Téo's was a good one too this year.

Squirrelly

Once upon a time, the kids were wanting. I want a Lego Star Wars space ship. I want a drink. I want another piece of cake. I want to go now. I want, I want, I WANT!

"I would like..." I kept correcting them, but to no avail. They kept on wanting. So then, à la Veruca Salt, every time they said they wanted something, I replied that I wanted a squirrel.

I want a scooter for my birthday.

Yeah? I want a squirrel.

I want an ice cream.

That's nice. I want a squirrel.

They hated this. H-A-T-E-D it. But it worked! There were a few tears and stomps and sulks, but in a very short time, they stopped wanting! I was very pleased with myself.

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Earlier this year, Lukan kept asking us whether we liked him. All. The. Friggen. Time.

Mummy?

Yes Lukan?

Do you like me?

5 min later: Mummy, I have a question. Do you like me?

5 min later: Papa, do you like me? 

It drove C and me insane. It didn't matter if we said we did like him, he kept on asking. It didn't help either when we refused to answer any more.

Come on, just tell me, do you like me? Why won't you tell me? It's one little question! Do you like me? If you answer I won't ask any more, I promise. Do you like me?

Needless to say, the promise was broken. Repeatedly.

After a couple of months, I tried a new response.

Mummy, do you like me?

I like squirrels.

At first he took it quite well.

Well, I can see why you'd like squirrels, they are kind of cute, but I'm cute too so why don't you like me?

But by the end of the first day, he was getting cross. And by the second day:

Mummy, do you li... no! No! Don't answer! I didn't mean to say it!

By the third day, he wasn't asking any more. This time I was quite smugly pleased with myself.

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One day over the summer, something upset Lukan. He climbed into my lap, crying, but wouldn't tell me what the problem was. That night, when I kissed him good night, I asked if he wanted to talk about it.

Yes, he replied seriously. Actually I would. But I'm only going to tell ... a squirrel.

Touché little man, touché.

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Except:

Bwa ha ha ha ha!

He'd been so looking forward to getting his Christmas ornament this year, wondering what it would be and guessing all sort of things.

Ha!

I'm back to feeling very pleased with myself.

Japan - Day12

We had to get up early today to drive from Lake Akan to Kusshiro, where we would catch a plane to Tokyo.

This part of Hokkaido is famous for the Japanese crane, once thought extinct and now somewhat recovered. There'd been a pair around the hotel, but never when I had my camera. On the way to the airport we passed a pair right by the road... but not wanting to be accused of making us miss the flight, I didn't dare suggest stopping for a photo. Of course, we arrived at the airport with plenty of time to spare. D'oh.

The cranes we saw weren't doing the mating dance for which they are famous - but hey, if I'm stealing a photo it may as well be a good one.

So then there was the flight, and almost before we knew it, we were landing in Tokyo.

At first we thought this was Tokyo, but then we realised we weren't quite there yet. The sprawl, it stretches far.

We had been wondering what might have changed in the 11 years since we were last in the city... and discovered the first thing almost immediately: on the train, there were announcements in English! As well as in Chinese and Korean! Back in the day, it was only Japanese. (And actually this was something we noticed in Hokkaido - large numbers of Chinese and other Asian tourists.)

We spent quite a while at Tokyo Station looking for lockers in which to store our luggage. A very long, very hot while, lugging our suitcases and backpacks from one locker area to another around the enormous station complex, only to find all the lockers full each time. Finally we lined up for a luggage storage service ... and not too long afterwards were able to unburden ourselves.

The plan was to spend the afternoon around Asakusa, so we hopped on the metro... where Téo was enormously excited to see his first pair of white gloves.

 Bus drivers wear white gloves.

Train drivers too. Téo counted 200 white gloves in total in the 2.5 days we were in Tokyo.

After a yummy lunch of tantanmen (ramen noodles with a meat sauce - the kids were highly suspicious at first but eventually admitted it was edible), we hit the streets. I had been looking forward to coming to Asakusa for years. Years! Why? Well, those of you who knew me in Australia may remember my blue glass plates, bought from Freedom Furniture in 1994. These are still our plates. We would like something new. Something cool. Like, square Japanese plates. And! In Asakusa there is a street of shops selling restaurant supplies. We'd both bought pottery bowls there when we lived in Japan, and our dream is to get some plates to go with them.

We looked.

 And looked.

And looked. Nothing. It was all cheap stuff from China, with nothing cool at all. Plus the area was full of foreigners. It's like it's now a tourist destination. Very disappointing.

But the kids at least saw some of the sights.

Interesting architecture.

Plastic food.

The golden poo.

Next up was Sensō-ji, the huge Buddhist temple in Asakusa.

The kids really liked getting water from the dragons.

We'd seen the new Tokyo Sky Tree while walking around, so the kids were badgering us to go up it. We'd heard the queues were super long, especially to go up for sunset, but since the skies were blue (quite rare in Tokyo in summer) and we had nothing else to do anyway, we figured we'd give it a go.

The Sky Tree from Asakusa...

...and from the bottom.

Upon arriving, we were pleasantly surprised to find that the queue was only 20 min. So, up we went... and were even more more pleasantly surprised to be able to see Mt. Fuji. We hung around a bit to watch the sunset.

I like the one yellow building.

After coming back down, we returned to Tokyo station to get our luggage, then headed to the apartment building of Yumi - a friend of C's from when he lived in Japan - her husband Satoshi and their son Daiki. The building has a guest room where we could stay - it was just like a hotel room, and perfect for us. Even though it's right near the centre of Tokyo, and pretty much all high rise buildings, the area was really quiet without many cars, and had a lovely neighbourhood feel. There was even a little festival going on when we arrived.

 The festival

Walking in the quiet streets

After dropping off our luggage we walked down the street for dinner. There were lots of different restaurants to choose from - we ended up at a little yakitori place which, to our surprise, was run by a French guy.

The kids were fading by this point so after dinner it was straight to bed for them, and us not too far behind them.

Pondering the unanswerable

Why is it that my children dip their hands into every fountain they pass; jump into puddles large and small; squelch through dewy grass; will play with the hose for hours (if I allowed it); love the pool and the sea and the lake; in short, gleefully take every opportunity to make the biggest splash and get as wet as possible, but complain every time we tell them to take a shower and never, ever flush the toilet?

Japan - Day 11

It wasn't raining today, but the clouds were low, so we gave up on the idea of climbing Mt Meakan - I'm sure to Yoko's relief!

We were ready earlier than the others in the morning so, before the drive to the next hotel, took the kids for a walk through the forest on a small peninsula near the hotel. Lake Kussharo being a crater lake, there was even a steaming part, but that's not what I took any photos of.

We were headed to Lake Akan today, but stopped first a little further around Lake Kussharo at some hot sands.

 The lake water was quite cold, but the hot spring right on the edge under the sand was really hot.

I just discovered while writing this that Lake Kussharo is Japan's largest, and the world's second largest, crater lake.

Then it was on to Lake Akan.

Yoko chose a very nice hotel for our last night in Hokkaido.

The view of Mt Oakan from our room... 

... and from the dining room that evening. 

Lake Akan is famous for big balls of algae. The hotel lobby had some in tanks - upon seeing them, I realised what the green pom pom keyring was that Lukan had bought.

There were also even more expensive melons for sale - $108 for 5! Seriously??

After checking in - and then locating the kids in the vastness of the lobby, where they were running around doing a treasure hunt - I convinced our family to go on a short walk to see boiling mud. Oh, how I love boiling mud! Thick, gloopy, bubbly, splattery mud - I could watch it for hours.

Unfortunately this was not very good boiling mud, and no one was impressed.

Boiling muddy water. No fun to watch at all.

The mud was near the water's edge... which at this point was very hot.

There was also a small shinto shrine.

Once back at the hotel it was onsen time. The way that onsens work at hotels is that there is one for the boys and one for the girls, which then switch overnight so that the one which was for the girls is now for the boys. On this day, the girls' onsen was down by the lake while the boys' one was on the roof. Both were huge - mine had at least 5 indoor pools and a big outdoor pool.

 You can just see the top of Mt Oaken peeking above the clouds.

Next was dinner.

The hotel was beautiful, the after-onsen pyjamas less so.

Followed by toasted marshmallows.

 Yoko forbid her family from wearing the pyjamas.

We had less shame.

And once the kids were in bed, drinks at the bar. I have to say, even if it mightn't be the best look, it really is very nice to have a drink at a posh hotel in pyjamas and bare feet. And, if you should have more than one or two drinks, it also makes going to bed much easier afterwards.

Sadly, this was our last night with Yoko, Shabolz, Andy, Jean-Paul and Micheline - we were getting up early to fly back to Tokyo so wouldn't see them in the morning. We had such a lovely time in Hokkaido, a truly fabulous holiday. Thank you once again to Yoko for all the organizing of hotels and transport, to Shabolz and Andy for being such excellent hiking companions, and to Yoko, Jean-Paul and Micheline for your patience during our hikes!