Children's Day

It's the third public holiday in a row - today is Children's Day, traditionally Boys' Day to match Girls' or Dolls' Day on March 3. Families with boys hang up carp streamers called Koinobori, the number depending on how many children are in the family. We don't have one.

But as it's Children's Day, Kanji took the day off work to spend with the girls. He had to work until 10am, which worried Amy immensely because she knew he had the day off - she stomped downstairs, found he wasn't there and had a bit of a panic! But he came home, and promptly had a nap while me and the kids took the car back to Baachan and did the shopping.

We had somen noodles for lunch, then started on the curry for dinner. Kanji went out and bought a new pot! By the time he got back, with the pot and a bottle washer that was too big for the bottle he wanted to wash, it was already 3pm so we decided to go out. We had decided on a train ride, so off we went to the station. We stocked up on donuts and coffee and got on the local train to Usa, about a twenty minute ride away. The girls had a wonderful time, looking out the window, and standing up and feeling all wobbly.

We arrived in Usa. There is not much there, but slightly more than in the other pit-stop stations. We found a coffee shop and had coffee and ice cream. Then we went for a walk on the streets near the station, and blew dandelion fairies all over the place. We got back to the station - only to find that the next train was not for another hour. I suppose it would have been a good idea to check the train schedule before we left...

Anyway, seeing as we had already done pretty much everything within the immediate environs of the station, we took a bus to the next town along, and went shopping along their 'Showa village' streets. Showa being the era just prior to this one (we are in Heisei 17 now) so that meant shops from the 30's to the 60's. I bought a glass fountain pen - instead of a diagonal nib, it has a grooved cone of glass and the ink gently drips down the grooves to the tip. It's so cool.

We got back to the train in time, but it was getting very cold and we had not bought jackets. Seems we could get nothing right! But it didn't worry us, we kept going. The girls were getting very tired and going silly with it but we got back with no major breakdowns. And finally got started on our curry! We didn't get back til six, so we did not have dinner until about 8pm, and then it was straight to bed, and I went to sleep too.