Monday, October 5, 2009

Indoor Playland for Miyako

Well, it is rainy and gloomy yet again in Tokyo so I decided to put Miyako in the baby biorn and venture out to try and find this free indoor play area for kids. I finally found it. It is a good thing I did not find it yesterday because they are not open on Mondays anyways! A lady saw me having trouble with the front desk because of my poor Japanese and she helped me fill out the paperwork. I was able to get a card for Miyako-chan so we can go back there any time on our visit here. The lady who helped me was very nice and we chatted for quite awhile. She gave me her phone number and we hope to get together again while I am here. She has a 7 month old little girl. The room was pretty cool. It was divided into play stations for different ages (up to 3 years old). It also had a dining area, changing area, and naptime area. There were lots of moms there with little ones and it looked like a nice social area for moms. I hope to go back while I am here. Miyako seemed to like it once she realized it was not the church nursery and I was staying with her. The only bummer is I did not take any pictures. I did not want to look rude or inconsiderate.

I forgot to mention something cultural from yesterday. Kan got a tear in his suit so we needed to find a tailor to fix it. First we walked to this one place and he said it would take him more than a week, but he recommended another tailor down the street. Well, we found this tailor only his wife said they have been out of business for 20 years due to her husband's death. She recommended a third and final place inside a mall who is going to fix it in a week. Yes, we could have just gone with the first guy. Oh well. The interesting thing Kan told me is that it is very normal for people to stay where they are for a long time in Japan. This woman has been a widow for 20 years yet she still lives in the same spot and people assume they are still open for business. He said it is normal for businesses to not change much over time.

Well, I must say I was very proud of myself for finding this indoor play area. I felt like I accomplished a huge task today. And Miyako is sleeping soundly from being worn out! Tomorrow is a big day. Our friend Darlene who is a missionary in Japan is coming to stay with us for three days. I am super excited to have her here. I have never met her before but she is friends with Kan and his American family. It will be fun to have someone to walk around the city with. I am also meeting with the Dutch missionary whom I had tea with last week to go to a Western grocery store. I am hoping to find some gerber baby food and some sort of greens to feed Miyako like frozen peas or green beans. I cannot find those at my local grocery. Until tomorrow....

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