More and more and more slides (and a museum too).

Is anyone getting tired of the slide shots? Because if so, turn away now – the park slides make up about 60% of our trip, and as most fellow parents will know, a happy child is a good thing indeed. Viv have had many extremely serious discussions that go a little something like this:

Me: 'Mummy is going to go into a shop now. And then we can go to the playground afterwards.'

Viv: 'I want to go to the playground NOW.' 

Me: 'Well, we've already been to two today, so don't you think it's fair that we do something I like?'

Viv: 'No.'

Me: 'Ok, well we're going into the shop either way, so if you want to go to the playground again, I suggest that you behave.'

Viv: 'Oh. No kicking and no screaming and no shouting?'

Me: 'Right.'

Viv: 'Are you happy now mum?'*

*This particular version of the conversation occurred shortly before Viv ran away from me up a flight of stairs and then fell back down them again, thus missing the playground all together. But that was ages ago, so here are some NEW playground pictures for you all to enjoy! 

We have found the mother of all local parks, what we now call the ORANGE playground, which is obviously the biggest, the best, embarrassingly close to our apartment (seeing as it has taken me over 2 weeks to discover) and also filled with some of the most terrifyingly rambunctious children I have ever come across. This can only be a good thing – I don't want Viv to forget what it's like at Kyneton child care. 

If you've been following our journey thus far, you'll notice that Viv's confidence has come a long way since we arrived. The bigger the slides, the better. Of course it helps that Japanese children are fearless, as are their parents, and it seems to be quite the norm to cast your baby down the slide for character-building or something. I have noticed that though many of the slides are huge, they are not steep, so kids come down quite gracefully – everything is graceful here. I have never been so aware of my pilling clothes and fly-away hair.

I need to break away to emphasise the slide business for a minute (I told you this post was about slides). This one's for you mum – a primary school near our apartment. I'm not sure if you can tell, but that is a slide coming down from the second floor – from what we've seen so far, this is the norm. Australian occupational health and safety rules, eat your heart out. 

Back to the orange park! Where it was all over shortly after it began, as you can see here. This is what I call the 'it's not time for counting!' tantrum: I told Viv I was busting, so 10 swings and then he had to come with me to the toilet, then we'd come back out and play some more. I do feel for him a little – this pregnant lady is peeing around the clock, so we go to public toilets (which are thankfully fine and can often fit a child and a stroller inside) almost as much as slide parks. This tantrum ended badly with an early termination of park time – which is just as shit for me as it is for him, because it means either going back to the apartment and being in each other's pockets until nap time, or storming around the back streets of Kappabashi Kitchen Town, fuming that he is such a little bastard. (This time it was the latter.)

This is the view from our window sill, which doubles as a very nice standing desk when not covered in stuff (most surfaces are covered in stuff because there aren't any real surfaces. I can see Sturdy Style from the window which is where the good coffee shop Bridge is (sadly closed Tuesdays and Wednesdays), and if I squint my eyes, I can blur out the wire in the windows that make it feel like a prison cell. After the tantrum, the overtired child went to bed and I felt cross. Then I felt extremely happy to have some quiet time reflecting on some of the wonderful things I had seen, while drinking coffee, eating chocolate and doing some notebook doodling. It's easy to get caught up in needing to 'do stuff' all the time, that you forget to absorb it. 

And in a happy twist of fate, the child was very pleased with me (amazing what a piece of cheese can do for your spirit!) and we agreed that we could give the Orange park another go. 

Apparently observing other children on the slide is just as important as trying it out for yourself. 

Another proud mama moment – there was no way I could fit in this macrame disaster without getting totally mauled by rope, so kiddo was alone. He got about a metre in and freaked out, but once you're in, you're in. With a lot of coaxing (and a lot of pushy shove-y from the nasty little shitbag who went in after him), he made it through. 

Worth it for the victory face! 

Once he went through the rope tube, he was going everywhere. This mostly went well, until he fell off and became not only spliced (poor little squashed genitals), but also trapped – this fricken jungle gym is designed to repel pregnant adults. It's cool. I got him out. Eventually.

I packed a lot of nappies, with the idea that they would be consumed and space would need to be filled. It turns out I am possibly already at capacity, but am doing some killer tetris work will small sundries that I have bought. I appreciate that buying a kettle while on an overseas trip may SEEM silly, but just wait until I boil you some water from this baby. It will taste like cherry blossoms and sparkles (at least that's what the lady in the shop told me ... ).

Yesterday was one of those simply thrilling days that is already too long at 9 am – especially when you arrive at the supermarket before it even opens?! Despite that being as domestically dull as it gets, it was still a fascinating cultural experience. We were only 10 minutes early, so waited and watched the staff get themselves ready for open time. A marvellous security guard produced this balloon for Viv out of nowhere and we watched as people started to gather around in readiness to hurl themselves into the thrill of grocery shopping, all of them twitchy while two staff members stood stoically inside the door, one of them counting down with his watch (true story). At 9.30 on the dot they opened the doors, bowed and welcomed us in. Aaaaah Japan. 

All good things come to an end. 

And are soon replaced by better things.

The afternoon saw Viv and I head to Kanda to Maatch Ecute, a 'concept' retail space in an old train station. It was pretty meh, and extremely busy (being a Sunday afternoon), but the space itself was beautiful.

 It was also quite pleasant to stumble across a live classical music performance – complete with a a grand piano.

All feelings of serenity are abolished as we walk down the centre of the street in Akihabara – a totally insane area of Chiyoda (very close to Kent's residency) that is reknowned for electronic goods, anime and manga products. Every store is blaring several sets of music and advertising, staff are on the streets with microphones doing little skits and promos, and Viv and I are cowering in a corner, rocking back and forth. (I lie. Viv loved it, and spent most of the walk pointing at various tiny shops selling really boring stuff like tablets or mobile phones, saying 'I should like to go to THAT shop.') I am pretty sure Monkey was distressed. 

The best part of the Ginza line is the TRAINS! Because they have TELEVISION!! At the end of this trip I am going to put a montage together of all of Viv's tantrum faces (usually from our apartment or playgrounds) and his thrill faces (usually from the train). 

Monday morning we ventured into Shibuya, a key part of the CBD with many shops, also with the extreme blaring of music on top of other music (tonight we went to a supermarket that had a different music source for each aisle). We kicked off with a pretty horrible coffee experience where the chick working there was a RUDE COW and was not very nice to me, despite my humble (pathetic) attempts at polite Japanese mixed with demented English. I now suspect that she was insulted that I didn't just speak English (as she obviously could). So I shall not be naming that cafe, but I do remember it being eye-rollingly pretentious last time we went there (friends, don'tgotostreamercafeinshibuyatheyareabunchofdicks), and the coffees are stupidly big.

Haha mean lady, you wanted to ¥400 for a fucking babycino?! Forget it. I said no thank you (she was insulted at that too). But then while I was waiting for our coffee, she had leftover milk and gave us one for free, hooray (which is kinda what a babycino is, amiright?!). Afterwards, as I was telling Viv to thank her for it, she interrupted and told us in very abrupt Japanese to make sure we returned our dishes to the counter and stalked off. Collecting your coffee and returning your dishes is actually normal here, something I find bemusing when coffee costs SO much more than at home.

Kent's finest crystal stick at Tokyu Hands – a super 7 level multi-department store, that is technically ... like ... (trying to do some maths ... ) about 22 levels, because there are 3 basement levels, and levels 1-6 all have 3 sublevels each. It's a total mind fuck and you can buy most things that exist here. Thankfully I was sent here alone, because navigating a stroller with these mezzanines everywhere would have sucked. It would seem that in the 2-3 weeks we've been here, I have stocked our entire kitchen with silly shit that I'm sure I will question when I get home, but am really excited to have collected at this moment (I am sure I need those cartoon egg toothpicks and those ghost character food packet seals). 

While I was spending Kent's AusCo grant on toothpicks uh I mean his Curator's salary, Kent and Viv found some pretty unsavoury 'playgrounds' in Shibuya (hobo patch of dirt with mostly rubbish, and a little ride on pony thing) and then the playroom at muji. Bless muji! It's like Country Road and Target had a well put together baby – it's bland and fabulous and has a playroom. By this point it was lunchtime and Viv was having 'sleeps' in the 'egg bath'. 

The main reason for Muji is also their pretty great restaurant/cafe. Another one of those daggy child-friendly places where you pay a set price for 3 or 4 dishes, and then select from what they have on offer (it's very hard to refrain from saying 'can I please pay a tiny bit more and have eleventeen dishes please??') – usually several meat dishes and salads, most of them cold. Each set comes with a bite or two of each thing, a bowl of rice and you can get miso too. Really simple, really delicious. And this fun terrifying window ledge, presumably designed to give parents heart palpitations at all times. But also a fun zone where your child is somehow contained but also not touching you (because let's be honest. Sharing a booth/seat/bench/table with your toddler is really fucking annoying at times. Especially when you're left handed and they INSIST on sitting on your left side, very close to you). Here is Viv playing with the tiny dinosaurs I got from level 7 of Tokyu Hands – the science level, of course! 

Hanging out the front of a gallery in Ayoama.

Nicely draped tarp. 

Are we seriously here again? Haven't we already done this?!

Yesterday was a special day for me, as it was the FIRST FULL DAY TO MYSELF!!! After Kent's very very busy weekend (Sunday he was out of town for the whole day until quite late), Viv and I were ready to murder each other. An hour in the kitchen department of Tokyu Hands doesn't quite count, so yesterday it was training south again to have my coffee alooooone. And yoga alone. And lunch alone. And I may have been a little early for yoga, so maybe there were two coffees aloooone. Despite that, I think I probably ended up walking about 10 kilometres in the end – the train stations are so close to each other and sometimes quite convoluted to get in and around, so it can be easier to simply walk from area to area.

After my trauma with precocious coffee chick on Monday, it was pure delight to have a coffee on this little bench outside Daikenyama station, made by a equally delightful dude who was very chatty, very patient with my attempts at Japanese and seemingly very happy to converse in Japanese and English, explaining in English what I didn't understand, and confirm in Japanese what I did. If you're ever in Daikenyama, head to the little yellow van outside the station, Motoya Espresso Express. That guy is alright. 

This is why I really go to yoga. To have lunch here (at We Are The Farm) afterwards. Another set menu with a salad buffet. This time I didn't have the protection of Viv to continually go up for fourth helpings of potatoes 'for him', so managed with just two. The staff are lovely and the vibe easy. They take their organic very seriously, which is pretty rare in Tokyo. 

I was also gifted this hilarious bucket of sorbet – perfect palette cleanser, which I am pretty sure was kale flavoured. It sounds disgusting but it was well sweetened and delicious. And yes, that's a miniature shovel. 

Enjoying the view of the canal in Naka Meguro. A short... ish walk from Ebisu/Daikenyama area (where the yoga is), this beautiful street is lined with daunting boutiques and trendy bars. I've noticed that the more obviously pregnant I am, the less likely I am to get service in a clothes shop – I remember it from last time too, I think it's a global thing. 

Another thing in Tokyo: SO many shops for your dog. As in, we went past a DOGGIE-PRAM shop last time we were in Daikenyama. IT'S TRUE. But this is the side view of the shop, which I thought was quite lovely. 

I just thought I had better bring you all back down to earth. Yes, it is a boojie life-style with all my expensive lattes, canals and 47 varieties of slides, but in reality every night at home is like this. Piles of shit all over the floor, drinking my hot chocolate from a bowl off an upended wastepaper basket. Peppa pig and slightly dirty or damp clothes are ever present. 

And here we are at today. Whew! Today was a very fun day – it was a good day for tag-teaming (Kent had a very important interview to do with an artist at a very upmarket gallery – think photographers and interpreters), so I had Viv for the morning, but then at lunchtime we swapped so Viv could go home to sleep while Kent did some work and I headed off for a solo adventure in the arvo. We all met again for early dinner. I could very much get used to this schedule.

This morning I took Viv to the Science and Nature museum, which blew his delightful little mind. He walked in and exclaimed 'OH MY GOODNESS!!!' while pointing at anything and everything. It's a great space, not too big and very accessible with beautiful displays. I suppose it's midweek and low season, but again I couldn't get over how quiet it was. Again, it would seem that most things don't get busy until around noon – it's making me very curious as to WHAT to Japanese people do from when they wake up till 11.30?! Tell me! I do not accept that every demographic sleeps until 10am.

Finally, an indoor space where it seems acceptable to run.

'Look! What's that mum?!'

'Oh my goodness! Look at that!'

Beautiful, deserted, scrubby rooftop herb garden. 

Enjoying our picnic on the rooftop deck – WHY WAS NO ONE HERE!? It was so beautiful, the sky was clear and it was almost warm. 

The SKY!!! (I think perhaps we have been spending too much time in the very-small-no-sunshine-gets-in, apartment.

A very happy occasion. After agreeing with Viv that we'd go home for a sleep and come back another day, Kent texted to say that he was going home too as the interview was over and he had some writing to do. I had already decided to go home via a takeaway at Sol's coffee (about 10 minutes walk south of our station, so not really on the way), so suggested we meet there. Instead, we met him on the train carriage, and my crafty self suggested that THEY go home and I go out! We were fortunate enough to snag a couch in the sun, the coffee was good and the Viv was quiet and happy eating his last picnic sammy. It turned out the place I wanted to visit (another cafe-shop-gallery-not-really-sure-what-it's-trying-to-be) was on the train line of another nearby station so it worked out very nicely. 

Walking the backstreets of Kagurazaka, I found my new home. 

And as today is the first of Feb, it is the official first day of my BIRTHDAY MONTH. Mum, dad – thanks heaps for the new shades, handmade in Japan, of course. What, you think because I'm overseas I'd forget about my birthday? HA! You've all been warned – we get back on the 15th, so that's still another 2 weeks of available celebrating for everyone's (namely mine) enjoyment.

Tomorrow we're all going exploring south-east of where we are now, to a little industrial area casually known as coffee-town – we'll keep you posted of any slide-activity/coffee wonderment.

xox

Lj.