Konichi-wa!

Hey team! I thought I'd reopen this account for our friends and family not on social media, to give a little back story to some of our pictures and share a few photos for those interested. 

Well, we did it! We've arrived, mostly unscathed, in Tokyo. Our flight in was pretty incredible (given the 45 minutes sitting on the tarmac not flying anywhere, the 2.5 year old and pregnant bump.) As predicted, our amazing bag of tricks remained zipped up while Viv spent 96% of the flight gazing at wonder at the little TV screen. Getting from the aeroplane to the apartment was another story. 

See the below shot for the general vibe. 

We've been here almost two days and already it feels like home. If home were a tiny tiny (really it's quite ridiculous) apartment and surrounded with people speaking an entirely different language. I'm not being dry, it really is homey here. Our apartment is so small it's nearly impossible to photograph. Our host put a huge amount of effort in our instructions to get here however forgot to attach our key to the padlock hanging out of the mailbox so that was fun when we arrived on Tuesday night (it turns out Kent is a whizz at digging around people's locked mailboxes with sticks, FYI).

There are signs everywhere in the apartment instructing us not to make a noise or the sound measuring device will alert the security company and we'll get kicked out. I'm still not sure what this device is, or where it is, so continually am searching the ceiling for smoke detector like devices that are catching me either shouting at Viv for being a little shit or muttering curses to our host for not including any knives (save the one large chopping knife), tea towels or teaspoons in the amenities. It is a strange place – we have about 47 towels but only 4 pillows. Seeing as two of those pillows are wedged on either side of Viv to prevent him from toppling out of his bed, it leaves the remaining two hankies and the cushions from the dining chairs for Kent and myself. All the weirdness is instantly forgiven as each night I am able to lower my entire body into a continually reheating hot bath, shortly followed by hot chocolate/tea and all the terrortastic Japanese treats. Look out for the pregnant butter ball in a month.

Viv passes out mere moments after doing a fragrant poo on Kent's back, while shouting (on the train)
"DON'T LOOK AT ME." 

Viv insists on wearing all of our hats and then being shown photographs of himself wearing all the hats.

The play area at Arts Chiyoda 3331 (where Kent's residency headquarters is) is fantastic.

Glitch coffee right around the corner from Kent's accomodation (that is really only there for emergencies as we have the apartment) – fantastic coffee and so cool it's embarrassing. 

And this is why we came back. Because only in Tokyo do you find taxidermy just lying about in the side streets outside people's apartments. 

Obligatory streetscape. These views are everywhere.

The Footbridge of Confusion and Tears at Ueno station. I walked about 14 circles around this place this morning. The elevators are prisms of mystery where the numbers can mean up or down or maybe neither. The steps are numerous and my fitness levels low. At least the small child was able to run.

Kappabashi shopping street – right where we are staying, this is the chef's shopping district. Viv notes that the giant chef-man on top of the building is 'a beautiful man!' 

Mum brownie points high for finding the promised playground. (This is a lie. I had no idea where the fuck we were going to find a playground without literally covering every single side street until we stumbled on one. I did not let him know this. I told him I was saving the best bit till last. As my brownie points were soon lost as we found this when I was busting for the toilet and busting to put this whinging little shitbag to bed for a nap. It's right near our apartment, so we'll be back!)

Proud mama moment – Viv finally plucks up his courage to go down the slide (it's been a work in progress since a violent ending last year involving a fluffy vest, too much velocity and black eye). 

I would like to kill him a lot of the time, but he's generally a pretty good sport in a new environment. I always feel more generous when he's sleeping.

Most importantly, Kent and I have found the good coffee, have located a couple of playgrounds and replenished our chocolate supplies. Today was Kent's first 'official' day of his residency, so it was with a huge amount of palpatations that we split paths on the train this morning – me to navigate Viv and the stroller and him the residency team. 

I am now pretty good at folding the stroller up and walking up and down train station steps. I'm about to wake the little man up to go and investigate the knife shop. (I went to two bloody playgrounds today, now it's my turn.) As you can probably tell by the images, the weather is pretty much perfect and we're just hoping it sticks around as much as possible! It's taking time to get used to the light – the sun is so low, so it constantly feels like either 7am or 6pm. It's just about on 3 and I want to get outside again before it gets too dark (around 4.30-5). 

See you soon with more anecdotes of the mysteries of inner city Japan! 

xx 

L.