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Hail Guest, we ask not what thou art.
If Friend, we greet thee, hand and heart.
If Stranger, such no longer be.
If Foe, our love will conquer thee.
-Old Welsh Door Verse

Thursday, December 01, 2011

Day 5 - Monday, November 21

Shopping.

In Japan, parents have a choice of how they want their baby's vaccines delivered.  Fewer, bigger doses or more, gentler doses.  My kids have opted for more frequent but gentler doses, and Monday it was my grandson's day to go get another shot.

We walked to the train crossing closest to their apartment, just a  couple of short blocks. 

And waited.  And waited.  And waited.  For twenty minutes the guards never lifted, the alarm never stopped ringing and I counted at least forty trains traveling in both directions. 

Kids and their moms on the way to school, trapped on the wrong side of the tracks.

My DIL figured out that there must have been in incident somewhere on the line and the trains had backed up.  She led our little party a couple more short blocks up the street to the station where there was a pedestrian over-crossing to the other side of the tracks and we made our way across, then to the medical clinic.

Shoes off, please.   

My DIL told me that this was the same clinic that she had frequented as a child, and that the nurse that served her was one she remembered from years ago.  I waited outside (the train snafu had made us later than she'd hoped as she was trying to avoid a crowded waiting room full of sick people.)  I enjoyed the sights.

Watch out for school children, please.

I think this was a beware of dog sign, although it could have been a please-don't-let-your-dog-poop-in-my-yard sign for all I knew.  Still, it was typically kawaii  (cute).
Once the vaccination had been delivered (he fussed briefly when they poked him, DIL said, and then was fine the rest of the outing) we did some shopping.

I loved this street, and looking back it is one of my favorite "sightseeing" locales.  Small shops, open to the street, specializing in everything from nursery stock to meat to tea sweets to sake (now, THAT was an elegant shop).

Older building specializing in rice.

Nursery stock.  Next year I'm shopping here for pretty trays.

Teas.

Grocery.  We didn't go in this trip, but my son took me in later in the week.  I wish we could get tomatoes like they had.  (You know, the ones that actually taste like tomatoes?)

Tea sweets.  DIL tells me this is a very famous shop.  Delicious mochi.

Shopping completed, we stopped in the convenience store across the street from the apartment for bottled water, milk and "convenience store sweets," delicious chocolate cream puffs and a chocolate cream eclair.  Once we were back home she fed the baby, then entrusted me with him for nap time.  Some of the sweetest times of my visit were when the baby would nap on me and I never got tired of it.

The rest of the day was very low-key, just cuddling the baby and visiting with my DIL until my son came home.  They worked together to make dinner and after a fine meal and some fine conversation we called it an early night.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hi Debi,

Greetings to Japan!

I am writing from the UK and am currently looking for any living relative of Daniel Paul Rader. I was drawn to your blog because you mentioned that the hymn 'Only Believe' was 'written by my boys' great-grandfather, (Daniel) Paul Rader.'

My reason for looking is because he was a famous preacher, who visited Britain just before his death in 1938. He made some films in the UK and took the footage back to the USA. I am currently looking to see if anyone knows where these films are or if they might be a box somewhere with these films in. My email address is johnenglish2004@hotmail.com

I'm posting this again, just in case you did not see it the first time. Thanks for taking the time to read this.

Paul