Another picnic in the park

Well, while Saturday turned into a day of thunderstorms and torrential rain, Sunday turned out to be a day of brilliant sunshine, flowers and mulberries. We set off to go to the flea market at the water park on the other side of the Iruma River. Upon arriving, however, we found the usual market area had been entirely usurped by every ‘Yankee’ in Saitama out to show off their customized idiot wagons. (Yankees, by the way, are the Japanese equivalent of Chavs, i.e. low life scum. The main difference being that Yankees work for a living and drive abominable vehicles that a chav would kill for).
We went in search of the flea market and found it in the actual water amusement area, which is only open in the summer. This is a huge swimming pool complex with flumes etc. The only part open all year round is the fishing ponds, which look like dirty swimming pools full of fish for the catching. Sad fisherman types sit around them all day pulling out fish and wasting time. We did a quick turn around the flea market, which I thought was rather above average, but which Reiko thought full of cigarette smoke and not worth another look, so we cycled round to the boating pond and had a picnic on a bench overlooking the water.

Since this is a rather typical Japanese boating pond, the usual rowing boats are supplemented by pedalos in the shape of swans and others with Koala bear heads (?) on them. Quite what the nautical connection is between Koala bears and boating ponds, I have no idea, but I guess the Japanese love of all things cute can explain it. I had the usual, boring sandwiches for lunch, but Reiko had rolled sushi, i.e. vinegared rice with a filling of salmon, tuna, meat or fish eggs, rolled in nori seaweed. It’s actually delicious, but I can’t seem to bring myself to buy it. Anytime that I have to eat it or starve, I thoroughly enjoy it and resolve to buy it again sometime, but I inevitably put it off the very next time I am browsing Seven Eleven’s shelves for a snack.

The picnic over, (Akira had a rice ball and some of our food), we went in search of amusement for the wee fellow as he was getting far too much enjoyment out of picking up fag ends and eating dirt for our liking. We cycled to the far end of the park and found the play area. It had a couple of those multi purpose installations with all sorts of activities on them such as chutes and mirrors, tunnels and ropewalks. Akira was straight onto the one for younger children, (it was actually for three to five year olds). He loved one of the slides which turned through ninety degrees as it went down, even though it was quite short. I regretted not taking my video camera, as the look on his face and his amazing ability at scrambling over everything was well worth recording. One of the nice things about being out and about with a toddler, is the way that it allows you to interact with other people with very little feeling of awkwardness and it makes you feel less isolated, we chatted to quite a few of the other parents. After mucking about on the play gym for a while, Akira and I wandered over the river embankment, (for flood prevention), and into the woods on the other side, which turned out to be mulberry trees. The trees were covered in fruit and a lot had fallen off and was lying on the ground in various states of squishidness. In order to keep Akira from stuffing his physog with the dirty stuff off the ground, I was kept busy picking ripe berries off the trees to keep him happy. Reiko said it wasn’t very sweet, but he loved it. We were a bit worried about the effect on his digestive tract however, so we left after a few minutes and cycled home. Akira had enjoyed himself so much that he was unconscious long before we reached the house and had to rest his tiny head on Reiko’s rucksack as we bowled along.