With buggy and purse in hand, we were A for Away!!
8.30am us 3 girls were trunching (is that actually a word?) up the hill, all creamed up with factor 50 and cozzies in the bag.
We found the pool at 8.50. With pure body language I managed to buy myself a ticket, explain the ages of the children, find out where we should go, get some basic instructions on pool etiquette. Also, I was told, politely with much bowing and apologies that little Evie would not be able to enter the water as she still wears nappies. And no, special swim nappies were not sufficient. Well, alright, we can live with that.
"Pool etiquette?" you may ask yourself. Yes! At the entrance, there's a GREEN mat with hospital-like curtains around it. Wierd! Anyway. At 9am on the dot, you may proceed to the GREEN mat. "DON'T TOUCH THAT MAT WITH YOUR SHOES ON". (...poor little Jozie did, and the Japanese woman was dancing around "HiHiHiHiHi" (speaking softly but with a little sense of urgency in her tone). So, today we learnt to take off our shoes and put them into a plastic bag they give you. Then, armed with your bag (a now additional load) you may go to the change rooms. Evie got to crawl all over these plastic boards for feet. Somehow, I get the feeling the Japanese people don't like FEET. They're very weary of the germs feet may carry! I don't want to imagine what they thought about me allowing Evie to crawl where other people had put their feet. Anyway. We got changed, motioned to a teenage Japanese girl to please help us with the lockers - at first I thought there must be a trick to it, but actually the one I picked was just stuck. The others worked fine. Then, we headed towards the pool. WOW....first you have a hot shower. Then you go through a special FEET-CLEANING-STATION, which you can't avoid. Then you go through a trough of water (up to my waist, i.e. Jozie's eyeballs- nearly!) and then finally you walk along a wet carpet which follows the pool to your spot in the shade which you may choose. There are stacks of lifeguards (I saw about 5 of them surrounding a relatively small pool of about 25m max!). And they take their jobs seriously. One of them never took his eyes off Jozie as she swam. And he came straight to me and said very seriously that I should be sure not to let Evie slip into the water from my arms. Shame, of course I told him I'd be as careful as I could. He then kindly brought Evie a big bucket so we could fill it up and let her stand in there and do some baby splashing. Once he kindly asked Jozie to please not jump off the step. After 20minutes of him standing in sun watching her, he waved his yellow horn at his colleague in the shade to swop shifts. She came over and I could just see him explaining to her all that had happened in the last 20minutes. It was a detailed report - body language speaks loudly! Anyway, the next interesting titbit was after 60minutes, a whistle is blown for about 10seconds. All the Japanese people wade to the edge of the pool, lift themselves out, and sit on the side of the pool for a compulsory 10minute break. At this point, we chose to make our exit anyway as Evie was tired and I was happy not to have additional bodies in the small changeroom as I got both girls changed and Evie in the backpack etc. We nearly put our shoes on in the changeroom, but I remembered the GREEN mat just in the nick of time!
At home, we ate an ice-lolly and Evie had a short nap.
In the afternoon, we went in the car to try and find a playcentre advertised on a brochure we got in the post. I found it! Yeah!!! Jozie fell asleep in the car, so I put her in the pram. Lots of stairs with no lift. Heavy! At the playcentre (much like Gambados) we were shocked to see that 30minutes of play costs....€6! (5 pounds for 30minutes of ballpool playing etc) and then every 10 minutes thereafter, another pound. That gets pretty pricey if one wants to stay there an hour! 1 hour would cost around £11 or €12! And an hour is usually quite tight...probably spend an expensive 10minutes trying to drag the darling away from her treasured game. And then...parking...for the 15minutes of ENQUIRING, I paid €5 (£4) for parking! Imagine after 60-90minutes. It becomes a mega treat to go to such a place.
Anyway, on our way home, I got LOST! Big time! On the big roads, the Japanese words are written in our characters, so one can understand (even if not recognise). Anyhow, if you find yourself on smaller roads, no such luck! It's all in Kanji/Katakana/Hirakana (the 3 other alphabets they use!). Anyway, due to all the one-way streets, toll gates here and there, general lack of knowledge, I found myself in ....Yokohama somewhere under some massive bridge just travelling in one direction with no option to turn around!! I phoned Michael kind of laughing at first. But then, getting stressed!! Shame, the poor man..."Well, where are you?" "I DON'T KNOW!!!" "Well, you need to stop and find out where you are or I can't help you." "I can't stop, I'm on a 1 way ticket to ??? !!!!" And that was our conversation for 3-4 minutes ending with "I'll phone you back in a few minutes".
Anyway, at the end of the day, I managed to turn around, and after being in the car for nearly an hour (a trip which should have taken 10minutes maximum) I finally saw our sign "Todoroki". I nearly thought that was the Japanes word for "Welcome home". What a relief!!!
In the afternoon, we went to Happy Road to try and make a doctor's appointment as Evie and I both need top ups for our Hep B immunisations. To cut a long story short, I just wanted an appointment. But the receptionist insisted I speak to the doctor himself as she couldn't speak English. Finally, he finished with his patient and saw me in his office immediately. I was all sticky from being out in the hot sun; shopping bags hanging off my buggy and just not-fitting-through-the-doors-without-a-bump day, 2 sweaty tired kids... But he was genuinely kind. I told him the doctors in Germany had given us the immunisations in a coldpack that we had properly stored in a fridge all this time (the doctors in DE were unsure whether the Japanese drs had the same type of immunisation available etc and kindly gave it to us to just get it administered). Well, it wasn't going to be that easy. Who would take responsiblity if there were side-effects from some potent immunisation vial from another country? So, after him calling a colleague and then me being put on the phone to that dr, then back to the other doctor etc (yes, it was confusing) he recommended that we go to a doctor at the embassy. Anyway, I think we'll go back to this Japanese doctor should there be any further medical question of another nature. He's around the corner and his English is broken, but if I speak clearly and a bit slower, he understands and gives good advice.
Well, this has been a long blog entry, but we've had quite a day!
But did I mention that Josephine like Japanese food of all kinds. Today she lapped up some Japanese soup with mushrooms (different to EU ones) and noodles. Evie has also mastered the slurp!
Goodnight
x
