, we realised that we were here at one of it’s least beautiful times in terms of Japanese aesthetics. The leaves on the Japanese Maple trees haven’t changed colour, the Cherry and Plum trees weren’t in bloom nor was it covered in a blanket of white snow. However, to us the lush green of the trees and moss was gorgeous enough for Zoe to take a sd card full of photos.

The last interesting point regarding the garden was the fact that it was right next door to the Tokyo Dome sports and entertainment centre and then, this is where the ‘best day ever’ comes into it, when you get to the other end of this huge garden, you can not only see but hear, the huge rollercoaster at the Tokyo Korakuen (theme park).

Of course as soon as Zoe realised what it was, her eyes lit up and on seeing this, Yoko asked if she’d like to go on it. Well, those of you who know Zoe well, could imagine her reaction, screaming and jumping up and down. Grant of course was adament that he was going nowhere near it. However, once Yoko explained that there were other tamer rides, he was more than happy to go along.

So after the beautifully serene gardens we walked the 15 mins to Korakuen and the chaos and noise of the rides. Though today being a Monday and an overcast day, we realised how lucky we were to be here on such a ‘quiet’ day. Yoko, had a suspicion that the kids may like to come here and had brought along a couple of day passes that she had been given, so that the kids could go on what they like. When I told her that she had made the kids’ day, she was so happy that she had ‘chosen well’. I also told her that Zoe had missed out on Disneyland in Tokyo, so this had been a great compromise, especially given the day (no crowds and cool weather), the kids would get to ride on double the rides that we experienced at Disneyland.

Firstly we headed off in the direction of the Dolphin Jet Coaster, and before Yoko had to go, we went over to the huge ferris wheel so that we could have a look at Tokyo from a different angle. Man it was high, so it gave the kids a good look at the layout of the park and what other rides were there.

After this we said goodbye to Yoko, again feeling so lucky to be able to meet and spend time together, but both of us feeling a sad at having to say goodbye again so soon.

So the kids spent the afternoon running from ride to ride and by nightfall, Zoe had decided to brave the Dolphin Jet Coaster on her own as Grant had refused from the outset to go on it. After the 45 second ride she couldn’t wait to get back on it, and at seeing that, Grant also decided to give it a go. Needless to say, they both went on a couple more times and thoroughly enjoyed it. The most fun part for me was watching as each “train” left, and seeing the attendants farewell each group of passengers, with shouts and cheers and then on their return, they encouraged everyone waiting to clap and cheer and say “well done” as they pulled up. Very cute.

By the end of the day, the kids were on a high and as we made our way, late again, through the busy train stations and crowded trains, the kids could care less. We met Mari at Kichijoji station and it was once more off again to Richoen for Yakiniku for dinner, where Zoe braved ‘tongue’ , Grant tried liver and we all had oxtail soup (though I told the kids it was a weird Japanese vegetable he he he). Afterwards we made a brief stop at Mari’s to check on Mako-chan (the kitten) and then it was off home, satiated in more ways than one.

24 Oct - Birthday wishes for Harry!

Today was once again a day to catch up with friends, however, I was more excited than usual, because I was going to finally reconnect with one of my best friends from high school who also was a good friend to Spike and I when we were living in Japan. Before this, the kids and I did our usual 50 min walk (Zoe and I) and run (Grant) around the neighbourhood. (see photo of Grant jogging in the distance)We’ve been trying to do this as many mornings a week as we can, to keep ourselves in shape. Grant is on a real health kick and amazes everyone, even myself, by not only jogging most mornings, but whenever we are out, running up and down the stairs in department buildings, hotels, etc instead of catching lifts or escalators. I’m not talking about one or two flights, but 8 or more floors. Just the other day he ran down 8 flights of stairs and beat us in the elevator! Oh to have that much energy again!!

Later we put in a call to Harry to wish him a Happy Birthday for tomorrow and have a chat to my wonderful bro! Someone who I treasure dearly, but through circumstances, never spend enough time with. He and Elissa also know John, so asked me to pass on their regards, once they knew we were meeting him today.

For lunch, we had a delicious and very enjoyable meal with John and Sayuri at a local Thai restaurant. It was nice for a change for the kids to be able to have a meal out and understand all of what was being said and of course John being not only a lovely person, but a wonderful teacher, was great with the kids! We chatted again (and if Spike was here he’d ask ‘who spoke the most, Maria or John’ as he often asks the kids when John and I get together) about how much Kichijoji had changed, the Cowra Seikei exchange program, both Cowra high and Seikei high and among the many other topics, we also discussed the possibility of Zoe attending Seikei sometime in the future.

Afterwards we wandered around the small alleys of the original markets of Kichijoji and then made our way to the train station to meet Akemi. Along the way there was a huge commotion (celebrations of a store’s anniversary) in the middle of one of the roads and a huge bear character was giving hugs to passers by, and local media was there too. Of course they honed in on us and particularly Grant but Grant flat out refused to go have his photo taken with it, having learnt his lesson at the movie studio! Then it was time once again, to say our goodbyes and wait for Akemi to arrive at the station.

Akemi is the daughter of a former school teacher at Seikei and when Spike and I were living in Japan we saw her frequently. After we moved back to Australia she moved to the US and was a research fellow at Stanford University for 5 years. We kept in contact via email, but at about the time she said she would have to find another job, we lost contact. We tried several times to reestablish contact before the last time we came to Japan 3 years ago, trawling the internet, but to no avail.

Fortunately I had mentioned this to Keiko and using her contacts at Seikei, she was able to find a contact no for Akemi’s parents and eventually I was able to speak to her.
Now living in Nagoya, about an hour on the Shinkansen, I was so glad to be able to see her. We decided to take a walk through Inokashira Koen (the famous Kichijoji park) and I had late in the week promised the kids they could hire paddle boats and go out on the lake. It ended up being a perfect day for this and while the kids ended up having two rides, we wiled away the hours, chatting away, as we had done many years ago at school, both of us saying neither hand changed( except for the odd grey hair and extra few pounds), we both felt strangely old, yet very young.

It was at this time we decided to have dinner together, and after having a large lunch, and also having the kids try the local park cuisine, ‘Dango’ (more food on a stick J). Dango are small rice balls (see photo right) made out of rice which has been cooked and then pounded until it has the texture of rubber. It is then cooked over hot coals till toasted and warmed and then dipped in either sweet/sour bean paste or sweet/sour soy sauce. Dosen’t sound very appetising, well it doesn’t look it either, so I was surprised when the kids said they’d give it a go and ended up loving them. I’ve been so proud of the kids and their willingness to try new foods in Japan. As it started to get dark, we headed for the local Tokyu Department store for some ‘obento’ (lunch boxes) and back home for a quiet dinner.

It had started to rain as we were leaving Tokyu and by the time Akemi was leaving later that evening, it was raining quite heavily so we loaned her an umbrella and accompanied Akemi back to the station, once again saying goodbye, though this time promising not to lose touch and again passing on Skype details.

23 Oct - Architectural Museum Part 2

Sat 23 Oct – Looking after Mako-chan
Soccer at local school
Meeting Keiji at Seikei
Japanese lunch
Part 2, Architectural Museum
Dinner Matsubara-san (No Ryo)

Fri 22 Oct Who needs a Neko (Cat) Cafe when you have a friend like Mari!

The kids were very excited today because they were going to get to baby sit Mako-chan for a couple of days. For Zoe it was like her Christmas’s had all come at once and so earlier that morning we went to Mari’s to pick up the playpen, boxes and of course most importantly, the kitten. Mari was off on an overngight trip with the family to her stepfather’s place of birth to place his ashes in the local cemetary. The Shrine in the lounge room where his ashes are placed, had a photo of him looking healthy and happy, and reminded me of what a wonderful person he was. I remember fondly the many times we spent together and especially his contagious laugh, which I can almost hear now while writing this. One of the last times we saw him, we spent the night at the Ricchoen, the Yakiniku restaurant and then singing Karoke at a local establishment. We were both devestated to hear from Mari earlier in the year that he had been diagnosed with advanced liver cancer, and then to hear that he had passed away under a month before we arrived in Japan.

The rest of the day was spent fawning over the kitten and then at 3pm, Zoe had her second Japanese lesson this time with Grant, again coming back all excited and full of beans. Then it was off to the station to meet Keiko, Nobuko and Tomoko (a lovely colleague of Spike’s from his time back at NTT). She had invited us all to her home once again, to enjoy a beautiful meal prepared by her Mum.

Our connection with Tomoko is again one of strange coincidences. Though we both first Tomoko when Spike started working at NTT, I had a connection with her family through her younger sister, Naoko. She had been one of the students at Seikei who had befriended me at the beginning of my year here. I had arrived near the end of the school year here, in February. School starts in April, so I spent about 2 months in year 11 and then when the new school year started, the year 11 kids moved on and I remained in year 11 making new friends, two of whom became very close friends.

Anyway, it turned out that Tomoko’s family lived close by to the Keiko’s family and they knew each other well, with Keiko going over for sleepovers in primary school, so the long thread that connects me with Keiko also wraps around Tomoko’s family. So Spike, Keiko and I, were devastated to learn earlier in the year, that Naoko had passed away. It was an emotional start to the night with us all being ushered into the room where her shrine was to, as her Mum put it, ‘say hello‘ to Naoko and pay our respects. I had brought along a small 4 cm high stuffed cat holding two small toothpick size drumsticks, (Naoko had played the drums in highschool) that Naoko had made for me and given to me all those twenty something years ago. I had kept it all these years, not quite being able to give it away or throw it out, and when I had heard of her passing, now knew why. I had planned on giving it to her Mum, as she had stitched her name on the back and mine, but her Mum though very touched, had asked me to hold on to it and keep it ‘safe’ for her.

The dinner was delicious and consisted of an amazing Japanese mushroom soup, which she apologised to the kids for, thinking they probably wouldn’t enjoy it. She said it was a seasonal dish and being Autumn mushrooms were the flavour of the month. We had all commented on how wonderful it was and after eating Grant’s as well, I said to Keiko how much I love mushrooms and how much I had enjoyed the soup. When Mrs Matsui had popped out of the room at one point, Keiko took the opportunity to whisper quietly to me that the mushrooms were Matsutake mushrooms. The look on my face on learning this at any other time would have been funny to see, but I could tell Keiko was a little disappointed that I hadn’t realised what they were.

I guess for most people on hearing that they were Matsutake would probably say, so what, but Matsutake are a delicacy here akin to Truffles, and later I saw a box of 3 Matsutake in Tokyu and although it’s very indelicate to say, I’ll let you know the box was about AU$400.


Again, the night passed with lots of reminiscing and talk of our last visit. We thanked Mrs Matsui for her hospitality and vowed to meet again real soon. Keiko and Nobuko walked the 20 mins or so through Inokashira Park back to our house and again left quite late, after enjoying a play with the very delightful and energetic, for the time of night, Mako-chan.

Life In Tokyo

You would think that being in the one place as we are now, quite settled in our home in Tokyo, that it would be easy for me to find time to write a blog or two. Only problem is that we've been so busy catching up with people, that there's been little time to sit down and relax and write something. As is usual, we've just gotten back from dinner and it's 11.30pm. Kids have just gone off to bed and I'm about to head too. Think it'll take all of us a bit of time to readjust to life back in OZ....

21 Oct - Grant says 'Rain, rain, go away!

Day 2 of Hachioji soccer - By Grant

So I hoped up in the pouring rain and had a very quiet morning reading dead silent except for typing on the computer and pages turning. After that we went to get the second lot of manga that week that was full metal alchemist 2, reborn 2,3 and Rin ne 2and 3. At lunch time we had a call from Mrs and Mr Yamamoto (mums host mum and dad she stayed in for four months when she was an exchange student), we had ice cream and coffee together at 3:00. We had a quiet after noon until soccer. We were a little late but fine. So we hopped on the train and started reading manga after a while mum realised we had to change trains at Tachikawa that we passed 10 minutes ago. So we hopped off the train and rushed to Tachikawa. We caught the train from Tachikawa to Hachioji and when we reached the soccer I was late so I had to shove my shoes on and went on the field. I felt embarrassed to be so late but I got over it. The training was like the other nights one but a little easier. When we got home it was 11:00 so I read until 11:30. I finally went to sleep because I couldn’t keep my eyes open because it felt like they had a 20 ton metal ball hanging from my eye lids.

Manga shopping
Soccer
Yamamotos and coffee
Zoe ceramic painting
and wrong trains

20 Oct - Architectural Museum, Japanese Lessons and Soccer

Day 1 Hachioji Soccer - By Grant

So I woke up early to read my book 100 pages left and read 40 in the morning (the book was really sad then I role played on the computer. After that Matsubara san was coming to pick us up so we went to her mother’s house just down the road. She was just about to pick us up but before we left I raced and got my soccer boots. By that time it was 1:00 so we went to a western style restaurant with some Japanese food, I had a Italian burger and the drink bar. Next we went to the place where the artist who wrote and drew Spirited Away got inspired from. There was the tram that the writer got inspired by and everything. Then my mum and I had to catch the train to Hachioji (where I was doing the soccer) while Zoe was getting a Japanese lesson.
When we got there none of my group was there. When some of them arrived they looked at me strangely, then when one particular boy arrived and he introduced himself to me and he later became my good friend. His name was Senri and he forced a lot of the other boys to introduce themselves. One of them was Shinji Ono. Once the training started we did some warm ups. One of the warm ups is a game that I play with my dad (show class maybe) it is where you try and push the opponent and make them move (only using your hands). I won all my games. After all the warm ups were over we did a small amount of ball mastery, compared to Australia. Next we played a game of 3 attacker’s vs 2 defenders and a goal keeper. The attackers have to score in one big goal where the goal keeper is. If the defenders take the ball off the attacker they have to score in 1 0f the 2 small goals in the corner. The big goal was 3 metres big and the 2 little ones were a 1 metre. After that we played 8v8 small field games and great fun.

Tonight was Zoe’s first Japanese lesson at the Ueda School, literally next door. I had volunteered the kids to be guinea pigs for one of the student teacher’s at the School but since Grant had soccer, so Zoe was off on her own. She was all excited about it and when we arrived back, she said it was great fun.

Tues 19 Oct - Quiet day with Mrs Yoshida

I was so excited about today, it was going to be a quiet day catching up with Mrs Yoshida and after hearing what our day was like yesterday, she was more than happy for us to buy some prepackaged, though very tasty, food from the local Tokyu Department store and come back for a quiet catch up and lunch.

She looked even younger than she did when we lived here and told me that when she found out her daughter Naoko was pregnant, she decided to get fit quick to be able to look after the baby when necessary, so started walking round the local parks every morning, and in the 9 months had lost over 6 kilos and looks great! We reminisced about the times we went swimming at the local pool and the many gym classes, called ‘aerobic dancing’, we had taken together back then. Of course we also talked about Zoe’s birth and how time flies, and how much Zoe and Grant have grown. With her husband now retired, she tries to get out as much as possible, in order to avoid having to provide special lunches for him ;-).

We left the kids at home resting, while we went for a bit of a wander around Kichijoji to get some souveneir shopping done and then visit the new shopping complex that opened on Friday. I’d heard that the new bookstore there had Japanese Manga (comics) in English and it was something that the kids were desperate to buy while here in Japan. We got back home and quickly arranged to have a lunch or dinner next week with her and her husband.

Later in the afternoon, we walked to Mari’s to check up on Mako-chan, and whiled away the time roughhousing with Mako-chan.

Old Schools, Old Teachers and Old Friends - 18 Oct

This morning Jun had some singing lessons here at the house, so the kids and I made ourselves scarce. We visited Mari, to check on the lost kitten, now named Mako-chan, send a couple of emails and once again, ended up playing Blackjack. After all the hands we’d played, Mari still hadn’t won one, so we decided that she should be banker, though she kept saying she wouldn’t know what to do. Of course, she got the hang of it in the end, and since the bank always wins she was very happy.

Later that afternoon I had arranged for the kids and I to have a tour of Seikei with John Millen. The noticeable differences since the last time we were her about 3 years ago, were the new sports grounds, absolutely beautiful (when I was a student here, the sports ground was dirt/mud) and the two new buildings. The junior high building is gorgeous, beautiful wooden floors and orange walls, with classrooms coming off a large central meeting area on each floor. In contrast, the senior high school is sterile, white walls and white lino tiles, and traditional long hallways with classes coming off it.

As we were leaving, we bumped into the teacher in charge of the Kendo club at Seikei. He said that the club was training at the moment in the hall and we were welcome to go have a look. With the ‘official tour’ over, John left us to assist one of his students and we walked over to the ‘oh, too familiar’ cold and stark hall. How I remember the many hours spent in their either sweltering in summer or feeling like my toes were about to snap off in winter, on the next move I made. I can still remember the faces of some of the people I did Kendo there with and at the end of training when they took of their ‘men’ or helmets, I almost expected to see one of them. Of course was disappointed and as we walked away, I wondered how they all are now and if they’re still doing Kendo….

Later we were having dinner at Keiko’s and we arranged to call her from the 7-11 near her house and she would pop down and guide us back to her apartment. We’d been invited there 3 years ago, but all Japanese apartment blocks look the same to us, so there was no way we’d find our own way there. Just an aside, the elevator only stops on every second floor of the building, so if you live on 3, 5, or 7, you need to get out and walk up the stairs to your floor. Very strange and inconvenient, especially if you’re moving or carrying heavy stuff home.

After we called Keiko we saw Nobuko walking down the street towards us, assuming she’d been sent to show us the way, only to find that she was coming home from school herself (6.00pm) and so we followed her anyway. Then on the way we ‘bumped into’ John, thinking ‘Wow, didn’t think he lived near here’. Only to find out that Keiko had later invited John to dinner and sent him to guide us!

Dinner was lovely and we chatted the night away. Realising it was about 11pm, we left with John for the 15 min walk home. John accompanied us walking his bike, and as he left for the 5 min ride home to his place, we arranged to have lunch next Sunday with him and his partner Sayuri. Thankfully tomorrow was going to be a quiet day catching up with our good friend Mrs Yoshida, who lived next to us in our apartment here in Tokyo all those years ago. Her husband drove us to hospital the night my waters broke and she was the first person to bath Zoe and babysit her. So we have quite a special bond, and on top of that, she’s just a very relaxed and down to earth person, who we love spending time with.

Harajuku - 17 Oct

This morning started out with us going with Mari to a small art gallery in Kichijoji to see her work of art and meet the lady she collaborated with. When we arrived in Kichijoji, Mari was working on the wall hanging, so now to see the finished product up on the wall was great. We had our photo taken in front of the hanging and then went off to Harajuku for the day.

Harajuku is a very popular place on the weekends. It has a huge park called Yoyogi Koen and years ago they used to close the streets off to traffic and groups of young people would gather together, dress up and dance to the music on their own ‘beat boxes’ all day. These days it’s much more sedate and there were only a few groups of ‘Rockabilly’ dancers at the entrance to the park. They aren’t allowed in the park, but dance on the pavement out front. See photos.

They are hugely popular with foreign tourists and Japanese alike. They were great fun to watch but Mari kept saying, ‘wow, they’re all my age or older!’ She was right, they weren’t young, but as we went into the actual park, we found out where the young people were and what they were doing. They are all dressed up in their favourite Anime, game, or movie character costumes and doing what is now called ’cos-play’. Grant was mostly surprised that there were a number of men dressed up as cute anime girls, which is commonplace here.

The park is HUGE and all through it there are groups of people doing their own thing totally oblivious of the others around them it seems. For example, as we walked around the park we saw many groups doing ’cosplay’, others were doing drama rehearsals, another group was singing, other’s played badminton, baseball and soccer. Then there were the groups practicing their musical instruments, like the trumpet and trombone players, the cello group, dance groups, martial arts groups, and lastly the ‘tree huggers’. Well, they weren’t actually physically touching the trees, but from a distance it looked like it. Not sure if they were receiving energy from the tree or giving it energy, but it looked very serene compared to the other groups. It was a crazy sight, but just seemed to work.

When I asked Mari why they all came out into the open she gave me a simple answer, no backyards, no space in their homes. I love the Japanese culture for the fact that they have few inhibitions when it comes to singing/dancing/dressing up in public. I would find it very difficult to go into a park in Canberra and start singing away with a couple of friends, or doing drama in front of everyone there. Maybe Karaoke was the start of it, maybe not. I guess it comes back to everyone being in the same boat when it comes to ‘space’. It’s kind of like when I spoke to Itoh-san about there being no road rage in big cities in Japan, regardless of the fact that everyone is super busy and stressed. Driving down a street here would drive most Australians insane. It’s hard for me to describe what walking down a street is like, but again, it just works. When I asked Itoh-san why people don’t go crazy when a bike is parked so far out on very narrow road that a car has to slow down and make a real detour to miss it, or when a car does a 3 point turn in the middle of a busy street, or when the street is too narrow for two cars to pass each other, so one has to drive into someone’s driveway and wait while the car passes before it can continue on it’s way, etc etc. He just said, that everyone’s in the same boat, so they just get on with it. Wow, empathy at work on a large scale. Amazing considering the stressful lives they live.

After wandering through the park we braved the mad crowds and walked down Takeshita Dori, a famous street here in Harajuku. Needless to say it was crazy busy and by the time we made our very slow walk down the packed narrow street (see photo) the kids were tired, cranky and hungry. Mari and I decided that eating out would not be a good idea and so we all headed back to Kichijoji, and while Mari checked on the exhibition, we cooked a Thai curry for dinner. When she had finished, at the gallery, she came over and we ate a very hot meal together, giggling about how hot it was, as our noses dripped in unison!

With dinner over Mari's attention was again focused on the kitten, so we packed our pack of cards and huge bag of 1 and 5 yen coins we’ve been using to play ‘blackjack’ with, and headed over to her house to check on the kitten. We had a great time playing cards while the kitten played on the table batting the coins around, slipping on the cards and playing with the flowers on the table. Animals are so grounding. It was a tiring day, but another great one.