Masa came over and cooked dinner. In fact she cooked enough food for ten people! At the end the ladies enjoyed some handmade pudding. Masa and P ate it, Tonchan squished it and spread it all over the table and threw it all over the floor. Great fun.
After lunch I figured if I put her in the stroller she'd get tired...or maybe hungry for a chocolate frosted donut. Same thing, I guess. After biting and licking all the chocolate off, I was left to eat the naked donut. Still a damn fine snack from our favorite local bread store Mont Thabor.
Lunch break! P wasn't in any mood to move around, so I took Tonchan to the local soba place. She didn't eat any of the sweet omlet but she inhaled the daikon oroshi and all the nori off of the cold soba. I finished off the noodles and tempura.
Borrowing someone's watering can, she likes any excuse to play with the water faucet.
The Tonchanizer has an amazing ability to befriend whomever in the sandbox has the most toys.
We usually get lucky as there are some kids in the sandbox who bring the proper equipment and will share with Ton, but you never know so I grabbed the spade (plastic) and she put on her jacket, backwards of course but at least she has a good use for the hood; that's where panda goes, and off to the park we go!
As soon as we got to the park there was an abandonded kid size shovel that no one claimed, so the spade was relegated to the stroller and she proceeded to use her new scooper.
I think I need to get her a dump truck and maybe a crane in addition to a sandbox tool kit (shovel, bucket, brick form) so that we can do undertake some proper construction projects...
Dave Spector is an uninteresting white guy who has been on TV in Japan for longer than I have lived here. I remember him because 15 years ago, when I was working for Tokyo Journal, there was a big expose on him. In an article called "The Incredible Inflating Man" they took apart his dyed blond hair, blue-eyed contact lenses, claim to membership in the Academy and a host of other things he professed to but turned out to be true. And generally nobody cared. He plays the role of clown perfectly; harmless white guy who speaks the language, cracks bad jokes, and reaffirms every foreigner stereotype that makes this xenophobic country feel safe and secure. And hell, more power to him if can manage to make a living doing it.
Supposedly he was once asked what he thought about all the other foreigners bad-mouthing his Uncle Tom antics on Japanese TV and his response was: "Not my audience."
Anyway he was filming for a TV show or something on the edge of the park so I took Tonchan to see him and she absolutely freaked out. Wouldn't get near him and started crying and screaming. I actually felt bad for the guy and managed to take this picture whilst walking backwards away from him, holding Tonchan as she was trying to grab the cellphone out of my hands to keep me from taking the photo!
She still hasn't figured out how to kick to keep herself swinging, but she is getting more and more fearless. She climbs up on the swing, stands up and goes "Papa, BIIIIG push please!" So I get her swinging and figure the worst thing that'll happen is she falls off, lands on her face, and the swing smacks her in the back of the head. I've done worse. ALOT worse.
Such awesomely excellent weather so off we are to the dry cleaners, then the park.
Went to lunch with Tai-mama. 150 grams of dead cow goodness, on a sizzling plate! The restaurant was no smoking, but still there was a cloud of smoke at the ceiling from all the flesh grilling. Ah, sweet meat coma on a warm afternoon, finished off with icecream.
Didn't eat lunch (again) so was damn fine hungry by 8pm. Took pity on of the new graddies Suzuki-chan and fed her some quality ramen at Suzuran in Shibuya. The infamous rangiri (random cut) noodles with melts-in-yo-mouth pork.
And gyoza.
OMMFGSG.*
* Oh My Marsupial Family Gerbil So Good
Breakfast started simple enough: sausages with chocolate sauce for dipping. White bread, with chocolate sauce. She showed moderate interest in the sandwich and ate almost a whole sausage...
...then she just gave up on the food and went straight for the chocolate sauce:
chocolate sauce
Originally uploaded by renfield
9pm conference call and I was in no mood to sit in the office any longer. Hit the dojo at lunch and hadn't eaten since breakfast, so headed to Pintokina and dropped 12 plates in 20 minutes. Damn fine eats. Then I headed to Starbucks for my conference call. I must say the earpiece-with-built-in-mic is a superDork accesory, but it works well; left the Blackberry on the table and kept my hands free to take notes (doodle, wave at co-worker returning DVDs, scratch my head...)
She damanded we go to the park and since the weather seemed to hold, I rolled her up and the place was pretty packed with kids. She swinged and slided and sandboxed; always manages to borrow some older kid's sandbox toys -- it's good to be small sometimes. After a while some older boys dug a huge hole and filled it with water, making a giant mud pit. I couldn't tear her away and she was getting really into playing with the mud, so I finally dragged her away and stuffed her into the stroller. She was crying and screaming but mainly because she was tired and had not napped yet. Took her to the corner French place where she ate a couple fries before getting into the stroller herself. I finished off the fries and after a leisurely five minutes she was out. Headed down to the Takanawa Bucks like yesterday and surfed the web on my phone for an hour. She kinda woke up so I took her home but she passed out again. After sleeping in the entrance for a while, she woke up and P help her on the couch for nearly another hour. Finally up now and getting to be time for dinner!
Took the bus back from Shibuya station and had a quick lunch before heading home. In proper ghetto style we kicked it on the curb in front of the Sunkus, eatin' and drinkin'.
Post pee break and diaper change. She managed to pee in the toilet, which is exciting these days. Then I changed her diaper and she had a little apple juice before running out and playing with the Miki House toys. And then five minutes later she pooped. Why does she always poop AFTER I change her diaper? Well at least she didn't do it WHILE I was changing her diaper.
We did some shopping in Shibuya; bought some cool hair bands and hair clips, then got some iced tea and a chocolate chunk scone at Bucks. On the way back to the station she spied Baskin Robbins. She can't read but she know the important logos! So we had some pre-lunch mintchip icecream on the curb. And yeah, her jacket is still backwards.
I don't even know what to say. She's got a towel in one hand, Nintendo DS lite in the other (in a Penelope case). Also note that her camo and jacket and socks match. She picked the socks herself.
Jacket's on backwards. This is her latest thing. REFUSES to put it on the correct way. No idea how she comes up with this stuff.
After taking a shower,she wanted to put her diaper on...her head. Yup. Also note that her bathrobe is on backwards. Real big these days.
All hail the mighty Ton-sama! This place defines ghetto: widescreen TV on the far wall playing Korean dramas or Korean soccer, mom in the kitchen, daughters waiting tables, crap service (they spend more time watching the tv than they do serving customers), greasy walls, smoky air, rickety stools and folding tables, and we were the only table that wasn't entirely Korean (we did bring a Korean though, to ensure that we ordered properly.)
AND: huge slabs of thick porky goodness, killer chijimi, best chapjae this side of Seoul, piles of kimchee on the grill to soak up all the meat drippings, kalbi so tender it melts...seven of us ate and drank until we popped for the grand total price of 21,000 yen. That's like 30 bucks a person for you Americans. Quality!
After Harajuku Ton wanted to ride the slide, so we hit the park in Azabujyuban.
Post-gyoza lunch we enjoyed the reasonably ok weather by having dessert outside at cafe Anniversaire Cafe, where we got to witness two weddings, complete with trumpeter.
But first Tonchan was running up the street with her heavy backpack and lost her balance, doing a beautiful faceplant and making a nice big red bump on her forehead. Being the tough guy that she is though she quickly shook it off and was prepping for her afternoon nap.
She crashed out in my arms so I kept having to get up and go out to the sidewalk so the noise of the wedding procession wouldn't wake her up.
Met Newman, Jeremy, Naho, and Mari for lunch in Harajuku: quality gyoza!
Picked up the Ton from daycare, headed back to work to finish off some bits and bobs (and let her finish her icecream), then we headed home to drop off our stuff and got some dinner at Homeworks. She inhaled a few french fries and lotsa ketchup, peed in the toilet like a big girl, got bored, and wanted to go home. So we took most of the fries home for later consumption and headed back. P came home shortly afterward and it was bathtime and then time for bed, after a little Totoro of course.
Had lunch with The Roginator over in his part of downtown. He opted for the not-on-the-menu-but-you-can-order-it-if-you-know-what-to-ask-for Peking Duck Rice Bowl. I chose the above pictured stunningly mellow and delicious ramen. Not too spicy, plenty of sesame, good strong noodles: quality!
She watches Tototo at least twice a day, and cries at the end every time because she doesn't want Totoro and the Neko-bus to go away.
