the rest of the summer

In September I had a houseful of visitors from Germany staying with me for three weeks. We were lucky to get an extension on summer while it was already getting frigid over on their continent, and we spent most of the time in tshirts and shorts, fighting off mosquitoes.

We puri-kura'd and got creepy alien eyeballs.

We went to Minato Mirai and rode the rides.

We went to Kamakura and the Daibutsu and the beach and found some truly heinous sea life that Anne happily picked up and prodded. She's a rock. I shuddered.

Lena had her first go at an ocean. And everyone knows, the best way to be in the ocean is in your birthday suit. Here's a tip: if you want people to stare and exclaim EVEN MORE than they usually do, unleash a naked blonde baby on them. I swear we turned hundreds, if not thousands, of heads in unapologetic fascination with this little one. She fell in the fountain in Yokohama, okay? That's why this sprite was tearing around Sakuragicho in her nethers.

And we went to Kodomonokuni, twice, which is majorly fun for kids and pretty cool for adults too. It's totally okay to go swimming in the fountain there, and nobody will even stare at you.

But you might want to bring some extra butt padding if you brave the 110 meter long roller slide. Just saying. I'll spare you more details about the road rash on my backside.

She didn't seem to mind, though.

impertinence

I saw the best thing at Rosen today. As I walked through the entrance, I saw a little girl making intent conversation with a tissue-distributing representative of Tepco or AU mobile or some such company. They looked entirely unrelated; she was about 3 or 4 and he was in his twenties and dressed in company uniform. She was waxing philosophic; he was crouched down, listening closely. As I passed, I noticed what appeared to be a mother browsing nearby.
I wonder what it was that she needed to tell him, and what it was that he so needed to hear.